One my RCG readers is concerned about whether one of his potential conservatory enquiries is genuine or not. The following screenshot shows the email his team have received:
The guys are not sure whether they should delete the email or follow up in the normal way. What do you think? Real or Scam enquiry?
I’m delighted to have secured an interview with probably the most switched on internet marketer in our industry. Dave is a Director of Everseal Ltd, and the guy behind the hugely successful DIY conservatory website ConservatoryLand.com.
How did you get involved with conservatories and double glazing?
It all started back in 1986 when I was 18 years old. My dad had already been the Regional Sales Manager for a double glazing company called Systems 80 for a number of years. You may remember them, they occupied the premises that Coldseal eventually took over in Alfreton.
I also got a job with Systems 80 and worked in their showroom in Sutton in Ashfield for a couple of years.
Then in 1988, my dad decided he wanted to start his own company and employed me to sort out the administration side of things. I remember writing my own computer program, custom designed to handle customer order details and sales commissions. This is when Everseal was formed.
Tell me a bit about your company and what it does?
We manufacture all our own products, windows, doors, patios, bi-fold doors and conservatory roofs using the Eurocell system for both the frames and roofs.
We have premises that combine our frame fabrication factory with our main offices and separate premises across the road from there consisting of a row of five units which combines our roof fabrication factory with our ground floor and first floor showrooms.
We are a retail company although we do a small amount of trade that comes our way by chance. We do not market for trade work but we do appreciate it and are competitive. It is an additional bonus for us.
We have a domestic sales operation selling conservatories, windows, and fascias which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. These are the areas in which we send out our sales people and provide a full installation service for our products.
We have a retail DIY conservatory sales operation covering the whole of the UK where we manufacture and deliver to our customers for self-assembly – mail order conservatories if you like.
Conservatories now form around 80% of our business and we currently manufacture over 800 of them per year for our retail customers.
We put a lot of time, effort and resources in to our customer care policies and achieve an exceptionally high rate of customer satisfaction which of course results in plenty of recommendations for us. I view the money that we spend on this as just another marketing cost.
What are Eurocell like as a supplier?
Eurocell are great.
Their service and technical support can only be described as first class. Their PVCu products, in my own personal opinion are one of the best in the industry, both for quality of material and visual appearance.
They also have an effective product development policy which helps us stay ahead of our competition.
As you are probably aware, I’m impressed with ConservatoryLand’s Google position for ‘conservatories’. How did you get to that number one spot and stay there?
Well Matthew that is the million dollar question and the answer to which I am sure everyone would just love to know.
If I had an exact formula for this, I would be selling my SEO services to all industries and become incredibly wealthy very quickly.
I guess I just picked the right people for the job. We have a great team of SEO guys and I spend a lot of my own personal time creating relevant content to help it along.
As you know Matthew, at the time of this interview, Conservatory Outlet are at number two which is also an incredible achievement so you must be doing all the right things.
What proportion of your business is generated from your website?
Around a third of our business is currently generated from our website and online campaigns as I consider it to be bad business practice to have all our eggs in one basket. What if we drop off the face of Google? There are no guarantees. And what if the internet goes down for a while for some reason? You never know, it could happen.
Further, although there are really no limits with organic search enquiries, considering the number of keywords and search phrases out there, short, medium, long-tail search terms etc, it is a slow and long term investment in both time and money but you need the business now.
As you will have seen, we top up our online campaigns with additional PPC as I know you do but there is a budget threshold with this where it can become no more effective than traditional media advertising, even less effective if you take it too far.
How do you intend to develop your online presence in the future?
That is a difficult question to answer as the internet and technology changes and develops at an astounding rate and you’ve got to be on the ball to keep up with it, else you get left behind.
I read articles about this sometimes, such as Google changing their search ranking policies and testing services such as local search results which can be a disadvantage to national suppliers, yet an advantage to local suppliers, whatever their industry sector.
