Wholesale of building materials business development. Building materials store business plan

An entrepreneur from Siberia, Vlad Petrov, is successfully engaged in the wholesale trade in building materials. How to work in a crisis. Where to find buyers and how to choose suppliers. What profits can be expected, and how promising is work in this direction.

In connection with the crisis and rising interest rates on mortgages, experts expect either a freeze on construction projects or a reduction in the final price of apartments. What will happen to construction companies, how they live, and how the business is built, said an entrepreneur from Siberia, Vlad Petrov.

Start

I had many business experiments: I traded RayBan glasses, I had an online store (see ""), I had a share in. But the biggest income was brought to me by the wholesale trade in building materials. If I charged 300-600 rubles for glasses or goods in an online store and sold 1-2 pieces per day, then in the construction business I charge 20-30 rubles per ton and sell 90 tons per day, or even more.

I started to wholesale building materials a year ago. My classmate invited me. He had a familiar kamazist who asked him to find a coven. The first KAMAZ did not bring us a good income, so we began to expand: look for new carriers, intermediaries and suppliers.

About business

We carried crushed stone, soil and sand to private traders, charging about 500 rubles per car and getting cash. It was really little money and we decided to register as an LLC, since large construction companies work only by bank transfer.

Business took off. Builders always want to get delivery on time. Our strong point here is that excavations, plants (for example, a cement plant) cannot deliver not only on time, but often cannot deliver anything at all on their machines.

Once I was on excursions for partners of manufacturing plants, there were a lot of people - carriers, contractors, builders. We were taken around the plant and shown how to get high-quality products. I think this will surprise many, but the plant has only 14 vehicles for transporting products. Naturally, the plant cannot cope with deliveries to all construction sites in Novosibirsk (and we have more than 100 of them). Here we come to the aid of builders! We agree on delivery by our cars at a discount, find a carrier, receive an advance payment and take it to construction sites.

Crisis and seasonality

When I started selling building materials in bulk, I believed that there was a seasonality in our business, for example, in December (the first month of my work) I earned 3,000 rubles. I was shocked and wanted to quit, but my friend told me that construction is a seasonal business and more will be ordered soon. And already in March I earned 111 thousand rubles. In December 2014, I have already earned 49 thousand rubles, therefore, although our business is seasonal, with experience I have gained regular customers, and I will sell any month.

I think the same about the crisis. There is always a crisis in our country. As they built, so they will build. As they bought materials, so they will buy.

Our company will not lose during the crisis, but most likely will even gain. Suppliers will raise prices, carriers will raise prices, and we will charge as much as we charge. That is, the final price of the product will be higher, and our profit will not change.

Finding Clients

At the very beginning, when I was still working at the factory, I looked for clients by ads - I posted them on the Internet on free boards - on the principle of "one product - one ad" and people called me. I negotiated with suppliers on the price, coordinated everything, and sent the cars to the site. Then he took money from the owners of cars.

A friend already had a company at that time, so it was possible to look for "large pieces" - to take orders for large volumes of materials and conduct transactions by bank transfer. So I started calling construction companies from DoubleGIS and catalogs on the Internet, signing contracts and doing accounting.

You can not write off such an "extreme" type of customer search as cold rounds. One winter, I went to the site, spoke with the foreman, and he gave me the phone number of the deputy director of the developer company. As a result, during the season we brought about a thousand tons of sand with crushed stone to this construction site and removed about a thousand cubic meters of soil.

Work with providers

At first, I worked with reputable companies that have their own fleet, legal entity, accountants and sales managers - I looked for a client for them, transferred it to the company, the transaction was carried out through the legal entity of the supplier, and I took my percentage. Now we have contracts with quarries, that is, the work has become a little more complicated - we buy sand at the quarry, we set up a carrier, and we issue an invoice to our company.

It is better to look for such carriers - simple KAMAZ drivers through other carriers or foremen, and pay everyone upon the fact of the work performed, so that the supplier does not throw you. The first time you can work for trust on applications, where the carrier will pick up the money on the spot, and then transfer it to pay in installments.

Secret of success

I believe that the secret of success is to work! And nothing else. One of our customers is a large developer, I thought that the market had been divided for a long time and they already have a contractor with whom they have been working for a long time. I knew they had a tender system. But I called, and now we supply them to 4 construction sites from 20 to 30 machines of crushed stone and sand per day, and we transport cement once a week.

