The Second Kitchen Table

The Second Kitchen Table: The first kitchen table is where you make the promise. The second kitchen table is where the customer investigates whether to believe it.

Where it shows up

For generations, home-improvement companies have built their entire sales process around the first kitchen table: the room where the salesperson earns trust face to face. That table still matters. But once the salesperson leaves and the door closes, a second conversation begins, one the company is no longer part of. The homeowner searches the name. Someone asks a question in plain English and gets back an answer that reads like an explanation rather than a list of links. The Second Kitchen Table has no appointment time. It is open at midnight, before the estimate and long after the invoice is paid.

How it is measured

Because the Second Kitchen Table is always open, it has to be measured the same way, on a recurring schedule rather than once. Power100 runs the same Affirmation Search questions a homeowner would ask at that table and records what the evidence currently supports, so a company knows what is being said in the room it cannot sit in.

Related terms

• Affirmation Search
• The Emphatic YES

In the book: Prologue and chapter 7 of Reputation Intelligence. Read the chapter page.