REMODELING’s 2010 Big50 Profile – Michael Majors

Michael Majors
Majors Home Improvement, Milton, FL

Award category: Teamwork
Speciality: Exterior remodeling
13 years in business
2009 volume: $2.6 million
Staff: 3 office, 10 field

Many companies that specialize in siding and windows are founded by salespeople. Majors Home Improvement, launched by former window and siding installer Mike Majors, is an exception. What Majors saw in the field indicated to him that superior customer service was a huge competitive advantage. “I thought I could do a better job,” he says.

Exemplary service fueled his company’s growth for a while, but after four years he ran up against a problem: he wanted to hire a salesperson but didn’t have the leads. So Majors decided he needed to find key people to help him grow.

Today both his marketing manager and his sales manager have advanced degrees, and both have been with the company for more than five years. “You have to find the right people and take care of them,” Majors says. Forty percent of business originates as repeat or referral, a fact the owner attributes to employees’ willingness to go the extra mile and to incentives that encourage them to do so. “I am going to do the right thing for them and for the customer,” Majors says. “I put my needs and wants last.”

BEST PRACTICES
* Exceptional customer service: Company installers use dropcloths and booties, and salespeople are required to visit the job while it’s in progress.
* A recent collective effort substantially cut company overhead, reducing expenses such as the phone (by 70%) and truck maintenance. Smarter use of marketing dollars reduced that expenditure from 8% of revenue (when it was budgeted for 10%) to 5.4%.
* Having evolved from salesman/installer/secretary to the leader of a capable and efficient team leaves Majors looking for ways to expand his operation, both with new products and new branch locations.

– Jim Cory
REMODELING: http://bit.ly/blRbyv