Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by pg t I University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor and I am your host. Good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and we are in a series called Executive Updates and we have some really exciting news that we are thrilled to be able to bring to our dealer audience. Today. In studio we have Debbie Lipska and special guest Chuck Upshire. And Chuck is with Service Financ, who is our new vendor for financing. And so welcome to both of you. Thanks
Speaker 2 00:00:40 Sherry. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:00:42 And so Debbie, just a brief recap of who you are and what you do here.
Speaker 2 00:00:45 I'm Chief Customer Officer for PG t Innovations and that encompasses sales and marketing for the entire organization.
Speaker 1 00:00:52 Awesome. And Tuck, welcome to PGT Innovations and welcome to our studio. Tell us a little bit about you. Well,
Speaker 3 00:00:57 I've been with Service Finance. I'm the Senior Vice President Director of business Development, uh, since 2011. My background comes from home improvement, sold Windows for years before I got on the finance side. And really do a lot of training with our larger organizations and how to implement financing to increase ticket sales, um, and really enjoy traveling around the country making, helping people make more money.
Speaker 1 00:01:18 Nice. It's fun that you're in the finance role, but you have a background in Windows that's pretty unusual actually.
Speaker 3 00:01:23 Yes. Had the most fun in my sales. In home improvement. Windows is probably the best.
Speaker 1 00:01:27 Yeah, well we are always striving to improve our offerings and there have been hints recently about a new financing provider. Rick Tyson mentioned it a little bit ago. Christie Sackett mentioned it recently and so we're thrilled that you're taking time to chat with us today. And so the understanding that I have is that PG t Innovations now has an exclusive partnership with Service Finance, which you're a subsidiary of Truist. Yes. And so Debbie, how did all of this come together? Well,
Speaker 2 00:01:56 As many people know, we have a strong focus on the repair and remodeling market in the window door space. So it's really a consumer channel that financing is appropriate to be offering to the end user. And so with our scale, we've grown to, you know, just a little over 700 million in products sold annually in the r and r space. And so as we talked to our dealers, there's an opportunity for us to really sell more product by providing them with a solution that they can present to a consumer. And so how we learned a lot of this was to survey our dealer base, really asking them about their understanding of consumer financing and how they use it. Would they use it? Why don't they use it? All those questions that would help us then select the right partner for us to pursue. So we went through a pretty extensive process.
Speaker 2 00:02:48 We did an RFP and we interviewed about four to five banks that we would consider. And so it was a pretty comprehensive group made up of, you know, the finance team, sales, marketing. Those were the three main areas that were interested in the financing across the board and what we found and why we're so excited about the relationship with service finance. You know, Chuck was involved in the process and he really brought in some exciting information that we didn't experience with anybody else. And that is the amount of sales training that they will provide and support us with. And that's the biggest thing I think that is gonna help us with the success of this program is how we get our sales reps engaged and how we engage our dealer partners to understand the benefits of offering finance. Even if they don't do it today, the goal is that they will do it in the future. And so that's what we're excited about and, and just many other things that service finance provided that the other banks did not provide. So again, just a great partnership. We feel it aligns with our core values and we're really excited to work with service finance on this new venture.
Speaker 1 00:03:53 That's amazing. And so what are some of the key benefits? And Chuck, this, the question is for you, what are some of the key benefits for a dealer to be able to offer financing to their customers?
Speaker 3 00:04:04 Great question. Well, in today's credit environment and where we sit today, it's very important that financing is offered on every appointment with different parts of the country. Especially here in Florida where we are, a lot of insurance companies are pushing that to harden the envelope of the home due to, you know, potential of hurricanes and storms. But the ticket sizes are very expensive for these projects. So the consumers have to do 'em in phases. And what financing does is allow them to sell on a monthly payment, which can get the customer to afford a 20, 30, $40,000 project and get it all done at one time, save money on their insurance and especially in Florida with the harling of the envelope. But more importantly, it allows consumers a third party to get the money. And what I mean by that is, historically consumers especially good credit, uh, could use equity in their homes.
Speaker 3 00:04:55 Uh, they go their banking at the money, but the way the credit is today when banks, the consumers credit lines and interest rates have increased. So they're leaning on third party finance more importantly today than they ever have. So I mean, if reps are in the home and not offering $250 payments to get windows and doors done, they're doing basically a disservice to the consumer. So what service finance does with our training, we actually go into the operations, teach the reps how to use our tools, our proposal tools, present customers different payment options, but more importantly we have options for the promotional buyer, which the consumers are looking to pay no interest. But also the customer is looking for a low monthly payment because we do have customers on fixed incomes here in South Florida and they need that low monthly payment to be able to afford to get those projects done. But as we've seen over the last two to three to four years, consumers credit, I mean financing is very important, but we also have tools to help businesses cash flow. And we offer progress payments and stage fundings that don't affect the consumer, but we allow the businesses to offer the financing, but more importantly continue to help their cash flow so they continue to grow their businesses.
