Real People For years, Schmidt Siding & Window left a company video with prospects. Twoyears ago, the video was transferred to DVD. The disc is chock-full oftestimonials and news about company charitable projects. One compelling featureis footage of installers talking about their work and about the company. Allsix of Schmidt Siding & Window’s sales reps were once installers. (“Rightnow, I have two production people standing in line to becomesales reps,” Brenke says.) The salesmen run every type of lead thatcomes in. And in a small market, a small advertising budget buys you a lot.
“We can do so much with 3.9%,” Brenke says. In fact, in a marketthe size of Mankato, 3.9% — a bit more than $200,000 — buysTV, radio, billboards, and newspaper advertising, in addition to payingfor truck and yard signs.
“Two years ago,” Brenke says, “we weren’t doing any TV.” Whatquickly became clear, as the company launched its first foray intothis trickiest and most expensive of mediums, was that the 30-second spotadvertisements produced for free by the local television station were unconvincing. Brenkedescribes them as “uncreative and embarrassing.” Sohe scripted his own, and began using company installers and customersin the ads. In TV home improvement ads, he says, he learned that “youcan’t have an actor. You must have the real people.”
With product managers responsible for each product category Schmidt Siding & Windowinstalls, company president Brenke says that the “major portion” ofhis job is simply to watch the leads. “Last week wegot 86,” he says. “The week before it was 60-some, and the weekbefore that, around 100.” As Brenke sees it, his most important functionis a less measurable one: to set goals and shape the company’s cultureof service and accountability.
Rooms to Move Sunrooms, the product Schmidt Siding & Window added most recently to themix, has proved the biggest challenge — for this company and many others. “Ofall five product categories, sun-rooms are the most difficult,” Brenkesays.
It’s not just that sunrooms are projects that can take a week to install, includesubcontractors, and require project management. (“We found thatthey don’t go up in three days,” Brenke says.) It’s not even that sunroomscost that much more than a siding or window job. The bigger obstaclein mastering sunroom sales, Brenke points out, is that “nobody needsa sunroom.”
In 2004, Schmidt Siding & Window sold and installed 36 rooms. That was sixmore than the company installed in 2005. Sunrooms close at 21% to 25%, withan average cost of $25,000. That’s a lot, in Mankato. “It’sa tough sell compared with our other products,” Brenke says.
To help the sale along, reps take prospects to company-built sun-rooms for alook. And, if at all possible, Brenke — who had a Temo sunroom builtonto his own home — insists that salespeople bring prospects to hishouse. That tactic has proved remarkably effective. Only one of the peoplewho has dropped by to look and chat failed to buy a sunroom from Schmidt Siding & Window.
To get the company started as a sunroom dealer, co-owner Steve Beetch was dispatchedto Detroit, to learn first-hand from the manufacturer how to buildthe product. Beetch now does the ordering, pulls permits, and manages thecrews.
Tracking Profit By Division Tracking leads, sales, production, and profits by division has enabled the companyto expand into new products without compromising the overall healthof the organization. The divisions come together at the management level. Forinstance, every Wednesday morning, Schmidt Siding & Window divisionmanagers meet to report on how many jobs have been sold, when they can startthose jobs, and what kind of backlog they’re currently carrying. Companyinstallers are cross-trained to put in every product the company sells, especiallyin the winter.
In the last five years, the company has grown by about $2 million. ForBrenke, the truest measure of success is not just sales growth, but all theother metrics: sit rate, close rate, marketing expense, little-to-no turnover. Mostsatisfying are leads marked “reputation” on the leadsheet. Those are the people who call the office and can’t identify exactly how they’ve heard about Schmidt Siding & Window, only that they have. “What that means to me is that your marketing really works. That’s thegoal.”
Other than that, Dale Brenke modestly maintains that the company’s success ismerely a matter of paying attention. “People come to me and say: ‘Dale, what’sthe magic? How are you doing it?’” he says. “Butthat’s the magic: that there is no magic. It’s just good businesspractices.”
