Summary
In this episode of Marketing Panes, window treatment experts Josh Tycksen (Best Blinds and Sexy Shutters, Arizona) and Vince Sturkie (Best Blinds and Shutters, Carolinas) shared their experiences from 2024 and insights for 2025. The discussion covered market trends, technological adaptations, and strategic business approaches in the window treatment industry.
Guests Profile:
Vince Sturkie
Started Best Blinds in 2001 after spending years in the mortgage banking industry. In 2001 I started and built Columbia SC’s largest window treatment store. After selling the Blind business I went back to mortgage banking by starting Hilton Head Mortgage in Hilton Head Island SC. But, I found myself right back in the window fashions industry when I started Best Blinds and Shutters in Greenville SC.in 2019. I now employ 2 of my 3 children along with my wife Sandra where we believe our greatest asset is that we are a local family owned business.
Josh Tycksen
Owner of Best Blinds and Sexy Shutters
With a background in professional ballroom dance, Josh Tycksen brings precision, artistry, and attention to detail to every window treatment project, making Best Blinds and Shutters a trusted name in Arizona home improvement.
Other Notes/Links:
Best Blinds and Sexy Shutters
pssst…. want to be a guest on the show?
Video
https://youtu.be/OlS7zhOGN5w
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Transcript
All right, hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Marketing Panes the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers and business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. Today, we are doing our Q4 review slash Q1 outlook for 2025 and excited to have two of the best window treatment dealers.
in the US on today and that’s a little bit of a play on words here. So we’ve got Josh Tixon, owner of Best Blinds and Sexy Shudders. Josh has a background in professional ballroom dancing. Josh brings precision, artistry and attention to detail to every window treatment project, making Best Blinds and Shudders a trusted name in the Arizona home improvement. And then we’ve got Vince Sturkey, owner of Best Blinds and Shudders.
Vince Sturkey owns Best Blinds and Shudders with a commitment to quality and trust, providing custom blind shades and shutters to homes across upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina. Guys, thanks so much for being on today.
Vince Sturkie (01:13)
Thanks Will.
Will Hanke (01:15)
Really appreciate you guys jumping on. So we’re going to get into a little bit of the Q4 and Q1 outlook kind of stuff. first, I have a personal question for each of you. Josh, I’m very intrigued by your journey from professional ballroom dancing to window treatments. How has that background and precision and artistry influenced your approach to the business?
Josh Tycksen (01:40)
It’s interesting. I’ve never really thought about it that way. I just grew up doing it because it was a good hobby. It a good way to meet chicks. My mom said I had to be in either some form of dance or art or music and I liked movement and I like music. I’m a very energetic person. I look like I’m always on about 10 Dr. Peppers, but I don’t really drink a lot of caffeine actually. I just have a lot of natural energy, but the benefits coming from it though are I had to work with a lot of different people in a very intimate
Josh Tycksen (02:09)
setting, know, where like partnering with somebody, your hands are right on each other, on each other’s back or whatever, and you’re very close and these boundaries are very different. And in learning how to work with, you know, so many different partners and people in those settings, I think it set me up for a lot more success working with the different kinds of people that I encounter on a daily basis in our appointments. And I can read a lot of body language. I don’t even think about it. I just can see it and other people might.
not notice those same things, you know, yeah. And, know, and it just, yeah, a lot of attention to detail, cause that’s all you do. You practice some things and he says, Hey, that’s wrong. Do it again. Hey, that’s wrong. Do it again. It’s just the art of perfection. You’re just chasing over and over. And, the presentation at the end is something with the wow factor you’re really going for, where if you’re putting on a show or a performance that people want to be excited about it, and that’s what gets people come into your shows. And so I tend to have a same.
flair for our things where I like to show up at the end of installs if I’m not already part of it. And I like to get them so jacked about the products that we’re putting up by the time they’re done that they really do appreciate things that they might not otherwise know about them and kind of go through a little bit of care and, you know, just tutorial with them where we get them all excited. Cause then by the end they’re, you know, they’re like, wow, wow. I had no idea. And, I think that takes them over the top where we can then ask them for those reviews and stuff, you know, really kind of kind of.
rolls a cycle that just helps you grow and helps you stay busy.
that’s a great strategy. I love the energy. I think that’s big piece, especially showing up at the end of the install and kind of hyping them up, right? That’s super cool.
Josh Tycksen (03:51)
Yeah,
I 100 % agree. Especially, mean, like our favorite thing to sell is automation because people want automation. A lot of people ask for it not having any idea what it costs. And they just are thinking about the wow factor part of it. So if you can get them over the price and have something that you know they can count on and love and then really go through and set it up for them, they get really excited about it. So it’s fun.
Very cool. So Vince, question for you too. We were talking before we started today about Josh’s business being called Sexy Shudders. And your comment was around the North Carolina, South Carolina area being a little more conservative. How does that play into your sales approach?
Vince Sturkie (04:34)
well you definitely got to you know check the room when you walk in every home here because you you know you could you know you don’t know so many people that are here came from somewhere else so you know when we’re here you know we we’re you know we’re country a lot of us are country boys from south carolina you know it’s more rural than it is urban and suburban here but you know we we’re we’re you know we walk in we see things you know you’re like okay what do i what hat do i need to wear today
when i’m dealing with these folks but you know people move here for a reason and you know generally they have something in common with the people that are already here and they want to be here with us and so we just kinda just it’s just business as usual really for every single home you know we just went through the election that was kind of political you know you had to you know be a little bit more balanced and careful because you never know what home you’re in
But at the end of the day, people are people. And they want to be helped with what they need. And they want you to treat them the way they want to be treated. And if you got all those bases covered, none of that’s going to matter. But it’s made for South Carolina to be a great place to do business right now.
Will Hanke (05:46)
Nice. Yeah. Like Josh said, you kind of got to read the room, right? And see what’s going on when you walk in.
Vince Sturkie (05:54)
Yes, absolutely. My installers can’t wear their Trump 24 hats on the job, right? I’m just like, keep it in the truck. But you know, we got a couple of different people here, so they’re all wearing different hats. But I just try to tell them that we’re here to love everybody, serve everybody, and everybody’s getting the same treatment with us.
Will Hanke (06:16)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Thank you. So let’s jump in and talk about Q4, how it’s been. And I think the big thing here is what is the biggest surprising shift that you guys have seen in customer preferences for window treatments?
Josh Tycksen (06:35)
Benz, you want to go first, you’re welcome to.
Vince Sturkie (06:36)
Yeah,
I think for us here in South Carolina, Will, you know, we’re also getting a lot more requests for motorization than we’ve ever gotten. So we’re hearing motorization more so. Because we have a lot of people here in the South that move from the North, you’ve got a lot of people still asking for Honeycomb Shades, which was real big in the Northeast. You know, whereas in the South, we didn’t do a lot of that product. So as people are migrating to us,
we’re seeing a shift toward more honeycombs than ever. Whereas back in 01 when I started, honeycombs were real big, now it’s roller shades, right? So, you know, we’re still seeing people come in asking for roller shades. I think the biggest shift now today in our industry from when I first got in it in 01 is the money flow. We’re having…
Back then the average ticket was less than two grand. Now we’re having people spend ten, fifteen thousand dollars like it’s two thousand dollars. And this is cash money, this isn’t borrowed money. So we’re seeing a shift toward higher tickets, we’re seeing a shift toward nicer products, and we’re seeing a shift in people being more easily letting go of the money. Which is really helpful in our business, especially when the margins start tightening.
Will Hanke (08:03)
Right. Yeah, Josh. I saw you nodding your head around the the motorization stuff. I know you actually mentioned The automation piece a little earlier. Is that the same thing you’re seeing?
Josh Tycksen (08:15)
Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to always open up our portfolio of what we’ll offer so that we’re current with the latest trends and what people are looking for. Our target market, like defining that really helped a lot. You know, after I got some business coaching a few years back, I want people in a new home. I want it to be their second or their third home. I’m not looking for a 25 to 30 year old in their first home where they could barely afford it. And they’re scraping by on what they can’t afford and instead getting somebody who’s 40 or older and they’ve got a, you
$750,000 home or more. And they’ve had an experience like this before. either put up their own window treatments or had a bad experience with somebody else, you know, or they may, once in a while, they may have not still put those in. But most of the time when that’s our target market, it’s a lot easier to, you know, work with people in what, I mean, price matters. I just don’t think it’s the most important thing. And that’s really hard when you’re going into quotes to get people off of that area and to really make sure that you can present the value.
and how the experience is going to go when they work with you, how your timeline is going to be kept, you know, and what they can expect from start to finish and after finish if there’s any problems going through those details, you know, as far as coming back to your question, being more specific to Q4, it’s so helpful to look at previous years to have that information, to see how many quotes we had from September into October into November into December, how many leads came in in those times, what those things were for and
Even being able to compare it to an election year and see the dip right before the election and then nine closed deals the day after Trump was elected. You know, okay, we’re good. got money. Okay, we’re good. You know, and the phone went off the hook and we closed nine deals the next day. You know, similar to what he said to, know, our average ticket going up, keeping track of that. mean, there’s our market here has a lot of new builds and I just kind of have moved my family to be closer to those because
Josh Tycksen (10:14)
I see people in new builds, they’re going to get it anyway. It’s a lot harder to quote somebody who thinks they want something because they saw an advertisement and they already have blinds in their house. So it’s not really a need. In a need situation, it’s a lot easier to the deal and you can present options.
Yeah, Q4 isn’t always a weird one in December. Right after the 15th up until the 31st, it’s just kind of weird. So just, up through the first 10 days of January, 15 days of January at least, and our trends have stayed the exact same. So it really helps me to be a lot more comfortable. Because I know you’ve seen me freak out on the marketing side where I’m saying, where’s my money going? How much would be allocated here and there? What are you focusing on? Why are we getting calls for this? It helps you calm down a little bit.
Josh Tycksen (10:59)
if you can look at those trends and see that they’re almost the exact same, you know, there’s very little variance.
Yeah, yeah, you mentioned the new builds. What percentage of your business typically is that? And has that increased over last couple of years?
Josh Tycksen (11:14)
Since I turned my focus to that, big time. I’d say for interior window treatments, I’d say it’s 90%. But we get, now that we’ve started doing patio shades where people get the patio shades or awnings, that’s not fair to say that that’s all with new builds. In fact, the patio shade demographic on the new builds is way lower because those people are already strapped for cash. They already just spent $100,000, $150,000 on the backyard and they already bought all this other stuff.
Josh Tycksen (11:43)
We have a series that we try to do with them where we connect to those guys a year later. They’ve moved in now, they’ve gone through a lot of that first year of living in a home and now they’re ready for phase two. Right around March, April, there’s a really good opportunity to capitalize on that when they’re getting their tax returns, to send out good information and follow up. You do it in an effort to offer your help and assistance. If they have any questions about the products they got, if they’re running into any issues, if they feel like they need any additional chargers for their shades.
You know, or if they want to get the home automation kit now since they chose not to, but then also offering, did you realize, you know, that maybe you’re short on other products? Did you want to cover some of those windows? didn’t. Do you need solar screens to block the sun out? Do you want patio shades to make an indoor outdoor room? So the new build percentage for interior treatment, that is very high percentage.
Will Hanke (12:34)
Yeah. Vince, are you guys seeing something similar in the Carolinas?
