Apart from the rest: focusing on a single product category can boost sales and credibility. See how three retailers get the job done

Pool & Spa News, Jan 17, 2005 by Shabnam Mogharabi

"The products are lined up set by set by size, where you can browse all the furniture together, all the spas together," Black says. "Barbecues are designed the same way. They start from about $300 and go to $9,000, and they're easy to view. Next to the $300 barbecue is the $500 barbecue and on up. It isn't rocket science."

Indeed, upselling has become an easy process, thanks to the new store layout (see photos on pages 58-59). The company's 10 full-time salespeople can move right up the line and convert mid-scale barbecue shoppers into high-end grill owners. In addition, the company has worked hard to retain the business of its first-time spa customers.

"We've sold patio furniture and barbecues for only the last 10 years, but it's been strong year after year," Black says. "One-third of our patio and barbecue customers have bought spas from us and at some point, we get them to come back in and buy from one or two of the other departments."

Black says the key is to stick with top-of-the-line products. He doesn't carry mass merchandise, preferring high-end specialty grills and designer furniture sets. "I can't compete, nor do I want to compete, with the Home Depots and Sam's Clubs, but they also can't compete with me," he says. "They don't have the knowledge to sell a $10,000 set of patio furniture. Our whole showroom looks like a place you want to lay down money."

And never underestimate the power of cleanliness, Black adds. "It's so important to be neat. We have a daily cleaning crew that comes in to make everything look sharp. Our tables and displays could pass a white glove test."

RELATED ARTICLE: A traveling showroom.

Robert Randall is always on the lookout for innovative marketing tactics that won't break his advertising budget. This year, it was a segment on "Good Morning America" that gave the retail sales director of Tony V's Sunrooms & Spas a brilliant idea: Create a live "billboard."

In September, Randall drove a flatbed trailer truck to an upscale neighborhood near his company's main Clinton Township, Mich., store. On board was a full-size sunroom. "On a Saturday morning, people don't want to drive around town, [so] we took our showroom on tour," Randall says. "We drove into this neighborhood with music playing, we threw Frisbees, had free Popsicles for the kids and fly swatters for the parents, and pretty soon people were just coming out to talk to us about the sunroom.

"We definitely got some strong leads from it," he adds.

In fact, Tony V's secured two elaborate sunroom projects in that one small neighborhood. Every time a homeowner showed interest, the "showroom" drivers called the retail office and had sales representatives drive out to the home "right then and there" for a free estimate.

Randall intends to take the sunroom on tour again, and more often, next year. He's planning to place a spa inside the traveling showroom in 2005. "We had awful weather here this summer, and this was great. There's a tremendous amount of validity, too, when [the marketing] works."