As I think back over my years in the kitchen and bath industry, I realize that the business relationships we all form have a major impact on the success of our businesses.

Particularly in these tough times, it’s critical to examine your business alliances to make sure they are beneficial to you.

Consider the manufacturers you represent. Why are you doing business with them? Are you really getting the best service and price on the products you’re carrying? What about your cabinet suppliers? Have they been with you for many years or are they new to your company? Why did you select them?

Partnering with Vendors

In starting our new business, I first looked to the cabinet company with which I had a long-term relationship. I discussed with the firm my vision for our company, and we talked about goals and set time lines that we believed were achievable.

At our company, we discussed the pros and cons of dealing with only one cabinet supplier. The biggest benefit was increased accuracy, because we would be using only one nomenclature for products. With everyone using the same cabinet manufacturer, we would all be familiar with the products and how to order them. We would be an important dealer to the company, since we would likely have a major impact on its production.
Of course, the downside is that, if the company had a shut down or some major catastrophe, how would we be able to fulfill project orders? In our case, we were willing to take that chance. We deliberately chose a product that would allow us much flexibility in design choices (door styles, colors, wood species) and price range.

When considering countertops, while we had many choices, again the goal was to develop a business relationship with manufacturers that would facilitate long-term commitments.

We chose two vendors that we believe share our vision. They understand what’s involved in having an updated showroom, and partner with us on that. They supplied product displays as well as other offerings to be part of our new showroom.

As we sought out vendors with which to do business, we discovered a few interesting things. First, many premier vendors are opening up their own showrooms in major cities across the U.S. They want to have full displays of their products, and they realize that there are very few kitchen and bath showrooms that will devote an entire area to their products.

One of these companies is Dal-Tile. This company had a very large showroom, with complete display boards of different concepts of how a tile wall can look for either a kitchen or bathroom. Dal-Tile also offers granite slabs.