Vince Sturkie (12:38)
Absolutely. It’s huge. And having been through the mortgage crisis of 08 where people stopped building homes and stopped buying homes, I mean it’s strong enough business increase that you’d lose sleep over it if you thought about what happens if it stops because it would be noticeable. Yeah, we would miss that piece of the business because it’s like Josh said, they have to buy window treatments. They’re not going to live in a $7,000- $800,000 home.
with paper shades for long. So at the end of the day, they’re buyers. All they need to do is like you, like your stuff, like your price, and they’re ready to write you a check. So we count on that part of the business, and we count on you. That’s where our digital marketing guru comes in, because we count on you to help keep our name in front of those people. They’re the hardest group to find on the internet, because realtors are looking for new movers.
And so when you’re trying to compete with them for the new movers, you know, it gets a little dicey because there’s a lot of money being spent trying to get that person’s attention because everybody wants the guy buying or building the house.
Will Hanke (13:46)
Sure. Yeah.
Josh Tycksen (13:48)
I found a lot of the biggest success we have in that is the neighborhood Facebook groups. If you find a new neighborhood and there’s construction going up and you get a customer and you can get in, you can get them to not just give you a review, but post something on the neighborhood Facebook group. It is the biggest return on investment you’ll ever get. matter what you offer them, you get somebody, a troll, a little Facebook troll in their neighborhood group who wants to be social with everybody there to give you some good, some good cloud in there.
We’ve done whole streets of homes on both sides.
Vince Sturkie (14:18)
That’s exactly
right. We probably got 20 in one neighborhood and it’s all because one gal is on Facebook promoting us all the time and it just goes like one after the other at that point because nothing’s better than the neighbor deal.
Will Hanke (14:35)
Yeah, similar approach for Nextdoor. We rolled out Nextdoor ads three or four months ago now. Josh, I think you started doing some of that.
Josh Tycksen (14:44)
return on those is fantastic. Way better than get from Google, at least I think so. It’s kind of hard for me to see which is which, but I just wanted to change the focus of our next door ads because most of it was coming back with patio shades and those are very labor heavy install. So growth in a different direction to be preferred, but we’ll take it really good from next door too. think that’s a very untapped market.
Will Hanke (15:12)
It really is. So they just rolled out their new ad platform maybe three or four months ago. We started rolling ours out shortly after that, or the ability to do the ads on there. And 50 % of our clients have already called back and said, let’s do more budget there. So I definitely think it’s something worth paying attention to. like you guys say, it’s very similar to the Facebook groups for the individual subdivisions or parts of town, that kind of stuff.
So another question, you guys made it through 2024, congrats. This year has been a very high peak, low valley kind of thing. It seems like you’re either on fire, Josh nine leads in one day and then probably nothing for a week or so. You know, it’s really these ups and downs are crazy. Did you guys experience that same kind of thing? And if so, what was kind of one of the biggest lessons that you learned this year?
Vince Sturkie (16:13)
For me, know, Will, I switched over, you know, I came on board with you a year ago. You know, so my first quarter of the year was the transition quarter where, you know, you dip before you rip. And so we were in panic mode at the first part of the year. But then as time went on, it just got better and better and better and better. you know, my reps are coming in from Graber and Alta and Norman and Hunter. They’re saying we’re 20 % down.
Will Hanke (16:13)
Vince, let’s start with
Vince Sturkie (16:43)
You should be 20 % down. That’s kind of the industry across the board. We’re not closing out this year 20 % lower than last year. We’re going to be right on par to close out the same year with probably about 5 or 6 % more in profit off of the same gross sales. I think we’re actually, this is our best year since I got back at it five years ago. So it’s encouraging when you hear that sales are down and you’re not.
And you know that but that’s been the word on the street, but I think I Think all things all things pointed in the right direction I think 25s could be the best year that I’ve seen since I’ve back in it five years ago Unless something dramatically shifts or a black swan event in the economy. I think it’s going forward. I think it’s going to be fantastic I’m thankful for this year. I you know, I’m thankful that
You know, I had the confidence to switch marketing companies a year ago and get involved with somebody that I thought could keep me going. I think my switch is part of what has helped me not to decline this year when I know that some of the guys around me are off, have laid off a few people. The bigger houses, especially the 20 member crews, are down a little bit. The reps are telling me this.
You know, I’m pretty thankful where we are. I attribute a lot of that to, you know, to Winnitreatment Marketing Pros. And I’m pretty optimistic for 25.
Will Hanke (18:20)
Thank you for all the kind words. appreciate that. That’s really nice. Josh, what do you think over the last year?
Josh Tycksen (18:26)
Yeah, very similar. mean, 13 days left in the month, 14 if you count the 31st or Christmas, but we were on a blitz last year. Alta, custom brands group offers, they have their little sales benchmark you got to get to for their Blue Diamond Elite Club, the top of the top. And I was like $65,000 away in cost of good sales. And I just said, you know what? I think I could do it. I normally would invest maybe $3,000 a month in ad spend.
And we probably did 9, 9,400 that month instead, because I just said, I’m taking every single freaking thing I can get. I was almost giving stuff away so I could hit that benchmark because I saw it didn’t cost me as much. I’d get a $25,000 credit from CVG. I’d win an extra trip for my installer and his wife. You know, there were other benefits to it on top of the fact of just staying busy in a month that’s slow. So it was kind of annoying and it was during Christmas to get a lot that many calls and whatnot, but
Coming year over year and comparing them, we’re probably very similar to what Vince said where we’re going to finish around somewhere between five to 7 % higher in sales than we did a year ago. So we’ve already passed it. We’re five to 7 % ahead of it today. So I don’t have my everything floored right now in marketing where I’m adding onto it. the next two weeks, like I did a year ago either.
And our profit percentage is almost the same. It’s less than a tenth of a percent of different for gross profit on those deals and stuff. So it’s been a lot more consistent year. It’s been a lot easier this year than it was a year ago. Those first few years making a lot of adjustments and getting used to the way things flow. I would also go ahead and give you mad props. The window treatment marketing process has been a huge benefit to us in that area. There’s the struggles as a new business owner to feeling that
Spend where my first two years didn’t spend a dime. I bought four hundred four thousand postcards From like vista print and I would just go put them up in the new build neighborhoods If I wasn’t working around appointments I’d be putting them up and getting those out and plastering houses with those postcards and that was a great return For what I’d spend is the whole all those postcards cost me 400 bucks. I still have some That was the only money I spent and then somebody convinced me that I should work with you guys and have you do my website two years ago
Josh Tycksen (20:51)
And I was like, I don’t know, was like a thousand bucks or 1500 a month or something. I just could not stomach that. But I was like, I’ll give it a shot. Three to six months, you know, cause you guys told me you can’t, you cannot make your decision here in the first 90 days. You’ve got to wait 90 days, if not at least six months. said, okay, it kept getting better. So then I was like, great, what if we put money into it? It kept getting better. And then it’s just figuring out how to even that out and realizing that if I track my numbers, there’s trends, whether I pay for marketing or not.
There’s trends of when it goes up and when it goes down. There’s holidays and school starting and stopping. There’s elections and all these other weird things. So yeah, like he said, black swan events and stuff, something totally out of the ordinary could dramatically impact how 2025 goes. But I think I’m getting a little bit more business mature in being able to handle the ups and downs and just telling my people, don’t worry about it. You’re still paid this week. Just go get some projects done at home. it’s, but when I call you, I’m going to need you.
because it’s going to get crazy, you know, coming up in the next few weeks or based on the last four years, April’s going to be freaking nuts, you know, so.
I remember what the question was anymore.
Will Hanke (21:59)
That was really the biggest valuable lesson that you got this year.
Josh Tycksen (22:04)
yeah, just having those numbers, having a history to track off of has really helped me to relax and sleep a little better and be a lot more cool. Or you’ll see my emails coming in far less than they used to with how much I was freaking out about everything and every dollar spent and realizing that some things take time to kind of see how they’re going to work. And there will be some dips and some peaks, but there’s not one answer for everything.
yeah. Thank you again for the kind comments. So outside of marketing decision that you made, what was the other best decision you made over the course of the last year that really helped your business grow? Josh?
Josh Tycksen (22:50)
Opening up our portfolio. We would maybe do one patio shade a month. I wouldn’t focus on it. I put marketing money into it this year and that’s really helped us even out. Even if it’s just keeping my people busy because those installs are very labor heavy. It takes two people, two hours if everything goes perfect to put one of those up.
That’s one shade, you know, for four or 5,000 bucks, if you’re running around a 50 % margin. And it’s just really labor heavy compared to like, if I send my guy yesterday, he was on a $12,000 job to put up 33 rollers and did it in four hours. know, but bringing that on and diversifying and adding that gave us a whole market we already had where we could reach out to all of our customers.
And we just did it personally instead of with email campaign campaigns. I just kind of went through and I could already check people off the list who I didn’t have that in their backyard or their space. They didn’t have room for it. Or I could just tell us like, that’s a long shot, you know, but adding that having another thing that we could call them and sell when we’ve already built a good rapport with them. That was a good one for us this year. Our repeat customers this year, and this is our fourth year in business, but our repeat customers this year was a
big percentage. wasn’t like 2%, 5%. It was like 16 % of our customers this year are repeats. That was insane. And I’m trying to figure a lot of them, it was into new homes, but a lot of them, was adding more, you know? And then, I don’t know, it’s not really repeat, but referrals still from those same loyal customers has been a good percentage of that base too.
Yeah, it’s interesting you mentioned the exterior stuff. I’ve said this on some other videos. I think two years ago, we might have had 5 % of our clients that offered exterior, 5 % of our window treatment clients that offered exterior. And now that’s probably 32, 33 % of our clients are offering exterior. Vince, are you guys doing any exterior stuff or thinking about it?
Vince Sturkie (24:55)
we are thinking about it we you know i refer that out i got a big company a twenty member team right next door to me almost i’m friends with the owner i send him all the bahama shutters i send him all the exterior track system type shades for porches and stuff they do all that stuff and they’re good at it they’re pretty they’re very pricey so i have to warn the customers that you’re you’re they’re not friendly vince with the money they’re gonna you’re gonna see tickets like you’ve never seen before when they get there but
you know, I have to kind of preset it, but, I refer that out now. We’re going to add some product next year. We’re just not sure exactly which one to grab hold to and learn. you know, but we do, we do believe we can grow with product adding product next year that we’re not doing now. I think the biggest thing this past year though, will that’s helped us is I decided at the first of the year to own Google to post open every Saturday from nine to 12, not all day.
because what I did in a quick Google search is realized in my market nobody is open on Saturday. And so I would come down to the office, I was already coming to the office, hanging around the warehouse, cleaning my truck, doing something anyway. So what I’m doing is I’m spending a few hours at the office on Saturday mornings. I’m catching leads by people who go on Google and they say, hey, we need to schedule an appointment to get some shutters for our new home.
They’re only off on Saturday. They take care of those types of things on Saturday. Being open on Saturday has been a competitive advantage that I think probably all total has gotten me 50 or 60 new leads this past year that, you know, I believe at a 70, 80 % close ratio on an in-home appointment, think it really made a big difference for us. And then the second thing that helped me this year is the Norman rep.
told me if I’m standing in front of a sliding glass door to pitch the Smart Drape over something lesser expensive, like a vertical. And I started pitching that thing and nobody knows what it is. They’ve never seen it. Norman’s the most invisible company out there. And I started pitching the Smart Drape, sold one yesterday. It’s a product that if anybody’s ever bought a Luminette, you can triple margin that product. You can
You can get good money on that type of product. So there’s little things like that that I just stay disciplined to do that I’ve seen. You know, I’m probably the worst up seller in the world. I’m a down seller probably more than an up seller. It’s just the way I’m built. But people resonate toward my crazy nature of sales where I try to talk people into spending less because it’s better. It’s just not my style to upsell. So I try to stay middle of the road.
