Learning is a big part of what I do. I wouldn’t be able to advise so many building materials companies if I wasn’t addicted to learning more about their customers, the industry as a whole and what it takes to sell effectively.
My love of learning is why I feel a little selfish every time I host the Whizard Summit. Twice a year, I get to bring together some of the brightest and most insightful people in the industry and learn some incredible things from them.
It’s not just the expert speakers, either. The attendees always have stories and great questions that help me see things in a new light.
The last thing I want to do is to keep all that knowledge to myself. So, here are some of the highlights and major takeaways from the latest Whizard Summit. I hope you’ll find a BOOM! idea in here that you can implement now!
1. What Hasn’t Changed in Building Materials
“If you aren’t growing your business, you are talking to the wrong people with the wrong message. No one is looking for newer or better products. Everyone is looking to solve problems. Presenting your product as a solution moves it from a ‘Nice to Have’ to a ‘Have to Have.’”
– Mark Mitchell, Whizard Strategy
2. What’s Next in Building Materials?
“There are big opportunities in offsite and own-to-rent businesses for building materials companies. Companies need to fill the gaps between their offering and customer expectations.”
– Tim Seims, John Burns Real Estate Consulting
3. How Your CRM Can Give You a Competitive Advantage
“The key to a winning CRM is to focus on helping the sales reps be more successful in ways they understand and appreciate. Companies with a well-tuned CRM run circles around their competitors.”
– Aaron Ayer, The Hunley Group
4. Why Most New Product Launches Fail
“Building materials companies have a poor track record when launching new products. Just because you think it’s a great idea doesn’t mean your customers will think it’s great. No amount of marketing or sales genius will overcome the limitation of the wrong product.”
– David Daniels, BrainKraft
5. How the Lockdown Has Changed Online Sales of Building Materials
“Being stuck at home has dramatically increased how many building products are being researched and bought online. Companies need to make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for or be left behind.”
– Greg Weyman, Market Thrive
6. Growing Your Sales in Canada
“The Canadian market is about the size of the market in California. If you are not ready to commit to growing in Canada correctly, you probably should focus on growing in the U.S.”
– Alison Raes, ILA Marketing and Katabatic Manufacturing
7. More Effective Virtual Sales Calls
“We all need to up our game when making virtual sales calls. A talking head and a ‘share my screen’ PowerPoint are no longer good enough. Companies who equip their reps with the right tools will be more successful selling virtually.”
– Brian Baker, Dodecahedron Digital
8. The Importance of Jobsite Visits
“Sales reps who visit job sites have fewer project problems, pick up new opportunities and block value engineering. Visiting job sites is an important skill that reps need to learn and practice.”
– Carolina Albano, How to Jobsite.com
9. If You Want to Grow, Get More Focused
“Identify the type of project or customer who will value your product and focus on selling them. You can no longer afford to chase the wrong opportunities.”
– Mark Mitchell, Whizard Strategy
10. How to Get Your Products Specified
“The easier you make it for the time-starved architect to specify your product, the more you will win. Many companies make it surprisingly difficult to specify their products compared to their competitors.”
– Benjamin Glunz, Anguleris Technologies
11. How Architects Want to be Sold
“Architects want you to understand what their firm and they as individuals stand for. The more you understand what makes them unique, the more they will welcome you.”
– Susan Milne, Epiphany Studios
12. Marketing Leadership
“The measure of success in marketing is no longer ‘the boss liked it.’ What the boss really likes is the measurable results that marketing has to deliver today.”
– Mark Mitchell, Whizard Strategy
13. Without Great Content, You Don’t Have SEO
“Creative new types of content, such as Ego Bait and Epic, enable companies to dominate search traffic in their category. Content is one place where a building materials David can beat Goliath. It’s more about brains than dollars.”
– Matt Lee, Lead Generation Experts
14. The New Rules for Websites
“Amazon has trained your customers in how to efficiently get the information they need. It doesn’t matter how technical or expensive your product is. Your website needs to make it easy for customers to get the information they need.”
– Zach Williams, Venveo
15. Your Dealer Locator Is Hurting You
“Locators that only show nearby locations for your product can hand your prospects to your competitors when the dealer or contractor switches them. Keep the prospects on your site and deliver them to the dealer or contractor.” –
Joshua Rich, Bullseye Locations
16. You Have to Be Where Your Customers Are
“Customers want to be able to deal with you in person, virtually, and on the internet. If you aren’t available in all three, you are ignoring an important part of your customers.”
– Beth Pop-Nikolov, Venveo
17. Turn Back The Clock on Marketing
“When everyone else is sending emails, now is a great time to use direct mail. Mailing samples and demo kits before a Zoom call can make it much more effective. There are many effective ways to use printed materials again.”
– Mark Mitchell, Whizard Strategy
I hope these snippets of what we learned have given you a few things to think about.
They’re just a fraction of what we discussed and shared last week. If you want to learn even more about what it takes to succeed in business materials today, watch the videos of the complete presentations from this Whizard Summit. You can purchase them here.
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