The challenge for remodelers and home builders remains the same-  supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.

Production cycles aren’t getting any shorter making it nearly impossible to sell more projects and homes. The question facing every business owner is…

How does a remodeler or home builder grow sales revenue doing the same or fewer units?

We’re launching a new series called How to Grow Sales Revenue and this week we’re tackling the challenge of limited trade partners and staffing. In this episode we discuss:

• Why growing your company today is dramatically different than even a few years ago. Never before have builders been so hamstrung by external forces limiting unit growth.
• Selling the wrong projects to the wrong clients has never been more detrimental and how one mistake can ruin an entire year
• The 3 elements that keep home builders and remodelers from growing average job revenue and profitability
• The fastest way to streamline your product offerings
• How to answer the question, “What type of projects or homes do I want to be known for?”

Get started by looking closely at your current marketing efforts. If you’re interested in learning more about these strategies and other tips on how to grow your company’s sales revenue without adding staff or trading partners, be sure to listen/watch this latest episode and more episodes to come which should help expand your knowledge base of what is possible when it comes to creating success from this challenging market.

Builder Lead Lead Converter helps home builders & remodelers grow sales revenue and margins while navigating supply chain and labor market issues. Get started today and find out if you qualify to become a home builder or remodeler partner by scheduling your free strategy call.

Transcript:

Conversations that Convert. We’re gonna talk about how to grow sales revenue with limited trade partners and staffing. Let’s get started.

Welcome to conversations that convert every week, we’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation marketing and sales topics for remodelers, home improvement companies, and home builders. Conversations that Convert is brought to you by builder lead converter, your perfect sales assistant.

And now here’s Rick and Daiana. 

Rick: Happy new year, Daiana.

Daiana: Happy new year, Rick.

Rick: Your smile looks infectious. We have a new year, a new outlook, right? Everything is the old is gone and the new has been ushered in.

Daiana: Let’s hope we have a good one and we are healthy and we have great ideas to implement. 

Rick: I agree. I agree. Very, very well said. So what are we talking about today, Daiana?

Daiana: Today we will grow sales, and we will do that for partners and staffing. 

Rick: Yeah, right. So we’re, we’re talking about the elephant that is in the room today, and that is, we have all this opportunity, but we have limited resources. And so, it’s kind of weird to say, but leads are not really an issue right now, but what is a problem is we have, it’s tough to find labor, tough to find trade partners, and we’ve got supply chain issues that are causing massive delays. So if you are looking at saying, how do I grow my business, understanding that I, I have limited trade partners and staffing, we’re gonna give you some ideas today on, on things you can implement to make, to make that. So this is all part of a new series we’re starting called how to maximize your revenue, per sale. So let me set the tone if you will. 

Daiana: So what’s the problem here? 

Rick: Yeah, the problem is limited trade, labor, and trades. So there’s, we’ve heard about all the labor issues, across the country. And housing obviously has had labor issues for a number of, of, of years. And so now we have so much demand. We have a really, small pool of labor, and it just has really expanded the amount of time to complete projects. And it makes it nearly impossible to grow your sales revenue by increasing units. Historically, what we’ve always said is, well, last year I did 20 jobs. So this year I wanna do 30 or last year I built 50 homes this year. I wanna build 60, you know, but now we’re looking at our resources and we’re saying, I can only do this much work. So if  I want to grow my business. How do I do it? When I know I, I can’t do, I, I can’t do additional units. 

Daiana: And what’s the, what’s the question here?

Rick: Yeah. So, the question is, is like, okay, I’m looking at 2022, I’m all excited, right? For, for the opportunity of the future. But I’m saying I’m being held back because of this. So how do I grow sales revenue doing the same or, or less units?

Daiana: That’s a very powerful question. And, I assume we have some suggestions or answers for…

Rick: It’s all about niche, the niche, Daiana. So we wanna niche down and reduce our offerings. And this is something you may or may not have heard of before. But it’s more important than ever now is that you establish a niche for yourself in your local marketplace. I, I had this quote that came up years ago that, general contractors generally attract people interested in the lowest price. And so if we come off as a generalist, we are never going to be able to really realize the potential of your company. You’re not gonna grow what you’re not gonna get to the profit levels that you wanna get being a generalist. So we have to be-become specialists. And so that means that we need to fulfill a niche in our local marketplace. 

