Photo Credit: Brucie Rosch
Bill Patrick’s incentive for teaching seminars can be traced back to one specific homeowner who attended his first seminar in 2000. “She sat in the front row and was very interactive,” he says. That same year, she visited William J. Patrick Inc.’s booth at a local home show. Soon after, she hired the Leola, Pa., company for a $450,000 whole-house project. She is now a regular client, having done that first large project, along with six other significant jobs and some minor service work. “That is the reinforcement I received right out of the gate,” Patrick says.
In fact, most remodelers who teach seminars see a positive impact on sales leads — something that Patrick and other remodelers are reviewing to boost leads in today’s rough economy.
Most of Patrick’s seminars since 2000 have taken place at his local builder’s association home show. He stopped teaching in 2006, but recently decided to host a seminar in his showroom. “It is time to promote the company and provide homeowners with something they feel is a value, and it allows them to get to know us in a no-obligation, neutral forum,” he says.
At its most positive, seminar attendees view the remodeler as an expert. At the very least, a seminar is a good public relations practice. “It’s as much public relations as direct marketing or an advertising piece. It’s an opportunity to earn people’s trust,” Patrick says. He uses the seminar to advocate on behalf of homeowners and explain the remodeling process, contracts, and estimates.
Dave Bryan, president of Blackdog Builders, in Salem, N.H., has taught seminars in varying forms for many years and says that his company is a good fit for seminar-attending homeowners. “They qualify themselves. They are educating themselves about remodeling. If they meet with other contractors, they automatically think we are better. Calling on these clients can be a better call for our sales staff,” he says.
Early on, Bryan planned events for 200 people, hiring outside talent such as Michael Payne from the Home and Garden Television show Designing for the Sexes and Tom Silva of This Old House. He rented and set up a tent behind his office and found co-sponsors to defray the costs. The large crowds were exciting, but hardly any leads from the event turned into jobs. Bryan scaled back and now teaches three or four seminars in the spring and again in the fall. “Last week, we had 10 [people] signed up, 11 at the seminar, and seven strong leads,” he says, “I’d rather have 10 committed than 30 less interested,” Bryan says.
Remodeler Tom Mitchell has presented seminars at different venues: at a residential design conference, at a local library, and at a cabinetry/millwork showroom. “Out of say, 20 attendees, we usually speak separately to three or four, and of those we get one or two jobs,” says the president of Mitchell Construction, in Medfield, Mass.
Mitchell’s early seminars were at a library in an affluent town where the company had done a few jobs. Now, almost half the company’s work is in that area. “We marketed it on our Web site with press releases, newspaper ads, and letters to our clients and leads list, and sent postcards to a targeted audience,” he says.
At a design conference hosted by the Boston Society of Architects and geared toward homeowners, Mitchell taught a seminar and also set up a small booth. In an effort to cross-market, he also taught a seminar in the showroom of a cabinet/millwork company he works with. That company marketed the seminar, and about 55 homeowners attended. Mitchell has future plans to host a class in his offices.
Photo Credit: Brucie Rosch
A community college is the venue of choice for Jeb Breithaupt. “It’s a great deal,” he says. “They do all the advertising for you, and it goes in their catalog.” He is also paid a small stipend to teach the class. One out of every 10 visitors to the Jeb Breithaupt Design/Build showroom in Shreveport, La., is from the seminar, and the company usually gets one new client per seminar.
“There is a ton of information on the Web about remodeling and books in bookstores, but it’s easier for people to listen to a speaker,” Breithaupt says. “You might be on their short list of remodelers, and they feel like they are interviewing you by coming to the seminar. They think that by spending about $40 to attend two 11/2-hour sessions, they’ll find a way to save themselves money. For us, the idea is that the more people you talk to, the more top-of-mind awareness they will have.”
Jon Vogel has participated in seminars as part of his local association’s goal to reach out and inspire homeowner interest in the association and professionalism in the industry, but he has decided to host internal seminars with the input of his two designers and two salespeople. “The economy is slow, and we want to bring people to our showroom,” says the owner of New Outlooks Construction Group, in Robbinsville, N.J.
