Guest Profile: Joe Estrada
Joe Estrada, Account Manager at Coulisse Distribution, serving the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. Joe partners with custom window shade fabricators to deliver innovative, high-quality solutions—especially in smart shading technology through MotionBlinds. With a focus on responsive service, long-term relationships, and empowering trade professionals, Joe helps clients stay competitive in a fast-evolving industry
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to another episode of marketing panes the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning professionals about their marketing, innovation and business growth. I’m your host, Will Hanke. And today we’re diving into the world of smart shading and innovation with guests who knows this space in and out. Our guest today is Joe Estrada, account manager at Coulisse distribution, serving the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U S.
Joe partners with custom windows shade fabricators to deliver innovative, high quality solutions, especially in smart shading through technology called MotionBlinds, which we’re gonna dig into a little bit today. With a focus on responsive service, long-term relationships, and empowering trade professionals, Joe helps clients stay competitive in a fast evolving industry. We’ll be talking about how technology is reshaping the market and
the evolution of modular systems, and what’s next for dealers and fabricators in the smart shade
era. Joe, thanks for being on the show today.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me Will.
Yeah, glad to have you. So for listeners who don’t know yet, can you share a little bit about your background and what you do at Coulisse Distribution?
Yeah, yeah, so you touched on it. So I’m a sales rep for Coulisse . I’ve been with the company just a little over a year and a half, coming up on almost two years now, serving primarily the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. So our team, we have coverage throughout the whole country here in the U.S. as well as Canada, and then making our way down to Central America and South America as well. So we have local representation in kind of every corner of the country.
and my portion is the Midwest and a few accounts of the Northeast as well.
Nice. I heard a rumor this was your first podcast.
It is, it is. think I was joking with you. I, I’m about a daily listener of some kind of a podcast, especially when I’m traveling. but this is the first one that I’m on. So you’re you’re kind of like an adult Santa Claus, you know, Santa Claus for adults making my, little dream come true here. So thanks again.
too funny. What made you say yes for joining us today?
Yeah, so ⁓ obviously having the opportunity to share some of the exciting things that we’re doing at Coulisse , especially in evolving landscape in our industry right now. And you guys, the R+T group, you yourself, have always been really, really ⁓ kind to us at Coulisse So when the opportunity presented itself, we felt we had to jump on top of it. I guess you guys are stuck with me. So.
it’s great having you here today. So let’s talk a little bit about Coulisse . I’d love to know what sets Coulisse apart from the other component and fabric suppliers in the window treatment space.
Yeah, yeah, so I would say one thing that’s kind of unique about us is we are a global one-stop shop. So whether it’s components, hardware, our collections, and our own motors, we are a true, we sell a true system. So obviously you can take the parts that you like if you don’t want or need the full system, but really the beauty in what Coulisse offers is our system approach. ⁓ And we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into that, but I would say that’s something that’s unique.
and then I think our look, our feel kind of our marketing, our branding is a little unique to us. I’m obviously a little biased, but I think we do that part of, the business really, really well. so yeah, a few things that we offer that are unique in that
Yeah, as a marketing guy, always paying attention to that and I see you guys everywhere. So you’re doing a great job there. Yeah, yeah, very good. Well, let’s jump in. I want to talk about the absolute roller. What is it? How does it serve as the foundation for your product lineup?
Yes, so we are absolute roller 2.0 system. That is it’s a modular concept, right? So the terms that our engineers like to use is it’s kind of like working with
Legos. So interchangeable components and hardware. You don’t have a right and left bracket, for example. And you can go from our essentially what, you know, for lack of a better term, our dumbest system, our chain manual operated system to our smartest motorized.
motion blind system just by removing the mechanism, the chain clutch mechanism or what some people would call a clutch and replacing it with our motor. So the tube sizes are the same, the deduction sizes are all the same. ⁓ So obviously that’s handy if you’re upgrading a shade that maybe somebody bought years ago or maybe they’re going to buy now if they’d like to upgrade at some point in the future. But it really makes it easy for the manufacturers to work with as well.
So a lot less SKUS and components to work with. ⁓ And obviously we have different sizes, whether it’s a small, medium, large size, depending on the configuration and the control. ⁓ But the modular concept of it makes it user friendly, not only for the fabricators or the manufacturers, but also the installers and then eventually the end users as well, especially when you’re talking motionblinds.
Yeah, and I can assume with that modular approach, the inventory management side of things is easier as well.
Yep, yep. actually an introduction into our space last year, I got an opportunity to work on a bid for a company and they sent me the existing system that they were using and had said, hey, here’s all the components and hardware and everything that we buy, tell me what your equivalent would be and kind of how that would look differently.
And that’s when I really, the advantage of the modular concept kind of sunk in for me because we talk about it a lot internally.
But when you’re looking at a list of you know hundreds of components and SKUs and I’m using the same 30 40 50 SKUs essentially for the whole thing That’s when it really sunk into me like wow if I was owning the fabrication business ⁓ Especially everybody has a limit on space some some really big some small But everybody’s trying to make the most of the space that they have and they’re in their facility That’s a real big advantage to using a modular concept like what Coulisse offers
That’s great. What are the benefits for like dealers and workrooms when it comes to the system?
Yeah, very similar. for dealers, it’s easy to install. So if the dealers are paired with the installers or have their own installers, our hardware is very, very easy to use. Again, you’re not worried about a right versus a left and having any errors or issues there that you have to fix. ⁓ For workrooms, it’s similar to a fabricator, right? Depending on where the workroom gets it or starts working at it on the product in the process. Again, fewer SKUs.
the tube sizes are all the same. ⁓ so yeah, you don’t have to familiarize yourself with a bunch of different series or systems all under our umbrella. You get used to that system and it’s a little bit easier to work with from there.
that’s great. I love that approach. I think it’s a lot easier for the end users, as you said, when it comes to figuring out what they need. And you’re probably cutting down on the amount of things that they have to order as well.
Absolutely. Yep, just because there’s fewer SKUs ⁓ and then yeah, you really notice it with our motorized products because we have a QR code kind of system to set them up. So you don’t have to familiarize yourself with these elaborate, you know, softwares or apps. So if you’re not super techie, as long as you know how to use the camera on your phone and a QR code, which most people by now are pretty familiar with.
You should be okay setting them up yourselves if you choose to do so. Obviously any installer that has a little bit of experience in our industry, it’s going to be easy for them too. So yeah.
That’s awesome. I’d love to kind of jump into the motorization since you mentioned that ⁓ it’s tech that’s turning heads across the industry, especially the motionblinds. So tell me a little bit about those.
so anywhere you see Motion, it’s funny, so my first introduction to the industry was really at R+T Stuttgart last year. I hadn’t even been with the company, I don’t think two months, so talk about drinking from a fire hose as your first event. But I was really, really thankful for
and our booth was MotionBlinds branded. And so a lot of people kind of came over and said, hey, we heard the Coulisse booth is over here, know, where are you guys? And we’re like, you’re right here.
So when you see motionblinds, that is just Coulisse ‘s motorization line, right? That is our own brand of motorization. So we have our regular Bluetooth motors that have been around for a handful of years now for a while that everybody’s probably really familiar with. And then we have our newer smart motors, our Eve motionblinds. So a lot of folks are probably familiar with what Eve is. If you walk into a Best Buy or Apple store, you’ll see their products. They’re like a smart home company, I would say.
So that, and then we do have a comprehensive wired motor program as well for kind of the contract space and the new build space. So a fully comprehensive line of motorization kind of no matter where you’re at as an end user, whether it’s just a homeowner or you’re building a new home, building a new building. So yes, and because of the nature of just scanning the QR code to set up your shades.
It’s 100 % data private, so you don’t have to create accounts, you don’t have to give up your email and phone number and address and rights to your first child, you just scan the QR code and go.
So again, kind of that user-friendly term is something you hear us throughout there a lot, but it’s not just something we talk about. Once you start playing with it, you really can feel the difference between maybe some of the other systems out there.
Yeah, I have some experience with that with some ⁓ security cameras at my house. You just you just shoot the QR code and it just pulls that right in really quick. Yeah.
so and with so thanks for mentioning that well on the on the smart home process or conversation, our Eve motionblinds, those can be integrated into your smart home or your smart building. So they’re compatible with the Apple platform, Google, Amazon and Samsung. And our our motors are matter over thread. So matter is just essentially the smart language that a lot of these smart devices speak to each other.
