The Flooring Business Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jerry
In this Podcast we will discuss Best Business Practices from Experts in the Flooring Industry. We will discuss:Marketing and how to attract the best customers. Sales and how to have a successful Sales PresentationHiring and Managing Your TeamHow to Manage Cash FlowRising Prices and How to overcomeRaising your prices without losing any businessAll challenges facing the Flooring Industry and Your Flooring Business
Many of you will relate to struggles, frustrations, and the experiences Shane Levinson has had running and growing a Flooring Business through Covid and beyond. No B.S. we keep it real with what’s has been the greatest struggle to what is working great now!
Daquota helps contractors all over Arizona attract great clients through videos, podcasts, and posting on multiple platforms. He shares his secret formula on how you can crush the competition with creative marketing ideas that attract great customers.
Grab a pen and a note pad. You’re going to need it for this one. Brian Elias started Refloor about 5 years ago and has quickly grown it to become a successful Flooring business approaching $100 Million a year in sales. He understands marketing concepts to attract customers and sales strategies that take you from greeting to closing the sale
Melanie jumped into the Lions den and took on Jerry’s challenges when it comes to Marketing your Flooring Business. We disagreed a few times but we agreed that there is a better way that cost you less and improves your lead gen.
We take an in-depth look at The Flooring Business Playbook. How did you get into the Flooring Business? What you should charge your customers. How you should market and how much you should be paying for advertising. How to hire, train, and manage your employees. How to Scale to $5 Million.
We take an in-depth look at The Flooring Business Playbook. How did you get into the Flooring Business? What you should charge your customers. How you should market and how much you should be paying for advertising. How to hire, train, and manage your employees. How to Scale to $5 Million.
I love these conversations where we talk about the best use of a popular tool. By using this Visualizer we can attract more customers, increase our closing rate, and provide a better buying experience for our customers
Flooring’s Mr. Wonderful Ken Ballin was in the House to introduce Ballin Knows Best. Ken’s always been an interesting guy. He’s a Solopreneur who is always helping Flooring Installers grow and succeed. He’s always helping with installation information, where they can find education, how to charge higher prices, and how to market their services.
He created Ballin Knows Best to wrap it up into one forum where Installers can meet to discuss best practices.
Attention Flooring Installers and Retailers.
They mystery of CFI. If you don’t know you just don’t know. I wanted to know who CFI is and what the benefits of joining are. Roland has been involved for many years and took some time to share all the benefits CFI has to offer for installers and Flooring Dealers.
When I invited Jason on the show I thought we were going to discuss how he has integrated AI into Flooring Dealers websites to interact with customers. We barely touched on that. Jason is using AI to build websites for Flooring Installers, tradesmen, to help them generate leads without paying a fortune to a high priced marketing company.
This was a great interview and Jason really did surprise me.
When I invited Jason on the show I thought we were going to discuss how he has integrated AI into Flooring Dealers websites to interact with customers. We barely touched on that. Jason is using AI to build websites for Flooring Installers, tradesmen, to help them generate leads without paying a fortune to a high priced marketing company.
This was a great interview and Jason really did surprise me.
If you are a Flooring Business doing under $5 Million you are going to really enjoy this interview. Chris didn’t hold back. He talked about how he grew from an installer to a guy who owns Wallys Carpet & Tile in 3 locations. There are a lot of Golden Nuggets for you to take away. “I secret shopped my son.” Said Chris, before he hired his son to work at his store.
You will see why Floorzap is the best tool to run your Flooring Business with.
Chris Friest tells you as a store owner and as a rep for Floorzap how he used it to close more sales and protect his margins.
This is a no bs interview to see if Floorzap is the right tool for your Flooring Business.
🔥 Would you like to discuss what's going on in your Flooring Business?
Click the link below to schedule a Free 1 on 1 Review of your situation. https://calendly.com/profitnow4flooringdealers/60min
• Raising Your Flooring Prices
• Marketing Your Flooring Business Effectively
• Sales Strategies that work in Your Flooring Business
• Hiring Flooring Business Salespeople and other talent
• Growing Your Flooring Business Operations
• All the strategies you need to reach your next $Million in Sales and to Profit Now in Your Flooring Business.
pn4fd Profit Now for Flooring Dealers
www.JerryLevinson.com
Let’s Talk about your Flooring Business
Jerry@5Foot6Consulting.com
I love this product, Make It Match. With it you can create your own trim that matches exactly to the flooring you are installing. No need to wait weeks and pay hundreds of dollars in shipping just to get the wrong trim in.