The tender for the supply of building materials for the developer was won by a trading company that supplies materials at prices slightly below market prices. She buys materials from other trading companies like ours. In order to make money with the company that won the tender, I had to give a price 30 rubles below the market price and get a discount of 50 rubles from the supplier. Total 20 rubles per car in the black.

Working with small and large companies is very different. Large construction companies require a large volume of supplies at low prices. Small companies require small volumes and are willing to buy at high prices. Usually, supply managers of small companies are poorly oriented in prices and, trying to reduce them, are asked to quote the price right away.

I called one company, where I was immediately asked to name the price of crushed stone. I said that I would count and call back, however, the supplier did not let up and demanded a price right away. I really didn’t know how much it would cost to deliver 100 tons to them and immediately said: “One ton is 860 rubles with delivery,” we shook hands. After calling the suppliers, it turned out that delivering to this area would cost 650 rubles per ton. So I earned 26 thousand in a day.

And of course, the work should be regular - that is, it all looks different, that I strained once or twice, earned extra money as it should, and then I roll cotton wool for a whole month. You need to outline a work plan for yourself for a month, a week and a day - make a certain number of calls per day, detours per week, constantly place ads. Clients need to be constantly looked for, as they can switch to competitors or complete construction.

Philosophy and motivation

I believe that business is, first of all, stability. I had a month when I made only 20 thousand, but in another month I made 100,000.

Many say that such a situation with money is, on the contrary, not stable. I answer them: “Once I worked at a factory and my salary was constantly delayed. And I received 15 thousand a month. Now I may not receive anything, but I can receive in a month an amount equivalent to a factory salary for a year. I can live comfortably all year thanks to one month. I have savings. And at the factory, I couldn't afford to make them. So where is the stability?

I am married, I dream of a child. I teach entrepreneurs from different cities about their business. I really hope to find someone from Novosibirsk in this way to have a company that will buy from me for 10-15 rubles more than from a supplier, relying on my experience.

Trade is considered the domain of start-up entrepreneurs. “This is the simplest and therefore the most common type of small business,” argues Moscow-based sociologist Arkady Semyonov. - Take, for example, building materials store. According to selective surveys, where would you start your business, from the list of ten ideas proposed, many preferred the trade in goods for the repair and decoration of apartments. It turned out that this is even more interesting than a car service or ".

And in fact, almost all people, with very rare exceptions, one way or another at least once in their lives bought wallpaper for an apartment, self-tapping screws for fasteners, taps for plumbing. Moreover, due to the constant fuss and queues, one gets the impression that almost all stores of this profile are successful. Is this really so and what needs to be done to open a successful retail outlet with goods for repair, we decided to find out.

Optimists and pessimists

Judging by the information and discussions in Runet, the theme of your building materials store is popular. Here are some posts worth checking out:

“...I would like to hear the opinion of knowledgeable people: how profitable is opening a building materials store?” - the forum member bulavka is interested.

“If there is an opportunity, then there is even nothing to think about, open up, develop, prosper! This type of business will always be in demand,” another forum member shahter78 is convinced.

“I have been in the subject for a long time,” a certain Dmitry Ivanovich doubts. - There are enough problems, of which the most important is an attractive price. How to achieve it - I do not know. Repairmen - the people cunning. Looking for cheap places. They dig the ground with moles. If you raise the price a little, customers will be blown away by the wind. And trading cheaper than competitors is at a loss.”

Expert economists, in particular Mira Kolomiytseva, who specializes in small business, considers the last statement a kind of cry from the heart. “Numerous publications on the topic of “own building materials store” have nothing to do with reality,” she says. - For example, some authors link starting amounts with retail space, they say, these are key indicators. Abstract figures are given, the observance of which allegedly guarantees the success of the undertaking. In particular, 500 thousand rubles are needed as working capital for a point of 100 square meters. Meanwhile, it is disorienting for aspiring entrepreneurs.”

According to Kolomiytseva, people have a false impression of a calm business that will bring income in any case. Meanwhile, the store should be "correctly configured" in terms of assortment with taking into account the prices of the nearest wholesale distributors.