And then the thread network is a mesh network. So the more wired or plugged in devices that you add to it, the stronger that network gets throughout a home or throughout a building. Whereas, you know, on Wi-Fi, the more you add to it, the more juice you’re sucking out of that network. you know, wireless shades don’t necessarily strengthen that network, but anything that’s plugged in or wired will. ⁓ So matter over thread is the system that our EVE
Yeah, and I know Amazon does something similar to that with their sidewalk, ⁓ where multiple Alexis, for instance, talk to each other. That’s always nice to have that additional kind of boost.
Yes, and you know, a lot of people think smart is just motorized, right? You can set a timer or set end limits. Really, what smart means is that your environment ⁓ can react without you needing to do anything, right? So you can set scenes or automations based on weather, time of day, ⁓ internal temperatures, the glare of the sun.
Your smart home works around you the way that you would want it without needing to do anything. That’s kind of what makes it smart. And so that’s kind of the key difference between a regular Bluetooth motor and say like the Eve MotionBlinds.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned on a lot of my podcasts and I’m kind of a smart home nerd. And when people come over to the house, they’re always like,
Whoa, that just happened.
So how do you think the smart piece is going to evolve in the next 12 months? Do you think it’s going to be optional for installs or you think more people are just going to want it?
Yeah, that’s a great question.
I believe the timing is anybody’s best guess, right? We have kind of chosen to be on the front end of it. We kind of got out in front of this maybe a couple of years earlier than most. ⁓ Right now, it does seem pretty optional, right? But the more people that you talk to,
the more you realize smart homes are becoming kind of the norm for lot of people.
I was telling you, Will, we were in the Netherlands last week for our annual global sales meetings with Coulisse and our home office there in Enter.
And the eastern part of the Netherlands and on the way home I sat next to a guy who has a full smart home was familiar with matter-over-thread So that’s the first time that that’s happened where I’m just kind of striking up a conversation with somebody and they really know what’s going on so I would be surprised in the next 12 months 24 months 36 months that starts to become more of the norm and eventually whether it’s in a couple years five years ten years or more a Smart home is going to probably be
somewhat of the standard. And depending on all the estimates that you see out there, you know, by 2030, there’s some estimates that, you know, anywhere from a third to half of homes will be smart homes, at least have smart capabilities, right?
And smart shades are going to play a bigger and bigger part of that moving forward.
Yeah, when it comes to the smart shades, what do you think? What do you wish more dealers knew about those?
Yes, ⁓ obviously, know, so like for our concept, for example, just by changing one clutch to a motor, not much about the shade is changing, but the revenue. So your average, you know,
your average cost per shade is going to go up usually by about three X, roughly, roughly speaking. And then typically your profit margins on a motor are a little bit better than, a chain clutch as well.
The chain manual operated shades are something that the really, really big guys do really well and they’ve done really well for a long time. And they have certain advantages that maybe some of the smaller fabricators or smaller work rooms just can’t reach like they can.
But motorized shades are still kind of, are still growing in our industry.
So not only can you raise the average price per shade and make yourself more revenue by selling the same amount of shades or hopefully more, obviously.
But there’s a lot of opportunity that’s out there for the taking. So it’s as we enter kind of a new landscape, there’s a lot of clients that are looking for something that they maybe wouldn’t have been interested in before because they already had a manual shade that came with the house or apartment that they bought or whatever.
But as more folks are looking for a motorized shade, that’s where a lot of opportunity is going to be there
to eat up those customers at a higher cost per shade and a higher profit margin from what we see with our clients.
Right. Yeah. As consumers get more into the smart home world like me, ⁓ we have obviously installers that are putting this stuff together and they kind of have to know what is going on. On the troubleshooting side, like what’s involved there? Is it easy to troubleshoot the motionblinds or is a lot of additional knowledge required?
No, it’s very simple. every motor will or every motor I shade will come with a kind of a setup guide and a troubleshooting guide. And it’s usually just a handful of steps, right? If all else fails, if something’s wrong with your shade, you just reset it and reprogram it. And you can program our motors in three ways. So you can do it right from the shade itself, right from the motor. You can do it with the remote or you can do it from your phone with the app. So we like to give clients, dealers, designers, whoever’s programming that shade, the option to do it how they would like to.
And then we also have a relatively new motion blind chat bot that you can go on to as a consumer, a dealer, a designer, an installer, ask it your questions, or even follow some of the prompts to get specifically to the shade that you’re working with. And 80, 90 % of the questions that you have, that chat bot is going to be able to answer for you. Over time, the goal is 99.9 % of the questions, so.
Just like any LLM, it’s being trained right now ⁓ and getting better by the day. And then obviously for fabricators, ⁓ they have their sales rep like myself, ⁓ based on where they’re at throughout the country or throughout the world that they can go to for, hey, I tried the chat bot, I’m trying to reset this thing. And for whatever reason, there’s still an issue, you can lean on your sales rep and we’ll help you out as well. luckily with the…
the user friendliness of the the motionblinds and just the entire system. We don’t get a lot of those calls because they usually kind of are able to self correct one way or another. And
then with the chat bot, that has really been a huge tool and we use it a lot internally too to kind of test it. You know, how accurate is this? And so far so good.
That’s huge. And that is leading edge stuff. I probably had three AI questions yesterday on different sales calls. Everybody’s starting to use it. Our clients are starting to get referrals from Chat GPT.
So having that system in place, teaching it how to answer questions is just going to make the installers especially, or the dealers, that whole thing a lot easier for them.
Yeah, and it’s funny you say that. I was just listening to a podcast the other day. there’s actually a lot of data that’s coming out that, especially the younger generation, so Gen Z and the really, really young millennials, a lot of us, if you’re looking for a service, a product, or whatever, a lot of times it would start on Google, right? A lot of those conversations or those prompts or those searches are now starting on chat GPT, like, hey.
I’m looking for the, I don’t know, the best motorized window dealer in Detroit, Michigan or whatever. Those prompts are now a lot of times starting from chat GPT. as I think just kind of a personal opinion, as you see those guys try to monetize their platform a little bit more, I’m sure you’ll see a lot more direct links or click to go check out that product that you just did your search for. So yeah, I think that’s just kind of.
a normal part of everyday life and will be more so moving forward.
Yeah, that’s awesome. ⁓ I know that you had mentioned that Coulisse is really committed to empowering fabricators instead of competing with them. ⁓ How does that look like in practice? What does that look
Yeah. So we don’t have a retail outlet, right? So it’s funny at our shows, we always do an amazing job with our booth. Again, I’m biased, but if you’ve ever seen one, you know what I’m talking about. And we get people that come up to our to our booth constantly like, hey, these are awesome. Where’s your website? Can I order them right now? We don’t have a retail outlet per se. So we really empower our fabricators to be the the engine of us getting our products into the end user’s hands.
So, ⁓ you know, like we have the Sun Shading Expo coming up here in a few weeks in Indy, that first week of November. And it’s inevitable we’re going to get some dealer, designer, architect leads that come from that. And we refer those, preferably, to somebody locally in that community. So we’re pairing a local, call it dealer, with a local fabricator. It’s a win-win ⁓ of somebody that makes the certain system or shade that they’re looking for.
So we really empower our fabricators and are a true partner to them to try to help them grow their business because what’s good for them is obviously good for us too. ⁓ So everything we do, we kind of look through as the lens of a fabricator of how can we do things better or a custom workroom. ⁓ How can we do things better to help them do their business better and grow their revenue.
Yeah, yeah. In a world of direct to consumer pressure, ⁓ why is that B2B balance and loyalty so important for Coulisse ?
Yeah, so, you know, it all starts with the partnerships and, know, a lot of these companies that we’re working with here in the US, our industry is a very, very old one,
right? Windows are very, very old. So there’s a lot of clients ⁓ or fabricators, workrooms that have done a really great job of building their own networks, right? Of dealers and designers. It’s taken sometimes several decades for them to build the ecosystem that they all have.
So by creating partnerships with them and getting our products to them,
we could take advantage of what they have built to a certain extent as opposed to trying to go right to the end user and try something new that we’ve never done
We kind of see it as we’re really good at what we do. We have a unique system that we can offer. And so now it’s just, hey, let’s get that system or at least parts of that system into the hands of as many workrooms and fabricators as possible. And that will eventually lead to more end users, more, you know,
architects, more building owners buying our products as a result of that as well.
Yeah, that’s a smart model. Any advice that you’d give to other supplier brands that are trying to balance growth with these strong relationships?
Yes, so I mean, think at the end of the day, all comes down to, know, assuming you have a competitive product and a competitive price people buy from from people they like and trust,
right? So if you’re always the most likable and trustworthy one, ⁓ even if there’s bumps along the road and you create that true partnership relationship with your clients and vice versa, you’re going to lean on each
other, right? And look for solutions as opposed to, hey, here’s this problem.
