Nov 7 2008 9:41AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
Blog This! using: Blogger.com | LiveJournal |

All of us in this industry have been somewhat numbed by the very poor market that we have been experiencing all of these months and I think many of us are “mental zombies”. Our goal is to get up and just try to survive each day and hold on until the market turns.

This is normal but it is dangerous! We must continue to challenge ourselves to be creative and look for new ways to add value to our customers and potential customers. An old business colleague of mine always said “to be successful in selling builders you must first identify their pain, and then offer them a solution to eliminate that pain”. Well, just look around and you will see plenty of builders who are in deep pain so there is a lot of opportunity for each of us.

One area in which manufacturers and suppliers can help eliminate builder pain is in the area of green building. Some builders today are beginning to build their first green homes and are mired down trying to understand the very complicated elements of the NAHB’s Green Building Guidelines and the LEED program for residential construction. Here is where the manufacturer or distributor can step up and guide the builder in his/her endeavor to build green. They can simplify the process for the builder in terms of understanding the green standards and in assisting them to economically meet them by providing value engineering to take costs out of the product, etc.

You get the picture!! Don’t just sit there and try to survive, become a doctor and eliminate your builders’ pain!!