As This *%#! Summer Ends, Where Are Your New Opportunities? By Jeffrey Valles, Colonial Bronze

Recently we received an email inquiry from a respected architectural firm that likes to control every part of their jobs. They have a complete interior design department and have been practicing since the 80’s. Leads of this quality do not surface often and offer a great path to earn a new top-notch customer. All of my salesperson synapses were firing. So, I telephoned the designer in charge of the project and learned the exact product specification and timeline. This was a very cool job.

With Wallpaper magazine images and a massive increase in Instagram followers circling in my mind; I called our killer, local distributor. I enthusiastically related the information and was absolutely blindsided with the response. Sounds interesting, have them give us a call…*%#!...

And the most frustrating thing was that this is not the first time this has happened. Throughout my four decades in the DPH industry, this has happened time and time again. And it happens when I have contacted the very successful showrooms!. Why do these players run their business by a Hollywood dream, if we build it, they will come?

Top luxury showrooms are busy and business is good. Their engaging teams are focused on their regular customers, plus pandemic demands. But should a sales relationship reliant business leave an order opportunity, and a possible profitable long term relationship, to chance? I think not. Jack Welch always preached, “Control your own destiny or someone else will.”

Even in good and 2020 crazy times, we need to always make sure we are focusing on what is best for our business’ future. This sounds easy, but it requires management to take time from all the day-to-day noise and assess how their business is performing. Not simply the regular performance matrices, but how is the team functioning. What is working well and what is not. Who is stressed and who is not, and what might be slipping through the cracks.

You cannot be everything to everybody, but wouldn’t you rather have the opportunity to make the call if the client and the job is a profitable fit for your business’ model?

Whether it is a one-time lead, a good client asking you to enter into a new product category, or taking a calculated risk on an interesting but precarious opportunity, wouldn’t you prefer to have a hand at the table? In Maria Konnikova’s new book, The Confidence Game, Why We Fall For It...Every Time, she writes, “To do nothing is within the power of all men.”

A beautiful showroom with many talented people is a wonderful thing. A beautiful showroom with many talented people that is aggressive, accommodating and imaginative is a market-dominating machine.

Best of luck out there and please be safe.