313 The Home Building Trade Partner Advantage - Don Bronchick Apr 1 2026

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello everybody, and welcome to today's episode of the Builder Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse.

Greg Bray: And we are pleased to have joining us today, Don Bronchick. Don is the founder at BuilderBeast Consulting. Welcome, Don. Thanks for spending some time with us today.

Don Bronchick: Thanks so much, Greg, Kevin. Appreciate you having me on.

Greg Bray: Well, Don, for those who haven't a chance to meet you, let's start off just getting that quick background and introduce yourself for us. [00:01:00]

Don Bronchick: Sure. I founded BuilderBeast Consulting out here in Denver, Colorado, where I relocated from South Florida about three years ago. At that point, about 20-some odd years, 27, 28 years in residential construction, I focus now on helping subcontractors and suppliers understand how to do business with builders, and I break down what builders really want from their subcontractors. A lot of folks jump into the industry without really understanding what the builder's needs are, right?

So, I don't pretend to tell an electrician how to pull wire, and I don't pretend to tell a roofer how to fly trusses, right? I help them run a business, help them read a P and L, help them design a proper culture for where they want to go. I help them on the business side of things. And again, so I've built and scaled two companies that both got sold. I've got into the industry in the mid-nineties in South Florida.

Kevin Weitzel: All right. Before we get started, though, Don, here's where we always start our little broadcast with. We need to know an interesting factoid about [00:02:00] you that has nothing to do with work, the home building industry, or family. Those are all off limits.

Don Bronchick: There off limits?

Kevin Weitzel: Off limits, no work, home building, industry, or family. Interesting factoid about Don.

Don Bronchick: Well, I'm relatively uninteresting. Listen, it's funny 'cause I grew up on the East Coast. I love to be on the water. So, it's been a real problem for me out here in the Colorado market, although I do love and appreciate the mountains. But I miss the water. I grew up on the water. You know, it's funny, I used saltwater fishing a lot to entertain builders and clients. It's a great way to build relationships. So, I'm struggling, missing the salt water a bit.

Kevin Weitzel: Well, you've got plenty of water there. It's just all frozen on top of mountains.

Don Bronchick: Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned that because this winter we've had about six inches of total snowfall so far. So, it's pretty dry out here. Believe it or not,

Kevin Weitzel: That crushes the souls of all the skiers up there and snowboarders.

Don Bronchick: Well, they can make snow. It's cold enough.

Kevin Weitzel: Before we get to cracking on this, I do have one question. When do I start receiving my royalty checks [00:03:00] for being the model of your logo? Because I noticed that your gorilla on BuilderBeast has sideburns.

Don Bronchick: He does. He's got some pretty big wings, as we call it. The funny part is, is my wife and I have a little 12-pound chihuahua cairn terrier mix, and we always say that he's the mascot because he's got those wings on his neck. It's pretty funny. He's 12 pounds of terror.

Kevin Weitzel: Love it. Love it.

Greg Bray: Kevin, you got to get the trademark filed, man. You got to get it filed.

Kevin Weitzel: I do. You know what? You may be getting me subpoenaed for some sort of lawsuit for my likeness.

Don Bronchick: Oh, good. I've got a few lawyers in the family. I'll be ready for you.

Greg Bray: Kevin is going to sue somebody with a gorilla face for using his likeness.

Kevin Weitzel: That's right. Look at those sideburns, they match my sideburns.

Don Bronchick: Any resemblances are completely and entirely coincidental, Kevin.

Greg Bray: Well, Don, let's acknowledge here first and foremost that most of the time we're talking about new home sales and marketing, you know, how do we get our message in front of consumers, how do we connect with them, and everything. And your area is a little bit different, and I think [00:04:00] that's intriguing, though for a couple of reasons. One is, the trades have to know how to sell themselves and have to market themselves. Builders, also, in a lot of ways, in today's world, are struggling to find all the support they need and to get all the trades consistently.

So, there's a partnership sales process going both directions there as well. It's like, Hey, you should work with us instead of the other folks, and here's why, to make sure they can deliver and provide the experience to the end buyer that they want. So, digging in deeper into some of your experiences is going to be really interesting, even though it's a little bit of a different angle than we typically dive into.

