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NARI MN names Content Craftsmen’s Tom Sweeney 2019 Member of the Year

November 12, 2019 by Tom Sweeney

Tom Sweeney NARI Member of the Year — Content Craftsmen President Tom Sweeney, left, named 2019 NARI MN Member of the Year, seen here with NARI MN President Guy Selinske

Minneapolis, MN, Nov. 12, 2019 — Content Craftsmen LLC founder Tom Sweeney was named 2019 Member of the Year by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI). He was recognized at the industry association’s annual Contractor of the Year (CotY) Awards dinner held at ARIA Minneapolis and attended by nearly 340 members and guests.

The group commended Sweeney for supporting member participation in NARI programs, recruiting new members and volunteering to consult on association marketing.

Since joining NARI five years ago, Content Craftsmen has become the leading marketing agency for creating successful CotY Awards entries for Minnesota remodelers. Sweeney produced nine winning CotY entries this year and the winning Associate Contractor of the Year (A-CotY) entry. Content Craftsmen also received six Pillar Awards of its own for supporting winning CotY entries.

“NARI membership is a must for any Minnesota remodeling company, building supply company or building products manufacturer. The opportunities for recognition, networking, event sponsorship and giving back are unsurpassed,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney worked on winning CotY entries for Hansen Hometech, Modern Design, Mom’s Design Build, Murphy Bros. Design Build Remodel, Hoffman Weber Construction, and Wise Design & Remodel. He also entered projects for APEX Construction Management, J Carsten Remodeling and JW Williams Construction.

“Producing CotY entries is the closest thing I do to when I served as a national home improvement magazine editor and publisher,” Sweeney said. “It’s about storytelling in words, photos and illustrations. Creating a CotY entry is a lot like crafting a magazine cover story.”

Sweeney interviews homeowners, project managers and designers, directs photo shoots, takes some of his own photos, writes the copy and creates PowerPoint presentations that can be up to 25-pages.

Mom’s Design Build Wins Another National CotY Award

April 15, 2019 by Tom Sweeney

Content Craftsmen client, Mom’s Design Build, once again won a national Contractor of the Year (CotY) Award from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. The 2019 honor was in the Residential Landscape/Outdoor Living under $60,000 category. It featured a Wayzata project by Senior Designer Heather Sweeney. She accepted the award Friday evening at the Association’s annual Evening of Excellence event in San Diego, California.

This home actually is a main house and carriage house that were joined along the bend of a road near the Wayzata Yacht Club. The owners needed a landscape that would shield them from headlights, reclaim part of the front yard for themselves, and bring clarity to the main entrance. Creating the charming country landscape the owners desired required removing an ailing stand of cedars and planting a garden in the now sunny front yard. Features include a classic arbor and gates, clay paver and bluestone paths, and an abundance of easy care flowers and shrubs. The owner says it is her peaceful, tranquil place.

Online Reputation Management for Minnesota Remodelers

April 13, 2019 by Tom Sweeney

If you operate a remodeling business, reputation management should be a big deal. And it’s not just about building nice projects and collecting positive online reviews. Internet savvy prospects will scrutinize you and your business from multiple angles before they consider hiring you.

Granted, some things that shape your company’s image are largely outside of your control. For instance, if you don’t respond to an Angie’s List inquiry fast enough, the unhappy homeowner might flame you online. Ask nicely and Angie’s will remove F grades for price and quality if the person didn’t actually hire you. But they won’t take down the other F grades that drag down your star scores.

Remodelers can build images

Make it easy for every happy client to post at least one positive review so the five-star favorables outweigh the occasional, almost unavoidable shamers. That’s a key service Content Craftsmen provides its clients.

Also build your business appeal by being careful not to unnecessarily sabotage your professional image in your personal life. One can argue that people should only care about how a person does business, but again it’s totally outside of your control how people form their opinions and decide where to spend their money.

Assume that some people will Google your name and your company name and your key management team (try it yourself). Whether they spot something they don’t like on your official website or a personal Facebook page or Twitter feed makes little difference.

