Over the past few issues, Shed Business Journal has introduced the option of shed businesses selling carports.
We’ve heard from a couple of dealers who have found success in the market.
In this issue, we’re talking with representatives from manufacturer Eagle Carports in Mount Airy, North Carolina.
We spent some time asking questions of Michael Bridges, business development manager, and Sergio Orozco, senior sales representative, to find out what they recommend for first-time carport sales.
Why is selling carports a good option for those in the shed industry?
BRIDGES: We’ve always thought, and we’ve kind of seen in the past, that the sheds and carport seem to go hand-in-hand. When it comes to sheds, you’re limited. There are things
that you can accomplish with sheds. The ready availability, the fact that you can throw it on a truck and drop it in a hard-to-reach situation.
What we feel like we’ve done is understand how the sheds work, and we know that there are limitations to what the sheds can do. We know that building a shed on site is difficult,
and we know how much it costs most of the time. There’s a 30-40 percent upcharge to build a shed on site because the guys, they’re meant to be working in a factory.
What we capitalize on a lot of the time is the square footage. The sheds just aren’t quite large enough to get done what these customers need, so, we’ve just kind of tag-teamed it and realized that offering a multitude of sizes seems to be advantageous for the shed dealers, not leaving any money on the table. Gives them the option.
What are some important first steps for shed businesses getting into carports?
BRIDGES: Research the company that you will be working with. There are obviously so many to choose from now. I think it’s most important to do your research. Talk to customers, talk to people in the area, and drive around to see what’s in your neighborhood.
I feel like immersing yourself in the company itself and how the process of selling a carport works, those are the two biggest things being comfortable with the actual process of selling a carport.
Now on our end, we offer oodles of training. Between training videos, we have mobile sales reps who will come out and sit down with you and teach you how to use our 3D builder
program. They’ll also give you tips on marketing and random things like that. Most of the time, what you need to know we can already supply. We’re basically ready and waiting for it. We love teaching people how to carport.
OROZCO: It’s a great product. When we first started approaching shed businesses, they used to reject us because, from their point of view, these are my competitors. They are going to take my business. Eventually, we assured them this is a good sales point for shed businesses selling carports.
It is not the same product, they are different products, and it is a huge complement for the business because if a customer is in the market to get a shed, they might be able to get a big garage next year, next month. So, if you have both, this goes hand-in-hand.
Eventually, instead of those businesses rejecting us as a partner, they started calling us because they increased their revenue big time.
We believe there’s still a big market out there of shed companies that don’t want the carport products on the lot, but once they know how easy it is, and it is a great complement. They’re going to bring more traffic into their lots.
BRIDGES: On top of just offering more options, it gives you the road views.
We stick a 14-foot-tall RV cover out on the lot, even if somebody’s not interested in sheds, they could be pulling onto your lot and get interested in a shed.
We feel like it’s a group effort. We want our product out there so that people can see it and if it benefits your business as well, we are all for it.
We want you to be successful and if you’re not super successful with us, your business being there and showing off our product is huge to us.
What are some important factors that shed businesses don’t consider with carports?
BRIDGES: Something that they don’t consider, and I feel like it’s kind of a game-changer for a lot of them, is that you’re making money the moment you make a sale.
A lot of shed companies pay out their commissions at the end of the year or pay out their commissions at the end of the month, their billing cycle. For some shed dealers, that can be hard. You get paid once a month, and you have to make your bills. It has to last you through the rest of the month. You’re feeding yourself on that.
With carports added into it, you are giving yourself the option to make money before your shed payments actually pay out. More than anything, I feel like it’s short-sighted not to do
it because you want to be able to stimulate your business through themonth instead of just at the end of the month.
I feel like that’s something that people don’t consider that would really turn the tide to make them say wow.
What types/styles of carports are “typical” for a shed business to sell?
BRIDGES: That’s a good question. In terms of the product, we really pride ourselves on how customizable our buildings are.
What we see do really well on shed lots runs the gamut as far as demos. As far as being kind of a comparable product, without being in competition, are combo units.
Combo units are units that are half carport and half enclosed. Imagine a garage with a front porch on it. That seems to do really well because it allows a customer to say, well, all I really need is a shed. I don’t need a 12 by 20 enclosed building. We’ll take that 12 by 20 and let’s just enclose half of it. Now you’ve got a 12 by 10 shed and a 12 by 10 carport.
Things like that seem to get the customer thinking in the vein of sheds but being able to kind of tie onto that to make it what they want. What I see is RV covers, standard carports, and combos seem to do really well at shed lots.