We are talking about a kind of road map, which should be drawn up before the start. “Customers don't like the narrow specialization of a building materials store,” says Valery Andreev, a businessman from Rostov-on-Don. - As a rule, they come with a list, according to which they buy. Therefore, the assortment should be as thoughtful as possible. I know one entrepreneur who stood at the cash register in a large chain supermarket of building materials and imperceptibly took into account who buys what and how much.

In this assortment, on the one hand, duplicating positions should be excluded, since it is too expensive to maintain. On the other hand, transport and storage costs are optimized. “It is necessary to establish a clear system of interaction with distributors,” advises Anna Smirnova, director of a small building materials store. - Good personal relationships are important here. In this case, it may be possible to access the wholesalers' changing prices via the Internet.

Cost arithmetic

Anna Smirnova, based on personal experience, says that the store should have convenient transport accessibility. It can be a sleeping area, and even an industrial zone, and the territory along the main entrance-exit from the city or village. “Repair of premises can be the most budgetary, but you will have to fork out for equipment,” Arkady Semenov is sure. “Psychologically, it is important for people to buy in a familiar working environment, and certainly not in a barn.”

Therefore, it is necessary to install specialized racks up to 3 meters high and 1 meter wide, as well as several lockable glass showcases. Surely you will need a turnstile for buyers, a packing table and about ten chrome-plated carts for purchased building materials.

Of course, each store should develop its own business project, but the basic indicators should still be taken into account. We present them in a simplified table.

Items of expenses for opening a store

Position	Amount, rub.	Note
working capital	5-7 thousand per sq. m of space	But not less than 600 thousand rubles
Commercial equipment (racks, showcases)	2-3 thousand per sq. m of space	-
Rent and salary	2-3 thousand per sq. m of space	1 manager per 50 sq. m

Summing up, we can say that opening a building materials store will require a businessman detailed planning and precise implementation of the plan. Experts believe that the "break-even point" will be passed within a year from the date of opening, while the profitability of the business should be at least 15%.

The building materials market today is rapidly developing both in megacities and small towns. This is primarily due to the fact that the number of enterprises is increasing and new residential areas are being formed. In addition, people periodically make repairs in houses and apartments, which requires a considerable amount of various materials.

To successfully sell such products, they must be of high quality. Despite the great competition in this area, the sale of building materials as a business can bring stable profits for a long time.

How to open a hardware store?

Before you open a building materials store, you need to understand some of the features of this business. The entrepreneur first of all needs to decide on the concept of the outlet - whether it will be highly specialized or with a large product range.

In the first case, homogeneous products are placed in the store (for example, paints and varnishes, linoleum and laminate, as well as tiles). You can open your own store selling wallpapers and related products, which are no less in demand on the market. The advantage of this outlet format is the low cost of renting space, since a small store is suitable for work. If a novice entrepreneur is faced with the question of how to open a hardware store from scratch at minimal cost, you should opt for a small pavilion. On an area up to 100 m? you can arrange products and not invest in the purchase of expensive equipment. As a rule, the assortment of a hardware store (highly specialized) consists of several dozen positions.

Standard stores require up to 200 m². They usually have up to 50 different types of building materials in stock. Large points of sale of building materials can occupy an area of ​​300-400 m². Here you can find about 100 commodity items. If a businessman wants to organize the work of a supermarket, he will have to find a store with an area of ​​​​500 square meters. Such pavilions should have:

• own warehouses;
• transport for loading and delivery of building materials;
• trading floors, staff rooms.

Entrepreneurs who want to organize a business on building materials should be aware of its features. First of all, it is recommended to highlight the high level of competition. In each settlement there is a significant number of small shops, building materials bases and supermarkets, where a huge range of goods is presented. For this reason, you should initially consider the competitive advantages of your enterprise, which will allow you to differ from other outlets.

It does not hurt to analyze the prices of various products from competitors, so that in the future you can determine the cost of your products. It is optimal to set them a few percent lower than in other stores.

Business registration

Businessmen who decide to organize the work of a building materials store, open a paintball club or a production facility must formalize their business. You can register an individual entrepreneur or a limited liability company. To do this, you must visit the Federal Tax Service at the place of residence and provide documents (for individual entrepreneurs):

• application for opening a company;
• original and copy of the passport, TIN;
• check for payment of state duty (800 rubles).

