garage door industry ARTICLE LIBRARY

Many things have changed since Dan joined the garage door business in 1978. There has been much progress made and numerous innovations in our industry, overwhelmingly for the better. However, some critically important aspects of sales success have remained the same. In this article, Dan takes a look at the evolution of products and highlights sales basics that are unchanged.

So you've grown your business to the point where you need to add more sales people. Great. All you need to do is find a way to clone yourself, right? I mean, since most garage door company owners had to become accomplished sales people in order to succeed in their business, you just need to hire sales people that know what you know about selling. That's easier said than done. No, building and managing a successful sales team takes time, patience and resources. However when it's done well the dividends to your company can be huge.

What’s the best way to compensate outside sales people? My door dealer clients ask me this question a lot. There are many variables that come into play, but ultimately you have to decide what’s best for you. Straight salary? Commission? Commission plus? No matter how your plan is structured, sales compensation must be tied to sales performance.

Entire generations of workers have been trained to work with computers rather than with power tools. The notion of getting your hands dirty at work became uncool to upcoming generations of learners, reinforced by expectations that our kids go to college to become doctors, lawyers or other white collar professions. Check out this article for our experience with hiring and the training program he started.

In Part One of this article in the last issue of ID&OI, Dan discussed the Who, What and When of developing an in-house training program for door dealers. In Part Two, we'll examine the where and how.

In 2023, Apple Door Systems celebrated their 50th anniversary in the garage door industry. A door dealer does not reach this milestone without hard work, the right skills, talented employees, and a large amount of good luck. In this article, we walk you through the evolution of such a garage door dealer.

Want to get a better handle on your company's profit's? Read Sandy Apple's article in the June 2015 issue of IDA's magazine.

What are you doing about improving profits? Those answers do not pop out quickly, and, more times than not, the perception is that increasing profits is a slow and difficult task. Maybe for some, but it doesn’t have to be. This article is the first in a series about five ways to boost your profits overnight.

In part one,  we considered #1 on the list: raising your prices. We hope you did that as soon as you finished reading the article! Now let's consider #2 on the list: reducing your cost of sales.

Boost profits overnight? Really? If you have been reading this series of articles, what we're suggesting is that you can improve your products expeditiously and it does not have to take years. The key is aggressive, managerial action on your part with the daily support of your sales team. Each of these five things we are proposing can help significantly. Some can happen almost overnight, while others will take a little time to develop. That leads us right into #3 on the list: change your product mix.

If you are reading this series of articles on boosting your profits, perhaps you tried one or more of the first three strategies we suggested. Have you raised your prices? Reduced your cost of sales? Maybe changed your product mix? If the answer is yes to any of these, we trust your profits are all the better for it. If you have not done any of these, what are you waiting for? In this issue we will discuss the fourth way to boost profits by pumping up your sales volume. While it is a cliché, it’s a fact that selling is a numbers game, plain and simple.

Don’t you hate articles that are chopped up into installments? We all just want to zip on through to the end. Well you have arrived. If you have read the other four segments of this five part series, thanks for hanging in there. This is the final installment in this series and we trust by now you have implemented some of these ideas and that your business’ profits have increased. That brings us to the last way we are proposing that you boost profits overnight: eliminate crappy customers.

This article explains the "Goldilocks" or GOOD-BETTER-BEST as a selling strategy. When applied properly, a good-better-best sales approach can increase sales and profits.

In this article, Dan Apple discusses the importance of making a garage door dealer's website more personal. He discusses the importance of letting customers know who you are, not just what you do, and how to make the needed changes to your website for maximum impact.

In this article, Dan Apple discusses how finding and hiring new employees takes time. Understanding that recruiting people requires a bit of selling and online advertising where potential employees visit is just the beginning of to finding the successful hire. 

An excellent way to grow sales and profits is through diversifying your product line. Selling products related to garage doors gives you another reason to be in a customer's home or business. This article discussed the many benefits of product diversity.

The IDA Expo 2022 focused on employee recruitment. Important questions were raised about the correlation between having enough qualified employees and boosting your sales and profits. The speaker asked how many in the room had a marketing budget specifically for employee recruitment. You'll be shocked to learn the answer as well as what can happen when you, as a business owner, commit your resources to add sufficient staff.

