Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
From Nail Tech to Shed Sales: Pam Karousis' Journey and Success Strategies
Ever wondered how someone can transition from a nail technician to a successful shed salesperson? This week, we promise you'll be inspired by Pam Karousis' incredible journey. Tune in to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic became the catalyst for Pam's career change, leading her to find her calling with Old Hickory dealer Mark Coplow. Pam's unique story highlights her dedication, creativity, and the joy she finds in providing tailored storage solutions for her customers.
Our episode is packed with valuable insights on how to excel in the shed industry. Learn from Pam's strategies on maintaining a positive attitude, avoiding high-pressure sales tactics, and truly understanding customer needs. We discuss innovative ideas like staging garden sheds with practical features and using rechargeable power packs to enhance customer experience. Discover the importance of a professional and inviting appearance, and gain practical tips on keeping your lot and office spaces clean and organized.
Marketing your sheds effectively on Facebook Marketplace is crucial, and we're diving deep into the best strategies. From detailed posts to adapting to social media changes, we share tips to keep you competitive. Hear about the significance of training, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and the benefits of industry-specific education and networking events. We'll also touch on the camaraderie within the industry and the endless opportunities for growth and innovation. Don't miss this engaging conversation with Pam Karousis!
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Versabend
Cold Spring Enterprises
Hello everyone, this is Susan the Shed Gal and welcome to this week's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. I have the absolute pleasure of having my guest this week. It's Pam Karousis. Pam and I have never met in person, just some interaction on Facebook. And Pam welcome.
Pam Karousis:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I'm a big fan of you and Shannon.
Shed Gal:Thank you. Well, I appreciate that because I'm a big fan of yours. We're just going to see where this leads, so tell me. Let's start out by telling me where you are and let's talk about who you represent and how you got into this really cool industry.
Pam Karousis:Okay, I'm located in Northeast Ohio. I'm close to Warren I guess that would be the biggest you know recognizable city. I have been at this little farm I don't know if you can hear my roosters, they're out there. I've been here for about 20 years and I was a nail tech before I got into selling sheds Really Interesting.
Pam Karousis:So during COVID, of course, the you know Attorney General, governor, whoever shut us down during COVID for our nail salon and when we started back up again, I had a lot of clients that weren't coming back in because of COVID. So I really needed to find another source of income, since I'm kind of running this farm all on my own. So I saw a Facebook ad that said they needed somebody to sit at this shed sales lot on Sundays and I thought, and they paid $100 for a Sunday and I thought, well, I could use an extra $400 a month. So I replied to the ad and he had me come in the next day for an interview and I think he kind of reluctantly hired me. He said, well, it's either hire you or interview 28 more people. So you're hired. Wow, and that made you feel important.
Pam Karousis:I had to pass a math test too, for, you know rent to own and all that stuff. It was hilarious. So I think I did good during the interview and I started working Sundays and within a month they added Wednesday and Sunday. So I had to tell my nail clients well, I'm working at this shed place on Wednesdays now, so I was two days a week and that was in July and it was only a couple more months. I think in October I told the nail place I had done nails for 35 years and I said the income that I'm making selling sheds no way compares to sitting here doing nails. So I just jumped with both feet into sheds full time and I have loved it ever since.
Shed Gal:So that that is so interesting. So I love the stories in this industry because everybody comes from somewhere but nails. I just had mine done yesterday, by the way.
Pam Karousis:You were pretty good.
Shed Gal:But coming from that you know what a jump, but yet again, not a jump as far as being a people person. So at that point you were working for a dealer.
Pam Karousis:Yes.
Shed Gal:And then, is that how it is currently, July what? What happened, what transpired and what Sundays was that? Was October that like three years ago, four years ago?
Pam Karousis:yeah, it was, uh, 20 2021. So july of 2021 I started um selling sheds on sundays and then in october that year I just quit doing nails and started doing sheds full time. Wow, so, yeah, it was kind of a push in the right direction. I'd been looking for something else to do. I wasn't in love with doing nails anymore and I absolutely love my job selling sheds. I started out with like a local dealer just a local, you know shed builder with like a local dealer just a local, you know shed builder and he just wasn't meeting my expectations for me or my customers. So I stayed with him a year hoping he'd get his act together, and it was pretty obvious he wasn't going to. So I quit there and within two months I had hooked up with an old hickory dealer, mark Coplow, and he owns four dealerships in Northeast Ohio and I work at two of them. So I work at our Parkland location I'm there four days a week, and then I work at the Kirtland location, and that's two days a week.
Shed Gal:Wow. So you're all in and yet you're working with a dealer, but you're kind of running the show at those two lots, aren't you?
Pam Karousis:Yes, yeah, he just kind of leaves me at that Perkman lot unsupervised and I get to do whatever I want.
