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With the boom in the home improvement market now clearly a distant memory, we all envisaged that the demand for new windows and doors would not be able to continue at the rate that we had experienced over the last few years. Selecta Systems Marketing Manager, Mark Walker, talks about how they are taking fabricator and installer sales and marketing support to a whole new level.
Over the last few years, we have been working meticulously in the background at ways of adding real value and benefits to our sales and marketing support service, tools and mechanisms. Our main drive and objective being very clear; to make our sales and marketing support package a real game changer, not only for ourselves, but more importantly for our fabricators and installers.
New Trade & Homeowner Websites
One of the first investments we identified was a brand-new website. In fact, we saw huge opportunities for two new websites, one for trade and one for retail. We were experiencing a number of homeowner enquiries, some 25+ per week, just through the website alone and more via telephone and email. This highlighted that there was potential for a consumer dedicated website with improved homeowner-based information and branding.
This in-turn would be capable of generating and capturing sales leads for our fabricator and installer customer base. Hence, we designed and built both a trade and retail website, with the latter aimed at promoting the ADVANCE 70 brand. The way we see it is that our fabricators and/or installers sell the ADVANCE 70 window and door system, not Selecta, and the end consumer has ADVANCE 70 windows and doors installed.
On both the selectasystems.com and advance70.co.uk websites, a Find a Fabricator / Installer feature was added, to make it easier and quicker for consumers to engage with our growing customer base. By filtering it down to their area, distance from their location and products required, consumers can drill down their most local fabricators and/or installers. Direct links to the fabricator and/or installers website and contact details are included in the customer card, all contained within a Google map with directions, street view and other map functions.
Window & Door Designer and Home Visualiser
The biggest and most exciting addition to the consumer dedicated website is the Window and Door Designer with Home Visualiser, delivered by the amazing TOUCH. The complete range of Selecta products, direct from our Business Micros dataset, have been included thus allowing visitors to the site to design their own windows and doors!
They can choose the style, configuration, colour, hardware and glass decoration before saving each design within the portal. The most valuable part of the designer is that a homeowner can upload images of their home and drop on their newly designed windows and doors! This enables them to see if the colour or design they desire compliments the style, period and location of their home before submitting the enquiry. Once completed they can submit their enquiry which lands within the Dealer Network section of our newly upgraded Connect customer portal. A professional PDF copy of their design lands in the homeowners inbox too!
Once the enquiry hits our admin area of the Connect portal, we are then able to assign it to their local fabricator and/or installer! Every customer of Selecta is included within the Connect portal and has an account to not only access their sales leads, but a host of other sales and marketing tools and information. The fabricator and/or installer is now able to accept the lead, which comes complete with the customers design and contact details. It also allows them to download a professional PDF copy of the design and a survey sheet to quote the customer.
Selecta are the first systems company to launch the TOUCH Window and Door Designer and provide this level of sales and marketing support, as we continue to put fabricators and installers at the heart of our business. Between the Find a Fabricator / Installer feature and the Window and Door Designer alone we are currently generating in excess of 200 sales leads per month. These are distributed through the Connect Dealer Network to our customer base, dependent on leads location. We see this figure increasing greatly during 2024 as we venture on an exciting campaign to further promote the ADVANCE 70 brand, website and Window & Door Designer.
Stay Connected
As part of the website updates, we also upgraded our Connect customer support portal. Connect is designed to provide fabricators and/or installers with 24/7, 365 days a year access to a host of sales, marketing and technical support tools and information.
Originally launched in 2018, our Connect customer support portal, now includes more sales and marketing tools than ever before! The same Window and Door Designer with Home Visualiser that features upon our homeowner website, is available to fabricators and installers to have branded and sit on their own website. This amazing designer package and sales lead generator revolutionises the way fabricators and/or installers present and sell windows and doors to a whole new level.
Also, within Connect is a brand-new website support package, where themed ready-made websites for both trade and retail businesses are available to fabricators and/or installers, who don’t want to go through the headache of a website build. With pages full of quality imagery and product information, all that’s needed to complete your branded site is your logo, contact details, colour scheme and about us bio. Combine that with the Window and Door Designer and you have the complete online package to help you win new business!
We also have a web2print brochure creator on its way that allows our customers to brand and edit our range of brochures with their own information and imagery, without requiring any graphic design experience. There will also be a stationery and promotional product shop, where customers can design and purchase everything from branded pens and letterheads, through to workwear and mugs.
With the addition of new sales brochures, branded sales videos and images, these investments in our range of sales and marketing tools demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the industry and more importantly, our customer base. Everything has been purposely designed to provide fabricators and/or installers with a simplistic way of upgrading their sales and marketing offering, helping to promote their products and services. All of which is aimed at helping fabricators and/or installers win new business and take their business to a whole new level in 2024 and beyond.
