Conversations That Convert

Rick Storlie
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A conversation for remodelers, home builders, and home improvement companies about increasing lead conversions without added expense, and watching your bottom line grow.

  1. 2d ago

    Why Builders Lose 70% of Leads with Rick Storlie

    Rick Storlie explains why most builder websites are built for the wrong buyer. THE PROBLEM:→ Websites are built for buyers ready to talk→ Only 3 in 10 visitors are at that stage→ The other 7 are still researching — and bouncing THE PARADE OF HOMES LESSON: Model homes drew dozens of visitors who weren’t ready to buyA plan book and plat book gave them a reason to engageLeads jumped from 2-3 a weekend to 10-30THE RIGHT ORDER: Design (where every buyer starts)Location (land and lots)Pricing (a range is enough)WHAT WORKS:✓ Controlled release of information✓ Permission-based opt-ins✓ Automated follow-up by interest WHAT DOESN’T:✗ Commercial-intent-only websites✗ No pricing information at all✗ Hoping referrals carry the business KEY INSIGHT:For every 10 leads your site should capture, you’re probably getting 3. That’s construction lead generation left on the table. FINAL MESSAGE:Design, then location, then price.Capture the 7 you’re losing.Build a pipeline you can choose from. Learn more: builderleadconverter.com

  2. Oct 8

    How to Scale Your Contracting Business & Dominate Sales with Brandon Fuchs

    SCALE YOUR CONTRACTING BUSINESS & DOMINATE SALES Brandon Fuchs of the Elite Builder Society breaks down his system for business coaching for contractors. WHO HE COACHES:→ Home service business owners→ Remodeling contractors (general-contractor style)→ One-on-one, not group programs THE DATA-DRIVEN SYSTEM: Record every single coaching callMine problems, questions, and solutionsFeed solutions back into every client’s plan17 calls in one day = a full day of new dataSIGNS A CLIENT WILL GET RESULTS:✓ Fearless, shows up every time✓ Humble enough to take direction✓ Asks questions instead of staying quiet✓ Financially and mentally ready to invest SIGNS A CLIENT WILL FIZZLE OUT:✗ Finds out they’re the real problem and quits✗ Gets intimidated comparing themselves to others✗ Not ready to invest time or money THE SALES FRAMEWORK: Information position vs. buying positionBuild trust and FOMO before the first callMilitarize your clientele into referral machines45% top-of-funnel, 45% middle, 10% proofMARKETING EVOLUTION:→ Phone book era: $20K-$30K for a four-page spread→ Brandon’s pivot: cut spend, went all-in on social→ Result: cheaper, more trackable, better clients KEY INSIGHT:Writing the check is the easy part.Working the follow-up is where the business changes. FINAL MESSAGE:Business is hard. Nobody does it alone.Find your coach. Build your system. DM “COACH” on Instagram: @the_contractorcoachLearn more: builderleadconverter.com

  3. Sep 24

    THREE JOURNEYS OF BUILDER AND REMODELER GROWTH

    Three builders reveal exactly how to grow a construction business, with real margins, real numbers, and no fluff. THE BUILDERS:→ Kelly Anderson, Ironwood Custom Builders (Salt Lake City)→ Jason Radford, Radford Building Company (Durham, NC)→ John Van Laeugen, Joe's Carpentry (Ontario, Canada)→ Russ Stephens, Association of Professional Builders THE NUMBERS: $67,000/year from paid pre-construction estimating3% to 9% net margin in 12 months$1.7M to $2.95M in one year90% of builders miscalculate WIP accountingKEY TOPICS: Charging for pre-construction estimatesFixing your Work-in-Progress accountingMarketing mix: referrals, PPC, home shows, GoogleChoosing a profitable nicheRemoving yourself as the bottleneck WHAT WORKED:✓ Charging five figures for pre-construction phases✓ Monthly WIP calculations for real margin visibility✓ Niching down into complex renovations✓ Investing 3-4% of revenue into marketing before scaling WHAT DIDN'T:✗ Free estimates that drained months of unpaid time✗ Managing the business by bank balance instead of WIP✗ Trying to be everything to every client FINAL MESSAGE:Growth isn't a leads problem first.It's a pricing and systems problem.Fix those, and the leads convert. Learn more: builderleadconverter.com

