Selling Kitchens

Why have a chapter of selling kitchens? We haven’t had one on buying them yet.

The answer is simple.  Before you enter into the market place you need to be prepared for people whose job it is to do nothing but make sales. These people do not chase leads (a lead is your details as a prospective buyer). They do not take enquiries. They do not make kitchens. They do not install kitchens. The vast majority of them are not trained kitchen designers but many have training that is rudimentary at best. They are employed by kitchen companies because they have a good record of selling – and that could be anything from real estate, used cars or popcorn. They will be your best friend whilst negotiating the sale but their interest in you will cease as soon as you sign the contract.

Kitchen consultants are employed by the larger companies and franchise operators solely to make sales. With that done they move on to the next punter. You will then be dealing with the operations manager (or whatever title they have been given) whose job it is to make sense of the ‘design’ that has been agreed, and to produce your kitchen. This can be where trouble starts. You will have built up a good rapport with the salesperson (they tend to be good at that) and now find yourself cast adrift and often having to compromise on what has been agreed at the design stage.

Now there is nothing wrong, immoral or illegal with splitting up the process like this. It is a situation that suits many people, especially the sales consultants. It also suits those customers who are really not that bothered or fussy. But this relationship does not suit everybody, maybe not you. Not all kitchen sales consultants conform to the pushy, hardnosed cynical stereotype of course. Many of them are no doubt people of integrity and have a genuine commitment to you and your kitchen. Whatever, once your signature is on the line they will be busy with the next customer.

At the other end of the scale is the one-man-band cabinetmaker who will design, make and install your kitchen himself (it is mostly men). This chap plods along from one job to another and many of them are very good with a trail of satisfied customers behind them. Some on the other hand, are a repeat disaster, poor communicators, shoddy workmen, tardy suppliers and opportunistic rascals. These people have to make sales just like anybody in business, which involves making promises, commitments and assurances.

The one-man-band really does have to be Jack-of-all-Trades: salesman, designer, craftsman, kitchen installer and trouble-shooter, building savvy and prepared to return to carry out any remedial work. He has to sell you the package that is he. You only have to assess his skills and decide if the package is right for you. You will hope that he is as good a tradesperson as he is a salesman.

In between these extremes are the smaller independent suppliers, usually owner operated, who have a small team of employees and often have their niche market within the industry. Don’t imagine that they are necessarily any better or worse than the larger companies or one-man-bands though. They come in all shades from the workaday family business to the up-market bijou cabinetmaker or kitchen designer with a string of industry awards behind him or her.

They still have to sell kitchens though. If they do not convert enough enquiries they go out of business. They will be just as eager to strike up a rapport with you and many will be accomplished and successful sales people with all the techniques of that trade.

With the smaller company there is a team of people, each with complimentary skills. Or at least that is the theory. The main difference between the big companies and the small is with follow-through. With the smaller companies, the person you negotiated with during the design and sales process is likely to still be around at the close when the kitchen is installed.

This accountability can make a big difference to what you are sold. The kitchen consultant is long gone when the kitchen is installed it is not his or her responsibility to make it fit or work properly. With the smaller outfit the owner him or herself is in at all stages of the process and accountable to you. That said the less personal service of the larger companies suits many people who prefer a more distant and professional relationship with an organisation.

It is up to you to assess the skills, style and culture of the organisation and decide if they are right for you. This has a lot to do with ‘feel’, how you respond emotionally but beware of being manipulated by a personable salesperson. Any nagging doubts at the back of your mind after a good night’s sleep need to be followed up.

There are also designers, many of whom sell kitchens too but more about them in a future chapter.

Kitchen makers are not charitable organisations. When all is said and done everybody in the business of selling kitchens is doing it to make a living, to make as good a living as possible in fact. It’s what makes the western world go round. You make a living from what somebody else does; somebody else makes a living from what you do and so on.

You do not have a problem with this, it’s just that you do not want the salesperson or kitchen maker to do too well out of you. Right?

Selling Kitchens 2 - Tricks of the Trade

Buying Your Kitchen

Top of page