D&B Employee Profile July 2011

Sandi Bavota

Sandi is a valued member of the showroom sales staff at the Sawgrass store. She has been with the company for nine years. Prior to that, she worked for 10 years with a tile company in Naples, FL. When we sat down with Sandi, one of the key questions we asked was what kind of trends she has been seeing with in-store sales over the past few years. Her answer summed up the market conditions and may provide a tip for how we market tile to homeowners.

According to Sandi, "We all know that South Florida is virtually built-out. There simply is no more room for new housing projects and, up until a few years ago, much of our sales were to homeowners interested in improving their homes and then hoping to resell them. They stayed with mostly conservative tiles and trim and did not necessarily favor anything that wasn't traditional. That's all changed now since the homeowners I see on a daily basis are buying for themselves. They are more interested in decorating their homes to suit their own tastes. That is resulting in an upsurge in larger tiles, bolder colors and warmer tones." She added, "Our homeowner customers are gearing for the long-term rather than a short-term redecorating job and then moving on."

"We are actually seeing more upsell with customers who come into the store looking for a new backsplash and leaving with plans to completely remodel their kitchen. We have such a variety of products and brands that we have to take the time to more or less pre-qualify customers as to their needs and their tastes before we show them around the store. I always try to sit down with customers and determine their budget, their tastes and style of their home furnishings before we start looking at tile. By doing this, I can direct them toward complementary tile pairings, colors and sizes. We see a lot of customers who are choosing the larger tiles, up to 24x24, with smaller grout lines and using that tile throughout their home rather than in specific rooms."

Sandi works closely with the design team who often give her a heads-up about specific designers, architects or customers they are working with and when they arrive, she knows what to show them. She also knows that the tile business is 24 hours a day and that leads come from everywhere. "I see people all the time outside of work and recognize me as a D&B employee. I recently worked with someone from a store in the Sawgrass Mills Mall. Swim N' Sport is one of a chain of at least a dozen stores around the country. I am working with them on tile selection and expect to ship product to all locations in the US."

D&B Tile Distributors appreciates and recognizes Sandi's efforts and looks forward to a long relationship with her at our stores.