The Art of Selling 'Custom' Kitchen Cabinets on the Web! Part 5: Positioning Your brand for Online Leadership
When it comes to selling custom cabinets on the web, through traditional channels or a combination of both ‘bricks and clicks’, not all kitchen cabinetry is created equally. However, consumers are many times lead to believe that they are all commodities; so if you are a home improvement professional such as an architect, builder, designer, remodeler, or contractor, a critical key to successful business positioning online is for the position of brand leader. Let’s begin by looking at what a brand IS from a business development perspective.
What is a brand: In one word – Everything! 
- A well-planned coordination of every single touch point with the customer to create consistency of service within the company.
- Something that touches every part of your business, from your letterhead and logo to how employees answer the phone to how the supply chain runs.
- Integrates everything about your company to create consistency for customers, vendors, employees, suppliers—and you as owners.
- A perception or emotion relating to doing business with an organization or consuming its products or services.
*Brands are relationships: As
home improvement professionals, you are all relationship (brand) managers. So, here are some tips to keep in mind.
Show Rather than Talk about the Brand- It’s a matter of who you are, what you believe in and how you act when no one’s looking.
- Brand is how your customer experiences what you do.
- Experience is shaped by a series of interactions with the company.
- Great brands are built not on words, but actions.
*Key: If your kitchen cabinets or other home improvement or remodeling products or services are very similar in features, benefits, and price to the competition. Your Brand is the (Tie Breaker).
Whose Job Is It?
Everyone’s! So, Make it Personal: The good news is that everyone already has a brand. The value of a brand is the sum of all personal brands within your firm; another great reason to hire great people.
Benefits of Everyone Contributing:
1. Leveraging collective synergy results in real speed and momentum that can be used to gain competitive advantage.
2. The firms with the strongest brands attract the best talent.
3. Fully engaged employees create brand moments. Those special moments that work as congealing factors for the relationship with the consumer and your brand.
In its many facets, branding takes tremendous thought leadership. The challenge is to develop a set of values or qualities for the company that is respected by all. They must be:
1. Distinctive-they stand for something and are demonstrated by behaviors.
2. Relevant-what they stand for connects to what someone else will consider to be important.
3. Consistent-people come to believe in a relationship based on the consistency of behaviors they experience or observe.
What about Leadership?
1. Leadership team must establish consensus (agreement before action).
2. Leadership team must work together on a firm-wide basis.
3. Leadership must create a strong culture-the stronger the culture, the better the prospects for success.
What about Selling Custom Cabinets on the Web and Your Brand?
To expect to yield a return representative of your firm’s full potential, the Internet is to be considered another opportunity to reinforce the positive perception of your value offering in the eyes of the customer. If you want to be a great company, realize that with all contact points that you have with the customer, there is an overarching guiding principle-“Build on truth- Today, it is more important than being unique or different (brand promise). Companies that go from good to great value the brutal facts, (Collins, 2001).
Also realize these principles to being the brand leader.
It’s a commitment…not a campaign- Even when a brand is built on truth, continual adjustment is needed to best align with the brand.
Actions change, principles do not-What you do will change and evolve over time, but the core foundation (who you are) will not.
Have a consistent conversation-Top to bottom; side to side, consistently aligned with actions and thoughts.
Finally, the ultimate goal is to ensure that the customers, at all times, receive added value from your products or services; always striving to surpass expectations. Whether it is time for your company to create, reinforce, position, or reposition your brand there is great opportunity if you are willing to rise to challenge of become a brand leader.
Thanks for reading.
Are you ready to join the conversation. How do you demonstrate brand leadership in your company?
Crossroads Custom Cabinetry redefines the U.S. cabinet industry by making premium quality, custom cabinetry widely available at greatly reduced prices. Webinetry.com is a completely new portal for the way today's American consumer can research, preview, budget, and finalize their cabinet purchasing decisions. With our professional network, home improvement professionals enjoy a flow of free qualified sales leads, member pricing and innovative sales support tools that are designed to achieve an optimal selection process with the homeowner.