Home Builders

Flying Colours

I am the owner of a small paint contracting company in Nova Scotia, Canada. I have done tons of interior and exterior residential repaints and so far everything is awesome. I want to set up a crew to start doing new home construction. I need some hints on how to get set up with builders.

Floorwizard

Tough as hell.
Chances are they are happy with who they currently have.

Your best bet is to personally visit, and introduce yourself. Have a quick introduction explaining what you can do for them, and then let them know you are there if their other company has some trouble with something.

then leave.

go to the next one and start again.

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Flying Colours

i think i have a decent chance. there is tons and tons of new condo buildings and houses going up all over the place here. everywhere you look there is something i have never seen so much development in this area before.
just showing up at their office and introducing myself might do it? do i need a portfolio etc.

PipeGuy

Newhome builders are going to have an idea of what they want to pay and will want to know if you fit in to their budget plans. Go look at some of the units going up around you and be prepared to say what you might charge to paint a 'typical' product.

Floorwizard

I am sorry, but I have a tad bit of a problem with this kind of advice.
If a builder has nobody currently, then it may work. Otherwise you are just trying to lowball the person that has their business. Then later, someone will lowball you. And you will be gone just as fast as the guy you replaced.

You want to EARN their buisness by having a reasonable price, and by letting them know you do not want their business unless they are not happy with their current workers, or are in a pinch.

it's the only way to EARN long term business.

you will have 2 minutes to explain this to them.

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

camas

Not sure about that. I know plenty of GC's stuck with bad subs cause they just haven't been able to find anyone else. Sure you will have prove yourself, but any good builder isn't going immediately unload his proven sub for a few bucks - they depend on quality too and only an idiot has gotten charge of things without knowing that cheap usually actually means cheap. That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of idiots, but I think the advice is worth a shot. Worse they'll say is no.

Mike Finley

Geez lots of people seem to have gotten their noses out of joint over this.

It's no different getting work as a sub then getting work doing anything else. You advertise widely and get calls to come estimate or explain what you can do for them. Only diffference is the repeat business should be heavier being a sub.

Just advertise, get your name out there to the decision makers and repeat, over and over again until you can't take on any more work.

PipeGuy

I'm sorry, I don't see anywhwere that I encouraged Colours to low ball anyone. My advice was simple "be prepared to say what you might charge to paint a 'typical' product [house]." All that does is show the guy you're on the ball enough to generally know what you want to charge. Colours'll be waiting by the phone until he's broke if he's not prepared to talk price when the opportunity presents itself.

I don't think you're earning anything with a reasonable price because it's mandatory. No one's hiring you with an unreasonable price. And maybe it works for you FLOR but I'd NEVER tell anyone I don't want their business unless they are not happy with their current workers, or are in a pinch. I'd tell them I want to start showing them now that my company can add value to the money they're spending on _______. IMO, waiting around for your competition to fall down isn't much of a plan.

Wallcoat Joe

Call me and I will set you up with a paint store, full blown. Then your margins will allow you to get real agressive. You might have trouble selling to your competitors but you cant have your cake and eat it too.

Floorwizard

this is alot like meeting a girl and she dumps the other dude because you have a bigger ____. A few weeks later, she will dump you because she found a bigger ____.
I actually would never want to take business from someone else, unless they were not happy with the person in the first place. BEFORE I approached them.
My builders know they could save a few pennies by buying from another store.
But I make things run smoothly, I work great with their clients, my materials are on time. There is no way another company can walk in and take that away from me.
If they did, I would miss a half million in sales a year.

An idea would be to walk into their HQ with a jar of pickles. It has your card attached to it. it says " if your in a pickle, give me a call"
This works....
forget the yes or no answer and just make yourself memorable.

more on this later..

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Floorwizard

O.K. now I have a bit more time.

Let's think about this a bit.

I have been working with builders for years now. I got them mostly by referral.
If anyone here works with builders, next time you see them, ask them how many times a month they are contacted by contractors to do work.
Then ask how they are contacted.
you just might be amazed by how many times they are faxed, approached, invited to lunch, and even invited out to golf and all other sorts of deals to get them to sit down and discuss the possibility of earning their business.
If you think that walking in on 50 builders in a month will get you 3 out of 50, I will assume you are mistaken.
Walking in and asking will get you zero damn near all of the time.

Don't get me wrong, you still want to go ahead and try this approach, because 1 out of 50 is one more than you had before.
But I HAVE to say that walking in and getting a no and walking out will get you alot less than the pickle theory.

So in conclusion I would offer this advice:

Walk in and ask for the business, and when you get the "no thanx" like the other 50 guys before you, then bust out with the jar of pickles. You still leave with a no, but the other 50 guys had no pickles

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"