Family connections brought Bob and Jerry Mikaelian into construction. The pair began installing windows more than four decades ago for the builder now known as K. Hovnanian Homes. At that point, Bob Mikaelian says, they saw a sizeable opportunity and opened one of the first retail showrooms in the window-replacement business.
The company’s strong ties to the community and its customers have made it an influential player in the area almost throughout its history. “I am not the boss,” Mikaelian says. “The boss is the customer. They will tell you if you’re doing a good job or not.”
Recently, the company has updated its CRM system and transformed marketing from traditional to online. The change has brought in an influx of customers.
Takeaways
- Bob and Jerry have hired, more by happenstance than deliberation, an all-female salesforce. That’s worked out well because women are the ones, Mikaelian says, who make the purchasing decisions and because women who sell “allow themselves to become excited about who we are and the products we carry.”
- The company has instituted the practice of holding company-wide meetings, with sales, admin and production, every Monday morning to run through jobs. “It’s a question-and-answer back and forth,” Mikaelian says, that preps production people on customer expectations re: forthcoming jobs.
