Winter is Coming. Will Your Business Keep Going?

Leaves aren’t the only things that fall as the seasons change. As customers lose site of their outdoor areas, many professional deck builders find their business dropping off as well.

But while it may seem counterintuitive to your customers, winter can actually be an ideal time to build a deck — if contractors don’t mind working in the cold. With windows closed and snow muffling constructions sounds, it’s a less noisy time of year to build for homeowners. It’s also safer, since kids aren’t typically outside playing. Even better, having decks built in the winter means homeowners will be ready to enjoy their new space as soon as the weather warms.

Some deck builders have used these kinds of sales tactics to keep their phones ringing all year long. But Tim Quigley, founder and owner of Quigley Decks has found that offering cable railing gives him a special advantage in getting year ‘round work — and he doesn’t have to work in the cold. Here are three ways Quigley’s takes his exterior work indoors in the winter:

1. Sell the interior work after the exterior work. Often when Quigley builds or renovates decks, he uses cable railing infill rather than old, outdated wood balusters. He says the best time to sell winter customers on interior work is after they see their finished deck. “After you have the deck built, they’ll be ecstatic about how it looks,” he says. “Then you just drop the word, ‘You know, that balcony between the living room and dining room? That would be a perfect place for cable railing.” Even if he didn’t use cable rail on the deck, Quigley notes places in the home where cable rail could fit and alerts customers to the possibilities. “There’s so many places it can work,” he says. “But you have to bring it to the attention of the homeowner.”

2. Schedule interior work for winter. Once Quigley sells an interior job, he pockets it away whenever possible for winter. Typically, he says, customers understand that he’s busy during the summer doing outdoor work and prefers to do interior work during the winter. “If they absolutely can’t wait, of course I’m not going to turn away business,” he says. “But in most cases, they’re willing to wait.”

3. Let all customers know you do interior work. Unlike decks, interior cable rail installations don’t automatically come to mind for many homeowners without a prompt. Quigley markets the options to his past customer base through a combination of advertisements and photos. He says deck builders need to go that “extra mile” to educate homeowners about the possibilities both outside and inside. He estimates that 75% of his customers hadn’t thought of cable rail for their decks — let alone for the interior of their home. “A lot of people still don’t know about cable rail,” he says. “You have to show them.”

For more on using cable rail infill indoors and out, visit Feeney, Inc.