Conversations That Convert

A conversation for remodelers, home builders, and home improvement companies about increasing lead conversions without added expense, and watching your bottom line grow.

Conversations That Convert is a business podcast hosted by Rick Storlie, with 203 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Rick Storlie hosts Conversations That Convert, a business show with 203 episodes published.

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  Conversations That Convert

  THREE JOURNEYS OF BUILDER AND REMODELER GROWTH

  Sep 24, 20261h 1m

  Three builders reveal exactly how to grow a construction business, with real margins, real numbers, and no fluff. THE BUILDERS: → Kelly Anderson, Ironwood Custom Builders (Salt Lake City)→ Jason Radford, Radford Building Company (Durham, NC)→ John Van Laeugen, Joe's Carpentry (Ontario, Canada)→ Russ Stephens, Association of Professional Builders THE NUMBERS: $67,000/year from paid pre-construction estimating 3% to 9% net margin in 12 months $1.7M to $2.95M in one year 90% of builders miscalculate WIP accounting KEY TOPICS: Charging for pre-construction estimates Fixing your Work-in-Progress accounting Marketing mix: referrals, PPC, home shows, Google Choosing a profitable niche Removing yourself as the bottleneck WHAT WORKED: ✓ Charging five figures for pre-construction phases✓ Monthly WIP calculations for real margin visibility✓ Niching down into complex renovations✓ Investing 3-4% of revenue into marketing before scaling WHAT DIDN'T: ✗ Free estimates that drained months of unpaid time✗ Managing the business by bank balance instead of WIP✗ Trying to be everything to every client FINAL MESSAGE: Growth isn't a leads problem first.It's a pricing and systems problem.Fix those, and the leads convert. Learn more: builderleadconverter.com

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  Conversations That Convert

  Stop Chasing Leads Automate Your Remodeling Pipeline with Eric Fortenberry from Jobtread

  Sep 11, 202632 min

  STOP CHASING LEADS Rick Storlie and Eric Fortenberry (founder & CEO of JobTread) reveal how construction CRM software plus Render's LiDAR scanning tech turns a cold lead into a priced budget in under an hour. THE PROBLEM: → 10 hours per lead to build a scope and budget→ Close 5 of 10 leads? That's 50 hours gone→ A full work week wasted before a contract is signed THE ECOSYSTEM: Project Qualifier Tool captures scope on your website Homeowner runs a Render LiDAR scan (or skips it) Scan data pushes into JobTread automatically Cost groups auto-calculate a budget range Call gets booked, AI summary texts you first KEY STATS: Render accuracy: within half an inch Preliminary budget delivered in under 1 hour AI summary sent 3 hours before your call Bathroom remodels = #1 searched remodeling term WHAT WORKED: ✓ Homeowner self-serves the scan, no site visit needed✓ Trade partners can run the scan too✓ Zero double data entry across website, Render, JobTread WHAT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE: ✗ Emailing budgets instead of presenting them live✗ Driving out for manual measurements on every lead✗ Competing on referrals alone in a tighter market THE GUEST: → Eric Fortenberry, Founder & CEO of JobTread FINAL MESSAGE: Automate what doesn't need your judgment.Save your judgment for what does. Learn more: builderleadconverter.com | jobtread.com

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  Conversations That Convert

