3 Tips to Prepare for Storm Season
Storm season is coming. Get ahead to meet your customers' needs all year long.
Storm season is like the holidays—you know it’s coming, and should be no surprise. Instead of scrambling during storm season to make sure you've got what your customers need, take proactive steps now to get ahead of the pack and establish your company as the reliable go-to source for your customers.
Where do you start? We've got three tips to help you set yourself up for success.
1. Look Back to Plan Forward
Looking at calendars from the past few years, map out past weather events to forecast the months to come so you can order what you'll need well ahead of time, eliminating any crunch to meet demand. You can also look at what you've sold previously to ensure you have extra stock for storm season.
While planning your buying, you can also take this time to map out marketing and advertising opportunities. After all, you want your company's name to be what comes to mind when storms strike and your customers need supplies.
Finally, work with your suppliers to ensure your pricing is accurate and to keep a tight rein on where your products are—nothing like last-minute price increases and a lack of availability to frustrate your customers.
2. Consider New Products
You've already evaluated past product orders to have storm repair staples on hand. But, take your preparedness an extra step further and consider stocking anything else crews need to clean up and repair after a storm. For instance, could you offer tarps and non-pneumatic tools like cap hammers that crews can use to fix and protect homes temporarily? The STINGER® CH38-2 & CH38A Cap Hammers are great for installing temporary tarps with cap staples in the immediate storm aftermath but are also valuable tools to install house wrap and protect homes from future moisture damage.
With many storms bringing heavy rains, look for products that boast protection against these elements. Don't just offer excellent underlayment or housewrap to keep moisture at bay. Instead, think of complete system solutions, like the STINGER CN100B Cap Nailing system. This system includes the CN100B pneumatic cap nailer that is fast to reload and easy to use and speeds up jobs, and NailPac®, the best-practice collated cap nail independently tested to hold on in category 5 hurricane-force winds up to 180 miles per hour and help seal out moisture.
Look for new products and cutting-edge solutions in trade publications to meet your customer's needs. That's an excellent starting point to learn about what's new and what could provide value to your customers.
3. Be a Knowledge Expert
It's one thing to stock new products, but it is better to be the knowledge expert so you can be your customers' go-to source of information. So get to know the products you offer to communicate the benefits.
Let's follow the example of the STINGER CN100B and NailPac, which boasts of meeting the standard requirements of a FORTIFIED Roof™. It's key to know that this is a level of protection in the Insurance for Business & Home Safety's (IBHS®) FORTIFIED Home™ program, which goes beyond standard building codes to ensure contractors build homes with maximum protection and strength against the elements.
In addition to providing the best solutions for your customers, being a knowledge expert will alleviate the pressure to stock tons of different brands—simply own and support what you do have. Of course, companies should have marketing materials to help you and your team learn and sell their product, but they also likely have materials to give to the customer.
While weather day to day can be unpredictable, you know big storms are coming. These tips will help you prepare so you and your customers can thrive.