The Kitchen and Bath Industry's First Buying Group Celebrates Milestone 20th Anniversary
Chapel Hill, NC (PRWEB) January 23, 2014 -- The SEN Design Group, an independent organization of kitchen and bath professionals, is pleased to announce its 20th anniversary in business.
Since its inception in 1994 by Ken Peterson, CKD as the kitchen and bath industry’s first buying group for independent dealers, SEN Design Group has grown to a membership of over 205 kitchen and bath professionals across the country. Additionally, SEN has negotiated national agreements with more than 75 quality vendors, offering nearly 130 major brands to its members at group buying rates so, with many products, they can earn higher gross margins on their projects.
Members also earn rebates that grow as the group achieves higher levels of sales performance with each of its preferred vendors. Within this business model even smaller dealerships can leverage their buying power to earn thousands of dollars in "found money" to better their bottom lines. For example, from 1995 to 2011 one SEN member from suburban Philadelphia collected $208,000 in rebates which ultimately financed the college educations of his two children.
“What started out 20 years ago with a handful of dealer-members and just four vendors has evolved into a rather large and successful combined buying and business development group," said Ken Peterson, founder of SEN. "SEN is in the business of accelerating the revenue growth and bettering the bottom lines of its members. Since no two kitchen/bath dealer operations are quite the same in structure, focus, or stage of development, out of necessity SEN has cultivated a very broad and deep offering of educational programs, marketing tools, management systems, and support services."
Over the last 20 years, SEN has focused on education and business development to assist its members in business expansion and gross profit growth. SEN has held nearly 40 successful conferences for members and vendors, and greatly expanded its educational opportunities to include online courses. Its business coaching services, launched in 2008, helped over 75 of its members survive the Great Recession. Said Peterson, "SEN dealer roundtables held at conferences were so effective members asked that us to conduct them monthly via conference calls. Now that program has further morphed into small groups of members, who trust and respect each other, critiquing each other's business during a 2 1/2 day onsite review." Because these members function much like a board of directors, these groups now bear the name of MyBOD."
In 2012, SEN expanded its management team to include Leah Peterson and Scott Forester, experts in marketing and finance respectively, who are positioned to continue to grow SEN for decades to come. And in 2014, during its 20th anniversary year, SEN will be debuting the first end-to-end, industry-specific dealer management software. "This Network Management System (NMS) will, I believe, be a major productivity booster for our members because it streamlines both the up-front selling process - to secure more jobs in half the time - and the back-end production of those jobs," commented Peterson. "It's a real game-changer!"
About the SEN Design Group:
The SEN Design Group is the industry’s first kitchen and bath buying and business development group. As an 20-year-old professional organization, SEN has over 200 members nationwide and more than 75 quality vendors in cabinetry, appliances, plumbing fixtures, decorative hardware, closets, lighting, bathroom products, flooring, tile, business services and accessories who offer their products/services to the membership at group rates. Additionally, SEN offers over 40 business development services to its membership, including financial planning, business coaching, business management training, sales training programs, marketing tools to generate leads, networking, and management systems. For more information on SEN, visit http://www.sendesigngroup.com.
Leah, Peterson, SEN Design Group, +1 (919) 933-6640, [email protected]
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