There’d be no way to pin it down to the analytics of what shed lots really sell the most of because really it runs the gamut, and with the 3D builder that can change from a combo to a 40 wide so quickly. It’s all about the need.
OROZCO: Just like Michael says, garages and RVs are good outfits for a shed lot.
I was talking with a brand-new dealer in Tennessee this past week with not a whole lot of experience in carports. He’s in the shed business from the state of New York, and he just moved to Tennessee. He is very excited. He’s been in the shed business and pole barns most of his career, but now he’s very, very interested in having a super sales lot because he’s had a good number of inquiries on RV covers and garages.
He sells garages, but they’re all wood, built on site, and the price varies from $30,000 to $60,000 to $100,000, which is a pretty high-end unit. But compared with our product, a 35 by 40 garage is only around $20,000 compared with his product which is almost $100,000. It’s a very big market because, with almost half of the inquiries on garages, their budget is around $20,000 to $30,000.
He’s very excited about having a larger selection to offer their customers because this is going to retain high-end customers and medium-income customers, too. There is good potential for having our product on shed lots.
BRIDGES: Keep in mind that whenever we do demos, nobody’s pigeon-holed. We like the dealer to have some customization in the process.
We may give we may give them a kind of a base model and say, here, you add your flair to this. They may pick the colors or change some of the options that are going to be more indicative of what their customer base wants.
That kind of touches back on the first thing we were talking about is doing a little research into the area can greatly help you. If you drive around and see six RV lots, it’s probably a worthwhile investment to start designing an RV cover demo as opposed to just a standard carport.
But then also something can be said about a standard carport. A lot of people just have a standard carport at their business for their customers to park under, and it opens the
conversation to what else can they do.
What would be a good first marketing strategy?
BRIDGES: That’s actually a really good question, too. I highly recommend for first-timers that online is going to be your friend.
Brick-and-mortar dealerships and shed dealerships, they catch the eye, so I don’t feel like having a bunch of banners and sale signs at the site itself is going to bring you any more
business.
I think having demos out there and making a really nicely crafted Facebook post or something to that effect is what I feel works.
Once a week, Eagle actually makes advertising for its dealers. We send it out and we create it as a gallery item, and we make it custom to the dealership as far as discounts. Your dealer ID has your dealer-specific link. We customize it to the dealership, and we send it to every single one of our viewers once a week.
We make in-house marketing for them to put out on social media. We kind of take the guesswork out of that, but I do think for a first-timer, social media is the best way to hit it. You’re going to get the biggest reach without having to boost the post.
What information is important to gather from customers?
BRIDGES: Different from the shed industry: permits. Building permits are 100% necessary in our line of work.
We are the contractor. If we put up a building without the permit attached to it, we could lose our license. So, that that is one of the varying differences between the sales and installation process of carports and sheds.
Sheds are kind of a no-questions-asked, movable structure that’s not always anchored to the ground. A truck can come out there and pick that thing up and move it.
Our structures are anchored directly into the earth or the concrete, so it makes repo situations not really valid. We could not justify the cost needed to pay a crew to go do that, especially when we’re not making a sale.
Having a building permit or the customer doing a little research into what the county is going to require is a big deal. It could be property setbacks. It could just be that they need a copy of the engineered blueprints, which we do provide. Every single one of our structures comes with a set of the engineered blueprints that they can take down to the county.
Please share anything else you would consider important.
BRIDGES: Honestly, doing company research is going to be the biggest thing. You do not want to tie yourself to a horse that’s just going to cause you problems in the long run. Sergio, do you have anything for first-timers?
OROZCO: Just like you said, use social media and depending on the size of the lot, one or two units with display signs, banners, and, of course, training.
BRIDGES: Most of the brunt of what we’re going to require of new dealers is actually going to be handled by us. We do a fair amount of babysitting for their first couple of months. We’re on top of them and trying to be as resilient as humanly possible to make sure that we
can kind of bend to their needs.
Also, market research on the company, market research on the area that you’re going to be selling in. I don’t If you’ve ever driven around South Carolina much, you will get into some areas where you see 85 percent of the population has a blue roof. There’s no real need for it, but it’s something that sticks out that a dealer would need to keep in mind because they’re going to want to design a couple of demos that have a blue roof just to get the views in there.
So, market research on your area and then market research on the company you’re going to represent.
Those are the two biggest things I would tell anybody because once you sign up, you’re locked in for a little while, at least.
