Inconclusive Result

Two months ago I asked the question: Do You Think The Double Glazing Industry And The Wider Economy Will Actually Recover Over the Next 3-5 Years?

The result was some what inconclusive. 10 people thought that the economy would recover. 8 thought it wouldn't, and 7 thought it would stay at this sort of level.

It's hard to come to any sort of answer after only 25 people voted, but I think it does show that people are as uncertain as ever as to what to expect from the economy. We all obviously want it to improve, but it's clear that some of us sceptical about it's recovery.

My personal opinion is that in the next two years or so we will probably suffer a short second recession cause by America's struggle to keep their recovery going. But over a 5 year span, we will be better off. We'll recover from a double-dip recession well and come out the other side stronger, leaner, more productive and much more efficient.

Double-Dip Recession

Good morning all, hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend!

The main story coming out of America just before the start of the long weekend was that it's economy seems to be grinding to a serious and dramatic halt, sparking fears of a double-dip recession. The problem is when America has problems economically, the rest of the world gets dragged down with them. Despite our economic growth figures looking quite positive, we have been warned that we don't want to grow too fast, else we also risk running out of steam too quick.

So what happens if America does go into recession? It's effects over here probably won't be noticed until after a 6 month period. During that time America's problems will have had time to create an impact in the rest of the world. So my prediction is that any effect over here won't become apparent until mid 2011. That gives us a year to plough ahead, keep economic growth coming, and try to neutralize any effect an American recession may cause.

I've Had No Training!

It may surprise some, or not at all, but since I started selling, I've not attended one single training course. Nor did I have any selling courses before I started. I was given the tuition of my Dad for a few weeks before I got out on the road, and then I was on my way.

Since starting in 2006 I have managed to increase my conversion every year. And I feel that every year my techniques, product knowledge and accumulating experience help me up that learning curve.

So do I need to go on a training course? Some of you may say yes, some no. Personally I don't think I need to. I also don't like the 'being back at school' type of environment. I left my A-Level course 1 year early for that reason!

An Industry Like No Other

After working in this industry for over four years full time, hearing what people in and out of the industry think of the double glazing world, and looking at other industries, it is clear that there is no other sector like ours.

Firstly, we have a reputation which, to be honest, is pretty poor. So, to address this issue, you would think we would all get together and do something about it. Like car manufacturers would put right faults in their parts. But no, despite all the bad press the window industry gets, still companies continue to flout customer service, badly run their businesses, and we are all still plagued by cowboys tarring the good names of the reputable companies out there. Very bewildering!

The PVCu sector is lethargic. Historically the window industry has been slow to embrace changes and new product developments. The same thing still goes on right now. Still only a third of installation companies have made the decision to fit 'C' rated windows or better. What's going to happen when October 1st arrives and the majority of companies are finding themselves non-compliant? I've struggled to find a reason why the industry is as slow as it is. Is it the people in it? Do we want to just rebel against the government's way of doing things? Both unlikely, but there are no other plausible reasons why.

The double glazing industry is a very sharp and spiteful one. There is a lot of backstabbing and bad mouthing that goes on. To the customers this only makes the company doing the mouthing bitter and shows lack of character and product quality. The sector is plagued by in-fighting and is split in all directions. While looking for a new car with my girlfriend, we noticed that the motor industry is one which is much more united. All dealers praised other dealers' cars, not hacked at them as would go on in this industry.

However, one major point I've noticed is that the people who work in double glazing absolutely love the job they are in. Many people I've talked to, or conversations I've observed, say how it's been the best industry they've worked in, and many are very passionate about their career. There are not many industries going who can boast such proud, hard working staff such as those in the window industry. And for that we should give ourselves one big huge pat on the back. Now we just need to share our common interest for our work to help unite a fractured sector.

More Pages Viewed

Since adding a couple of new features to the site, I've found that the most used and most popular has been the Top 3 Read posts feature. I can see from my analytics pages that most of the page views per day are of those top 3 most read posts, and those posts occasionally change places.

Does anybody use the Search feature on the blog? Is it of any use? Should I get rid of it? Feedback will be appreciated and if the majority find it a waste of space then it'll go!

The Theory Behind That One Difficult Customer

This one is inspired by RCG's comments on GlassTalk.

