Jul 14 2008 10:42AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |
Blog This! using: Blogger.com | LiveJournal |

We're working on our 2009 forecast article right now and as part of that I've been talking to several remodelers all over the country. The biggest trend I'm hearing is that the sales process is taking longer than ever before and projects are smaller.

This reinforces what I heard from our Market Leaders earlier this year -- even the most affluent customers are taking a wait-and-see attitude. No big surprise considering the current state of the real estate market.

Bob Gallagher, one of the owners of Sun Design Remodeling Specialists in Burke, Va., had something interesting to say. He said they're not trying to sell the client anymore, they're "courting" them. Where a design agreement once might have been signed in one visit, three or four meetings with a prospect before they sign isn't unusual now.

Sun Design's sales team is working to get more connected to prospects, to focus on the "whys" (why they want to remodel) of remodeling instead of the "whats" (what they want remodeled.)

It's something all good remodelers should be doing and should have been doing already, but as Gallagher says, it was easy to get lazy the last few years.

You can read more on the 2009 forecast and strategies for dealing with the slowdown in our August issue.