Vince Sturkie (27:50)
Those are the little things I did this year that I think made a difference.
Will Hanke (27:54)
That’s really interesting. The three or four hours on a Saturday has really profited you, I guess, at the end of the day just by doing something you were all kind of already doing anyway.
Vince Sturkie (28:03)
Yeah, I was gonna be here either way.
Will Hanke (28:05)
Yeah, I love that. That’s fantastic. So thank you guys for sharing that. I wanted to talk real quick about regional differences. So Vince, you’re in the Carolinas and you did mention earlier that you’re doing some specific products. Is there anything that you see more than you have in the past or things that are surprisingly similar to other parts of the country?
Vince Sturkie (28:32)
For us here, most of these new builds that we’re working on, which is big percentage of our business, those buyers are not local buyers. Most of those are coming from somewhere else because Greenville’s in the top 25 places to move to according to the National Association of Realtors. And those people that are coming are coming for the warmer temperatures and lower cost of living. A lot of them have white hair. They’re more like me than they are like Josh. And you know…
They’re coming and they’re wanting things that they bought in the past which are plantation shutters. That’s a biggie for an older mature seasoned buyer. He’s probably had shutters before. He’s gonna wanna buy those. We’re seeing more requests for folks in the shutters than we do having folks call for shades. Now if we get somebody moving up out of Florida, moving halfway back to the northeast,
They might be talking shades, but a lot of them are also going to be talking shutters because they’re coming out of a heavy shutter market in South Florida. you know, shutters have been big for us this year. Probably more growth in shutters than anything. Shades, I thought, would be our biggest, you know, it just seems like shutters seems to still be ruling, you know, unless we can just turn them. I don’t like taking away.
If somebody calls for shutters, I want to stay on the course and give them what they called for. Because sometimes you can try to do a takeaway for an easier install and quicker turnaround on that client. But at the end of the day, I like to leave people with where their heart sits. And if they say shutters, it’s the greatest product I’ve ever sold, so I say love it.
Will Hanke (30:12)
Right. Yeah, totally makes sense. Josh, I know you’re in Arizona in a pretty hot part of the country. Is there anything that’s on fire in your area?
Josh Tycksen (30:23)
There’s some seasonal trends I’ve noticed. Solar screens, there are these outside products, they’re not a high profit margin thing for us, but I found a company who goes out, measures them, builds them, brings them out and installs them. And so I can just sell, I mean, I’ve almost got my assistant completely taking over that division because she can do quotes and everything with just pictures and not have to go to their house at all. And so she feels incentivized.
Again, adding new products. Norman has the Smart Drape, like he said, and you know, when they flew us up there to VIP and, you know, treat us all special and takes over, you know, will the simple with Norman takes you over to their little shop there. That’s not like a, it feels like a storefront, but it’s actually for them to bring in reps and really train you on their products. And when they did that and showed us the, you know, the, the Smart Drape, that’s been a good ad for us. it’s not cranking yet in terms of, just.
where we go to for covering our sliding doors and stuff yet, but it’s another option that we get to provide now instead of just roller shades or honeycomb and nobody really likes to do vertical blinds. Same with Norman has this special blackout where they have sidetracks and it’s called 360 blackout. And that is insane. Where we’ll get calls to black out a master bedroom or a baby’s bedroom or just different places in a home.
You know, we just say add X to any window if you want complete blackout. And sometimes people go nuts for that. So it’s, kind of a differentiator that you can have where other people say blackout. So when people say, Hey, we need blackout. And I have to stop them. Hey, hold on. What do you mean blackout? Cause there’s room darkening is kind of the industry term that’s being referred to now where there’s blackout where you’re thinking there’s no light in the room. What are you asking about? And sometimes, no, we’re good. Just a darker room. And some people know I can’t have any light.
Josh Tycksen (32:18)
where it’s good that you clarified or they might have thought that a regular blackout shade would actually black out their room.
Will Hanke (32:25)
Interesting. So speaking of regional different things. I wanted to ask you guys about your local networks I think somebody mentioned realtors earlier on. How are you guys building out those local referral networks? Josh will go to you
Josh Tycksen (32:41)
I’m a member of BNI, Business Networking International. I just got back from that meeting. It’s every Tuesday morning at eight o’clock for a couple hours. There’s 50 other people in there that are specific to their own trades that they do. so I have 50 other people out there who are committed to, you know, making sure I get referred if they know anybody else looking for window treatments. You know, and we’re all in that ballpark for each other, you know, that I’ve got, I know somebody who does this or does that. And so I’ve got
a referral list as well that I modified my quote where when they, I print it out, I’ll show up at a home, I’ll do my stuff. And then I just say, if I have 10 or 15 minutes, I can print this for you right now. And they always say, great, that’d be awesome. So I just do it real quick on the computer. And when I print it, it flips the page over now on the backside says, what else are you looking for? Here’s some trusted people we’ve worked with that do flooring, roofing, landscaping, other home services trades. And it was mostly a benefit to them.
when we started doing that, it’s circled around now we’ve been doing it long enough where they’re always pushing for us now because, you know, if we have 45 leads or 35 closed deals in a month, that I would bet 20 to 25 % of them are flipping that over and calling some of those people.
Will Hanke (33:58)
That’s great. I think anytime you can be a resource for people, you still look good in their eyes, even if you just referred them to somebody that can do it better. You still got a little check mark in their mind, right? So that’s always helpful. Vince, how about you?
Vince Sturkie (34:10)
Mm-hmm.
know B &I is great. I actually founded a B &I years ago when I was in mortgage banking. I have preached B &I for years. There’s five chapters in my town. There’s no window treatment slots available or I’d be in one. They stay pretty booked up with a window treatment consultant in them. So it’s kind of got me out of it for the moment. But I will wind up back in a B &I when my turn comes up. For me,
I use networking, if I’m in a neighborhood and there’s a model home at the entrance, I’m not leaving turning out of that neighborhood without stopping and walking in and telling that attendant of that model home, hey, I’m working in a house in here. If anyone buying a hall mask, we’d love to help them with their window treatments. I just try to use the boots on the ground stuff that’s easy, hitting those model homes, hitting those real estate agents when they meet you at the house to unlock the door to let you in to measure.
for the out of town client, know, try to use that as a chance to introduce myself in what we do. And it is making a difference. Well, I get referrals from builders and realtors I’ve never even heard of. These people need to refer people and they’ll refer people they don’t even know if they don’t know someone and they’re asked for a referral. I’ve done it. So, you know,
Vince Sturkie (35:40)
It definitely makes a difference to get your card in front of those people and try to keep it there because they will refer people. They need to because people don’t know people.
Will Hanke (35:51)
Yeah, referral traffic obviously always a little bit warmer as well, right? A little easier to close. So that definitely helps having those relationships and building those relationships as time goes on.
Vince Sturkie (36:03)
right.
Will Hanke (36:05)
So I wanted to ask quick about technology. So I know that technology is always changing from the smart home side, the motorization side, but even from just the running a business side. So how are you guys leveraging different digital tools in your networking and in your client relationships?
Josh Tycksen (36:25)
Vince, you’re probably going to take the cake on this. I used to run restaurants. had several restaurants I was in charge of down here in Arizona. That’s why I moved here. And I got so sick of every employee that was under me. All their problems started to become my problems that I got really sick of big, big crews and big staffs and lots of people. So when I switched to this, I was myself and I loved it for so long because I had total control of my schedule. And then it got, you know,
naturally got kind of worn out. I brought on some help to at least do the installs. And I’ve gone through where I’ve brought on a little more, where I’ve trimmed down to a little bit less, but you sound like you’ve got a full on store and several people and a couple of different trucks doing installs and know, three, four different people doing your sales where I systems are a hundred percent mandatory for you to function right without all those hiccups. You know, I’m still very caveman on a lot of that stuff. Cause I find is I’ve
This is where I need the most work. There’s so much opportunity for me here, but I get annoyed with the delay. Most of those systems, if I bring in some sort of a ordering portal system that maybe makes it simpler to work between all of my team and the customer and the payment systems and whatever in the schedule, it adds two weeks onto our install time, it seems like, because those orders just take forever to submit or whatever. I haven’t found solutions that I’ve been patient with.
never get it that i think too much into productive word sometimes get that done on sitting here
Vince Sturkie (37:55)
Well, I get it because you can probably do more with your cell phone than I can with a $50,000 processor sitting in front of me. I am a little more old school. So the technology that people are able to, things they can do on their phones, I can’t even do them. But the one thing that has helped me is we have our quoting software, so that gets us into the digital agent quoting.
We have Blanco and we have Will with Lead Boomerang, is really, to me, I know that we’re capturing more leads because of Lead Boomerang than we were when we were simply answering the phone or getting a web form submitted, which was what we were before the days of Winda Treatment Marketing Pro. So I think technology-wise there, I think those things have been huge for us.
Josh Tycksen (38:25)
Which software do you guys use? OK.
Vince Sturkie (38:55)
I have a lot of room to grow in this. I don’t trust things. I mean, I test my phone number almost daily. I go online and I pull the numbers we’re using for tracking. I’m calling them because I’m scared they’re not working, especially on the days I don’t get any calls. I’m like, okay, what’s wrong with the phone number? And sometimes, believe it not, I found the numbers not working because something’s unplugged.
But at the end of the day, I would say, I confess, I probably have a very weak link in technology, in what I could be doing versus what I am doing. I’m always, I mean, I talk to people who call here wanting to sell us things to help us, just because I’m hopeful they might have a good idea that I need. When all they really want to do is take window treatment marketing pros away and start doing it for me. I’m like, no.
Will will tell you, it takes me years to trust somebody. I talked to Will Hank you five years ago and it took me four to get on board. So I roll a little too slow some days.
Josh Tycksen (40:03)
I mean, there’s still, yeah, so it sounds like we’re feeling the same there. I’ve worked with my blind co, they’re just, I don’t remember what it was that frustrated me. And I think it was just the delays if you submit through the portal and waiting. And I tell my customers 95 % of our orders this year, this is an accurate number, 95 % of our orders this year have been installed in 30 days or less. We’re averaging 23 days right now from sale to install. And that’s really a powerful tool or a really powerful sales, you know.
point to make that people appreciate when they’re moving into a new home and they’re want you installing the day after they close or they just moved in and now they’re feeling vulnerable or whatever. But even if it’s as simple as just having very organized photos on your phones, you can flip open and go to whatever type of product they’re looking for to be able to show them an example real quick. This is a stupid example. I use it often, but in the iPhone, they have a thing called predictive text. I think if you go to general and then keyboard,
They have these text replacement phrases. I have thousands where if I type, you know, there’s a built-in one, it’s OMW becomes on my way. Well, I’ve built it in now where I have videos. If you want to know about an automated shade, I can go AR1, AR2, AR3, whatever I type in pulls up a different YouTube link and sends it to them so they can see a video demo of that. And so when somebody says, what’s, we don’t really know what’s trending in homes right now. We’re kind of open to it. I have one trend one and it sends them a video of
what we’re seeing lately, you know, and then there’s, I mean, I don’t even know how to go off on that, that I have thousands of those terms in my phone and I’m used to it where GM becomes good morning or I have, you know, I mean, a whole, the things you type over and over, you get sick of typing to people, your address, your email, your whatever, all of them are three digit short codes for me that somehow I have memorized and I just, I don’t want to type that anymore. As soon as I ever feel that I don’t want to type that anymore. I go in and type it up in there.