Shed Gal:Well, and it's interesting because one of the things that I see you know online with you, on your, on your page and on the sales professional page, you're very, very creative.
Pam Karousis:Yes.
Shed Gal:And you do things. I've seen you finish off some buildings and I want to talk about that and I certainly will. We'll put some pictures in here to show some of the things you've done, cause every time I see it I'm like, oh, I wish I had that creativity in me. I just don't. It's just it's nowhere in here. So wonderful. So your six days a week, if you could pick the top thing you like about the shed industry and you're with again old Hickory, what's your top, your favorite thing about the industry?
Pam Karousis:It would have to be meeting the customers and finding out what it is that they're going to be using the shed for and then finding the perfect shed for their needs. So it's really important to kind of have that discussion with them up front. You know, what will you be storing in the shed, what are you using it for? You know and kind of get a feel for what kind of storage solution they're looking for or building use. You know a lot of people use their shed for other things.
Shed Gal:Absolutely, boy. Isn't that the truth? I think back of some of the uses that my customers use their buildings for. You know anywhere from just storing their stuff to. I had one gentleman, a couple, came in. They were wonderful, wonderful couple, retired and they bought one because he was using it as a quilting shed. I can't quilt, but I mean. But then they they finished it off with. They went to Habitat for Humanity and they bought this beautiful set of cabinets that looked to me like they were brand new for $150. And he had it all done up and they kept sending me pictures of the progress and my guess is he's still quilting in that quilting shed. So you know anywhere from animals to store it's fun.
Shed Gal:Tiny homes, you know whatever folks want to use. Tiny homes, you know whatever. Whatever folks want to use you had mentioned you know it's fun to find out their needs. That's so interesting because there's some things that are very different from doing nails to doing, you know, shed sales. But yesterday when I went and had my nails done, of course I just moved dark and saw.
Shed Gal:So I had to find a new nail place and and you know she said what are you looking for, what? What shape are you looking for? Do you want them cut shorter? Do you want? What color do you want they? Did you do the same thing? That gal yesterday did the same thing as far as asking questions and we don't slam anybody on our on our podcast but I heard you say some at the beginning that the uh, you know your expectations in the first year elsewhere weren't being met. I want to talk about that because I have an inkling of where this might be going, but we haven't talked about it. Without being negative towards anyone or a company, let's talk about in general what expectations were not being met, because my guess is a lot of our viewers are going to go oh, that sounds familiar. Or some of us will go oops, that's me, yeah.
Pam Karousis:Yeah. So you know, I think it's really important. My number one recommendation now, when people say, oh, I'm just looking, I'm just shopping for a shed, and I always say, oh, please check reviews before you decide on where you're going to buy, because it's so important to read the reviews of any company and do a little research before you get involved and actually put money towards that company. So that was one of the biggest problems was he just wasn't delivering sheds in the time promised. You know he would say six to eight weeks and it might be six to eight months, it might be a year, it might be longer than a year, and I just found that acceptable.
Pam Karousis:I tried to give him some leeway because we were just coming out of COVID and I was like, well, maybe this is how it is coming out of COVID with the shed industry. You know people are sick it's something. You know that's going on. But after a year of disappointing people, I have to be able to sleep at night knowing that you're going to get your shed and it's going to be perfect and the delivery driver is going to be cheerful and not have an attitude. So there was just a lot of things he was falling down on and I just couldn't deal with it anymore. So I am 100% happy where I'm at with K&K Barn Sales. They are wonderful. My boss is fabulous. The company just really reaches out of their way to make customers happy and do what they promise. So that was so important to me.
Shed Gal:I love that and wait, and I think you just misspoke because you said it was acceptable and what was happening before was unacceptable. And I'm glad you clarified that it was when coming out of COVID, because someone watching may say, well, when COVID everything went sideways, and that is true, but you're talking about coming out of when it's. Coming out of COVID sounds like maybe what you have now is a completely different customer experience, because I think you'll agree that it's the things we can't control that are so frustrating, and you know if a delivery goes sideways. No, I'm not talking that the delivery driver is sick or the hauler has a blowout on their tire They't control those things either but I'm talking about their attitude and those things. So I'm glad that you're having a much better experience because at the end of the day, we all know the person selling the shed is the one that gets the negative review yeah and gets the customer mad and and it's um, I'm seeing some changes in the industry.
Shed Gal:I think you know, perhaps a few years ago and congratulations, by the way, and your three-year anniversary for July, that's super excited. My, my seven-year anniversary, august 1st very exciting. There's a picture behind me. Oh, right there, look at that. I pointed at it. I'm not going to zoom in because my husband will get so mad.
Shed Gal:but prior to having a bad experience buying a shed which led me into the shed industry, my husband bought a shed and we spent thousands of dollars and it didn't meet my expectations, and so we started looking and that's when I found that the shed industry really was lacking at least in my area. It was really lacking folks that knew what they were doing, what type of. When you're giving a customer a good customer experience, how are you setting the expectations with them?
