Remodeling - February 2009 - (Page UR47)

Start Right liest and most knowledgeable person they consult. Crucial goals in any first meeting include confirming those high estimates of you and your work, but, even more important, 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 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.” 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 Identify their pain, advises Gary Rochman, of Rochman Design & Build, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Find out what the homeowners don’t like about their house and then start problemsolving with them. remodelingmag.com Remodeling February 2009 UR-47 http://www.remodelingmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Remodeling - February 2009

Remodeling - February 2009 Contents First Word Market Watch Linda Case Mark Richardson Shawn McCadden Ways + Means Bottom Line Sales + Marketing Field Notes By Design Tech@ Work Good Form Close Up Second Look Going Green Clinic Specbook Upscale Remodeling Start Right People, Process, Profits Interview: Sara Ryan Duffy, President of SRD International New + Notable Products Final Touch Green Speak Green Spec In Focus First Look Benchmark

Remodeling - February 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.