10 Tips For Planning A Successful Fourth Quarter

The fourth quarter is the most unpredictable one of the year for remodelers and home improvement pros, and that is especially true this year, according to industry advisor Mark Richardson. He says that, much like in sports, the last quarter is typically when you win or lose and is not the time to cruise to the finish line. 

In his newest Remodeling Mastery podcast, Richardson addresses the unpredictability of the fourth quarter and offers 10 tips and insights that remodelers and home improvement pros can follow to help ensure a successful end to their year and position themselves for a great 2025. 

TIMESTAMPS

1. If you fail to plan, plan to fail: 8:54
2. Increase the energy spent on lead-gen and marketing: 9:32
3. Go deeper with your client interactions: 10:26
4. Create a sense of urgency: 11:15 
5. Rally your team: 12:13
6. Really know your numbers: 12:54
7. Time kills deals, but speed sells: 13:47
8. Understand why clients didn’t hire you: 14:49
9. Sharpen your skills: 15:37
10. Don’t panic: 16:50

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT

Remodeling Mastery is a podcast series that's really designed to help you reflect and think about your business. Think about the times, adjust, pivot, do what you need to do to be successful. What I try to do is take different topics that I think are especially relevant, not only relevant to certainly the market, but relevant to the specific businesses that I interact with. 

