Selling multiple brands of spas

[Steve]

Thanks Steve,
I'm not sure why he's asking, he's a dealer and I think is looking for another line.

It brings up an interesting point Stuart so I'm starting a new thread with this topic.

Why do dealers offer multiple lines of spas? I'm all for not putting all your eggs in one basket but it's inevitable that the dealer (in most instances) is going to sell one brand against the other. If the line he currently sells doesn't have a good price ladder or he's wavering on the overall quality or service from the factory, isn't it time to replace it?

I couldn't imagine selling a brand against Beachcomber when I sold it. Just my thoughts...

I would love to hear from others that do carry multiple brands and why and how it benefits them or if it causes too many choices for consumers? I know by experience that sometimes people can get overwhelmed by choice when there's 15+ spas on the floor, never mind half being a totally different manufacturer with different option, features, warranty, etc. Now they have to go to the next store where they carry 3 different brands and then go home and make sense of it all?

Could be an interesting topic...

I'd like to hear from dealers as well as customers that experienced this and their thoughts.

Steve

[poolboy34]

We carry multiple brands of spas for a few reasons.  One is the price ladder. There are not many manufacturers that offer spas at all the major price points.  Features is another reason as to why we carry multiple lines of spas.   For Dimension one didn't offer pearlescent shells, water falls, LED lights, stereo etc........they really played up the hydro-therapy aspect of owning a spa.  But over the years, we've been losing sales due to not having these "features".  So this year we brought in Caldera Spas to fill that void in addition to Dimension One and @Home Hot Tubs by Dimension One.   Since then we've also brought in Haweye Spas to fill a price void.  All of these spas fit a certain niche in our market place.  I'm sure there are other reasons the owner of the company decided to bring these two brands on board.  Also it should be noted that we don't carry ALL of the models that Caldera and hawkeye offer, only a select few that meet our needs.  Take caldera for instance, their aquatic melodies spas offer great hydro therapy with an excelent factory installed stereo system.  Dimension One has a stereo system that is optional, but we had to install it, which is not the easiest thing to do.   Also to show the stereo that D-1 Offers we have to mount the stereo in the cabinet and attach the speakers to the cabinet, which handicaps us when trying to sell floor units, as we have to change out those panels if the customer doesn't want the stereo.

Now as far as confusding customers.............i would say in the begining that was a bit of an issue.  For one the sales training that D-1 and watkins offer are drastically different.  So at first it was difficult to not play each brand against eachother.  But honestly they are more similar then different, they have many of the same components, but style wise they are different.  The warranties are almost identical.  And both lines are considered Premium spas.  I also feel that initially it's very tough to bring in another brand when you've primarily carried one brand for many years, in our case Dimension one, for nearly 18 years.  You tend to have a bias for your "home" brand, and tend to downplay the new brand at first until you are comfortable with it.  Also our showroom is a lil disjointed in how we have initailly set it up. In hindsight we should have kept each brand together, and due to some displays we have had to put some spas in certain places for space/display purposes, which does at times confuse the customers.    So hopefully this'll be remedied later in the fall or early winter after the fair and poll closing seasons die down.

All in all I'd say that having the three lines offers us flexibility in terms of pricing, and also in terms of features.  Each line also has its own distinct look which adds to their qualities and sellability (they cater to different tastes).   i hope this sheds some light on this subject,  Good question steve!

Jason,
Store manager for a Caldera, hawkeye, and DImension One Spas dealers

[Spa_Tech]

I currently- ( I just started) only have one line of spas and plan on having more than one brand of spas.

The reasons you SHOULD have more than one line is that unless youre dealing HotSpring, Sundance, or Dimension One is that I believe its beneficial to present a broad set of price points covering from $2,500.00 to $10,000.00.

Each of those manufacturers presents a premium line as well as an 'economy' line-- with a line extention- (a similar product with a different name to deliniate each advance or reduction in features.).

Selling only one product line eliminates possibilities and gives the prospect another opportunity to look somewhere else.

The caveat to supplying two product lines is that they really cant be all that similar, as you already pointed out Steve, people do become overwhelmed with choices between color, cabinet materials, jetting, insulation et al; So choosing product lines with very dissimilar features and pricing would be optimal...

As an example... a dealer choosing both HotSpring and Dimension One are selecting products that can be percieved as very similar-- while stylistically they are different, both price and operation are essentially the same.

