Why Closet Industry Vendors & Suppliers Flock to the Closet Summit Conference & Expo
- Dave Place
- May 9
- 4 min read
by KJ Signh ~ CEO of ClosetCRM
Last October, my team traded our typical Zoom meetings for a few days in Charlotte, North Carolina to join hundreds of closet and storage industry professionals at the Closet Institute of America (CIA) 11th annual Closet Summit Conference & Vendor Exposition.
We thought we were going to showcase ClosetCRM–our all-in-one client management, project management and billing platform.We indeed did that . . . but we also left with so many memories, lessons and new friendships!
The real value came from three lessons we never could have learned by staring at CRM programming code:
1. CIA Fosters an Incredible Environment for Collaboration - and It Directly Boosts Business for its Members. We expected polite handshakes. Instead, we found a nation-wide closet industry huddle, where for two days nearly three hundred passionate independent closet business owners gathered in one Charlotte hotel and witnessed an impressive exchange of ideas. No Slack Channels, WhatsApp group chats or Zoom calls could replicate the pace of ideation and idea-sharing that I witnessed at the Closet Summit Conference and Expo.
I’m already looking forward to the next one in Nashville, TN, on October 15-17, 2025. It felt less like a closet industry conference and more like a family reunion—an especially fun one where you love all your relatives.
2. Knowledge Sharing Is a Revenue Accelerator
It is easy to assume that every answer to a business problem lives just one Google search away. The Closet Summit proved otherwise.
I found closet business owners, designers, key managers, installers and fellow Vendor/Supplier members sharing unfiltered, tactical insights that one would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The networking was beyond compare.
For example, I led a Closet University Seminar on ‘Indian~Asian~American Culture’ and this ethnic group’s decision making process. We shared two data points to set the tone:
· ~ Median Indian-Asian-American household income already tops $151K (in 2023 as per the Pew Research Center - nearly double the average US household income) making them an important market to understand.
· ~ Indian-Asian-American families will almost never reach out for a quote for a closet and storage upgrade if they don’t already have funds set aside. So, it’s your deal to lose.
What ensued was a riveting discussion on how to respond to the most common rebuttals - practical cues that attendees shared with each other and the presenters during the session. Here’s a little sneak preview - join us at this year’s Summit for more 🙂
· Unique Storage Specifics. Bridal saris (ethnic dress) can weigh up to 30 pounds, so hang-rods must be able to support that. In addition, prayer spaces (pooja rooms) often require shoe-free zones.
· Negotiation is Expected. All Summit attendees had faced a negotiation situation, often referred to as the ‘Negotiation Merry-Go-Round’ and many shared several strategies on how to deal with this.
· Asian Last Names are Clues. Patel, Singh, Sharma - each hint at language preferences and design aesthetics, helping a designer greet clients in a way that feels like home.
Watching each person mention a cultural detail, then seeing mental light bulbs flick on around the room, was incredible. In the safe, non-competitive environment fostered by CIA Director Jeff Klein and the CIA team, what would’ve been pitfalls turned into revenue opportunities for everyone.
3. Excellent Staff Experience Leads to Excellent Client Experience
Closet & Storage Designers wear so many hats—creative, project manager, sales, to name a few—so any friction stalls revenue. Installers wear just as many hats—measurer, craftsman, on-site troubleshooter, customer-service rep—so any hiccup on the job site blows up timelines and costs. And office managers wear a million more–scheduling, follow-ups, accounting, project management, ordering special orders, etc. Any friction along the way adds up like paper cuts and, inevitably, creates stall and derail.
The issue is process, not talent.
Top closet shops solve it by investing in solid tools that keep up with the demands of our time, enable clear client and project tracking, and automate as much of the data entry and workflows as possible. When systems click, closing rates climb, money is collected in a timely manner to maintain healthy cash flow and the dreaded and costly Go-backs are averted..
Great systems lead to seamless execution which leads to great margins and revenue.
We left the Summit Conference convinced that the real product we “sell” at ClosetCRM isn’t just software; it’s the breathing room that lets owners equip their teams with great tools and still have time to learn from peers at events like the annual Closet Summit Conference:
ClosetCRM is built to carry those gains forward all year—count on us for fresh tools, hands-on guidance, and unwavering support every step of the way: https://www.closetcrm.com/
Best of all, the CIA’s Summit turned sparks of insight into real-world wins—and we’re committed to keeping that momentum humming across the vibrant CIA community.
Want to benchmark your shop against other independents? Be sure to attend the next Summit Conference in Nashville on October 15th – 17th:
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