September 2008 A publication of Miami Valley NARI Remodeler Miami Valley emo emo www.naridayton. Allana Meyer discusses sales psychology at August lunch Member Open House Date & Time 6-8 pm, Tuesday, September 23 Location Florida Tile Ceramic Center 2105 Lyons Road Program “Shower Systems” Guest Speaker Eric Williamson Schluter Systems Cost Hosted by Florida Tile Ceramic Center MVNARI Golf Outing Date & Time Tuesday, September 18 1 pm shotgun start Location Beavercreek Golf Club 2800 New Germany-Trebein Rd. Cost $75 golf & dinner Call MVNARI at 937-222-NARI, or register on line at www.naridayton.org. (Continued on page 3) September Everyone in business knows they daily walk through a field of potentially deadly legal landmines. Businesses that provide products and services to consumers are especially vulnerable to legal problems since their transactions are subject to the provisions of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act. Remodelers, who often do business in clients’ homes, have the possible added exposure of the Home Solicitation Sales Act. At the August 21 Miami Valley NARI CEO breakfast meeting guest speaker Michael W. Sandner, Pickrel Schaeffer Ebeling, gave other NARI members an introduction to the es- sential provisions of the CSPA and the HSSA and offered some basic guidance on avoiding running afoul of the laws. That’s important, be- cause the Ohio CSPA provides for When the residential building business is booming remodelers typ- ically have as much work as they can handle with fairly little effort, but when the market tanks “selling” be- comes an essential part of a business owner or manager’s job description. Then basic understanding of sales psychology is the key to surviving the down times. Miami Valley NARI members got a short course in sales psycholo- gy at the August lunch meeting when guest speaker Allana Meyer, Marble & Granite Works, introduced an en- thusiastic group of over 40 remodel- t t ers and suppliers to the psyche of the remodeling customer. She pointed out that in the sum- mer of 2008 consumers have more information about products and ser- vices, more choices in products and services, but less available credit and less disposable income. She listed a number of indicators that help sepa- rate the good prospects from the bad. Positive indicators include lots of questions and comments, shopping as a couple, second contact, timely follow-by the prospect that prom- ises to “get back to you,” referred by another party. Negative indicators include expressions of cynicism or arrogance, fear, a lazy or indifferent approach to the contact. Ultimately it’s emotions, not log- ic, that close the deal. She advised listening attentively to the prospect, actively seeking points of common ground or interest, building trust, and making the most of referrals and rec- ommendations. Lunch speaker Allana Meyer is shown with Erich Eggers II, CKBR, CGR. NARI members get short course in consumer law Michael Sandner introduced NARI members to basic consumer law. triple damages, if the plaintiff wins. In one case cited by Michael a dam- ages award of $105,000 increased to $315,000 under the treble damages provision of the law. A point of special interest to contractors may be understanding
Transcript
September 2008
A publication of Miami Valley NARIMiami Valley NARIMiami ValleyRemodelerMiami ValleyRemodelerMiami ValleyRemodeler
www.naridayton.