Daiana: And that wasn’t, I’m, I’m curious. That doesn’t mean that we lose business if we narrow our business.

Rick: That is, yeah, that, that is the concern, right? It’s like, I don’t wanna say no because I don’t wanna lose business. I wanna say yes every, to everything. So there is a discipline that goes, that goes with it. And, there are really three components of what a niche is, for a builder. Should we get into ’em?

Daiana: Yes, let’s, I’m-I’m looking forward to, to hear them.

Rick: All right. So first and foremost is, is component number one of Billy’s niche. That’s being location specific. Too often we have too big of a service area. And so that just puts more windshield time for our trades for ourselves. And so we end up becoming real inefficient at, at our jobs because we’re traveling so much back and forth. So the first thing we have to do is we have to focus on projects and, and builds that are closer to home. So you have to say, here’s where I’m located. You need to draw a radius around and say, this is where I’m gonna build. And if somebody wants to build outside that service area, Thank you for the opportunity, but unfortunately, we don’t build in that area. You have to start saying no to that and need to focus on jobs that are closer to you because you’re gonna be that much more efficient a case. In point, I was talking to a, a, a client yesterday that, build, builds a home in Florida. And they said they have dramatically reigned in their service area, where they’re saying no to a lot of stuff that is too far away from where they’re building right now. And the reason they can do that is that they’ve been able to capture a very wide audience, a lot of leads that wanna build closer to, to where they’re at. So you gotta start with number one by being location specific and eliminating the areas that are just too far.

Daiana: So when you say that, I’m, I’m wondering when you say yes, what you say no to, and when you say no, what you say yes to, so we just wondering to…

Rick: Yeah. That’s exactly right. So if you draw that area around you, you’re saying I’m gonna build in these communities, these areas you’re saying no to everything else that’s outside of that circle, but you’re saying yes to everything that’s inside that circle. Yeah. E-exactly right. 

Daiana: That needs some discipline. 

Rick: It does, we say no is incredibly difficult to do, but after you’ve done it, you realize that sometimes saying no is the best decision you ever make to say no to a client or to a job. So the second part of building a niche is gonna be product specific. Now, let me break this down. If you’re a remodeler, what this means is you need to focus on if you’re gonna do design-build work, then do design-build work. If you are gonna be a change-out specialist, then be a change-out specialist. And if you’re gonna be a specialty remodeler, then focus on being a specialty remodeler, but do not do all of the above. You can really do really well at design-build, but you need to know what you’re doing and you can lose profits very quickly. If you’re not familiar with that, the same thing. I mean, a change out. There are a lot of opportunities there, but you may not be best set up for it and is to be a specialty remodeler. You know, maybe that’s really one you wanna focus on is just doing three to five different specialties for your clients, but you have to be product specific. Now, if you’re a home builder, If you’re, you’re gonna do custom homes and do custom homes. If you’re gonna be a production builder, be a production builder. If you wanna do semi-custom and sort of meet in the middle, then be a semi-custom builder, but you can’t do some custom, some semi-custom, and some production just like you can’t do some specialty remodeling, design, builder modeling, and change out the remodeling. So you have to know what you’re doing, the product-specifications, and provide whatever type of products and production that is right for you. Because your clients are gonna be that much happier too. 

Daiana: So the most important thing is to decide and be very specific. 

Rick: Exactly. That’s what it’s all about being, being niche specific. 

Daiana: All right. What’s the next one?