Pam Karousis:Well, I think the number one thing is to always have like a positive attitude when you're approaching a customer that comes to the lot. I don't want to be pushy. These high pressure sales are not for me, and I tell them I'm just here to give you information and help you make a good decision. If you'd like me to email you a quote, we can email a quote for you to look at. That is no problem. It takes five minutes. What kind of shed are you looking for today and what kind of things are you planning on storing in your shed? And I think the one big thing we get is oh, we're out of room, the garage is full. We have to get our cars in, especially Northeast Ohio, for the winter, you know.
Pam Karousis:Oh yeah, they have to start you know somewhere to get all this stuff out of the garage. And I tell them well, when you get your shed, make it your garage sale shed, cause that's kind of good advertising for me too.
Shed Gal:Absolutely, boy. It sure is, and that's that's probably, for me, over the years, the most common reason of it's. Either my wife said that I need to get the stuff out of the garage, or my husband said, or, but that is a big deal. And and I know we myself, I personally had that problem too. So, yeah, so you're asking questions to determine their needs. You're using the opposite of a high pressure sales pitch. Yeah, I love that and, let's face it, there's probably dealers out there that a high pressure sales pitch works for them, and if it works for them, I'm not suggesting they not use it. But I love that we can talk about all different facets, because there is no one size fits all. Right, I spend a lot of my time training dealers and we talk about that. That. You know, just because it worked for me doesn't mean it'll work for you. You have to buy into it. So do you have an identity? I mean, obviously I have an identity in the shed industry of being shed gal. Do you have an identity, or are you Pam?
Pam Karousis:I am Pam. I am, that's how I introduce myself to customers. They always remember my name. They never come back and say you know, what was that girl's name? They always remember that. So it kind of creates a real friendly first approach. And I tell them I'm just here to answer questions. Let me give you a little bit of information.
Pam Karousis:I kind of throw out, you know, the big differences between the lofted and the utility sheds. Those are two most popular, and I give them the options for the utility shed, you can make the walls taller. And I show them the difference. And they're like wow, you do get a lot more room. And you know the lofted shed, you might get 80 more square feet of up storage on a 10 by 20. You know that's important. So if you need 80 more square feet, it's worth a couple hundred extra dollars to do that. You know, do you want the door on the end or the side? And they're like oh, we have a choice. And it's like you know, my personal preference is to kind of walk in and go left or right instead of walk in the end and walk through 20 feet of my stuff. And they're like oh, yeah, that's a good point, you know that is a good.
Shed Gal:that is a good point. I like the way that you I'm hearing you already you're painting. What you're doing for me is you're painting the picture in my head of just by the words you're saying yeah, and I can see why customers love you. I mean, I can see why because okay, and let's continue on, that was good because okay, and let's continue on, that was good.
Pam Karousis:So I do have one shed on our lot in Parkman that I fixed up to be like a garden shed. So I staged this shed and I actually bought one of those camping fish cleaning tables at the outdoor store next door to us and you know it has the little sink in it. So I bought that and then I put marble contact paper on the countertop part and on the sink. I ordered a rechargeable water faucet from Amazon for $10. And I hooked that into a five gallon water reservoir and then you have the wastewater go into like a waste can with a lid and now you have a sink to wash your hands and it costs you $10 plus the table and the contact paper, but now you have a way to wash your hands in the shed. So people are just blown away by that.
Pam Karousis:The power packs are so popular. Our office is run off of a rechargeable power station, they call it, and I just bring it home at night and charge it up and bring it back the next day and it runs the office. It doesn't make coffee, I gotta tell you, but it does run lights, monitor, computer. You know the lightweight stuff. But yeah, it was a failure on the coffee. I think I'd have to spend a lot more than you know $150 on that. Right, I have my little garden shed set up and I do have a four foot LED light above the little you know sink table. And I go look, you just need this little power pack. You don't have to trench line, you don't have to run electric out there, you could have electric in your shed to run small stuff like this. And I turn it on and they're just like, wow, power and water. And I'm like, yeah, so that is a big draw.
Shed Gal:It is a huge draw and that's you know, I had reached out to you when I saw the pictures of that, because I was like number one. Even if I had seen a picture, I would have thought, oh, you know, to be able to get water would be so expensive. And would have thought, oh, you know, to be able to get water would be so expensive. And did I just hear you say it was ten dollars. I mean ten dollars for the part that runs water. And then, yes, yeah, we're gonna, um, I think we're gonna uh, put a little line item here of how much it would cost to do that, and you're going to have people that copy you doing it, and that's totally fine. One of them's gonna be me.
