Is Sales Still A Male Dominated World?

A report out today has said that at the current rate of pay, it is going to take about 98 years for women managers to catch men up for them to have equal pay.


So this whole gender issue got me thinking about our own industry and the role women play, especially in sales.


The majority of sales people I've come across working in this industry have mostly been men. In fact all the sales people that have worked where I do have been male. Not through choice of the business, but only because it has only ever been men that have applied for jobs. I pose the question then: do we need more women in sales in this industry?


Would women be able to improve the image of the industry? I've always been of the perception that men have always been quite aggressive in the way they go about their work. And the industry does still have the image of a stuffy, old fashioned, middle-aged men controlled sector. Maybe more women sales people with a less aggressive approach might help to shake off that smokey old image.


Women are certainly capable of doing the job. Which brings me on to the issue of pay. There should be no reason why the pay for women should be any less than men. Same amount of work, same amount of pay - simple!


In a general context, there shouldn't be such a large gap in pay between men and women. We're living in a modern age, everyone should be paid in the same manner, and based on the work they do and how well they do it. Though as a parting shot to women tennis players. If you want to be paid the same as men in Grand Slams, play the same amount of sets! I would fully expect the men to be paid less if they played less sets than the women.

What To Write About When You're Stuck For Ideas

This happens to me once every so often. I exhaust my idea pool and then start to run low. So it's at these points where I like to throw open the stage and ask if anyone would like to make their own contribution to the site.


I have one person who's said they would write a guest post, and I'm hoping that a couple of you out there might wish to write one as well.


If you do, contact me on glazingblogger@googlemail.com

A Challenge

I really have got the bit between my teeth on this issue, but it bugs me so I'm going to carry on talking about it.


I'm proposing a challenge: I'm asking those reps/companies who are currently signing up their contracts with little or no profit to come on here and explain why. I would like you to explain why, in a time of rising costs, you insist on bleeding your quotes dry of profit, to try and win the order? I know this has been going on for a good 18 months to two years, surely some of you are on the brink of collapse? Do you realize you have employees that rely on the business surviving so they can earn an income?


There are a lot of competitors of mine which are selling their wares for absolutely bugger all. Those who know who I am, know exactly who I'm talking about. This is your platform to come on here and respond to what I've said - if you're really bothered about the people you employ and the businesses you're supposed to be running responsibly.


It's time to earn money, not become a 'not for profit' organisation!

Nationals Still Misleading Customers

I read a 3 day old thread on http://double-glazing-forum.com/topics.aspx?ID=434 in which a customer explains that a national company told him that the other two local companies couldn't possibly have A rated windows as only they (Anglian) and Everest are the only ones who have that rating.


After years of energy rated windows being very widely available, and at the A rated standard, it surprises me that sales reps are still spouting this sort of rubbish. I say sales reps because it may not be company policy to use false information like that during a sales demo. But if there are elements of the company saying such things, then this needs to be seen as a wake up call and to right such a laughable wrong!


If we're trying to improve the reputation of the industry, we need to start being genuine with the general public. These sorts of lies and distortions only serve to confuse potential customers, alienating them, giving them a more negative view of our profession.


And before anyone starts to think I'm being hypocritical by mentioning national companies even though their ads might pop up next to this post, well I'm not. The ads are randomly generated by Google, not placed by me. And I won't change the way I write. If there's crap practices to be aired, then I will carry on doing so.

Yale In Cahoots With Door Stop?

A couple of comments have been made over the past couple of days on Twitter about this, but I must say I have known about this issue for about a year, but didn't want to say anything until now. 


Yale have their own composite door website in which prospective customers can go design their own door in great deal, and order for it to be fitted by Yaledoor fitting teams. All this would be fine, if it wasn't Door Stop in Yale's clothing! Thousands of companies buy door slabs and ready to fit doors from Door-Stop at good rates. The last thing any of us need is a company the size of Yale to muddy the waters. I have had a customer in the past use them versus us, annoyed me a little bit. To make the waters even murkier and more confusing, Yale have just carried out a massive advertising campaign with various companies to help push their new Keyfree door handles on Door-Stop's composite doors.


So are Yale here to help? Or are they just treading on other company's toes? Well I'm of the latter opinion. Trading is hard enough as it is, we don't need Yale making that task even harder. And by all accounts, they're cheaper than some companies in the south of the country, which I'm sure isn't going down well.


Would be nice to get some comment from either Yale or Door-Stop on this matter. But personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the Yaledoor website disappearing!

I'm Adding A Few Ads

I've been toying with the idea of putting adverts on my site for a while now. The traffic to my site has been steadily building over the last few months, and with me being lucky enough to be writing in a couple of magazines now, I would like to think that traffic will improve further through being in the magazines. 


I've asked the question on Twitter before about whether I should put adverts up, a few said no. But when there is an opportunity to make a little extra cash out of something I've put a lot of effort into, I don't see the harm.


