Giving away a free kitchen tripled my sales
Although many retailers would balk at the idea of giving away a kitchen for free, Inspire Kitchens owner Jamie Baker says it was actually the key to boosting sales over the quieter Christmas period.
Words: Jamie Baker
At the end of last year, we decided to run a competition where we’d give away a £15k kitchen for free to a client who placed an order before a set date in December.
I’m sure when a lot of people saw the competition, they didn’t believe it was true, but it was absolutely genuine.
December is traditionally on the quiet for us, and we were closed over the whole festive period, so my aim was to take as many people out of the market early that might buy elsewhere over the Christmas period. Fortunately, we ended up selling a whopping 14 kitchens in the six-week run up to Christmas, which was way, way more than we usually would at that time!
Where we’re based, we’re one of just a handful of independents, and most of our competition comes from the big sheds, so we had to do something to really stand out. The type of clients we get just don’t buy the whole “order now for a free dishwasher” deal that some retailers do, so we needed to do something to really entice people.
When I get an idea, I’m the sort of person who tends to just run with it. But running a competition like that was something we’d been thinking about for a long time. It would definitely be a big investment on our part, and we could realistically lose a lot of money on a job like that, but I was convinced it would pay off.
It was all about the preparation – I wouldn’t have done it without speaking to all of our suppliers – I negotiated better rates with them, so my loss at the end of it was nowhere near where it could have been. We also work very closely with the worktop fabricators close to us, and I’ve known them for a long time, having been in the industry for 20 years.
After telling them about my plans, they were happy to give us the quartz worktops for free. Although they gave us the slabs at no charge, we were all confident it would secure more business.
I had a similar scenario with BSH. While they never gave us appliances for free, they were more than happy to give us a discount because we convinced them about the further business it would generate for everyone during the competition.
With the worktops supplied, and the discounted appliances, we basically just took a hit on the cabinet costs. So yes, we might have lost money on that job, but we generated way more business than what we lost.
In the end, it was really worth it, and although it was a bit of a gamble, luckily for us it paid off. In the grand scheme of things, if you add up all the money that everybody’s made and factor in losing the sale of one kitchen, the sales we’ve got in return from our increased orders still far outweigh that loss.
And it was also worth it to surprise our clients with the great news around Christmas – they were both over the moon when we told them. All in all, it’s something I’d also like to run again at some point if it becomes possible. It might have been very risky, but I’m definitely rubbing my hands together now it’s paid off!