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I just got back from New Orleans, LA, where I attended the Remodeler’s Summit. It’s the world’s top remodeling conference! While I was there, I interviewed business consultant Paul Winans about how marketing impacts recruiting. So if you want to learn how to use marketing to fill those hard-to-fill construction positions or other openings in your company, watch today’s video!
Jack Jostes: Okay. All right. Here we are with Paul Winans at Remodelers Advantage Conference Remodelers Summit. I wanted to talk with Paul. I've really enjoyed some of your articles about how to handle sales objections from customers and how to handle questions around your pricing. For the people watching who haven't seen you before or read any of your content, tell us a little bit about your background.
Paul Winans: Okay. Thanks for having me, Jack. I ran a remodeling company with my wife, Nina, for 29 years. San Francisco Bay area. We were fortunate enough to sell it in 2007. I now coach remodeling contractors over the phone and also do on-site consulting. I write a column for remodeling.net every week. It's great. I'm closer to my dream job, which is no employees. Check. No clients. Still got those. And checks show up in the mail.
Jack Jostes: Wow, living the dream. Right?
Paul Winans: Well, I'm close.
Jack Jostes: You're close.
Paul Winans: I'm really close.
Jack Jostes: You're close. Cool.
Paul Winans: Working on it.
Jack Jostes: Well, great. Paul, I wanted to ask. You work with people, and there's a shortage of laborers across many, many fields: construction, remodeling, landscaping. How important is it for people who are trying to hire new people, how important is marketing, and in particular your presence on the internet, to recruiting and actually filling those positions?
Paul Winans: Absolutely essential. What you have to do, even when you're marketing to clients, is you want to position your company -- and this is a mindset shift for a lot of remodelers -- as the absolute best company, the only company to consider. That's not being arrogant, you have to feel it though. Okay? If you have that sense of confidence, it will permeate all that you do, including your marketing. You present the fact that you've got a process. It's not gonna be, "Well, we're gonna do it seven different ways each day of the week," kinda thing. That drives employees crazy. Right?
Jack Jostes: Right.
Paul Winans: And also clients. That we're really clear about what success is. That's it, and we measure everything against that. Really simple for an employee to get what your company is about. The content that's on your website wants to talk about the client experience that you're trying to provide, and how the right employees -- not every employee -- fit in that. Okay?
Paul Winans: What we found over the years, most people who we ended up hiring were surfing the web. They were in the industry already, and they were looking for a company that caught their interest, that looked right. You know?
Jack Jostes: Yeah.
Paul Winans: By whatever measure that is. Also, the other thing that happens is you have employees who come home from their current job and complain to their spouse about the job.
Jack Jostes: Yeah.
Paul Winans: So the spouse will surf the web and then direct the disgruntled employee to say, "Why don't you contact this company? You've got nothing to lose. Maybe it'll turn into a job, maybe not."
Jack Jostes: Right.
Paul Winans: You never know, right? That was very, very powerful. We were also present in our local community as a function of speaking at the local NARI chapter. I was writing a free column in local newspapers. They would publish anything that we sent them in terms of press releases about events we were doing, and things like that. I would give talks to consumers, but would have a fellow remodeling contractor show up every once in a while.
Jack Jostes: Oh, great.
Paul Winans: Yeah.
Jack Jostes: Yeah.
Paul Winans: Because see, you wanna be-
Jack Jostes: So public speaking is part of positioning yourself as an authority?
Paul Winans: Yes.
Jack Jostes: And being seen, again like you said, as the choice, which is important whether you're selling to a client or to someone who's gonna come and work for you.
Paul Winans: Exactly. Yes.
Jack Jostes: What would be three things that you'd recommend people absolutely do if they want to win better customers that have the budgets for the projects they want, and get the employees they want to come to them to work?
Paul Winans: Particularly with the web being as powerful as it is, video testimonials.
Jack Jostes: Yes.
Paul Winans: Short, powerful. Okay? A minute-
Jack Jostes: Yeah.
Paul Winans: A minute in a video is a long time.
Jack Jostes: Right.
Paul Winans: And you really wanna hit it with the punch earlier than not. It can't be the principle necessarily talking about it, the owner.
Jack Jostes: Absolutely.
Paul Winans: It's gotta be clients, sub-contractors, vendors, and employees. You get people from those four areas of your business' existence saying similar things. Right?
Jack Jostes: Right.
Paul Winans: That's incredibly attractive.
Jack Jostes: It is.
Paul Winans: A consistent message produces confidence in-
Jack Jostes: It does.
Paul Winans: A consumer.
Jack Jostes: Right, and they wanna hear it from someone other than the principle.
Paul Winans: Right.
Jack Jostes: Do a video from those four people. What else would be maybe one other thing that you'd absolutely recommend that people do, that you see that they're not, in the industry?
Paul Winans: This is happening more and more, but there's a still opportunity for most of the people in this industry. Illustrating enough of your process from point of contact to completion, job competition. Showing that on your website in a way that a consumer can understand, not filled with a lot of trade jargon or anything like that, and it's focusing on their fears.
Jack Jostes: Absolutely.
Paul Winans: Right?
Jack Jostes: What are they afraid of-
Paul Winans: Yeah.
Jack Jostes: That's gonna go wrong? How have they been burned in the past? How does your process and your way of doing things overcome that?
Paul Winans: Right.
Jack Jostes: In a simple, visual graphic. I'm with you 100%.
Paul Winans: The other thing that the contractor who did our remodel in Ashland did, which is really cool, is he's taken a lot of what he tells people in sales interactions and turned it into FAQs, frequently asked questions.
Jack Jostes: Yes, love that.
Paul Winans: And he has this whole-
Jack Jostes: Yes.
Paul Winans: It's like a couple of pages. You click on the one and it ... That's a question-
Jack Jostes: Well-
Paul Winans: In a drop down.
Jack Jostes: Yeah, and-
Paul Winans: Explanations.
Jack Jostes: Paul, one of the reasons that's really powerful and it's increasingly powerful for on the web, is that people often Google entire questions.
Paul Winans: Right.
Jack Jostes: Or they'll say-
Paul Winans: Yes, yes.
Jack Jostes: Hey Siri, tell me how this happens. Or Alexa, do this. And when you have that content written in that casual question and answer format, it can help you show up online. And most importantly-
Paul Winans: Right, right.
Jack Jostes: Really alleviate the customer's fears of working with your company.
Paul Winans: Well, to a certain extent, they're interviewing you without taking the risk of inviting you-
Jack Jostes: Right.
Paul Winans: Into their home.
Jack Jostes: Absolutely. Right. And they're doing this where? Online.
Paul Winans: Online.
Jack Jostes: Right.
Paul Winans: Yeah.
Jack Jostes: Well, great. Well, Paul, hey thanks so much. Where can people read some more of your content? Where can people learn more about you?
Paul Winans: Okay. Remodeling.net is where my column shows up every Thursday morning. My email address is paul@remodelersadvantage.com. Those are some of the ways.
Jack Jostes: Great. Well hey, thanks so much for talking with me. Listen to what Paul had to say. Get those stories and your videos, get your website positioning you as an authority, and you'll win the right customers and the right employees.
Paul Winans: Thank you.
If you’re a remodeling contractor or other home service business, download a FREE chapter of my book and I’ll send you a customer journey worksheet with a video on how to complete it AND and interview with another home service business who uses their website to recruit contractors. Click here to download your chapter today!
