It was springtime in the year 2011 when a friend told me a story about a class action lawsuit involving her second home in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. Falmouth is an oceanfront town in the middle of the Cape Cod region of New England. Mary shared this story because we were discussing the fairly sizable home remodeling project that had just finished a few months prior at her immaculate, waterfront home. We had gone to stay at her Cape house to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and to admire and celebrate the work that had been done at her home.
When we opened the door, the smell of newness was so poignant! It smelled like the contractors had just finished polishing the hardwood floors minutes before we arrived. After settling in and paying praise for the work that was done, I asked her why she decided to go “all in” on this round of remodeling. With a giant, ear-to-ear smile on her face, my friend shared that the entire remodeling project was paid for from the class action lawsuit settlement she received from an incident involving the Exxon Valdez oil spill back on March 24, 1989.
Turned out that remnants of the Exxon Valdez, an enormous oil rig owned by Exxon that was carrying 50 million gallons of crude oil, leaked 11 million gallons of the oil in the Gulf Of Alaska that permeated 1,300 miles, which ended up being all the way down to South Carolina, was being held accountable for the damage they caused in the Buzzards Bay area of the Atlantic Ocean. The class action lawsuit stated anybody who owned a waterfront property in a specific area of Buzzards Bay was eligible to be part of a class action lawsuit against Exxon.
From an Environmental perspective, it is estimated that almost 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, up to 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and at least 22 killer whales were killed in the accidental spill. Over 11,000 personnel, 58 air crafts, and 1,400 vessels were used to clear the affected area and it involved complex operations like relocating several marine creatures in order to safeguard their life till the clean-up operations were completed successfully. According to reports, the shipping company spent more than $3.8 billion on the cleanup costs and also compensated 11,000 fishermen and others affected by the disaster. When it was all said and done, Exxon was asked by an Alaskan court to pay $5 billion in punitive damages. However, after a number of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court reduced the amount to $507.5 million.
The moral of the story here is that unlike most of the people who just dismissed or overlooked this opportunity to cash in on what was rightfully theirs, my friend, Mary, read the certified mail she received about this topic, filled out and submitted the appropriate paperwork, and then actually received a much higher payout than she expected because so many of the other people WHO COULD HAVE BEEN involved in the class action lawsuit didn’t follow through on the process that was mapped out for them by the law firm who was handling their end of this deal.
This story illustrates how when an opportunity to generate passive income reveals itself – even though it may seem “too good to be true,” DO NOT MISS OUT on it by being distracted or irresponsible. We never know how much “not maximizing the moment” could be costing us!
Why am I writing the story about the Exxon Valdez in this article? It’s simple: To Show How One Opportunity can Lead to the Next… But ONLY IF that opportunity is cashed in on. Fortunately, my friend took FULL advantage of (and benefited tremendously from) the class action lawsuit that became available many years ago.
For you, the opportunity happening here is to align with a movement and business intelligence system that will generate your company A LOT more revenue than my friend received from the class action lawsuit.
To date, hundreds of millions of dollars, across dozens of showroom and supply houses locations, have been generated by the clients of Bravo Business Media who also partner with ShowroomMarketing.com.
From Being Frustrated To Feeling Free
The reason for this is that Bravo Business Media has created the largest database available on Earth for an independent distributor to know EXACTLY how a searcher takes to the internet to find a bath or kitchen showroom on the retail side (or plumbing supply house on the wholesale side), brand you represent at your business, product category you bring to market, or to find a competitor that they’d like to visit to get answers to questions or to touch, try, and/or purchase products that best fit their project and design style.
In the first quarter of 2023 alone, six select Bravo and ShowroomMarketing.com clients have seen the following number of searches in their service area for the following terms on Google.
For searches involving a person looking for a brick-and-mortar place of business to view products being displayed, get questions answered, or purchase from a physical location, there were 5,925 clicks from the Google Ad platform. For searches involving a brand that any of these six distributors represent, there were 883 clicks from the Google Ad platform. For product categories, there were 1,638 clicks that brought read-to-buy, with a credit card in hand, searchers to the websites of these six Bravo clients. Finally, 840 people typed in a search for a competitor of our clients that had an interest in looking for an alternative destination to look at products, engage with sales associates, and purchase products.
In total, there were 9,236 clicks from these search categories from the Google Ad platform.
As for what happened after they reached the site, here are the statistics for that data…
You’ll Only Be As Dominant As The Data You’re Using To Make Decisions
From the search dimensions listed above, there have been 1,359 phone calls received, 1,379 contact forms and wishlists submitted, 125 appointments scheduled through an online scheduling platform (FYI, only 1 of the 6 clients have that technology on their website), 88 orders (only 1 of the 6 clients have eCommerce enabled on their website), and 2,956 clicks to find a location to one of the brick and mortar locations in Google Maps for these 6 clients.
In short, these inquiry and order totals equate to 1 inquiry coming to a Bravo client that is working with ShowroomMarketing.com for every 7 clicks that reach their site via Google Ads.
From a visibility perspective, there was a total of $25,372 invested into Google Ads from Jan 1st – March 31, 2023, for these 6 Bravo clients, which means it cost $.07 per impression to have your message show up in front of a web searcher THAT HAS BEEN PROVEN TO HAVE THE HIGHEST INTENT To BUY from a business like yours. From a cost-per-lead perspective, it was $7 to get every one of the 2,499 inquiries in Q1 across 6 websites.
Now, the reason we are able to be so accurate with these numbers shared above is that Bravo and ShowroomMarketing.com are DILIGENTLY TRACKING EVERY INQUIRY AND SALE that comes from the public-facing side of the internet channel.
