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Number 106 | June 21, 2002 |
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Take To The Skies Six Ways To Make Your Summer Sales Sizzle! Summer Doesn't Have To Be A Slow Time! Here
we are on the first day of summer. For many dealers,
summer is a time that things slow down a bit. But for
just as many others, summer can be quite busy, even perhaps
the most profitable time of year. Here are some ways
you can set out to make this summer sizzle with opportunity. Talk to customers who have bought from you in the last year that have uncovered skylight windows. Make your calls at the time of day when the skylight may be especially annoying. Skylights on the east side of a home for example can increase the heat in a home during the morning and make it difficult to cool the house down as a hot day progresses. But wait until afternoon to call your customers with skylights on the west. Can you imagine sitting there with sweat dripping from your brow and receiving a call from an old friend offering a solution? You can do that --and be a true hero to your customers. Mention skylights and the energy efficient characteristics of shades and blinds in all of your advertising during the summer. Make sure to spend some time studying SHADING COEFFICIENTS in the Hunter Douglas Reference & Price Guide (See pages 6 - 7 for ratings of all products). Remember, too, that skylight shades or blinds provide benefits in the winter too by preventing heat loss. Most window covering dealers do not pursue skylight shades. Dealers who do pursue the skylight shades earn more, not because skylight shades are so profitable (even though they are), but because they know how to earn more by solving customers' problems. Set yourself apart from the pack by offering real solutions to your customer's real problems. For installation, schedule east skylight shade installations in the late afternoon or early evening hours. Get to the west skylights early as possible. And always pray for a rainy day.
MOTORIZE! ACCESSORIZE! ADVERTISE!
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One
of the things we hear from many dealers about summer is that
their customers "just aren't thinking about window
coverings" at this time of year. They're
wrong. People ARE thinking that their homes aren't
quite as cool as they could be, or that air conditioning
sure is expensive. They are thinking about window
coverings, they just don't know they're thinking about
window coverings. No window in any home can illustrate
this better than a skylight. How many skylight openings have
you left uncovered in cooler times? How many are you
leaving alone now? You have a wide variety of skylight
window coverings that can reduce your customer's cooling
costs and make a room more comfortable instantly upon
installation. There are motorized and manual skylight
options in Duette® and Applause™ honeycomb shades,
aluminum horizontal blinds, Brilliance™ pleated
shades. What's more, most of them are very easy to
install, some more than others. Duette SkyRise™, for
example, is assembled away from the heat of the skylight
window and literally
snapped
into place in seconds. 
SPECIALIZE! 
There
are more motorization options than ever, and they are less costly than
ever, too. Be sure to offer motorization to your customers.
There are dealers who add motorization to nearly every order. Not
necessarily every window, but in a couple of key places in every
home. It may be a window that is impossible to reach any other way
--or it may just be a standard window in the room your customer uses for
relaxation and unwinding. Motorization can mean the
difference between a good year and a bad one. Offer motorization
to all of your customers this summer.
If the motor
doesn't do it, add on a specialized lift system. UltraGlide™,
LiteRise™, EasyRise™, EasyGlide™, LiftMaster... All of these
offer solutions that your customers want. If it's confusing,
that's great! It means your customers will really need you.
Spend enough time studying the options so that it isn't confusing to you
anymore. Then you can help your customer sort it out a provide a
good reason to make the purchase from you. Read More