It’s frustrating waiting to get paid the balance just because you are waiting on a $90 stick of trim. Get it done and get paid with Make It Match.
This was a great conversation. You will learn how you can charge for the estimate, increase your closing rate, and be prepared to engage with customers better than any of your competition.
If you want to beat the competition with higher prices you need to listen to Dianne here.
Matt and I take a deep dive in his Installer Performance Program. How do you convince Installers to go from Sub Contractor to In House Employees? How do you convince them the pay will be better? How do you get Peak Performance from your installers? What are the advantages of In-House vs Subs? I asked him a lot of Challenging Questions. There were no softballs thrown here. I wanted to know for real if his system works and how it works.
Daniel from Flooring Pros Marketing and I discuss what you should really budget for marketing, why so many agencies fail at getting results, and what you can do to improve your results whether or not you hire Daniel.
I love this guy. I’ve been working with Adrian for over a year now and he is growing an amazing business. His prices have nearly doubled and his closing rate his well over 70% now.
Adrian was our first experiment with selling showers as a package deal and he knocked it out of the park. “You are so much more professional than the others” Customer’s quote after get 4 estimates.
She went with Brevard Tile even though he was the most expensive company.
Rachel created Cervos Kitchen Academy to help Flooring Dealers learn how to measure and sell Kitchen Remodels. This is a new venture for her, but it is very much needed in the Kitchen & Bath industry. The conversation was a mix of how she got started, what she is building for you, and a little coaching on how she should position her service. I’m excited to see what Rachel will do.
In this episode Matt Garcia and I discuss the differences in hiring a sub contractor vs having your own In House Guys.
What's the difference in pay?
What's the difference in performance?
What's the difference in managing them?
How do you hire an in-house guy.
What size business should you have before deciding to hire an In-house guy.
Should you only hire in house if you specialize in a product category or can you do it with multiple products.
It's a very complicated topic. This will give you some insight on how you can hire in house installers if you choose to.
Your Web Company is not doing their job. Why?
Is it because they sold you things you don't need?
Are they charging you too much money?
You aren't getting the leads you expected, right?
It's not the solution you were looking for is it?
None of these guys are bad people or looking to rip you off. The biggest problem with most web companies is they don't charge you enough. They don't provide effective packages that truly work for you.
They try to get your business on the cheap. You trust them so you don't stay on top of things. You wind up getting no business and yet you are spending several hundred dollars each month.
Ready to change all that?
Matt Garcia and I go head to head in the battle of wits when it comes to Installers vs Flooring Dealers. We discuss who is responsible for increasing their pay. Is there really a problem in the industry? If so do we look to the industry to solve this problem or is it up to us as individuals?
It was a lively debate.
How do we change the relationship between Installers and Flooring Dealers?
Is this an Industry problem?
Should Installers be paid more money?
What are installers really looking for?
What's fair?
Who's responsible for increasing installers pay and lifestyle?
Let's tackle these challenges and debate what's the real problem.
A good fiery debate in which Roland was "so rude to me", according to his wife. LOL
Actually he was great and it was a good healthy discussion about what installers want and how Flooring Dealers can make improvements to their business model.
If you are installer and you are ready to begin a retail business, or you have in the last couple of years, this Episode is for you.
You will discover,
How to hire and trust people even though you can do a better job quicker.
Who should you hire first.
What you should be charging from a retail perspective.
The difference between a Markup and Margin, and why it's important you understand.
Marketing tips and tricks. Ideas that will help drive traffic to your company.
How to keep selling simple and How to close the sale in the home.
This was a fascinating conversation about why there are so many moisture issues and how easy it is to solve that problem.
A little scientific and geeky, but there is no reason to ever have a flooring failure if you understand what to do and how to do it.