If you’d like to learn more about the specifics of how your company can be WINNING 3-5X MORE BUSINESS AND SALES on and through the internet (YES, there is a difference), GAINING MORE MARKET SHARE – especially in your most profitable areas and zip codes, AND “tying” all of the technologies together your business is using to OPERATE MORE EFFICIENTLY AND SCALE GROWTH, the ShowroomMarketing.com team would love to tell you more and share data and deliverables pertaining specifically to your business.
Finally, if you’d like to get connected with any of the clients used for this study who are already goal-getting in rather impressive ways each month, all you have to do is ask… 🙂
Until we speak again, be awesome, and know that we wish you nothing but the best of luck maximizing your journey to becoming the “Big Fish” in your market’s online ocean in 2023, and beyond!
First, Happy New Year!
Our team hopes that 2023 will be the best year of your life. Living your, “Best Life,” and taking things to Higher Profits and Beyond in Business are wonderful benchmarks to reach for, but the most important thing we must do these days is to tackle the task of identifying, then getting rid of, and moving past the distractions sidetracking your team from keeping optimal focus and coming up short with your Goal-Getting Initiatives.
The path to travel to get back on track is simple: WE MUST MAXIMIZE the Pareto Principle.
The 80/20 rule – otherwise known as the Pareto Principle, states 20% of the technologies you’re using to grow revenue and operate more smoothly (the inputs) are generating 80% of the Impact and Results you are getting (the outputs).
So, if you’re not sure what Technologies are included in the 20% list – you’re going to learn them by reading this blog. At this point, just knowing you have the desire to learn more about this topic is good enough 🙂
Here Are The Top 7 Technologies You Must Have Working Seamlessly And
Systematically In Your Business If You Want To Be Maximizing The 80/20 Rule!
1. You must have a Website that contains many of the ‘bells and whistles’ that will Showcase your Company in as High-Tech and High-Touch as possible through the eyes, ears, and hearts of those experiencing your business online. An easy litmus test to use is to ask yourself if you are getting a “warm and fuzzy,” feeling from your Website and if you would purchase from your company, based on how information is being displayed on your Website?!
Be honest with yourself now! LOL!
Here are the 20% of the Items that will Generate 80% of the Impact and Positive Outcomes for your company on the Web in 2023.
2. Your website must have “Heat Mapping” installed on it.
If you are aware of how the Audience Behavior area of Google Analytics works, you know you can look at how people are navigating a website and what content they are specifically engaging with.
You can know specifically what pages get viewed the most, where people are leaving the site from the most, and much more.
However, as great as it is, Google Analytics only shows the “global level” of things.
In short, you cannot look at any 1, 2, 5, or 50 isolated viewers at a time like you can with Heat Mapping Software. Our company uses heat maps of individual users to assure the Design of a Website is optimally done so that as much profit as possible is coming through or on the site.
3. You must be tracking every Phone call, form fill-out, live chat submission, appointment scheduled, wishlist, sale via eCommerce, and person clicking for directions to find your physical location (if applicable) via a Google My Business Page in your Google Analytics account.
You would be BLOWN AWAY how many times we look over a company’s Google Analytics account and find that NOTHING is being tracked from their website.
A simple rule to live by here is IF SOMETHING ISN’T BEING TRACKED AND MEASURED, IT CANNOT BE IMPROVED OR SCALED!
Now, if you don’t have an active Paid Advertising Campaign or eCommerce enabled on your website, this IS NOT as detrimental to your bottom line.
However, if you care about making more insightful and disciplined decisions (which we hope you do), then tracking conversions in Google Analytics and goals in Google Ads is a must.
If you do have Paid Advertising driving back to your website, YOU MUST MAKE SURE everything is being diligently tracked. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to calculate an accurate cost-per-lead or customer acquisition cost, which will forever keep you guessing as to whether your advertising initiatives and all of the associated costs for that are profitable. If a firm is working with you to do your SEO, PPC, Social Media ads, or more and is not doing the first 3 items listed here, I would ask a 3rd party firm (perhaps us) to “audit” their work immediately.
4. You must have all of the Metrics that Matter Most populating to A Business Intelligence Dashboard that lays everything out in simple terms.
20% of the Metrics that get Measured from the Internet are Responsible for Generating 80% of the Results and Revenue!
Here are a few of the Top Metrics that Matter to our clients that you also must be Measuring:
*If you’d like us to create a Business Intelligence Dashboard for your company that shows the following information below, please email John Gosselin, our Director of Showroom Marketing.
5. You must be using a Project Management Software that has a Client Interfacing element to it.
Every business goes about this, “must have” differently.
But at the end of the day, supply chain disruptions, lead time issues, being short-staffed, and more have made it imperative to have a digital paper trail with all you’re doing.
Some companies use their CRM, some use their ERP, and some use spreadsheets and email to track where each pending and open deal is at the moment.
Regardless of your company’s preference here, IT IS UNACCEPTABLE for a sales associate to say that their sales pipeline lives in their head or in a notebook.
As a Sales Manager or General Manager, how can you improve a teammate’s progress without being able to see their pipeline?
As an Owner, it’s as simple as, “If you cannot see and study it (your company’s sales pipeline), it doesn’t exist!”
For the “client-facing side” of this must-have item, everything regarding an active project or pending transaction should be accessible in an easy-to-digest and easy-to-find format.
We have all experienced not being able to track an important piece of info down in an email or something getting misplaced or lost in an email thread. #TheWorst
So, if you’d like to leave that mishap or inefficiency behind, you’d better sign up for a Project Management Software or change your standard Operating Procedures immediately.
6. You must have a Google Ad Account to attract high probability B2B and B2C buyers + an email outreach and LinkedIn and/or Instagram Direct Messaging System for attracting trade accounts and specifiers.