Speaker 1 00:06:05 And so how does this actually work for our dealers? Like what do they need to do? Got
Speaker 3 00:06:12 It. So one thing is the education. I think education is power. So a lot of dealers historically have said, well, in my market, my customers are affluent and they don't need financing. So we educate them on the data that we have in specific markets, teach them the fundamentals of the financing, but more importantly options that work in their markets based off the data that we've had. So after we teach them that, then they can make a decision to move forward, which will take them through the enrollment process. We will assign a dedicated account manager for them. We will set up training for their back office. We'll set up in-person trainings with their sales reps to go over the tools. But again, more importantly, educate them on the process of offering finance every single time. If a customer doesn't need it, they'll tell you they don't need it, but if you don't offer it, they're gonna say things like, well I need to think about it, get back to me. Usually when a customer says they need to think about, it's because they don't have enough information and make a decision. So the financing really makes that important so they can make an intelligent decision. But more importantly too, think of the car industry. Without financing cars don't move off the lot and as and as expensive they are today, they're gonna put you in a budget that makes sense for you and you have to do the same thing well with Windows.
Speaker 1 00:07:27 Be sure to tune in for upcoming episodes to help you understand the fest station industry, what you need to know when buying windows and doors and other related topics. You can find out more about us@pgtuniversity.com. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn and I've used that analogy a lot of times around education. Like consumers are doing more homework before they go onto a car lot. They've already gone online and they've researched, you know, which kind of a car they want and what features they have to have and what the price points are. You know, they're not getting their first taste of car buying when they get onto a lot. And so that's one of the reasons that we started this podcast is so that consumers could find information about buying windows and doors before they go into a dealer. They understand what Lowe is, they understand the benefits of impact or insulated or whatever they're looking for. So we're in alignment with that for sure. This is a university channel, so yeah, so that's exciting. So for a homeowner and Chuck, I guess you're probably the best one to answer this, how does this work for a homeowner? So they walk into a dealership and they're convinced or persuaded or taking advantage of the financing that's available to them. What happens then?
Speaker 3 00:08:36 Got it. So a lot of times, I mean, you know, when the rep comes to a customer's home, you know, they get their lead sheet. Historically consumers black live in their home are 10 or 15 years and now they can't move cuz of the market that we're in. So they're trying to change the curb appeal. So they could have a lead sheet that says let's replace the front six windows on their home. You know, put some colonial grids in it, kind of change it up, you know, change the look of the home. So typically what will happen is rep will going to the customer's home, do their survey or whatever their process is, go through the customer's home, get some windows measured and I encourage that they always measure all the windows, even doors if that's part of something the customer has on their wishlist, because then they at least have the measurements.
Speaker 3 00:09:15 So when the customer comes back to them, if they're doing the project in phases, they already have them saved. But what this allows the rep to do in the home, especially some of our tools, is that they can actually give the customer a quote to do the front of the house. They could also give the customer an option to do the whole house, but then they also could show a third option to do the whole house with a door. And with our technology shows the customer the different affordability options and then the customer can make an intelligent decision right there on the spot on which one works best for their situation. So at that point in time, by scanning the driver's license with our technology, it'll import all the customer's information from their id, which really streamline the process and makes it very easy because as you know in this day and age, everyone wants everything on demand.
Speaker 3 00:09:59 So we can prep template that application, it'll then render a credit decision about four or five seconds so the customer can then go through our electronic process, sign their documents electronically, get all their questions answers right on a device. Once that is done, the rep can go ahead and move their project along to the next phase, whether that's a remeasure or something like that, the customer gets their documents electronically. We can actually progress pay and stage fund. That contractor, as we were talking about, does not affect the consumer. So if that window project's getting installed six months down the road or eight months down the road, their loan hasn't begun. So it doesn't actually start until the work is complete. So let's just use a 12 month promotional option. If it takes six months for them to install that work, that customer has 18 months of no payments on some of our promotion options where the clock doesn't even be getting ticking. So with the different options that we have, the versatility, it really puts the customer at ease from a standpoint of when they need to start paying, but more importantly looking out for our contractor, um, and allowing in the cash flow so they continue growing their business.
Speaker 1 00:11:02 So the dealer gets paid but the customer doesn't have to pay for it yet. Cuz you're providing that gap.
