Challenge:

A few years ago, when I met David – a professional home builder – his established house building & renovation business was not finding consistent traction. At the time, client deal flow was sporadic, with periodic costly gaps between projects. Making things worse, cash-flow had become a problem due to several slow-moving, speculative house builds he was involved in. David needed help to become the steadily growing business he envisioned.

I spent several months working closely with David to understand his business, the industry, his production workflow and how he was getting clients. Three things became apparent: 1) At that time, the Calgary market was better suited to premium renovations than speculative house building; 2) Clients had a hard time finding proven renovators they could trust; and 3) David needed to change his marketing and sales tactics away from advertising to something that could get him engaging directly with prospective renovation customers.

The solution we came up with was that David would refocus his business away from spec house building to premium custom renovations. This new focus would allow his company to then target the best promotional opportunities in the renovation space to build a steady client deal flow.

We determined that the perfect vehicle to market renovation services was to participate in the Calgary Home Builders Association spring & fall Home Renovation Tours. This was basically a set of open houses across the city that allowed prospective clients who were shopping for a trusted renovator to go on-site to see a completed renovation, speak with the renovator and his team, and even speak with the homeowner about their experience with that builder on their project.

This twice-yearly participation in the Renovation Tour, showcasing newly completed projects, was a total win as it allowed David to build a large database of highly qualified prospects who were eager to engage his company during the course of the year.