If you are a wholesaler, distributor, B2B reseller, or a company that sells products or services through a back-end, B2B eCommerce platform or front-facing webstore, having a Google Ad account is vital because there are new accounts looking for what you bring to market, that did not know who you were previously. So, if you choose not to have a Google Ads account as a wholesaler, you don’t just miss the 1-time sale, you are also missing out on the lifetime value of that account – which could be 10-25x higher than you would have ever expected, projected, or anticipated.
There are LOTS OF ORDERS that get started via a webstore by one person that often get followed up with by another employee who executes the purchase via a phone call.
If you are a brick-and-mortar retailer of any kind, dealer, B2C reseller, or a company that sells products or services through a front-facing webstore, having a Google Ad account is vital because more consumers than you’ll ever realize prefer an in-store experience – especially at the beginning of their buying journey. How do we know, well, it’s because we personally drove almost 50,000 clicks from Google Ads to a brick-and-mortar business in the 4th quarter of 2022.
Long story short, businesses like this get A TON of inquiries from consumers who often go “through” the internet and then buy via the in-store experience.
Using Email & Social Media Marketing To Grow Sales Is An Artful Science
Because of the trackability and automated capacities that email marketing provides, it is imperative to have an Outbound Marketing Program in place to develop more B2B relationships and grow the number of accounts your business serves. (Click to see a live outbound page)
In short, the key to running an effective Outbound Marketing Program is to construct a database of several thousand ideal specifiers and people in the trades and commit to developing a relationship with them over 90 days. From there, there will be 3 emails sent to them over the course of 3-4 weeks. During and after emailing, you should track what every recipient does when they receive the message.
They can only do a handful of things when they receive the message:
Regardless of what the recipient of the message does, you must Measure, Monitor, Adjust and Control all of the actions if you want an optimal outcome to occur with these contacts. Although there is some manual follow-up with this method of marketing, the return can pay off handsomely.
From the social media side of things regarding Outbound Marketing, all you would do is apply the same principles as you would need to do email marketing, but just run the programming through the direct messenger side of things through whatever social media engine you desire to grow sales and cultivate relationships through.
Regarding generating an ROI: NOT ALL SOCIAL MEDIA ENGINES ARE CREATED EQUAL!
7. You must have a Software installed on your Website that Captures the Contact Info of the people who visited your Website, but didn’t call, fill out a form, or make a sale (for those with eCommerce active on their website).
Although this sounds too good to be true, getting contact information for the B2B and B2C visitors who browse your website is very real, and 100% possible. However, getting the contact info is one thing, but it’s what you’re going to do with their name, home/business address, and email address moving forward is most important and exciting.
We can offer some suggestions for how to best utilize the contact records you’re able to capture. However, for now, knowing which contacts that reach your website and that had the highest “intent to buy” or inquire is what’s critical.
Please let our Showroom Marketing Team know if you have questions about any of the elements included in this piece. For your convenience, here is an easy-access link for you to set-up a convenient time.
Now that the End of the Year is here, perhaps your company is pondering the #1 Question that every showroom and supply house wants a solution for as the days left in 2022 continues to count down: “How should we best maximize this year’s Co-Op Dollars before we forfeit it?”
Well, for the past 5 years, our friends at ShowroomMarketing.com have put hundreds of thousands of Co-Op Dollars to use through their Innovative Business Development Initiatives for companies like yours, which at one time didn’t know exactly how to benefit the most from their Co-Op Cash.
So, if you have an interest in Cashing in your Co-Op Dollars in a way that will have you blanketing the 1st page of Google, so that you’re receiving more Phone Calls, Form Fill-Outs, and Walk-ins by using methods that are approved by lots of manufacturers, we highly suggest you speak with John and the ShowroomMarketing.com Team ASAP. They will do everything they can to get your Co-Op Dollars driving business your way, starting on Day #1.
Now, if you don’t have any interest in driving more Inquiries and/or Sales from Google, then maybe you want to have a conversation around setting up a B2B program so that you are attracting more interior designers, architects, builders, and contractors of all shapes and sizes.
The truth is, the B2C and B2B programming that ShowroomMarketing.com can help you implement so that you’re maximizing your 2022 Co-Op Cash is Tried, Tested, and Proven Profitable!
Many Bravo clients have used this opportunity to align with the ShowroomMarketing.com Team to “peek around corners,” and see how beneficial it could be to Generate More Revenue and Inquiries on and through the Internet Channel (YES, there is a difference), as well as Control More Market Share in your most profitable and/or highest profile zip codes.
“In the past week, we have helped two clients secure $25,000 in Co-Op Money to develop more business through the internet – specifically with Google and Facebook ads, and we anticipate a few more to reach out before the end of the year,” said Austin Pike, Director of Internet Conversion for ShowroomMarketing.com.
In summary, if you want to turn your 2022 Co-Op Cash into Revenue from the internet, in the most effortless and systematic way, here are your next 3 steps:
If you’d like to speak with other Bravo clients who have had success maximizing their Co-Op Dollars with ShowroomMarketing.com, just ask and we’ll put you in touch with them.
When it’s all said and done, the companies that are using data to make the most Disciplined Business Development Decisions are winning the most.
To higher profits and beyond you go!
There is no doubt that your company’s Market Share is being aggressively moved in on by each and every one of your competitors – and at warp speed, as each new day passes.
So, if you want to pushback against those who think your clients and service area are there for the taking, as well as show your current and future book of business that you care about building relationships that will last a lifetime, more than the other showrooms and supply houses in your market, IT’S TIME TO BE PROACTIVE and show the B2B and B2C folks that the relationship you are building with them is the #1 asset your company cares about enriching.