Free Speech Comes with a Price

As a career journalist, I’m all for free speech and being true to one’s beliefs. Just understand that about half the people who buy remodeling services might differ with your most passionate positions. That goes for views on political parties, the courts, Congress, the President, Russia, the environment, the wall, immigration, religion, foreign policy, equal rights and social justice. The worst part is that you will never know how much business you miss. You won’t get calls from some on the other side or have any idea what they share with family and friends.

I’m not suggesting people will hire incompetent remodelers just because they share their views. But if it is close, they may favor the person who is most like them on politics, religion, ethnicity, hobbies, age and personality.

3 Tactics to Guard your Reputation

If you are okay with selling only to people who think and act like you, go ahead and post whatever you want online and make everything public. Then accept the positive and negative consequences. However, if your business growth strategy is built on appealing to a broader audience, you have three options:

Make your social media posts private so only approved contacts see them, not strangers and prospective clients.
Remove any references to your company on your personal profiles to create some professional separation.
Remove polarizing posts from your personal social media platforms and avoid sharing those views in business settings.

Content Craftsmen’s goal is to help clients avoid pitfalls, grow their businesses and operate efficiently so they can enjoy life. The simplest advice is to keep it positive. And on that note, meet our first grandchild, Liam. The only negative is that he lives 1,300 miles away. Can’t wait to see him next month. He’ll be eight months.

Content Craftsmen Qualifies Leads for Minnesota Remodelers

March 1, 2019 by Tom Sweeney

Although pursuing and qualifying leads is an essential part of every remodeling business, most companies are at a disadvantage because they know little to nothing about prospects before they respond. Consumers learn about the contractors via their websites and online reviews, but many contractors simply pick up the phone and dial for dollars when an inquiry arrives.

Content Craftsmen helps its remodeler clients level the field by conducting same day online research as leads arrive. This enables the contractors or their sales people to prioritize the best leads for quick response and to connect with prospects on a more personal level right away.

We assemble background on both the properties and the homeowners. Our summary reports usually include home value, detailed descriptions, photos, and the owners’ occupations, education and personal interests. We also speak with the most desirable prospects to gather specifics about their budgets, goals and competititve bidding plans.

Inquiries from platforms like Houzz and Angie’s List and the contactors’ own website contact forms often are incomplete. They may not even include an address. By efficiently tapping multiple online sources, we usually can give our clients a complete picture of each remodeling opportunity.

The Content Craftsmen Difference

Imagine that Sally O’Hara contacts a contactor on Houzz to inquire about kitchen remodeling. Meanwhile, Harry Peterson find the contractor on Google and reaches out through the website contact form. After some quick research, Content Craftsmen determines that Sally is married to Timothy O’Hara. Their home is worth $800,000. She’s a CPA and he’s a doctor. They have a son who plays hockey and a daughter who competes in Irish stepdancing competitions. They want to gut and enlarge their west metro kitchen. Meanwhile, Harry is a young do-it-yourselfer who lives in a hard to access $160,000 downtown condo. His idea of kitchen remodeling is to replace the countertop and sink and paint the old oak cabinets. Armed with this information, the contractor is equipped to respond efficiently and say all the right things to make a good first impression.

Some contractors are satisfied with our Content Craftmen’s G2 background report based exclusively on online research. Others prefer our premium G3 report that includes a phone interview to confirm and expand on the online findings. The G3 report often includes names of other contractors who are competing for the same project. Depending on our access, Content Craftsmen will submit the background reports by email or upload them directly to the the contractors’ CRM platforms.

We take the long view

Researching and pre-qualifying leads for busy remodelers may seem like a stretch from the storytelling Content Craftmen generates when projects are done. In fact, we like to be first in and last out.

We initiate and steer the remodeling relationship at the front end and follow the project through design and construction so we are poised to market the job and obtain positive online reviews and video testimonials at the end. Qualifying leads for remodeling contractors also helps Content Craftsmen identify projects early that will be strong candidates for awards competitions so we don’t miss taking before and in-process photos along the way.

Your time is valuable. Call me to learn how Content Craftsmen can help you prequalify, prioritize and convert more leads.

2017 Minnesota CotY Awards Winners

November 21, 2017 by Tom Sweeney

Minneapolis (Nov. 16, 2017) — One of the services Content Craftsmen LLC provides our clients is to prepare and submit entries to the annual National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s (NARI) Contractor of the Year (CotY) Awards. The competition starts with state titles. Then projects can be entered in the regional contest. Regional winners automatically are finalists for the national competition next year.