Will Hanke (41:40)
That’s fantastic.
Josh Tycksen (42:02)
And that way I can just remember whatever three letters it was to send out to somebody. And that’s really sped up communication and simplified things for them. Cause then they get a video that explains all the things they’re probably going to start asking me. know, so there’s, there are advantages to a lot of the technology that we use. This is a perfect example. You’re doing a podcast. If other people are tuned in and watching, they could be finding solutions as we chat, you know, so there’s
Vince Sturkie (42:15)
Mm-hmm.
that. I love the shortcut.
Josh Tycksen (42:29)
I’m not very good with
the systems part, bringing all those systems in to help me, but yeah, that’s a little technology thing I like to use that I think helps.
That’s awesome. Well, I thank you guys for being on. As we kind of switch, I do want to continue to talk a little bit about technology, but I want to get into 2025. What are some of the emerging technologies that you guys are starting to come across or that you’ve seen and you can’t wait to kind of get your hands on? Vince?
Vince Sturkie (42:57)
gee, I don’t know of anything. mean, maybe I’m out of touch. But I think that one of the things I’m not using that I know exist is being able to put the customer’s windows on my iPad and then dress their windows within the software that the vendors are providing us. Dress their windows with a specific treatment so they can see that roller shade in their window in their home.
That exists with a couple of people that we’re dealing with. I’m not currently using that, but I’m hearing good feedback that a customer actually told me they showed me a picture of my window with the treatment in it. And I’m like, wow, I’d heard about this from Graber. And they showed me how the app worked, where we could do it. I just have not embraced that technology yet. I see where that could be a big plus.
Especially when you’re standing in front of that customer and most of them aren’t like this, but they’re looking all off into space, they’re lost as a goose, they don’t know what to do, and you’re trying to reel them down to a decision on what direction to go with the product. And they’re just not, you’re talking roller shades, honeycomb, sheer shades, you’re talking about a lot of different things, they don’t know what’s going on, you gotta get it in front of them, they gotta be able to see it.
I’ve got it all loaded on my iPad as far as the products, but I think the show and tell or show and sale really works in our business. I had a lady jump out of her skin yesterday on the Smart Drape and I just flipped my iPad around, showed her what it looked like, the video that Norman puts out. She was ready to pick the fabric. before she saw the product, she didn’t have any idea what it cost. So I think…
That technology is the piece that I would definitely want to try to add in next year. You know, now that this, you know, that’s something I believe will help us.
Will Hanke (44:57)
Yeah, yeah, I would say from a marketing website standpoint, our clients always have high traffic on their gallery related pages. On any of the pages that have pictures and videos, people just want to kind of envision what their home could potentially look like. So it makes total sense that that tool where you can actually take a picture of theirs and show it to them, that’s pretty amazing. That’s awesome. Josh, what are you looking forward to in 2025?
Vince Sturkie (45:14)
Mm-hmm.
Josh Tycksen (45:27)
Yeah, I mean, I’ve heard kind of what he’s talking about over there. I don’t have a lot of that. You know, I mostly sell from two brands right now. I mean, I’ve got, there’s more than that, but it feels like the more brands I open up to, harder it becomes to teach this to other people. You know, just, so I don’t know. I do want to offer anyway, that’s, that’s drifting, but, I like how you said show and sale. I think that’s a really good example. We get people off and they go, okay, cool. That video you just showed me. Do you have that with this fabric? Like, no.
It’s hard enough to organize an automated version of that product, let alone with this valance and that color. You know, there’s a competitor out here, another vendor we compete against or share the value with, and they have a thing where on their website you can build your shutter. That seems simple enough to me, just color, size of louvers, frame and control. But it seems like it’s an impossible thing to get, you know, that they seem to be the only one I know that can do that. Nobody cares to even
venture to figure out how to help me get that widget that somebody could just click on and click on this option, this option, and this option to see the color, the frame style, the size of the louvers, and whether it’s got a tilt rod or not, what it looks like. People see that and they go, yes, that’s what I my shirt to look like. And they could be convinced at that point. And that’s enough. As long as you show up and you don’t offend them or they’re not blown out by the price, they’re going to close. know, that kind of technology I think will continue to develop and be easier.
and more integrated into our processes. I’m excited to see who figures out making things easier for us in that realm. I’ve just started, somebody convinced me, I felt like an old fool to start using ChatGPT and I’ve got it now as like one of the key apps. Like all my apps are in folders. Every app on my phone is on one page except for ChatGPT by itself on the next page with my Bitcoin widget. But ChatGPT now has become something on the daily where
Josh Tycksen (47:24)
I’m stopping myself from responding to people and a customer might ask me a question or somebody sent me a text this morning and said, I got my other quote, they’re about $1,200 less than you. I really liked all your stuff, but I’m having a hard time deciding why I should work with you instead of them. And I asked chat GP, I put that text into chat GPT and asked them for a response and I sent it to them and they’re like, you’re right. Okay, let’s go. And I thought that was amazing.
You know, I go to BNI now and I don’t even write my own commercial anymore. say, write me a 15 second limerick that’s funny, that has to do with Christmas and my business. And it knows my stuff and it wrote a limerick, you know, about, I don’t know what it was, but everyone loved it. I got best commercial today. You know, it’s so silly, you know? So yeah, there’s stuff out there that like he says, you know, he’s excited about people calling him, offering him things to help with.
Josh Tycksen (48:20)
I dodge those calls quite a bit, but I do actively look for things I’m looking for. And I think that we need to not be closed off to that because some things are going to simplify and free up our time, which the older we get, we realize more and more is our most valuable asset. Now I’m excited to see what kind of stuff pops out here too and start implementing more of this, figure out how I can implement some of that artificial intelligence because I just, I’m like,
I’m asking it now how to respond to my wife when she sends me a text. And I’m like, it sounds so stupid. And it’s immediate. And I’m like, all right, I almost have a paid for subscription. Not yet. I’m sure I’ll be there.
Will Hanke (48:50)
Ha ha ha!
Vince Sturkie (48:51)
yeah.
Will Hanke (48:54)
That’s awesome.
I love it. That’s fantastic. ChatGPT is great. AI in general, I think, is going to dominate this year. We’re actually testing some AI booking bots right now for some clients and things like that that want to save time on just taking those initial calls. some of
Josh Tycksen (49:19)
Well, see, and I’ve tried
that with a call service and they tell us and I tried it, but then I would listen to those calls and these guys were getting so frustrated. That was like, I’m losing these appointments because this person can’t just answer that. You know, I just said, simplify, just set the appointment. But then it was a bunch of appointments with stuff. It’s like, okay, we didn’t need an appointment for that. You know, and screening it kind of still had to go through. But I think that will develop and be faster. But you could hear on the calls, they’d be waiting.
And then getting a response and I was like, that was too long for me. I can’t handle that. I’d be going crazy if I was a customer. I would not feel important. I would feel thrown into a system. So I don’t know. There’s a balance that I think will eventually even out to be to our advantage, but a lot of it I haven’t seen there yet. Doesn’t mean somebody else doesn’t figure it out. I guarantee there’s not only one person out there trying to figure out this answering service for us that will work for a window treatment industry, but.
Yeah, I would agree. think the timing.
Josh Tycksen (50:18)
All the people I’m seeing it do that referred me to it from HVAC, doesn’t seem to cut it yet.
Will Hanke (50:25)
Yeah, I definitely think AI is gonna be a big part of the coming year. All right, one more thing, as we close out, I really appreciate all you guys taking the time really to share everything about your business and some things for 2025. Josh, if there was one thing that you could tell another window treatment business, specifically about 2025, what would you say to them? What would you recommend that be their approach?
Josh Tycksen (50:56)
I I would assume the more I go to networking meetings and coaching and the more I subscribe to that as I get older, realizing that there’s a network of people there with answers to the same questions I have just in a different industry. I wouldn’t be afraid to invest in yourself or your business. would, you know, that was what slowed me down. I mean, I was learning. So it was good that I didn’t do too much that first year. would have bitten off more than I could have chewed and I would have done bad jobs. But
you know, establish your values and stick to them and make guide your decisions with those. You know, we’ll go over our core values as a business each day, whether it’s me and two people or me and seven people, where we go through those so that people don’t, they stop calling me or texting me on how to solve a problem. And I say, cause my answer comes back, I’ll respond with one of those core values. I’m looking at them right now, or I’ll just send them the list and say, how do you apply this? And later we might talk about it. So I can say, cool. That was a good solution.
We probably could have been more cost effective or more time effective in this regard. So you’ll learn if that ever happens again, this is how you’d apply that. But you stuck with our values. So they’re still going to love us and we’re still going to get five stars, right? And that kind of stuff. So I think having those values defined as a business, not where it’s like, here’s our core values and they’re printed somewhere and nobody could recite them, but like we read them every day. And that was a coaching aspect that we got that I from the coaching group that I was submitted to subscribed with. And that makes a big difference.
I really do believe in that.
Will Hanke (52:26)
I think I mentioned to you earlier, think hiring a business coach was one of the best things I could have ever done. Just having that other set of eyes, right? Helping you see your business from a different standpoint. thanks for sharing that. Vince, what about you? And what do you think would be a good thing to tell a window treatment company for the coming year?
Vince Sturkie (52:48)
Well I wouldn’t want to tell the guys down the street this a block away but nationally, first thing I would tell them is to fall in love with what you do if you don’t already love it. Because you need to walk into every home glad you’re there, loving that person, loving the opportunity to help them. If you don’t have that, you better get it. Because you’re gonna hate this business next year if you don’t. Because it’s hard…
Vince Sturkie (53:15)
Walking into a home is the hardest thing a person can do. They don’t know these people. You’ve got to develop a friendship. You’ve got to come across as an expert to them, be helpful. And if you don’t love what you do, you better fall in love with it. After that, you better find marketing people that you can trust because this business is not going to work without marketing. You better have a marketing guy behind you that you trust. It’s going to take care of you.
Josh Tycksen (53:35)
Bingo!
Vince Sturkie (53:45)
that you’re gonna invest your money with and then don’t be afraid to spend your money because I mean, customers get customers. If you have to pay to get customers, in a perfect world, they’d all be referrals, they’d already know who you are, they’d have a 95 % close rate, but we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a transitory deal where we got people coming from all over, they don’t know who we are.
So we’ve got to find a way to reach them. We’re going to reach them through digital marketing. So I would say don’t be afraid to get out there in the digital marketing world. Take that risk to develop that relationship. know, Josh and I were texting a while back and you know, you know, we’re always frustrated with different things and different parts of our businesses. But the one thing is when you have somebody you trust, you wrap your arms around them and you go with them because that’s a difficult.
That’s a difficult thing to establish in marketing. Whether it be any type of marketing, but primarily being digital. So I’d say fall in love with what you do. Find a digital marketing company you trust. Grab a hold to them and then stay in the know on what you’re doing and don’t stop because this is a working business. This is not a sit at home and make money business. You’ve got to be in the truck, on the road, on the phone. You’ve got to be either talking to customers, talking to installers. You’ve got to be working.
So if you don’t want to work next year, get away from this. Because this is an earn your money business, but it’s a great business to be in if you’re willing to work.