With hundreds of clients that have lots of national notoriety and who have also dominated their local landscape for many decades, the Showroom Marketing Team at Bravo wanted to share some of the “insider secrets” of what we know work for Ramping Up Results, Trimming Time, and using your business as the Unique Force that it is in your immediate community, and beyond.
If You Want To Be Seen, Valued, And Validated As
“THE EXPERT” In Your Area, Do These 5 Things
Our Showroom Marketing Team is fortunate to be able to study more website visitors than most companies providing Software, Websites, and Business Development Services in the Design and Build Industry. With this massive mountain of web data and knowing the metrics that matter most, we see first-hand, each and every day, where the web visitors who reach out to clients’ sites browse and click around before buying via eCommerce or inquiring by Phone, Filling out a Contact Form or Submitting a Wishlist or Live Chat Request.
Bottomline: IT PAYS (literally) to be High-Tech AND High-Touch with your website. A Welcome Video or 360′ tour video, pictures of your team or staff – along with brief Bios, Testimonials (preferably with faces to prove they’re real), Pictures of what your brick and mortar experience will look like when they arrive, and showcasing that Community Involvement matters at your company goes a long way. After all, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!
FYI, all Marketing Strategies and methods of being visible ARE NOT created equally.
There is a concept called “Pull Marketing” – which mostly has to do with Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. In essence, this is when you tell the search engines who you’d like to attract for a visitor, and also have the opportunity to specify where they’re located.
There are all sorts of methods and strategies for maximizing your results in this way. For now, just knowing that having pull marketing initiatives in-motion that are able to be measured, monitored, adjusted, and controlled is enough.
This way, you’ll avoid the starts-and-stops with your Business Development efforts that so many of our clients are experiencing these days because sometimes simply “pulling” people your way online isn’t enough.
Let’s be honest, THERE IS NEVER A BAD TIME TO HAVE TOO MUCH EXPOSURE for your company and brand!
So, along with sending emails to introduce yourself to Ideal Customers, Specifiers and Trade Partners you haven’t formally met yet, as well as staying in touch up with contacts you have met and the referrals you’ve gotten, Push Marketing SHOULD also include Offline and Outbound Marketing.
Things such as attending local trade associations and design community happenings and doing Systematic Outreach to let people in the trades who don’t attend meetings know that you are ready, willing and able to serve their every need is a great way to increase the Value of your Company’s Visibility.
If you have never done a formal Outreach Program to capture more trade partners or specifiers in your market, here are a few “electronic invitations” that have gotten these clients some of the best accounts they have in their entire book.
However, NOT ALL Social Media Strategies are as effective as others. Here are several MUST HAVE Strategies for Social Media.
The first is to set up a “Retargeting” Campaign so that you show up in an omnipresent way after someone sees your company’s website. By installing a “tracking pixel” for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or more, people who visit your website will also see you all over the web for a period of time.
Now, although this strategy is awesome for Branding and increasing your visibility online, IT DOES NOT generate anywhere near the kind of return that other strategies do!
So, IF you’re going to create Blogs, Videos, Podcasts, or Press Releases, Repurposing these Digital Deliverables is key. Along with posting these digital assets to your Social Media Profiles, YOU MAY WANT TO “boost” your Posts or have Targeted Ads running 24/7 on social media. In certain markets and in specific use cases, advertising on social media could be a beneficial strategy.
Finally, if you haven’t experienced the power of “Tagging” your Builders, Designers and other Trade Professionals via Social Media, YOU’RE TOTALLY MISSING the power of leveraging the communities that high-impact professionals build and tap into on the internet.
*If you need help or have questions about any of these strategies, our Showroom Marketing Team can help you learn more or implement any of it.
It’s true, the Marketing and Sales Results that have been tracked have been proven hundreds of times, for companies that conduct business just like you, in pretty much every market in North America, to be the best use of your Time, Money and Managerial Resources.
Several months ago, we published a wonderful piece in this Perspective Series describing all sorts of best practices for winning more business by Understanding the Relationship Life Cycle… A term we use to Turn Browsers Online into Buyers.
This article was one of our most widely read the past few years. However, we understand that information alone simply isn’t enough. So, if you would like to FULLY AUTOMATE the way Phone Calls, Contact Forms and Wish Lists that are coming in are being pushed out to your sales team through your CRM and ERP, we should talk.
In summary, there MUST BE Systematic ways that you are bringing new browsers that hopefully turn to sales opportunities through your Web Experience. However, more importantly, IT IS IMPERATIVE that you have processes in place to move your inquiries into a sales system that will Track every Communication touch point, nudge you when you haven’t reached out to them in a bit, plus provide you all of the support and Results Reporting to make more of the magic happen month over month and year over year.
Supplying our clients with Content, Commerce, Increased Productivity, and World Class Business Intelligence is what we do best at Bravo, so if you’re serious about being seen by thousands of more ideal buyers in the coming months and all of 2023, we’d love to let you know how we can help and where you can be Cashing in on the Value of your Company’s Visibility for many years to come.
WAYNE, PA., September 26, 2022 – Bravo Business Media, a subsidiary of Unilog, the premiere provider of content + commerce solutions for decorative plumbing, hardware, and lighting distributors and showrooms, is celebrating its next milestone of breaking the 10-million product listings mark.
The company’s unique approach to manufacturer relationships, combined with a simple deployment, syndication, and publication program, boasts the industry’s largest offering of vendor-managed product content from a list of over 1,300 manufacturers.
“We’re proud to support the specific industries in which we serve. Our customers derive extreme value for their businesses with our vast selection of manufacturers’ product content,” commented Catherine Scare, Director of Vendor Development & Relations. “Our extreme focus on expanding this component of our offering continues to provide manufacturers and distributors alike with a value equation that is second to none.”