In my business, I selected a small rotationally molded entry level spa, but later will add a fully featured line of acrylic spas as my 'premium' line...neither line of spas will do what the other can do, even though they both heat, filter, and squirt water.

[Drifter]

Steve I can think of a good reason why to carry two lines. Price! My dealer carried two lines and there was a substantial difference in price between the two.  I mean if your shopping for a 3,500 spa then your not competing against HS, Beachcomber,Master, ect.  It's why some car dealers have two dealerships. BMW doesn't compete against Hyundai.

[empolgation]

There's always more than one brand of ketchup (or is it Catsup? ) on supermarket shelves.


As already inferred, it makes good business sense.
A customer is shopping for a tub that's right for them - different brands appeal to different customers. As a dealer, you have a territory, the more brands you have the more market share you have. Customers aren't shopping dealers to compare the same brand; if you don't have the brand that caters to their wants off they go to the "other" dealer.

If you choose a good mixture and can afford the inventory it seems like good business to me.

[Mendocino101]

Hi...

Great question.....doesn't Hot Springs....offer a wide range of pricing with the different lines they make....so if you are a Hot Springs dealer would there be a need to bring in another line...Marquis with the everyday line covers a board price range as well....

[spahappy]

Again, great question Steve!

If I may, I'd like to take it a step further..

How do dealers that sell full foam next to thermol pane spas do it?

What problems do they have in the sales presentation?

It would make sense to me, if they sell both types, they sell a spa on it's merits rather than the competitions insulation techniques.

I know there are spa dealers on this board that sell both types side by side and I would love to hear from them.

Spahappy

[wetone]

We also carry multipule brands to offer a greater selection.
Dimension One makes great hydrotherapy spas in the upper price range. Not for every one.
Artesian Spas Island series are deeper with barrier free seating for taller people, again not for every one.
Coast Mountain Spas (a Local Brand) has very contoured style seating with steps in to the spa a plus for some people but not everybody. None of the brands we offer compete with each other in price, style or features. Offering multible brands allows us to offer 64 models from 4,995 to 17,000 CDN.

We have over 30 models on display in our showroom seperated by brand, and have not found consumers getting overwhelmed, rather the opposite. We find most  people have a price range and size in mind which usually narrows it down 2 or 3 models from one or... maybe two brands, from there it's features and comfort level.
I would think that it's alot more overwhelming for consumers shopping 10 small stores that display 4 to 8 models and get a differant version of what's best at each store.


John

[zzaphod42]

I couldn't imagine selling a brand against Beachcomber when I sold it. Just my thoughts...
Steve

I have to agree with you Steve. We sell Beachcomber exclusively and I simply could not imagine bringing in another line.

The branding power alone has done wonders for us. When people are shopping they know and are somewhat familiar with Beachcomber before even entering the store. I have had countless customers come in to my store after looking elsewhere and tell me that they didn't even know what they had looked at!

Until recently, we were the only dealer offering a single line of hot tubs and it has worked very well for us. Now a competitor who has been around for close to 30 years has opened up a second store that carries only one line that is also Canadian made. (very big deal for a lot of our customers.) There is also a new Arctic dealer in town (Canadian made) who is offering Arctic Spas exclusively. It seems that we started a trend here.

I feel that I sound a lot more credible talking about the quality of my hot tubs, compared to the guy down the street who is saying that Sundance & Sweetwater & Marquis & Hydropool & Serenity Bay & Jacuzzi are ALL the best.

Many of the tubs mentioned above are of excellent quality, but when somebody starts spewing that all of their tubs are superior while everything else is horrible, IMO they come off sounding like a sleazy used car salesperson. (Disclaimer - If anyone here is an HONEST used car salesperson, my deepest apologies.)

Rereading the post I think I have beat my point to death so I will stop here.

Joe

[Chris_H]

I understand the price ladder points, but what about two superior brands.  In my experience if you are selling say a Phoenix Spa (lower end in my opinion) and a Hotspring (higher end in my opinion) right next to each other the customers will flock to the superior brand, and the dealer will sell more of the superior brand.

However I pose this question, what happens if you offer two premium brands like a Sundance and a Hotspring in the same showroom?  How often does this happen, and what does the dealer do?  