That’s great. Vince, Josh, thank you. Thank you for the commercial. But thank you guys for your time and sharing your unique perspectives and experiences. I really do appreciate you guys taking the time to do this. If you enjoyed this episode of Marketing Pains, please consider subscribing. And we’ll have more episodes. We put one out every other Tuesday. And it’s always interviews, whether it’s other dealers or vendors, a lot of different people that we’re trying to.
get in front of you to give you more value. We appreciate your time. So please consider subscribing. Josh, Vince, one last time. Thank you guys so much for jumping on today. I appreciate it.
Vince Sturkie (55:59)
You bet, thanks Will.
Josh Tycksen (56:01)
My pleasure, thanks.
Will Hanke (56:03)
Thanks everyone, we’ll see you in the next episode.
Transcript
All right, hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Marketing Panes the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers and business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. Today, we are doing our Q4 review slash Q1 outlook for 2025 and excited to have two of the best window treatment dealers.
in the US on today and that’s a little bit of a play on words here. So we’ve got Josh Tixon, owner of Best Blinds and Sexy Shudders. Josh has a background in professional ballroom dancing. Josh brings precision, artistry and attention to detail to every window treatment project, making Best Blinds and Shudders a trusted name in the Arizona home improvement. And then we’ve got Vince Sturkey, owner of Best Blinds and Shudders.
Vince Sturkey owns Best Blinds and Shudders with a commitment to quality and trust, providing custom blind shades and shutters to homes across upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina. Guys, thanks so much for being on today.
Vince Sturkie (01:13)
Thanks Will.
Will Hanke (01:15)
Really appreciate you guys jumping on. So we’re going to get into a little bit of the Q4 and Q1 outlook kind of stuff. first, I have a personal question for each of you. Josh, I’m very intrigued by your journey from professional ballroom dancing to window treatments. How has that background and precision and artistry influenced your approach to the business?
Josh Tycksen (01:40)
It’s interesting. I’ve never really thought about it that way. I just grew up doing it because it was a good hobby. It a good way to meet chicks. My mom said I had to be in either some form of dance or art or music and I liked movement and I like music. I’m a very energetic person. I look like I’m always on about 10 Dr. Peppers, but I don’t really drink a lot of caffeine actually. I just have a lot of natural energy, but the benefits coming from it though are I had to work with a lot of different people in a very intimate
Josh Tycksen (02:09)
setting, know, where like partnering with somebody, your hands are right on each other, on each other’s back or whatever, and you’re very close and these boundaries are very different. And in learning how to work with, you know, so many different partners and people in those settings, I think it set me up for a lot more success working with the different kinds of people that I encounter on a daily basis in our appointments. And I can read a lot of body language. I don’t even think about it. I just can see it and other people might.
not notice those same things, you know, yeah. And, know, and it just, yeah, a lot of attention to detail, cause that’s all you do. You practice some things and he says, Hey, that’s wrong. Do it again. Hey, that’s wrong. Do it again. It’s just the art of perfection. You’re just chasing over and over. And, the presentation at the end is something with the wow factor you’re really going for, where if you’re putting on a show or a performance that people want to be excited about it, and that’s what gets people come into your shows. And so I tend to have a same.
flair for our things where I like to show up at the end of installs if I’m not already part of it. And I like to get them so jacked about the products that we’re putting up by the time they’re done that they really do appreciate things that they might not otherwise know about them and kind of go through a little bit of care and, you know, just tutorial with them where we get them all excited. Cause then by the end they’re, you know, they’re like, wow, wow. I had no idea. And, I think that takes them over the top where we can then ask them for those reviews and stuff, you know, really kind of kind of.
rolls a cycle that just helps you grow and helps you stay busy.
that’s a great strategy. I love the energy. I think that’s big piece, especially showing up at the end of the install and kind of hyping them up, right? That’s super cool.
Josh Tycksen (03:51)
Yeah,
I 100 % agree. Especially, mean, like our favorite thing to sell is automation because people want automation. A lot of people ask for it not having any idea what it costs. And they just are thinking about the wow factor part of it. So if you can get them over the price and have something that you know they can count on and love and then really go through and set it up for them, they get really excited about it. So it’s fun.
Very cool. So Vince, question for you too. We were talking before we started today about Josh’s business being called Sexy Shudders. And your comment was around the North Carolina, South Carolina area being a little more conservative. How does that play into your sales approach?
Vince Sturkie (04:34)
well you definitely got to you know check the room when you walk in every home here because you you know you could you know you don’t know so many people that are here came from somewhere else so you know when we’re here you know we we’re you know we’re country a lot of us are country boys from south carolina you know it’s more rural than it is urban and suburban here but you know we we’re we’re you know we walk in we see things you know you’re like okay what do i what hat do i need to wear today
when i’m dealing with these folks but you know people move here for a reason and you know generally they have something in common with the people that are already here and they want to be here with us and so we just kinda just it’s just business as usual really for every single home you know we just went through the election that was kind of political you know you had to you know be a little bit more balanced and careful because you never know what home you’re in
But at the end of the day, people are people. And they want to be helped with what they need. And they want you to treat them the way they want to be treated. And if you got all those bases covered, none of that’s going to matter. But it’s made for South Carolina to be a great place to do business right now.
Will Hanke (05:46)
Nice. Yeah. Like Josh said, you kind of got to read the room, right? And see what’s going on when you walk in.
Vince Sturkie (05:54)
Yes, absolutely. My installers can’t wear their Trump 24 hats on the job, right? I’m just like, keep it in the truck. But you know, we got a couple of different people here, so they’re all wearing different hats. But I just try to tell them that we’re here to love everybody, serve everybody, and everybody’s getting the same treatment with us.
Will Hanke (06:16)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Thank you. So let’s jump in and talk about Q4, how it’s been. And I think the big thing here is what is the biggest surprising shift that you guys have seen in customer preferences for window treatments?
Josh Tycksen (06:35)
Benz, you want to go first, you’re welcome to.
Vince Sturkie (06:36)
Yeah,
I think for us here in South Carolina, Will, you know, we’re also getting a lot more requests for motorization than we’ve ever gotten. So we’re hearing motorization more so. Because we have a lot of people here in the South that move from the North, you’ve got a lot of people still asking for Honeycomb Shades, which was real big in the Northeast. You know, whereas in the South, we didn’t do a lot of that product. So as people are migrating to us,
we’re seeing a shift toward more honeycombs than ever. Whereas back in 01 when I started, honeycombs were real big, now it’s roller shades, right? So, you know, we’re still seeing people come in asking for roller shades. I think the biggest shift now today in our industry from when I first got in it in 01 is the money flow. We’re having…
Back then the average ticket was less than two grand. Now we’re having people spend ten, fifteen thousand dollars like it’s two thousand dollars. And this is cash money, this isn’t borrowed money. So we’re seeing a shift toward higher tickets, we’re seeing a shift toward nicer products, and we’re seeing a shift in people being more easily letting go of the money. Which is really helpful in our business, especially when the margins start tightening.
Will Hanke (08:03)
Right. Yeah, Josh. I saw you nodding your head around the the motorization stuff. I know you actually mentioned The automation piece a little earlier. Is that the same thing you’re seeing?
Josh Tycksen (08:15)
Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to always open up our portfolio of what we’ll offer so that we’re current with the latest trends and what people are looking for. Our target market, like defining that really helped a lot. You know, after I got some business coaching a few years back, I want people in a new home. I want it to be their second or their third home. I’m not looking for a 25 to 30 year old in their first home where they could barely afford it. And they’re scraping by on what they can’t afford and instead getting somebody who’s 40 or older and they’ve got a, you
$750,000 home or more. And they’ve had an experience like this before. either put up their own window treatments or had a bad experience with somebody else, you know, or they may, once in a while, they may have not still put those in. But most of the time when that’s our target market, it’s a lot easier to, you know, work with people in what, I mean, price matters. I just don’t think it’s the most important thing. And that’s really hard when you’re going into quotes to get people off of that area and to really make sure that you can present the value.
and how the experience is going to go when they work with you, how your timeline is going to be kept, you know, and what they can expect from start to finish and after finish if there’s any problems going through those details, you know, as far as coming back to your question, being more specific to Q4, it’s so helpful to look at previous years to have that information, to see how many quotes we had from September into October into November into December, how many leads came in in those times, what those things were for and
Even being able to compare it to an election year and see the dip right before the election and then nine closed deals the day after Trump was elected. You know, okay, we’re good. got money. Okay, we’re good. You know, and the phone went off the hook and we closed nine deals the next day. You know, similar to what he said to, know, our average ticket going up, keeping track of that. mean, there’s our market here has a lot of new builds and I just kind of have moved my family to be closer to those because
Josh Tycksen (10:14)
I see people in new builds, they’re going to get it anyway. It’s a lot harder to quote somebody who thinks they want something because they saw an advertisement and they already have blinds in their house. So it’s not really a need. In a need situation, it’s a lot easier to the deal and you can present options.
Yeah, Q4 isn’t always a weird one in December. Right after the 15th up until the 31st, it’s just kind of weird. So just, up through the first 10 days of January, 15 days of January at least, and our trends have stayed the exact same. So it really helps me to be a lot more comfortable. Because I know you’ve seen me freak out on the marketing side where I’m saying, where’s my money going? How much would be allocated here and there? What are you focusing on? Why are we getting calls for this? It helps you calm down a little bit.
Josh Tycksen (10:59)
if you can look at those trends and see that they’re almost the exact same, you know, there’s very little variance.
Yeah, yeah, you mentioned the new builds. What percentage of your business typically is that? And has that increased over last couple of years?
Josh Tycksen (11:14)
Since I turned my focus to that, big time. I’d say for interior window treatments, I’d say it’s 90%. But we get, now that we’ve started doing patio shades where people get the patio shades or awnings, that’s not fair to say that that’s all with new builds. In fact, the patio shade demographic on the new builds is way lower because those people are already strapped for cash. They already just spent $100,000, $150,000 on the backyard and they already bought all this other stuff.
Josh Tycksen (11:43)
We have a series that we try to do with them where we connect to those guys a year later. They’ve moved in now, they’ve gone through a lot of that first year of living in a home and now they’re ready for phase two. Right around March, April, there’s a really good opportunity to capitalize on that when they’re getting their tax returns, to send out good information and follow up. You do it in an effort to offer your help and assistance. If they have any questions about the products they got, if they’re running into any issues, if they feel like they need any additional chargers for their shades.
You know, or if they want to get the home automation kit now since they chose not to, but then also offering, did you realize, you know, that maybe you’re short on other products? Did you want to cover some of those windows? didn’t. Do you need solar screens to block the sun out? Do you want patio shades to make an indoor outdoor room? So the new build percentage for interior treatment, that is very high percentage.
Will Hanke (12:34)
Yeah. Vince, are you guys seeing something similar in the Carolinas?
Vince Sturkie (12:38)
Absolutely. It’s huge. And having been through the mortgage crisis of 08 where people stopped building homes and stopped buying homes, I mean it’s strong enough business increase that you’d lose sleep over it if you thought about what happens if it stops because it would be noticeable. Yeah, we would miss that piece of the business because it’s like Josh said, they have to buy window treatments. They’re not going to live in a $7,000- $800,000 home.
with paper shades for long. So at the end of the day, they’re buyers. All they need to do is like you, like your stuff, like your price, and they’re ready to write you a check. So we count on that part of the business, and we count on you. That’s where our digital marketing guru comes in, because we count on you to help keep our name in front of those people. They’re the hardest group to find on the internet, because realtors are looking for new movers.
