Todd Lake

,

Contegrity Contracting

Sales Process

Canada

Custom New Homes

2013

Contegrity Contracting is based in Saskatchewan, in Canada.

We’ve been going now for seven years. We specialise in design-build custom homes for families in Southwest Saskatchewan, Canada. We’re not limited to custom homes; we actually do renovations as well. My role in the business is president, owner and the inspiration. I get the leads and I’m the first contact with our customers and clients.

We Had No Process Or Strategy In Place

Before we joined the APB, the single biggest problem was our process. We didn’t really have any kind of process. When you come to APB and your eyes get opened up to what you’ve been missing, it made us realise that we were missing processes, for sure. We didn’t have any kind of strategy. We just did things willy nilly; we didn’t really have a plan.

We’d wait for a phone call from a client, then I’d go and see them. There wouldn’t be any kind of qualification process, there wouldn’t be any interviewing the client or even going into a design stage. It would just be essentially me telling them, “Okay, you need to go and get a plan”. And then I would essentially step away until they got a plan. Then they’d phone me back, and I’d start to price the plan. We had no involvement with any of that.

We saw APB through Facebook and that was the only coaching system that I’ve ever seen. There are business coaches and that kind of thing, but nothing geared towards contractors or construction companies. Definitely, when we saw it, we were interested, and we wanted to learn more about it, for sure.

One of the biggest factors for us has been confidence in our company and what we do, and being able to go out and get leads and being confident in our process. I know from the top down, if the business owner is confident, everybody else in the company is going to be confident. So it was definitely learning to change the mindset to “we actually can do this and we can actually make money at it, and not be intimidated by what we do”.

Getting Paid For The Design Process Has Improved Our Cash Flow

Being able to go and get a concept agreement, and being able to get money for the design stage has helped cash flow tremendously.

Before we were with APB we never did any kind of charging for the design stage or getting our designer involved and working together with them. Being involved through the whole process, it’s definitely opened up the doors for us to charge clients and make a profit from it. So that was the big thing, being able to get profit in the design stage. Not just the construction stage, but actually in the design stage. That’s really what it’s all about, so we definitely enjoy that part.

Our New Process Locks Our Clients In So We Don’t Lose Them

Even if we’re not going to do the construction job itself, at least we are still involved and our time is getting paid for. That’s the biggest thing. Too many times clients have this perception that quotes should be for free. We used to spend so much time trying to get a quote, so many hours and hours and hours, only to find that the next contractor gets the job for $500 less. So, we’d lose all that time and wouldn’t even get the job for it. This way, I feel like our process definitely directs the client to us, kind of locks them into us, and then we can build their project to their budget. That makes so much sense and it’s so much better, and we get a profit out of it before we even start building. That’s the best part about what we’ve learnt from APB.

We Sell Ourselves With So Much More Confidence Now

Being with APB has definitely given us new confidence and the ability to be a bit more courageous. We can go out and sell ourselves, knowing that we have a process. When you don’t know what you’re doing, the clients aren’t going to know what you’re doing, and I think that really puts a bad taste in the clients’ mouths. But when you know what you’re doing, the clients are thinking, “Yeah, this makes sense. Yeah, let’s get on board with this guy because he has a plan and it looks like it’s going to work”.

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