Now what do we do? Well, we know what we’re going to do. We’re going to find a solution together that’s a win-win and move past it. And the other thing, I think you just focus on what you’re good at, right? Lean into what you’re really good at. Whether it’s a person or a company, we all have strengths and weaknesses maybe. ⁓ lean into what you’re good at.
And for us, that’s the B2B market. And our partners here in the US and all over the world.
have helped us grow our business in a really sustainable and meaningful way.
You know, we’re still owned by the same two brothers that started our company, know, 33 years ago now. And they’ve always kind of done things in a similar way just in terms of partnerships and relationships. And, you know, the results and the success speaks for itself.
I’d love to talk a little bit about inventory and supply. ⁓ You mentioned inventory levels are pretty strong right now, especially on fabrics and solar screens. What’s behind that strategy?
Yeah, so that’s always kind of been the coolest way we, you know, there’s some nuance there, but we always try to keep at least six to 12 months or more of our key SKUs. So whether it’s our key fabric or our solar screen SKUs, our key motors, key components and hardware from the absolute roller system, you know, depending on who you talk to, you get a different number, but our on time delivery rate is anywhere from about 95 to 98 % here in the U S depending on the year. So that’s something that we’re really, really proud of. And
as certain things may be changing the industry and you see certain thought processes wanna get leaner and leaner on the inventory side for a various number of reasons, we’re kinda going the other way. And that’s really due to our leadership here in the Americas and our owners keeping their commitment to our clients where, ⁓ especially during COVID, everything got a little crazy, right? But a lot of people lost a lot of money and a lot of opportunities and created a whole lot of extra headache that…
that they maybe didn’t need just because of out of stocks and not having the inventory when your partners need it. So that’s something that, and our warehouse team is amazing. We have the right processes in place. So we’ve done a really great job of balancing, hey, you’d never want too much inventory, right? You have to move it, you have to sell it, and you don’t want wasted space. But we really, really have out of stocks. And if we do, it’s usually, it’s going to be here in a week or two. It’s not.
You know, I’ve heard some horror cases maybe six months or more. And at that point, if you’re the work room or the fabricator or the dealer, you’re going to have to reselect. And so if you have to reselect, ⁓ not only is that going to cause more headaches and issues, obviously,
but time kills deals. So the longer you stretch that, that, that deal or that opportunity out, the more chance there is for something to go awry and you lose that opportunity, which is just lost money, which we don’t want for anybody.
Kudos to our leadership and to our owners for staying committed to doing things that way. And when you’re owned by the same guys that have built everything, I think it makes that easier to kind of stay true to that in the face of a number of issues kind of in and around our industry and the world globally.
Yeah. As a vendor, you’ve always got to play the balancing of the supply chain, right? you know, do you see, more people making purchasing decisions based on availability over brand loyalty now?
Absolutely, in both, but absolutely to the first point of availability. Just speaking for myself, my own clients, I know of a handful of opportunities that I think we would have, you know, I’d like to think we would have eventually gotten to have an opportunity at closing those deals. But some of them that are coming our way more and more because they’re recognizing the difference between us and maybe some others of being able to deliver.
on time at that, call it high 90 % rate where others can’t. And if it isn’t out of stock again, like it happens, right? It’s not a hundred percent, but if it’s a week or two, everybody can deal with that when it’s several months. That’s when it starts to become really, really challenging. So, just speaking for myself, I can, you know, just off the top of my head, I’m thinking of three or four opportunities that have come up this at the end of last year and this year so far, that I’m not sure we get them as quickly as we did. If not for,
essentially them trusting us to be able to deliver for them on time more than let’s say who we’re competing against. So yeah, there is a true business advantage to it. Absolutely.
yeah. So a lot of our listeners are dealers. How do you think they can learn from how Coulisse is approaching the supply chain and stocking differently today?
Well, you’re dealers and designers love us, I think more than anybody, right? Because we just are our branding, our marketing is very, very good. Just our style. ⁓ It’s very, very, ⁓ I would say modern. It’s very, very fashionable. So ⁓ dealers, dealers and designers, designers, think love us as much as anybody. ⁓ So in terms of what they can learn from that, I think it’s just, again, kind of building that partnership approach and attacking it from a partnership approach, not being so transactional with everything.
and then leaning into what you’re good at and, being reliable, right?
Say what you’re going to do and then do what you’re going to say.
⁓ and I think Huliss does an amazing job at doing that. And it makes our job as a sales rep really easy because you know that what you’re telling your clients, you can actually stand on it and your, teammates are going to do what’s necessary behind you to make sure that what you’re telling them comes to fruition. So, having that team approach.
and just being reliable, no matter at what point of the chain of the process that you’re in, I think will yield really, really good results for you on the business side.
It’s great that you have that awesome support. mean, it sounds like you got a great job.
⁓ I do. do our team, you know, again, kind of going back to Chris and Maurice, they’re the two brothers. ⁓ it, Coulisse feels like one big family. So we’re a global company. We’ve got offices all over the world and representation all over the world, but we were all just together, you know, in, in a small little farm town in Eastern Netherlands last year. And it feels like one big family. So, ⁓ if I ever need engineering’s help, if I ever need marketing’s help, if I ever need to contact the warehouse supply chain,
I know who to contact and who to get a hold of and they’re always willing to lend a helping hand. And when you’re a global operation, a lot of people working remotely, you’re traveling all over the place, you have clients all over the place. It’s impossible to do this thing well if you’re not doing it as a team. So very thankful as a salesperson, makes my job much easier, which I really appreciate.
sure. Yeah. So speaking of staying stocked and ready, let’s look at where Coulisse will be showcasing these innovations next. You mentioned earlier the Sun Shading Expo. Tell me about what you guys are doing there.
Yes, so we will have our ⁓ booth like we always do and we will have all of our products on display. So we kind of separate it by, you know,
we’ll have like a child safe by design table,
which I actually haven’t jumped into just yet. It’s a, you know, child safety has been a huge topic of conversation the last few years all around the world, but especially here in the U.S. So we have systems, mostly our twin pull, our balanced roller, our zero gravity system.
and our motionblinds obviously that are child safe by design, right? So you don’t need a tensioner device ⁓ or something additional to make it more child safe. We have those solutions as well for our manually operated shades, but we will have them all separated. So we’ll have a child safe by design table. We’ll have a motionblinds table. We’ll likely have a wired motor, a wired motionblinds table, some of our manual solutions. We’ll have our entire US. ⁓
fabric collection on display. And then we’ll have all the individual components, hardware, motors as well to kind of get as granular as we need to with a fabricator or installer or even a dealer maybe. ⁓ So whether you want to see the really pretty finished products that everybody comes over and wants to buy a bunch of right away, or you want to look at the little bits and pieces, we’ll have it all. ⁓ And we’ll have coffee, we’ll have water. I think in the afternoon we usually switch it to the good stuff, the beer and wine as well.
If you’re going to be at Sunshading Expo, you have to come see the Coulisse Booth
I guess I know where I’ll be in the afternoon. Any sneak peeks that you can share with the audience?
That’s right. Yeah, that’s right.
Yes, so we do have something that’s new with Coulisse is our absolute silent program that we will be kind of rolling out, call it next year. ⁓ So the first part of that is a silent bracket for our cassette, our medium sized cassette system. ⁓ So what that is is with our motorized shades, everybody’s always trying to, hey, how do we make the system, especially if it’s in a ⁓
cassette or if it’s in ⁓ fascia, ⁓ how do we make it quieter? How can we make it ⁓ even more quiet for the end users, right? Especially if it’s in a bedroom or so. ⁓ We’re always making tweaks to the motors themselves to make them quieter and quieter. And then we also are going to have the bracket, for example, that’s for lack of a better term, enhanced with some additional ⁓ advantages on it. ⁓
that will help make the system quieter. ⁓ So eventually we’ll have a ⁓ silent crown and drive as well that can be included. So I kind of anticipate the silent components just kind of overtaking maybe some of the other components that we’ve sold previously for our motionblinds. ⁓ But again, we’re about giving clients the option so that option will stay there. I know I will be pushing my clients to use those silent components.
just to give the end user an even better experience, right? If it adds an extra 10, 15 % enjoyment and satisfaction to the end user’s experience, I think it’s worth it.
out this year because it’s in the Midwest. We don’t have far to go, right?
know. I told, ⁓ I told our team down in Miami, bring their coats and their scarves and their winter hats. So I’ll have some, I’ll have some hot cocoa waiting for them when they get up North. ⁓ and then the, the, the other thing too, sorry, we’ll is, we’ll have our wired motors. we have kind of a new comprehensive wired motor program, mostly for the contract market, but also for the residential market, especially a new build. We’ll have those on display as well. So if you’ve always, you know, if you’re an existing client with Coulisse .
