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::: Size (often) doesn’t matter
FROM THE USA of Giovanni Carlini
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Let’s
“re-dimension”
the myth of the
need for gigantic
showrooms and
big spaces that
offer customers
the pleasure
of seeing a lot
in little time.
But there’s
a secret ...
It’s not the (amount of) space
that makes the showroom, it’s
the method used to organize it.
Expressed in this way, the concept
sounds easy, but it isn’t. At
the same time, it lets smaller stores
organize themselves in nontraditional
ways, particularly in
towns or cities.
Most people believe that the
showroom as a sales method requires
big spaces and parking
lots, but this isn’t necessarily
true. How do you go about organizing
a little showroom in a city?
::: The little showroom
Our inspiration comes from Fort
Collins (Colorado), where Jim
Bennet sells parquet and ceramic
floors, moquette and venetian
blinds (www.newcreationflooring.
com) in the showroom he set
up in center-city that puts every
inch of his 100 sq m of display
space (plus 70 for warehouse and
offices) to best advantage:
Here’s how he did it:
• The store’s floor alternates parquet,
ceramics and moquette.
The changing materials beneath your feet make you want
to decorate your own home or
office the same way;
• The walls are hung with the
samples provided by producers.
Nothing new in itself, but Jim’s
bright idea was to also use display
columns for both tiles and
parquet that “go beyond the
usual” that anyone can see on
other dealer’s walls. This lets
the store owner create his own
“theme” route that the visitor
follows through the store, one
chromatic shock after the next;
• This limited amount of space
hosts as many as 4 customer
welcome/assistance points,
each with chairs, a desk and
support material. These 4 “listening”
points are staffed by Jim
himself, a professional salesman,
a designer, and an office
manager, who although is more
of an expert in logistics can answer
any other question a customer
might have;
• The end of the display space features
a series of panels bearing
times in every shape, color, pattern
and size you can imagine that
resembles an harlequin costume;
• Visitor’s finish their “tour” by
passing by 2 administrative secretaries
usually not involved in sales
but trained to listen carefully and
staff the cash register counters.
 ::: A word with the star of the show(room)…
Why, with all the space at your disposal,
did you decide to organize your
showroom in this way and put
every millimeter to use?
Jim Bennet: Shall we say I just
did it to be different? I live in a very competitive surroundings.
There’s another showroom just
down the road that sells parquet,
ceramics and moquette, and
they’re a lot bigger than we are,
but they’re also a bit “stationary”
in their approach to the business.
I’m sure that if you asked to interview
them they’ll give you a nonanswer
three days later, meaning
that “we don’t have the resources
to go through an interview”. If this
is my habitat, how do I emerge?
Space costs nothing here in Colorado;
everybody’s got as much as
they want. But in such as “rigid”
market as this, you have to pull
the rug out from under your competitors’
feet and beat them at
their own game with totally new
and completely different methods
if you want to emerge. That’s
where creative fantasy comes in.
Organize yourself better in less
space, at lower costs, with more attentive
service more closely attuned
to your customer, faster, and
with a wider offer concentrated in a
single store. That’s how I think I do
75% business than the others.
Smaller is beautiful? I don’t know
if that’s the right definition of my
showroom, but small certainly
means faster customer service
and better solutions proposed at
costs that are obviously lower
than other solutions.
How did I do it? Easy! I just observed
how elephant-like the others
are and organized myself to
be different, even if I stay in the
same merchandise category.
 In a word, you had the advantage
of being surrounding by an oldfashioned
class of store owners
from which it easy to emerge with
a bit of fantasy?
Jim Bennet: Just a moment there: you can say that my colleagues are
sitting on their laurels now because
I came along and made my showroom,
but before, they were the
market and the standard was set by
what they represented. Currently I
have only one real competitor in
this area: a parquet installer who eliminated
all his costs - no sales outlet
or showroom - and makes all his
contacts by Internet. That’s all he’s
got, a website, and that’s where he
gets his requests, sends out his estimates,
and sells his wood floors. We
don’t get in each other’s way. He
serves the suburbs of Fort Collins,
the people who have trouble making
it into the city center, which is
where I do my business.
What’s the one thing missing from
your showroom?
Jim Bennet: I would have liked my
showroom to concentrate progressively
on just one interior - we could
define it as a “funnel” - that would
mean channeling the visitor’s path
into a final part, which is what you
see down there at the end, that composition
of colored marble…
Why isn’t this possible?
Jim Bennet: For ergonomic/traffic
circulation problems: the lines
would be too long for a commercial
context. People would get tired and
leave. A funnel dimension might be
OK for a museum because the people
know they have to pay a price
to see what’s on hand.
 ::: A team of professionals
How many visitors do you get
each day?
Jim Bennet: We have 20 contacts a day with couples that count, with
questions and negotiations on 9 -
12 occasions; I mean, we sit down
at the customer reception desks
ten times a day. The fact that it
takes 4 of us to deal with customers
is more indicative of the different
types of specialization we
each offer than the actual number
of negotiations, and this means that
sometimes all four of us get involved
in the same analysis, but to
tell you the truth, customers just
“melt with gratitude” when they
see themselves being so attentively
served by a team of professionals.
That all sounds wonderful, but
what about your costs?
Jim Bennet: We’re not rich and I
doubt we ever will be, but we lead
pretty decent lives. We make
sales for 3 million dollars a year,
and there’s six of us here. We’ve
shown a trend of 6-7% annual
growth over the past 5 years.
How much are your competitors
growing?
Jim Bennet: With the exception
of that parquet installer who
works through Internet, the other
dealers are growing at 1-2% a
year, and some are even showing
slight losses. I can say that we’re
growing and they’re standing still.
I wouldn’t even be surprised if the
wood floor market even thinned
out in the near future and 3-4 operators
that are currently too slow
and not qualified enough
were forced out of the business.
What would be your advice to
someone just starting out in the indoor
flooring and finishing material
retail business today?
Jim Bennet: I’d definitely advise
setting up a showroom, no doubt
about that. But opening up alone
is not enough; you’ve got to give
your place your own personal
style, not your architect’s, and
just the opposite of your nearest
competitor’s style. You need to
find a way to communicate with your
customers directly and simply,
and that means being original.
If you succeed in doing all
this, customers are going to remember
you; otherwise, whatever
you show in your store will only
be filed away as “….seen it already
somewhere else”.
I’ve been working in the market
for 27 years now, but before I
used a “normal” sales outlet designed
by an architect. I’ve calculated
that the 4 years of life of this
showroom and its original formula
have given me 39% more sales
and 54% contacts than the traditional
model I used before.
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