As a young man serving in the Navy, Dan was fortunate enough to learn quite a bit about leading a team.  I was lucky enough to be assigned to an old salt as my supervisor.  During the time I served under his command, I learned many things. One thing he taught me, as a leader my crew should make my job easier, not harder. It took some time to embrace this leadership concept but over his career in the door business it paid big dividends.

Want to increase sales without spending a ton of money? Why not sell more to the customers you already have. The secret to this is "mining" your valuable customer database for new sales opportunities. The most successful companies find ways to stay in touch with their customers, always keeping their brand in front of them. The same customer that purchased service may be in the market for a new door and operator. Why not reach out to them instead of waiting for them to come to you? This article explains how to dig out the sales dollars that are quietly sleeping inside your computer system.

We were given report cards all through school. These reports summed up our scholastic performance by subject with a letter or number grade. Remember how important those were? We couldn't wait to show our parent the report cards with high marks and delayed as long as possible in sharing the report cards that weren't so good. What if you had just attended school by going to class, doing homework and taking tests but never received a report card? Check out this article to read more about the "Old Joe" method and how Dan explains why we need for this type of feedback in the workplace.

In Part one of this article Dan discussed the merits of documenting employee performance as a means to better evaluate compensation. In Part Two, Dan ties it altogether and discusses actually connecting the employee's performance ratings to their compensation.

When your company markets your products and services, are you just giving quotes or providing presentations? In the past issues of IDA Magazine, we wrote about embracing and pursuing more retail sales to homeowners and businesses as a way to increase sales and profits. This would move your company more towards becoming a full service door store instead of solely a garage door contractor. As stated in the article, several elements of your business would be affected, including your product line, showroom, advertising and buy-in from the employees.

Does your business look professional? The garage door industry has a wide diversity of professional dealers. From owner/operator "Chuck and a truck" to mom and pop shops to large dealers with multiple locations, all facing the same challenge… how to make their company stand out and be perceived as the best place for customers to call to repair or replace their garage door. What's the secret? It takes a lot to make a business successful, including sales smarts, marketing ability, a talented staff, good equipment, an adequate facility and financial expertise just to name a few. But the overarching ingredient in the secret sauce is professionalism. In this article, Dan Apple discusses what it takes to move your business from amateur to professional.

As a salesperson, are you just giving quotes, or are you actually selling? An effective salesperson knows the benefits of executing thoughtfully planned presentations. Doing this properly can lead to a bigger payoff: bigger ticket sales at higher margins. Doing this requires understanding basic concepts of professional selling. Knowing the customer's motivation to buy, what to sell, how to present and when to close Check out this article for more details!

In this article, Dan Apple discusses how to take an offensive position when dealing with unscrupulous garage door dealers, also commonly known in the industry as "Bad Bob." Rather than complain, Dan suggests that you "go to the mattresses" and explains how to take the fight to Bad Bob, while protecting your customer and your company's reputation.

If you're a garage door dealer and you were in business during the Great Recession of 2008, you'll remember that new construction all but evaporated overnight. This article discusses the critical importance of putting more emphasis on marketing and selling directly to end users like homeowners, plant managers and business owners rather than solely relying on contractors for the lion-share of your revenue.

As we reflect on the results of last year and look forward to the new one, it’s a good time to reflect on the direction of your business. What best describes the business you are in? Do you consider your company a garage door dealer that also offers service? Or are you in the customer service business that also offers garage door products? Take a minute and honestly ask yourself these two questions. What’s your answer? 

As your business grows, it gets more difficult to manage. Like most service businesses, a garage door dealership has three fundamental components: sales, operations and finance. In this article, we refer to this structure as "The Three Legged Stool" and outline how to better manage your business by organizing it into 3 separate yet linked departments.

Remember the children's story, Goldilocks? When faced with a choice of where to sleep in the home of the three bears, Goldilocks said, "This bed is too soft. This bed is too hard. But this one is just right!" Having multiple choices when shopping is one of the most used selling strategies in the business world. Why? Because customers like having choices. They want to feel in control of the purchasing process rather than being sold something. That's why Dan advocates for a Good-Better-Best (GBB) selling strategy for the garage door business.

So why is branding important to door dealers? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it

differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Companies such as Apple, Lexus, and even Costco spend tons of money on developing their brand. This article explains the elements you should consider to create or enhance your brand.

Over the past couple of years have you may have been receiving a number of inquiries, especially from private equity firms, asking if you've considered selling your business? Private equity firms invest in companies and industries they believe have the potential for significant growth and profitability. The garage door industry fits this target perfectly.