Words: Chris Leighton

For many retailers in this industry, establishing a client’s budget can be the trickiest point to maneuver.

If you straight up ask, you’re typically met with a “we don’t have a budget”. This doesn’t necessarily mean the pot is endless but more simply that the client doesn’t know enough about costings to make a guess.

Setting early budget indicators can be the best starting point as you can gauge the customer’s feedback and get some visual confirmation bias. Shower door examples are great: 6mm trade range starting from £300-£400, 8mm premium quality range probably £800-£1200, and 10mm (moving into the luxury and bespoke end of the market) are probably starting at £2000.

If a customer promptly replies “I’m not paying £2k for a shower door!”, this is only a basic indicator, but it certainly helps.

Even with 20 years’ experience retailing from a showroom, I’m always met with the same puzzled looks or coy antics from consumers not wanting the salesperson to actually know a budget, for fear of not only hitting it but upselling. At this point in the conversation, we often set out what kind of showroom we are, with the services offered.

Product associations can certainly help in this area. The prompted line is usually a quick reference to cars, as we all know brands we like, can afford, or aspire to have. It might be a fraction dated but the concept remains and seems to roll off the tongue. I usually quote “We’re the BMW, Mercedes, Audi of the bathroom world”, especially with our European sanitary-ware suppliers.

People understand this easy comparison and desire to perhaps have a branded product and service. We all know there are basic entry level brands and super prime luxury brands but we feel this gives us an understandable and relatable quality and price point.

Price is typically an objection that needs to be handled and we’ve found a few tricks or turns of phrase over the years that help pinpoint the problem.

Reverse engineer the solution by asking the client, “How much do you NOT want this bathroom to cost?”. Or “People don’t have a budget, they form a budget once they know what things cost.”

If the figures are affordable or acceptable then flip the budget question back on its head. We typically indicate that projects range between £12-18k which gives clients a good range to work with, and this also helps the salesperson understand where to specify the product range.

When presenting our quotations after going around the showroom to create the perfect wish list or aspirational design we may still not have a firm figure to work with. It’s possible we have built the biggest white elephant.

At this stage, we can play a little game of “guess what it costs”. Using a method like this might be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it gets the clients to divulge the figures they are hoping for or expecting.

It’s often comical to see the one family member have a rather conservative number – the family accountant – and the other has been paying attention and guesses higher than they would have first admitted in order to raise the first’s low ball effort.

Ultimately, after all is said and done we have to put the clients first and get the design and specification right; I can’t make someone buy something they don’t like.

 It will still come down to the total package of service, availability, solution and price but the latter is something the industry is renowned for working with, so it’s time to have a little negotiation and see if we can get to that client’s budget in the end.