One of the UK’s leading and longstanding PVCu window and door systems companies, Selecta Systems, head to FIT Show 2023 with a fabricator and installer support package that is being touted as a real game changer, whilst they also show off how they have modernised the ever-popular patio door! Sales Director, Andy Green and Marketing Manager, Mark Walker, give you an insight in to what you can expect from the independent and family-owned PVCu systems company at FIT Show 2023!
Andy comments, “We have always been proud of our ability to provide a flexible and personal service and support package and we see the FIT Show as the perfect platform to show off our latest innovations. The recent update to our Connect customer portal aims to take our marketing and sales support package to the next level, with a suite of support mechanisms designed to help fabricators and installers win new business”.
“The Connect customer support portal was originally launched in May 2018, where it focused around a resource centre of marketing and technical downloads, information and guides to help fabricators and installers 24/7, 365 days a year. Our intentions were to always grow the platform in to the ‘go to hub’ for all areas of technical, marketing and sales support, of which we are now able to fully demonstrate its new capabilities and features, as Mark will explain.
Mark continues, “The whole project has been in progress for almost two years with our Connect portal now boasting a host of new marketing, sales and technical support features. A new trade website has been built that will host the upgraded Connect portal, whilst a brand new homeowner website will intrinsically link enquiries and sales leads between Connect and the customer”.
“The homeowner website has two fantastic features. The first being a ‘Find a Fabricator / Installer’ feature, where all of our approved fabricators and installers are available within a simplistic search engine. The second is the option for visitors to the site to design their own windows and doors with our fantastic Window and Door Designer! The designer has all of the Selecta range of products, from casement, flush sash and tilt and turn windows through to residential, French, patio and EASi-FOLD doors. We’ve also added in a range of composite doors, so that the homeowner has a good range of products, styles and configurations to choose from and improve their home”.
“We have kept the design and enquiry process simple. The homeowner can select a number of window and door configurations and styles, the internal and external colour, hardware colour and other glazing options like Georgian bar or leaded glass. The real beauty of this is that they can also take a photo of their property and drop the windows and doors on to their home to visualise how they would look! They can then submit their design as a professional PDF enquiry for quoting, of which we send direct to their local fabricators and/or installers admin area of their Connect portal for access and follow up”.
“As a fabricator or installer, we are also able to offer you a branded version of the window and door designer for the you to have embedded upon your own website! As a fabricator and/or installer you are then able to generate your own sales leads and have them land within your own admin area of your own version of Connect. You can have your own logo and contact details contained within the package and also emblazoned on all the relevant paperwork. What’s also being added, is the ability to add prices and provide a professional quote and order system. It really is a fantastic marketing and sales management platform!”, says Mark.
The upgraded Connect portal also provides a number of other features to support fabricators and installers, as Mark describes.
“Within Connect we also provide customers with the facility to have a brand new themed and branded website. This takes away the headache of a website build, whilst also incorporating the ability to have our amazing window and door designer embedded in to the site. This provides our customers with a professional website and excellent sales lead generation and presentation tool, whether it’s for trade or retail”.
“An excellent Web2Print brochure and marketing material creator and designer is also featured within Connect. This is where you can take our brochures, guides and flyers, add your own installation imagery and brand them with your own logo and contact details. You can then add them to your basket and have your own branded marketing materials delivered direct to your door! A shop will also provide you with the option to have your own branded point of sale items, banners, stationery, mugs, workwear etc.”
“Connect will also have a brand-new resource centre full of all the latest marketing and technical information and downloads. This includes brochures, guides, manuals, certificates, test reports and a comprehensive range of product and sales related materials and documents. A news section will also keep you up-to-date with the latest news from Selecta. We see this as a game changer for fabricators and installers and the whole suite of features certainly sets us apart from our competitors, delivering a marketing support package that will help our customers win new business”.
With the Connect portal featuring heavily on the stand, Selecta have also used the opportunity to relaunch the modernised and improved MASTERslide patio door as Andy reveals.
“Over the last few years the patio door has had some kind of renaissance and they now seem to be the cost effective solution to creating a wall of glass. So, what we have done at Selecta is bring the MASTERslide patio door bang up-to-date and a more attractive proposition for the homeowner, whilst also being more fabricator and fitter friendly”.
“We designed a brand-new two-part interlock, which not only serves as an added security measure for PAS 24, but also provides both the fabricator and installer with a far more simpler solution. It improves the fabrication and installation time, whilst also allowing greater flexibility for adjustments when on site”.
“An aluminium low threshold has also been added to the patio door for Document M compliance. The new low threshold has a height of just 20mm compared to a full PVCu frame and cill at 80mm, thus providing easy access and egress. Aesthetically, it also improves the look and enhances the appeal of the patio door”.