Out of 100% of customers, I'd say 99.7% of all of them are quite reasonable people. The type of people that if they find a bit of a scuff on a frame, they'll let you buff it out, and it would look like it was never there, and then never grumble. The type of people that if the rain was really coming down and the fitters were an hour late, they would just carry on their day as if it never happened.

The you have the one customer that demands everything beyond all reason. No matter how far backwards you bend, there will still be something they aren't happy with. Why? Well I think this problem stretches back decades, perhaps even a century. There was a time where everything was made by hand. The country was filled with skilled craftsmen making timber windows, stone lintels with intricate detail, tens of thousands of skilled joiners. People made everything. Then automatic machinery came in and changed the way products were made. Mass production came in and the variety, scale and lead time of everything produced sky-rocketed. As production sped things up, so customer's expectations. As people began to realise that they could access more products, quicker and cheaper, they also realised power was shifting to their side. And ever since then customers have been able to demand more and more for their hard earned cash.

This has happened so much so, that a proportion of the buying public seemed to have forgotten that despite all the advanced manufacturing techniques and processes, the odd mistake can happen, nothing is perfect. Many of the customers we deal with understand that despite the best laid plans, things can go wrong from time to time. But, we do our best to put things right and 99.7% of our customers are completely understanding. Then there's the odd one who 'just cannot live with that scratch', or 'that slightly wonky bit of silicone'.

We now live in a consumer demanding world where the consumer thinks that their money is really a ticket which allows them to demand, and as far-fetched as that may seem, it's probably about 80% right.

Poor Customer Advice

When looking for a new front door, you think it would be nice to be given some good sound advice on what to pick, and for it to last a pretty long time, say 20-25 years?

I've just had a customer in who has changed his front door 4 times in less than ten years, may well be less! He's had two timber doors, a composite, and the last was a wood grain PVCu panel door. The two timber doors he changed simply because he didn't really like them, which you can sort of understand. The composite door had to be changed after some failed DIY alterations. But the panel door was through no fault of his own.

He is having to change his current panel door due to the cracking. The company that put it in says he only has a 2 year guarantee on panels, but 10 years on frames. Strange, because I thought that most panels sold in this country had a 10 year guarantee. Obviously they didn't want to entertain the idea of replacing a panel to a door that should never have been sold to him in that design in the first place. Typical case of get the order and keep quiet.

This is the sort of salesmanship that does our industry no favours. Wood grained panelled doors should not be sold in south facing areas, simple stuff, yet companies ignore this and choose to sell the customer the door anyway, purposely not thinking of the future problems.

Rest assured the customer will be sold the right door, and should last him a lot longer than his previous installations!

Unusually Busy August

August so far has been a cracker! Literally non-stop every working day, either making new leads or signing up new contracts. But August sometimes can be a quiet month due to the school holidays and families going away for a few weeks.

So why the upturn in productivity? Well I think it's purely down to people holding back over the last couple of years until they are confident enough that things are going to improve economically, and so are now spending on their homes again.

Whether this is on a large scale or just us I don't know. But I'd like to think our new and improved websites and updated product range has a little something to do with it.

Of course there will be a time where it dies down and the traditional winter quiet time comes, so we'll make hay while the sun shines and pocket as much as we can!

The Importance Of A Good Showroom

With all the developments of products and specifications on the Internet, and with ever improving brochures and literature, the showroom is still one of the most important tools.

And it's got to be a good one. No matter how many pictures or sample windows a customer is shown, they still want to see some fitted examples in a showroom, that's what I've found.

We present our products in our showroom as they would appear fitted in a home. This gives the best chance possible for the customer to visualise in their minds what the product will look like on their property.

The showroom is also a tool you can use to confirm the sale. Bringing customers into your own environment gently puts pressure on them to leave the building having put their name on your contract.

Calling The USA!

I've recently acquired more followers on Twitter from America, and so I thought it would be nice to hear about the window and doors industry from over the pond. It would be interesting to know if there is an emphasis on energy efficiency like there is over here, if PVCu is making much of an impact in the US yet. Those sorts of things.

If your are from America, email me at: glazingblogger@googlemail.com and I'll put your message on here as a guest post.

