With Showroom Academy, find out how to optimize your store’s attractiveness
Selling a swimming pool to a customer means finding the right pitch, being bold and even adding a dose of charm … but it also entails having an efficient sales outlet that showcases the technical solutions proposed. There are a few tricks for getting it right, and to share them with the professionals, Piscine Global 2016 featured an event dedicated to this very issue: the Showroom Academy. It comprised three facets: merchandising, the Café des Pisciniers, and the Showroom Academy contests.
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The merchandising area
What are the aims of the Showroom Academy, an event that was first held at Piscine Global 2014? It is designed to help pool experts optimise their sales premises and boost their sales day by day. The merchandising area showcases a range of POS solutions and showroom fit-out services.
Several companies came to present their products at the 2016 exhibition, including:
- APF France, with its shelf unit comprising four branches in a cross shape featuring built-in video screens;
- CCEI Bleu Electronique, with its 3-sided self-supporting display unit taking up less than 1 m² of floor space;
- Procopi, with its treatment products display stand consisting of 3 shelves capable of bearing 100 kg each;
- PLV Immersive Climexel 360°, and its presentation unit with virtual reality features;
- Toucan, with its POS system displaying the company’s entire range.
Still on the subject of sales outlets, here are a few useful tips. Keep it looking attractive at all times, and expand your range by offering complementary products such as outdoor furniture, decorations, etc. These are popular with consumers and bring high added value, with good margins.
Being a pool specialist is a demanding, complex job, and it is important for your sales outlet to reflect this. Shine spotlights on your expertise: any prizes or certifications you have been awarded, projects you are particularly proud of, or dual skills (especially pool design and landscaping).
The Café des Pisciniers
The Café is the place where pool specialists come to exchange best practices, discuss the challenges they are facing, and share tips for addressing issues such as creating a year-round offering. A wide range of seminars and workshops took place in 2016; here are a few examples from the programme:
- “Where can you find customers? How getting better acquainted with your customers will help you develop your business”;
- “Showroom efficiency: the keys to stimulating customers and meeting their needs”;
- “Standing out from the competition: how to adopt an effective sales strategy to boost sales”;
- “Services for developing margins: how to develop margins while keeping the customer even more satisfied”
The Showroom Academy competition
Fit-outs, services, new releases, product displays… the Showroom Academy contest showcases this specific aspect of sales expertise. This year’s candidates are:
- Blue Pool – Nivelles, Belgium
- Espace Piscine Boutique 36 – Le Poinçonnet, France
- Institut de la Piscine – Joué les Tours, France
- Jean-Pierre Piscine – Carpentras, France
- Pool 68 – Habsheim, France
The winner of this year’s contest is: Patrick Woestelandt from Espace Piscine 36. Take a look at his project!
Vainqueur du concours ShowRoom Academy. Espace piscine boutique 36. Patrick Woestelandt.