Although Google is not the only search engine out there, it easily accounts for the majority of internet searches, which is why I always refer it, they are incredibly powerful.
My answer to your question is that I don’t really know because I don’t know what future developments and changes are going to happen.
I intend to adapt to changes in accordance with any future technological developments and changing internet trends that occur, no matter what they are.
Although I participate in social media, I’m still unsure how much potential this has for our retail market (one-off, one-time sales) and suspect that it works better for some industries than others.
I think about social media a lot but I am still struggling to see how my retail company can benefit much from Twitter and Facebook for some reason, although I do believe you should be on those sites just to be seen to be on those sites if nothing else.
It can be fun and I could pick up the odd sale but I wouldn’t expect it to increase our turnover by any meaningful percentage unless we can get a few million UK followers or friends on there.
How do you see the market for DIY conservatories developing over the coming years?
I think there will always be a market in the UK for DIY conservatories, just as there will for fully installed conservatories.
The DIY conservatory market is far from an easy one and I think it could become even more difficult when affected by changes in government legislation such as building regulation requirements for every conservatory, no matter what size or type? Obviously this would make the idea of a DIY conservatory less appealing to some consumers.
On the positive side, the more difficult it becomes, the less companies will succeed with it and therefore less competition for us, so I wouldn’t expect it to be any detriment to our business as there are always consumers that are prepared to do a bit themselves to save a lot of money. It could even be beneficial; it’s swings and roundabouts really.
For more information visit: http://www.conservatoryland.com/
As reports in the media are now focussing on whether the UK is coming out of recession, I decided to put a bit of research into companies I feel are in a better position than most to succeed when the market picks up.
So, I’ve created a list of 10 companies I feel are bucking the trend:
Recession Buster #1 – High Tech Windows
I visited High-Tech Windows in Cheltenham last year and was extremely impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the two owners, John Green and Eric Cheshire.
They have developed a policy of the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ after John read about the success the British Olympic Cycling Team’s highly effective use of this strategy in the preparation for the Beijing Olympics.
Since the start of the recession all staff at High-Tech have tried to embrace this message. As a result they are all working harder than the competition, smarter than the competition and are all selling up to quality and not down to a price.
There is also special emphasis on the word ALL…..they have spent a lot of time explaining that everyone who works at High-Tech is a salesperson and that their next sale could come as a direct result of something they did.
A cleverly crafted questionnaire is now completed by all customers after the installation and their installers and service engineers are now generating 10-15 additional leads per week. They have also recently aimed a Spring Promotion at over 30,000 existing customers which has generated nearly £1m of additional sales.
As a result of aggregating all of the ‘marginal gains’ at the end of June Week 1, they have achieved 101.4% of their year to date target.
Recession Buster #2 – Everseal Ltd (and ConservatoryLand.com)
I hate to say this, but Dave Bingham the boss of Everseal Ltd is probably the most clued up person in our industry for generating leads from the internet (since Barry Dunlop went on to better things). The reason I say this is the impressive way he has managed to maintain his website www.conservatoryland.com firmly in the top position of Google for at least two years for the terms ‘conservatory’ and ‘conservatories’. This is despite intense competition from companies like the nationals, and dare I say it Conservatory Outlet. As a result, they have been selling loads of DIY conservatories throughout the UK, despite the downturn.
They are 9% up on last years’ sales figures up to the end of April 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, and 15% up on turnover due to ‘dragging off’ their order book and about 5% up on actual pre-tax profit in that same period. They have added new sales and technical order processors for handling the increasing internet enquiries and sales orders. They have also invested heavily in an extended conservatory, window and door showroom, new machinery, new vehicles, and computer equipment, which is a sure sign of the company’s overall business confidence.
Recession Buster #3 – Central CRC
Central CRC is a trade manufacturer managed by Gary Richards and Martyn Elwell, with an investment and interest from well known industry figure Gary Morton.