And so when you’re trying to compete with them for the new movers, you know, it gets a little dicey because there’s a lot of money being spent trying to get that person’s attention because everybody wants the guy buying or building the house.
Will Hanke (13:46)
Sure. Yeah.
Josh Tycksen (13:48)
I found a lot of the biggest success we have in that is the neighborhood Facebook groups. If you find a new neighborhood and there’s construction going up and you get a customer and you can get in, you can get them to not just give you a review, but post something on the neighborhood Facebook group. It is the biggest return on investment you’ll ever get. matter what you offer them, you get somebody, a troll, a little Facebook troll in their neighborhood group who wants to be social with everybody there to give you some good, some good cloud in there.
We’ve done whole streets of homes on both sides.
Vince Sturkie (14:18)
That’s exactly
right. We probably got 20 in one neighborhood and it’s all because one gal is on Facebook promoting us all the time and it just goes like one after the other at that point because nothing’s better than the neighbor deal.
Will Hanke (14:35)
Yeah, similar approach for Nextdoor. We rolled out Nextdoor ads three or four months ago now. Josh, I think you started doing some of that.
Josh Tycksen (14:44)
return on those is fantastic. Way better than get from Google, at least I think so. It’s kind of hard for me to see which is which, but I just wanted to change the focus of our next door ads because most of it was coming back with patio shades and those are very labor heavy install. So growth in a different direction to be preferred, but we’ll take it really good from next door too. think that’s a very untapped market.
Will Hanke (15:12)
It really is. So they just rolled out their new ad platform maybe three or four months ago. We started rolling ours out shortly after that, or the ability to do the ads on there. And 50 % of our clients have already called back and said, let’s do more budget there. So I definitely think it’s something worth paying attention to. like you guys say, it’s very similar to the Facebook groups for the individual subdivisions or parts of town, that kind of stuff.
So another question, you guys made it through 2024, congrats. This year has been a very high peak, low valley kind of thing. It seems like you’re either on fire, Josh nine leads in one day and then probably nothing for a week or so. You know, it’s really these ups and downs are crazy. Did you guys experience that same kind of thing? And if so, what was kind of one of the biggest lessons that you learned this year?
Vince Sturkie (16:13)
For me, know, Will, I switched over, you know, I came on board with you a year ago. You know, so my first quarter of the year was the transition quarter where, you know, you dip before you rip. And so we were in panic mode at the first part of the year. But then as time went on, it just got better and better and better and better. you know, my reps are coming in from Graber and Alta and Norman and Hunter. They’re saying we’re 20 % down.
Will Hanke (16:13)
Vince, let’s start with
Vince Sturkie (16:43)
You should be 20 % down. That’s kind of the industry across the board. We’re not closing out this year 20 % lower than last year. We’re going to be right on par to close out the same year with probably about 5 or 6 % more in profit off of the same gross sales. I think we’re actually, this is our best year since I got back at it five years ago. So it’s encouraging when you hear that sales are down and you’re not.
And you know that but that’s been the word on the street, but I think I Think all things all things pointed in the right direction I think 25s could be the best year that I’ve seen since I’ve back in it five years ago Unless something dramatically shifts or a black swan event in the economy. I think it’s going forward. I think it’s going to be fantastic I’m thankful for this year. I you know, I’m thankful that
You know, I had the confidence to switch marketing companies a year ago and get involved with somebody that I thought could keep me going. I think my switch is part of what has helped me not to decline this year when I know that some of the guys around me are off, have laid off a few people. The bigger houses, especially the 20 member crews, are down a little bit. The reps are telling me this.
You know, I’m pretty thankful where we are. I attribute a lot of that to, you know, to Winnitreatment Marketing Pros. And I’m pretty optimistic for 25.
Will Hanke (18:20)
Thank you for all the kind words. appreciate that. That’s really nice. Josh, what do you think over the last year?
Josh Tycksen (18:26)
Yeah, very similar. mean, 13 days left in the month, 14 if you count the 31st or Christmas, but we were on a blitz last year. Alta, custom brands group offers, they have their little sales benchmark you got to get to for their Blue Diamond Elite Club, the top of the top. And I was like $65,000 away in cost of good sales. And I just said, you know what? I think I could do it. I normally would invest maybe $3,000 a month in ad spend.
And we probably did 9, 9,400 that month instead, because I just said, I’m taking every single freaking thing I can get. I was almost giving stuff away so I could hit that benchmark because I saw it didn’t cost me as much. I’d get a $25,000 credit from CVG. I’d win an extra trip for my installer and his wife. You know, there were other benefits to it on top of the fact of just staying busy in a month that’s slow. So it was kind of annoying and it was during Christmas to get a lot that many calls and whatnot, but
Coming year over year and comparing them, we’re probably very similar to what Vince said where we’re going to finish around somewhere between five to 7 % higher in sales than we did a year ago. So we’ve already passed it. We’re five to 7 % ahead of it today. So I don’t have my everything floored right now in marketing where I’m adding onto it. the next two weeks, like I did a year ago either.
And our profit percentage is almost the same. It’s less than a tenth of a percent of different for gross profit on those deals and stuff. So it’s been a lot more consistent year. It’s been a lot easier this year than it was a year ago. Those first few years making a lot of adjustments and getting used to the way things flow. I would also go ahead and give you mad props. The window treatment marketing process has been a huge benefit to us in that area. There’s the struggles as a new business owner to feeling that
Spend where my first two years didn’t spend a dime. I bought four hundred four thousand postcards From like vista print and I would just go put them up in the new build neighborhoods If I wasn’t working around appointments I’d be putting them up and getting those out and plastering houses with those postcards and that was a great return For what I’d spend is the whole all those postcards cost me 400 bucks. I still have some That was the only money I spent and then somebody convinced me that I should work with you guys and have you do my website two years ago
Josh Tycksen (20:51)
And I was like, I don’t know, was like a thousand bucks or 1500 a month or something. I just could not stomach that. But I was like, I’ll give it a shot. Three to six months, you know, cause you guys told me you can’t, you cannot make your decision here in the first 90 days. You’ve got to wait 90 days, if not at least six months. said, okay, it kept getting better. So then I was like, great, what if we put money into it? It kept getting better. And then it’s just figuring out how to even that out and realizing that if I track my numbers, there’s trends, whether I pay for marketing or not.
There’s trends of when it goes up and when it goes down. There’s holidays and school starting and stopping. There’s elections and all these other weird things. So yeah, like he said, black swan events and stuff, something totally out of the ordinary could dramatically impact how 2025 goes. But I think I’m getting a little bit more business mature in being able to handle the ups and downs and just telling my people, don’t worry about it. You’re still paid this week. Just go get some projects done at home. it’s, but when I call you, I’m going to need you.
because it’s going to get crazy, you know, coming up in the next few weeks or based on the last four years, April’s going to be freaking nuts, you know, so.
I remember what the question was anymore.
Will Hanke (21:59)
That was really the biggest valuable lesson that you got this year.
Josh Tycksen (22:04)
yeah, just having those numbers, having a history to track off of has really helped me to relax and sleep a little better and be a lot more cool. Or you’ll see my emails coming in far less than they used to with how much I was freaking out about everything and every dollar spent and realizing that some things take time to kind of see how they’re going to work. And there will be some dips and some peaks, but there’s not one answer for everything.
yeah. Thank you again for the kind comments. So outside of marketing decision that you made, what was the other best decision you made over the course of the last year that really helped your business grow? Josh?
Josh Tycksen (22:50)
Opening up our portfolio. We would maybe do one patio shade a month. I wouldn’t focus on it. I put marketing money into it this year and that’s really helped us even out. Even if it’s just keeping my people busy because those installs are very labor heavy. It takes two people, two hours if everything goes perfect to put one of those up.
That’s one shade, you know, for four or 5,000 bucks, if you’re running around a 50 % margin. And it’s just really labor heavy compared to like, if I send my guy yesterday, he was on a $12,000 job to put up 33 rollers and did it in four hours. know, but bringing that on and diversifying and adding that gave us a whole market we already had where we could reach out to all of our customers.
And we just did it personally instead of with email campaign campaigns. I just kind of went through and I could already check people off the list who I didn’t have that in their backyard or their space. They didn’t have room for it. Or I could just tell us like, that’s a long shot, you know, but adding that having another thing that we could call them and sell when we’ve already built a good rapport with them. That was a good one for us this year. Our repeat customers this year, and this is our fourth year in business, but our repeat customers this year was a
big percentage. wasn’t like 2%, 5%. It was like 16 % of our customers this year are repeats. That was insane. And I’m trying to figure a lot of them, it was into new homes, but a lot of them, was adding more, you know? And then, I don’t know, it’s not really repeat, but referrals still from those same loyal customers has been a good percentage of that base too.
Yeah, it’s interesting you mentioned the exterior stuff. I’ve said this on some other videos. I think two years ago, we might have had 5 % of our clients that offered exterior, 5 % of our window treatment clients that offered exterior. And now that’s probably 32, 33 % of our clients are offering exterior. Vince, are you guys doing any exterior stuff or thinking about it?
Vince Sturkie (24:55)
we are thinking about it we you know i refer that out i got a big company a twenty member team right next door to me almost i’m friends with the owner i send him all the bahama shutters i send him all the exterior track system type shades for porches and stuff they do all that stuff and they’re good at it they’re pretty they’re very pricey so i have to warn the customers that you’re you’re they’re not friendly vince with the money they’re gonna you’re gonna see tickets like you’ve never seen before when they get there but
you know, I have to kind of preset it, but, I refer that out now. We’re going to add some product next year. We’re just not sure exactly which one to grab hold to and learn. you know, but we do, we do believe we can grow with product adding product next year that we’re not doing now. I think the biggest thing this past year though, will that’s helped us is I decided at the first of the year to own Google to post open every Saturday from nine to 12, not all day.
because what I did in a quick Google search is realized in my market nobody is open on Saturday. And so I would come down to the office, I was already coming to the office, hanging around the warehouse, cleaning my truck, doing something anyway. So what I’m doing is I’m spending a few hours at the office on Saturday mornings. I’m catching leads by people who go on Google and they say, hey, we need to schedule an appointment to get some shutters for our new home.
They’re only off on Saturday. They take care of those types of things on Saturday. Being open on Saturday has been a competitive advantage that I think probably all total has gotten me 50 or 60 new leads this past year that, you know, I believe at a 70, 80 % close ratio on an in-home appointment, think it really made a big difference for us. And then the second thing that helped me this year is the Norman rep.
told me if I’m standing in front of a sliding glass door to pitch the Smart Drape over something lesser expensive, like a vertical. And I started pitching that thing and nobody knows what it is. They’ve never seen it. Norman’s the most invisible company out there. And I started pitching the Smart Drape, sold one yesterday. It’s a product that if anybody’s ever bought a Luminette, you can triple margin that product. You can
You can get good money on that type of product. So there’s little things like that that I just stay disciplined to do that I’ve seen. You know, I’m probably the worst up seller in the world. I’m a down seller probably more than an up seller. It’s just the way I’m built. But people resonate toward my crazy nature of sales where I try to talk people into spending less because it’s better. It’s just not my style to upsell. So I try to stay middle of the road.
Vince Sturkie (27:50)
Those are the little things I did this year that I think made a difference.
Will Hanke (27:54)
That’s really interesting. The three or four hours on a Saturday has really profited you, I guess, at the end of the day just by doing something you were all kind of already doing anyway.
Vince Sturkie (28:03)
Yeah, I was gonna be here either way.