October 1st Changes WILL Go Ahead

Some of us have thought that the proposed changes to Part L might be postponed to let the rest of the industry get their act together and get themselves ready. But, in a letter to Door-Stop International, Vince Cable has confirmed that it will go ahead on October 1st, with no postponements and no delays. The article below was taken from http://www.fenestration-news.com/:

We got this reply to our letter to Dr Cable: “Please be assured that the changes to part L of the Building Regulations are scheduled to come into operation on 1st October 2010 as previously announced. The amending regulations which enable the changes to be made have completed their passage through parliament. I hope this helps.”

The rest of the article the above was taken from was product specific to Door-Stop, so had no reason to be on here. The above was the important bit, the confirmation that there will be no hold up in the Part L changes.

So you lot who aren't ready, prepare to get shafted by your competitors who have bothered to get themselves ready for the changes, because they are going to plug this change till the cows come home to make sure the shoddy outfits out there don't steal good business away.

Price Increases For Some, Not All

One of the big topics in the industry at the moment is the need for price increases. Systems companies and manufacturers have been hit hard by rising materials costs, over-competition and market saturation.

What usually happens is installers take it on the chin and allow it to eat into their profit margin. But what happens if the installation company wasn't selling at the right margin in the first place? As a company we've always been a bit more expensive than others in our area, we believe we've been selling our products at the right price, even if they are more than others. This means that where others have had to increase their prices, we've haven't. We try to make good solid margins, and this allows to absorb certain increases in the future.

Those companies that have been undercutting to try to win business most of the time, will have to raise their prices in order to keep paying their bills. Those that were selling windows and doors at the right price in the first place should find price increases easier to absorb, and not to pass them on.

Will There Be A VAT Panic?

Come 4th January, VAT will be at 20%. But will this make a difference?

When VAT fell to 15% just before the start of 2009, the Government thought that it would give the buying public the nudge to start spending a little more. In reality we found that it made hardly any difference. All it did was make paperwork more difficult when it rose back up to 17.5%. It didn't create a surge in sales, or a spike in new appointments.

And when you turn it into numbers, and extra 2.5% less is only £25 every thousand. It's not going to make much difference on a house full of windows and doors.

So what about the 20% VAT figure. Again I don't think it will have too much of a negative impact on the buying public. Adding another £25 every thousand isn't going to put Mr & Mrs Smith buying that big item, be it holidays, new windows or a new car. What I do think will happen is it will bring the Yorkshire out of everyone. No one likes parting with any more money than they have to. There could be a bit of a rush before the end of the year to replace people's windows and doors before the VAT rate goes up. It's only another £25, but when money is tight and everyone is being as economical with their money as they can, it's an extra bit of cash they won't want to give away.

One Hell Of A Winter

As we are all fully aware, last Winter was a hum-dinger. It was the worst for 31 years, which makes that the worst in my lifetime!

These are some of the pictures I took of the garden, main road, street where I live and other places:

It's pictures like these that we should be using to emphasise the advantages of our energy efficient PVCu windows. Yes it was bad, yes people couldn't get to work, deliveries couldn't be made etc. But we can use these things to our advantage. So lets hope we get another cold one this time round!

Getting Your Salespeople Motivated

Having motivated sales people on board is vital. Conservatory Girl on the GlassTalk website has voiced frustration at the lack of it, resulting in depressed conversion rates.

There are certain things that really get salespeople into that much needed groove. Firstly, commission only sales reps, I think, work the hardest. They have to put the extra effort in every time, knowing that if they don't they could lose out on a sale, and possible their only wage for the week. Those on a basic can become a little lax, knowing that even if they don't get every sale, they are still going to earn.

One thing to note is that sales people are vein (and that includes me!). They like nothing more than to come top of the pile at the end of the week. They also hate it when they come last. Internal competition is good for business. Publish the sales figures at the end of every week. Show who's come first and who's come last. We do, and we all have some good banter from it, but it also drives us to do the best we can. We also compare conversion rates. Again we always want to have the best conversion rate for the week or month.

Don't overload sales reps with distance and appointments. It's OK covering a wide radius, but trying to cram in 2-3 appointments a day while driving 250 miles is hard mentally. The driving is tedious. The long drives take your mind off the up coming appointment, which means when he/she isn't in the right frame of mind. Do that 2-3 times a day and leads won't be worked to their potential.

Call leads back. Ask the client questions about the call. Was he/she on time? Did you understand everything the sales rep explained. Etc. If you start to get negative feedback you know where you need to improve, if it's positive you know the sales people are doing their jobs right. It also puts pressure on them. The last thing they want is a follow up call to reveal that they had just played at the lead and couldn't really be bothered.

