It was only a few days ago that I saw this headline from a piece nicely written by Roy Frost of Deceuninck: “Decision Makers Like Pretty Windows”. The piece was explaining the mental differences between men and women and the differing purchasing patterns. Turns out (according to researchers) that women tend to be the decision makers in the family, and most of the time are prepared to spend a fair bit more when they do buy those big ticket items. This will come as no surprise for some. But one of the other comments in the piece touched on colour and it’s increasing popularity. There’s no doubting it, sexiness sells!

Vanity

The conversation about what customers are looking for in windows and doors now is a subject that comes up quite often in the office now. All three of us that are involved in selling note that when it comes to covering areas like locks, hinges, thresholds etc, customers just aren’t inspired anymore. Yes it is of interest to them, but it is more a ticking of a box for them, rather than it being something to get excited about.

But as soon as we start to go through our own literature showing them some of the amazing custom doors and larger projects we have undertaken, suddenly their mood changes. The idea of having a custom built door with a colour unique to them, a glass design no one else has yet, sparks their interest so much better that us telling them about what type of cylinder they’re getting with that funky new door.

It didn’t used to be like that. When I first joined the industry just over 8 years ago, the key area of interest as security. Customers wanted to know about what type of locking mechanism they were getting, if their frames were going to be reinforced, if we used K glass and all those other riveting points. Now, you can see their eyes glaze over as we start to talk about those very same points. I am very sure they are taking it in, but they are probably points most other companies have already gone over in previous visits.

Start showing them some designer door and windows or glazed extensions on the other hand, then attitudes change.

Pretty Does Sell

I have written before that sex sells, not in the most conventional sense, but in the sense that designer doors, coloured windows, bespoke glazed extensions all grab the customer by the scruff of the wallet and scream BUY ME!

Lets look at a different scenario: phones. Phones have always had the same functions for many years. You can make calls, send texts, play on games, take pictures, browse the web etc. Very much in the same way doors and windows have always had locks, handles, glass, keeps, thresholds etc. Imagine then those main functions of a phone in 2014, but packaged inside a chunky, brick-sized handset in a cheap plastic. Would it excite you to buy it? Probably not. That’s why so many of the world’s phone companies are spending millions and millions on the designs of their handsets. Take the HTC One M8 for example…

HTC spend a great deal of time trying to create one of the nicest looking phones in the world. And they have done so, hence the reason why I bought one, and you can read the full review of it by clicking here. This phone has all the main features any other handset does, but packaged up in a stunning handset.

The same goes for the wares we sell. To a lot of people, doors and windows do what they do. They open, they close, they lock, they keep the heat in and the cold out. So what can we do to stand out from the others? It comes down to design. People are attracted to things which look good to them. The better they look, the better your door looks over your competitor, the better the chance of you securing the sale. Of course price comes into it too, but sell it well enough, you shouldn’t need to worry about that.

Luckily for us, our competitors still don’t seem to be breaking boundaries when it comes to design. A lot of our own customers tell us that the doors they see in our showroom and books they don’t see anywhere else. A lot of what they see in other places tends to be the same composite doors everyone else does or old fashioned panel designs that have been around longer than I have been alive. We pride ourselves in being able to design and deliver to the end user something completely unique to them.

So, as I’ve said before, sex sells. So go out there people and be as sexy as you can!