Home Improvement That Sells

I heard the knock on the door just as I was about to sit for dinner - a warm squash soup with feta cheese. The wind was owling outside and I had had a long day. Here they are, two young men ready to solicit business for their boss: "we do home improvement," they said in unison, "no project is too small." They looked like they had been out all day, in the cold, knocking on doors that would not open.

That is interruption marketing.

I felt for them, I did. Yet my dinner was getting cold and I was in no mood to discuss home improvement. Many of my neighbors had the same reaction. The two kept walking up and down a dark street trying to drum up business.

There are also those who put a flier into every mail box, or wedge it on your door. Maybe some people call and request an estimate. I do not know. What I know is that unless there is a home renovation project already in the pipeline, people generally do not make that decision on the spur of the moment. Usually, we procrastinate -- due to the expense and inconvenience of having the house half done for a spell.

Many homeowners have switched to doing the work themselves. Over the years I learned how to sand hardwood floors, tape, spakle, sand and paint drywall, replace doors, build window frames and sills, replace sockets and switches and rewire rooms. Yes, I am your typical handy-person. For those like me, and for the rest in the neighborhood, there might be a better way to sell home improvement.

Do it in Plain Sight

1. Pick a house in the neighborhood that stands out and could use some help. Approach the owner with a proposal - you offer to split some of the renovation cost with them if they allow you to (let's say) replace their siding that month you need work and you can talk about it and publicize the job. They get a needed/wanted renovation at a lesser cost. You get the expo site. 
2. Or find a local real estate agent who is familiar with the neighborhood and knows, for example, that a particular house may go up for sale in the spring. Or maybe it's the widow in the corner lot who is planning to sell before year end. They may have already made the connection. Partner with them. They get the potential listing, you get the tip.
3. Go to the local home improvement centers - Loews and Home Depot for example - and ask if they'd be willing to sponsor you for some of the cost of the material in exchange for publicity.

Spread the Word

1. Prepare fliers that mention how all the participants to the project came together and provide lots of good home maintenance tips. Make sure you include the home's story. Set it up to open a marketing conversation among people at the local grocer, dry cleaner, coffee shop.
   
2. Put a sign up at the curb with some of the fliers, just like at an open house, on the sign write something interesting, like "Mary is moving up, are you?" or "Holy Cow, look at Mary's new siding!" People love to see what's happening in the neighborhood.
3. Contact a popular home improvement radio show or locally syndicated Web site like Ask the Builder and plan to get on air with a video before, during and after the project. Have checklists and special advice ready to go. With the appropriate tags, the video can be searched on YouTube and people will find you from there. Give the video to the home owner, too. She might be tempted to show her family and friends.

What Happens Next?

I noticed this over and over again. A neighbor has their driveway or siding done and in the months following the project, two or three more do the same. In fact, putting the project in plain sight will generate interest. How do you capitalize on it?

1. Do good work. There is really no trick to that. Good work shows better. The siding will not buckle a short while after installation, it will weather next season with grace. You're putting on a show and what you're showing is your craft.
2. Give a discount to the first home owner who signs up. Put that information in the fliers. Depending on the month of the year and your work load, as well as you new partnerships, you may be able to afford a couple.
3. Stay energetic, positive, and interested in projects that may not be immediate. Offer to follow up with a home owner who is not quite ready, but is thinking about it. Or better yet, book your time with them when you can still offer a discount if it is low season for you and they can get a fast turn around.

We love the idea of sampling. I remember when busy at work on my house, many a neighbor stopped by to inquire as to which materials and tools I was using. Showing off your work is a great way to tell a story. That house in need of repair at the corner now looks great, the whole neighborhood gains from it, and you are the hero who did it. Referrals are the best form of publicity.

[image from Italian Villas, showing La Florenza, Florence area, Tuscany]

Comments

[Cam Beck]

Interesting... and worthwhile. About two weeks ago we had a huge windstorm down here. It blew the shingles off of a lot of roofs in the neighborhood. We tracked down a roofer because the company did some work for my wife's mom.