You’ve always wanted to work with Coulisse so you’re just interested in what we are doing on the wired motor side. Come stop by and we can show you that new program as well.
Yeah, so definitely stop by the booth for some goodies and ⁓ what’s going on. Why do you think the Sun Shading Expo is important to our industry right now?
One, you can, know, especially we were talking about AI earlier, I think more and people are working remotely, myself included. No matter what, it’s still a people business. It’s still kind of a contact sport, right? So anything that gets people together from the industry, you’re going to have fun, right? But you’re also going to make a lot of progress on the business side. You can exchange ideas. ⁓ It’s kind of good to see, hey, what’s our competition doing, right? That’s a great opportunity for us to see what they’re doing. What are they highlighting? ⁓ But it’s a…
One place where you can meet clients, you can meet prospects, you can get in front of new people that maybe don’t know as much about you, or who, you hey, you always get the most out of who and what somebody is in person. ⁓ And then all the different learnings that are available, right? I’m new to the industry, so anybody that’s new, there’s a lot to learn. ⁓
Even though the industry feels smaller and smaller by the day, there’s still a lot to learn, not only about, you know, your own stuff.
but what everybody else is doing as well. So if you want to crash course and to be incredibly efficient, a trade show like Sun Shading Expo, there’s no better place to be for a week to again, kind of drink from a fire hose, all things window coverings.
yeah, and it’s massive. I’m blown away how big it is.
Yeah, no, absolutely. It’s again, I think it’s really cool that it’ll be kind of centrally located in Indianapolis and the fact that it moves around to different locations throughout the country is is a huge advantage, I think.
Yeah. So what are you most excited about in the months ahead?
Yes, motionblinds for sure. We are incredibly bullish on that side of our business and where we want to go with that. ⁓ Here in the Midwest, for me, there’s a ton of opportunity on the motion blind side just because we’re still a relatively newer region for Coulisse . We’re a 33-year-old
but we’ve only been in the US for about, call it 13-ish years, 13, 14 years. So the sky is still the limit for Coulisse all around the world, but especially here in the US.
So what we’re doing on the motion blind side and just on it with motorization in general, and we’ve got some stuff maybe in 2026, 2027 that’ll be coming out as well. Incredibly bullish on that side of our business, but on that side of the industry, I think you’ll see, I forget exactly what it was, but there was a link that was shared that I think it was some event with Apple.
where they spoke about Eve and they spoke about kind of smart home stuff and they had kind of a segment where they highlighted smart shade specifically as an industry. So ⁓ I think it’s as exciting of a time as ever to be in our industry and you’ll see a lot of cool stuff on display here in a few weeks and moving forward.
Yeah, that event is November 5 through 7 in Indianapolis and there are tickets available. We’ll put a link in our show notes below if anybody needs to get, grab some tickets, we’ll be able to do that. Love to talk just real quick about yourself a little bit. What’s something outside of work that keeps you creative and grounded?
grounded my friends and family that bust my chops constantly. So probably them, but no, I’m a husband, father, and a dog dad. Great group of friends, great group of colleagues. I would say you could add my colleagues to the bunch that keep me nice and grounded as well. ⁓ But as I get a little bit older, I’m playing less and less of the, you know, no more basketball and football. now golf is kind of my new obsession. ⁓
that drives me nuts because just like most people that play it, I’m, not, I’m, I’m not all that good yet. So, ⁓ if I’m not doing that really just spending quality time with my friends and family. ⁓ I’m actually headed to, ⁓ to a wedding this weekend down in Cancun for, ⁓ me and one of me and my wife’s dearest friends, getting married down there.
So the older you get, the more responsibilities that are kind of thrown your way, the less of those types of opportunities you get. So, ⁓ I’m incredibly excited about that.
So and it’s a little sunnier down there than it is up here in Grand Rapids, Michigan this time of year. So just a touch.
off to Miami next week for a conference, so it’ll be nice and warm there as well. ⁓
and hey, you know, while you’re down there, if you want to see the Miami is where our US headquarters is for Coulisse , if you want to see the office, the warehouse, the showroom, you let me know and we’ll get you set up for a nice tour down there and we’ll give you that. We’ll roll out the Coulisse red carpet for you. So.
would be great. What trends do you see like shaping the industry over the next three to five years?
Motorization for sure, smart shades for sure. ⁓ It’s interesting kind of what’s happening in the exterior space,
right? Since COVID, I think a lot of people have jumped into that space and there’s a lot of cool stuff happening there. ⁓ But I think motorization and then AI as well, ⁓ not only just on like the actual product side, but how businesses are going to use AI to empower their employees. So I think a lot of people get a…
you know, get kind of scared when they hear AI and how it may replace them. I think the better way of looking at it is like, how can you help it? How can you use AI to do your job even better and be even better at whatever it is that you do? So that’ll the effects will vary depending on what it is that you do. But I know at Coulisse we are kind of always looking to be trendsetters and stay ahead of the game, especially with new technologies. And it’s no different ⁓ with AI. So.
At our meetings last week, we got to learn a little bit about how our leadership and how our ownership is going to help empower us with AI and help us all do our jobs better and reach our goals by 2030 and beyond. So just kind of the, just like every industry, think right now it’s technology, it’s AI. In our industry, our company’s no different. So motionblinds for sure, Eve motionblinds. And then how we’re going to leverage AI to continue to grow Coulisse here, you know, in the States and abroad throughout the world.
I think that’s really smart of vendors to kind of embrace that. As a user of AI, an end user, I think you have to get over the fact that it is going to replace everything that you do. Once you kind of, there’s like a hump, right? Once you realize, oh, it can do that for me, oh, it can do this, then the whole world opens up and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Yeah, and you know, just kind of on the sales side or on the marketing side, I think it’s just gonna make the great sales reps and great marketing reps amazing. I think it’s gonna make the good great because you can just, you’ll get more output with the same or less input, right? So yeah, I think, hey, what could go right? What’s the pro here? Not just looking at all the cons. And how can you use this to do your job better and help your company? And again, I’m thankful that, you know.
our company is thinking forward for us and empowering us, hey, this is how you can use this to do your job better, to service your clients better.
So yeah, if you’re an existing client of Coulisse or you will be here shortly, I think you’ll see some of the things that we’re doing make your life much easier, much smoother. It’ll save everybody time and it’ll be a good thing moving forward. Absolutely.
Well, Joe, this has been a great conversation. I really enjoyed it. Before we wrap up, let’s tell listeners how they can connect with you and Coulisse . So what is the best way for them to learn more about Coulisse in general or connect with yourself?
Yeah, so on the Coulisse side of things, MotionBlinds.com first and foremost, that’s where you can learn more about our, again, everything we’re doing on the motorization side. You get a good feel for our branding as well, kind of how we position ourselves. So if you’re a dealer, designer, fabricator that wants to leverage that with your clients and have maybe a little bit of a unique offering in the market, you can get a feel on MotionBlinds.com and then Coulisse .com as well. So those are the two best places. If you have LinkedIn, Coulisse is very active on
LinkedIn, think just about daily posts going on. So you can always stay up to date with us there, at the trade shows like sun shading expo. We’ll, we’ll always be there. and then for myself, just, you know, my email, [email protected]
and again, we have representatives all throughout the country, all throughout the world. So that that service their areas, you have local representation, that know their markets intimately.
And so no matter where you’re at, no matter at what point of the chain that you’re at, if you get in touch with us, we’ll get you in the hands of the right person and you help us sell more Coulisse
love that. Thanks again for being on the show. I think we’ve learned a lot, both about lease and trends that are going on, what you guys are focusing on. Any final thoughts for fabricators, dealers, or designers that want to stay ahead in this industry?
Yeah, don’t be so afraid of change, right? Our industry is changing a ton right now. I think embrace that. Find your lane, lean into your strengths. And if you’re looking for somebody that’s going to take a little bit more of a partnership approach, you know, a lot of the fabricators, they are family owned. That’s one thing that’s interesting. As a supplier, you know, we are also family owned. So I think there’s levels that we can connect with each other that might be a little bit different.
And if you feel stuck, if you feel like, I’m just, I’ve been doing the same thing for a while. It’s not yielding the results that I want. need something a little bit different, maybe a little bit fresher. Get in touch with us at Coulisse . We can show you at least what we can do. And then the decision is yours from there, whether or not you want to move forward. So, yeah, use us, use us for all the things that we have to offer. We’d love to be a partner if we’re not already.
Awesome. Well, that’s a wrap on today’s episode of Marketing Panes Huge thanks to Joe Estrada for joining us and sharing such valuable insights on innovation, modular systems, and smart shading tech. If this conversation gave you even one actionable idea, do us a favor.