Allana Meyer discusses sales psychology at August lunch
Member Open HouseDate & Time
6-8 pm, Tuesday, September 23Location
Florida Tile Ceramic Center2105 Lyons Road
Program“Shower Systems”
Guest SpeakerEric WilliamsonSchluter Systems
CostHosted by Florida Tile Ceramic Center
MVNARI Golf OutingDate & Time
Tuesday, September 181 pm shotgun start
LocationBeavercreek Golf Club
2800 New Germany-Trebein Rd.Cost
$75 golf & dinner
Call MVNARI at 937-222-NARI,or register on line atwww.naridayton.org. (Continued on page 3)
September
Everyone in business knows they daily walk through a fi eld of potentially deadly legal landmines. Businesses that provide products and services to consumers are especially vulnerable to legal problems since their transactions are subject to the provisions of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act. Remodelers, who often do business in clients’ homes, have the possible added exposure of the Home Solicitation Sales Act. At the August 21 Miami Valley NARI CEO breakfast meeting guest speaker Michael W. Sandner, Pickrel Schaeffer Ebeling, gave other NARI members an introduction to the es-sential provisions of the CSPA and the HSSA and offered some basic guidance on avoiding running afoul of the laws. That’s important, be-cause the Ohio CSPA provides for
When the residential building business is booming remodelers typ-ically have as much work as they can handle with fairly little effort, but when the market tanks “selling” be-comes an essential part of a business owner or manager’s job description. Then basic understanding of sales psychology is the key to surviving the down times. Miami Valley NARI members got a short course in sales psycholo-gy at the August lunch meeting when guest speaker Allana Meyer, Marble & Granite Works, introduced an en-
thusiastic group of over 40 remodel-thusiastic group of over 40 remodel-ters and suppliers to the psyche of the remodeling customer. She pointed out that in the sum-mer of 2008 consumers have more information about products and ser-vices, more choices in products and
services, but less available credit and less disposable income. She listed a number of indicators that help sepa-rate the good prospects from the bad. Positive indicators include lots of questions and comments, shopping as a couple, second contact, timely follow-by the prospect that prom-ises to “get back to you,” referred by another party. Negative indicators include expressions of cynicism or arrogance, fear, a lazy or indifferent approach to the contact. Ultimately it’s emotions, not log-ic, that close the deal. She advised listening attentively to the prospect, actively seeking points of common ground or interest, building trust, and making the most of referrals and rec-ommendations.
Lunch speaker Allana Meyer is shown with Erich Eggers II, CKBR, CGR.
NARI members get short course in consumer law
Michael Sandner introduced NARI members to basic consumer law.
triple damages, if the plaintiff wins. In one case cited by Michael a dam-ages award of $105,000 increased to $315,000 under the treble damages provision of the law. A point of special interest to contractors may be understanding
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The Miami Valley Remodeler is published by the The Miami Valley Remodeler is published by the The Miami Valley RemodelerMiami Valley Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. Offi ces are located at 136 S. Keowee St., Dayton, OH 45402, (937) 222-NARI (6274) or FAX: ( 937) 222-5794.
PRESIDENTTim Garrison, CR, CKD
Home Towne ConstructionVICE PRESIDENT
John Bordenkircher, CKBRKitchen SolversSECRETARY
Peter Price, CR, CKBRStillwater Builders
TREASURERJohn FieldThe Islands
CHAIRMAN of the BOARDRay Bell, CR
Greater Dayton Building & RemodelingDIRECTORSDebbie Fritz
Main Street ConstructionMain Street ConstructionMain Street ConstErich Eggers II, CKBR, CGR
Remodeling Designs, Inc.Richard Bush
Design Pro Construction & HaulingTeresa Hart
Grime Busters & Elite CreteMike Kline
AccuClose, LLCRandy Light, CR
Mad River RestorationBilly Brinck
Ferguson Enterprises Inc.
REMODELERMiami Valley
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Our MissionAs the authority in the remodeling industry, Miami Valley NARI develops and sustains programs that foster ethical conduct, sound business practices,
and professionalism by bringing together contractors and suppliers in the remodeling
industry and by serving as a resource for the home and business owner.