Don Bronchick: I'm looking forward to figuring out which way you'd like to take this chat, but without question, working in new construction, working for home builders is a very unique selling environment, very unique.

Greg Bray: So, let's look at it from the trades' perspective today.

Don Bronchick: Sure.

Greg Bray: First, let's start there, right? When trades are trying to sell themselves and put their products out there, what is different when you're selling to a [00:05:00] builder as opposed to selling to a homeowner or that end home buyer, so to speak, in how that communication works and the kinds of things that matter in your experience?

Don Bronchick: That's a great question. Look, first, the commonality, right? The commonality is you, as the person selling whatever it is, need to reduce the buyer's perceived risk in hiring you. And it's the same whether it's a new construction home builder or it's a homeowner. You're not going to get the contract if that individual believes that there's a legitimate risk in awarding you the job. So, that's the commonality.

The differentiator is this: homeowners, when a remodeler is in their living room or their kitchen, a homeowner is really looking for supreme comfort far more often than price. The homeowner frankly wants to know that when you tear up their house, you're going to achieve an outcome that they want, right? It's about comfort. It's about really assuaging their concerns in the selection process. The builder, the risk [00:06:00] aversion is there, but their desires and needs are a little bit different.

What's happened, unfortunately, in new construction is the building materials themselves have become commoditized. There's not really any spectacular, new, different, for lack of a better word, products that are emerging on the market. Yes, there's an evolution of building materials and energy performance, things of that nature, but at the end of the day, think about what goes into building a new home. Lumber, drywall, copper, these have become commoditized. So, to have plumbing fixtures, the PEXs that carries the water behind the wall, it's all become commoditized.

So, if you are a vendor you're a subcontractor seeking to work for builders, what are you left to offer? And the answer is service. That's the way you have to differentiate yourself, and you have to deliver. I was a window and door dealer for many, many years in Florida, and I was selling a window from a manufacturer [00:07:00] that no less than a half a dozen of my competitors in any location could offer as well, the identical window. So, what do I have to sell? And that's where a lot of the subcontractors, Greg, go off the rails. They try to sell product features and benefits. This is not the industry for that.

Greg Bray: So, where do those features and benefits matter? Do they matter to the home buyer at all as well, or do we all see a door and a window as being commoditized? Or is it just that the builder sees it at that level?

Don Bronchick: That's a great question, and the distinction is for a homeowner, they're far more concerned with features and benefits. I mean, that's a great concern they're going to have, right? The differentiator is the home builder; they're concerned with are you going to show up on time. Are you going to complete the house first pass, or are you going to fail inspection three times, and I got red tags hanging everywhere? Are you going to communicate with me? At the end of the day, this is the greatest example of an industry that time is money. So, anytime you, as a new construction subcontractor, are [00:08:00] delaying the build cycle for that house, you're going to be on the list. And I don't mean the good list, right?

So, with a homeowner, they're far more concerned with, yes, your ability to complete the job and not hurt them, but the physical products themselves matter much more. In home building, a custom home builder is going to be far more in tune to features and benefits and far more receptive to learning about new products and innovation in the marketplace. Production home builders, sadly, very much are, you know, it's kind of me too, very few people are willing to rock the boat and introduce something new. It's very much a follow-the-leader industry.

Kevin Weitzel: Let me touch on that, and this is going to be kind of a long-winded question. However, I am, and it's no secret, our listeners have heard me said it dozen times, I'm a huge fan of modular construction, building offsite, making tighter, vapor barriers and envelopes, having more accuracy, more plumb walls, a lot of less waste, you know, just in general on time delivery, et cetera.

[00:09:00] But when we're talking about features and benefits, there are features and benefits to that, to the builder, even if you eliminate cause. Let's say in a magic world, the cost was the same. Is there a factor that the good old boys, the way that we've been doing it for a year generation, after generation after generation, keep those features and benefits from even having any volume whatsoever?

Don Bronchick: There's no question. Look, at the end of the day, again, builders are risk-averse. Very rarely will a builder pivot and introduce something that's truly innovative within the world of constructing the home. I remember in South Florida a number of years ago, a few builders tried to do tilt wall, right? They'd form the wall on the ground, pour the concrete, and tilt the wall up. It just never gained traction. There's another part of this, which is the home buyer. The home buyers are also very weary of a dramatic paradigm shift in how the home is built.