Shed Gal:Yes, that's fine you know it doesn't matter if people copy what you do when it's working. You're late, you're definitely leading the pack. And then the power station. I actually worked with the dealer up in Washington state and she had one of the power it's probably the same thing that she took home at night and it was kind of the size of a battery. Is that what it would? Yeah, yeah, and I was like whoa, I didn't even know anything like that was available. Our first lot did not have power of any type for 18 months in western washington. It was very fun on a dark, gray, drizzly day. But you know, you do what you have to do and you get scrappy, you know. So I love it. People are going to love seeing the pictures of that garden shed, because that your creativity and just like thinking outside the box of being able to show potential customers. You can do this too, and it's economical Absolutely. If money is not an issue, anybody can do anything, but it's usually an issue.
Pam Karousis:So the big upside to that is that they'll often start designating some space for that station. So now you're selling an extra four feet of shed space instead of, you know, a 10 by 16. They'll go oh, you know, we should do a 10 by 20 because we're going to have water a 10 by 16, they'll go.
Shed Gal:Oh, you know, we should do a 10 by 20 because we're going to have water, right. Well, what a creative way to get them. I mean, it's it's, yes, it's upselling, but it's if they have the need and they want water in there, they're just naturally leading themselves to a bigger building. So how cool is that? How cool is that? I did a little market research, um, I think the other day where I went online and I just pulled up different zip codes and I I uh pulled up tons of different dealers with all different companies posts. So I wasn't, you know, I wasn't trying to pick on anyone and one of the things I saw is almost every single dealer's post looked the same. I feel like you get a little more creative and tell me about. You know when customers are coming to you, aside from the people that drive by and stop in. Where are you getting your customers from? What are you doing?
Pam Karousis:Yeah, Well, I think, just from the drive-by standpoint, we used to be in a very small town, just about eight miles from where we're at now, and we were like on the driveway back to Walmart in a small town and it's a mostly Amish village to go to Walmart. That lived in that area and my boss and I had a talk and he says, well, I'm thinking about moving the lot. So he moved the lot. Like I said, about eight miles away, we are at a very busy intersection now. So we are right at the corner of two big intersections and the traffic is going to Cleveland and Bainbridge and all these big cities around us and it has been a huge thing for us to have more drive-by traffic interested.
Pam Karousis:Facebook Marketplace is the other one that I do a lot of advertising on and I try to give as much information as I can in the ad about the size and the features and, you know, the scrolling, payment options, delivery stuff like that, just so that they read through and they think, wow, you know this place is very upfront about what their you know expectations are going to be for me to get my shed, how to pay for it, and I think I, when I read the other people's ads. They're very vague, they're like you know. Come down and see this eight by 12 shed and it's like well, wait a minute. Well, how do I pay for it? Do you offer rent to own? How long do I have to wait for delivery?
Shed Gal:Yeah, I go around and around with dealers all the time about put the who, what, when, where, why and how in your posts. It is a proven fact that consumers are not. When they're scrolling they're not. Yes, someone may search Shed in Marketplace, but consumers, typically it's the path of least resistance. If I'm scrolling or I'm in a group and a post pops up, I'm not going to go to that person's Facebook page or have to search for who they are or where they are or how to contact them. And I've heard, you know well, we all know Facebook's never, we're never going to outsmart Facebook. When something works, they, you know. When something works for us, they're going to change it to monetize it for them, and I mean they're a business, that's what they do. But I'm I'm seeing a pattern nationwide with dealers who provide more information and that it looks nice and it's in paragraphs and it says who, what thing; where, why and how. And I literally see if you took 100 posts, my guess is 80 of them If you just if it's just random. You know you've got pictures and there's nothing in the post that says their business name, where they are or anything, and it's just folks, come on, it's 2024. What worked for you five years ago in marketplace is not going to work today. And you know you're in the shed sales professionals page.
Shed Gal:I recently saw a post where someone was. There's been many posts where people are struggling. There's no doubt. There's no doubt, but there is cause and effect. If you look like everyone else's posts, you're going to be in the masses of struggling and I can't encourage that. So I'm so glad that you brought that up. One of the things, too. I've had several dealers say well, the algorithms of Facebook are bad if you put your address in. Well, that may have been true years ago, but it's not true now. And I know that it oftentimes blocks the phone number. But get it in your logo. You can get your phone number in the little picture of the logo and use it as one of your pictures. So just, you know, that's just some helpful advice. And it's like the, the dealers like yourself, that are doing really well and are not. We all have ebbs and flows. It's it isn't you know any one particular thing, it's just it's never going back to covid. Oh, we hope it never goes back to covid.
Shed Gal:That was just a rocket, even though sales skyrocketed. But there are certain things that I think you can agree when you're looking, that if you're scrolling through, there are ads that are posts that are much more attractive than others.
Pam Karousis:Yeah, and I think having more pictures. You know, the one thing that really bugged me is people that will put a picture of you know, the front of the shed and there's your picture and people are like, well, what does the inside look like? And I'm like you know, why don't you have pictures of the inside? Why don't you have more pictures of the side, the back? You know they're looking for information to buy a shed.