Since 2010, Bravo Business Media has held a special position in the decorative plumbing, hardware, and lighting space. Ongoing expansion initiatives to round out their product content footprint continue to grow the company’s service footprint. Focus categories including HVAC, Industrial Supply, and Safety Equipment are natural adjacencies fueling the program’s growth.
Bravo Business Media’s content + commerce platform is a powerful, cloud-based solution purpose-built for wholesale and retail distribution businesses. Out of the box it includes user-friendly tools like sophisticated site search, sort and filter tools, flexible design themes for each market vertical, and the company’s proprietary SPEX Builder document generator for presentations and quoting projects. Their pre-built integrations with many of the top ERP systems in the market today enable visibility to customer-specific pricing, inventory availability, customer order processing, and more, making Bravo Business Media the solution of choice for many of the top wholesale distributors and showrooms.
For more information about Bravo Business Media’s comprehensive suite of products, contact a Unilog + Bravo Business Media representative at 800-425-5139 or email support@bravobusinessmedia.com.
About Bravo Business Media
Bravo Business Media is the premier sales and selection software solution for the decorative plumbing, hardware, lighting, and hearth & home industries. We build the sales framework for showrooms across the United States and Canada. Through our platform, people pick the pieces that make up their dream homes. With our integrative showroom software, trade professionals and homeowners can experience every detail, from pricing and availability to photos of whatever feature they’re looking for, whether it’s a sink, chandelier, or a fireplace. Visit us at https://www.bravobusinessmedia.com.
PRESS CONTACT:
Nicole Tomiak
Manager, Demand Generation – Unilog
Nicole.tomiak@unilogcorp.com
484-254-6629
“Once upon a time there was a quaint little village. It was a great place to live except for one problem. The village had no water unless it rained. To solve this problem once and for all, the village elders decided to put out to bid the contract to have water delivered to the village on a daily basis. Two people volunteered to take on the task and the elders awarded the contract to both of them. They felt that a little competition would keep prices low and ensure a backup supply of water.
The first of the two people who won the contract, Ed, immediately ran out, bought two galvanized steel buckets and began running back and forth along the train to the lake which was a mile away.
He immediately began making money as he labored morning to dusk hauling water from the lake with his two buckets. He would empty them into a large concrete holding tank the village had built. Each morning he had to get up before the rest of the village awoke to make sure there was enough water for the village when it needed it. It was hard work, but he was very happy to be making money and to have one of the two exclusive contracts for this business.
The second winning contractor, Bill, disappeared for a while. He was not seen for months, which made Ed very happy since he had no completion. Ed was making all the money!
Instead of buying two buckets to compete with Ed, Bill had written a business plan, created a corporation, found four investors, employed a president to do the work, and returned six months later with a construction crew. Within a year his team had built a large volume stainless steel pipeline which connected the village to the lake.
At the grand opening celebration, Bill announced that his water was cleaner than Ed’s water. Bill knew there had been complaints about dirt in Ed’s water. Bill also announced that he could supply the village with water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ed could only deliver water on the weekdays – he did not work on weekends. Then Bill announced that he would charge 75% less than Ed did for this higher quality and more reliable source of water. This village cheered and ran immediately for the faucet at the end of Bill’s pipeline.
In order to compete, Ed immediately lowered his rates by 75%, bought two more buckets, added covers to his buckets and began hauling four buckets each trip. In order to provide better service, he hired his two sons to give him a hand for the night shift and on the weekends.
When his boys went off to college, he said to them, ‘Hurry back because someday this business will belong to you.’ For some reason, after college, his two sons never returned. Eventually Ed had employees and union problems. The union was demanding higher wages, better benefits, and wanted its members to only haul one bucket at a time.
Bill, on the other hand, realized that if this village needed water, the other villages must need water too. He rewrote his business plan and went off to sell his high speed, high volume, low cost, and clean water delivery system to villages throughout the world. He only made one penny per bucket of water delivered, but he delivered billions of buckets of water everyday.
Regardless if he worked or not, billions of people consumed billions of buckets of water, and all of that money poured into his bank account.
Bill had developed a pipeline to deliver money to himself as well as water to the villages. Bill lived happily ever after and Ed worked hard for the rest of his life and had financial problems forever after. The end.”
This “From Hauling Buckets To Building A Pipeline” fable can be found in
the opening pages of a book called, “The Cashflow Quadrant,” by Robert Kiyosaki
This story about Bill and Ed has guided every project that the Showroom Marketing Team at Bravo Business Media has worked on since we began helping companies like yours get:
• Measurable Traction
• Repeatable Results, in the form of Phone Calls
• Contact Form Fill-outs
• Wishlist Submissions
• Live Chat Bot Inquiries
• Direction Clicks to find your Physical Location from Google and other Search Engines
• Orders through your webstore from B2B and B2C eCommerce
which ultimately leads to predictable income coming in through the internet channel month-over-month, in the most systematic and easy-to-understand ways, you’ve likely experienced to date.
Let’s be real: You wouldn’t be reading this fun fable if you didn’t want to systemize success so you can enjoy more moments of feeling free from the things that have “smothered” your entrepreneurial spirit and/or your company since this technological revolution has taken center-stage!
Therefore, it’s imperative to consistently be asking yourself:
1. “Am I building a business development pipeline right now or am I manually hauling buckets?!”
2. “Am I working hard or am I working smart by leveraging technology in the most systematic way?!”
3. “Am I maximizing the value of our visibility online by controlling more market share or is somebody else scaling the growth of their company by getting online inquiries and sales from our service area that should be ours?!”