  Inside the SORCI Report: Benchmarks, Margins, and AI for Custom Builders

  Sep 3, 202653 min

  Russ Stephens of the Association of Professional Builders breaks down this year's construction industry statistics with Rick. THE MARGIN NUMBERS: → Referral-heavy builders post lower margins, not because of the leads themselves→ Top performers reinvest 3-4% of revenue into marketing→ 25% gross margin needs roughly a 33.3% markup, with a 15% fixed expense ratio→ Owners should target 5% of revenue as market-rate salary BACKLOG AND STATUS: Healthy backlog = 1-2 years of signed, deposited work A long queue signals status to prospective clients Builders who shorten their queue often lose pricing power THE VIDEO GAP: Half of all builders post zero video content Canada: 60% never post video New Zealand: under 30% never post Talking-head video builds trust faster than any other format WHERE AI HELPS: ✓ Rescheduling trades in real time✓ Catching vendor delivery delays before they cost a day✓ Filling admin gaps around estimating and PM✗ Mass-producing AI video (two-thirds of consumers push back on it) KEY INSIGHTS: → 100 cold leads per signed contract is a healthy paid-lead ratio→ The mates rates trap quietly erodes margins on family jobs→ Remodeling scales less predictably than new construction past $10M FINAL MESSAGE: The data behind stronger margins already exists.Most builders just aren't using it yet. Get the free SORCI report: associationofprofessionalbuilders.com

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  Conversations That Convert

  The 25% Upsell: How Offering Home Improvement Financing Drives Larger Projects with Larry Collins

  Jul 30, 202632 min

  THE 25% UPSELL: HOW OFFERING HOME IMPROVEMENT FINANCING DRIVES LARGER PROJECTS Larry Collins of HFS Home Improvement Loans joins Rick to explain why remodelers who offer financing to customers close bigger, more profitable jobs. THE CORE INSIGHT: → Homeowners spend about 25% more once they see an affordable monthly payment→ Almost no remodeler asks a lead if they're paying cash or financing→ That one missed question is costing contractors real project size HOW THE LOAN WORKS: Rates from 7.89% to 13.99% Approval up to $450,000, terms up to 30 years Approved for 20% more than requested Funded in 5 to 7 business days No prepayment penalty, ever HELOC VS. PERSONAL LOAN: HELOC needs 20-30% home equity HELOC carries a variable rate HFS loans skip the appraisal and lock a fixed rate for 30 years WHAT WORKED: ✓ A financing link in the appointment confirmation email✓ A one-page flyer at the first meeting✓ Soft credit checks that never touch the customer's score WHAT DOESN'T WORK: ✗ Treating financing like a big-box retailer tactic✗ Waiting until the estimate to bring it up for the first time KEY INSIGHTS: → Nearly 25,000 contractors nationwide already use HFS→ Design-build clients use financing on purpose, not necessity FINAL MESSAGE: Stop assuming every lead is paying cash.Offer financing to customers as a standard part of every pitch.Bigger jobs follow. Learn more: hfsfin.com

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  Conversations That Convert

  How to Build a High-Converting, Hacker-Proof Website with Alexandre Godinho

  Jul 23, 202624 min

  YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T DONE JUST BECAUSE IT'S LIVE Alexandre Godinho (A.G.), BLC's lead website developer for 3 years, walks through what actually goes into a construction website that keeps performing after launch, from first mockup to ongoing maintenance. SECURITY & BACKUPS: → Wordfence firewall on every build → SiteGround server-side blocking → Daily cloud backups, stored off-host → Fast restore if anything ever gets hacked WHAT GETS TRACKED: 1. Page views 2. Scroll depth (50% and 75%) 3. Form submissions 4. Booked appointments SCHEMA & LOCAL SEO: → Rank Math schema markup → FAQ schema for direct Google answers → Google Business Profile matched across 70+ citations WHAT WORKED: ✓ Dynamic linking (URLs can change without breaking buttons) ✓ Pre-launch crawls with Screaming Frog and SEMrush ✓ 90+ PageSpeed score, desktop and mobile WHAT DIDN'T: ✗ Treating a website like a one-time brochure ✗ Skipping the privacy policy ✗ Letting broken links pile up unnoticed THE AI LAYER: → llm.txt alongside robots.txt → E-E-A-T: Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust → Reviewed every 90 days with Microsoft Clarity FINAL MESSAGE: A website is a system. Build it right once. Review it forever. Then let it keep working for you. Book a call: builderleadconverter.com

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