The adverts are of course going to be related to what this blog is about. I'm also going to make sure that they are placed in and around the site in a way which doesn't detract from my articles and postings. There's nothing worse than going on to a blog which has loads of ads and makes it hard to read the main body of text.


I'm thinking of only putting three adverts up at the moment. Nothing massive in size, but big enough to have the desired impact and something that people will notice and click on. If the adverts don't work for me, or I find that traffic drops and I get negative feedback, then I will take the adverts down. For now this is a sort of experiment, but if it works, it will stay in place.


You should be seeing the adverts later on tonight, once I have got to grips with Google Adsense!

Green Deal Bad For The Industry?

I heard an interesting comment during a meeting with one of our suppliers last week, in which it was mentioned that if the general public find out that windows are set to be included in the Green Deal, people may wait until the deal is in place.


The obvious problem being here that the Green Deal isn't set to roll out until October 2012 by all accounts. I know I'm risking this sort of information getting out to the public, but I'm using the excuse that not many of the general public will read this!


The industry has been campaigning for replacement windows and doors to be included in the new scheme. But we may have overlooked one or two issues. The first is the potential for the general public to wait until they can access the Green Deal, as I've explained. But also, the introduction of massive companies, such as Tesco, who have up to now nothing to do with double glazing, are now looking to take advantage of the major possibilities that the Green Deal could provide.


We don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot, but there is a chance that we already have. My hope is that when the Green Deal is introduced it will allow for the new business generated to be spread evenly throughout the industry, rather than in just pockets and to the biggest businesses. However, as with other similar schemes, the giant companies always seem to make the most money.

Wrong Time For Triple Glazing

At a time when living costs are rising at an alarming rate, raw material costs have never been so high and when peoples spending power has been severely reduced, has triple glazing arrived in the market at the wrong time?


The benefits are obvious, they achieve a U-value that current A rated double glazed windows can't do at the moment. But there will obviously be a price different between the double and triple glazed options, and this may be hard to push. Given the choice between a very good A rated double glazed window and a triple glazed one, it may be difficult to justify to the customer why they need to spend more on shaving off a few fractions from the U-value.


And just a point on the new triple glazing website using super heroes as a way to promote the product. I can understand the novelty of the idea, but personally I wouldn't have used something which does seem a little gimmicky to push what is a very new and high end product. I would have gone down the luxury and high end road, but that's just my opinion.


I still think that the energy efficiency of standard double glazed windows will improve further, and if this is the case, this will add to the argument of not paying more for an extra pane of glass just to slice of a bit more for the U-value.


Don't get me wrong, I do think the idea of the triple glazing is one that will work for the industry, just maybe not now when people's purses are squeezed tighter than ever.

Riots Poison The Streets

I had toyed with a couple of openings to this post, but neither of them could sum up the utter disgust and revulsion that I felt at the sheer lawlessness that has been going on around the country over the last few days. 

The transformation of the peaceful protest at the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, to the extreme violence and disorder we are seeing now is abhorrent. Rioters and anarchists used this as an excuse to run amok in the country's cities. This trouble has reached a point where no reason is valid or justified.


The distressing thing about all this is that people's homes, businesses and lives were being directly targeted by these youths - absolutely no regard for other people. At a time when the economy is very ill, when people cannot afford for their businesses to be shut for one day, this is the worst scenario for them to be facing right now.

What I'm struggling to comprehend is how little the police seem to be able to do against these scum bags. We have water cannons, tear gas, rubber and plastic bullets, why the hell aren't we using them! Any other country would have done by now! I know we're supporting the Arab uprising, but that's because they're fighting for democracy, we're already there! So no comments calling me a hypocrite please!


One trend that has come about through these trouble are the rumours that are started on the social networking sites. Many are proven to be untrue, but there is a danger that rumours could develop into actual trouble, given how volatile the country is right now. It's best just to listen to what is being confirmed on the news channels.

We can only hope, pray and shout out against these thoughtless acts of violence, and that they end soon. We must support the police in their action against these thugs. I know we often complain about them, but they are doing a very brave job right now, trying to restore calm to many major cities in the UK, putting their lives in danger so ours are protected.

Global Recession No 2?

I know this is going to sound like a negative post, but I don't think I can just skip over the subject as if it's not happening.


Worries about European and American debt has caused the financial markets to sell off their shares in a manner not seen since the financial crisis 3 years ago. Markets are spooked by the fear that governments won't be able to pay off their debts and that the measures they are taking to reduce their budget deficits aren't far reaching enough.


The biggest European risks at the moment are Spain and Italy. Today the ECB announced that they would start buying up Spanish and Italian debt to try to ease the worries in the markets, but all Asian markets closed sharply down, and at the time of writing the FTSE 100 is down 1.5%. Last week alone the FTSE lost over $262 billion - that's about the same as our whole budget deficit in sterling!


So what is the going to mean for the spending public? Well this crisis is different to the last one in the fact that governments are struggling with their debts and not the banks, so immediate liquidity problems shouldn't be a problem. However, if a country was to default on it's debts, banks with money locked into those government would then start to take hits. It's then when we could start to see banks coming under the strain again.