The answers to the 3 questions above are EXACTLY what has laid the foundation for what has many business people saying, “The Paid Marketing Program we’ve implemented with Bravo is the MOST preeminent business building system out there for attracting, converting, and retaining more customers through the internet for a business that serves the design and build industry that we’ve seen or used to date.”
Cheers to you for desiring to take being high–tech and high–touch to a whole new level in your business in 2022, and beyond!
The design adage “form follows function” doesn’t necessarily apply to today’s appliances. With aesthetic lines, decadent details, and a palette of colors and finishes, many of today’s appliances look more like art than functional equipment. That’s why shoppers want to visit your home appliance showroom – to see, touch, and experience the newest appliance designs and find ones that best suit their style.
And while your physical showroom is the final destination for buyers, the customer journey almost never begins there. Today’s tech-savvy shoppers like to browse online first to view different collections, learn about the latest trends and features, and see available options so they are better informed and prepared when they visit your store. If your website doesn’t provide these value-added services for visitors, you could be missing out on additional leads and sales.
We’ve compiled five must-have digital features to use in your Home Appliance Showroom Marketing Strategy, that will transform your basic website into a great resource for appliance shoppers:
A basic website underwhelms visitors. To attract people to your site and keep them there, create an online presence that features convenient customer tools, showcases your business and products, and establishes you as an appliance expert. Bravo Business Media’s website platform provides all this and more. Customized with your unique branding and visual style, your new site will feature user-friendly navigation, advanced search tools, and accessibility to all your product offerings. Clear calls-to-action keep your business front and center and encourage site visitors to interact with you. With Bravo Business Media as your digital commerce partner, you’ll not only get a turnkey website solution, you’ll also receive white glove customer support and industry expertise every step of the way.
Inform and impress your site visitors with product content that’s accurate, comprehensive, and visually impactful. Online shoppers want to see all the features of an appliance, know the dimensions, view the available finishes, and know how much the product costs before narrowing down their choices. If your current online catalog is missing these important components, consider subscribing to Bravo Business Media’s massive online product catalog. With 10 million SKUs and counting, our catalog represents thousands of brands across the appliance, decorative plumbing, hardware, lighting, and hearth & home industries. The data – including product pricing – is always up to date and reliable because we obtain it directly from the manufacturer. Curating and managing content on your own is tedious and expensive, but with a subscription to Bravo Business Media’s product data, you can better promote your stocked appliances and expand your offerings with additional non-stock items from our catalog.
What better way to present your showroom business to site visitors than with a 3D virtual tour? Virtual tours of your physical showroom enable shoppers to explore your place of business from the comfort of their home and plan their future visit. We have partnered with the top interactive 3D VR technology provider, Matterport, to offer our web platform customers a 3D Virtual Showroom Tour tool housed on their website’s home page.
Easy to set up and implement, our 3D Virtual Showroom Tour allows site visitors to make their way through every aisle and department of your showroom with the option to click on tagged products in the showroom to see product details. Check out our recent article to learn more about our 3D Virtual Showroom Tour and to try it out for yourself.
Provide more convenience for shoppers browsing your online catalog by including an advanced wish list tool on your website. Bravo Business Media’s SPEX Builder does more than just save a list of appliances and fixtures of interest to shoppers; our proprietary product selection and presentation tool gives them the ability to design an entire kitchen, laundry room, and more. Your sales associates can output their selections into an appealing presentation format complete with product images, specs, pricing, user guides, and notes for the customer. SPEX Builder’s intuitive interface and on-screen navigation make it easy for your team to build custom presentations that will impress potential clients and turn more quotes into sales.
Your website should be the primary traffic driver to your showroom by offering convenient ways to connect with you – whether that’s by calling an associate, scheduling a design consultation, or providing a map of your locations and store hours. Every page of your website should feature your contact information to keep your physical showroom top of mind and accessible to site visitors. With Bravo Business Media’s website platform, we display your showroom locations clearly on every product page, including the address, phone, showroom hours, and map with driving directions. Site visitors can also schedule a design consultation with one of your stores with a simple click of a button. Your website is an extension of your showroom and, as such, it should constantly promote it.
Give your appliance showroom the upper hand locally while attracting a wider audience with a first-class website that offers just as much form as function. Contact one of our digital sales and marketing experts today to learn how!
Attention All Wholesale Plumbing Suppliers, Bath And Kitchen Showrooms, Hardware And Lighting Showrooms, And Design And Build Firms…
After personally having thousands of conversations with marketing and sales teams who work for wholesalers, retailers, and e-tailers over the past decade, one thing is evident: More companies are admitting they DO NOT HAVE the who, what, where, why, and how-tos for earning more and doing less properly identified, or operating in a systematic or gold-standard way at their business.
It’s as if all of the technology available these days has put them in a tailspin. So, whether you’re an owner, C-suite executive, senior or middle manager, or a member of the Client Success Team at your company, A TOP PRIORITY RIGHT NOW in the plumbing, lighting, design-build, and supply chain, in general, is to STOP BEING IRRESPONSIBLE AND INEFFICIENT with how you’re utilizing technology to grow sales and control more market share.
In this companion guide, we will answer the top questions your team should be asking, plus, we will share a few things you should be on the lookout for when it comes to maximizing the mixture of technologies you’ve selected to use for goal-setting, and WHY YOU CAN NOT BE WITHOUT certain functionalities from today on.
Roles & Goals Of Your Company’s Management Team
The people in our industry that have experienced the good, bad, and ugly of what “Corporate America” offers for benefits and lessons is rare. Therefore, the points of reference when it comes to casting a grand vision and following managerial best practices, at a small-to-midsize company, CAN BE limited (but not always) due to a lack of perspective from business models that must get it right, or they’ll be forced to go out of business.