We worked on a record 13 MN CotY entries for our year-round clients this fall. They accepted crystal trophies for 10 of them tonight at the CotY Awards Gala held at International Market Square and attended by more than 300 NARI members and guests.

It took five of us to hold Mom’s Design Build’s 5 crystal 2017 MN CotY Awards. From left, Mom’s Remodeling Director Karie Zemlicka, Marketing Director Matt Tonak, Official Storyteller Tom Sweeney and Senior Designers Heather Grossmann and Becca Bastyr.

NARI MN received more than 80 entries for this year’s CotY competition. A total of 48 awards were presented in 26 categories. Content Craftsmen clients are shown below in blue with links to their websites. With five wins, Mom’s Design Build received the most awards of any NARI member. Tim Lemke Construction received three, the second highest showing. Apex Construction Management and Hoffman Weber each earned one award. And Knight Construction received an award for a project it entered on its own.

Entire House Over $750,000
Gold – w.b. builders
Silver – Hagstrom Builder, Inc.

Entire House $250,000 to $750,000
Gold – Anchor Builders
Silver – TreHus Builders

Residential Exterior Up to $200,000
Gold – Highmark Builders, Inc.
Gold – Mom’s Design Build
Silver – TreHus Builders

Residential Addition Over $250,000
Gold – MA Peterson Design Build, Inc Residential
Silver – Quality Cut Remodelers

Addition Up to $250,000
Gold – APEX Construction Management LLC
Silver – Jones Design Build

Residential Kitchen Over $150,000
Gold – Vujovich Design Build, Inc.
Silver – mackmiller design+build

Residential Kitchen $100,001 to $150,000
Gold — Tim Lemke Construction Inc.
Silver – Puustelli USA

Residential Kitchen $60,001 to $100,000
Gold – McDonald Remodeling, Inc.
Silver – Mom’s Design Build

Residential Kitchen Up to $60,000
Gold – McDonald Remodeling, Inc.
Silver – Hoffman Weber Construction

Residential Detached Structure
Gold – John Kraemer and Sons

Residential Interior Over $150,000
Gold – Bob Michels Construction, Inc.
Silver – Arbor Haus LLC
Silver – MA Peterson Design Build, Inc.

Residential Interior $75,000 to $150,000
Gold – Bluestem Construction
Silver – AMEK Custom Builders

Commercial Interior, Exterior, Specialty
Gold – Mom’s Design Build
Silver – Highmark Builders, Inc.

Residential Historical Renovation/Restoration Over $250,000
Gold – Nor-Son, Inc.
Silver – Tim Lemke Construction Inc

Residential Historical Renovation/Restoration Under $250,000
Gold – John Kraemer and Sons
Silver – Quality Cut Remodelers

Residential Bath $75,001 and Over
Gold – Bluestem Construction
Silver – Tim Lemke Construction Inc.

Residential Bath $50,001 to $75,000
Gold – Mantis Design & Build, LLC
Silver – DiGiacomo Homes, Inc.

Residential Bath $25,000 to $50,000
Gold – McDonald Remodeling, Inc.
Silver – James Barton Design Build, Inc.

Residential Landscape Design/Outdoor Living Over $60,000
Gold – Mom’s Design Build
Silver – Bob Michels Construction, Inc.

Basement Over $100,000
Gold – Finished Basement Company
Silver – Mom’s Design Build

Basement Up to $100,000
Gold – Finished Basement Company
Silver – Knight Construction Design, Inc.

Residential Project Under $15,000
Gold – Closets for Life

Residential Interior Element over $30,000 Over
Gold – Bob Michels Construction, Inc.

Residential Interior Element under $30,000
Gold – Closets for Life

Best in Show
Bob Michels Construction, Inc.

Best Newcomer
Refined Homes

Here are photos that Hugh Stoll shot of some of our 2017 CotY winners with NARI President Jason Myrlie. Unfortunately, Tim Lemke missed the photo op.

: JB Biancini, APEX

: Heather Grossmann, Mom’s

: Becca Bastyr, Mom’s

: Karie Zemlicka, Mom’s

: Philip Hide, Hoffman Weber

: Kristen Peck, Knight