The big worry from our point of view is how much media coverage this story is getting. The big headlines and 24 hour analysis isn't going to inspire the public to go out and buy a house full of windows and doors. I know some of you are going to think I'm being hypocritical for writing this post, but as I've said before, this site gets nowhere near the coverage the news channels do, so won't really cause that much harm. 


There is a potential for this crisis to be as bad as the one in 2008. At the moment the markets are very volatile, full of knee-jerk reactions because of the potential unknowns. Those buying and selling just need to keep their heads. Over reactions could cause this situation to become unnecessarily worse, plunging the world into another recession.  

£80 For A FENSA Certificate? Really?!

I really could name names on this one. But I fear that if I do, I'm going to start to receive threats, so I'm not going to.


However, what I will say is that those who work within the West Yorkshire area will know who this company is. This particular company has reportedly been telling their customers that a FENSA certificate will cost them £80!


We don't charge customers a single penny for their certificates and I'm sure many others of you don't. So why is it that this particular company thinks £80 per certificate is OK? 


Personally for a company to so openly charge for such a menial think I think is disgusting. Or am I just being a bit over sensitive to this? Am I in my own little bubble and does everyone charge for certificates?


What I would like to add at this point is that this information has come to me via various customers telling me pretty much the same thing. If only one customer had told me then I probably wouldn't have said anything. But when you start to get more than one telling you the same thing, then it's clear that there's something more substantial to the story.


If there are members of staff working for this company that read this, you know who you are. I ask that if you can, leave a response on here to justify why you carry out such a policy.


Things like this don't help to shirk off the sleazy image of the industry. I think the sector has been working hard over the last couple of years to show that it's transparent, professional and trustworthy (of sorts). So ridiculous money spinning ideas like this are only going to fight against that progress.

Top 5 Most Read Stories

I don't recall doing anything like this before, and to be honest I can't believe I haven't done so already. Here are my top five most read stories since this blog came to exist:


1. The VEKA buyout of the Bowater group.


2. Tackling The Trickle Vent Issue.


3. Anglian Up For Sale.


4. Expensive External Georgian Bar?


5. DGCOS Debate.

For those who are new to this site, please do take a look at these posts. These are what have given this site the most comments and the most traffic. So must be worth some sort of read!

Month In Review: July

Well, it looks like the buying public seemed to wake up over the last 31 days!


I'm happy to report that July saw a rise in all areas. Sales were up on May and June. Leads were also up on the last two months. There was a better general buzz about the industry I thought throughout this month. Maybe that was just round here, other would have to let us all know what it was like round their local areas.


What is clear to see is that there isn't a regular pattern to the industry anymore. October onwards used to be absolutely dead, by Christmas and January it wasn't worth turning the lights on. But over the past few years we have happened to have some stunning Januaries and Februaries. The typical pattern of busy during the summer and dead during winter has been blown completely to shreds now. One wonders if it will ever return to that, if it's just the turbulent economy that has shattered any standard industrial pattern?


As always, it's nice to know how you have all been doing. And please be honest, if you're doing good then great, if you're not then say so, no one's judging, just trying to get a clearer picture of the industry out there.

What's Going On With Glasstalk?

When I say Glasstalk, I mean the website, not the networking event.


When the site first launched the debate raged on there. There was good banter, reasoned debate. Yes it did get a bit hairy at times, but that was to be expected as there were plenty of competitors on there speaking to each other.


But over the last couple of months the site seems to be really stagnant at the minute. The odd status provokes the odd few responses, but other than that the debate and conversation seems to have just died.


I've been trying to put my finger on it, trying to figure out why such a busy site has become so lifeless. Maybe it was the novelty of having an industry related forum that had people going there for the first few months. The sheen might have worn a bit thin now and people just might be a bit bored.


The other theory I was thinking about was that maybe double glazing isn't interesting enough to be able to sustain a forum. Take music forums for example. New singles, albums and bands are making waves everyday, ensuring the debate is continued constantly. In the world of double glazing news worthy issues come along only on a monthly basis. Despite how much attention the Veka/Halo story got, that didn't even span a month. Perhaps our industry just isn't interesting enough. 


I know what I would be thinking as an advertiser on the site. I'd be pretty annoyed to think that I've paid good money to put my ads on the side banner of the Glasstalk site, then to see very little or no activity on the site, meaning no-one is clicking on them or even seeing them. Massive waste of money!


So how would you rejuvenate the Glasstalk website? To be honest I'm not quite sure. The whole point of a forum is for people to talk. But of people can't be bothered to talk on there, there is very little anyone can do about it. It would be a shame to see the site go as the industry lacks a genuine forum site in which the issues of the day can be discussed on an equal platform. But with the current lack of interest, I just can't see it being online for much longer. The owners of the site won't want to put money into a site which isn't delivering the goods. 


Ideas and comments very much welcome on this one!