Bruce Wentworth, owner of the design/build firm Wentworth Studio, in Chevy Chase, Md., says that current economic conditions are causing clients to take longer to commit.
Photo Credit: CHARLES STECK
Last February, a prospect contacted Bruce Wentworth, owner of Wentworth Studio, a design/build remodeling company in Chevy Chase, Md. The homeowner was interested in an addition combined with a kitchen remodel. That initial conversation was followed by several meetings, including a site visit. Only in December did Wentworth receive a tentative go-ahead.
That’s far longer than it normally takes, but given the current economy, Wentworth says, “it’s hard [for clients] to be decisive.” What won him the job was not just the company’s expertise matching remodeling projects to a range of historic home styles, he says, but “the fact that I hung in there and was persistent and professional.”
Strategies to sell upscale remodeling jobs vary, as do the knowledge and resources of sales prospects. But it all starts with the same goal: “To get inside the [homeowner’s] head and learn as much as possible about what they’re trying to do,” Wentworth says.
They end the same way too: when you’ve convinced the homeowner that you have what it takes to create something good enough to invest a lot of money in and have persuaded them to commit to working with you.
Jeff Clark, of Metropolitan Design & Build, in St. Louis, typically brings a group of 8-by-10 before-and-after photos to the first meeting. He sells prospects on what happens between the before and the after.
Photo Credit: DOUG METHOD
Jeff Clark of Metropolitan Design & Build, in St. Louis, calls it “sequential and consummate.” Meeting by meeting, buy-in builds and prospects become clients.
Prep Work
Prospects can find out a lot about you if you direct them to your Web site. But don’t just assume they’ll go. One company found, via post-project poll, that half its clients never actually visited its site. Sometimes they have an idea of what they’d like to see happen, but just as often they have only vague notions. Even if they come with plans, they may not know what the project costs. Typically they’re referred by others, including architects. They’ve heard good things about your work, and if they weren’t inclined to believe them, they wouldn’t be calling. But that’s all they’ve heard.
“For the most part, [prospects] only know that somebody thinks very highly of us,” says John Rusk, owner of Rusk Renovations, in New York City.
Ultimately, in the run-up as well as in the first meeting, you want to seem interested in the project and excited about it, without appearing over-eager. You build the value of your company by asking the right questions and explaining how your systems and services provide a solution. “I don’t call it ‘selling,’ I call it ‘helping,’” Rusk says. “I want people to say: If you’re going to do a renovation in New York, you want to talk to Rusk. They’ll help you get approved by the co-op board, work with the architect to improve the plans, streamline costs, and value-engineer it.” He assumes that prospects are talking to two or three other remodeling companies, so his goal in that first meeting is to be the friendliest and most knowledgeable person they consult.
Crucial goals in any first meeting include confirming those high opinions of you and your work, but, even more importantly, gaining prospects’ trust, gathering the information you’ll need to begin preparing designs or proposals, and moving the conversation toward a construction contract somewhere down the road. “The job is sold over that first cup of coffee,” says John Sylvestre, owner of Sylvestre Construction, in Minneapolis. “And they’re buying the relationship between myself and them.”
Location, Location
Identify their pain, advises Gary Rochman, of Rochman Design & Build, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Find out what the home owners don’t like about their house and then start problem solving with them.
Photo Credit: JON MURESAN
For most companies, that all-important first discussion takes place in the prospect’s home. Some jump-start it by inviting prospects to the office. Anderson-Moore Builders, of Winston-Salem, N.C., began doing that last April. Prospects meet staff, look at photos, and talk with co-owners Eric Anderson and Tracy Moore. The aim, Anderson says, is to have them come away with the sense of a solid company that has prize-winning projects in its portfolio.
But for most owners who sell, the first meeting occurs in the home, and skill in discovering the home’s problems and the results that homeowners would like to see trumps all else. “My goal in that first meeting is to identify their pain,” says Gary Rochman, owner of Rochman Design-Build, in Ann Arbor, Mich. “What is it they don’t like about their home? You want to get to that, and then start problem-solving with them.”
Say you locate the pain. What can you provide that others can’t? For instance, they might not have an architect or know where to find one, in which case your ability to design, or suggest a designer, enhances your stature. “Sometimes they don’t think that far ahead,” Wentworth says. “If they need a kitchen designer or an interior designer, we do it all.”
Photos from Metropolitan Design & Build, in St. Louis, signal prospects that the company is about beautiful and creative solutions to often thorny design problems.
Photo Credit: RICHARD SPRENGELER
They may need the project completed in a limited time. Rusk Renovations, for instance, specializes in completing its co-op apartment remodels in an average of four months — well before $1,000-a-day co-op board penalties kick in. The clients may not even be there when the project is under way, as was the case with a custom home undertaken by Cobb Hill Construction, in Concord, N.H. In that instance, the ability to provide timely electronic updates — room by room, via Web site or e-mail — helped secure the job.
Photo Credit: RICHARD SPRENGELER
Money Matters
You’ll also have to know, by the end of that first meeting, what the prospect expects to pay. That will be the most difficult piece of information to come by, but without it you won’t be able to tell if the project is feasible. “Money is No. 1, even with high end,” says Cobb Hill Construction president Tom Avallone.
It’s also a subject requiring finesse. “The first thing you don’t do is ask them how much they want to spend,” Clark says. What he brings to that first meeting is 8-by-10 before-and-after photos and, as he walks prospects through kitchens, baths, additions, and renovations, he gives a price range for each.
If there’s a discrepancy between what the homeowners want and what they feel they should spend, be frank and respectful. “If people are unrealistic in their needs and expectations, I’m going to tell that to them as quickly as I can in as nice a way as possible,” Avallone says. If you do that honestly, politely, and professionally, you’ll have a quick resolution and be able to move to the next step.”
Step By Step
Photo Credit: RICHARD SPRENGELER
For many remodelers, the next step comes at the conclusion of that first meeting, when they ask prospects to commit to paying for design. Sylvestre names a ballpark price and charges $500 for preliminary designs. If prospects give the go-ahead, Clark returns for a second meeting with an Initial Concept Agreement that includes design concepts, scope of work, and an estimate. But nothing happens unless clients agree to work with you, which is why that first meeting is key.
“To get to that Fine Design Agreement — your first benchmark — there needs to be a huge amount of trust,” Rochman says. And each meeting, and phase, usually involves increased buy-in, as well as additional selling. “There’s always the thought that maybe there’s someone out there who can do it cheaper,” Clark says. “But more than 80% of the time we get that Initial Concept approved, and the person goes all the way with it.”
Jim Cory is the editor of Replacement Contractor, a sister publication of Upscale Remodeling.