Wow! Some Amazing advice, tips and tricks to getting Commercial clients for your flooring store. Jason shared some of his best secrets for growing the Commercial arm of McCroie, a Carpet One store that's been around for more than 60 years.
He shared the best strategy I've heard for selling retail using financing.
We talked about what you would or should do, as a start up, to get over that first Million Dollar hump.
This interview had it all, Sex, Drama, Elephants riding bicycles. OK maybe not. But if you are a flooring guy or gal you are going to enjoy it.
What's it like to be a SoloPrenuer? What's it like to be a true craftsman? An Artists?
What would it be like to create your own rules? Choose your own jobs? Charge what your worth? Go by your own schedule?
Ken built a truly unique business for himself as well as a lifestyle very few have but many would love to learn.
If you know her you love her. Everyone enjoys Rachel and all she has to offer the Flooring Industry.
We had a great conversation about her role as a Sales Manager while she continues to sell at a high level.
How does she handle her role as a leader?
How are they so busy every single Saturday with 15 to 20 leads coming through the door?
We discussed many aspects of the Flooring Industry that will help you in your flooring business.
Cesar is one of the rising stars of the Flooring industry. He's a young guy who started his business and has rapidly grown Jay's Flooring.
He went from struggling to get suppliers to them beating down his door and wanting a piece of the action.
Cesar is always looking for ways to grow his business. He talks to everyone, he listens, and he takes action.
This was a great interview where you will get a lot of takeaways.
Are we going to argue or are we going to work together to grow your business?
One of the greatest relationships you have is with your supplier. They can be a fantastic partner or it can be a nightmare.
"I don't pay for displays"
"I deserve better pricing"
"Why doesn't my rep come around more often"
"I'm not kissing their ass"
Tess and I had a great discussion on strategies you can use to develop your relationship with your rep to benefit your business.
Listen and pick up a few nuggets that will help you grow & Profit Now in Your Flooring Business
The Great Debate! Can someone be successful selling flooring without being an expert? Can you ethically and honestly outsell the expert?
Does the guy with 20 years experience in the industry do a better job selling?
We discuss why you don't need that much experience, and I explained to Benny why I could out sell him in his own company.
"Your like the female version of me." A woman of my own heart, lol. We speak the same language as we try to influence Flooring Dealers the opportunities they have to raise their prices.
"If you raised your prices by 10% you would have to lose 30% of your business just to break even."
We will go over many ways on how to raise your prices, why you should raise your prices, and the opportunities you will enjoy with higher prices.
Matt Garcia and I had a great conversation about the benefits of doing a proper site evaluation.
When is it necessary>
Who should do it?
Should it be done every time?
What are the benefits ?
We will discuss how to make your installers job easier and more enjoyable which results in a better customer experience.
Flooring Sales Pros can learn a lot from this one technique that Chris shares in this episode of The Flooring Business Podcast.
Chris wants a certain type of job and she is great at closing that job at the rate she wishes to command. She loves the cool challenging projects that require a little more skill. She gets excited to do the project and more important she gets excited for the customer and how amazing their new space is going to look.
Matt Garcia has an installation background and he is now running a retail business. He has great insight on how to treat installers and how he can help build better relationships between Installers and Retailers.
It's not just about paying more money.
I really feel as if the quality of an installers life is his responsibility.
But it's the Retailers opportunity to teach the installer how to be a better businessman and earn more money while doing a better job.
It was a great conversation that I'm sure you'll enjoy and take away some great tips on how you can improve as the installer or the Retailer.
Want to grow a successful Flooring Business? You need to listen to this interview where we talk about what it takes to be a successful Entrepreneur in 2022.
It's so academic.
Brian sets the goals and figures out what he needs to do to reach those goals.
The fact is anyone can succeed in the Flooring Industry if you have the want and the will, the burning desire to be successful.
Learn from the best, what mistakes they made, what are they doing right, what are they doing right now?
You are going to want to listen to this interview a few times over and keep it in your files whenever you need a little motivation to conquer your goals and dreams.
Chris Friest of The Floor Doctors has always been one of my favorite Flooring Dealers because of his creativity and genius in creating original clever marketing content.
They aren't afraid of having fun and standing out.