Now in Florida, for example, the exterior walls are virtually all concrete block, exterior framed walls are [00:10:00] only on the second floor. And that's not always; that's just depending upon the builder. Where I'm going with this is that the builder typically is unwilling to roll the dice, and the reason is simple. You know, I explained this to someone recently. If you've ever watched the TV show Landman, which my wife and I love. They talk about oil speculation and wildcatting. Well, when you hit, and you're successful, the upside is so dramatic that they, obviously, have done the math, and they can handle the risk on the ones that don't hit. Home building is a single-digit margin business, if you're lucky. So, they can't afford to take those kinds of risks.

I'll give you an example. In South Florida in the nineties, a major national builder in Miami, South Florida, imported a floor plan from their California division, and here was the game changer. Up until that model in new production homes, every single home that I had ever done a takeoff for, and you're talking thousands of floor plans [00:11:00] across hundreds of builders, thousands and thousands of floor plans, every single home was built and designed with an exterior wall system that was either 90 degrees or 45-degree turns. There were no radius walls in construction. You might occasionally see one in the rear of the home in a breakfast nook, but you'd never see one for the front elevation.

Well, this builder imported a two-story home from California, and it was magnificent. It was beautiful. It had a full radius wall. We called it the castle house or the turret house. It literally had a full two-story radius wall with a spiral staircase. Magnificent. My builders at the time knew that I worked for a lot of builders, and at least a half a dozen or more builders would pull me aside and say, and kind of snicker, right? Hey, did you see they're bringing in that radius wall? And they'd laugh at them. Well, needless to say, that model was a hit, and they put it in three of their communities, or four of their communities, sold like wildfire. [00:12:00] What do you think happened? Within six, eight months, 10 months, whatever it was, 6, 8, 10 builders in South Florida were offering radius walls.

To your point, Kevin, builders are really, really risk-averse, as I said, and they avoid radical change because they're scared of swinging and a miss. Because, look, at the end of the day, let's remember something. When somebody makes the decision to bring in a radius wall, they're putting their job on the line. Let's face it, if something doesn't sell, if something doesn't work, people are trying to protect their own jobs, also in the corporate world. So, you're not going to find a whole lot of adventurous risk-taking, for example, in home design.

So, to your point about building a modular home. At the end of the day, builders have historically just done it a certain way. I'm not saying that there isn't another way to do it, but there's little appetite for trying. For example, in South Florida, they still use almost exclusively aluminum window frames. The rest of the country is predominantly [00:13:00] vinyl because of energy, thermal transference. So, what ends up happening? The home buyers don't want vinyl windows in South Florida, so the builders don't offer it. There's just very little appetite for taking risk.

Greg Bray: So, Don, when you're working with the trades and they're talking about the service level experience that they can bring to the builder, and of course, schedule and reliability and all of that ties into it, do they see the connection between the builder's ability to offer a better experience to the end customer as part of all of that? Again, we kind of joke sometimes that scheduled delays are just part of the process, and everything there.

And yet, builders who are trying to differentiate on that end customer experience, they're dependent on these partners to deliver the experience for them. They don't have control of everything that happens when they hand it off to a trade partner to do their piece of this long chain of activities. Do the trades [00:14:00] understand that, or do they just show up on this day to do this job, and that's my thing, and then I go on to the next one?

Don Bronchick: The better tradesmen, the ones that are successful and that scale profitably, understand the fundamental truth that they are in the service business. It's not about installing product. You're in the service business, the widget, your drywall, your lumber is just the vehicle to deliver the service, and that's how you differentiate yourself. Where you're going and what you're speaking of, it's an attitude in the marketplace where the home builder is trying to deliver to their customer, as you said, a certain experience, and they want to obviously fill out their roster of subcontractors that can help them achieve that.

And that's why you very often in this industry, you hear the term trade partner. A trade partner versus a vendor. A trade partner is someone who gets the big picture, works with their builder to deliver the experience. To me, just a subcontractor, a vendor, is someone who thinks to themselves as, I go, and I install product. A trade partner, again, understands the bigger picture in that the home [00:15:00] builder needs to create raving fans because if we as subcontractors don't help the builder achieve that, then indirectly we're cutting off our own legs because we're going to get less work.