[tony]

I purchased from a dealer that sells Hot Spring and Sundance (along with Tiger River, Solana and Sweetwater) side by side.  My experience was after sitting down and describing what I was looking for, they were able to show me what the manufacturers offered.  The sales person didn't necessarily promote one over the other.  The spas really sold themselves and the dealer is reputable and has been in business a long time.  They were the first store I stopped in.  I ultimately returned to purchase from them after shopping other brands.  If I didn't purchase the Sundance, I would have purchased a Hot Spring.

[stuart]

One of the problems with selling one brand and one brand only is that you begin to get a bit myopic on what really is good or not. When I sold HS I thought I would have to find a different career if anything happened that I could not get the brand - I bought into the dream! As it is now there are a few brands that I like even better and I see faults in what I believed in then that I could not and would not at the time.

When you go to a steak restaurant and ask the waiter "Is your steak good here" what do you expect him to say, "No it sucks go to the chicken place down the street" but, if they serve both he can get a feel for what you want by asking you what your in the mood for.
MacDonald’s used to sell Hamburgers, fries and shakes. Now you can get chicken, a burrito, a salad and even health wraps. They went from selling lunch to one type of customer to trying to cover as much of the market as possible.

For the last 15 years I have sold many brands for many dealers around the country and had ownership in a few stores selling top brands. It has been my experience that having a comparison in your showroom from brand to brand is good for the customer as long as you can represent both products well.

Hotspring probably covers more price points than anyone. This gives the dealer a good reason for loyalty because they have no need to shop around.

I personally love the philosophy of Marquis. I think their product is topnotch and one of the most reliable spas I have ever dealt with but, let’s face it, their are quite a few companies out there with more Wow factor and curb appeal. From the moment we think about sinking into that hot bubbly water, spas appeal to our emotional side, so it's not hard to sell us more on the disco lights, stereo, TV and waterfalls when we are in that "Emotional Shopping" mode. With that in mind we have to look at the Philosophy of a manufacture for what they believe is the right way to build a spa. Chas mentioned in a prior post that HS made 38 changes in their spas just this year! I would bet over half of those changes were adding things they adamantly sold against for years but, due to the fact that many dealers where bringing on other lines with the "gizmos" they decided to jump into the arms race! I will open another post here soon on how strong a manufacture should believe in how they do it as opposed to others but as for this post it boils down to this; If you want to sell to a larger percentage of the population offer products that fit a variety of needs. Although I necessarily believe in TV and Stereo in a spa I understand that if I don’t offer it and someone else does I will lose sales. I think it’s better to offer it and explain the disadvantages vs. advantages.

[Steve]

Some great feedback everyone and I appreciate it.

Playing "devils advocate" here for a second; If I sell a brand of spas that I consider to be a very strong product and it gives me a price ladder of $4500.00 - 15,000.00, why do I need a secondary line?

Let's face it, we as salespeople have certain models in our line we "like best". If all of you were honest with me, you would say that you sold these certain models more than most.Why? Because as salespeople we have the power to control the sale. I don't want this to have a negative connotation to it because it isn't meant that way. But after asking all the right questions and determining what will best suit our customers needs, we always have a spa in mind for them. Most lines of spas have 12+ models available for the consumer. I don't remember a time that I couldn't think of a particular model that I felt would be best in a given presentation other than people looking for a $2500.00 spa. I never competed with the big box stores because that's not what we're trying to do.

Personally, I don't think people need to see 25 spas to make a good buying decision. It's our job as salespeople to help them buy rather than "sell them something". It's all in showing value. If we do a lousy job (whether you are showing 50 spas or 5) the customer won't buy. If you haven't built that relationship with your customer, they won't buy. If you spent half of the presentation talking about how bad the competition is, they won't buy. If the customer doesn’t like you, they won’t buy. If your store is dirty, unorganized, under staffed, smells bad, and a list of other things, they won't buy.

It's all up to US as salespeople. We need to focus more attention to the customers needs than to inundate them with 3 lines of spas with 15 spas in each line. Now I'm not saying those of you that do are wrong in your business practices, I'm just saying that I don't believe "choice for the consumer" is a good enough answer.

Some of the objections I read were:

Features - I spent a great deal of time explaining to my prospect that many of the flashy items on spas don't always hold a value for very long. For the number of sales I lost to other companies offering this, it wasn't an issue.

