To sell DIY or not?

FLOOR ED

By Don Roberts 45-year Flooring Retailer; Board Director, World Floor Covering Association; Vice-Chair for Floor Covering Education Foundation

Whatever the excuse or reason, you need to have a plan to pick up as much of this “incremental” business you can. The installation crisis is not going away anytime soon!

To sell DIY or Not?

The word “incremental” is a word that many flooring dealers cannot get their arms around because it can be used in every aspect of our business. I’m talking about adding incremental customers and sales, thanks to capturing the do-it-yourselfer. That’s especially true for a full-service dealer that has a limited amount of product that they can get installed in any one month due to their limited number of installers. That incremental business takes observation, finesse, and work.

Many full-service dealers overlook the incremental opportunity they have with the DIY community. Big Boxes own that market basically out of sheer convenience, as they will stay open for the customers’ benefit –– not the employees. I know this because I have had many dealers over the years tell me “That’s not my customer,” and my reply is “You are right, it is theirs, but couldn’t you use the incremental sales and profit dollars for your business? Also, they worry that if they drop the price, they will be saying that they were trying to overcharge them in the first place.

Whatever the excuse or reason, you need to have a plan to pick up as much of this incremental business you can. The installation crisis is not going away anytime soon!

More and more, manufacturers are trying to come up with products that are easier to install for several reasons. One reason is so professional installers can install more product in the same amount of time. Another is to make it easier for the DIYer

to get the job done themselves. And another is that they want to sell more products. Products like Metroflor’s Attraxion, with magnet technology by MBS, will get them bragging to their peers about what a great job they did!

Americans will always turn to DIY or buy the products and try to find an installer on their own to do it. What better reason for you to make more sales, take business from the Big Box and stay connected with the customer when their DIY effort or “Find a Guy” installation goes south? You’ll arrive to the rescue!

Ok, so you don’t get your 45–55% retail margin on this cash and carry job. Heck most dealers don't get it on the jobs they use their quality, trained installers on and that they put their personal guaranty on. But incremental is well … extra cha-ching!!

You need a plan for your team. One that adds money to the profit bucket. You need a plan that has reasons for what you do price-wise with the different channels you sell in. You need a plan that targets the Big Box stores and nips away at the hold on the DIY customer. If you do not DIY, now you have a huge opportunity to grow your business!

A $2MM store doing 45% gross margin has $900K in GM$. So what happens if you do another 20% in DIY? At worst 30% your overall margin only drops to 42.5%, but you pick up another $120K in GM$ … a 13.33% increase! And that’s an incremental dose of good news! ❚

More and more, manufacturers are trying to come up with products that are easier to install for several reasons. One reason is so professional installers can install more product in the same amount of time. Another is to make it easier for the DIYer to get the job done themselves.