If you plan to open an LLC, you will need to attach the Charter of the enterprise to the papers. But in this case, you will have to pay a state duty in the amount of 4 thousand rubles and have an authorized capital of the organization from 10 thousand rubles.

In addition, you need to specify OKVED codes, for which you should select 46.73 “Wholesale trade in building materials, timber and sanitary equipment” or 46.74 “Retail trade in building materials not included in other groups”. You also need to choose a taxation system. For small and medium-sized stores, USN is suitable. To start trading, you will have to obtain permits from Rospotrebnadzor and the fire inspectorate. Mandatory registration of the enterprise with the Pension Fund and the Medical Insurance Fund will be required.

Premises selection

The success of the enterprise largely depends on the choice of location for the building materials store. Microdistricts are being built in most cities, so it is advisable to place a store near them so that people can buy goods close to home.

You should not consider options for renting premises in the city center, since the cost of it is too high. In addition, it is quite difficult to find a place for a store, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich will be over 100 m². In addition, for the trade pavilion, it is necessary to provide convenient access and organize the possibility of loading materials into vehicles.

In remote areas, suitable premises can be rented at an affordable price, but it should be remembered that not all people will want to travel far for building materials and pay a lot of money for their delivery. Sleeping areas are well suited for a store. When choosing a location for a trade pavilion, you should pay attention to the fact that there are no competitors nearby.

Inside the store, heating and ventilation systems, electricity and water supply must work. It does not hurt to divide the area into zones:

• trading floor;
• cash point;
• warehouse space;
• service room for staff;
• bathroom.

Important: In the hardware store, you can do without expensive repairs, which will save on costs. If you plan to sell luxury sanitary ware, tiles, or exclusive wallpaper for cash customers, you need to take care of the appropriate interior.

Cosmetic repairs in a store with an area of ​​​​100 square meters will cost about 50 thousand rubles. You will also need to purchase:

• equipment for the installation of a ventilation system - 130 thousand rubles;
• racks, pallets - 25 thousand rubles;
• plumbing, furniture for staff - 30 thousand rubles;
• computer equipment - 30 thousand rubles;
• equipping the trading floor - 50 thousand rubles.

Thus, one-time costs at this stage will amount to 315 thousand rubles. In addition, you should know that it is better to rent a room for at least 6 months. Metal racks can be bought second-hand, which will minimize costs.

Formation of the assortment

It is important for an entrepreneur to determine the range of products. It will directly depend on the chosen format of the enterprise. If you plan to sell flooring, you should choose several types of linoleum, parquet, laminate, skirting boards, corners and other related materials. In wallpaper stores, items such as dry types of glue, rollers, trays, baguettes, cornices, scissors, corners, etc. are in great demand. For a department store, you need to choose the most popular items. This:

• various types of cement;
• dry mixes for external and internal finishing works;
• mounting grids, spatulas, corners;
• Building tools;
• sheet foam, drywall, lining;
• fasteners;
• PVC panels, chipboard, MDF, plywood and more.

The store should have both cheap and expensive products designed for different categories of citizens. Since the competition in the construction business is very high, it is recommended for beginners to open a highly specialized pavilion first.

Advice: an entrepreneur can earn extra money on cargo transportation. To do this, it is necessary to offer customers services for the delivery of goods.

Search for product suppliers

Suppliers of building materials can be large bases and hypermarkets, as well as manufacturers (foreign and domestic). Their choice largely depends on the type of store. If a businessman decides to specialize in the sale of expensive building materials, it is worth looking for suppliers of European products. Stores targeting middle- and low-income customers may have Russian and Chinese goods in their assortment. It is quite difficult to find a supplier who will agree to provide products for sale with subsequent receipt of money from its sale. Nevertheless, large players offer quite good prices for their partners, which allows them to earn almost 50% margin.

Personnel attraction

What kind of employees to attract to the building materials store for full-fledged work? First of all, you will need a trading pavilion administrator who is able to resolve production issues with suppliers, monitor the assortment and inventory, and also find large buyers (at first, the business owner himself can perform these duties in order to save on salary costs). You should also invite sales consultants, a loader and an accountant to the staff.