Pam Karousis:And am I going to buy a shed from somebody that just puts the front of it and says here's an eight by 12 or 10 by 20? Or am I going to buy from somebody that has more pictures and they're showing everything they're upfront about you know, the delivery process, the warranty, how to pay for it, how to contact us, what our business name is, you know. So who am I going to buy from there? The person that's looking kind of sketchy over there with just a picture Washington come look at this shed? Or am I going to be buying from somebody that's putting a lot of information out there so that I can read through it and then have questions about, well, let me ask them this or that and then give me a call. So that's what I'm looking for.
Shed Gal:I love that and I was kind of laughing in my head because I didn't use Facebook Marketplace prior to getting into selling sheds and I boy, I wish I had. You know, I printed out and saved a few of my first posts Because if I look back, I'm sure they were absolutely horrific. In fact, I'm sure they're like what I see a lot of now and it worked seven years ago, like what I see a lot of now. And it worked seven years ago because when I started, washington State there wasn't. I can't even think of another dealer up there and of course it's still in its infancy South Carolina back Washington State now. But you see a lot more companies and a lot more dealers posting. I mean, my pictures were horrible, my content was horrible, but what I did was, you know, I tweaked it and I looked at the results and I tweaked it and I looked at the results and and uh it. You know, what works seven years ago is not going to work today. It's not. I have not found and I could be wrong, it's happened before many times. I could be wrong in this but I have not found a successful dealer that their posts look like everybody else's.
ADVERTISMENT:Greetings from the Shed Gal. As I delve deeper into the shed and steel building industries, I am thrilled to establish connections with friends who offer amazing products, such as Wendell Hochstetler, the owner of VersaBend Tube Bender. At VersaBend they They thank you for your interest in their tube bender. The VersaBend is designed to bend two inch, two and a quarter inch and two and a half inch square tubing, as well as two by three inch rectangular tubing in either 14 or 12 gauge. Powered by a robust five horsepower unit, it features two adjustable stops for setting your desired degree or pitch. Priced at just $19,500 and shipped from South Carolina Carolina, you can secure your VersaBend with a down payment of only $1,500. Contact them today to check availability and get placed on their order list.
ADVERTISMENT:is a family-owned business dedicated to providing an easy-to-operate bender made with off-the-shelf components. A unique feature of their bender is that it offers a full radius bend, unlike the double crushed bends produced by most other machines. Want to see it in action? Visit their website at wwwcsecarportsupply www. csecarport. supply give them a call at 864-446-3645.
Shed Gal:With AI I was doing playing around with geminigooglecom. That's a I'm not a paid spokesperson, but spokes gal. But I was playing around with writing posts the other day on it. It was like holy cow. Like it gives you suggestions.
Shed Gal:You know, it didn't give me any suggestion to say you know new eight by 12,. You know shed. It gave me just exactly. What you're saying is the who, what, when, where, why and how. Now, if it worked better the other way, wouldn't AI be telling us so?
Pam Karousis:Yeah, isn't that the truth? And you know you have to kind of look at everything from a customer's perspective because once they see the ad and they come in you have to think does my lot look inviting? Is everything trimmed? Can they walk around and open doors? And the sheds are clean and swept out. You know I'll go through and wash windows I would before delivery. That shed is swept out, the windows are washed, the screens are clean. I take one look around and I'm like, yeah, this is how I would want my shed delivered. And I kind of panic if the driver gets there and I haven't done it yet. I'm out there with my broom and my Windex paper towel, so he goes, Pam, I go, I'm sorry, it just can't leave until it's done. So you know the lot has to look great.
Pam Karousis:My office has to look great. I want people to walk in my office and go, wow, my shed could look like this. And that's the wow factor that I'm looking for is everything clean, neat, organized, right within my reach. Do you know? I don't want to be stumbling around and looking for color samples or something. I want to be able to reach over and say, well, here's our brochure and here's my business card, and do you need a pen? So you just have to kind of set it up from a customer perspective. Are they going to walk in and are they going to be impressed with how you have your office shed set up, and maybe it gets them thinking mine could look like this, wow.
Shed Gal:Right, I'm 100% with you. I mean, in my head I'm like I'm doing two weeks of training this week and then next week that I'm doing for two separate groups. I'm like man, I wish I had more notice. I would have had you come out and train these folks, because this is literally the stuff we're going on. Where I've gone into many, many, many dealers, lots with all different companies throughout the country, you just never know when the shed gal is going to pop up.
