With the cost-of-living crisis tightening the purse strings of homeowners across the country, managing director at Pyramid Group, Paul Bailey, discusses how installers can continue to maintain sales levels.

Whether you’re reading the paper, watching the news or browsing social media, you’d do well not to see something about the cost-of-living crisis.

It’s everywhere at the moment, and that’s because it is having such an impact on the lives of ordinary working people. While we haven’t seen an official recession or downturn as of yet, high levels of inflation, interest rates and energy prices continue to squeeze our economy.

It’s probably too early to call how this will affect our industry. It would be pretty logical to assume that rising inflation will lead to a decrease in spending, especially in areas like home improvements, but it’s not that simple.

While we probably will see a decline of some sorts, there are a lot of homeowners who will continue to spend, and there are ways in which installers can adapt in order to take advantage of this portion of the market so that sales remain strong.

Not all doom and gloom

While the cost-of-living crisis is undoubtedly making homeowners more cautious about what they spend their money on, many will still be looking to invest in their home.

A lot of them won’t stop spending on home improvements, but they will be much more considerate when choosing which areas of their home to invest in. For example, whereas previously they may have been considering a whole house renovation, they may now choose to only invest in a new bathroom or kitchen extension.

This means that they are still willing to spend, but they are spending on the renovations which are top of their priorities. So, for glazing industry installers, we have to ensure that glazing products are a top priority, by proving their value and showing the improvements they can make to people’s home life.

Proving our value

When it comes to proving the value of our products, there are many things which we can focus on to encourage homeowners to invest, such as the aesthetic or security benefits which can help improve a property.

While these will always remain an important feature of our products, during this period of rising energy prices, showcasing the energy saving factors of our windows and doors will help us ensure that new windows and doors remain a priority for homeowners.

The stats support this too, with a huge shift last year towards energy efficient products. According to the Rated People Home Improvement Trends report, 45% of homeowners are looking to make eco home improvements in 2023, with 50% of those doing so to reduce costs.

This shows how important it is for installers to have energy efficient products in their portfolio. Having products which provide genuine cost-saving advantages to homeowners, provides installers with a competitive advantage and helps to convert more leads into sales.

Choosing the right products

Our SlimFold bi-fold door is the perfect product to help installers navigate through the cost-of-living crisis.

Using insulated thermal breaks and bespoke draught-reducing gaskets, we’re able to achieve a U-value of 1.4 w/m²K with a standard double-glazed unit, leading to cost-saving and insulation benefits for homeowners. It achieves this without compromising on other features, with 100mm sightlines for sleek aesthetics, as well as being super quick to fit, with a pre-fitted cill and an easy-click glazing bead to make life easier on site for installers.

While the cost-of-living crisis continues to have an impact on everyone’s lives, installers need to be smart about the products they have in their portfolio to be able to maximise conversion rates and maintain sales levels.

Choosing SlimFold ensures you can sell an energy efficient product, which will have significant cost-saving benefits to homeowners, helping to keep business as strong as possible throughout this troubled period.