Speaker 3 00:11:08 Yes, and the great thing with service finance coming from the industry and the founder of our company coming from the home improvement industry, we know the importance of cash flow and with consumers leaning on financing. More importantly today than ever, we know those businesses can't grow without the cash. So we came up with a formula in a way internally to still cash flow them but not affect the consumer. Cuz a lot of lenders out there today, if the contractor takes their money, the customer's payment begins month one even though the work hasn't been installed. So we saw that as a flaw on when we came out with our process, we said we can't do that. The customer shouldn't pay until the work's complete. That's
Speaker 1 00:11:46 Really exciting. <laugh>, yes, I know a couple people that need to know about this. I have some friends that are like, Hey, I need new doors, can you get me a deal? I'm like, no <laugh>, but I can tell you who to go to that's not going to, you know, do you wrong. Yeah. But, and so I know that obviously we're gonna be launching out some promo materials and some things like that. Debbie, do you have anything you'd like to share around like how they can do that? Like for their websites or like what are we doing for that, do you know? Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:12:14 So we'll help guide our dealer in, you know, the best way to market themselves. I mean that's really what it's about in this added benefit of having consumer financing. And you know, you just heard a great feature that service Finance provides that we didn't see with any other institution, which is also, again, partly why we selected service finance because this is a big deal for our dealers especially. And then obviously the end user. But you know, we have our lead match program, which has been a phenomenal value add support to our customers. So as part of when we are qualifying a lead, we're gonna ask about financing of the consumer. So then when we send the lead to our dealer, they already know that this particular consumer is interested in financing and then help them as they create whatever advertising campaigns they're gonna launch to add a tagline or a statement about they offer consumer financing. It was interesting, I was having lunch a couple weeks ago with one of our dealers and it's a family business and the dad was like, oh no, we don't need financing. And the son says, dad, I was just on the phone with a customer and they asked if we offered financing, I need to know about financing. So
Speaker 1 00:13:20 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:13:21 It's gonna be an education, but we're excited to also be able to offer a 90 day promotional incentive for our dealers as we kick this off. And it's a partnership between, you know, PGT Innovations and Service Finance. So a lot of good things to come.
Speaker 1 00:13:36 That's amazing. I'm so excited about this. I know I can get financing if I buy a hundred dollars pair of sneakers on Amazon, like, oh, would you like four payments of this? I'm like, what? No <laugh>, I can just buy the shoes. So I mean that's even more valuable when you're talking about something as significant as windows and doors and right now they still have the sales tax holiday and it's just a good time to not have to put up your shutters anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:13:58 We're in the heart of hurricane season right now, right? So we're, you've got my safe Florida home, the tax holiday. We're running a a rebate right now, a consumer rebate on our PPG T Windguard brands and our CGI Sentinel. So it's all about getting consumers to mitigate their homes and really protect the most important asset that they have. So offering the consumer financing with service finance is gonna be another way, another tool to help them make that buying decision. Right.
Speaker 1 00:14:25 I can't imagine that we can make it any easier.
Speaker 2 00:14:27 Did we try and eliminate all the excuses, right. And just say, Hey, now it's time to buy.
Speaker 1 00:14:31 Yeah, no, exactly. Okay. This has been a very helpful episode. Is there anything we left out, Chuck, is there anything else we need to talk about?
Speaker 3 00:14:38 No, just, uh, follow what you said. We're continuing to make the process as easy as possible as a type A personality. Myself, as a salesperson, I know salespeople, if it's not easy, they're not gonna do it. So we're always continuing to make that process at the kitchen table, not only easy for the rep in the home, but more importantly making that process go smoothly for the customer as well.
Speaker 1 00:14:57 Right. Debbie, how is the rollout of this gonna happen? I'm guessing you have a plan for this.
Speaker 2 00:15:03 Yes, we do. Actually. It starts today. So not only doing this podcast, but Chuck is here to begin the training for our Salesforce. One of the most important things is our Salesforce being out there helping and promoting consumer financing with our dealer population. So this week and next week will be our Salesforce training, and then we are gonna be working on a rollout plan to our dealers. So the most important thing is to get our dealer owners excited about the program and then have them help us bring their staff in for training. So we'll be looking at regional meetings to make that more accessible for our dealer customers. And then pg t i and dealer ed, which is what you're responsible for, we're gonna lean on you to create some training videos so we can also make it available on the portal so that they have access to it online. Sorry. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:15:45 I know Jim was working on that and we'll make sure that that all gets posted. And I usually announce things like that on our social pages, so on LinkedIn and Facebook. So yeah, coming soon. All right guys, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much. Well
Speaker 2 00:15:57 Thanks for Thank you. All right,
Speaker 1 00:15:58 Have a great day. You too.
Speaker 1 00:16:00 PG t I University is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original Easy Breeze, porch and closure line, then became P G T, America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added cgi, CGI I C Window, Western Windows Systems, new South Windows, echo Windows and doors, and Lynn Windows and doors, and our latest acquisition Martin Garage doors. We create products built to withstand major storms, keeping people safe, secure, and prepared. Our exceptional brands give you the protection you need without compromising design or functionality. PPG t I University is here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