In order for the store to function with maximum efficiency, it is necessary to organize its work seven days a week. For these purposes, it is enough to invite 4 sellers who will work in shifts. It is desirable that they be men, since many buyers believe that they are the ones who are better versed in the specifics of building materials. An example store staff might look like this:

• manager (administrator) - 28 thousand rubles;
• sales assistant (4 people) - 80 thousand rubles;
• loader (2 people) - 24 thousand rubles;
• cleaner - 7 thousand rubles;
• accountant - 10 thousand rubles.

Total - salary costs will amount to 149 thousand rubles. The cleaning lady can clean up at the beginning of the working day and after lunch. If you plan to open a small store, it is enough to hire two salespeople.

Hardware store advertisement

To attract a large number of buyers to the building materials store, you will need to create a marketing plan. It is better to entrust this task to professionals and contact an advertising agency. Specialists will develop effective promotion strategies and apply networking tools, which will allow the young enterprise to develop successfully. Consider some ways to attract the target audience.

Even before the opening of the store, it is recommended to use life-size puppets - trained people will distribute flyers and leaflets to the population, which will quickly spread information and attract customers. Customers also love the opening ceremonies of various stores. It will not be superfluous to hold promotions and contests with prizes in the form of discounts and bonuses. This will allow you to get regular customers from the first days. In addition, you need to use:

• ads in the media, city newspapers, on the radio;
• placement of information on billboards;
• advertising in public transport;
• posting ads in the area where the store will be located.

Taking into account the production of an outdoor sign, holding an opening event and creating promotional materials, the cost of an advertising campaign will vary within 100 thousand rubles. In the future, you will have to spend about 25 thousand rubles a month to attract customers.

Advice: the products of building materials stores are needed by teams providing repair services, real estate specialists (who, for example, buy “killed” apartments, repair them and sell them at a higher price) and installation organizations. It is necessary to establish business relations with them and offer favorable conditions for cooperation (prices, delivery of materials), so that later they become regular customers.

Business plan - sale of building materials

How to write a business plan for a building materials store? It allows you to find out how much money is needed to open a retail outlet, calculate the amount of monthly mandatory costs and the profitability of the enterprise. Capital investment in the project will be:

• business registration - 0.8 thousand rubles (for individual entrepreneurs);
• repair and equipment of the store - 315 thousand rubles;
• rent (for 6 months) - 420 thousand rubles;
• purchase of the first batch of goods - 200 thousand rubles;
• advertising campaign - 100 thousand rubles;
• other expenses - 30 thousand rubles.

As a result, the initial investment is 1.067 million rubles. Also in the business plan of the hardware store you need to include the calculation of regular costs. These should include:

• staff salary - 149 thousand rubles;
• payment for utilities - 15 thousand rubles;
• advertising campaign - 25 thousand rubles;
• taxes - 30 thousand rubles;
• production costs - 20 thousand rubles.

The amount of expenses is 244 thousand rubles. We did not include the cost of purchasing goods for the store in the calculation, since the amounts can vary greatly depending on the concept of the store, the number of regular customers and other factors. As practice shows, the daily revenue of an average promoted store can reach 30 thousand rubles. With daily work, the monthly turnover will be within 900 thousand rubles. To find out the net profit of the enterprise, you need to subtract the amount of mandatory costs from its turnover, you get 656 thousand rubles. Under such conditions, investments in the store will pay off in 4-6 months of work.

Is it possible to organize the sale of building materials via the Internet?

The Internet allows each person to effectively develop a business. Organizing the sale of building materials is quite simple, for which you need to create an enterprise website. This will allow:

• attract many target buyers;
• do not pay money for renting a trading pavilion;
• do not limit yourself to work only in your region;
• offer customers a wide range of products;
• do not maintain a large staff of workers.

To organize a business through the Global Network, it is recommended to entrust the creation of an online store to a web studio or freelancers. The cost of a full-fledged portal with many functions varies within 30 thousand rubles. To promote the site, you need to turn to the services of SEO-optimizers, who will be able to bring it to the first positions of search engines for certain queries in a relatively short period of time.

The site makes it easy to sell goods throughout Russia and abroad. But this will require organizing the delivery of products. This can be done using the appropriate services. Be sure to create groups in social networks. Users need to be given interesting unique content on the use of various types of building materials. This will attract the target audience and reach large volumes of sales.