“Another desirable upgrade comes in the form of the locking system. The addition of a 12 point shootbolt lock adds to the overall security passing the requirements of PAS 24 with relative ease. An attractive infill bar between the keeps provides a clean finish to the locking mechanism”.
Andy concludes, “Alongside the MASTERslide patio door, we will also have our industry leading window and door system, ADVANCE 70, on our stand with a few new product prototypes on display for feedback. With these new products and the fantastic Connect portal suite of features, we are really looking forward to this year’s 10 year anniversary show. As an ever-present exhibitor it demonstrates our continued commitment to the industry”.
Selecta Systems, have always focused on providing fabricators and installers with a fully comprehensive and bespoke service and support package. Marketing Manager Mark Walker provides us with the details of their latest innovative support package, designed to help fabricators and installers win new business, in what he describes as a systems company first!
Two New Websites
Firstly, we are launching two brand new websites, one for the trade and one for the homeowner. Our current all-encompassing website generates approximately 20-25 homeowner enquiries per week, with the content striving to reflect the requirements of all types of visitors. An internal review of the website left us with the ideology that we had tried to suit all visitors requirements, but ended up confusing some visitors. Therefore, we felt that separating the websites would enable ourselves to manage, control and promote specifics better with each target audience.
Another reason for separating the websites was to enable ourselves to promote the ADVANCE 70 brand direct to the homeowner. We feel that this is an important factor in providing the consumer with the information that they require to ensue confidence in the product, with the aim of supporting our fabricator base by directing enquiries to them.
Sitting upon the homeowners website will be two fabulous new features. The first being a ‘Find a Fabricator / Installer’ feature, where all of our approved fabricators and installers will be available within a simplistic search engine. A homeowner can search a specific area, define how far away they want to search and also select which Selecta product or range of products that they are looking to enquire about or purchase. A list of their local fabricators and installers will show up alongside a Google map, where all of their contact details, direct link to their website and also email address is available. This enables a homeowner to contact a local fabricator / installer at their own convenience.
Design Your Own Windows and Doors
To go one further, a homeowner also has the option to design their own windows and doors with our fantastic Window and Door Designer! The designer has all of the Selecta range of products, from casement, flush sash and tilt and turn windows through to residential, French, patio and EASi-FOLD doors. We’ve also added in a range of composite doors, so that the homeowner has a good range of products, styles and configurations to choose from and improve their home.
We have kept the design and enquiry process simple. The homeowner can select a number of window and door configurations and styles, the internal and external colour, hardware colour and other glazing options like Georgian bar or leaded glass. The real beauty of this is that they can also take a photo of their property and drop the windows and doors on to their home to visualise how they would look! They can then submit their design as an enquiry for quoting.
The whole point of this homeowner engagement is to generate sales leads for our customers. We have a brand new interface for our customer only portal, Connect, of which all enquiries will come directly in to our dealer network section. Once they land in our admin area of the portal, it will show us the nearest fabricator / installer to the enquiry. We can then send this enquiry direct to the fabricator / installer, through the portal, of which it will land directly in to the customers own section of Connect for follow up.
The enquiry will have all the relevant product imagery, customer information and details, which are presented in a professional document that can be downloaded as a PDF. The fabricator / installer can then utilise the enquiry to contact the homeowner and carry out a survey.
A Real Gamechanger and Systems Company First
As a fabricator or installer, we can also offer a branded version of the window and door designer for the customer to have embedded upon their own website! Fabricators and installers are then able to generate their own sales leads directly and have them land within their own admin area of their version of the Connect portal. They can have their own logo and contact details contained within the package and also emblazoned on all the relevant paperwork. What’s also being added, is the ability to add prices and provide professional quotes for the homeowners. It really is a fantastic bit of marketing kit!
We see this as a game changer for fabricators and installers, where in time it will be able to be used for both trade and retail. It’s the first of its kind to be launched by a systems company. It’s something you may have expected from a super fabricator, but it’s not been done previously by a systems company and that’s why we’re excited about this whole project. It takes our marketing support package to a completely new level and that’s always been our aim.
This package certainly sets us apart from our competitors and delivers a marketing support package that will help our customers win new business. To compliment this, we can also offer a brand new themed and branded website to sit along the window and door designer. This takes away the headache of a website build, whilst also incorporating the ability to have the window and door designer embedded in to the site. This provides our customers with a professional website and excellent sales lead generation and presentation tool, whether its for trade or retail.
The whole project has been in progress for almost two years, alongside our upgrade to Connect, our customer portal. Connect will have a brand new resource centre full of marketing and technical information and downloads. A fantastic Web2Print branded and bespoke brochure and marketing material creator and designer will also be featured within Connect. Being ‘part of the family’ is as exciting as ever and we can’t wait to unleash our brand new marketing support package at FIT Show 2023, on Stand M31 from 23-25 May.