Do you remove your shoes when you visit a customer’s home? How do I control others’ first impressions of me? Is it ever appropriate to begin eating before everyone is served? Find the answers to these questions and more when Daniel Post Senning joins the show.
Daniel is the great-great-grandson of Emily Post and discusses the importance of etiquette and how you can use it while interacting with affluent clients who expect a certain standard of conduct. He explains that etiquette is really a combination of manners (language), plus principles (consideration, respect, and honesty), and how they guide behavior and how that behavior impacts others.
Daniel Post Senning is from the Emily Post Institute, which is a fifth-generation family business that promotes etiquette tips and techniques based on consideration, respect, and honesty. Daniel is also an author and co-host of the Awesome Etiquette podcast.
In this informative and fun podcast, Victoria, Mark, and Daniel talk more about:
Table etiquette for any setting
Business advice that can help you control customer impressions
SCRUM is a workflow management technique that accelerates projects, and while it is mostly used by software development teams, its principles and lessons can be applied to all kinds of industries.
Guest Dean Tompkins is here to explain how SCRUM is useful in his remodeling business, and how it can benefit you as well.
Dean Tompkins is the owner and Vice President of Payne and Payne Renovations and Design, a firm that specializes in renovation and design projects in the Greater Cleveland area. Dean was also named president of The Greater Cleveland Home Builders Association in 2019 and is dedicated to providing a full scope of services to his clients.
In this episode, we take a closer look at the sales process. We are always looking for fresh ideas and concepts that apply specifically to remodelers and those in the building community.
Our guest Jen Neige is adamant that you should be selling to design, NOT designing to sell, and she shares how you can improve your closing ratio, gain more control of the sales cycle and earn a design fee within two hours.
Jan Neiges is a National Kitchen and Bath certified Kitchen Designer and on the nine-member board for NKBA. Jan brings her 20 years of experience as a kitchen and bath designer and her 40 years of sales experience to share the selling process that she has developed.
Victoria, Mark and Jan talk more about:
Background on how Jan began working on this process.
Why this process is so important for remodelers to consider.
What some of the issues are within the industry faces that drives the need for using this process.
Are you looking for innovative tax strategies to reduce you or your clients’ tax burden?
Or, simply sick of paying more than you need to in taxes? Then tune into this episode to hear vital information that you won’t want to miss! Guest Shauna Wekherlien, CPA provides proven, legal, effective, and easy strategies that any audience member can implement to keep more of their hard-earned money.
Shauna is the founder and business owner of Tax Goddess, a company ranked in the top 1% of all tax strategists in the USA. The team at Tax Goddess is committed to helping clients reduce their tax burden to the bare legal minimum with proven strategies that are guaranteed to save thousands off of tax bills each year.
Victoria, Mark, and Shauna talk more about:
The difference between a CPA and a Tax Strategist
The most commonly missed deductions
The types of business owners that can benefit from a Strategic Tax Coaching Program
As a distinguished author and CEO, David brings his knowledge of world-class sales, sales management tactics and actionable strategies into this episode.
Current events have created an environment of incredible stress for homeowners across the globe. Remodelers have an opportunity to tap into their dissatisfaction with their home environments by using an empathy-based marketing approach to make an emotional connection.
On this episode of Best of Powertips Unscripted, Tanya Bamford joins Victoria and Mark to share how using the right messaging, imagery, and delivery channels can allow remodelers to present themselves as conduits for creating retreats from stress at home. These tips can help them fill their pipelines with homeowners who are hungry for a reprieve.
Tanya Bamford is the Managing Director of R/A Marketing–a full-service agency providing creative, yet straightforward marketing solutions for remodeling companies across the United States.
This episode will cover:
What empathy marketing is.
Practical ways to incorporate empathy into your marketing messages.
How this is this different than leveraging “pain points.”
The challenge of making an emotional connection with a stranger and how empathy marketing bridges that gap.
How remodeling companies can begin to incorporate empathy into their marketing.
Today on PowerTips Unscripted, Lane Cooper joins the show to discuss the large project sales process. Price is a process like design. Setting our clients up for a successful pricing process is critical to large remodeling projects moving forward through design into construction. Lane walks us through his pricing process to manage clients’ price expectations.
Lane Cooper is the President and founder of COOPER Design Build in Portland, OR., and is a valued Roundtables member. COOPER Design Build specializes in large remodeling and addition projects.
Victoria, Mark, and Lane talk more about…
Scope Creep
Challenges of selling and pricing major additions and whole house remodels
Determining if the project is suitable for your company
As remodeling companies grow, owners face the challenges of deciding when leaders are needed, how to find them, and train them to be good leaders. In this episode of PowerTips Unscripted, Wayne Ottum discusses these challenges and provides tools and methodologies for facing these challenges head-on. In addition, he talks about how he helps owners create a business that works for them.
Wayne Ottum is a senior consultant at Remodelers Advantage. Wayne has over 30 years of experience, with 15 of those years specializing in the remodeling industry. He helps create clear and compelling paths for owners to meet their goals.
In this episode, Pete Blank shares customer-service strategies from Disney with Victoria and Mark, and discusses how to apply these lessons to your remodeling company to boost your own team’s customer-service performance.
Pete has been developing leaders and improving service levels of organizations for the past 25 years — 13 of those with the Walt Disney Co. and the past 12 in local government. He loves inspiring others with ways to enhance their organizational culture. You can learn more about Pete Blank at his website: www.peteblank.com, or on his LinkedIn page.
Growing up near Disney World in Orlando, FL., Pete says he knew he always wanted to work there. After a few years as a sportscaster in Alabama, Pete went to Florida and began working for Disney. After 13 years, he and his family moved back to Alabama so he could start working in the local government.
Blank said that the biggest challenges to providing outstanding customer service and experiences are speed and expectations. Technology has changed the speed and convenience with which goods and services can be delivered, so you have to align your client’s expectations with what you can actually deliver.
Mark, Victoria, and Pete talk more about:
The difference between customer service and customer experience
How social media amplifies all experiences —good and bad
The demand and absence of skilled labor is a huge challenge for remodelers across North America. We hear it from our Roundtables Members as well as from our associates, sponsors and Podcast guests.
In this episode Victoria and Mark explore different ways to tackle the issue, and welcome Dan Hurst to the show to talk about how his firm effectively creates a culture and career path that provides opportunities for his staff to learn and develop new skills.
Dan is the President / General Manager of Hurst Design Build Remodel in Westlake, OH and is actively involved in NARI as well as a Master Certified Remodeler and Certified Lead Carpenter.
Dan, Victoria and Mark talk more about:
Things you can do to create a culture and provide a path to grow your own skilled workforce
Why there is a need to develop your own staff vs. hiring
Creating opportunities for your employees to learn and develop new skills
What a typical career path might look like
Managing and helping your staff achieve their career goals
The fear of investing time and energy into developing someone, only to have them leave