How a Virginia retailer tripled moulding sales

llrHEN it comes to remodeling lU and renovation projects, most dealers usually don't recommend wood mouldings to contractors as an important part of the project.

They should, for at least two good reasons. First, the creative use of wood mouldings as part of a project can give a contractor a competitive edge. Used as a finishing touch on everything from room additions to paint and wallpaper jobs, wood mouldings add a distinctive "look" to any room.

Second, dealers (and contractors) who specialize in the sale and installation of wood mouldings can often carve out a special niche in the market for themselves that is not usually served by anyone else. The net result: more sales.

Story at a Glance

Methods a dealer used to carue out a special niche in moulding market. . inventory 400 different profiles.. generate sales without advertising.

As a case in point, consider Smoot Lumber Co., a 129-year-old lumber yard in Alexandria, Va. Five years ago, Smoot Lumber stocked the "same 40 mouldings as everybody else." Today, it stocks nearly 400 different profiles and sizes. Of this total, approximately 800/o are pine, the remainder, oak.

Five years ago, wood mouldings accounted for only 5% of total store sales. Today, it accounts for over 250/o. Over this same period of time, sales dollar volume has nearly tripled.

Smoot marketing manager, John O'Donnell, explains the reasoning behind this commitment to wood mouldings this way: "We're located in an area filled with older homes. As a result, customers were continually coming to us and asking us to reproduce moulding patterns. To accom- modate them, we opened a custom mill shop.

"About five years ago, however, we decided we wanted to give our customers what they needed on a much quicker basis. To do this, we increased our selection of readilyavailable proltles by stocking all those patterns that our sales history had shown to be the most popular. We still have our custom shop," he notes, "but now most of our sales are from stock patterns."

Interestingly enough, Smoot Lumber does not advertise its mouldings at all. "Word-of-mouth generated over the past few years has spread our name to contractors and consumers alike," he notes.

However, the firm does implement a number of other merchandising techniques to help promote the use of wood mouldings. First, it prepares a large, 80-page, three-ring binder containing cross section illustrations and sizes of all the profiles the store stocks. The entire binder is distributed to architects; a smaller version is available for use by contractors. "We want to make it easy for architects to specify wood mouldings," O'Donnell states, "and the binder helps do that quite well."

Second, to aid both the consumers and contractors who come to the store to select their mouldings, the firm constructed a large, three-sided display featuring nearly 200 of the profiles it stocks. Standing nearly seven feet high, the display contains a permanently-attached cross-section of each profile and a S-inch longitudinal section that is on a hook so that customers can take it to the service counter.

Third, store personnel found that consumers and contractors alike often had difficulty visualizing various combinations of wood mouldings. To help remedy this situation, the store now features dozens of "built-ups" on a display board.

In terms of clientele, approximately 7 50/o of the store's sales are to contractors. the remainder to consumers,