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Watch the code hearings this month Now is the time to startpreparing CotY entries If you didn’t observe the code
development process when the pub-lic hearings were in Cincinnati a few years ago you have another chance to see how the codes we build by are made by watching the ICC Final Ac-tion Hearings live from Minneapolis on the Internet this month. You have plenty of time to look in on the hearings, starting on Sep-tember 17. They run from 8 am until 10 pm EDT every day from Septem-ber 18 through September 22. Only 10 hours of hearings are scheduled on September 17 and 23! Spending a half hour watching the code development process in ac-tion would be a useful educational experience for anyone in the build-ing business. Go to the ICC web site
www.iccsafe.org. In brief, the ICC code process works like this. Code change pro-posals are received and published. Anyone can submit a code change. Public hearings are held. After hear-ing testimony a committee votes to “Recommend Approval,” “Recom-mend Disapproval,” or they make changes to the proposal and rec-ommend approval “As Modifi ed.” If an ICC member doesn’t like the committee’s decision, he or she can initiate a fl oor action to overrule the committee. Every ICC member, not just building offi cials, is eligible to vote on the fl oor action. The hearings results are pub-lished. Once again, if someone doesn’t like the action taken on a specifi c change proposal he or she submits a “Public Comment.” This puts the change proposal on the “Fi-nal Action Agenda” for consideration at the Final Action Hearings. Anyone can testify at these hearings, but only building offi cials can vote. The Final Action Hearings start with the building offi cial members of ICC voting to approve the change proposals that are not on the fi nal ac-tion agenda. Then the “fun” 14 hour days begin. This is what you will be watching if you look in on the hear-ings later this month.
The greatest honor a remodeler can receive is a local, regional, or na-tional Contractor of the Year Award. You can’t get a CotY Award unless you enter the contests. Don’t wait un-til mid-October when deadlines for the local and national contests are a few weeks off to start your entries. All MVNARI members are eli-gible for local and national awards for projects completed from July 1, 2007, through November 3, 2008. (For national awards the range extends through the end of November.) The deadline for receipt of local CotY entries at the MVNARI offi ce is Monday, November 3. The local awards will be announced in Decem-ber and presented at the President’s Party in Jamuary. The deadline for national entries is December 1. National entries must be in offi cial CotY binders, which must be ordered from the national of-fi ce. Order the binders with enough lead time for them to reach you and for you to return them to the national offi ce by the December 1 deadline. No special binders are required for lo-cal awards entries. Download local and national CotY materials in the Members Only section of the Miami Valley NARI web site www.naridayton.org.
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Home owners opt forenergy-saving projects
Golf outing is set for September 18
Play golf, stay for dinner. A buffet will be served about 6 pm on outing day. (It’s included in your entry fee.) Or just come for dinner; it costs just $25. Food is great at the Beavercreek Golfg Club, and the clubhouse is sec-ond to none in the entire area.
Consumer law(Continued from page 1)
There’s still time to register to play in the 2008 edition of the Miami Valley NARI Golf Tourna-ment at the Beavercreek Golf Club on Thursday, September 18. Play begins with a 1:00 pm. shotgun. Check in and take some putting practice between noon and the start of play. There will be a buffet dinner at 6:00 pm. If you played in the last few Miami Valley NARI Golf Outings you know the Beavercreek Golf Club is one of the premiere public courses in southwest Ohio. Golf Di-gest magazine recently confi rmed this, giving the layout 4.5 stars out of fi ve. The magazine gave the entire facility a rave review, com-menting: “Reaction starts with the best course in Dayton area, with a very friendly staff. And it gets bet-ter: Best customer service of any public course in the Ohio Valley. They’ve made improvements to help the pace of play and make the course more user friendly, and to top it off, the food is great.” Beavercreek Golf Club is lo-cated on New Germany-Trebein Road, a mile east of North Fair-fi eld Road. The rolling terrain course features a variety of hole styles. Some resemble traditional Scottish links courses, others fea-
ture woods and water. The club-house stacks up quite well to the Dayton area’s most exclusive pri-vate clubs. At just $75 per player the NARI outing is a great social and recre-ation bargain. In addition to golf fees it includes a full buffet dinner
The Miami Valley NARI Golf Outing is
September 18 atBeavercreekGolf Club.
at the end of play. Non-golfers can join the group for dinner for just $25. Return the registration form to the NARI offi ce by mail or FAX or register on line at www.nari-dayton.org.transactions that do not fall under the
HSSA. These include transactions done entirely by mail or telephone, or transactions initiated by the buyer if the seller has a fi xed business loca-tion where the goods or services are regularly offered for sale, or when the transaction is the fi nal result of a visit by the buyer to the seller’s per-manent retail business location. In addition to quoting the language of the law Michael cited and gave the details of a number of especially inter-esting or signifi cant cases that illus-trated the application of the law.
