Suits you sir
November 2016

In response to the question: “What is the worst job you’ve done?” the celebrity being interviewed in the weekend paper said: “Selling double glazing.” While there are bad employers in every walk of life and while sometimes people are simply not suited to their job, why does the cliché of the dodgy double-glazing salesman persist? In a business that deals with highly technical products that are affected by a plethora of standards and regulations and that directly affect the end user’s quality of life and the quality of probably their most valuable asset (i.e. bricks and mortar), why is the role so often denigrated?

While there is little doubt that we Brits love a deal, witness our enthusiastic adoption of Black Friday, is it time for our industry to further improve how we sell, particularly to homeowners? In an era where we all have smartphones and tablets with more computing power than an Apollo space mission, we should be able to provide tailored advice for each building based on both the science and on the specific needs and preferences of the building owner. Windows are made to measure, why not the information, advice and guidance that is needed when deciding which ones to install?

This would require the upskilling of our salesforce, as well as the creation of new software tools that not only consider the sizes of windows but also their orientation and the local climate conditions in summer and in winter. Window sizes, including their frame fractions, are critical in order to properly assess the thermal transmittance and solar gains, in other words the energy balance; the orientation also affects the energy balance and allows for the impact of shading options that can insulate in winter as well as prevent overheating in summer to be demonstrated.

As we await the findings of the Bonfield Review, the government’s independent investigation of consumer advice, protection, standards and enforcement for energy efficiency and renewable energy, we hope that it presents the opportunity to transform all double glazing salesmen into trusted advisers giving truly tailored advice.