Those are just a few, but some of the main ways to try to get sales people in the mood to sell. Try them, but don't blame me if they don't work! If they don't, you probably need to get rid of the sales rep!

Watch This!

This has nothing to do with windows, but is pretty impressive non the less:



Barack Obama met 130 people, and kept the same smile going!

5 Window Ideas That Won't Make It To Market

1. Candy pink windows and doors - ideal for the plastic, vein, wag-wannabe's out there!
2. Methane filled sealed units - just like the smell they put in gas, you'll know when the unit has failed!
3. Bio-degradable window frames - will ensure future business for window companies!
4. Super-high thresholds - just in case that burglar manages to get in the door, that super-high plastic threshold should stop him in his tracks!
5. Face-prints on glass - why not idolise yourself by getting your face printed on the sealed units!

Excellent ideas, no?

Powering Trucks

There are two things that are important to the window industry at the moment. The first is transport, more specifically the HGV's and LGV's that transport all the materials and frames to installers and manufacturers. The second is fuel costs.

Those who read regularly will know I'm big on anything environmentally responsible, so anyway to save on fuel will be of great interest to me. What is of interest is all the alternative fuels being developed for cars to run on. I saw a BBC report on human made Methane fuel. There is also Hydrogen fuel cells, LPG and electric is a big one. What needs to happen is the car world needs to decide what type of renewable fuel they are going to settle on, when this happens, then real progress will be made.

Once they have developed the new fuel, the new systems can be rolled out onto car production lines hopefully sometime in the near future. This all begs the next question: what about transport vehicles? Vans not being as big as lorries may not be that hard to reasonably adapt an alternative fuel source with enough power. But could the boffins produce enough power out of an electric powered engine for example? HGV's and LGV's being as big as they are need a much bigger and more powerful engine than a car to get them going. 

My feeling at the moment is that this could be quite far away, bearing in mind that there is still no mass production line rolling out cars with an alternative fuel source. So if your a truck driver, looks like you will still be filling up with diesel for some time to come.

Think Positive!

I must say that I've been feeling very positive over the last few weeks. I really feel things may have turned a corner in terms of trading conditions. Leads have been really healthy (apart from during the World Cup!), sales have been good - I got me an 83% conversion rate last week!

One thing that I've also done a lot of this year to get extra business in is going on site while we are fitting jobs to measure up for other things. You'll be surprised how many customers let me quote for extras they wouldn't have even considered before I turned up. It's good PR and it works!

This time two years ago everyone was extremely down in the dumps about the industry. And with the way things were you could understand it. But now I really feel that we could be on the up. We've taken steps ourselves as a company to make sure we move in a forward direction. We may be an isolated case and the same may not be able to be said for others, but hopefully others out there are finding things better.

Let's keep it positive!

Valueable Window Websites

After stumbling on the http://www.biznut.co.uk/ valuating website, the novelty of it has completely taken me over! So,I thought I'd rank the national window companies based on their website's value, bit sad, but like I've said, the novelty of it is too much!

1. www.everest.co.uk: £87,998.72

2. www.anglianhome.co.uk: £72,106.85
3. www.safetstyle-windows.co.uk: £40,483.05
4. www.conservatoryoutlet.co.uk: £37,134.24

5. www.weatherseal.co.uk: £12,911.08

Everest comes top of the pile, while Weatherseal come 5th. But in the grand scheme of things coming in the top five isn't that bad. There are probably other window websites out there worth more than these.

What's Your Site Worth?

@Zerochamp tweeted about his blog's value an how much it is worth, using this site: http://www.biznut.co.uk/.

You simply enter your website address in the bar, click return and you get a valuation on your site. Naturally I plugged mine in and it told me my site was worth a cool £3235! Nice!

Then I started to get creative. WYW was worth £13,925. Coral Windows was £5268. Everest was £87,999. Google's website alone was worth £4.47billion!

As well as telling you the value of the site, it tells your where you are ranked in the country, and the world, how many daily visitors and page views. The information probably isn't the most accurate, but I bet it's not too far off.