But as far as the macro marketplace is concerned, you know, supply and demand, I haven't worked in small, small markets, but I've never personally experienced where the builders didn't have enough vendors to select from. The problem is there are very few high performers that are out there. Home builders can get protective if they have a superior subcontractor, and they're fearful that if other builders start giving them work, that their work quality and responsiveness will suffer, right, because if they scale too fast.

But at the end of the day, there are very few top-performing tradesmen out there, but they get work because of what they're competing against. So, someone who really performs on another level they're going to set themselves apart, and they're going to dominate their market within a couple of [00:16:00] years. So, it also depends on how busy things. Right now, we're in a bit of a down market, so builders can afford to be a bit more selective because the subs aren't that overloaded right now. So, they can afford to spread it around.

Kevin Weitzel: So, with the trades, I want just use framing as an example. I don't want to dumb it down, I don't want to insult any framers out there, but for the most part, framing is a relatively basic process. But when you talk about framing wall in, how does a new company, Chuck, with a truck, he wants to start his own framing company? He does excellent work. He knows how to read the tape measure. He is going to show up on time. How does he establish trust in a commoditized industry with a builder that already has several trades in line?

Don Bronchick: It's a great question. Look, it starts with the value proposition. I'm going to back up a little further up the ladder here. The problem is, most folks, as you said, Chuck and a truck, and believe it or not, I've never heard that one. That was funny. The problem is this: Chuck decides he's going to become a framer, or he has been a framer. This is very common, right? He's [00:17:00] worked for 6, 8, 10 years for someone else and decides to hang his own shingle. That's very common in our world. But they don't really understand the business side of things.

The first thing that I advise folks where they need to start is identify this: who do I want to be as a company? Because Chuck, the framer, does he want to be the artisan craftsman with zero tolerance for errors, and he wants to do high-end custom work, charge a premium, and he only wants to frame one house a month? On the other side, what if he decides, you know what? I want to be the biggest at this. I want to do, you know, 5,000 homes a year. I want to do production.

Okay. So, the first order of business is the business owners need to determine what lane are we going to be in. Then they have to set out to be the very best at that. Meaning too many subs come in, and they're like, well, Kevin, the home builder, I'm a framer. Oh, but you know what? I'm also an electrician, and I dig pools, and I also do closet shelving, right? It's not very confidence-inspiring [00:18:00] inspiring. So, again, reducing the builder's perceived risk in hiring you, that comes from specialization, not generalization.

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah.

Don Bronchick: When you are a subcontractor that's a generalist, you kind of fall into that handyman role, and that's not confidence-inspiring. Right. A homeowner hires a handyman for drywall repairs, and door adjustments, and painting. Right. But if you're going to put a new kitchen in, you probably want to hire a kitchen and bath remodeler. Right. A specialist. What ends up happening here is before the subcontractor, or if they fail, rather, to really clearly define their messaging, it's going to be very difficult for them to break in.

So, as far as how to break in, let's be honest, framing is, maybe, drywall, what other trades truly have commoditized products, right? You're talking lumber and sheet rock for crying out loud, right? I mean, that's as commoditized as it gets. So, I advise my [00:19:00] clients, and when I'm presenting on stage, when you get that builder's ear, never lead with product. You lead, and you present on your value proposition, which speaks to the experience that they're going to have with you, right? Why should you select me?

So, for example, yesterday I was just doing a sales training course for a big cabinet distributor at the Home Builders Association. And I explained to them that when you're in that environment, you've got to be the specialist, not a generalist, but you have to be able to communicate to that builder precisely what it is you can do for them that nobody else is doing in the marketplace that reduces their headaches. That's the key. You don't go into a builder the first time and say, Hey, my hinges on my cabinet doors are better than anyone else's.

You want to say to them and explain to them, because you're only going to have a few minutes if you're just knocking on their door, look, this is how [00:20:00] my company protects its builders, this is what we do to avoid warranty work. This is what we've done for other builders to save a day or two off their build cycle time. How do I set a hook? That's what you start out with.