For this reason, and more, we wanted to share an overview of the roles and goals that many of our clients have in their businesses.
Finally, because we’ve worked with and spoken with thousands of businesses that sell and service customers and clients in a similar fashion as your company does, we have learned that no two companies communicate, collaborate, and use technology to achieve ideal outcomes the same way.
The Director Of Marketing
Many times, the Director of Marketing for a company who is looking to work with Bravo or Unilog doesn’t have lots of support from the retail division of their company – if there is one at all. In other words, they’re overseeing the wholesale (the counter business) and retail division (the showroom) at their company – with minimal intellectual or systemic support, which leaves them with limited, “people power,” to get it all done.
This variable alone leaves this individual working, “in the business,” as opposed to, “on the business,” far too often. So, adding a support system for this person to work more effortlessly is especially important because as your market share continues to get ‘gobbled up’ by the bigger brick and mortar players in your service area, online superstores, and other independents, being decisive AND discipline in your decision-making is everything.
Therefore, innovation and putting best practice solutions in place is the #1 thing you should be doing to stay relevant, win new business, and operate as efficiently as possible.
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Here are the Top 3 Benefits that Bravo Business Media and Unilog provide for a person holding the Director of Marketing position that other platforms and software solutions DO NOT:
1) We provide world-class reporting on the daily, weekly and monthly activities happening to and for your business regarding product updates, wishlists and quotes created, and much more.
The reason for this is that WE WANT YOU TO SHOW UP in the boardroom looking, feeling, and acting like a superhero, as you present the items that matter most at the company.
2) Our Client Success Team periodically and systematically reaches out to our clients to learn more about their operational framework and to train their team so that earning more and doing less is their way of life, every day!
3) We are affiliated with or have clients in EVERY buying group and industry association out there. This means that we are, “in the know,” about what’s working now, plus we are able to communicate with our clients in person, by video chat, or via email (or support ticket) at any time.
How To Merge The Director Of Marketing & Director Of Showroom Roles
Director Of Showroom(s)
This person often “climbs the ranks,” and gets rewarded from within their company. Now, although this strategy works great internally and keeps employees motivated and hungry to grow, having profound product knowledge and being able to keep customers calm when a problem appears, isn’t all this job takes to succeed — especially IF moving the showroom side of the business forward is on the Director of Showroom’s list of responsibilities.
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Here are the Top 3 Benefits that Bravo Business Media and Unilog provide for a person holding the Director of Showroom(s) position that other platforms and software solutions DO NOT:
1) The training we provide to keep showroom staff updated on THE THINGS THAT WILL MAKE THEIR LIFE EASIER AND THE RESULTS BETTER is the #1 reason why we have been awarded Vendor of the Year, in a few of the spaces and places where we help lots of clients.
2) We have various training modules and lots of helpful content available to support your team troubleshoot most issues that may arise.
3) We have an exclusive partnership with the top firm in our industry for growing sales (online and/or offline), for controlling more market share, and for measuring your results and ROI right down to the dollar.
The team at ShowroomMarketing.com would like to offer you the opportunity to have your website reviewed via video and to show you exactly how many searchers are looking for a showroom like yours, the product categories and brands you carry, and what your competition is doing when it comes to advertising in your market online.
The insights they will be sharing are very valuable and impactful, and THE TIME IS RIGHT NOW to act in strategic ways! Click here to set up a time with our Showroom Marketing Team.
Webstore Director / Product Data Manager
This is an area where FAR TOO MANY independents are lacking when we compare the resources being invested from some of the bigger players in the game. The reason for this is because the to-do list a public-facing eCommerce website must go through to be fully set up for success is miles long. Not only that, but most eCommerce websites should REALLY know who their ideal buyer is, where they come from, their buying preferences, and much more before they ever launch.
If the intent of your webstore is to convert B2B accounts to take their transactions online (versus walking into the supply house, calling an account manager, or sending an order over by text or email), we have quickly and steadily become the industry’s preeminent solution.
However, if you’d like to capture new B2B revenue and widen your B2C footprint, THERE IS A PROVEN SERIES OF STEPS (which our team can help you execute) THAT YOU SHOULD BE TAKING to goal-get and attain world-class results with.
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Here are the Top 3 Benefits that Bravo Business Media and Unilog provide for a person holding the Product Content Manager position that other platforms and software solutions DO NOT:
1) We have a proprietary product feed that fuels our product catalog websites, eCommerce webstore sites, and our Spexbuilder software.
This allows being more visible and findable, attracting new revenue, and putting quotes together to be as easy as 1-2-3! #SuccessOnlineHasNeverBeenSimpler
2) We have a growing, award-winning Client Success Team that is adding FAQs and Should Ask Questions (SAQs) to our platform every day.
So, if you haven’t reached out to our team to get an update on our platform and the many improvements we’re making in time, we strongly suggest you do that soon. 🙂
3) Our team operates under the mantra, “The most flexible companies are winning in today’s economy,” which also means that regardless of where you are at in the process of rolling out your company’s lead generating and ROI-making machine, we’ll be able to match you and take strategic data-driven next steps.
In summary, WE ARE HERE TO HELP EVERYONE IN YOUR COMPANY feel more comfortable with, “what’s next,” as you work tirelessly to roll out a red carpet for those you serve in business. We hope you are trending in the proper direction and will be waiting to see your appointment to connect on this matter, and more in the coming weeks.
To higher profits and beyond we go!
Do you wish you could create a more immersive online browsing experience for your site visitors? The reality is you can with a 3D Virtual Showroom Tour by Bravo Business Media. We’ve partnered with Matterport, the premier technology provider of interactive 3D virtual reality tours, to give our web platform customers an exciting way to show off their showroom and their products online.