Green Deal Instead Of Scrappage Scheme

The petition for a windows scrappage scheme has come to an end, with the Government posting this response:

The Government agrees that energy efficiency has an important part to play if we are to achieve our carbon reduction targets. The benefits of energy efficiency for households are clear: saving money on energy bills, reducing reliance on imported energy and helping householders reduce their carbon emissions.

However given the high cost of replacement windows (typically £5,000 to £10,000 for a small home), the marginal improvement in performance, particularly when replacing like-for-like double glazed windows; and given that band C windows will be the minimum standard permitted by building regulations from October 2010, a window scrappage scheme is unlikely to be cost effective on energy efficiency and carbon savings grounds.

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from energy efficiency measures and the energy bill savings they can bring. However, we also recognise that the cost to retrofit homes can be substantial – our ‘Green Deal’ will allow consumers to fund the upfront cost out of energy bill savings. It is expected that double glazing will be one of the measures that can be installed under the Green Deal.

So what is the 'Green Deal'? The idea is that homeowners will be entitled to up to £6500 to put towards home improvement in order to reduce energy bills. The money saved on energy bills will be put towards repayments, but with the homeowner still making a saving. Also, if that person was to move, the new owner of the property will be responsible for the rest of the repayments.

I can see the point made about the cost effectiveness of replacing windows. However they've said they would expect to include replacement windows in the Green Deal which is positive. Hopefully this will continue to provide the double glazing industry with more opportunities in which to gain a stronger foothold in an economic recovery.

Just A Couple Of Things

I have three reactions boxes below each post: 'worth the read', 'interesting', and 'questionable'. Except someone was abusing the 'questionable' box! Naturally, I thought this wasn't good enough, so I have changed to box to 'buy DGB a drink!' Though I have a feeling that it won't be ticked as much as the previous incarnation.

We also have a half confession from Kenny Muir indicating he was the serial box ticker on the GlassTalk site, however he later retracted his indicative confession. Unfortunately this will stick with him until somebody else comes forward lol!

Also, I aim for this blog to become as widespread and as popular as it can be. At the moment I'm averaging 1100 visits per month, RCG's blog is averaging 11,000 per month. Something has to be done about this! The site will eventually move away from the blogspot format, but until that happens, could you all please pass on this address to others where this blog might be of interest. Pass the word on and lets see if we can up the visitor numbers!

Replacement PVCu Market Booms

If you were to take a look in our yard you'll see a small mound of old timber frames waiting to be recycled, and next to it a mountain of PVCu about 25 times the size, again waiting to be taken away to be recycled.

The replacement PVCu market is one which seems to be out-performing everything else. Back when I was born the industry focused on cheaply made, poorly installed windows and doors, and now is the time when their lifetime has come to an end and they need replacing.

21 years on the quality of the products have improved such a great deal, giving companies a solid platform from which to sell their new and improved products. What should be mentioned however, is because of the improvements, these windows and doors are going to last a fair while longer. So long-term, the 3rd generation PVCu replacement market is going to be a way off. But that's very long term. We need to focus on the short to medium. The current wave of replacements is going to be long lived, there is a lot to replace and this is going to take time, which is just the sort of thing the industry needs, a long and sustained new source of income. It's also going to vast. A lot of crap was fitted years ago, up and down the country.

The business is there to be had, position yourself to sell well and the rewards should be substantial.

A Couple Of New Features

I thought it was time to add a couple of new things to the blog you all might find useful.

The first is the new search box. If you want to find something I've written about, or go back to a post but can't find it, type in a keyword and a seperate box will appear above the current post to list your results in.

The second new little feature is the 'Top 3' section underneath. Like the BBC have their most read and most shared section, I thought I might add my own, just to show others what the rest of you are reading the most.

Let me know if you find these useful or not. I'll run them for a while, if you don't like them, tell me and I'll remove them.

Month In Review: July

July was a great month for us, second best o the year so far, and a marked improvement from the last few months. More appointments were made, helped in part by the launch of our new website. Sales were up on the last few months. In fact, comparing the Jan-July period of 2009 and this year, sales are up 36%, which I don't think is bad when the economic outlook still remains so gloomy.

The general buzz about the place was also evident. When a company is busy, there seems to be a buzz which exists. Phones are busy, people are busy moving about the building. There is constant conversations and negotiations. When there is that sort of atmosphere, and it's constant, then you know things are going right for you.

Hopefully we can keep the momentum going into August and push that 36% past the 40% barrier.