Make the News Your Tool to Get, Keep, and Build Sales

Offering fresh, targeted info can help deepen your relationship with a customer.

A veteran reporter once told a rookie writer how he solved a problem that also torments sales reps: How do you get important people to take your call?

The veteran’s solution was to start, on the very first encounter, with giving the source some useful information. Then he kept doing that with every subsequent call. The key person was happy to take those calls, because they were going to get something useful out of the conversation. That made those sources more likely to pay back the reporter in kind.

It has long been said that what you know matters more in construction supply than what you sell—so much so that veteran LBM expert Greg Brooks has suggested companies change their name from “Joe’s Lumberyard” to “Joe’s Construction Services.” Sales reps with extra-tight relations, such as the OSR in Florida who has his own desk at a client’s construction company, know that their job is to solve the customer’s building product problems. Those problems can change rapidly; in the past five years, we’ve had COVID shutdowns, sky-high lumber prices, and now tariff threats, just to name the headline issues. Builders are urged to be agile, but you can’t move fast without knowing where the next punch is coming from.

Sales reps that want to be seen by their contractors as a trusted partner can win some of that trust simply by feeding their clients information. How are prices changing? What are building inspectors getting hung up about lately? And perhaps most important: What advances in the materials you sell are making installation easier and the products last longer?

It doesn’t take much to be an information provider. The first step is to absorb information with your customer in mind. Does the news headline you’re seeing or trustable rumor you’re hearing have a potential impact on a client? Then send a text or e-mail with the link and a note: “You might find this useful.” Even if you did this five times every morning with five distinctly different messages, you’d probably take up less than 10 minutes of your time.

Year ago, Congressional staffs would subscribe to all the newspapers in their district and then have staff clip out articles about so-and-so winning such-and-such award. They then would send a letter to that person saying they noted the achievement and adding “I thought you might like a copy.” Today, companies and individuals still like to be recognized, so if you see a builder show up in Builder’s Top 100 or the Qualified Remodeler Top 500, send them a note of congratulations. 

Information also can be a form of digital tchotchke—a simple device that, every time it’s used, reminds the user of who gave it. Longtime remodelers are huge fans of the Cost vs. Value Report, because it provides an unbiased, third-party estimate of the cost of doing a project. That’s something they can use when customers invariably get sticker shock over an estimate. But even though it’s been around for years, Cost vs. Value isn’t universally known because so many new people enter the remodeling profession each year. Thus, if you have contractors who have just entered the business, you can win a lot of love just by turning them on to this product. 

Several dealers provide something similarly valuable for builders by creating a “whole house index” that gives the price—in that local market—for acquiring all the materials needed to build a standard-sized house. By updating the index every month, the builder keeps track of local prices for building materials and how they are changing. It’s valuable information, both now and with budget planning.

Given all the price increases that have been taking place recently, some dealers also regularly summarize all the price increases that have been announced.

During COVID, conditions were changing so fast that many dealers realized they had to ramp up the frequency of their newsletters. Some even produced daily updates. Such frequent and focused communications today are part of the reason why most pro contractors prefer to shop at a pro dealer rather than at a big box, even when the prices charged for the same product might be a couple points higher. The hot news and problem-solving information that a sales rep provides can more than make up the difference.