Contextual advertising will give a good result. This tool will help to get a large number of buyers who are ready to purchase the product. Store promotion is best entrusted to an experienced marketer. Site promotion services will cost about 15 thousand rubles. Another 5 thousand rubles must be paid monthly to support the advertising campaign.

Summing up, we note that the opening of a building materials store is a promising type of commercial activity. Such products are always in great consumer demand, bring good profits and have a long shelf life. With the right organization of your own business, you can quickly return the investment and reach a stable income.

Ways to increase sales

Trade in building materials is a business on the verge of a foul. It does not have huge margins, and the main profit comes from large volumes of sales. Construction is down. New materials appear and the assortment grows. In order to be successful in this business, you need to work finely with the assortment, different groups of buyers and customer retention conditions.

How to increase sales of building materials in these conditions, and other features of increasing the profitability of this business area. This will be discussed in the article.

Who is the client?

All buyers of building materials can be divided into three groups.

1. Retail clients. They bring the maximum profit from each unit of goods, because for retail buyers the price is less important, and they are ready to pay 10-15% more for service, availability, transport accessibility, quality of service. But their maintenance requires large expenditures for goods in stock, retail outlets, service personnel

2. Wholesale clients - construction organizations. This is the most attractive group of buyers, because they regularly need large volumes of goods. In addition to price, they are guided by the presented assortment, speed and uninterrupted supply.

3. Wholesale clients - trading enterprises (intermediaries) who resell the goods purchased from you. This is the group with the lowest marginality - intermediaries increase your turnover, but give a minimum income, because in order to make a profit they must purchase goods at the lowest possible price. The essence of their business is to buy cheaper to sell more expensive, they can overpay only for an exclusive.

To increase sales of building materials, you need to clearly understand which customers you are targeting - wholesale, retail, or both.

Approach the choice not from personal preferences, but taking into account the situation and statistics for the region and other objective factors.

The number of potential customers in the category, the current business situation, the needs of the regional market, the amount of funds that you are willing to invest in development, and others.

Example

If you trade in a region that is developing well and in which there are many developers, it makes sense to focus on them. If you already have an extensive network of retail stores located in areas with good traffic, it is wise to continue developing the retail direction.

10 effective ways to increase sales

You can increase sales in both traditional and non-traditional ways. We will tell you how to increase sales of building materials for the population and the B2B sector. Below are the 10 most effective ways that allow us to increase sales in such companies by at least 20%.

1. Wholesale for the sake of retail. If before that you were engaged exclusively in retail, you can open an additional wholesale direction, even if it does not bring profit. For what? To have a constant high volume of sales, due to which you can receive discounts from manufacturing plants and a low entry price.

With a reduced purchase price, you can:

• set a higher margin on retail and earn even more on each unit sold;
• reduce the retail margin by making prices as low as possible, and increase profits by increasing turnover.

2. Expansion of the range. Expansion of the range requires additional investments, and therefore must be clearly justified. Going to this step "just in case" or "to be cooler than others" is not worth it. It makes sense to expand the product line if it will increase profits or customer flow.

The expansion of the assortment allows you to increase profits by attracting new customers and selling goods by a "locomotive".

Attraction of new clients. The expansion of the assortment contributes to the emergence of new customers in two cases.

Firstly, when you know those to whom you can offer novelties. Hoping for ghost buyers who will appear with the renewal of the range is naive. Expansion is justified when there is confidence that the new product will be bought.

Secondly, when you know about potential customers who want to buy everything in one place. For example, if you have new roofing material, they will buy bolts, screws, and roofing material from you. On this material, you can go to zero, but you can earn money by selling screws, fasteners, gutters.

Selling goods by "locomotive", i.e. when a client comes to you for the sake of a new product, and leaves after buying a new product and something from the main assortment. In this case, as in the previous version, the new product may not be profitable - the profit will come from the “locomotive product”. Thus, you will not earn anything on the new product, but you will earn on everything that he buys additionally.

Please note that in this case, the work of the sales manager plays an important role. It is he who must offer the client not only a new product, but also a “locomotive product”. He must actively sell and know everything about . In reality, it often happens that the owner creates such a system, but the manager does not fulfill the requirements and the company works to zero.

3. Sales through the Internet site. Internet sales are an effective method for increasing sales during a crisis or during periods of seasonal recession, for example, in winter. Sell ​​building materials online. If you don't have your own website, it's time to create one. If there is a website, it is important to promote it competently, achieving relevant (targeted) visitors. The site allows not only to expand the circle of customers, but also save on expenses (on office rent and salaries of managers, because an employee working at home can take orders from the site).