Share it with a friend in the trade and subscribe so you don’t miss our next episode. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, or at our website, Window Treatment Marketing Pros. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next time on Marketing Panes.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to another episode of marketing panes the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning professionals about their marketing, innovation and business growth. I’m your host, Will Hanke. And today we’re diving into the world of smart shading and innovation with guests who knows this space in and out. Our guest today is Joe Estrada, account manager at Coulisse distribution, serving the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U S.
Joe partners with custom windows shade fabricators to deliver innovative, high quality solutions, especially in smart shading through technology called MotionBlinds, which we’re gonna dig into a little bit today. With a focus on responsive service, long-term relationships, and empowering trade professionals, Joe helps clients stay competitive in a fast evolving industry. We’ll be talking about how technology is reshaping the market and
the evolution of modular systems, and what’s next for dealers and fabricators in the smart shade
era. Joe, thanks for being on the show today.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me Will.
Yeah, glad to have you. So for listeners who don’t know yet, can you share a little bit about your background and what you do at Coulisse Distribution?
Yeah, yeah, so you touched on it. So I’m a sales rep for Coulisse . I’ve been with the company just a little over a year and a half, coming up on almost two years now, serving primarily the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. So our team, we have coverage throughout the whole country here in the U.S. as well as Canada, and then making our way down to Central America and South America as well. So we have local representation in kind of every corner of the country.
and my portion is the Midwest and a few accounts of the Northeast as well.
Nice. I heard a rumor this was your first podcast.
It is, it is. think I was joking with you. I, I’m about a daily listener of some kind of a podcast, especially when I’m traveling. but this is the first one that I’m on. So you’re you’re kind of like an adult Santa Claus, you know, Santa Claus for adults making my, little dream come true here. So thanks again.
too funny. What made you say yes for joining us today?
Yeah, so ⁓ obviously having the opportunity to share some of the exciting things that we’re doing at Coulisse , especially in evolving landscape in our industry right now. And you guys, the R+T group, you yourself, have always been really, really ⁓ kind to us at Coulisse So when the opportunity presented itself, we felt we had to jump on top of it. I guess you guys are stuck with me. So.
it’s great having you here today. So let’s talk a little bit about Coulisse . I’d love to know what sets Coulisse apart from the other component and fabric suppliers in the window treatment space.
Yeah, yeah, so I would say one thing that’s kind of unique about us is we are a global one-stop shop. So whether it’s components, hardware, our collections, and our own motors, we are a true, we sell a true system. So obviously you can take the parts that you like if you don’t want or need the full system, but really the beauty in what Coulisse offers is our system approach. ⁓ And we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into that, but I would say that’s something that’s unique.
and then I think our look, our feel kind of our marketing, our branding is a little unique to us. I’m obviously a little biased, but I think we do that part of, the business really, really well. so yeah, a few things that we offer that are unique in that
Yeah, as a marketing guy, always paying attention to that and I see you guys everywhere. So you’re doing a great job there. Yeah, yeah, very good. Well, let’s jump in. I want to talk about the absolute roller. What is it? How does it serve as the foundation for your product lineup?
Yes, so we are absolute roller 2.0 system. That is it’s a modular concept, right? So the terms that our engineers like to use is it’s kind of like working with
Legos. So interchangeable components and hardware. You don’t have a right and left bracket, for example. And you can go from our essentially what, you know, for lack of a better term, our dumbest system, our chain manual operated system to our smartest motorized.
motion blind system just by removing the mechanism, the chain clutch mechanism or what some people would call a clutch and replacing it with our motor. So the tube sizes are the same, the deduction sizes are all the same. ⁓ So obviously that’s handy if you’re upgrading a shade that maybe somebody bought years ago or maybe they’re going to buy now if they’d like to upgrade at some point in the future. But it really makes it easy for the manufacturers to work with as well.
So a lot less SKUS and components to work with. ⁓ And obviously we have different sizes, whether it’s a small, medium, large size, depending on the configuration and the control. ⁓ But the modular concept of it makes it user friendly, not only for the fabricators or the manufacturers, but also the installers and then eventually the end users as well, especially when you’re talking motionblinds.
Yeah, and I can assume with that modular approach, the inventory management side of things is easier as well.
Yep, yep. actually an introduction into our space last year, I got an opportunity to work on a bid for a company and they sent me the existing system that they were using and had said, hey, here’s all the components and hardware and everything that we buy, tell me what your equivalent would be and kind of how that would look differently.
And that’s when I really, the advantage of the modular concept kind of sunk in for me because we talk about it a lot internally.
But when you’re looking at a list of you know hundreds of components and SKUs and I’m using the same 30 40 50 SKUs essentially for the whole thing That’s when it really sunk into me like wow if I was owning the fabrication business ⁓ Especially everybody has a limit on space some some really big some small But everybody’s trying to make the most of the space that they have and they’re in their facility That’s a real big advantage to using a modular concept like what Coulisse offers
That’s great. What are the benefits for like dealers and workrooms when it comes to the system?
Yeah, very similar. for dealers, it’s easy to install. So if the dealers are paired with the installers or have their own installers, our hardware is very, very easy to use. Again, you’re not worried about a right versus a left and having any errors or issues there that you have to fix. ⁓ For workrooms, it’s similar to a fabricator, right? Depending on where the workroom gets it or starts working at it on the product in the process. Again, fewer SKUs.
the tube sizes are all the same. ⁓ so yeah, you don’t have to familiarize yourself with a bunch of different series or systems all under our umbrella. You get used to that system and it’s a little bit easier to work with from there.
that’s great. I love that approach. I think it’s a lot easier for the end users, as you said, when it comes to figuring out what they need. And you’re probably cutting down on the amount of things that they have to order as well.
Absolutely. Yep, just because there’s fewer SKUs ⁓ and then yeah, you really notice it with our motorized products because we have a QR code kind of system to set them up. So you don’t have to familiarize yourself with these elaborate, you know, softwares or apps. So if you’re not super techie, as long as you know how to use the camera on your phone and a QR code, which most people by now are pretty familiar with.
You should be okay setting them up yourselves if you choose to do so. Obviously any installer that has a little bit of experience in our industry, it’s going to be easy for them too. So yeah.
That’s awesome. I’d love to kind of jump into the motorization since you mentioned that ⁓ it’s tech that’s turning heads across the industry, especially the motionblinds. So tell me a little bit about those.
so anywhere you see Motion, it’s funny, so my first introduction to the industry was really at R+T Stuttgart last year. I hadn’t even been with the company, I don’t think two months, so talk about drinking from a fire hose as your first event. But I was really, really thankful for
and our booth was MotionBlinds branded. And so a lot of people kind of came over and said, hey, we heard the Coulisse booth is over here, know, where are you guys? And we’re like, you’re right here.
So when you see motionblinds, that is just Coulisse ‘s motorization line, right? That is our own brand of motorization. So we have our regular Bluetooth motors that have been around for a handful of years now for a while that everybody’s probably really familiar with. And then we have our newer smart motors, our Eve motionblinds. So a lot of folks are probably familiar with what Eve is. If you walk into a Best Buy or Apple store, you’ll see their products. They’re like a smart home company, I would say.
So that, and then we do have a comprehensive wired motor program as well for kind of the contract space and the new build space. So a fully comprehensive line of motorization kind of no matter where you’re at as an end user, whether it’s just a homeowner or you’re building a new home, building a new building. So yes, and because of the nature of just scanning the QR code to set up your shades.
It’s 100 % data private, so you don’t have to create accounts, you don’t have to give up your email and phone number and address and rights to your first child, you just scan the QR code and go.
So again, kind of that user-friendly term is something you hear us throughout there a lot, but it’s not just something we talk about. Once you start playing with it, you really can feel the difference between maybe some of the other systems out there.
Yeah, I have some experience with that with some ⁓ security cameras at my house. You just you just shoot the QR code and it just pulls that right in really quick. Yeah.
so and with so thanks for mentioning that well on the on the smart home process or conversation, our Eve motionblinds, those can be integrated into your smart home or your smart building. So they’re compatible with the Apple platform, Google, Amazon and Samsung. And our our motors are matter over thread. So matter is just essentially the smart language that a lot of these smart devices speak to each other.
And then the thread network is a mesh network. So the more wired or plugged in devices that you add to it, the stronger that network gets throughout a home or throughout a building. Whereas, you know, on Wi-Fi, the more you add to it, the more juice you’re sucking out of that network. you know, wireless shades don’t necessarily strengthen that network, but anything that’s plugged in or wired will. ⁓ So matter over thread is the system that our EVE
Yeah, and I know Amazon does something similar to that with their sidewalk, ⁓ where multiple Alexis, for instance, talk to each other. That’s always nice to have that additional kind of boost.