Shed Gal:I'm not looking to catch anybody. I love the people, but I'm telling you, when I go into an office that's got papers piled up to here, you know they don't have flyers that have their name and number on them. They don't. You know it is the and again, I've always said that I always look at everything from the point of the customer walking in. It is there are order takers that are struggling in this industry and there are people that are working really hard and they're still struggling. And then there are folks that are have found all the pieces and I think the biggest thing in this podcast we're not picking on anybody. It's to give people hints. I want and I, I my guess is you're the same way I want everyone to succeed.
Pam Karousis:I want everyone in this industry to succeed.
Shed Gal:There are enough customers for all of us and unfortunately, I keep seeing folks drop off good people. They're good people. So let me ask you this Did you just naturally know what to do, or did you get training of what to do?
Pam Karousis:The first job I had. They kind of were like here's how you write up an order, here's how you do this, you know online thing, here's how you send. And it was just basically about how to make them money. And I looked around at their office. They had a beautiful office, but it needed cleaned, it needed swept, it needed organized.
Pam Karousis:And the other fellow that worked at the office I was there two days a week, Sunday and Wednesday and he'd come in and he'd go two days a week Sunday and Wednesday and he'd come in and he'd go wow, you know, I mean, what have you been doing? He noticed what have you been doing? I mean, and the office I'm in now that I have, you know, fixed up to my standards. Two previous employees have stopped by and they just walked in and went wow, I love what you've done to this office. And I'm like, hello, you could have done this too, you know. And the one fellow said well, I didn't want to put a lot of money into it. And I said this is contact paper on these shelves. It wasn't expensive. I swept the floor.
Pam Karousis:I organized the shelves so they looked attractive. I mean, I added my own little knickknacks here and there and I added a light fixture, my power pack. You know they've been working without it. I don't know how, but you know it's it didn't. It wasn't expensive to fix this up, people you just needed and my friends, that they get very frightened when I say I have a vision for this space. They go oh my god, no right vision.
Shed Gal:Everybody, hurry, get out because they think it's going to be expensive. But yeah and it, um, you know, I just look at it again. Going back to the customer thing, if I I'm a potential, it's 2024. You know, you walk into a business, I mean the expectation is it's going to look like it's a professional, even if you're selling a shed. I am a professional that sells sheds and it, you know, I think we, I think that's a big issue in the industry is people, they don't look at it from the customer point of view and that's interesting. Tell me about the signage you have and what's, what's the? Is there a business name for the, for the old Hickory dealer that you work for? You mentioned his name. Is there an actual business name?
Pam Karousis:You mentioned his name Is there an actual business name, it's K&K Barn Sales and he owns a lot in Parkman, Kirtland, Harry and Elyria. So he has four locations and I just work at Parkman and Kirtland.
Shed Gal:Those are my two Girl. Don't minimize it, I just work at those.
Pam Karousis:I wish I had time to go to all of them, because I just love meeting all the people and helping them out, but it's, it's just very interesting how just you know fixing up stuff and looking at the obvious stuff that your customer is going to look at and saying, yeah, that doesn't look so good. I need to, you know, clean this up over here. I need to reorganize, you know. It's just to me, basic common sense. I I really approach it from a customer's point of view and I don't think a lot of people do that. They just are like, well, this is my most messy and
Pam Karousis:you know, you, you can't be like that. You have to wow the customer the whole way through their experience. And I've had customers say, well, we're just looking and I'm like, that's fine, I'm just here to give you information, go ahead and look. And they go ahead and look and they call me an hour or two later they're like we're ready to buy and I'm like, oh, okay, good, so no high pressure from me. I'm here to give information, help you with your decision, help you find what works for you If you buy from me, fine, and I would say a very high percentage of my customers, you know, return the call, call me back and buy.
Shed Gal:Well, and I can see why in just this half hour or so that we've been talking, I can see why that you're exceptional building rapport. Uh, you know it's funny you mentioned. You know they say I'm just looking. That is a natural instinct that people do and some, so I've heard some dealers take it literal. Well, they were wasting my time because they were just looking, folks, and that's nonsense. It's not that it's a self-protection thing. I mean, I do it.
Shed Gal:You know, I go into a furniture store. We recently were in a furniture store, had an absolutely fantastic experience. Didn't buy because I did want to go look and I told her I am going to go to this other store. But you know and she's like you know what I'm going to give you my card because you can actually you're welcome to come back, but you could actually call me and we can, we can write it up over the phone.
Shed Gal:And I went to the second furniture store and the poor young man needs some help. He was like you know I walked in. It was the high pressure, just and I, you know, I answered his questions and said we are just looking, we'll walk around, I'll let you know if you have any questions and I turn around, I was walking away and he still he keeps asking me questions and I was like whoa, like I wasn't trying to be rude to him, like I answered his questions and I was going to go do what I said and I it was uh, it was icky, I didn't like it and you know we, we left there and I called the gal. Well, my husband called the gal back and we did the order of the phone and it was absolutely fantastic. So you know, to each their own.