As the recession began to take hold they concentrated on getting the basics right – on time and complete products, while continually striving to exceed customers’ expectations. They felt that this would put the company in a reasonably healthy position to face the inevitable downturn in business.
There wasn’t a ‘downturn’ though, as sales increased. From September ‘08 to April ‘09 they’re 10% up on year to date targeted sales. Remarkably, net profits are up 170% on the prior year and this has been achieved in a number of ways.
They’ve invested in marketing initiatives such as supplying free “Leads 2 trade” enquiries to their installers. They’ve developed new products, such a bi folding doors, and invested in a new CNC corner cleaner.
They’ve undertaken strategic “cost out” exercises with the main outcome being the decision to stop manufacturing conservatory roofs. They now buy in kits and sales volumes of roofs have held up.
All efforts have been made to improve their efficiencies and maximise sales from each customer by providing added value products, such as glass and associated products. They’ve developed a good mix of customers ranging from the “one man and his van” to multiple team installers. They have found that most new customers are mostly interested in a good price and are not too concerned with being wrapped up with a marketing package.
The introduction of Business Micros Evolution has improved efficiency at the company with its CRM capabilities and clever in house communication features, and the team feel they are now in a position to increase capacity by approximately 35% (or about 150 units) by the end of the year. In Martin’s words ‘after this we’ll need a bigger boat!’
4. Hazlemere Windows
I met Tony Beale, Sales Director of Hazlemere, at the GlassTalk event, and was immediately impressed by his switched on attitude to business.
Hazlemere have a strong understanding of internet marketing, and their website is bringing in good levels of enquiries for aluminium conservatories and windows. By concentrating on aluminium they have seen growth in both commercial and residential markets, winning many awards along the way.
They’ve recently launched woodgrain aluminium windows and doors as an addition to their product range. Sales in May 2009 were nearly double the figure of May 2008, following on from the best January to March sales for 6 years. As well as the website, they are finding they are having great success with inviting homeowners to bring their sizes down to their showroom, which is open 7 days per week.
5. Lister Trade Frames
I’ve long been an admirer of Lister Trade Frames, and how the company goes about its business.
Prior to the recession Listers had enjoyed prolonged growth with 27 consecutive months of record sales. Like many companies in our industry the growth period came to an abrupt end in the second half of 2008.
So, the company restructured and took a lot of cost out of the business. In Mark’s own words:
beggaring the question “why didn’t we do this when times were good!?”
With improved margins, the company has enjoyed strong sales in the first quarter of 2009, mainly due to investing in marketing support for their installer base, including complete re-branding exercises, new websites, van livery etc. Mark believes that homeowners still have money to spend on home improvements and are not always looking for the cheapest products. He sums up the Lister Trade Frames policy as:
Support your customers, keep a tight grip on your finances, reinvest the money you make back into making your company even better and make your own future!
This reinvestment includes a £250,000 refurbishment of their Building Plastics Trade Counter, and the guys have started work on a new showroom for their customers to use.
6. Quickslide
Quickslide are proving that a ‘recession’ can be turned into an opportunity, with some thought and application.
When the ‘credit crunch’ began to bite a couple of years ago Quickslide took the decision to specialise in the manufacture of uPVC sash windows and leave the selling to the experts.
In 2006 their field sales costs were over £250k and were winning and losing business and customers on a regular basis. They took the decision to cut all their sales costs and only partner professional sales operations, the result is that they have been able to split this £250k with their customers and invest some back into product development.
Adrian Barraclough explains “because we’re a private company we have few overheads and don’t need to return excessive dividends for shareholders, we can simply trade with sensible margins and encourage the leading sales outfits to use us through the competitiveness of our price and quality of our product and service”
Turnover has remained stable, but profit has increased year on year, and by dealing with established and proven companies their bad debt levels are lower.
The recession has helped them to negotiate more favourable prices from suppliers, allowing them to invest in new machinery, software and product development.