Yes, and you know, a lot of people think smart is just motorized, right? You can set a timer or set end limits. Really, what smart means is that your environment ⁓ can react without you needing to do anything, right? So you can set scenes or automations based on weather, time of day, ⁓ internal temperatures, the glare of the sun.
Your smart home works around you the way that you would want it without needing to do anything. That’s kind of what makes it smart. And so that’s kind of the key difference between a regular Bluetooth motor and say like the Eve MotionBlinds.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned on a lot of my podcasts and I’m kind of a smart home nerd. And when people come over to the house, they’re always like,
Whoa, that just happened.
So how do you think the smart piece is going to evolve in the next 12 months? Do you think it’s going to be optional for installs or you think more people are just going to want it?
Yeah, that’s a great question.
I believe the timing is anybody’s best guess, right? We have kind of chosen to be on the front end of it. We kind of got out in front of this maybe a couple of years earlier than most. ⁓ Right now, it does seem pretty optional, right? But the more people that you talk to,
the more you realize smart homes are becoming kind of the norm for lot of people.
I was telling you, Will, we were in the Netherlands last week for our annual global sales meetings with Coulisse and our home office there in Enter.
And the eastern part of the Netherlands and on the way home I sat next to a guy who has a full smart home was familiar with matter-over-thread So that’s the first time that that’s happened where I’m just kind of striking up a conversation with somebody and they really know what’s going on so I would be surprised in the next 12 months 24 months 36 months that starts to become more of the norm and eventually whether it’s in a couple years five years ten years or more a Smart home is going to probably be
somewhat of the standard. And depending on all the estimates that you see out there, you know, by 2030, there’s some estimates that, you know, anywhere from a third to half of homes will be smart homes, at least have smart capabilities, right?
And smart shades are going to play a bigger and bigger part of that moving forward.
Yeah, when it comes to the smart shades, what do you think? What do you wish more dealers knew about those?
Yes, ⁓ obviously, know, so like for our concept, for example, just by changing one clutch to a motor, not much about the shade is changing, but the revenue. So your average, you know,
your average cost per shade is going to go up usually by about three X, roughly, roughly speaking. And then typically your profit margins on a motor are a little bit better than, a chain clutch as well.
The chain manual operated shades are something that the really, really big guys do really well and they’ve done really well for a long time. And they have certain advantages that maybe some of the smaller fabricators or smaller work rooms just can’t reach like they can.
But motorized shades are still kind of, are still growing in our industry.
So not only can you raise the average price per shade and make yourself more revenue by selling the same amount of shades or hopefully more, obviously.
But there’s a lot of opportunity that’s out there for the taking. So it’s as we enter kind of a new landscape, there’s a lot of clients that are looking for something that they maybe wouldn’t have been interested in before because they already had a manual shade that came with the house or apartment that they bought or whatever.
But as more folks are looking for a motorized shade, that’s where a lot of opportunity is going to be there
to eat up those customers at a higher cost per shade and a higher profit margin from what we see with our clients.
Right. Yeah. As consumers get more into the smart home world like me, ⁓ we have obviously installers that are putting this stuff together and they kind of have to know what is going on. On the troubleshooting side, like what’s involved there? Is it easy to troubleshoot the motionblinds or is a lot of additional knowledge required?
No, it’s very simple. every motor will or every motor I shade will come with a kind of a setup guide and a troubleshooting guide. And it’s usually just a handful of steps, right? If all else fails, if something’s wrong with your shade, you just reset it and reprogram it. And you can program our motors in three ways. So you can do it right from the shade itself, right from the motor. You can do it with the remote or you can do it from your phone with the app. So we like to give clients, dealers, designers, whoever’s programming that shade, the option to do it how they would like to.
And then we also have a relatively new motion blind chat bot that you can go on to as a consumer, a dealer, a designer, an installer, ask it your questions, or even follow some of the prompts to get specifically to the shade that you’re working with. And 80, 90 % of the questions that you have, that chat bot is going to be able to answer for you. Over time, the goal is 99.9 % of the questions, so.
Just like any LLM, it’s being trained right now ⁓ and getting better by the day. And then obviously for fabricators, ⁓ they have their sales rep like myself, ⁓ based on where they’re at throughout the country or throughout the world that they can go to for, hey, I tried the chat bot, I’m trying to reset this thing. And for whatever reason, there’s still an issue, you can lean on your sales rep and we’ll help you out as well. luckily with the…
the user friendliness of the the motionblinds and just the entire system. We don’t get a lot of those calls because they usually kind of are able to self correct one way or another. And
then with the chat bot, that has really been a huge tool and we use it a lot internally too to kind of test it. You know, how accurate is this? And so far so good.
That’s huge. And that is leading edge stuff. I probably had three AI questions yesterday on different sales calls. Everybody’s starting to use it. Our clients are starting to get referrals from Chat GPT.
So having that system in place, teaching it how to answer questions is just going to make the installers especially, or the dealers, that whole thing a lot easier for them.
Yeah, and it’s funny you say that. I was just listening to a podcast the other day. there’s actually a lot of data that’s coming out that, especially the younger generation, so Gen Z and the really, really young millennials, a lot of us, if you’re looking for a service, a product, or whatever, a lot of times it would start on Google, right? A lot of those conversations or those prompts or those searches are now starting on chat GPT, like, hey.
I’m looking for the, I don’t know, the best motorized window dealer in Detroit, Michigan or whatever. Those prompts are now a lot of times starting from chat GPT. as I think just kind of a personal opinion, as you see those guys try to monetize their platform a little bit more, I’m sure you’ll see a lot more direct links or click to go check out that product that you just did your search for. So yeah, I think that’s just kind of.
a normal part of everyday life and will be more so moving forward.
Yeah, that’s awesome. ⁓ I know that you had mentioned that Coulisse is really committed to empowering fabricators instead of competing with them. ⁓ How does that look like in practice? What does that look
Yeah. So we don’t have a retail outlet, right? So it’s funny at our shows, we always do an amazing job with our booth. Again, I’m biased, but if you’ve ever seen one, you know what I’m talking about. And we get people that come up to our to our booth constantly like, hey, these are awesome. Where’s your website? Can I order them right now? We don’t have a retail outlet per se. So we really empower our fabricators to be the the engine of us getting our products into the end user’s hands.
So, ⁓ you know, like we have the Sun Shading Expo coming up here in a few weeks in Indy, that first week of November. And it’s inevitable we’re going to get some dealer, designer, architect leads that come from that. And we refer those, preferably, to somebody locally in that community. So we’re pairing a local, call it dealer, with a local fabricator. It’s a win-win ⁓ of somebody that makes the certain system or shade that they’re looking for.
So we really empower our fabricators and are a true partner to them to try to help them grow their business because what’s good for them is obviously good for us too. ⁓ So everything we do, we kind of look through as the lens of a fabricator of how can we do things better or a custom workroom. ⁓ How can we do things better to help them do their business better and grow their revenue.
Yeah, yeah. In a world of direct to consumer pressure, ⁓ why is that B2B balance and loyalty so important for Coulisse ?
Yeah, so, you know, it all starts with the partnerships and, know, a lot of these companies that we’re working with here in the US, our industry is a very, very old one,
right? Windows are very, very old. So there’s a lot of clients ⁓ or fabricators, workrooms that have done a really great job of building their own networks, right? Of dealers and designers. It’s taken sometimes several decades for them to build the ecosystem that they all have.
So by creating partnerships with them and getting our products to them,
we could take advantage of what they have built to a certain extent as opposed to trying to go right to the end user and try something new that we’ve never done
We kind of see it as we’re really good at what we do. We have a unique system that we can offer. And so now it’s just, hey, let’s get that system or at least parts of that system into the hands of as many workrooms and fabricators as possible. And that will eventually lead to more end users, more, you know,
architects, more building owners buying our products as a result of that as well.
Yeah, that’s a smart model. Any advice that you’d give to other supplier brands that are trying to balance growth with these strong relationships?
Yes, so I mean, think at the end of the day, all comes down to, know, assuming you have a competitive product and a competitive price people buy from from people they like and trust,
right? So if you’re always the most likable and trustworthy one, ⁓ even if there’s bumps along the road and you create that true partnership relationship with your clients and vice versa, you’re going to lean on each
other, right? And look for solutions as opposed to, hey, here’s this problem.
Now what do we do? Well, we know what we’re going to do. We’re going to find a solution together that’s a win-win and move past it. And the other thing, I think you just focus on what you’re good at, right? Lean into what you’re really good at. Whether it’s a person or a company, we all have strengths and weaknesses maybe. ⁓ lean into what you’re good at.
