Best Practices - March 2010

By Sonya Jennings

Jaime’s Designs & Floors in Fresno, California has perfected ways to stay visible to potential customers. By creating avenues for generating new business involving the real estate and banking communities, the store has a system for developing a steady stream of new customers. Other priorities, like contact after the sale, a strong web presence, and serving the local community, have also contributed to the store’s ability to stay highly visible in Fresno.

Owner Jaime Martinez began calling on realtors to promote his company about 15 years ago. This idea basically grew into a machine that brings in new clients on a regular basis. He now attends about a dozen sales meetings per week at real estate brokerage offices. He rotates through all of the main real estate businesses in his area, then starts over and visits them again. At these meetings he always offers a special on carpet, hardwood, or tile, and he distributes a flyer promoting the current special to share with their clients. When a realtor sells a home, they will share the flyer with the new homeowner, who often visits the store. These flyers are stocked at each real estate office, and Martinez changes the special and the flyer about every 30 to 40 days.

Focusing on realtors is a smart business strategy because when a home is sold, it normally triggers an investment in interior furnishings and finishes. New homeowners often spend thousands of dollars making changes to suit their own personal tastes and lifestyles. This transformation often includes flooring, along with countertops, window treatments, cabinets, and/or paint. Jaime’s Designs & Floors offers all of these products.

Over the years, Martinez has developed trusting relationships with specific realtors, and they send client after client to his store. In a single year, one high volume realtor alone sent 40 clients to his store to purchase products. Realtors send him every type of client, from first time homebuyers to owners of multi-million dollar homes. The store treats every customer like gold, and this helps to solidify the trusting relationship between the store and the realtor. Realtors know that their clients will be taken care of and valued. They also trust that the store will handle projects in an efficient manner, as recent home buyers are often up against a closing deadline and expect the floors to be in place before they move in. Many local wealthy homeowners in the Fresno area also have a second home on the coast or in the mountains. This provides an opportunity to handle two residences for one client. The store’s team will travel up to 300 miles to handle a project in another area for their local clients.

A second avenue for new business is the banking community. When a home goes into foreclosure, the bank will sometimes decide to market and sell the property, and often the floors need to be replaced. There are three main banks in the Fresno area that handle 80% of local foreclosures, and Jaime’s team stays in regular contact with the real estate specialists at these banks. The store has completed rehabilitation projects for local banks on all types of homes, from 1,500 square feet to 7,000 square feet.

Martinez also remains visible in the community by supporting charitable organizations. According to Martinez, “You cannot always take out, you must put back.” He’s heavily involved in the local church community and chamber of commerce, and he supports the local women’s and children’s shelter. In the current economy, many charitable organizations have lost main sources of funding, and this inspires the staff at Jaime’s Designs & Floors to work even harder to support important local charities. Fresno residents support local businesses that show they care about the community, so staying involved in local causes is a smart way to bring in area residents.

Martinez also believes in having a strong web presence. For his middle and upper end clients, web based research is very common. Often, a client comes in with knowledge about exactly what type of product she wants to buy. For these customers, having a professional and easy to navigate website is extremely important. Martinez comments, “Before the Internet, a customer would make an average of 5.2 visits to a store to make a major flooring purchase. Now that number is 1.5 visits. So, when your customer walks in the door, you should expect a very well educated person who is ready to make a decision. If you don’t know what you are talking about, she will see that.”

Visibility after the sale by promoting long-term customer relationships is also an effective strategy for Martinez. One year from the date of purchase, a notice is sent to the customer that he or she can come by and pick up a free cleaning product. This keeps the store in the front of customers’ minds if they are thinking of updating any other areas of their home.

Jaime’s Designs & Floors targets the middle to upper end of the market, offering carpet, vinyl, tile, hardwood, cabinets, countertops, backsplashes, paint, and window coverings. The company’s business is 60% retail, 10% property management, and 30% commercial, the latter consisting primarily of churches and federal buildings.