And then after you get a bid opportunity, and then you're presenting, then you can talk about features and benefits if there are any. Very often in our industry, there are no features. Like again, if you're a drywaller, there's no features and benefits to sell. You're selling the service, how you're going to protect them, and that's what I need to counsel business owners on. Features and benefits does not come into play when you're making an introduction and prospecting.

Kevin Weitzel: And a note to any trade and contractors out there. The best way to avoid warranty work is to replace your corporate phone with burners. Just don't take the phone calls. You can avoid all the warranty work you want.

Don Bronchick: Kevin, I want to chime in quickly on warranty. It is a sadly [00:21:00] overlooked arena of performance for subcontractors. I have seen some really, really high-performing subs in new construction get replaced because warranty folks just have had it with them. The last thing you want as an owner of a vendor or subcontractor is to have a corporate meeting going on that you don't know about, and the warranty manager for that division is just saying, these guys are killing me. Right?

Bronchick Drywall is killing me. They're just not getting back to people. You know, I've told them they're supposed to contact homeowners within 48 hours of receiving a ticket or 24, whatever the corporate policy is. They've no show, they've rescheduled, they're not getting stuff done, or every time they go out there, they're looking for a reason to charge me.

I always advise my clients, look, you need to set aside budget for, and have a slush fund for warranty dollars. And as you get bigger and you have more, you can formulate a statistic. I always set aside 1% of revenue for my warranty [00:22:00] budget. But if a vendor, let's say, on a scale of one to 10, a vendor in new construction performs at a six or seven. But if they perform at a 10 in warranty, that builder's not letting them go. It's a much different world than it was when I came up in the industry.

When I came up in the industry, there was a JD Power survey, right? And the home buyers would get that thing in the mail, whatever it was, once or twice or a year after closing, right? For the follow-up. And boy did the builders really strive and press their subs to get good scores, right?JD Power was everything, but there was a time lag. Today's world it's Facebook groups. Almost every new construction community there's a Facebook group, and the homeowners go on there, and all they do is bitch about the builder.

So, if you're a home builder, you recognize that the negative firestorm can happen real quick. So, the urgency and the absolute need for subcontractors to respond [00:23:00] positively to warranty is more important today than it ever was, and subcontractors who ignore that importance do so at their peril.

Greg Bray: I love that thought, Don. Because I honestly think that warranty impacts the marketing side of the builder's business so much more than maybe it's recognized, too. Because when you look at the long customer journey of buying a home and moving in and all the things, and then warranty, it's like the last big piece. And so, that's what leaves the taste in the mouth is at the very end of this whole thing.

And you can do it all perfect. And then if you mess up warranty, the buyer's angry and they're frustrated, and they're upset, and that's what they tell, and that's the reviews that go out and the things that get in the way of that raving fan type thing that you mentioned earlier. And so, for the trades to not understand that and recognize their opportunity to help the builder with that piece of it all. It's critical. It's absolutely critical.

Don Bronchick: Yeah. It's funny you call it an opportunity, because Greg, it really is. It's another [00:24:00] opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition. A subcontractor, for example, that does not embrace warranty and doesn't get it, and they go out to a job, you know, they get a service ticket. The builder knows real quick which vendors are coming back, trying to lay blame and fault on other trades, right?

Kevin Weitzel: Finger pointers.

Don Bronchick: Of course, it's always that person's fault, right? And in new construction, by the way, if you really want to establish a very positive reputation for yourself, be accountable. Put your hand up. So, when you're going out to a warranty call, my recommendation, always, is look for ways to get it done. Too many subs look for reasons not to do it, or to point fingers. And look, there are going to be times when a purchase order is appropriate, right? So, let's just say I'm in the window trade and another trade was in the house doing warranty and breaks a window, something easy and silly. Right?

Well, that's something I obviously have a right to charge them for, and they'll probably back-charge the other vendor. For nickel and dime [00:25:00] stuff, and this segues into a whole nother topic, the worst thing you can do as a new construction subcontractor is nickel and dime your builder. Forget about being right. I know that you may feel you have a justification for charging, but unless it's significant, don't. Use the goodwill instead. I used to teach my teams, visualize it as I'm building up goodwill chips, because someday we're going to need to cash them in when we screw up. And of course that happens. Nobody's perfect, nor were we. But boy, did we try to be. So, at the end of the day, it's very, very detrimental to your growth to be a nickel and dimer because it signals everything negative to the builder.

