MILLWORK: a hot selling product

Ir HINK DECORATIVE! That's I the trend asbuilders seek architectural interest and curb appeal for homes and commercial buildings. Millwork is hot from front to back. Do-it-yourselfers, too, are learning that millwork can add character to their homes. Copying ideas they see in new houses and home improvement magazines, they are using more millwork to add sizzle to tired, not so new, tract houses.

Most dealers have discovered the need to stock a wide selection of distinctive doors and windows, but many are slow to catch on to the need for more than the basic millwork. As with doors and windows, most of their customers want to see actual products, not a catalog picture. In some cases they expect to take it home with them to get started on the project, not wait a couple of weeks for it to be ordered.

In addition to shopping for fashionable doors, windows, sidelights and transoms, builders and homeowners are looking for decorative garage doors, screen doors, storm doors, cupolas, louver vents, shutters, columns, pillars, railings, balusters, lattice and gingerbread trims. Millwork reminiscent of the Victorian and Craftsman eras is big.

Some millwork manufacturers have responded to the d-i-y need by packaging their products so that they can readily be taken from the display, carried to the cashier and taken home. Cupolas, for example, now come in boxes. Shutters. too. are often packaged, sometimes prefinished, for the convenience ofthe doit-yourselfer.

Screen doors, which have been transformed from utilitarian to decorative with the use of more millwork trim, should be kept in inventory along with doors. Although columns and pillars will have to be ordered for customers, it is usually feasible to keep an inventory of porch and balcony railings and balusters. Louver vents and lattice also should be kept in stock.

Having the materials on the floor is not enough, according to one outspoken vendor. "They must be displayed well with benefits spelled out clearly. How-to literature must be available."

"Since these are the 'in' products," he emphasized, "they should be located where customers will see them. If shoppers don't know you have them, they don't know they want them. It's the products that they see that they want."

Story at a Glance

Ways to get in on the millwork boom... merchandising and display tips. . methods to gain customer confidence.

Sales people must be familiar with millwork products. They have to suggest them, relate their advantages for upgrading a house and tell a customer how to use them. They must be able to tell the customer how to measure for various pieces of millwork and how to install it. If the customer wants help, they must have a list of installers to recommend.

"Our millwork salespeople are like counselors," explained a dealer who specializes in millwork. "They are able to guide the customer and install confidence in his selections as well as sell the product."

Dealers who have taken the lead in stocking and displaying millwork report excellent results. "Sales are good and so are the margins," a dealer commented. "Our millwork is helping us to attract more customer builder trade as well as bringing in di-y buyers."