LVT - the choices.......reasons why....

as most of you are already aware I have been a territory sales manager for distinctive flooring for over 2 and 1/2 years, we sell 2 ranges, one is life tile (mflor) which is design lead, the other is classics which is price lead.
I've noticed over time that the quality of product isn't as important as how well the product is marketed, for instance all I ever hear or read is how awful the quality conrtrol is from karndean, however they are arguably the best in the lvt business at marketing their brand to consumers.
oddly although we do our classics ranges which are more price driven (2.5mm .55 bevel wear layer) for similar costs to what most would pay for camaro 2mm .30 wear straight edge product, our best sellers are still are design lead ranges from our life tile ranges and are most expensive ranges are topped the choice lists.

My question is, how do you guys decide on what lvt ranges to take on and sell to your consumers? Is it look, price, brand awareness etc?
I'm also seeing now in shops that no more than 3 lvt players are within any store, for instance amtico or karndean, with either us, project, Moduleo then a polyflor option....is this the same for you guys or are you grabbing what you can a bit like carpet?

Thanks and look forward to the responses.

Teamdistinctive

 

Got to be quality over price.
Hate fitting anything smooth or tick Finish. Got to have a texture.
Got to butt up perfect. Sick of fitting cheap LVTs that look cheap when down.

 

What does that mean darren? What products will you only be supplying and fitting from now on?
What about the job that comes along and your client wants to buy crap tile?

 

We're karndean platinum account holders and sell loads of it. Have all the stands it's pretty difficult for us to sell anything else.

Recently installed amtico stands but probably abit to pricey for our area.

And the third is poly floor so your correct in the numbers.

We've had cavalio and distinctive in but didn't work for us. Maybe the stands don't look as good I don't know.

From my point of view id probably say who are distinctive or any of the others? How long have they been around? Will they be here in 25years? Otherwise the wear warranted are pretty useless? Are they gonna help me out when there is a fault? How good is stock?

And ultimately what are they doing to help me out? We get customers coming in asking for kArndean as they have seen it here there and everywhere, how many people go into shops saying I've seen distinctive advertised?

for us to sell more of something I think we would need a bigger and better display than karndean, gonna be tough to do that.

 

We have been around for over 10 years, mflor are a global brand and will be around for many more years to come.
Stock is usually fine
Our support is there for our customers
Our new stands easily rival karndean's
We are working on sending Mrs smith into stores - watch this space.

 

What I mean Adam is if a customer picks one I don't think is good I tell them.
When they walk in my unit I show them distinctive , Moduleo, Earthwerks as like all them.
If they want Karndean or Amtico then that's fine. I just price for what they want but most listen to what I say. For me now it has to be .55 wear layer on round floors. Loads are like that now so great news.

 

Fair point darren, your sell preferably quality over well known brand names but if a customer insists on xyz then so be it.
Fair answer and best way IMO.

 

Loads of camaro very little karndean it's sh##e need some new mflor samples but can never get hold of my rep luvanto does well too

 

Adam, you need to set up something and deal with online accounts as by the sounds of it, the other reps are poor.

 

Lvtman & Tarkett, where you based and who's your rep.

Your too kind cre8te, to be fair it's a very busy and growing territory I already manage, to try and conquer the UK on my own would be a task too far.

I have great relationships that I've built up over the past 2+ years, only as good as your customers

So marketing as important as quality..

 

Manchester mate rep is nick left messages not got back to me, we're doing loads of click at the moment too

 

In regards to the average punter to be frank yes, as far as joe blogs is concerned lvt=karndean/amtico when ever a customer asks for lvt they always start with I'm after amtico/karndean.

In regards to the fitters quality rules all, I'm more comfortable sells a good lvt/carpet than a cheap one that is get moaned at a month down the line due to scratches (see shitetile)

 

You know my view on this Mr spacey

 

We haven't got a rep called nick !

 

I'm in hampshire. No idea who the rep is I didn't have to deal with him. I'm always out fitting.

We had the stands in for a few months but just didn't work for us. Think our karndean presence is to big really. Difficult I think when we have the full karndean setup and the entire shop floor covered with the designs.

 

Peter Pan could be your rep kev

 

If karndean works and the presence is so high, no need to change it