What Business Are You In?

A big shout out to marketing guru and best-selling author Seth Godin.  A recent blog offers guidance that kitchen and bath showrooms should ask to develop the right marketing strategy to obtain their desired return on investment.

Godin states don’t ask what marketing strategy you need to promote your showroom when you are not receiving the traffic you expect or need.  Instead, he advises to consider this question, “We’re seeking to make a change in part of the world.  How do we find the right people and then tell the right (true story) that helps them get to where they’re going – and that they’ll tell to their peers?”

What changes can your showroom make to a client’s project that are distinctive and not readily available from competitors?  If you can only maintain the status quo, it will be difficult to grow your business.

Remember, one size fits one. Becoming a destination of choice recognizes that your showroom is not for everyone.  Who are you looking to become your clients? What do they want, fear and believe? How do you move from being viewed as ordinary to being specific?

Marketing is never about a laundry list of features and benefits. It’s about the story you tell your customers and prospects.  Is it the story you tell yourself? Is it a story of status, affiliation, of change and fear?  If that is your story, you can continue to build on it over time and neither your customers nor your team will be disappointed.

It is difficult to sell customers things that they don’t want. The opportunity is to help them achieve their goals. 

Finally, why will some of your extremely satisfied customers become brand advocates, rave about you on social media and encourage family, friends, colleagues and peers that your showroom is the destination of choice? It’s not because of what you did for them, the quality of your work or the innovation in your design. It’s never about your showroom. Customers provide rave reviews because as Godin states, “it raises their status, increases connection or gives them some sort of satisfaction.” Recognizing that reviews make your customers feel great about themselves, would it not be more effective the next time you ask for a review to explain that showcasing your new kitchen will make you the envy of the neighborhood or similar reasons that appeal to what’s in it for them instead of for you.