And for us, that’s the B2B market. And our partners here in the US and all over the world.
have helped us grow our business in a really sustainable and meaningful way.
You know, we’re still owned by the same two brothers that started our company, know, 33 years ago now. And they’ve always kind of done things in a similar way just in terms of partnerships and relationships. And, you know, the results and the success speaks for itself.
I’d love to talk a little bit about inventory and supply. ⁓ You mentioned inventory levels are pretty strong right now, especially on fabrics and solar screens. What’s behind that strategy?
Yeah, so that’s always kind of been the coolest way we, you know, there’s some nuance there, but we always try to keep at least six to 12 months or more of our key SKUs. So whether it’s our key fabric or our solar screen SKUs, our key motors, key components and hardware from the absolute roller system, you know, depending on who you talk to, you get a different number, but our on time delivery rate is anywhere from about 95 to 98 % here in the U S depending on the year. So that’s something that we’re really, really proud of. And
as certain things may be changing the industry and you see certain thought processes wanna get leaner and leaner on the inventory side for a various number of reasons, we’re kinda going the other way. And that’s really due to our leadership here in the Americas and our owners keeping their commitment to our clients where, ⁓ especially during COVID, everything got a little crazy, right? But a lot of people lost a lot of money and a lot of opportunities and created a whole lot of extra headache that…
that they maybe didn’t need just because of out of stocks and not having the inventory when your partners need it. So that’s something that, and our warehouse team is amazing. We have the right processes in place. So we’ve done a really great job of balancing, hey, you’d never want too much inventory, right? You have to move it, you have to sell it, and you don’t want wasted space. But we really, really have out of stocks. And if we do, it’s usually, it’s going to be here in a week or two. It’s not.
You know, I’ve heard some horror cases maybe six months or more. And at that point, if you’re the work room or the fabricator or the dealer, you’re going to have to reselect. And so if you have to reselect, ⁓ not only is that going to cause more headaches and issues, obviously,
but time kills deals. So the longer you stretch that, that, that deal or that opportunity out, the more chance there is for something to go awry and you lose that opportunity, which is just lost money, which we don’t want for anybody.
Kudos to our leadership and to our owners for staying committed to doing things that way. And when you’re owned by the same guys that have built everything, I think it makes that easier to kind of stay true to that in the face of a number of issues kind of in and around our industry and the world globally.
Yeah. As a vendor, you’ve always got to play the balancing of the supply chain, right? you know, do you see, more people making purchasing decisions based on availability over brand loyalty now?
Absolutely, in both, but absolutely to the first point of availability. Just speaking for myself, my own clients, I know of a handful of opportunities that I think we would have, you know, I’d like to think we would have eventually gotten to have an opportunity at closing those deals. But some of them that are coming our way more and more because they’re recognizing the difference between us and maybe some others of being able to deliver.
on time at that, call it high 90 % rate where others can’t. And if it isn’t out of stock again, like it happens, right? It’s not a hundred percent, but if it’s a week or two, everybody can deal with that when it’s several months. That’s when it starts to become really, really challenging. So, just speaking for myself, I can, you know, just off the top of my head, I’m thinking of three or four opportunities that have come up this at the end of last year and this year so far, that I’m not sure we get them as quickly as we did. If not for,
essentially them trusting us to be able to deliver for them on time more than let’s say who we’re competing against. So yeah, there is a true business advantage to it. Absolutely.
yeah. So a lot of our listeners are dealers. How do you think they can learn from how Coulisse is approaching the supply chain and stocking differently today?
Well, you’re dealers and designers love us, I think more than anybody, right? Because we just are our branding, our marketing is very, very good. Just our style. ⁓ It’s very, very, ⁓ I would say modern. It’s very, very fashionable. So ⁓ dealers, dealers and designers, designers, think love us as much as anybody. ⁓ So in terms of what they can learn from that, I think it’s just, again, kind of building that partnership approach and attacking it from a partnership approach, not being so transactional with everything.
and then leaning into what you’re good at and, being reliable, right?
Say what you’re going to do and then do what you’re going to say.
⁓ and I think Huliss does an amazing job at doing that. And it makes our job as a sales rep really easy because you know that what you’re telling your clients, you can actually stand on it and your, teammates are going to do what’s necessary behind you to make sure that what you’re telling them comes to fruition. So, having that team approach.
and just being reliable, no matter at what point of the chain of the process that you’re in, I think will yield really, really good results for you on the business side.
It’s great that you have that awesome support. mean, it sounds like you got a great job.
⁓ I do. do our team, you know, again, kind of going back to Chris and Maurice, they’re the two brothers. ⁓ it, Coulisse feels like one big family. So we’re a global company. We’ve got offices all over the world and representation all over the world, but we were all just together, you know, in, in a small little farm town in Eastern Netherlands last year. And it feels like one big family. So, ⁓ if I ever need engineering’s help, if I ever need marketing’s help, if I ever need to contact the warehouse supply chain,
I know who to contact and who to get a hold of and they’re always willing to lend a helping hand. And when you’re a global operation, a lot of people working remotely, you’re traveling all over the place, you have clients all over the place. It’s impossible to do this thing well if you’re not doing it as a team. So very thankful as a salesperson, makes my job much easier, which I really appreciate.
sure. Yeah. So speaking of staying stocked and ready, let’s look at where Coulisse will be showcasing these innovations next. You mentioned earlier the Sun Shading Expo. Tell me about what you guys are doing there.
Yes, so we will have our ⁓ booth like we always do and we will have all of our products on display. So we kind of separate it by, you know,
we’ll have like a child safe by design table,
which I actually haven’t jumped into just yet. It’s a, you know, child safety has been a huge topic of conversation the last few years all around the world, but especially here in the U.S. So we have systems, mostly our twin pull, our balanced roller, our zero gravity system.
and our motionblinds obviously that are child safe by design, right? So you don’t need a tensioner device ⁓ or something additional to make it more child safe. We have those solutions as well for our manually operated shades, but we will have them all separated. So we’ll have a child safe by design table. We’ll have a motionblinds table. We’ll likely have a wired motor, a wired motionblinds table, some of our manual solutions. We’ll have our entire US. ⁓
fabric collection on display. And then we’ll have all the individual components, hardware, motors as well to kind of get as granular as we need to with a fabricator or installer or even a dealer maybe. ⁓ So whether you want to see the really pretty finished products that everybody comes over and wants to buy a bunch of right away, or you want to look at the little bits and pieces, we’ll have it all. ⁓ And we’ll have coffee, we’ll have water. I think in the afternoon we usually switch it to the good stuff, the beer and wine as well.
If you’re going to be at Sunshading Expo, you have to come see the Coulisse Booth
I guess I know where I’ll be in the afternoon. Any sneak peeks that you can share with the audience?
That’s right. Yeah, that’s right.
Yes, so we do have something that’s new with Coulisse is our absolute silent program that we will be kind of rolling out, call it next year. ⁓ So the first part of that is a silent bracket for our cassette, our medium sized cassette system. ⁓ So what that is is with our motorized shades, everybody’s always trying to, hey, how do we make the system, especially if it’s in a ⁓
cassette or if it’s in ⁓ fascia, ⁓ how do we make it quieter? How can we make it ⁓ even more quiet for the end users, right? Especially if it’s in a bedroom or so. ⁓ We’re always making tweaks to the motors themselves to make them quieter and quieter. And then we also are going to have the bracket, for example, that’s for lack of a better term, enhanced with some additional ⁓ advantages on it. ⁓
that will help make the system quieter. ⁓ So eventually we’ll have a ⁓ silent crown and drive as well that can be included. So I kind of anticipate the silent components just kind of overtaking maybe some of the other components that we’ve sold previously for our motionblinds. ⁓ But again, we’re about giving clients the option so that option will stay there. I know I will be pushing my clients to use those silent components.
just to give the end user an even better experience, right? If it adds an extra 10, 15 % enjoyment and satisfaction to the end user’s experience, I think it’s worth it.
out this year because it’s in the Midwest. We don’t have far to go, right?
know. I told, ⁓ I told our team down in Miami, bring their coats and their scarves and their winter hats. So I’ll have some, I’ll have some hot cocoa waiting for them when they get up North. ⁓ and then the, the, the other thing too, sorry, we’ll is, we’ll have our wired motors. we have kind of a new comprehensive wired motor program, mostly for the contract market, but also for the residential market, especially a new build. We’ll have those on display as well. So if you’ve always, you know, if you’re an existing client with Coulisse .
You’ve always wanted to work with Coulisse so you’re just interested in what we are doing on the wired motor side. Come stop by and we can show you that new program as well.
