Selling Hardware to Designers: Strategies for Decorative Hardware and Plumbing Dealers

The interior design industry is a dynamic and growing market that presents numerous opportunities for decorative hardware and plumbing dealers. To effectively target this market, it is crucial to understand its key characteristics, challenges, and submarkets. This article provides a deep dive into the industry and offers actionable strategies to help dealers better address the needs of interior designers.

Overview of the Interior Design Market

Interior design firms fall into two predominant categories: non-residential (54.8% of the market) and residential (45.2% of the market). The residential portion of the market can be further divided into two categories: firms with more than one employee and independent designers, which make up a majority of the residential market. We will address each of these markets in turn.

Commercial Interior Designers

In this article, we will not address commercial interior designers because commercial designers often purchase directly from the manufacturer.

Residential Interior Designers

Residential interior designers can be subdivided into two categories: interior design firms and independent designers. We distinguish between the two markets because they have different business models. By separating them into two categories, a dealer can target each market better.

Design Firms

Interior design firms primarily service residential customers and have multiple projects a year. Their structure will be one or more principal designers, with a few assistant designers for each principal designer. Larger firms will have a purchasing agent and other employees serving different functions. As a company that has payroll (unlike many independent designers), firms require a constant stream of work. Thus, this market is very lucrative for a hardware dealer because of the constant stream of purchasing.

Independent Designers

Independent designers make up the majority of the interior designer market. They have only one person in the company and do a few local design projects per year. As one-party companies, they do not have the technologies or sophistication that larger design firms use.

How Designers Find New Clients

Understanding where designers find their clientele can inform a dealer of how designers spend their time and where a dealer can add the most value to their designer clients. Designers find new clientele through word of mouth (60% of their clientele), networking (53%), and social media (24%) (respondents often select multiple responses, thus exceeding 100%). See Schumacher & Statista U.S. Interior Design Monitor 2021; July 14 to August 3, 2021.

Use Designer Referrals to Sell to More Designers

Of the word-of-mouth segment, designers self-reported that those referrals came through current and former clients, contractors, architects, and other designers. This referral system presents a great opportunity for dealers. Having a healthy referral culture indicates that designers use referrals and give referrals to do business.

The following story shared with us by an independent designer we recently interviewed. It illustrates how referrals can harm and help a dealers business. We asked them whether they shop at the closest hardware dealer for their projects.

No. I usually buy from build.com. I tried using the [local dealer], but I don't do enough volume. It's really hard to get a hold of them. I know competitors who use [local dealer] and love them, but for me it's too much of a hassle.

That local supplier not only has lost out on that designer's business but also on the business of the designer's network. The healthy referral culture in the designer industry has hurt the local dealer because the small designer wasn't prioritized. On the other hand, if the designer was prioritized, they would send projects, contractors, and others to that supplier.

We have seen that the biggest challenge dealers face with prioritizing even smaller clients is that they do not have enough time. To help with this, take a look at the dozens of tools we have built to help save time so you can prioritize all customers.

Use Social Media to Sell More to Designers

Interior designers who find new clients through social media primarily use Instagram (87%), Facebook (55%), and Pinterest (42%). Designers using social media to find new clients means that they are also frequently on social media and that social media is a great place for designers to find you. However, one of the challenges that dealers face is creating engaging social media posts. We recommend that instead of posting about a hardware sale a dealer is having, post about a project one of the dealer’s designer customers has done with the dealer’s products. By collaborating with a local designer, a dealer not only strengthens their relationship with that designer but, more importantly, creates engaging and shareable social media posts.

Collaborating with a local designer does not require that the designer gets a big discount or any special treatment because the collaboration increases the credibility of the designer and enhances their exposure as well. This tactic will also help you gain new clients because when designers look for inspiration, 42% of the time they look to social media and other designers. Collaborating with your customers to build your social media presence will not only increase that customer’s loyalty but also generate new business with designers. After reading this article, take a look at the social media integrations we have built out to help you make more sales and save time.

Summary

We want to understand how designers find new clientele because it informs us of how they are spending their time and where we can create the most value for them. By valuing independent designers, a dealer earns the independent designer's loyalty and the business of those in the designer's network. Building a healthy social media presence can help you grow your business by strengthening relationships with clients and offer inspiration to other designers and new customers.

Challenges Designers Face

Understanding the challenges that designers face informs us of where a dealer can assist them in their jobs and thus increase the designer’s loyalty to the dealer. Interior designers reported that their biggest challenges are managing client expectations about budget and timing.