Greg Bray: So, Don, as we look at wrapping up here in just a few minutes, I just want to twist it to the other side here and talk about the builder who's trying to attract these types of subs. They want to build that team that's going to give them the service, that's going to help them provide that experience that they're trying to give to their customers. What are some of the things from the builder side [00:26:00] they can do to deliver that message, set those expectations, and attract the right partners?

Don Bronchick: That's a great question. Very insightful, and it's actually a very simple answer. The first thing is a builder needs to have a very detailed scope of work. I, as a subcontractor, really need to understand exactly what it is you're asking me to do for you, what you want me to bid. And I know that sounds very rudimentary, but you'd be surprised at how many builders do not have a robust scope of work for every trade, and it's critical because, side note, here's what happens.

As the builder, Greg, if you're the builder, if you failed to issue a very detailed or robust scope of work, here's what happens. The subcontractors are going to give you whichever of these two is greater, either your scope of work or the building code. Does that make sense? So, in the absence of a detailed scope of work from you, as the builder, issued to your sub, I, as the subcontractor, [00:27:00] I'm going to give you the bare minimum, the building code, just so I can pass inspection. Does that make sense? So the first thing is you've got to have a very detailed scope of work.

The second thing is, silly enough, pay on time and don't nickel and dime your vendors. If your vendor is expecting a check for X number of dollars based on the bills they submitted, let's say there's a legitimate back charge, somebody should be bringing it to their attention. The superintendent should have a conversation with that sub rather than let me get surprised when I see it was a deduction on my check because, quite frankly, sometimes you'll see a smaller local builder play that game. No different than an unethical subcontractor bids low, gets the job, and then starts papering the job site with dry run charges, EWOs, and all that kind of thing.

So, for the builder to attract the best subs, scope of work, pay when you're supposed to, as per your published pay cycles. Don't mess with their money. And this last part is a bit more abstract, but a lot of builders overlook [00:28:00] this. I've run across, as you can imagine, in my career, across 68,000 new homes in my two companies. I've come across thousands of job site managers, superintendents, and project managers, et cetera. And guess what? They're not all nice, right? What a shock.

The home builder, the office needs to make sure that while your superintendents and PMs need to run a tight job site, don't lose sight of the fact that your subs, if you want them to be trade partners, you need to treat them with a little bit of respect. I've seen too many new construction builders, on the job site for the builder, just grind their subs into dust because they could. Which means the first time that sub, if they're good, gets a chance and they have enough work elsewhere, they're going to say goodbye. Right? They're just going to walk off the job. And in residential construction, you don't have liquidated damages for non-performance like you do in the commercial world. Pretty much all the damages are contained to a given house.

So, for the home builder, if you're [00:29:00] trying to build a real roster of good subs, guys that you can depend on, you need to make sure your scope is accurate and robust and pay them as you're supposed to pay them, and make sure your new construction teams are aware that you value your subs. One of my favorite expressions in business is the fish thinks from the head down. That obviously is speaking to culture.

So, if I'm the business owner and I build 200 homes a year in my local market, if I personally think my subs are disposable, trash, they're just tools to get things done, and I don't place any value on them, that's going to permeate down through your entire company, and you're going to have a revolving door of subcontractors. So, I always advise the builders that I work for, make sure your folks in the field are treating your subs with respect and with constant communication. It's not fair to call a guy and say, Hey, I need you tomorrow. Right? And then the guy can't be there tomorrow and he gets a [00:30:00] demerit.

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah, they shouldn't have that. So, I have one more question for you.

Don Bronchick: Sure.

Kevin Weitzel: I truly don't know, and I'm asking out of out just an ignorant corner that I don't know the answer to this. When Greg's team builds a website, the potential client will ask, can you send me examples of your work. When we do interactive floor plans or renderings and virtual tours for you know, a client we're pitching, we have to send examples of our work. That framer, do they send like pictures of a clean work site, you know, that they've done, or the fact that all their trim work is all nice and pretty and tidy and accurate? Or do builders just not really care about that? Do they just care that, hey, you're at the right price, you're going to show up, you got the job?