Today, I'm going to be talking about a topic that is somewhat relevant to the specific time frame, but I also think there's a lot of lessons, I think, in this overall theme that we'll talk about today. And the title is Q4 quarter number four. And just like in a sporting event, you usually win or lose a football game in Q4 what I'm finding interesting out there right now is that many, many folks are having relatively good in some kind, in some cases, record years, which is really good and a real testament to what people are doing in terms of really out there, putting their stake in the sand and making it happen. However, the game's not over in this year in particular, which I'll talk about. We've got some times that are, I think, a little bit Herky jerky a little bit uncertain. You know, I went into 2024 with a theme, and my theme was, 2024 is going to be a year of uncertainty. And we certainly had a lot of uncertainty that happened this year. However, as we get through three quarters of the year, we can't say, continue to say it's uncertain. It's uncertain right up to the buzzer or the finish line. The reality is, there's been a lot of very good focus things this year, and it's been very positive, you know. But a question I oftentimes get asked is, Mark, you know, it seems like you always make a big deal out of Q4 why is that? So? Here's the reason. Number one is that there's some historical elements when you think back in the remodeling industry, in the remodeling businesses, either I coach or certainly I led, and that history is simply this, the fourth quarter of the calendar year is always the most unpredictable quarter of the year. Why is it unpredictable? It's unpredictable because many, many of your clients, first of all, are filing tax extensions and really know what they did in terms of their taxes of the previous year, in October of Q4 you've got the holidays that are coming up that oftentimes, I think, have a lot of time, energy emotions. In many parts of the country, you see a shift in the weather conditions, and sometimes that becomes unpredictable. Matter of fact, many, many years ago in our business, we actually shifted our fiscal year to end at the first of October, primarily because that quarter in the year was the most unpredictable quarter. So by making it the first quarter of the year, not the fourth quarter a year. It allowed you, allowed you to adjust for the whole balance of the year so that you could actually hit and stay on target with your with your goals. The second is this year in particular, but also any presidential election, it tends to be a little bit more wonky, a little bit more problematic in terms of what's happening, and I think what's going on right now, certainly in our country, is that there seems to be a bigger divide, a lot more emotion, a lot more thinking about the election. Now you might say, well, you know, I'm not hearing that with my clients. Well, your clients may not be vocalizing it, but I can almost promise a well heeled clients going to be sitting back and thinking about what's going on in terms of the election, and because of what's going on, they may want to pump the brakes. They may want to push the pause button, and as a result of that, they may push projects off, or just not make their project really a priority until they see what's happened. Number three, I think, really wraps around your client themselves. Now I have talked about on many of my podcasts, your client is your biggest competitor. It's their fears, it's their anxieties, it's their ignorance, ignorance about price escalation, ignorance about timing on projects, ignorance about so many things related to the remodeling experience. And it's their overwhelm, their overwhelm in terms of just how busy, busy they are. So in Q4 I think all those things come into play, and I think that's why I make q4 a priority. And just like in a game, you got to have that edge right up to the final minute of the game. So with that being said, I've shared a few things from over the last year or so that I think have been important, kind of little adages and insights from Google and Cleveland research and house and other organizations out there that actually gather data on consumer sentiment. You know, one of the things that my friend Pam Torrey said from from Ingage, that I thought was really interesting as we came out of covid, the client has become feral. As you think about that, what does it mean to be feral? It means wanting more independence, wanting to control the process, and that makes, I think, Q4 even a little bit more tricky if, in fact, you have that kind of client that you're working with. You know, Jane Zeltsky With Google said, you know, your competition today is everything. It's their travel, it's the concerts, it's they're going out to dinner. It's all the things that in the covid times. And we've seen this come back in a pretty strong way, and the cup is overflowing, I think so you're competing at so many other things in terms of your clients lives. And certainly, last but not least, also a little highlighter headline from Google, and that is, I'm okay, but it's not okay. And if you think about that simple little phrase, I'm okay, but it's not okay. Your clients may be just fine. They're gainfully employed, they have the income, they have the savings, they have the ability to spend, but they're also looking at an economy. They're looking at a country. They're looking at a world out there that they don't think it's okay. So you might feel it's okay, I might feel it's okay, your clients might feel it's okay, but they're also saying to themselves, but it's not okay. And in that environment, you oftentimes want to push the pause button, sit on the sidelines a little bit and not necessarily be diving into a major remodeling project. So when you put all those things together, that's why I care about q4 so deeply. And I'm not an alarmist. I just truly believe that a professional leaves nothing to chance. You've got to think about these things, and then you got to prepare. And if you think about the market that you're in today, it is a little bit wonky, you know, it is a little bit Herky jerky. We've seen lead flow, for example, go two or three weeks where the phone's ringing, and then another two or three weeks where it's crickets, there's no calls coming in. You know, we experienced a lot of Herky jerkiness. We've seen projects that we were counting on clients pushing the pause button for all sorts of reasons, just pushing it out. Now, your clients may be giving you an excuse why they're pushing the pause button, but quite frankly, it could be just their overall sentiment of their overwhelm and how they're feeling about the market. We also continue to see cost escalation be at a point where that rubber band, I think for many clients, is really snapping, and not necessarily what it could be. So more than ever, I think today you need to be a hunter, not a farmer. You need to be hungry and not desperate, and you need to work harder in this first, this fourth quarter, and not just cruise to the finish line. So I've got 10 little tips and insights that I want to share with you that they're not revelations, they're simply little insights, little habits that you might want to put into place. 

Okay, number one on my list is to plan. You know, if you fail to plan, plan to fail, I think taking the time to really plan out. Q4 in a more detailed fashion, and not just waiting for things to happen. You got to get out there and make it happen. You got to be very proactive with this plan. You got to communicate this plan. Don't be reactive. Don't just let things fall in their place. If you plan, I think for q4 the likelihood that you're going to see a better outcome at the end of the quarter, at the end of the year, I think is going to be much greater. 

Number two on my list is increase increase your focus and energy on lead generation and marketing activities. You know, because of the uncertainty, unpredictability of the marketing we need to focus more time and energy on this. And I use the word very specifically, energy. It might be if you're spending 5% 10% of your time on marketing related activities, just increase that to 10% or 15% just by spending more time on it, you're likely to get one more out of 10, or one more flowing in your direction. Your past clients don't be strangers with those past clients. Really get out and proactively touch them, not so much for the reason of just generating a lead, but just keeping in touch, because it sets the stage for the future...