Ron Cowgill doesn’t promote his company at the association seminars he teaches, but is always asked for business cards at the end of the class. Most of the jobs from the seminars are bathrooms and kitchens or repairs for the small projects division of his company, D/R Services Unlimited, in Glenview, Ill.
Since she moved into her new Crystal Kitchen Center in North Crystal, Minn., JoLynn Johnson has hosted 13 seminars in the showroom. She promotes them with 10,000 direct mail postcards aimed at a specific ZIP codes and house values. She also runs an ad in the Sunday paper and includes it in the company newsletter. About 25 to 30 people attend. “If the TV stations pick it up, we usually have to add another night,” she says.
Successful Seminar Tips and Techniques
Get organized. Louisiana remodeler Jeb Breithaupt alternates between kitchen and bath design seminars and a general home remodeling seminar. “I’ve done seminars on the 10 biggest mistakes homeowners make,” he says. “I go over the basics of how to have a good experience, the process, standard forms, etc. ... It’s not hard for a remodeler to talk — you know all this stuff. But you have to get organized. I also bring my designer/salesperson to talk about kitchen design.”
Photo Credit: Brucie Rosch
Include visuals. Bill Patrick, owner of William J. Patrick Inc., in Leola, Pa., has taught a seminar with the title “Remodeling: Maintaining Your Sanity and Resale Value.” In the first part, he discusses whether the homeowner should move or improve, and about their investment and decisions. The second part covers the design/build process and the value it brings to his clients. He uses a PowerPoint presentation with CAD drawings and photos. “What we do is visual. We need to provide the connection in pictures in particular,” he says. “Use a before, design, and after to show them the process.”
Allow staff to contribute. Seminar attendees like it when Tom Mitchell brings in a designer from his Medfield, Mass., company, Mitchell Construction, to talk about design issues. “We show them a kitchen job we did and [describe] the process of hiring, the conceptual drawings, schematics, and how it evolved,” he says.
Explain industry standards. In Glenview, Ill., remodeler Ron Cowgill presented “How to Hire a Remodeling Contractor” seminars for the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, and stressed hiring a member of the association. Cowgill would tell attendees that he was doing the seminar on behalf of NARI, not to promote his company. “That loosened up the audience to ask questions,” he says. During the seminar, he would explain the process and cover, for example, how a payment plan should work. “Many in the class were surprised and shocked because their remodeler did not have a standard payment plan,” he says.
Serve your market. Though her most popular seminars are on how to choose a remodeler and what to expect during the remodeling process, Minnesota remodeler JoLynn Johnson has also used the outdoor kitchen display in her showroom to teach a class on designing an exterior room and has ventured beyond remodeling to cover aromatherapy and entertaining for the holidays.
Prepare and practice. “Recognize that there are some basics of giving a presentation that we all expect when we go to a seminar or class. Get some coaching and input from someone who has a grasp of that. And understand your own personal presentation style,” Patrick says. Be prepared to handle do-it-yourselfers who ask for help on permitting or design. “If you don’t feel comfortable with public speaking — get comfortable before you start. If you are not articulate or your delivery stinks, you make a bad impression,” Bryan says. To prevent one attendee from dominating the class, he sometimes asks one of his designers to stay, and asks homeowners to address specific questions to them after the class.
Bring in outside experts. Johnson worked with a professional chef and Kohler salesperson who both did well at answering questions and came across as experts in their fields. The chef talked about appliance choices of a gourmet chef,” she says. Both speakers answered detailed questions that she could not have addressed. If you do decide to work with a speaking partner, either from your office or outside your office, make sure that person has good presentation skills.
Provide marketing materials. Breithaupt gives out marketing materials at the seminar and sends attendees a letter after the seminar, but, he says, “we found that [clients] call when they are ready. We could be more diligent about following up, but it’s soft marketing.”