The following article about The Cabinet Market was featured in PERSPECTIVE magazine:
Simon Sinek’s classic work, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take
Action explores the secret sauce that makes some people and organizations more innovative, influential and profitable than others. He wanted to understand why some people are willing to tattoo the Harley Davidson logo on their bodies, but you don’t see too many Honda, BMW or Kawasaki tattoos. Sinek wanted to determine how Southwest Airlines is the only airline that has generated a profit every year it has been in business while none of its competitors has done the same. He wanted to examine why the Wright Brothers, with no funding, no expertise and no one on their team with a college education, became the pioneers of flight instead of a government backed and funded team of scientific superstars.
Sinek discovered that great companies start with ‘why?’. “Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do what they do,” Sinek explains. “When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money – that’s a result. By WHY I mean ”what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?”
If you have the pleasure of talking to Mike Bond and Simon Phillips of The Cabinet Market, you will quickly learn that they fit Sinek’s mold of outstanding leaders. They know their ‘why?’. They understand their purpose and the story of how they formed and continue to nurture The Cabinet Market in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Mike and Simon met in 2009 while working on a project together. As time went on, they teamed up on more projects and then opportunity knocked in 2015. Having worked for numerous cabinet shops as an installer, Mike had been considering establishing his own kitchen showroom. He approached Simon and made the case for pooling their resources. They did and purchased a building together. However, before they opened their shop, Mike approached one of the local dealers he had installed for to let them know of his new venture as a professional courtesy. Much to Mike’s surprise, the owners of the crosstown showroon1 offered sincere congratulations and announced their own exciting news, “We just received a contract on our building, so we can now retire.”
Mike’s act of professionalism, which remains to this day a corporate hallmark, was extremely fortuitous. The Cabinet Market took over Mike’s the retiring dealer’s customer list and took on one of its main cabinet lines, Wellborn Cabinet, Inc. Wellborn has been a staple of The Cabinet Market’s success ever since. The partners could not be more effusive in their praise of this BKBG Preferred Vendor Partner. “Coming from the install side,” Mike said, “I have installed just about everything. For me, oh my goodness, Wellborn stands apart.” Mike and Simon believe Wellborn’s cabinet quality, fulfillment capabilities, ease of ordering, quality control and customer service differentiate the company from all others that The Cabinet Market has experienced.
Mike and Simon carefully vet their cabinet mix to help assure each line fulfills a need, a place, a purpose and a price point. The criteria that The Cabinet Market use to vet its partners include ordering and delivery processes and systems, customer service and the little things that make it easy to conduct business. If a company can’t provide a replacement part for a month, that’s a problem because, as Mike points out, that’s four weeks before it can finalize a job.
The Cabinet Market differentiates its business by the way it presents its brand. Myrtle Beach, SC is a resort community and a transient town. Unlike other markets, there are certain times of the year, in season, that business comes to a grinding halt. That makes markets such as Myrtle Beach difficult and prone to companies that come and go. The Cabinet Market has been able to establish staying power though its quality, go-to-market strategy, diverse clientele and project mix. The company serves single-family home builders, multifamily developers and homeowners looking to renovate existing kitchens. The reason why their customers come to rely on The Cabinet Market is because from the time one steps foot in the showroom, the message is crystal clear. The Cabinet Market is a company that cares about its customers. From the layout of the showroom to the sales professionals’ and designers’ warm greetings, The Cabinet Market is laser focused on determining customer needs, exceeding expectations and making the process quick and as easy as possible.
The company offers a useful tool on its website that makes it easy for customers to measure their kitchen space. The Cabinet Market also encourages its clients to provide pictures of kitchens and styles they see on websites such as Pinterest or Houzz. The measuring template helps customers to focus on what they may want and need and enables them to visualize their new kitchen. When they come to the showroom, customers are offered a choice of door styles, countertops, flooring, cabinet hardware and other options. “We walk our clients through the process and help them at every step along the way to make sure that their needs, wants and desires are met within the available budget,” Mike said.
The name, The Cabinet Market, speaks volumes. Similar to many BKBG Shareholders, the business has been able to grow through word-of-mouth. Customers come to the company first and foremost for its cabinets, but The Cabinet Market also offers countertops, backsplashes and cabinet hardware. Recently, appliances have been added to the offering to enable The Cabinet Market to provide a single source for its customers that want to build a new or remodel an existing kitchen.
The Cabinet Market has a bright future. It plans to expand its reach into the region’s multifamily industry and increase the number of the company’s custom home projects. The Cabinet Market will look to BKBG to assist by providing continuing education, competitive advantages and touchpoints that it can use to better connect with its customer base.
The Cabinet Market has become a go-to resource for builders, developers and homeowners in the Myrtle Beach community based on its ethical approaches that raise the bar for the entire industry. The reason Mike and Simon get out of bed every day is to make the lives of its customers, its team members and its clients more rewarding and enjoyable. And that’s priceless.