Shed Gal:I mean that young man's style might work for some, but I think in today's day and age we have too many other people to choose from to be uncomfortable when we're buying something, to be uncomfortable when we're buying something. So if you're listening or watching, keep in mind, just because someone says I'm looking, sometimes they're just saying I need a little bit of space. And if we do our job, like Pam was saying, it's that low pressure, but providing them the value of giving them an answer for what they need. What did you say? Sometimes they call me back in an hour or two. I mean that's ideal, that's what we want.
Pam Karousis:I would say the majority of the time they call me back, if not within an hour or two, within a week or so, and I have a very good you know callback rate connection with these customers and they're just like and they'll tell me at the end of our deal. They'll say you were so helpful, you answered all of our questions, you thought of things about this design that we didn't even consider. You know, I had a really lovely couple in yesterday and they were getting a lofted what we call a playhouse shed. It has the front porch and the loft and all that. What we call a playhouse shed. It has the front porch and the loft and all that. And they were beekeepers. So they just loved my little display shed that had the water in it.
Pam Karousis:They were like you gotta be kidding me. We can have water, we don't have to dig a line. I'm like you could wash all that sticky stuff off right here. You know she was taking pictures and I do have like a Facebook page where I've put all my tutorials on how I did all these shed designs. So she, you know, jumped on she, I sent her the link, she jumped on that and she's like oh my gosh, look at all this stuff. I was like, yeah, there's plenty there and everything is outlined a to z, how I did it, how much it cost, what I spent, everything.
Shed Gal:But people love that. Because people love it, because they can envision it. Do you? What is that link? Do you mind sharing it? You might get some followers that'll get some helpful hints.
Pam Karousis:Yeah, so I am the only Pam Karousis in the world. So if you message me on Facebook I can text you the link to my Facebook page that has all of that information. You know they're like those big long link things. So, yes, yeah, so I can't really share it now, but if you message me I'll be happy to share it with you because I think for this shed industry to get more people using their shed as more than a shed- oh, absolutely so good, that's the way it's going.
Shed Gal:I mean, I'm just thinking of even the difference in the last three years of what companies are offering, and we're going to get to that in just a minute. But I want to go back to what kind of signage do you have on your lot? My, my guess is you've got some nice signage, and I don't mean the most expensive signage, but my guess is, when people drive by, they know who, who you are.
Pam Karousis:So, I'm working on my boss to get assigned by the road. We just moved there last July, and he is a super busy guy. He builds ramps and he does site prep for people. He does shed demo, so he's overcoming all the objections that people have about getting a shed. Well, I'd like to get a shed, but I have this old shed. He goes oh no problem, we offer shed demo. I'm going to need a ramp to get my mower in no problem, we build ramps. I would like to get site prepped on? No problem, we offer that. So, you've got to get good at overcoming the objections. I want to go back for just a second and talk about the loft with these beekeeper people.
Pam Karousis:They put an eight foot loft in the back of the shed because that's where they were going to do their honey stuff.
Pam Karousis:And I said to them I'm very concerned about this eight foot loft. I mean on our shed builder program you can look at it in 3D and I said I'm worried about the stuff at the back of your eight foot loft. And they go what do you mean? I go, how will you ever reach it? I said my suggestion would be to do two lofts that are three feet deep and put a three foot space in between so you can come up and go to either side of that loft and get your stuff. And they went to either side of that loft and get your stuff and they went oh, wow, yeah, you're right. And they just looked at one another like man. She really thought of a good idea there, but I did have concerns and I wanted to run that past him. If they'd have said nope, eight foot, I would have went okay. But I think they're going to be much happier with the spacing so that they can reach everything.
Shed Gal:I completely agree and I'm just thinking in my head. Numerous times I said to folks when they were talking about storage, something similar, now it was different if they were using it for different uses. But I would say I don't know about you, but I know about me. If I put some of the back of that 8 or twelve foot loft, I am not doing this, I, I it'll. You know, you're never seeing that when my kids are going, you know some will happen to me. I'm, you know, not here anymore and my kids will be going through it 40 years from now and they'll be like why did she save this? So yeah, exactly yeah.
Shed Gal:And you, you said something and I think actually that you're doing something different. You said overcoming objections, and what I hear you actually doing is preventing them, and there's a difference. Um, you know we could, you know, isolate the objection and acknowledge the objection and overcome it, and that you know okay, know okay. If that works for you, that's fine, but it's 2024 and it is so important to prevent that, like the demo, you're preventing because you already have a solution. I love that. It's being proactive and I think when I am doing that, it's because of problems that have come up in the past. If I got someone saying so many times you know so many different potential customers had the same issue it was like, okay, how can I prevent this? How can I address it up front? You know, we've got your solution.
Pam Karousis:Yes, we've got your solution and we see the same problems. You know, all the time you have the customers with the same problems.