In summary Quickslide have used the recession as an opportunity to tidy up their operation, save money and pass it on.
7. Masterframe
Another manufacturer of uPVC sash windows I feel is beating the recession is Masterframe. Alan Burgess has a different philosophy to Quickslide which is equally successful.
If you look at the Masterframe home page you will see what they’re all about:
Let us start by stating, we are all about best value for you, our client and that we are probably the most expensive manufacturer of PVCu sliding sash windows in the UK…
Alan believes that quality is never cheapest with only weak companies use price as their main USP. He believes that companies who discount heavily, often have to sell 30% more to make the same net cash.
As a result, Masterframe have developed their Bygone Collection and sales are very healthy, with increasing numbers of companies interested in joining the network. They’ve added a few initiatives to the Bygone Collection, including putting all installers through a training programme. Indeed, by September they hope every installer will have an NVQ for installation.
8. Crystal Direct
I recently had an interview on this website with fellow Synseal fabricator Martin Randall of Crystal Direct, and was impressed with his confidence. Indeed, I always hear good things from Synseal staff ‘on the grapevine’ about Crystal – one of their largest fabricators in the UK.
They seem to be bucking the trend with sales were up 17% in January, 23% in February and 3% in March, compared to the same period last year, and they’ve have had to take on new staff to cope with the demand. Martin puts this down to a customer-led approach to marketing initiatives, customer support and product choice.
They push a complete range of SynerJy and Shield Synseal profile and internal or external glazing and mechanical joints or reverse butt welded frames. They offer vertical sliders, bi-fold doors, composite doors, a choice of Ultraframe or Synseal conservatory roofing systems, glass roofs and polycarb, A and C energy rated windows in SynerJy and Shield and a full Artisan colour range from stock. All of these products have short lead times with on time, in full deliveries and effective marketing and service support.
I get the impression that Crystal Direct have a no nonsense approach to business which is certainly paying off despite the recession.
9. Everest
Despite rumoured troubles within the Latium Group, I feel Everest is in a strong position to weather the downturn and progress.
I have heard from a number of sources how strong sales results have been in 2009, and have been impressed by their recent marketing initiatives, particularly the TV campaign and development of their website.
In my opinion, the Everest brand is probably the strongest brand in our industry, primarily because homeowners believe that Everest stands for quality. There will always be a certain type of consumer who just wants the best, and Everest have successfully marketed themselves as the best. I’m not saying I agree that they are the best, but I feel that over the years the company has positioned itself very well.
And these days, Everest is not just a window and conservatory company – they do kitchens, solar panels, flat roofs, garage doors, driveways and security systems. In other words, they’ve rebranded themselves effectively as a Home Improvement company.
10. Franklin Windows
The team at Franklin Windows in Leeds were hit hard as the recession took, and they were forced into a restructuring programme at the back end of the year. This included stripping out all unnecessary costs, from trading in expensive Range Rovers, renegotiating their lease and sending back the drinks machine.
Despite sales being down on a like-for-like basis compared to 2008, I feel that Franklin Windows are in a stronger and leaner position to trade profitably in the future. Indeed, the company has made money every month this year and are now investing in their future.
They’ve increased marketing spend, and concentrated on advertising in areas which brings in business. I’ve been keeping my eye on their website, and they’re embracing new media such as a blog section and David and Josh are developing their Twitter profiles.
They’re well known for composite windows and conservatories, but are also developing other products such as garage doors and roofline, and pushing them to their loyal customer base.
I could mention loads more companies on this list, but I think the above 10 companies are a good start. If you agree, or disagree, then I’d like to hear your thoughts. If you have any suggestions for companies who are beating the recession I’d like to hear from you, as I may just do ‘10 more companies beating the recession’ soon.
PS. I thought it best not to add Conservatory Outlet on the list as I didn’t want to see bias in any way … even though we should have been listed 