Will Hanke (28:05)
Yeah, I love that. That’s fantastic. So thank you guys for sharing that. I wanted to talk real quick about regional differences. So Vince, you’re in the Carolinas and you did mention earlier that you’re doing some specific products. Is there anything that you see more than you have in the past or things that are surprisingly similar to other parts of the country?
Vince Sturkie (28:32)
For us here, most of these new builds that we’re working on, which is big percentage of our business, those buyers are not local buyers. Most of those are coming from somewhere else because Greenville’s in the top 25 places to move to according to the National Association of Realtors. And those people that are coming are coming for the warmer temperatures and lower cost of living. A lot of them have white hair. They’re more like me than they are like Josh. And you know…
They’re coming and they’re wanting things that they bought in the past which are plantation shutters. That’s a biggie for an older mature seasoned buyer. He’s probably had shutters before. He’s gonna wanna buy those. We’re seeing more requests for folks in the shutters than we do having folks call for shades. Now if we get somebody moving up out of Florida, moving halfway back to the northeast,
They might be talking shades, but a lot of them are also going to be talking shutters because they’re coming out of a heavy shutter market in South Florida. you know, shutters have been big for us this year. Probably more growth in shutters than anything. Shades, I thought, would be our biggest, you know, it just seems like shutters seems to still be ruling, you know, unless we can just turn them. I don’t like taking away.
If somebody calls for shutters, I want to stay on the course and give them what they called for. Because sometimes you can try to do a takeaway for an easier install and quicker turnaround on that client. But at the end of the day, I like to leave people with where their heart sits. And if they say shutters, it’s the greatest product I’ve ever sold, so I say love it.
Will Hanke (30:12)
Right. Yeah, totally makes sense. Josh, I know you’re in Arizona in a pretty hot part of the country. Is there anything that’s on fire in your area?
Josh Tycksen (30:23)
There’s some seasonal trends I’ve noticed. Solar screens, there are these outside products, they’re not a high profit margin thing for us, but I found a company who goes out, measures them, builds them, brings them out and installs them. And so I can just sell, I mean, I’ve almost got my assistant completely taking over that division because she can do quotes and everything with just pictures and not have to go to their house at all. And so she feels incentivized.
Again, adding new products. Norman has the Smart Drape, like he said, and you know, when they flew us up there to VIP and, you know, treat us all special and takes over, you know, will the simple with Norman takes you over to their little shop there. That’s not like a, it feels like a storefront, but it’s actually for them to bring in reps and really train you on their products. And when they did that and showed us the, you know, the, the Smart Drape, that’s been a good ad for us. it’s not cranking yet in terms of, just.
where we go to for covering our sliding doors and stuff yet, but it’s another option that we get to provide now instead of just roller shades or honeycomb and nobody really likes to do vertical blinds. Same with Norman has this special blackout where they have sidetracks and it’s called 360 blackout. And that is insane. Where we’ll get calls to black out a master bedroom or a baby’s bedroom or just different places in a home.
You know, we just say add X to any window if you want complete blackout. And sometimes people go nuts for that. So it’s, kind of a differentiator that you can have where other people say blackout. So when people say, Hey, we need blackout. And I have to stop them. Hey, hold on. What do you mean blackout? Cause there’s room darkening is kind of the industry term that’s being referred to now where there’s blackout where you’re thinking there’s no light in the room. What are you asking about? And sometimes, no, we’re good. Just a darker room. And some people know I can’t have any light.
Josh Tycksen (32:18)
where it’s good that you clarified or they might have thought that a regular blackout shade would actually black out their room.
Will Hanke (32:25)
Interesting. So speaking of regional different things. I wanted to ask you guys about your local networks I think somebody mentioned realtors earlier on. How are you guys building out those local referral networks? Josh will go to you
Josh Tycksen (32:41)
I’m a member of BNI, Business Networking International. I just got back from that meeting. It’s every Tuesday morning at eight o’clock for a couple hours. There’s 50 other people in there that are specific to their own trades that they do. so I have 50 other people out there who are committed to, you know, making sure I get referred if they know anybody else looking for window treatments. You know, and we’re all in that ballpark for each other, you know, that I’ve got, I know somebody who does this or does that. And so I’ve got
a referral list as well that I modified my quote where when they, I print it out, I’ll show up at a home, I’ll do my stuff. And then I just say, if I have 10 or 15 minutes, I can print this for you right now. And they always say, great, that’d be awesome. So I just do it real quick on the computer. And when I print it, it flips the page over now on the backside says, what else are you looking for? Here’s some trusted people we’ve worked with that do flooring, roofing, landscaping, other home services trades. And it was mostly a benefit to them.
when we started doing that, it’s circled around now we’ve been doing it long enough where they’re always pushing for us now because, you know, if we have 45 leads or 35 closed deals in a month, that I would bet 20 to 25 % of them are flipping that over and calling some of those people.
Will Hanke (33:58)
That’s great. I think anytime you can be a resource for people, you still look good in their eyes, even if you just referred them to somebody that can do it better. You still got a little check mark in their mind, right? So that’s always helpful. Vince, how about you?
Vince Sturkie (34:10)
Mm-hmm.
know B &I is great. I actually founded a B &I years ago when I was in mortgage banking. I have preached B &I for years. There’s five chapters in my town. There’s no window treatment slots available or I’d be in one. They stay pretty booked up with a window treatment consultant in them. So it’s kind of got me out of it for the moment. But I will wind up back in a B &I when my turn comes up. For me,
I use networking, if I’m in a neighborhood and there’s a model home at the entrance, I’m not leaving turning out of that neighborhood without stopping and walking in and telling that attendant of that model home, hey, I’m working in a house in here. If anyone buying a hall mask, we’d love to help them with their window treatments. I just try to use the boots on the ground stuff that’s easy, hitting those model homes, hitting those real estate agents when they meet you at the house to unlock the door to let you in to measure.
for the out of town client, know, try to use that as a chance to introduce myself in what we do. And it is making a difference. Well, I get referrals from builders and realtors I’ve never even heard of. These people need to refer people and they’ll refer people they don’t even know if they don’t know someone and they’re asked for a referral. I’ve done it. So, you know,
Vince Sturkie (35:40)
It definitely makes a difference to get your card in front of those people and try to keep it there because they will refer people. They need to because people don’t know people.
Will Hanke (35:51)
Yeah, referral traffic obviously always a little bit warmer as well, right? A little easier to close. So that definitely helps having those relationships and building those relationships as time goes on.
Vince Sturkie (36:03)
right.
Will Hanke (36:05)
So I wanted to ask quick about technology. So I know that technology is always changing from the smart home side, the motorization side, but even from just the running a business side. So how are you guys leveraging different digital tools in your networking and in your client relationships?
Josh Tycksen (36:25)
Vince, you’re probably going to take the cake on this. I used to run restaurants. had several restaurants I was in charge of down here in Arizona. That’s why I moved here. And I got so sick of every employee that was under me. All their problems started to become my problems that I got really sick of big, big crews and big staffs and lots of people. So when I switched to this, I was myself and I loved it for so long because I had total control of my schedule. And then it got, you know,
naturally got kind of worn out. I brought on some help to at least do the installs. And I’ve gone through where I’ve brought on a little more, where I’ve trimmed down to a little bit less, but you sound like you’ve got a full on store and several people and a couple of different trucks doing installs and know, three, four different people doing your sales where I systems are a hundred percent mandatory for you to function right without all those hiccups. You know, I’m still very caveman on a lot of that stuff. Cause I find is I’ve
This is where I need the most work. There’s so much opportunity for me here, but I get annoyed with the delay. Most of those systems, if I bring in some sort of a ordering portal system that maybe makes it simpler to work between all of my team and the customer and the payment systems and whatever in the schedule, it adds two weeks onto our install time, it seems like, because those orders just take forever to submit or whatever. I haven’t found solutions that I’ve been patient with.
never get it that i think too much into productive word sometimes get that done on sitting here
Vince Sturkie (37:55)
Well, I get it because you can probably do more with your cell phone than I can with a $50,000 processor sitting in front of me. I am a little more old school. So the technology that people are able to, things they can do on their phones, I can’t even do them. But the one thing that has helped me is we have our quoting software, so that gets us into the digital agent quoting.
We have Blanco and we have Will with Lead Boomerang, is really, to me, I know that we’re capturing more leads because of Lead Boomerang than we were when we were simply answering the phone or getting a web form submitted, which was what we were before the days of Winda Treatment Marketing Pro. So I think technology-wise there, I think those things have been huge for us.
Josh Tycksen (38:25)
Which software do you guys use? OK.
Vince Sturkie (38:55)
I have a lot of room to grow in this. I don’t trust things. I mean, I test my phone number almost daily. I go online and I pull the numbers we’re using for tracking. I’m calling them because I’m scared they’re not working, especially on the days I don’t get any calls. I’m like, okay, what’s wrong with the phone number? And sometimes, believe it not, I found the numbers not working because something’s unplugged.
But at the end of the day, I would say, I confess, I probably have a very weak link in technology, in what I could be doing versus what I am doing. I’m always, I mean, I talk to people who call here wanting to sell us things to help us, just because I’m hopeful they might have a good idea that I need. When all they really want to do is take window treatment marketing pros away and start doing it for me. I’m like, no.
Will will tell you, it takes me years to trust somebody. I talked to Will Hank you five years ago and it took me four to get on board. So I roll a little too slow some days.
Josh Tycksen (40:03)
I mean, there’s still, yeah, so it sounds like we’re feeling the same there. I’ve worked with my blind co, they’re just, I don’t remember what it was that frustrated me. And I think it was just the delays if you submit through the portal and waiting. And I tell my customers 95 % of our orders this year, this is an accurate number, 95 % of our orders this year have been installed in 30 days or less. We’re averaging 23 days right now from sale to install. And that’s really a powerful tool or a really powerful sales, you know.
point to make that people appreciate when they’re moving into a new home and they’re want you installing the day after they close or they just moved in and now they’re feeling vulnerable or whatever. But even if it’s as simple as just having very organized photos on your phones, you can flip open and go to whatever type of product they’re looking for to be able to show them an example real quick. This is a stupid example. I use it often, but in the iPhone, they have a thing called predictive text. I think if you go to general and then keyboard,
They have these text replacement phrases. I have thousands where if I type, you know, there’s a built-in one, it’s OMW becomes on my way. Well, I’ve built it in now where I have videos. If you want to know about an automated shade, I can go AR1, AR2, AR3, whatever I type in pulls up a different YouTube link and sends it to them so they can see a video demo of that. And so when somebody says, what’s, we don’t really know what’s trending in homes right now. We’re kind of open to it. I have one trend one and it sends them a video of
what we’re seeing lately, you know, and then there’s, I mean, I don’t even know how to go off on that, that I have thousands of those terms in my phone and I’m used to it where GM becomes good morning or I have, you know, I mean, a whole, the things you type over and over, you get sick of typing to people, your address, your email, your whatever, all of them are three digit short codes for me that somehow I have memorized and I just, I don’t want to type that anymore. As soon as I ever feel that I don’t want to type that anymore. I go in and type it up in there.
Will Hanke (41:40)
That’s fantastic.
Josh Tycksen (42:02)
And that way I can just remember whatever three letters it was to send out to somebody. And that’s really sped up communication and simplified things for them. Cause then they get a video that explains all the things they’re probably going to start asking me. know, so there’s, there are advantages to a lot of the technology that we use. This is a perfect example. You’re doing a podcast. If other people are tuned in and watching, they could be finding solutions as we chat, you know, so there’s
Vince Sturkie (42:15)
Mm-hmm.
that. I love the shortcut.
