GSO, flooring opps abound for dealers

In the average, mid-sized house, people tend to put their miscellaneous "stuff" in about five places: basements, attics, closets, exterior sheds and, of course, garages. As much as prototypical packrats would love to cram items into garages as if they were oversized suitcases, trends in the early 21st century show a desire for a more organized approach. Increasing numbers of garage-owners want cabinets, hook-and-wire storage devices, ceiling storage and specialty floors. That movement has spawned an entire garage flooring industry — still in its infancy among door dealers — and the multi-billion-dollar garage storage and organization (GSO) industry, a steamrolling bandwagon that door dealers have gradually decided to climb on.

"For the longest time, [door dealers] had blinders on," says Tim Matthias, chief marketing officer for Las Vegas-based Hyloft Inc., which sells metal racks that can easily attach to garage ceilings. "Dealers were so focused on their primary business."

But Matthias says more and more dealers see GSO products as "the perfect up-sell," and many of them can be installed in less than half an hour. Ceiling racks are hung very similarly to doors, so Matthias sees how door installers can simply "move their ladder over and keep doing what they’re doing." He indicates that side-wall products, such as tool hangers, are gaining momentum, too.

Of all the GSO products, the ones dealers are most apprehensive about are cabinets. But Dave Phillips, vice president of HandiSolutions in Elk Grove, Ill., says cabinets are integral for people looking to organize the garage. "If dealers start selling GSO, they’ve got to have an answer for cabinet options because homeowners will ask." Wood cabinets are more attractive, deeper and sturdier, but lighter-weight resin cabinets can hang from the wall. The goal for most people, Phillips relays, is just to get everything off of the floor and put away.

Marketing GSO products as part of a door business starts with home-builders and home-buyers. With the housing market in shambles and the economy sputtering, it might seem that the market is shrinking. Matthias says that’s not true. "I think we’re going to see sales increase because people won’t be building big homes for a while; they’re going to need to make use with the space they have. We’re already seeing this with remodeling."

Rick Chamberlain, director of sales and marketing for storeWALL LLC in Milwaukee, says that the key to marketing GSO items is to spend a fair amount of time with the customer — not to do "churn-and-burn" installations. Chamberlain has seen the most GSO growth among door dealers who specialize in higher-end designer doors and openers. "These dealers typically have a more consultative sales approach," he says. They usually don’t do as many installations, he adds, but they spend more time on each one and it leads to sales opportunities among customers who, by opting for special designs, are already looking for more than a utilitarian garage.

It’s also smart to target loyal customers from the traditional, bread-and-butter door business. If these buyers have had a strong relationship with your company in the past, they are more likely to be sold on GSO products. Items such as the simple wire storage bins that hook into the wall will appeal to customers and won’t require as much installation as cabinetry.