  4. Sep 11

    Stop Chasing Leads Automate Your Remodeling Pipeline with Eric Fortenberry from Jobtread

    STOP CHASING LEADS Rick Storlie and Eric Fortenberry (founder & CEO of JobTread) reveal how construction CRM software plus Render's LiDAR scanning tech turns a cold lead into a priced budget in under an hour. THE PROBLEM:→ 10 hours per lead to build a scope and budget→ Close 5 of 10 leads? That's 50 hours gone→ A full work week wasted before a contract is signed THE ECOSYSTEM: Project Qualifier Tool captures scope on your websiteHomeowner runs a Render LiDAR scan (or skips it)Scan data pushes into JobTread automaticallyCost groups auto-calculate a budget rangeCall gets booked, AI summary texts you firstKEY STATS: Render accuracy: within half an inchPreliminary budget delivered in under 1 hourAI summary sent 3 hours before your callBathroom remodels = #1 searched remodeling term WHAT WORKED:✓ Homeowner self-serves the scan, no site visit needed✓ Trade partners can run the scan too✓ Zero double data entry across website, Render, JobTread WHAT DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE:✗ Emailing budgets instead of presenting them live✗ Driving out for manual measurements on every lead✗ Competing on referrals alone in a tighter market THE GUEST:→ Eric Fortenberry, Founder & CEO of JobTread FINAL MESSAGE:Automate what doesn't need your judgment.Save your judgment for what does. Learn more: builderleadconverter.com | jobtread.com

  5. Sep 3

    Inside the SORCI Report: Benchmarks, Margins, and AI for Custom Builders

    Russ Stephens of the Association of Professional Builders breaks down this year's construction industry statistics with Rick. THE MARGIN NUMBERS:→ Referral-heavy builders post lower margins, not because of the leads themselves→ Top performers reinvest 3-4% of revenue into marketing→ 25% gross margin needs roughly a 33.3% markup, with a 15% fixed expense ratio→ Owners should target 5% of revenue as market-rate salary BACKLOG AND STATUS: Healthy backlog = 1-2 years of signed, deposited workA long queue signals status to prospective clientsBuilders who shorten their queue often lose pricing powerTHE VIDEO GAP: Half of all builders post zero video contentCanada: 60% never post videoNew Zealand: under 30% never postTalking-head video builds trust faster than any other formatWHERE AI HELPS:✓ Rescheduling trades in real time✓ Catching vendor delivery delays before they cost a day✓ Filling admin gaps around estimating and PM✗ Mass-producing AI video (two-thirds of consumers push back on it) KEY INSIGHTS:→ 100 cold leads per signed contract is a healthy paid-lead ratio→ The mates rates trap quietly erodes margins on family jobs→ Remodeling scales less predictably than new construction past $10M FINAL MESSAGE:The data behind stronger margins already exists.Most builders just aren't using it yet. Get the free SORCI report: associationofprofessionalbuilders.com

  6. Aug 28

    How to Make Your Website Visible for AI Search Results

    Rick sits down with Muhammad Rohan, BLC's in-house search specialist, to break down generative engine optimization and why AI recommendations now matter as much as Google rankings. THE BIG SHIFT:→ Top-of-funnel searches dropped 25% in 4 years→ 75% of AI Overview citations still come from top-12 organic results→ AI now narrows a homeowner's shortlist before they pick up the phone SEO vs AEO vs GEO vs AIO: SEO → ranking in traditional blue linksAEO → winning short, direct-answer spotsGEO → getting recommended by name in AI-generated answersAIO → shaping content for how AI processes it overallKEY FRAMEWORK - E-E-A-T: ExperienceExpertiseAuthoritativenessTrustworthinessWHAT HELPS:✓ One-stop-shop content covering a full topic✓ Clean, consistent data across 65-70 directories✓ Schema markup for faster AI crawling✓ Fast page speed (2-3 seconds) WHAT HURTS:✗ Inconsistent business info across the web✗ Overly narrow "long-tail" keyword targeting✗ Slow-loading pages that burn crawl budget✗ Ignoring third-party review sites TRY THIS - THE "MERE TEST":Ask ChatGPT or Gemini what your company does. If it's wrong, ask where that answer came from, then go fix it at the source. FINAL MESSAGE:AI isn't replacing SEO. It's building on it.Show up in both, or risk disappearing. Schedule a call: builderleadconverter.com

