This is the second part from Wednesday’s post where Elspeth Pridham canvassed the view of a number of successful people from the industry in the UK in an attempt to answer the question “Do male retailers understand their female customers?”
Sarah Ireland likes to have a lengthy chat over tea and cake with her customers and produces hand drawings and a mood board for all her projects. She says: “What women bring to retail is the personal touch. When I’m sitting down with a customer, pulling the design together, I’m thinking about how she will clean the shower, where she’s going to store all her products. Men tend to do the hard sell, whereas we are softly, softly.”
The lack of professionalism in the industry is something that rankles with Gurner, “A lot of bathroom showrooms have been set up by people who wanted to go into retail and thought there was more profit in selling baths and taps than in selling cabbages, so they opened a bathroom shop instead of a greengrocer. There is a lack of technical know-how and commitment. These retailers understand the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.”
Scammell admits she prefers to employ women rather than men: “Men make excellent salesmen because they focus on closing the sale, but for this business I want to create an ongoing relationship with the clients. We work very hard at being approachable and I think it is women who go that extra mile to put clients at ease. If we are listening, rather than telling them what to do, they are better able to open up and express what it is they are looking for.”
It is disappointing to report that women in this industry are still getting a tough time from some of their male colleagues. Every woman interviewed for this feature had an anecdote regarding inappropriate behaviour. Most had been in the awkward situation of having a male colleague banging on their hotel bedroom door during a business trip. Others had been snubbed by suppliers in their own showrooms. As Karen Richards put it: “If you are fortunate, but also unfortunate, enough to be an attractive woman in retail, you are going to get a hard time.” Ireland says: “Women are our customers, they usually visit the showroom first. The husband comes in at the second presentation stage and fires off lots of questions. They assume I don’t know about the technical side and then, when I talk about how the wet room will be plumbed or discuss the ground work for their extension, they start listening and joining in the conversation. But it’s not just customers who judge on appearances. When new suppliers visit the showroom, they sometimes assume I’m the Saturday girl.” The general consensus is that if you want to be taken seriously, you have got to know your stuff, perhaps even more than your male peers. Scammell says: “In my twenties, I had a lot of people treating me like an object, it gave me a chip on my shoulder, which has actually been to my advantage, as I made it my business to know everything there is to know about the products I sell.”
Berry agrees: “In my early years, I learnt that I had to know more than men and be better than them and this has kept me in a strong position when I meet the chauvinists. So when a plumber or builder starts being patronising, I have sufficient knowledge to pull them back round with a smile and more knowledge than they ever expected. A sense of humour really helps.” Melvin, whose father owns a builders merchant, has gone a step further. She says: “I was brought up in a very male environment. I didn’t get treated any differently from my brothers, so I had a go at everything. I’ve been on the sales counter, I’ve been out in the yard, I’ve driven fork-lift trucks, I’ve loaded lorries, I’ve been out on building sites. My dad brought me up to believe that, in order to manage people, you need to have done it yourself. In this business, you have to be a strong character. You have to stand up to women and men. You have to stand your ground.”
After a long and successful career, Gurner offers this advice to young women entering the industry: “If you have the business acumen and that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’, then yes, I would encourage more women to enter bathroom retail, provided they understand that they are entering a division of the construction industry and that they are going to have to fight very hard for street credibility. I have fought for 40 years.” However, changing your hair colour could be a quick fix, as Gurner explains: “I’ve always been blonde, but a few years ago I was in the hairdresser and had my hair dyed glossy chestnut. A week or so later, I attended a client meeting with my husband and, for the first time ever in my career, every time I asked a question I was given an answer. When I subsequently went blonde, I was overlooked again.”
Our thanks to KBB for this – it is an excellent and thought provoking piece of writing and certainly demonstrates the difficulties that some find themselves in, in the UK. Do you see this as an issue here – do the same problems happen in Australia and NZ? Let us know as I will provide the feedback to KBB.
For more by KBB visit www.kbbreview.com