Don Bronchick: Well, there are some builders, national as well as regional or local, that will hire you if you check three boxes. License, insurance, and the lowest price, right? If you check those three boxes, you get hired. I always wanted to gravitate to the builders that actually cared, because I was very rarely the lowest price, and it allowed me to sleep at night, right? One of my favorite expressions is if you get hired on price, you get fired on price. The [00:31:00] subcontractors who are gaining the preponderance of the business, they recognize that the builder wants from them a certain thing, and the framer, to use your example, needs to recognize it's not about the lumber. My wood is no more special than my competitors' wood.

The way I would always handle this is I believed in taking photographs out in the field of my own work, and what we called recon. We did competitive recon. If a subcontractor in our industry is seeking to do business with home builders and does not know what their competition does well and does not do well, shame on them. So, to your question, should there be pictures? I don't know if others do, but I did. I had a whole presentation binder that all my salespeople, it was identical, and it would show them what should you do in sales presentations. Problem and then solution, right?

So, I would show photographs of my competitor's work that would leave the builder exposed [00:32:00] and then show photographs of my work. This is how I protect you from that. So, should a framer take pictures of their work? I think so. Not many do, but it's very powerful. Here's the biggest problem. In today's world, people take the easy way out too often and are lazy. So, if they're prospecting, they send an email, for example. I mean, sending an email prospecting in today's world, talk about a wish and a prayer, right? So, I always counsel people, go knock on doors. This is a very in-person business.

So, I absolutely do believe that taking photographs and documenting good and bad work to present to a builder matters. But here's the funny part, though, Kevin, in my entire career, I could probably count on one hand, maybe two, the amount of times that the purchasing professional heard what I had to say and actually left their desk and went with me to the field, or went to the field themselves to go see it. They don't. [00:33:00] So, taking photographs is very important because here's what happens when you don't do that, and you're also alluding to making a presentation, which I support a thousand percent. Again, this is an in-person business.

Here's an interesting 40,000-foot observation, an epiphany that I've had recently. When I came up in the business, very in-person business. But in the nineties and in the two thousands, our society was also still very much an in-person kind of culture. What have we pivoted to? Technology, devices, everyone lives their life on their device now and on their phone, and it's almost become acceptable to live and conduct business that way. But ironically, new construction is still very much an in-person business.

So, when somebody tries to take the shortcut and just emailing in a bid or emailing in prospects, I go, no, you've got to go see them because here's what happens. This is the real problem as I see it. If you [00:34:00] own a subcontracting business and you're trying to break into a builder and all you do is send in emails, hoping, again, wishing that you get awarded the work, by default, all you are giving that builder to evaluate that trade category is price.

If I'm new to Kevin and Kevin's buying out Whispering Woods, a new community, and I give him a quote, and I don't go visit Kevin and explain, this is my value proposition. This is how I'm going to protect you. This is how I'm going to service your job site, this is how it's going to create a better experience for the buyer, as Greg made earlier mentioned earlier, without that, all I'm leaving, Kevin, to evaluate is price.

Which means when a subcontractor complains to me in conversation, oh, builders only compare about price, I go, nonsense. You didn't give them anything else to consider but price. It's on you. It's a cop out for you to just [00:35:00] blame the builder. It's the easiest crutch for a subcontractor to come up with. My experience in 30 years almost working with builders, and again, 68,000 new homes, thousands of communities, it's not all about price. It's about value, and it's about service. Builders don't want grief. That's simple.

Greg Bray: Don, that is a fantastic final take-home point. Builders don't want grief. That's awesome. It's all about value, not just price. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today. We really appreciate.

Don Bronchick: It's my pleasure.

Greg Bray: If there's somebody who wants to connect with you and reach out, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Don Bronchick: Oh, they could find me; I'm easily accessible on LinkedIn, very active. Or you could visit my website, builderbeastconsulting.com. Again, my name is Don Bronchik. You can find me on LinkedIn. Happy to connect. Very active with NAHB, the national level, and here at the Home Builders Association, Metro Denver. And I want to encourage everybody out there, if you are making your living in [00:36:00] residential new construction, support your local HBA. They do the heavy lifting for us.

Greg Bray: Well, thanks again, Don, and thank you, everybody, for listening today to the Builder Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. Thank you.

Don Bronchick: Kevin and Greg, I thank you both for the time. It's been a pleasure.