Tough Love Stoeppelwerth strongly states his tenets, and mentions them repeatedly in print and at seminars. He talks about markup, installed sales, the labor force, handyman services, the lead carpenter system, and consolidation. “He is just as happy creating a debate as he is being right,” Miller says. “That’s how the best people learn,” McCadden says. “If you can’t debate and still maintain your identity, how can you improve?”
Romero is a fan of what he calls Stoeppelwerth’s crystal ball. “What impressed me about Walt is his vision of the future of the industry. In my analysis, he has proven to be unbelievably accurate.”
“He has not gotten enough credit for that,” Swartz agrees. “He got behind the lead carpenter concept. People said he was crazy. He got on installed sales for big boxes. Everyone said, ‘You’re nuts.’ He’s been instrumental in these changes.”
“He sounds like a broken record about markup. But with every nail they nailed and every board they laid, contractors were losing money,” Miller says. “He was the first person to call this to everyone’s attention and in doing so, drove the evolution of remodeling from a trade to a business. Other people said the same thing, but no one with as much conviction, energy, and dedication as Walt.”
Miller says Stoeppelwerth spread this message at the grass roots level. When Miller was publisher of REMODELING, he thought the magazine was reaching small contractors. Then he accompanied Stoeppelwerth to a lumberyard where 500 people were waiting to hear the consultant speak. “I was shocked at the number of remodelers we did not know.”
Romero hired Stoeppelwerth to give the keynote at his company’s annual banquet in 1999 and address 80 leads, laborers, and salespeople. “He helped them see that remodeling provides a good career. I could not have gone to anyone else who would have been as credible or convincing,” Romero says.
“He has helped launch a lot of careers. People who are aggressive and smart have learned from Walt and built big companies from what they learned,” says Contractor.com’s Reuss. He worked with Stoeppelwerth on Web-based courses for the company’s contractor members. “People flocked to those classes,” Reuss says.
Stoeppelwerth’s urgency and passion to reach small remodelers has not lessened. He says that of the 172,000 remodelers that exist today, no more than 20,000 are making a living. “It should be the other way around,” Stoeppelwerth states. As long as there are remodelers like this around, Stoeppelwerth will continue to try to reach them.