  7. Jul 30

    The 25% Upsell: How Offering Home Improvement Financing Drives Larger Projects with Larry Collins

    THE 25% UPSELL: HOW OFFERING HOME IMPROVEMENT FINANCING DRIVES LARGER PROJECTS Larry Collins of HFS Home Improvement Loans joins Rick to explain why remodelers who offer financing to customers close bigger, more profitable jobs. THE CORE INSIGHT:→ Homeowners spend about 25% more once they see an affordable monthly payment→ Almost no remodeler asks a lead if they're paying cash or financing→ That one missed question is costing contractors real project size HOW THE LOAN WORKS: Rates from 7.89% to 13.99%Approval up to $450,000, terms up to 30 yearsApproved for 20% more than requestedFunded in 5 to 7 business daysNo prepayment penalty, everHELOC VS. PERSONAL LOAN: HELOC needs 20-30% home equityHELOC carries a variable rateHFS loans skip the appraisal and lock a fixed rate for 30 yearsWHAT WORKED:✓ A financing link in the appointment confirmation email✓ A one-page flyer at the first meeting✓ Soft credit checks that never touch the customer's score WHAT DOESN'T WORK:✗ Treating financing like a big-box retailer tactic✗ Waiting until the estimate to bring it up for the first time KEY INSIGHTS:→ Nearly 25,000 contractors nationwide already use HFS→ Design-build clients use financing on purpose, not necessity FINAL MESSAGE:Stop assuming every lead is paying cash.Offer financing to customers as a standard part of every pitch.Bigger jobs follow. Learn more: hfsfin.com

  8. Jul 23

    How to Build a High-Converting, Hacker-Proof Website with Alexandre Godinho

    YOUR WEBSITE ISN'T DONE JUST BECAUSE IT'S LIVE Alexandre Godinho (A.G.), BLC's lead website developer for 3 years, walks through what actually goes into a construction website that keeps performing after launch, from first mockup to ongoing maintenance. SECURITY & BACKUPS: → Wordfence firewall on every build → SiteGround server-side blocking → Daily cloud backups, stored off-host → Fast restore if anything ever gets hacked WHAT GETS TRACKED: 1. Page views 2. Scroll depth (50% and 75%) 3. Form submissions 4. Booked appointments SCHEMA & LOCAL SEO: → Rank Math schema markup → FAQ schema for direct Google answers → Google Business Profile matched across 70+ citations WHAT WORKED: ✓ Dynamic linking (URLs can change without breaking buttons) ✓ Pre-launch crawls with Screaming Frog and SEMrush ✓ 90+ PageSpeed score, desktop and mobile WHAT DIDN'T: ✗ Treating a website like a one-time brochure ✗ Skipping the privacy policy ✗ Letting broken links pile up unnoticed THE AI LAYER: → llm.txt alongside robots.txt → E-E-A-T: Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust → Reviewed every 90 days with Microsoft Clarity FINAL MESSAGE: A website is a system. Build it right once. Review it forever. Then let it keep working for you. Book a call: builderleadconverter.com

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About

A conversation for remodelers, home builders, and home improvement companies about increasing lead conversions without added expense, and watching your bottom line grow.

Information

  • Creator
    Rick Storlie
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    206
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Rick Storlie
  • Show Website
    Conversations That Convert