Rick: So the third component is gonna be product specific. Now, production-specific is what we just talked about, but it’s gonna go back and it’s gonna relate directly to the products. Okay, so what products are you offering? So you talked about before, if I say no to something that means I’m saying yes to something, and if I say yes to something, it means I’m saying no to something. So think about this, look at all of the service offerings that you have, that you are currently offering and what you want to eliminate. In other words, what is too low of revenue for you? You’re too low of a margin and you need to get those off of your, your, your menu if you will. So in other words, you’ve done stuff in the past because it was working there, but it wasn’t necessarily working you enjoyed it. Wasn’t maybe it didn’t work. You were good at it, and perhaps it worked. You didn’t make any money, so you wanna get rid of that, get it off of your plate. And then just focus on those offerings where you are making the revenue you wanna make, and you are making the margins you wanna make. So let me give you a quick, quick antidote here. I talked to a guy last year. A remodeler who was doing handyman-type work. And he wanted to get up to more design-build, but he didn’t know how to stop doing the handyman work in order so he could focus on design-build. Now you can’t just completely cut off handyman work to get to design and build. There is a strategy for getting there, but at the same time, you’ve gotta make the decision in your head. I’m no longer a handyman. I’m a remodeler. You seek out people that are looking for the type of remodeling projects that you wanna offer, and then you become the specialist. In other words, you become the preferred brand in your local market for that particular offering. And that’s really the last thing that I wanted to talk about today, which is I heard this term a long time ago from Seth Golden, who’s, a marketing genius. It’s called building a tribe. And here’s the question you should ask yourself is, What do you wanna be known for in your local marketplace? So somebody thinks of your company, what do you want them to think of? And, you know, I’m not talking about like a brand like Coca-Cola or Nike or something like that, but I’m talking about if, if you had a client that was gonna refer a friend, family or coworker to your business, what is that job that they’re gonna think of and say, oh yeah, you know, I wanna refer this guy wants to build a high-end custom home.  Your company is known as a high-end custom home builder, and luxury custom home builder. Therefore I’m gonna refer this person to you versus I have someone that’s looking for an entry-level townhome. Or I have somebody that’s looking for, you know, gutter siding the windows versus a design-build remodeling. What do you wanna be known for? And so you build a tribe around what you wanna be known for and you attract people that are looking for that type of service. Years ago, I had this phenomenon called pericarditis and it made me feel like you were having a heart attack. It scared the bejesus out of me, but I would wake up in the middle of the night. Cold sweats thinking I had a heart attack and I went to the emergency room several times and they would put me on EKG and they would say, ah, Rick, you know what, it’s not, you’re not having a heart attack. It’s something called pericarditis. And it’s an inflammation of the tissue around your heart. So it gives you the same symptoms of a heart attack, but you’re really not at risk of a heart attack, but then I would take these big horse pills. I called them, but it was ibuprofen. That would be an anti-inflammatory. And I would do this for weeks or months until then, it was a virus until it cleared. Well, I kept on getting this, you know, over a period of several years. And I finally said, you know what, maybe I should go to a cardiologist, a specialist, right? A specialist, somebody who specializes in hearts. And I, once you, the cardiologist and the cardiologist says, you know what, there was this study done. And if you take this particular medication for six months, there’s a 50% chance that you will never get this again. And I said, okay, I’ll try it. And so I went ahead and I did that and I never got it again. So I mean, the moral to the story is this is that. If I truly am looking for a certain type of project, a home building remodeling project, what do you wanna be known for? You wanna be a specialist? Not a generalist. The cardiologist got paid a lot more than the general practitioner that I saw in the emergency room. But he also gave me the results I was after. So if you want to make the kind of money you want to make, if you want to include your, raise your revenue, you have to be known for something. And that requires you, to create a niche for yourself. 

Daiana: So for what do you want to know, to be known? That’s the main question.

Rick: Yep, exactly. Exactly. So, what I wanted to throw everyone out there today is that you guys have the opportunity. Anybody that’s watching this to schedule a strategy call with me and find out if you qualify for us to book you to up to 20 qualified lead appointments for $0 and zero ad spend. That’s right. We’ll book you up to 20 qualified lead appointments for your business. Absolutely free, but you do have to qualify for this. All you have to do is click on the link below, go to my website, and schedule a time for us to have a conversation. I’ll see if you qualify. And if you do, we will book those appointments for you in 30 days or bless.

Daiana: That’s a very generous offer. 

Rick: Well, thank you, Daiana and it’s and its work. We’re doing it right now for clients, for our home balloon, remodel clients, just, just like you. So you two can take advantage of it. So what do we get next week, Daiana?

Daiana: Next week, we’ll grow sales revenue with supply chain challenges.

Rick: Right. So we’re gonna deal with both labor issues and supply chain issues. So until then my brothers and sisters in Christ made the grace of a Lord, Jesus Christ. The love of God. And the fellowship of the holy spirit is with you all. Thank you so much for joining us. Happy new year, everyone. We’ll see you next week. Take care. Bye.

Daiana: Bye-bye.