As they grapple with skyrocket-ing energy costs, homeowners are turning to remodelers for solutions. According to the National Associa-tion of Home Builders’ quarterly Re-modeling Market Index, 33 percent of surveyed remodelers report they are increasingly called on to improve the energy effi ciency of client’s homes. Remodelers report installing a number of effi ciency-enhancing products in recent months. The most popular projects are:Windows. 73 percent of remodelers percent of remodelers perceninstalled energy-effi cient windows.Insulation. 65 percent installed foam rcent installed foam rcentor fi ber insulation in walls, roof cavi-ties, and attics; 27 percent insulated foundations and 52 percent installed insulated exterior doors.High-effi ciency HVAC systems. 56 percent of contractors said clients bought higher effi ciency HVACHigh-effi ciency appliances. 47 per-cent reported installing more energy-effi cient kithcen appliances.Water-saving faucets and fi xtures. 46 percent mentioned water-saving plumbing
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Call Miami Valley NARI at937-222-6274 to make
reservations for these eventsor register on line atwww.naridayton.org.
2008 MVNARI Golf OutingThursday, September 18
12:30 pm check-in1:00 pm shotgun start
Beavercreek Golf Club2800 New Germany-Trebein Rd.
Member Open House6:00 pm-8:00 pm, September 23
“Shower Systems”Eric WilliamsonSchluter Systems
Florida Tile Ceramic Center2105 Lyons Road
CEO Breakfast Meeting“Planning for Catastrophe! How to Insure Your Business’s Survival”
Sarah Carter & Paul ZimmerPickrel Schaefer & Ebeling
5:00 pm, November 3 Breakfast on the Level Meeting7:30 am-9:00 am, November 11
Holiday Inn, Dryden RoadCEO Breakfast Meeting
7:30 am-9:00 am, December 18 Holiday Inn, Dryden Road
MIAMI VALLEY NARI136 S KEOWEE STDAYTON, OH 45402
Florida Tile will host open house If you attend the Miami Valley NARI member open house at Flori-da Tile Ceramic Center on Tuesday, September 23, you’ll learn all about shower systems and other tile indus-try topics. The educational program will examine traditional shower instal-lation versus a completely sealed system. The featured presenter, Eric Williamson, Schlüter Systems, will discuss the evolution of shower con-struction methods, barrier free instal-lations and give a demonstration of the bonded membrane and its com-ponents with a single stage drain. Mr. Williamson will also dis-cuss the “Uncoupling Principle,” its relation to the current technology of bonding tile directly to the sub-strate, and the differences between the two basic installation methods. An installation of the uncoupling membrane along with a few basic transition profi les will follow. The featured presenter has per-formed a variety of jobs in the tile industry, including building material delivery, building swimming pools, general construction, tile contracting, kitchen and bath remodeling, historic restoration, and tile manufacturing.
He has represented Schlüter Systems for the last 10 years. Schlüter Systems was founded in 1975 by German master tile set-ter Werner Schlüter. While working on an unusual bathroom project that included four thresholds, it occurred to Mr. Schlüter that a metal “L” an-gle installed prior to placing tiles would not only solve the common problem of exposed tile edges being vulnerable to chipping and break-ing, but also hide the unglazed edge and provide a straight and clean transition to adjoining surfaces. What began as a modest idea has grown into a company with over 40 product lines sold in countries around the world. Florida Tile manufactures, im-ports, and distributes ceramic wall and fl oor tile, natural stone, and por-celain products from 11 countries around the world. The open house will be from 6 pm until 8 pm on September 23 at the Florida Tile Ceramic Center, 2105 Lyons Rd. As a courtesy to the host please RSVP for this event by calling the Miami Valley NARI offi ce at 937-222-6274 or reply on line at www.naridayton.org.
