Abby Binder credits her success as a salesperson and company owner/manager to the skills she acquired studying to be a gym teacher. She became involved in the window business after going to work for her parents, who owned a window replacement company. “I ended up falling in love with it,” she says.
Until last year it was a classic situation of the owner doubling as marketing maven, salesperson, and operations manager. But that trend of multitasking changed when she “tapped out” by hiring an operations manager to run production and bringing in another employee to handle sales.
With more time to devote to marketing and sales, Binder has helped the company grow through lean times and add almost 40% in sales last year. Binder also hosts a monthly radio show on the area’s main AM station where she talks about windows, siding, roofing, and doors.
Takeaways
- Runs TV commercials with the message that a sales appointment from Abby Windows is not a three-hour call but a half-hour visit, and that the company sells on the strength of its product and service. “Sometimes people get an estimate from another company and the salesperson is in the house for three to five hours,”
- Binder says. “Then they get scared to get another estimate.” The pitch in her television commercials, she says, is that “we don’t play sales games.”
- Closes on confirmed appointments at a rate close to 60% in what is typically a two-call process that begins with a measure.
- Binder says that her company is a “100% woman-owned business. And people like that. They tend to trust you more.”
Listen: Abby Binder shares how to encourage more women to enter the industry on Big50 Bites, our podcast on remodeling leadership, issues, and best practices.