• Visualization. To increase sales, you should not just advertise the product in words, but clearly show customers how it can be applied. For example, if you sell roofing tiles, include a photo of a roof covered in roofing tiles in your magazine ad. Or set up display stands with properly laid tile samples at the point of sale.
• Search for information. Don't know how to hook customers? Think of an informational occasion. For example, call regular customers with a message about discounts, about the delivery to the warehouse of the goods that they took last time, or about the imminent release of a new product.

5. Performing the functions of a picker. Large customers are willing to overpay for the opportunity to purchase goods in one place. You can not only sell your product, but also find / bring other products for customers. Everyone will benefit: you will sell your product and, possibly, make money on mediation; the client will receive the necessary building materials in one machine.

6. Work schedule. You can achieve an increase in sales in the building materials store by adjusting the work schedule.

• main clientele. Ideally, you should keep track of the days and times on which the main flow of customers goes and be sure to take orders during this period. For example, if the lion's share of orders goes on Saturday and Sunday, then it is better to do the day off on Monday, and leave Saturday and Sunday working.
• Counterweight to competitors. If your competitors work until 18.00, work until 20.00. If they rest on Saturdays and Sundays, try to work on those days. This will increase the chances that customers will come to you.

7. Possibility of payment by installments. How to increase wholesale sales of building materials? If the financial situation allows, sell the goods in installments. Most importantly, keep an eye on the size and condition.

8. Cold calling. You can increase the number of sales by. They will not give quick results, but if you build a dialogue correctly, in 2-3 months the number of customers will begin to grow.

9. Active work with clients on the incoming flow. It’s easier to keep a client than to call him “cold” later. It is important that managers establish contact with all clients who come on their own in order to be able to subsequently make “warm” calls.

• If you are engaged only in wholesale trade, and the client dropped in / called to clarify the availability of a certain material, features or cost of the goods, you should draw him into the dialogue, clarifying the needs if possible, and be sure to take contact information.
• If you are engaged in both wholesale and retail, it is important to competently contact customers who come to retail outlets. Keep in mind that among them there may be wholesalers and persons responsible for large purchases.

10. Customer service standards. The increase in sales is positively affected by the introduction of uniform service standards throughout the entire distribution network. It is important to control the work of managers and train them to communicate competently with customers.

Situations when the manager was not in the mood and sent the client or was too lazy to fully answer his question should be reduced to zero.

To do this, all telephone conversations must be recorded, and surveillance cameras must be installed in the trading floors. Ideally, develop a ready-made algorithm for talking with a client for each manager and draw up answers to any objections.

To summarize all of the above, in order to increase sales of building materials in your company, you must perform the following steps:

• Analysis of customer needs
• Maximum customer satisfaction
• Improving the work of your own sales department
• Attraction of new clients
• Motivation to retain existing

In the current economic climate, the idea of ​​starting your own business is becoming more and more popular. The fact is that a personal enterprise opens up a number of advantages that were not available before. At the same time, you should not hope that your own business is devoid of any difficulties and unpleasant moments. From the very beginning, you need to understand that in order to achieve any positive results, it will be necessary to make a lot of effort. To date, the trade in building materials is almost the most popular business idea.

Relevance

The demand for construction products is quite high among domestic consumers. The thing is that a fairly large number of people make repairs in their houses, apartments or country houses. That is why they often turn to the retail building materials industry for help. On the other hand, there are individuals or legal entities that are engaged in large construction projects. Given the large volumes, representatives of the second group can be found in the wholesale trade in building materials.

Buy or create from scratch

People who decide to start selling building materials quite often have the following question: should I buy a ready-made hardware store or is it better to create it myself from the very beginning? Although both options have their advantages and disadvantages, buying a ready-made business is considered a more profitable solution to this issue, since in this case it will be possible to assess the profitability and profitability of a particular store in a particular area. Thus, it is believed that buying a ready-made store and re-registering it for yourself is the right decision. In addition, experts say that the costs of both the purchase and the creation of a store are approximately the same. For those who decide to start their business from scratch, it would be useful to remind you that you need to register a legal entity to trade in building materials. LLC can be called whatever you like. The main thing is that this name does not repel potential customers.