Our 3D Virtual Showroom Tour starts with an interior floorplan layout of your showroom, then zooms into an interactive showroom view which visitors can “walk through” by clicking on the panoramic visuals. Subtle circles on the showroom floor help guide visitors through each section of your store, and visual tags placed on products within the tour link to specific product pages on your website where they can learn more about the product.
A 3D Virtual Showroom Tour by Bravo Business Media provides the ultimate window shopping experience that motivates online shoppers to visit your physical showroom and complete their kitchen and bath fixtures purchase.
For an affordable, one-time setup fee, Bravo Business Media coordinates and implements your showroom tour for you. After the photographer captures your showroom images, they are uploaded to our software application where we create your unique, interactive showroom. You then have the ability to tag specific products within the showroom tour and link them to your product pages.
Once your virtual tour is complete, we host it on the home page of your Bravo Business Media website where it is highly visible and easy to access. We also provide you with a unique URL link which you can share and promote on social media. Online tracking and reporting enable you to see how many people visit your virtual showroom and how they interact on the tour.
A 3D virtual tour of your showroom sets you apart from the competition because it gives kitchen and bath shoppers a detailed look at your showroom before they visit. It showcases your store’s attractive setting, inviting atmosphere, and abundance of products, which entices them to visit in person.
Bravo Business Media customers with 3D virtual showrooms like Advance Plumbing and Heating Supply, Lightopia, SplashWorks, and many others just like them have seen an increase in brand awareness, in-store traffic, and sales. If you’d like to learn how easy it is to bring your showroom to life on your website, give one of our marketing experts a call today.
With change comes opportunities – especially when that change involves adding an online storefront. A digital sales channel enables you to increase your product offerings, enhance the customer experience, and strengthen your bottom line. Online storefronts are gaining popularity with wholesale distributors because they produce results. According to technology analyst Gartner, Inc., digital commerce mean revenue increased 81% between 2017 and 2021. That’s great news for those with an eCommerce site; but if you’re a wholesale distributor who isn’t selling digitally, that’s all the more reason to make a change.
The catalyst for change in the marketplace began in 2020 when the pandemic forced people to shop online for goods and services. That necessity turned into a preference when both consumers and B2B buyers became accustomed to the convenience online shopping offers. Two years later, the propensity for digital sales channels continues to build. Businesses with an online storefront endured through the market disruption, while “offline” sellers still struggle to meet customer expectations.
If you want to survive and thrive in the marketplace, you need more than just an online presence; you need a customer-centric website with value-added tools and trusted product content – and we can show you how.
Together, eCommerce, content, and shopping tools can increase your market exposure and create additional revenue – both directly and indirectly. It’s true that some customers may still prefer to place orders with your sales associates, but know that they are almost always starting their buying journey on your website.
And, while a digital sales channel offers customers convenient ways to shop and buy your products, it also delivers multiple gains for your wholesale distribution business:
Convenient, efficient, and customer-centric, a superior online storefront can set you apart from the pack.
A robust digital sales channel gives you an advantage over the competition and, at the same time, strengthens your brick-and-mortar locations. Success comes when you combine these three critical elements into one powerful solution that facilitates more sales and better serves customers:
Website platforms are not one-size-fits-all solutions. To support your business needs, you need an eCommerce platform purpose-built for the wholesale and retail segments of the Plumbing, HVAC, PVF, and Industrial Supply industries. Bravo Business Media, together with our business partner, Unilog, offers complete eCommerce websites with critical B2B functionality like a shopping cart, payment gateway, shipping options, and self-service account portal. Tightly integrated with your ERP, our responsive-built websites provide a consistent shopping experience no matter if buyers shop from their laptop or mobile device.
Our platform includes a sophisticated framework with a modern interface that we customize to convey your unique branding, products, and style. Dynamic menus and user-friendly navigation enable buyers to find your products easily and lead them through each step in their customer journey. We combine B2B functionality with a consumer-friendly design to create the ideal online shopping experience for your customers.
Customers expect to see current product information, product images, and key specifications on your website. But curating and maintaining vendor product content on your own is time-consuming and cost-prohibitive. Bravo Business Media and Unilog alleviate these challenges by sourcing and maintaining expansive product catalogs specific to your industry.
We acquire our content directly from the manufacturer and include important product features, high-quality images, as well as resource documents including installation manuals and spec sheets. And, unlike other content providers, we manage pricing from the vendor and apply your company’s business rules to display each product’s prevailing sell price available on your website. We normalize all vendor data across categories to ensure a consistent shopping experience, and update pricing and brand content daily so you know the information listed on your site is always up to date and reliable. Our enriched catalog makes your website a trusted resource for a wider range of buyers.
Revolutionize your business – and impress your customers – with an online product selection tool called SPEX Builder. Exclusive to Bravo Business Media, our SPEX Builder tool offers unlimited possibilities and benefits. Customers can build project wish lists by choosing products directly from your catalog, then send that list to your sales staff to create custom quotes in minutes. Unlike typical quote software, SPEX Builder presents project quotes in a professional, custom-branded layout complete with all the information your customer requires, including product images and descriptions, pricing, custom notes, spec sheets, installation manuals, and more.
Flexible and foolproof, SPEX Builder has multiple layout and content options so you can tailor each project to suit your different customers. The final product can be output as a PDF or you can create and share a dynamic web link that allows the customer to provide feedback, adjust their order, or approve the quote. SPEX Builder is the ultimate efficiency tool that attracts more buyers and drives repeat purchases.
Do more with digital selling solutions. Contact our team today to get started on your digital commerce journey.