When it comes to production painting, you need a tape that sticks until the job’s done.
Continue reading Surface Prep: A New Masking Option for Production Painters
5 Thoughts on Running a Family Business
This is the latest installment in the PPC magazine series Business Matters. This time: insights on running a family business.
Continue reading 5 Thoughts on Running a Family Business
Customer Pain Points: How One Commercial Painting Company Resolves Them
More than three decades ago, The Kaloutas Company was busy building a distinguished name for itself with a record of successful and efficient painting projects for commercial and industrial customers throughout New England.
Continue reading Customer Pain Points: How One Commercial Painting Company Resolves Them
True Colors: Get More Color Options Than Ever with Minwax® Wood Finishes
Advances in wood finish technology offer endless color possibilities. In the article, we’ll talk about choosing the right stain color, how to get dark, rich color, and more stain color tips.
Continue reading True Colors: Get More Color Options Than Ever with Minwax® Wood Finishes
Pro to Pro with Steven Foglia: The Right Paint for the Job
For more than 30 years, PPC magazine has been on job sites throughout the U.S. and Canada asking residential and commercial paint pros to share their stories. In our Pro to Pro column, we recap some of the best advice contractors have received and passed on over the last three decades. THIS TIME: Steven Foglia, Illini Paint Company, Decatur, Illinois.
Continue reading Pro to Pro with Steven Foglia: The Right Paint for the Job
SuperDeck® Puts Technology to Work
Product lineup delivers real benefits you and your customers will notice
The SuperDeck® product collection offers a complete care system for exterior decks, whether they’re new or old. Contractors love the easy cleanup and application features of SuperDeck products, while customers will enjoy long-lasting performance and protection, not to mention a beautiful finish.
Alex Sinclair, Director of Product Information at Sherwin-Williams, knows the superior benefits of the SuperDeck product line are no accident. Development teams at Sherwin-Williams are constantly engineering product formulations to deliver maximum benefits. Below, Sinclair discusses features and benefits of three key SuperDeck product groups. Continue reading SuperDeck® Puts Technology to Work
Be Likeable — It Pays
Common courtesy is part of a business-building communication strategy
Your bid offered a low price using reputable products and your workmanship is highly regarded, yet your competitor won the job.
What’s up with that?
If you’ve ever encountered such a scenario in the painting business, the answer could be simple: The customer simply liked your competitor more.
The fact is people often hire people they like, a direct result of emotions and biases they’ve formed on the basis of personal interactions. Business is often as much about the relationships you build as the services you perform. And if you’re failing to build connections with your customer on a human level, you may be building obstacles that your pricing, product selection and workmanship are unable to overcome. Continue reading Be Likeable — It Pays
How Building a Strong Connection With Your Sherwin-Williams Rep Is a Game Changer
Commercial/Industrial Painting Contractor Sees Their Rep as a Key Team Member
According to Waukesha, WI – based Porta-Painting President & Owner Amanda Martin, there are four adjectives that best describe her Sherwin-Williams sales rep for the past 11 years, Kevin Zei: Continue reading How Building a Strong Connection With Your Sherwin-Williams Rep Is a Game Changer
How to Build Your Team
Employer Resources Board provides tools to address the hiring challenge
A program developed by Sherwin-Williams features a collection of resources designed to help painting contractors overcome the current hiring challenges facing the industry. Continue reading How to Build Your Team
Tips on Spray Tips
Choose the most productive spray tip for your job
Your paint sprayer can help deliver maximum productivity and efficiency — not to mention a premium finish — but only if the spray tip you’ve selected matches the task at hand and the materials you’ll be applying. Continue reading Tips on Spray Tips
The PRO+ App — Letting You Focus on What You Do Best
Sherwin-Williams PRO+ account tools can help grow your business and improve your productivity
We understand the goals and challenges of being a PRO painter.
That’s why we’ve made a set of tools and services, designed just for PROs like yourself, to help grow your business and improve your productivity and profitability. A Sherwin-Williams PRO+ account — available by registering at a Sherwin-Williams store and then signing in at swproplus.com — provides a wealth of benefits to PROs. And the PRO+ Business Tools at your disposal, including the PRO+ App, figure to be especially valuable in growing your productivity. Continue reading The PRO+ App — Letting You Focus on What You Do Best
It’s Preparation Time for Exterior Painting Season
Get ready for outdoor painting projects with these tips
Yes, many readers may step outside and realize that winter isn’t quite ready to give up control of the thermostat. However, that doesn’t mean a successful painting contractor should just be thinking interiors till Spring finally arrives. Continue reading It’s Preparation Time for Exterior Painting Season
One Contractor’s Path to Commercial Success
Transition from res-repaint focus to commercial requires effective networking, planning, and patience, contractor says
Commercial painting projects continue to keep contractors busy to the point that demand for services often exceeds the working capacity of available contractors. Continue reading One Contractor’s Path to Commercial Success
Choosing a Sprayer
Selecting the right sprayer can improve efficiency and productivity, but only if it’s the right one.
Can a new paint sprayer improve your efficiency, maximize your productivity, and deliver a finish that your customers will notice? Continue reading Choosing a Sprayer
Selling Your Value Proposition
Get more work from customers who value quality
So you’re not the lowest-priced painting contractor around.
That’s fine. Certainly, a lowest-price strategy might earn you additional work, but the margins will be thin, your profitability will suffer, and the type of customer you land will typically be less likely to offer a referral or future repeat business. So while a low-price strategy sometimes make sense, it shouldn’t be your norm. Continue reading Selling Your Value Proposition
Making a Difference
Popular Paint Pro Training Videos help PROs — and their teams — achieve more
A Sherwin-Williams initiative designed to help grow the skill sets of new painters and address an overall painting industry labor shortage continues to be a major success, according to company officials and the contractors who benefit from it. Continue reading Making a Difference
Building the Customer Experience
Your appearance, attitude and timeliness all contribute to your customer’s satisfaction
A new paint finish may be what a customer has hired you for, but the experience of having you deliver that paint job is just as likely to leave a lasting impression. Continue reading Building the Customer Experience