If you were around in 2008, you remember fighting for every job and trying to come up with ways to stand out from the crowd.

Some of you did it with price – discounts on woodgrains and hardware, financing, or quick installation.

Others added to their offering, trying to capture more spaces in the home and hopefully increasing the average sale.  Pull out drawers in lower kitchen cabinets, garage flooring, window coverings or even shower doors.

In 2008, I was working for Eveready Hardware and we came up with a sliding door program that many of you added to your standard offering.  It helped us get thru the recession and some of you are still offering this program today.

I’m not sure what the rest of this year will look like, all I know is that increasing your average sale is never a bad thing.

Not sold on sliding doors?

Think about this –

How many times have you installed a beautiful reach in closet behind noisy builder grade bypassing doors?

Do you think if you had a program in place you could get 20% of those clients to buy doors from you?

Let’s start with the competition – There aren’t many options for your client to buy new sliding doors.

They could do a weekend project, buy the doors from Home Depot, and hope they are the right size.  I don’t think someone that just spent a couple of thousand dollars on closets really wants to do that.

Sure, they could try to find a reliable contractor (good luck) and have custom doors made.  Again, I don’t think most people want to do that and it would be expensive.

If there is a Sliding Door Company in your market, they make beautiful glass doors and are a great solution. Except they are expensive, there is a long lead time and families with young children might not want glass doors.

So, you can see there really isn’t much competition.

Offering your clients sliding doors gives you an opportunity to increase your average sale, and helps you differentiate yourself – as a total solution.

Richelieu offers sliding door hardware solutions to fit every budget and application.  We even have a team of technical specialists that can help you decide which system is right for you.

If you are just getting started below are my “go-to” systems that should cover the majority of your applications.  They are easy to use and work with ¾” material.

• 89DCD2M – This is a top hung system that will hold 99lbs per door and all the hardware is surface mounted which makes it very user friendly.  Band a ¾” panel, add one of our oversized handles to the door and you easily just added $1000 to the total sale of that installation.

• 89CD40CX – Don’t want to hang the doors off the header?  Building a built-in wardrobe or a garage cabinet? The CD40 could be the system for you.  This is a bottom rolling system that features adjustable bottom rollers and a top guide for smooth travel.

• Bridge 600 – Need something that will hold more than 99lbs?  Want to add a few more bells and whistles – like soft close and a full-length aluminum handle?  Bridge 600 is a perfect solution.  It features an upper guide rail and lower track for smooth/quiet travel.  Surface mount hardware and sold in kits makes this system very user friendly.

• PL2550 – Does your customer prefer full access to the closet? The PL2550 is the perfect solution. It’s a bi-fold door system made for ¾” panels.  Only drilling required is one 35mm hinge hole, everything else is surface mounted.  It also features a top track and carrier that will prevent any door sag.

Are you a little more advanced?

Working with high-end clients?

Our co-planar door hardware is the best on the market.  Co-planar hardware is a by-passing door system that when closed, the doors are flush – keeping a consistent reveal that most high-end clients are looking for.

If you would like more information about our sliding door offering please visit Richelieu.com – here is a link to our sliding door selection wizard or reach out to your local Richelieu rep.

Are you currently offering sliding doors?

What are the obstacles?

Any wins?

I would love to hear your comments.

Thank you for reading!