The next few days, we noticed the same roofer doing similar work for other people in the neighborhood.

We don't even know all of our neighbors that well, so we don't have social credibility with them. They just noticed we were spending our money with him, and that was enough for them to believe him to be reputable and trustworthy.

They saw him doing work, knew they needed it, and took advantage of his presence (or he took advantage of it, depending on how you look at it).

Thanks for giving us something to ponder.

[Carolyn Ann]

Home improvement marketing... Always a quagmire. You're right, though - "interruption marketing" doesn't work, it simply annoys.

There are some books out there (the first, and still the best, is published by Taunton Press, "Running a Successful Construction Company", David Gerstel) but they don't really deal with marketing. It's a different skill, and not one many contractors think about.

The best I managed (I tried garden woodworking after I was laid off from IT) was friends and their friends. Even then it was hit or miss - marketing includes pricing, and I was really awful at that. The reason you don't see shared-cost deals is because most builders have really bad cash-flow. The IRS suspects it's to avoid taxes, but in general - it's because they just don't manage the money properly. More contractors fail because of that than any other reason! In short - they can't afford to do a shared-cost deal.

If the builder is even mildly responsible, insurance companies would frown on shared-cost deals. The one who distributes the paycheck who gets sued when there's an accident; if it's a home-owner/contractor arrangement - both will be liable. And while the Contractors' insurance company might like that - the homeowners' won't - and they'll deny any responsibility!

(You know the one about innovation in the building trades, right? Contractors are willing to try anything new. As long as their father taught it to them...)

On the other hand - I could have used you the other day. :-) It feels like we're rebuilding this house - from the ground up!

Carolyn Ann

[Joshua Feinberg]

Your idea about the contractors networking with real estate agents is really the right way to go.

It's simply way too expensive to just concentrate on one-to-one marketing where a satisfied customer ** might ** tell one person, if you're lucky.

Realtors on the other hand are constantly dealing with clients that have URGENCY... where a repair NEEDS to be done before a house is listed, before an open house is held, or before a closing can take place.

I'd be visiting all the local chamber of commerce organizations and realtor associations looking to get a foot in the door with realtors that could refer potentially 10 or 20 projects a year.

In our industry (computer consulting for small businesses), it's very common to network with CPA's that already have the key contacts with small business decision makers.

Great story and some very practical marketing advice for ANY small business owner!

[Ricardo Bueno]

I'd say that you just covered a full training session in this short blog post that would otherwise have run you the cost of a Full Day Seminar!

[Robyn]

I had not heard the term, "Interruption Marketing" but it certainly get's in your face, Valeria.

Your solutions, "Spread the Word" and "What Happens Next" are key and I'm thinking about how these might be applied to other contexts. Thanks for a great post.

The wind is "owling" around my home too, and it's mighty cold!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Cam -- especially with something so personal as your own home, the biggest investment most of us make, it matters who does the work. If you think about it, it matters more and more in many areas. I take no pitches from people I do not know in business. Often the resources and time are so thin that I cannot afford making a wrong choice.

@Carolyn Ann -- all the ideas I presented are in the form of discounts for the very reason you point out, liability. I had the good fortune of working in insurance and risk management for several years and I am familiar with the principles. These days I do just maintenance... it's good to know how it works though.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Joshua -- thank you for your kind words. To me it needs to be a mix, because people prefer to watch what is going on so seeing you at work is very valuable.

@Ricardo -- the dynamics of what makes people buy have not changed much since the days of the market or bazaar. We like to sample, we look into what others have, we follow common practice (look at the uniformity of business benchmarking).

@Robyn -- I think it was Seth Godin who popularized the concept of interruption marketing. Most people forget to follow through with what's next - in networking, work, learning, experimenting, and all sorts of situations. That's usually what sets those who succeed apart.