Make and keep the promise of your brand: 10 ways
You don’t need Madison Avenue to do an image makeover

What is your promise? Why are you different? What concerns do you take care of for your customer? These are among the questions to ask in building your brand, says David Haifleigh, president, HaifleighBrandWorks.

Haifleigh offered “Ten Surefire Ways to Build Your Brand & Beat Your Competitors” to attendees at the 2005 Custom Builder Symposium last month in Atlanta:

• Think and act brand.
• Develop your brand.
• Tell your story.
• Operationalize your brand.
• Create the brand “experience.”
• Do a brand makeover.
• Think and act digitally.
• Develop and enhance your brand assets.
• Commit to your brand.
• Be consistent.

 For details, click here.

Don’t take unruly customers personally; take control
Have you noticed difficult customer service situations escalating out of control more frequently? Don’t take it personally, says Carol Smith, a customer relations consultant. Manipulative customers are prevalent today and “disproportionate reactions” to less-than-perfect service situations are becoming more common. Smith offered lessons on dealing with them at the Custom Builder Symposium last month in Atlanta.

Experts attribute the trend toward customer meltdown in part to societal stress and the general feeling that the world is out of control. “When I go home to my refuge, the one place where I am in control, I am likely to want to control it,” Smith says of the difficult customer. Unfortunately, the “it” in a custom home buyer’s realm might turn out to be you, the builder. What to do? Click here for some ideas. [return to top]

You don’t have to go weird to go green
"You don’t have to go weird to go green," architect Peter Pfeiffer told attendees at the 2005 Custom Builder Symposium last month in Atlanta.

Pfeiffer, who has been designing green homes for two decades, showed participants how orienting a home properly on a site, using appropriate materials and exterior colors for the climate, wrapping the exterior well, and shading windows can yield tremendous energy savings.

While "green building" has become a familiar term in the industry ranks, "a lot of people don’t know what this stuff is."

"You … are the leaders in our business. I think it’s up to you to inform your clients to make the right choices," Pfeiffer said, noting "five pillars" of green building. [return to top]

Use systems to build the "best way"
Systems are a key to becoming a “best way” company, says Dennis DuRoff, president of Universal Business Design.

These predetermined, defined sets of activities will allow you to work on your business, rather than in it, DuRoff says. They free you and your team from making the same mistake twice.

In a presentation at the 2005 Custom Builder Symposium in Atlanta last month, he challenged custom home builders to spend a year developing one system per month to address a key point of frustration in their businesses. “Your company will never be the same,” DuRoff said. [return to top]

Magnificent Home Tour kicks off 2005 Custom Builder Symposium
Also featured at this year’s symposium were eight homes in the Old Cobblestone, Chatham Park, Brookshyre Manor, High Gates, and River’s Call communities on the Andersen Windows and Doors Home Tour.

These communities embodied everything from the grace of English country estates to the grandeur of European-style manor homes, to a return to classic American elegance. Amenities included a golf course, acres of parkland, quaint neighborhood squares, and a national recreation area.

Builders got to see the skeleton and systems for a 13,000-square-foot custom home, including its sophisticated wiring, plumbing, and HVAC systems, as well as finished homes with spectacular appointments such as paneled libraries. They also saw barrel-vaulted ceilings taking shape.

Interesting environmental features included private parks anchoring the four corners of one development, and wider-than-typical setbacks of sidewalks to protect pedestrians from street traffic.

The five- and six-bedroom homes were in the $1.7 million to $2.7 million price range.

“It was a learning experience for the high-end custom home builder,” said Dave Stormont, Stormont & Company, Inc.

“Andersen did a superb job in setting up the home tour on such short notice—in a matter of eight weeks. It usually takes about six months to set one of these up,” Stormont said. The Custom Builder Symposium had to be relocated from New Orleans to Atlanta on short notice because of hurricane Katrina. [return to top]

Swinging Networking Activities Incorporate Fun, Learning
Custom Builders teed off in the 2^nd Annual Custom Builder Symposium Golf Tournament sponsored by Broan-NuTone.  The tournament was held at the exclusive Atlanta National Golf Club. New this year was the 19^th Hole Awards Event, where golfers relaxed, compared shots, and received their awards from Peter Dircks of Broan-NuTone.

Also added this year was Experience Atlanta, sponsored by Dryvit.  After a packed day of educational sessions, custom builders relaxed as they were chauffeured around Atlanta’s hot night spots, including the exciting Virginia Highlands section, where they were entertained by both traditional Irish and soulful blues music. [return to top]

A Thank You to the 2005 Custom Builder Symposium Sponsors
The 2005 Custom Builder Symposium would like to thank each and every sponsor for this world-class event:

Andersen Windows & Doors	Broan-NuTone
Blue Linx	Black & Decker
CEDIA	Countrywide
Custom Builders USA	Custom Home
Dryvit Systems, Inc.	Eagle Windows & Doors
Jacuzzi	ICYNENE
Kohler	Masonite
Premier Marketing, Inc.	Procore Technologies
Softplan	Solutia
Therma-Tru Doors	USG
Zurn

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Miss the 2005 Symposium?
If you missed the 2005 Custom Builder Symposium in Atlanta, audio recordings are now available for a limited time. Order online today or call 800-369-5718. New this year: recordings are also available in MP3 format ... sync and learn!

The next Custom Builder Symposium, featuring the same high-quality education, fun networking events, and practical take-home lessons, will be October 27-29, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas resort in Nevada. Don’t miss it! [return to top]