Pricing - People are either looking for a quality spa from a reputable dealer, or they want to save a buck and buy at their local Costco. A $4000 - $15,000 range is what most spa shoppers are looking for and if your line offers that, anything else is redundant IMO.

Market share - We had a huge market share by offering a quality product with the reputation of great service. That's how you build market share!

SpaHappy brought up a great point. I would hazzard a guess that not too many do offer both fully insulated spas and thermal pain. I believe the dealer must be loyal to one method.

Stuart also brought up something quite interesting: "One of the problems with selling one brand and one brand only is that you begin to get a bit myopic on what really is good or not."

Here's my take. When I sold Beachcomber, it was the best spa to purchase and if you didn't buy one, you were making a mistake. I wouldn't say this to my prospect, but that's how I felt and so did the people I trained. I think we need to be loyal to our brand we carry and relay that loyalty to the consumer. How can I convince someone that they bought the best spa possible when I choose to sell 2 other brands? Believe the line you carry IS the best. If you don’t, it’s time to change jobs.

Sell them on your brand and why you carry it. Not every spa line has everything but it's up to us to be aware of this and learn to sell against it respectfully. Tell them what they need. It's all in the presentation and if you tell them that they will need to look at other manufacturers, in most cases I would think they will leave your store knowing there are others. I want the people coming through my door to feel that they are going to find the line of spas they've been looking for and work very hard to show them the features and benefits of my line. It's a selling feature to just carry one line. We've got the best spa for your money and so we don't need multiple brands!

Again, I don't want to come across as "my way is right" and it's the only way. Just passing on my beliefs and business practices. It's an interesting topic!

Steve

[empolgation]

It's our job as salespeople to help them buy rather than "sell them something".

...We need to focus more attention to the customers needs...

Steve,

I see it as 2 basic approaches to selling:
1 - sell the customer on the single brand you have ("sell them something", what you have)
2 - offer a wider selection in order to have more options to meet their needs ("help them buy" what they want).

I personally believe in presenting the strength of the product and let the customer decide if it's right rather than controlling the sale to convince the customer that it is right - (then again that's why I'm not in sales )

With regard to market share, if you don't sell more than one quality brand those customers that considered brand 1 from you but bought brand 2 from the "other" dealer lost you the sale. If you have both brand 1 and 2 you have could have more sales, no? Isn't that how it would work?

Features are not about "Flash" alone - it's about different offerings.

I purchase based on the brand I want that meets my needs, not on how well a dealer controls the sale. I guess the average customer is more easlily swayed by sales presentation than I am??

Ultimately, if you do it right I think it works well either way, if you do it wrong it doesn't matter if you have 1 or many brands.

Actually, forget the "I guess" part.

[Vinny]

Steve,

When I first started looking for a tub, I had no clue about anything pertaining to tubs.

The first dealer I went to sold 3 brands of tubs and I got a look at what each offered. Interesting the tubs did compete in the same price range but I think this was a good thing.

I was able to see what an $x,000.00 tub looked like in 3 different brands and what features each offered. I didn't compare a $4,000 to a $12,000 tub - an unfair comparison. One brand was quickly eliminated due to the amount of bells and whistles  it offered (some things don't impress me).

I then went to a dealer who offered 4 different brands of tubs and actually refused to show me anything except 1 brand which was "the best" and all the tubs are around the same price anyway.

As I went to more dealers, I learned about various things and saw tubs for all different price ranges.  I realized what I wanted in a tub and what I wanted to spend - not what the dealer wants me to spend. I also realized that a quality tub isn't at a cheap investment nor do I have to sell the kids to own one either (you helped me on that one).

I think if a dealer can carry more than one line it might beneficial to the dealer. But I think the lines that are carried should be complimentary to one another - you sold Beachcomber, a great product in itself but it doesn't offer a lot of bells and whistles;  by picking up an equally great product with the bells and whistles you are appealing to more people. It doesn't mean that either is inferior, just appeals to a different buyer. The same holds true with tub lines at different prices, there is a niche for a $5,000 tub as there is for a $15,000 tub.

The other aspect is the "fit" of the tub. It is possible due to the design of the tub that a person can fit into one brand and not another.  At least with another brand you have the potential to still make a sale. It happened to me, I sat in one brand and I couldn't fit into a captains chair with neck jets and I'm only 6ft. This brand got eliminated because of that.

These are some of my observations as a potential customer.

Vinny