Yeah, so definitely stop by the booth for some goodies and ⁓ what’s going on. Why do you think the Sun Shading Expo is important to our industry right now?
One, you can, know, especially we were talking about AI earlier, I think more and people are working remotely, myself included. No matter what, it’s still a people business. It’s still kind of a contact sport, right? So anything that gets people together from the industry, you’re going to have fun, right? But you’re also going to make a lot of progress on the business side. You can exchange ideas. ⁓ It’s kind of good to see, hey, what’s our competition doing, right? That’s a great opportunity for us to see what they’re doing. What are they highlighting? ⁓ But it’s a…
One place where you can meet clients, you can meet prospects, you can get in front of new people that maybe don’t know as much about you, or who, you hey, you always get the most out of who and what somebody is in person. ⁓ And then all the different learnings that are available, right? I’m new to the industry, so anybody that’s new, there’s a lot to learn. ⁓
Even though the industry feels smaller and smaller by the day, there’s still a lot to learn, not only about, you know, your own stuff.
but what everybody else is doing as well. So if you want to crash course and to be incredibly efficient, a trade show like Sun Shading Expo, there’s no better place to be for a week to again, kind of drink from a fire hose, all things window coverings.
yeah, and it’s massive. I’m blown away how big it is.
Yeah, no, absolutely. It’s again, I think it’s really cool that it’ll be kind of centrally located in Indianapolis and the fact that it moves around to different locations throughout the country is is a huge advantage, I think.
Yeah. So what are you most excited about in the months ahead?
Yes, motionblinds for sure. We are incredibly bullish on that side of our business and where we want to go with that. ⁓ Here in the Midwest, for me, there’s a ton of opportunity on the motion blind side just because we’re still a relatively newer region for Coulisse . We’re a 33-year-old
but we’ve only been in the US for about, call it 13-ish years, 13, 14 years. So the sky is still the limit for Coulisse all around the world, but especially here in the US.
So what we’re doing on the motion blind side and just on it with motorization in general, and we’ve got some stuff maybe in 2026, 2027 that’ll be coming out as well. Incredibly bullish on that side of our business, but on that side of the industry, I think you’ll see, I forget exactly what it was, but there was a link that was shared that I think it was some event with Apple.
where they spoke about Eve and they spoke about kind of smart home stuff and they had kind of a segment where they highlighted smart shade specifically as an industry. So ⁓ I think it’s as exciting of a time as ever to be in our industry and you’ll see a lot of cool stuff on display here in a few weeks and moving forward.
Yeah, that event is November 5 through 7 in Indianapolis and there are tickets available. We’ll put a link in our show notes below if anybody needs to get, grab some tickets, we’ll be able to do that. Love to talk just real quick about yourself a little bit. What’s something outside of work that keeps you creative and grounded?
grounded my friends and family that bust my chops constantly. So probably them, but no, I’m a husband, father, and a dog dad. Great group of friends, great group of colleagues. I would say you could add my colleagues to the bunch that keep me nice and grounded as well. ⁓ But as I get a little bit older, I’m playing less and less of the, you know, no more basketball and football. now golf is kind of my new obsession. ⁓
that drives me nuts because just like most people that play it, I’m, not, I’m, I’m not all that good yet. So, ⁓ if I’m not doing that really just spending quality time with my friends and family. ⁓ I’m actually headed to, ⁓ to a wedding this weekend down in Cancun for, ⁓ me and one of me and my wife’s dearest friends, getting married down there.
So the older you get, the more responsibilities that are kind of thrown your way, the less of those types of opportunities you get. So, ⁓ I’m incredibly excited about that.
So and it’s a little sunnier down there than it is up here in Grand Rapids, Michigan this time of year. So just a touch.
off to Miami next week for a conference, so it’ll be nice and warm there as well. ⁓
and hey, you know, while you’re down there, if you want to see the Miami is where our US headquarters is for Coulisse , if you want to see the office, the warehouse, the showroom, you let me know and we’ll get you set up for a nice tour down there and we’ll give you that. We’ll roll out the Coulisse red carpet for you. So.
would be great. What trends do you see like shaping the industry over the next three to five years?
Motorization for sure, smart shades for sure. ⁓ It’s interesting kind of what’s happening in the exterior space,
right? Since COVID, I think a lot of people have jumped into that space and there’s a lot of cool stuff happening there. ⁓ But I think motorization and then AI as well, ⁓ not only just on like the actual product side, but how businesses are going to use AI to empower their employees. So I think a lot of people get a…
you know, get kind of scared when they hear AI and how it may replace them. I think the better way of looking at it is like, how can you help it? How can you use AI to do your job even better and be even better at whatever it is that you do? So that’ll the effects will vary depending on what it is that you do. But I know at Coulisse we are kind of always looking to be trendsetters and stay ahead of the game, especially with new technologies. And it’s no different ⁓ with AI. So.
At our meetings last week, we got to learn a little bit about how our leadership and how our ownership is going to help empower us with AI and help us all do our jobs better and reach our goals by 2030 and beyond. So just kind of the, just like every industry, think right now it’s technology, it’s AI. In our industry, our company’s no different. So motionblinds for sure, Eve motionblinds. And then how we’re going to leverage AI to continue to grow Coulisse here, you know, in the States and abroad throughout the world.
I think that’s really smart of vendors to kind of embrace that. As a user of AI, an end user, I think you have to get over the fact that it is going to replace everything that you do. Once you kind of, there’s like a hump, right? Once you realize, oh, it can do that for me, oh, it can do this, then the whole world opens up and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Yeah, and you know, just kind of on the sales side or on the marketing side, I think it’s just gonna make the great sales reps and great marketing reps amazing. I think it’s gonna make the good great because you can just, you’ll get more output with the same or less input, right? So yeah, I think, hey, what could go right? What’s the pro here? Not just looking at all the cons. And how can you use this to do your job better and help your company? And again, I’m thankful that, you know.
our company is thinking forward for us and empowering us, hey, this is how you can use this to do your job better, to service your clients better.
So yeah, if you’re an existing client of Coulisse or you will be here shortly, I think you’ll see some of the things that we’re doing make your life much easier, much smoother. It’ll save everybody time and it’ll be a good thing moving forward. Absolutely.
Well, Joe, this has been a great conversation. I really enjoyed it. Before we wrap up, let’s tell listeners how they can connect with you and Coulisse . So what is the best way for them to learn more about Coulisse in general or connect with yourself?
Yeah, so on the Coulisse side of things, MotionBlinds.com first and foremost, that’s where you can learn more about our, again, everything we’re doing on the motorization side. You get a good feel for our branding as well, kind of how we position ourselves. So if you’re a dealer, designer, fabricator that wants to leverage that with your clients and have maybe a little bit of a unique offering in the market, you can get a feel on MotionBlinds.com and then Coulisse .com as well. So those are the two best places. If you have LinkedIn, Coulisse is very active on
LinkedIn, think just about daily posts going on. So you can always stay up to date with us there, at the trade shows like sun shading expo. We’ll, we’ll always be there. and then for myself, just, you know, my email, [email protected]
and again, we have representatives all throughout the country, all throughout the world. So that that service their areas, you have local representation, that know their markets intimately.
And so no matter where you’re at, no matter at what point of the chain that you’re at, if you get in touch with us, we’ll get you in the hands of the right person and you help us sell more Coulisse
love that. Thanks again for being on the show. I think we’ve learned a lot, both about lease and trends that are going on, what you guys are focusing on. Any final thoughts for fabricators, dealers, or designers that want to stay ahead in this industry?
Yeah, don’t be so afraid of change, right? Our industry is changing a ton right now. I think embrace that. Find your lane, lean into your strengths. And if you’re looking for somebody that’s going to take a little bit more of a partnership approach, you know, a lot of the fabricators, they are family owned. That’s one thing that’s interesting. As a supplier, you know, we are also family owned. So I think there’s levels that we can connect with each other that might be a little bit different.
And if you feel stuck, if you feel like, I’m just, I’ve been doing the same thing for a while. It’s not yielding the results that I want. need something a little bit different, maybe a little bit fresher. Get in touch with us at Coulisse . We can show you at least what we can do. And then the decision is yours from there, whether or not you want to move forward. So, yeah, use us, use us for all the things that we have to offer. We’d love to be a partner if we’re not already.
Awesome. Well, that’s a wrap on today’s episode of Marketing Panes Huge thanks to Joe Estrada for joining us and sharing such valuable insights on innovation, modular systems, and smart shading tech. If this conversation gave you even one actionable idea, do us a favor.
Share it with a friend in the trade and subscribe so you don’t miss our next episode. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, or at our website, Window Treatment Marketing Pros. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next time on Marketing Panes.