The most important thing in marketing is to get noticed. No matter how good your special, offer, service, guarantees, etc are, unless you stand out from the crowd you don't stand a shot.
Go to thefloordrs.com to see their website and talk to Chris about how they created their very effective commercials for TV and Facebook.
This is always a very interesting topic. Everyone Flooring Business Person should prepare their business for sale. Now you can decide to keep the business but if it's prepared for sale it is Profitable, Well Run, Doesn't require you to be there, and operates in case you get sick or you are on vacation.
We talk about how to value your business.
Who might buy your business.
How you should position it
and many more topics related to Selling your Flooring Business
Must hear interview if you are a salesperson in the Flooring Business.
Josh Nagler talks about how he closes more sales in the home, how he generates his own leads, and an overall robust conversations about selling in the Flooring Industry.
Josh explains that it really is a team effort. How important it is that the team works well together.
Josh also explain how he's able to get so many of his customers to take the time to leave a 5-Star review.
I love Flooring Dealers like Jason. He's been in the industry his whole life and yet he has the desire to grow and change things that need to be changed.
We talk a little shop at home first and how Jason operates without a showroom. He still has salespeople and he shares how he handles meetings, warehouse, and other challenges that one would have operating without a store.
The nuts and bolts of our interview is how he is handling his customer experience through his installer program. It's allowed him to
Close more sales
Improve installer performance
Get more 5 star reviews
& Improve the customer's experience
You're going to Love hearing from one of your own, boots on the ground, Flooring Dealers.
Discover how you can generate Quality 5 Star Reviews.
Google likes to see long reviews. Bob shares a couple tricks on how to get long reviews as well as strategies on your response.
Plus a lot of Free valuable marketing strategies that will help customers find you.
This was a great conversations with Miranda Federico Leon, Sales Manager for Carpets of Arizona.
You'll discover how she helped Carpets of Arizona get to be a successful, profitable, $5 Million a year company.
How do you manage your team?
Do you continue to sell or just manage? Which way is best?
What do you look for in hiring a new salesperson?
Is experience important to you?
Facebook is increasingly becoming a more important source of marketing for Flooring Retailers across the country.
Is it necessary to pay for advertising on Facebook?
If you decide to hire someone how do you make sure they are doing a good job for you?
What type of messages work on Facebook? Sales and specials? Finished photos? Work being done? Before and After Photos?
Can you test and measure ads quickly?
Can you start your campaign quickly?
While people wait 2 months to get their website built and another few months to get your advertising working well for you Facebook can give you instant action. You can start getting leads within 3 days of signing up for Facebook advertising. (That's just a fact and not a solicitation for Facebook advertising.
If you don't have Buddy Mitchell in your rolodex you would be smart to add him now.
He has really mastered the Shop at home experience, along with
Hiring top salespeople
Running and Growing a Small Business
Working with and respecting your spouse
How to compete in a tough market
& a range of other issues that are great for the Flooring Dealer doing $500K to 10 Million a year in sales.
This was a great conversation with Dean Paulson on how to become a stocking dealer.
Where do you get the best buys?
Do you get good margins on stocking goods or do you sell them cheaper since you bought them cheaper? You'll be surprised at his answer.
Plus he tells new flooring dealers a great way to get started and open accounts with suppliers who can be difficult.
This was a fun interview.
What motivates Todd Saunders?
Why is he driven to change the Flooring Industry for the benefit of the Flooring Dealers?
Is this about making money? No, there are better opportunities out there for Todd.
How dedicated is he? You won't believe what he has done to his own personal Facebook account. I never heard anyone do something like this before. It was brilliant.
This has nothing to do with promoting Floor Force or Broadlume. This interview was about business, leadership, vision, and how he wants to serve the Flooring Dealers in their overall mission, to Beat the Hell out of the Box Stores.
You are going to Love this interview
In this episode I talk to Steven Fowler who has used the Disc Profile strategy to get to know his employees better, improve their performance, and help the entire team work better with customers.
We operate a better business when we Understand ourselves better, Understand our CoWorkers better, and Understand Customers Better.
Disc will help you do that. It will help you think about the best way to handle each employee and customer, and it will help you create a better experience for everyone.