Josh Tycksen (42:29)
I’m not very good with
the systems part, bringing all those systems in to help me, but yeah, that’s a little technology thing I like to use that I think helps.
That’s awesome. Well, I thank you guys for being on. As we kind of switch, I do want to continue to talk a little bit about technology, but I want to get into 2025. What are some of the emerging technologies that you guys are starting to come across or that you’ve seen and you can’t wait to kind of get your hands on? Vince?
Vince Sturkie (42:57)
gee, I don’t know of anything. mean, maybe I’m out of touch. But I think that one of the things I’m not using that I know exist is being able to put the customer’s windows on my iPad and then dress their windows within the software that the vendors are providing us. Dress their windows with a specific treatment so they can see that roller shade in their window in their home.
That exists with a couple of people that we’re dealing with. I’m not currently using that, but I’m hearing good feedback that a customer actually told me they showed me a picture of my window with the treatment in it. And I’m like, wow, I’d heard about this from Graber. And they showed me how the app worked, where we could do it. I just have not embraced that technology yet. I see where that could be a big plus.
Especially when you’re standing in front of that customer and most of them aren’t like this, but they’re looking all off into space, they’re lost as a goose, they don’t know what to do, and you’re trying to reel them down to a decision on what direction to go with the product. And they’re just not, you’re talking roller shades, honeycomb, sheer shades, you’re talking about a lot of different things, they don’t know what’s going on, you gotta get it in front of them, they gotta be able to see it.
I’ve got it all loaded on my iPad as far as the products, but I think the show and tell or show and sale really works in our business. I had a lady jump out of her skin yesterday on the Smart Drape and I just flipped my iPad around, showed her what it looked like, the video that Norman puts out. She was ready to pick the fabric. before she saw the product, she didn’t have any idea what it cost. So I think…
That technology is the piece that I would definitely want to try to add in next year. You know, now that this, you know, that’s something I believe will help us.
Will Hanke (44:57)
Yeah, yeah, I would say from a marketing website standpoint, our clients always have high traffic on their gallery related pages. On any of the pages that have pictures and videos, people just want to kind of envision what their home could potentially look like. So it makes total sense that that tool where you can actually take a picture of theirs and show it to them, that’s pretty amazing. That’s awesome. Josh, what are you looking forward to in 2025?
Vince Sturkie (45:14)
Mm-hmm.
Josh Tycksen (45:27)
Yeah, I mean, I’ve heard kind of what he’s talking about over there. I don’t have a lot of that. You know, I mostly sell from two brands right now. I mean, I’ve got, there’s more than that, but it feels like the more brands I open up to, harder it becomes to teach this to other people. You know, just, so I don’t know. I do want to offer anyway, that’s, that’s drifting, but, I like how you said show and sale. I think that’s a really good example. We get people off and they go, okay, cool. That video you just showed me. Do you have that with this fabric? Like, no.
It’s hard enough to organize an automated version of that product, let alone with this valance and that color. You know, there’s a competitor out here, another vendor we compete against or share the value with, and they have a thing where on their website you can build your shutter. That seems simple enough to me, just color, size of louvers, frame and control. But it seems like it’s an impossible thing to get, you know, that they seem to be the only one I know that can do that. Nobody cares to even
venture to figure out how to help me get that widget that somebody could just click on and click on this option, this option, and this option to see the color, the frame style, the size of the louvers, and whether it’s got a tilt rod or not, what it looks like. People see that and they go, yes, that’s what I my shirt to look like. And they could be convinced at that point. And that’s enough. As long as you show up and you don’t offend them or they’re not blown out by the price, they’re going to close. know, that kind of technology I think will continue to develop and be easier.
and more integrated into our processes. I’m excited to see who figures out making things easier for us in that realm. I’ve just started, somebody convinced me, I felt like an old fool to start using ChatGPT and I’ve got it now as like one of the key apps. Like all my apps are in folders. Every app on my phone is on one page except for ChatGPT by itself on the next page with my Bitcoin widget. But ChatGPT now has become something on the daily where
Josh Tycksen (47:24)
I’m stopping myself from responding to people and a customer might ask me a question or somebody sent me a text this morning and said, I got my other quote, they’re about $1,200 less than you. I really liked all your stuff, but I’m having a hard time deciding why I should work with you instead of them. And I asked chat GP, I put that text into chat GPT and asked them for a response and I sent it to them and they’re like, you’re right. Okay, let’s go. And I thought that was amazing.
You know, I go to BNI now and I don’t even write my own commercial anymore. say, write me a 15 second limerick that’s funny, that has to do with Christmas and my business. And it knows my stuff and it wrote a limerick, you know, about, I don’t know what it was, but everyone loved it. I got best commercial today. You know, it’s so silly, you know? So yeah, there’s stuff out there that like he says, you know, he’s excited about people calling him, offering him things to help with.
Josh Tycksen (48:20)
I dodge those calls quite a bit, but I do actively look for things I’m looking for. And I think that we need to not be closed off to that because some things are going to simplify and free up our time, which the older we get, we realize more and more is our most valuable asset. Now I’m excited to see what kind of stuff pops out here too and start implementing more of this, figure out how I can implement some of that artificial intelligence because I just, I’m like,
I’m asking it now how to respond to my wife when she sends me a text. And I’m like, it sounds so stupid. And it’s immediate. And I’m like, all right, I almost have a paid for subscription. Not yet. I’m sure I’ll be there.
Will Hanke (48:50)
Ha ha ha!
Vince Sturkie (48:51)
yeah.
Will Hanke (48:54)
That’s awesome.
I love it. That’s fantastic. ChatGPT is great. AI in general, I think, is going to dominate this year. We’re actually testing some AI booking bots right now for some clients and things like that that want to save time on just taking those initial calls. some of
Josh Tycksen (49:19)
Well, see, and I’ve tried
that with a call service and they tell us and I tried it, but then I would listen to those calls and these guys were getting so frustrated. That was like, I’m losing these appointments because this person can’t just answer that. You know, I just said, simplify, just set the appointment. But then it was a bunch of appointments with stuff. It’s like, okay, we didn’t need an appointment for that. You know, and screening it kind of still had to go through. But I think that will develop and be faster. But you could hear on the calls, they’d be waiting.
And then getting a response and I was like, that was too long for me. I can’t handle that. I’d be going crazy if I was a customer. I would not feel important. I would feel thrown into a system. So I don’t know. There’s a balance that I think will eventually even out to be to our advantage, but a lot of it I haven’t seen there yet. Doesn’t mean somebody else doesn’t figure it out. I guarantee there’s not only one person out there trying to figure out this answering service for us that will work for a window treatment industry, but.
Yeah, I would agree. think the timing.
Josh Tycksen (50:18)
All the people I’m seeing it do that referred me to it from HVAC, doesn’t seem to cut it yet.
Will Hanke (50:25)
Yeah, I definitely think AI is gonna be a big part of the coming year. All right, one more thing, as we close out, I really appreciate all you guys taking the time really to share everything about your business and some things for 2025. Josh, if there was one thing that you could tell another window treatment business, specifically about 2025, what would you say to them? What would you recommend that be their approach?
Josh Tycksen (50:56)
I I would assume the more I go to networking meetings and coaching and the more I subscribe to that as I get older, realizing that there’s a network of people there with answers to the same questions I have just in a different industry. I wouldn’t be afraid to invest in yourself or your business. would, you know, that was what slowed me down. I mean, I was learning. So it was good that I didn’t do too much that first year. would have bitten off more than I could have chewed and I would have done bad jobs. But
you know, establish your values and stick to them and make guide your decisions with those. You know, we’ll go over our core values as a business each day, whether it’s me and two people or me and seven people, where we go through those so that people don’t, they stop calling me or texting me on how to solve a problem. And I say, cause my answer comes back, I’ll respond with one of those core values. I’m looking at them right now, or I’ll just send them the list and say, how do you apply this? And later we might talk about it. So I can say, cool. That was a good solution.
We probably could have been more cost effective or more time effective in this regard. So you’ll learn if that ever happens again, this is how you’d apply that. But you stuck with our values. So they’re still going to love us and we’re still going to get five stars, right? And that kind of stuff. So I think having those values defined as a business, not where it’s like, here’s our core values and they’re printed somewhere and nobody could recite them, but like we read them every day. And that was a coaching aspect that we got that I from the coaching group that I was submitted to subscribed with. And that makes a big difference.
I really do believe in that.
Will Hanke (52:26)
I think I mentioned to you earlier, think hiring a business coach was one of the best things I could have ever done. Just having that other set of eyes, right? Helping you see your business from a different standpoint. thanks for sharing that. Vince, what about you? And what do you think would be a good thing to tell a window treatment company for the coming year?
Vince Sturkie (52:48)
Well I wouldn’t want to tell the guys down the street this a block away but nationally, first thing I would tell them is to fall in love with what you do if you don’t already love it. Because you need to walk into every home glad you’re there, loving that person, loving the opportunity to help them. If you don’t have that, you better get it. Because you’re gonna hate this business next year if you don’t. Because it’s hard…
Vince Sturkie (53:15)
Walking into a home is the hardest thing a person can do. They don’t know these people. You’ve got to develop a friendship. You’ve got to come across as an expert to them, be helpful. And if you don’t love what you do, you better fall in love with it. After that, you better find marketing people that you can trust because this business is not going to work without marketing. You better have a marketing guy behind you that you trust. It’s going to take care of you.
Josh Tycksen (53:35)
Bingo!
Vince Sturkie (53:45)
that you’re gonna invest your money with and then don’t be afraid to spend your money because I mean, customers get customers. If you have to pay to get customers, in a perfect world, they’d all be referrals, they’d already know who you are, they’d have a 95 % close rate, but we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a transitory deal where we got people coming from all over, they don’t know who we are.
So we’ve got to find a way to reach them. We’re going to reach them through digital marketing. So I would say don’t be afraid to get out there in the digital marketing world. Take that risk to develop that relationship. know, Josh and I were texting a while back and you know, you know, we’re always frustrated with different things and different parts of our businesses. But the one thing is when you have somebody you trust, you wrap your arms around them and you go with them because that’s a difficult.
That’s a difficult thing to establish in marketing. Whether it be any type of marketing, but primarily being digital. So I’d say fall in love with what you do. Find a digital marketing company you trust. Grab a hold to them and then stay in the know on what you’re doing and don’t stop because this is a working business. This is not a sit at home and make money business. You’ve got to be in the truck, on the road, on the phone. You’ve got to be either talking to customers, talking to installers. You’ve got to be working.
So if you don’t want to work next year, get away from this. Because this is an earn your money business, but it’s a great business to be in if you’re willing to work.
That’s great. Vince, Josh, thank you. Thank you for the commercial. But thank you guys for your time and sharing your unique perspectives and experiences. I really do appreciate you guys taking the time to do this. If you enjoyed this episode of Marketing Pains, please consider subscribing. And we’ll have more episodes. We put one out every other Tuesday. And it’s always interviews, whether it’s other dealers or vendors, a lot of different people that we’re trying to.
get in front of you to give you more value. We appreciate your time. So please consider subscribing. Josh, Vince, one last time. Thank you guys so much for jumping on today. I appreciate it.
Vince Sturkie (55:59)
You bet, thanks Will.
Josh Tycksen (56:01)
My pleasure, thanks.
Will Hanke (56:03)
Thanks everyone, we’ll see you in the next episode.