Types of building stores

Fortunately, for a simple consumer, the number of places where you can buy various types of building materials is now very large. The whole set of points of trade in building materials according to the proposed assortment and trading area can be divided into the following groups:

• small shops up to 100 sq. m with an assortment of about 200 items;
• large stores (construction supermarkets) with a total area of ​​about 200 sq. m, offering their customers 5-15 thousand articles of goods;
• stores-warehouses with an area of ​​up to 2500 sq. m. and trade assortment up to 1000 articles.

At this stage, you should immediately determine what type of store you are going to open. Here it is very important to correctly assess your own strengths and existing demand in order to avoid possible financial problems in the future. For example, if you have a dream to open a construction supermarket, but in a territory where there is no strong consumer demand for construction products, then it is better to give up this dream. It is much more profitable to open a small hardware store to balance supply and demand.

Location for hardware store

This is how smoothly we approached the next important aspect in opening our own building materials trading business. The location of your store is one of the most important factors affecting its profitability. Naturally, the place of the outlet will directly depend on its type. However, the most versatile is the one that is located next to new buildings or not far from a busy highway. It is this location, as well as convenient access roads, that guarantee the store a decent flow of potential buyers in advance.

It is also worth noting that it is undesirable to make a building materials store in a residential building. In this case, there may be problems with the fire department regarding the sale of flammable substances.

If you decide to open a store-warehouse, then it would be useful to equip it with access railway tracks so that you can transport large loads in different ways.

In general, when it comes to choosing the best place, you need to find a compromise between a good location and rent. The fact is that landlords also understand the importance of the location of the store, and the cost of rent increases proportionally with the improvement of this very place.

Appearance

Once you have found a suitable location and premises for your store, you should start designing it. Appearance should be given special attention, because it is on it that visitors will draw the first conclusions about your business. So, the store should be attractive in a general sense and have the right sign from a marketing point of view. In addition, do not forget about the need for parking, which is also very important for your future customers.

Interior view

Inside your store, a favorable atmosphere should reign, so that customers want to stay there and come again. First of all, you need to make sure that the internal appearance matches the external. Here it is necessary to use the same color scheme, the same design techniques, the same fonts and the like.

• good lighting;
• large areas;
• easy access to goods;
• clear prices;
• product indicators;
• grouping goods by belonging;
• favorable temperature.

These were the most general requirements. When running your own business for a long time, determine a number of other requirements yourself that will be special for you.

Another important aspect in the design of the store is the correct location of the goods. The most important thing here is to put to the fore the products that you consider the most sold, that is, promising building materials for trade at a particular moment. For example, if you know that a strong hurricane has recently passed, then roofing and glazing repair materials will be promising products.

Range

What is the most important element of a hardware store? This is an assortment. In a building materials store, it must be very large. The best option is when you can offer your customer almost everything: from a nail to a sponge for washing dishes.

It is also very important to provide goods from different price groups. For example, if you are selling imported timber at a crazy price, it would be quite reasonable to also have a cheaper analogue.

In addition, do not forget that the store must keep up with the times. Firstly, you need to constantly monitor the replenishment of the assortment with various new products, and secondly, in summer, focus on one product, in winter - on another.

Other important points

In addition to all of the above, there are a number of other points that can be decisive when it comes to the profitability of your building materials store. First of all, it concerns advertising. If you want to get a decent flow of customers from the first days of work, you should not save on funds to promote a new business.

The next aspect is the careful selection of personnel. Particular attention should be paid to how this same staff will serve customers. Any manifestations of rudeness or rudeness to customers should be stopped immediately.

Another point that can attract more buyers is the provision of additional services. For example, the delivery of purchased products or the presence of teams of builders who could assemble, assemble, repair what was purchased. This can be an additional advantage of the new store in the eyes of the target audience.

The final point is taxation. Trade in building materials, like any other type of commercial activity, is subject to taxes. This point must be taken into account from the very beginning, when running your own business is just an idea in your head.

Conclusion

This article mentioned the main points that you should pay attention to when opening your own building materials trading business. Naturally, this list is far from complete, but careful study of each of these points at an early stage will greatly facilitate the start of a business. Do not be afraid to take risks, then everything will work out!