In a recent interview with an independent interior designer, they said that one of their biggest challenges when purchasing hardware occurs when they take a homeowner to a showroom. When they go to the showroom, the homeowner wants to know how much everything is going to cost, but because the showroom does not have any prices on display the homeowner discovers the price a few days after leaving the showroom. At that time, they often realize they are over budget and have to either choose another product without returning to the showroom, or occupy the designer’s time by returning to the showroom. Having a system where an interior designer could bring a homeowner to the showroom and immediately know the price of all the products would greatly alleviate the designer’s frustration and manage their customers’ expectations of the price of the hardware they are buying.

During that interview, the designer also mentioned that the lack of transparency when working with hardware dealers strains the designer's relationship with their client. They explained it like this:

Before I take on the job, I give the customer a bid for how much the hardware is going to cost. Let’s say that the budget for hardware is $10,000. After we go to the showroom and the company sends me my pricing, I’ll usually add a markup to the hardware and then send it to the client to get approval. There are times where the hardware is going to cost me $9,000, and with my markup, it will exceed the customer’s $10,000 budget. So, when I send it to the client, I don’t add my full markup, but instead I add $1,000. To the client, it looks like I inflated all the product prices to reach their budget when I actually decreased the prices. After that, the client loses a little trust in me.

Having a system where the homeowner can immediately know the price of all the products would reduce this challenge for designers because it would decrease the appearance of taking advantage of the homeowner.

Take a look at the showroom software we built to facilitate designers bringing in customers.

Understanding designers’ biggest challenges can give a dealer a competitive advantage over online suppliers, local competitors, and manufacturers.

How a Designer Chooses a Supplier

When looking for a new supplier, designers primarily rely on referrals (71%), local showrooms (56%), and company websites (50%). See Schumacher & Statista U.S. Interior Design Monitor 2021; July 14 to August 3, 2021. As was addressed in the Attracting Customers section, a dealer can leverage referrals by valuing smaller designers. As addressed in the Challenges section, a dealer can make the showroom experience better by making end homeowner pricing available at the showroom. That brings us to a company website.

Half of the interior designers in a dealer’s area choose a supplier by their website. Having an up-to-date website that adds value to customers is a challenge. With so many things to manage in the company, ensuring that contact information, products, and other attributes of a website are accurate and up to date is very difficult. However, if a dealer uses an ERP system where the website is fully integrated into the other software they use, then keeping the site up to date will happen automatically. There are a few software options on the market that already do this, but take a look at how you can use our software as your CRM, inventory management, invoicing, and order-tracking solutions.

What Designers Look for in a Supplier

As manufacturers increasingly sell directly to designers, understanding what designers look for in a supplier has never been more important. According to surveys conducted by Statista, designers value good customer service and product quality from a supplier. There are a few ways a dealer can offer great customer service:

1. Use a software system that groups orders by jobs.
   For larger customers that do multiple projects per year, having a system where they can see all the products they have ordered for a specific project—while still separating orders by location—makes the designer’s life easier because they don’t have to keep track of all that information. Your software does it for you.
2. Don’t ship directly to the customer from the manufacturer.
   Have manufacturers ship to the dealer where you inspect the product, group the product by location (bathroom hardware, kitchen hardware, basement guest bathroom, etc.), and assemble any products that need it. Initially, the dealer may incur an additional cost, but they can adjust their prices to compensate. Designers say that price is one of their smallest concerns.
3. Keep your customers up-to-date.
   After the pandemic, most designers experienced delays in product delivery. They were harmed by these delays and now are more conscientious of when products are arriving. A dealer should preemptively inform their customers when their products are going to arrive instead of waiting for their customer to call and inquire about the order. This can be done with order-tracking software.

Through prioritizing customer service, product quality, and reliability, your interior designer customers are unlikely to switch to another company. Take a look at the tools we built out to address each of these concerns.

Summary

The interior design market offers substantial opportunities for decorative hardware and plumbing dealers. By understanding the nuances of the market—whether targeting independent designers or design firms—and addressing the challenges they face, you can create a lasting relationship with your customers. Prioritizing customer service, leveraging referrals, maintaining a strong social media presence, and using effective software tools can set you apart from competitors and help you grow your business in this dynamic market. Schedule a demo with us today to learn how decorative hardware technologies can address each point in this article and help you grow your interior designer market.