Stone People: The Rocky Road to Recovery
“Some of these builders were gone for three or four years,” he says. “We didn’t know they were still around and all of a sudden they’re stopping in again. They’re coming out of their caves.”
HOW MUCH YOU MAKE
That one-on-one experience, whether it’s with a homeowner or a builder, is at the heart of the SMG marketing effort, too. Reaume says keeping an eye on marketing is an on-going part of the business, and that certain types of advertising can be little more than black holes to suck up money.
Click photo to enlarge“There are many different ways of promoting a business,” he observes. “You have to promote it in a way that gets results, so you have to spend your money wisely. We’re a lot more careful with our ad dollars now, and if we don’t see results quickly, we don’t run with it.”
Fortunately, Reaume adds that people like to do business with people they know, which is the reason he’s focused on memberships in local chambers of commerce, joined other business groups and it willing to give talks about what the company does.
“It’s networking; you have to give your business cards out,” he says. “We don’t do as many home shows as we used to, and I don’t know if that’s a good decision or not. And, we’re starting to sprinkle back into print a little bit. For awhile, we went heavily into the Internet.”
He found that the Internet generates a lot of tire kickers, but not as many sales as he’d like. Still, he pays someone for doing Google AdWords and search-engine optimization, and he compares having a good location on the Internet to having a good physical location for his shop – and he does.
“You can’t have a hidden shop,” he says. “It has to be on a main road that has some traffic. I learned that from day one, and the shops and showrooms that weren’t in good locations required more marketing dollars, which took away from the bottom line.”
Reaume adds that the Lansing location is strictly for marketing.
“It’s her job to go out and call on builders, and handle the Internet marketing and any print advertising,” he says. “It’s also inexpensive.”
It’s also changed his idea of how large an area he’ll service from Kalamazoo. At one point, the shop didn’t service anyone further than 45 minutes away.
“We’ve learned we can make money and still go two hours away – if there’s some money there,” Reaume says. “If it’s something tiny we won’t, but for a normal-sized kitchen we will.”
Click photo to enlargeAs much as Reaume keeps an eye on his marketing, he says what really makes SMG stand out is the fact that it’s a professional organization stressing experience and quality over price.
“We always tell everybody we’re not the most-expensive around, but we’re nowhere near the cheapest, either,” he says. “We try to be in the middle market with high quality. We also want people to have a good experience so not only can they refer us, but they’ll also come back to us for additional jobs.”
Reaume also believes that a good business is only as good as its people.
“I want people who represent us,” he says. “Our employees, from the time they answer the phone to when they come into a home to install the job, represent the face of the business, and we try to maintain a high level there.”
And, on that rare occasion when something does go wrong?
“You have to stand behind your product if something does go wrong,” Reaume says. “The answer is not, ‘I can’t help.’ The answer is, ‘I’m going to find a solution that’s beneficial to both of us.’ We’ll figure something out. The last thing the customer wants is someone who doesn’t live up to their word.”
Through ups and downs, Reaume says it’s a philosophy that’s worked for him, and when he goes back into real estate he’s confident that Tyler, who has an engineering background and has worked at SMG for several years, will continue it on.
“Anything that leaves the front office goes into his hands, and he’s taken on a lot more administration, too,” says the senior Reaume. “There’s not a lot more I can teach him now, and he’ll have his own business model, but he knows in the end it’s not how much you sell – it’s how much you make.”
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