Dovetail. The Newsletter. The kitchen is the heart of a home. Photo supplied by Drury Design, Glen Ellyn, IL. Grabill Featured Project July 2014

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1 Photo supplied by Drury Design, Glen Ellyn, IL Grabill Featured Project July 2014 kitchen is the heart of a home. Vilas Schertz - founder Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

2 Sales Momentum In sync with our One of a Kind mantra this year, we are grateful for the hustle and bustle of the rebounding marketplace that has created a one of a kind opportunity to share best practices in the area of sales; and how we can all keep the momentum going. Our featured quoting team from the June-August has prepared a short but thorough checklist that you can use when calling on their department for quoting assistance. As times get busier for you in the field, our team is here to help you tackle the quoting workload. We ve interviewed an interesting cross section of dealers that represent the spectrum of just getting started with Grabill to have been selling Grabill for a long time. We hope their best practices and lessons learned are helpful to you. Finally, we re excited to announce a new social media driven referral development program we call Grabill for Life. Beginning in September we ll be including printed materials inside of every kitchen sink cabinet that shows homeowners how to win a prepaid party card and how to share their favorite recipe. goal? Social media reach and referrals! It s just one way we want to help keep the momentum going. Thank you for being a part of the Grabill family. We greatly appreciate our One of a Kind relationship with you. Martin Heiny President David Carnahan Vice President and General Manager 2 Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

3 Marketing Tips for Dealers Two Grabill dealers share what works for them Recently we talked to a couple of Grabill dealers about a few keys to their success in selling cabinets in general, and Grabill cabinets in particular. Edan Dayan of Botello Home Center in Mashpeee, Mass., and Neil Maday of Greenwood Cabinets & Stone, Littleton, Colo., have both been in the cabinet business as proprietors and designers for a number of years. y gave us these thoughts. 1 If you re selling semi-custom, you could be selling Grabill custom as well. Edan notes that for inexperienced buyers looking for a mid-range, semi-custom price point, there are things you can do that makes Grabill a viable and much more satisfying option. If buyers have any eye for detail, or some magazine photo or particular vision of what they want, it s good to first of all dispel the myth that custom is completely out of their price range. You can note that Grabill has a variety of price points depending on construction method and materials. Most importantly, if semi-custom modifications are needed to achieve a buyer s vision, the additional cost of those modifications can raise the cost of semi-custom into a competitive range with Grabill. Show them Grabill s finish vs. semi-custom, note Grabill s ability to exactly match colors and other quality features. value equation will become clear: for just a little more in cost they can get a lot more in quality! 2 Stay ahead of the curve Neil mentions that one of the biggest challenges for designers is to stay up with the ever-changing trends and products available for the kitchen and bath industry. Designers need to regularly read industry websites and publications, and go to shows like KBIS. Neil likes to take in the European booths at such shows, where many trends get started. Grabill is also very in tune with what s going on and helpful in this regard. Think about what your competitors are doing and look for that distinctive design that will put you ahead of the pack. 3 Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

4 Marketing Tips for Dealers continued... 3 Don t leave money on the table For a distinctive design, it s also important to know the full capabilities of your product lines, like Grabill s, and to not be afraid to suggest (without being too pushy!), an additional accessory or interesting touch, even if it looks a bit out of the norm or the budget range. client just might buy it. Neil notes that when touch faucets came out a few years back, some of his folks didn t think they were worth mentioning. Now they sell them all the time. 4 Visit the home and follow up in a timely fashion A designer should be ready to ask questions and offer some immediate direction, and this direction is best founded on a home visit, which Neil offers for free along with a general estimate (a retainer is then employed to move ahead with more details). existing décor and furniture provide some big clues as to what will work with the client s vision. Neil noted one visit to what was a very traditional style home that nonetheless contained a lot of contemporary-looking furniture. owners told him they liked contemporary, but had been told they needed to go traditional with the kitchen to complement the house. Neil came up with a transitional design that blended both styles. And once you ve gotten the client excited about the possibilities, don t delay! Get back in a week or two or the client might lose interest or go somewhere else. Grabill = Peace of Mind As a designer, Edan also has a very personal reason for encouraging customers to buy Grabill whenever he can. With stock and semi-custom orders, you are usually working with a data entry person who doesn t know that much about cabinets. With Grabill, you re working with someone who knows cabinets, will study your plans, ask questions about them, and be a great second set of eyes to catch any problems. It s a relief, he said, to know that everything in a complicated design will be right with Grabill. 4 Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

5 Quoting Tips Although the Grabill quote team is not a product engineering group in and of itself, the quoters connect our designers to our engineering staff, helping them solve tough design challenges and answering those common and not-so-common How to questions, improving pricing accuracy up front before a design is sold to the client. Below are several helpful tips to keep in mind, should you require quoting assistance: What Grabill needs for quote requests: Style options: Box type (Benchmark or Traditional Woodline) Turn-around timing In a normal business cycle, most quote requests are processed and returned with a 48 hour timeframe. Multi-room projects and quotes with greater complexity will require additional time to process. Box construction: framed or frameless Door/drawer styles Wood specie Finish type (e.g. stain, paint, glaze, distressing, standard vs. custom) Sheen (gloss option vs. hand-rubbed) Floor plans/elevations with dimensions shown (item labels if possible) Drawing details with dimensions, showing special mods and accessories Special notes in for things not shown on drawings Grabill Connect quote number for dealerbuilt quotes receiving factory review Dealer quote review Crucial to our mutual success, we ask our designers to carefully review the quotes we provide to make sure there is an understanding of what is and what is NOT included. Reviewing Grabill style options and item lists for quotes processed is a great way to avoid disappointment after a quote is sold - our staff is happy to provide clarification on any quote we prepare so please don t hesitate to contact us. 5 Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

6 Grabill for Life Introducing the Grabill for Life Campaign Win a Party! In an effort to introduce Grabill cabinet owners to the many additional products that are available, we proudly introduce our Grabill for Life campaign. Every kitchen will be shipped with a box that includes our new Grabill for Life brochure, welcoming them to the Grabill Cabinet family along with samples of other cabinetry, architectural elements and fine furniture from Grabill. We ll even help them throw a party! y can enter for a chance to win a $250 prepaid party card complements of Grabill by visiting grabillcabinets.com/party. Also, we would love for each customer to have a wonderful collection of recipes to enjoy in their new kitchen, so with each package we are including a recipe card with instructions to visit grabillcabinets.com/recipebox and share their favorite recipe which will be featured on our Facebook page. 6 Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

7 90-Day Recap August 27th New Grabill workshop collection extols the latest design trends. If you want to see what the latest cabinet door styles and finishes that designers across the country are actually using at the moment, look no further than the new collection of transitional and contemporary cabinetry from Grabill Cabinets. Read more - July 17th Kitchen for a chef results in award-winning design. A kitchen with two islands sounds like a big kitchen. But when Janice Teague examined what her client really needed, she found that even a big kitchen could seem small. Especially if you need room enough for more than a few people at a time, while accommodating a professional chef with adequate space to spread out and do all the things a good chef does best. Read more Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014

8 Communication Schedule Thank you for reading our quarterly newsletter In addition to, we are committed to publishing a featured project and a new style/finish once per quarter. If you would like to have a featured project written about you, please submit your information at communication schedule is as follows with bulletins as necessary. October November December Featured Grabill Project Style Grabill & Finish Sawmill Road P.O. Box 40 Grabill, IN Phone: info@grabillcabinets.com 8 Grabill Cabinets September - November 2014