Shed Gal:Yeah, so yeah I you know I actually printed off a bunch of uh posts the other day for this training I'm doing and and that section is going to be called.
Shed Gal:This is your competition and you know, when we get to that part of the training, the, the mindset has changed because we know so many dealers are struggling and having the same issues and so once I get to that point, they're already going to acknowledge that they need to be different. And because if I, if I take that training right up front, they're going to be like, yeah, it looks like my post too. But when I get them to that point, when I was looking at these posts, I'm like, wow, just the dramatic difference. And there's, I think it comes down to training, and you had oftentimes it comes down to training you had mentioned when you started basically, here's a little training in our software and that's what I got with the first company I represented seven years ago was, you know, here's an hour, hour and a half of training and then good luck, and that was it. That was it. I mean every single thing.
Shed Gal:I mean every single thing I had to learn. Hence I have literally the best standard operating procedures in the industry hands down in writing. Very valuable Because it's like how is it in this day of technology that in our industry, for some reason, we're still behind?
Pam Karousis:Yeah.
Shed Gal:Is that what you're seeing too?
Pam Karousis:Well, it's very unusual, I think, for a shed dealer to have SOPs. You know, people are like what's an SOP? It's like it stands for standard operating procedure. It's what you expect your employees to do. It's what you expect how you expect them to handle different situations, how you expect them to do yes, how you expect them to do yes. I just want you to do what I'm doing. You know, just keep the lot clean, be approachable, be friendly, leave your problems at home. You, try to help the customer. I mean, there's just so much to that that people don't stand back and look at you know, how am I coming off to the customers that are coming onto my lot or calling me? Am I being helpful? Am I being the person that they need to talk to to resolve their problems? And are they getting that? You know, positive vibe, and you just have to be the one to provide them with, you know, friendly, comfortable information, and that's been working for me.
Shed Gal:When we go back to the standard operating procedures. I mean, I have standard operating procedures for myself that are completely different from my employees, because a lot of the dealers that are watching and listening it's them. You know they own their, they own their job and they're not knowing what to do. So then when they hire someone now, we have oftentimes even more of a train wreck or it gets in a situation where a really good person who has great potential just gives up literally before the miracle happens and and uh. But every everything that I've done has been because of the issues I had along the way and it stemmed from a lack of training. And it's interesting in this industry. Now I do see you know a lot of companies that are starting to catch up. Certainly technology has with ShedSuite and different programs and CRMs and marketing companies like Shaggy Marketing that really know the industry. Those things are catching up.
Shed Gal:But for the normal dealer who's just starting, they don't have the money for those things, but you know, with the education that is free. I think it's life-changing stuff. Someone said to me the other day you know, I I offered myself up to to help a dealer and I just said to them well, let me know when you have questions. But they never let me know and I said, because they don't know what questions to ask. It's the way you know, we you know, and and I think I bet you see that too. So I love that, I love it, I love it.
Pam Karousis:I love it I had actually met Shannon at Shed University in Knoxville a few months ago. It was a fabulous experience. I got to meet other people in the shed industry. We got to talk all about what they do, that, what works for them, throwing ideas around. It was just so refreshing because it was such an isolated industry. You know, doing nails, we have to have continuing education. Every year you had to have, like I don't know, 20 hours or something. But you know, with sheds you don't have any continuing education. You're just kind of thrown out there on your own. So the Shed University for me was just like a big wow factor.
Pam Karousis:I live in Ohio and I drove to Knoxville to go to this Wow. It was paired up with the Shed Carport Garage trade show. So after we wrapped up Shed University we were able to go to this you know little shed lots sales floor and go talk to all the vendors. And RTO was there and there was all different kinds of vendors and solutions for sheds and I took lots of pictures, business cards, talked to people, took notes. I mean it was just such a wonderful educational experience to go to that. Yeah.
ADVERTISMENT:Have you been considering adding a line of greenhouses to your brand? At Cold Spring Enterprises, we have the perfect solution for you. By incorporating greenhouse products into your sales location whether you're a do-it-yourself dealer or a manufacturer supporting multiple shedlots you can expand your customer base. We offer easy-to-assemble greenhouse kits that will simplify the process of adding greenhouses to your lot. You can choose between two basic styles an economy style and an www. shedgeek. com/ cold- spring- 8x12 greenhouse kit directly to your shed lot or manufacturing location. These kits include all the necessary components for assembly, except for the wainscoting or clear panels, door and fan. However, we can assist you in connecting with the supplier for these items. Moreover, we also offer negotiable bulk pricing for multiple units.
ADVERTISMENT:To help you get started, we are pleased to offer an exclusive discount through the Shed Geek podcast. You can receive an 8x12 economy or A-frame style greenhouse complete with wainscoting or clear panels, a screen door and fan. The pricing for a complete one-time display unit starts at $2,195 for an economy style and $2,545 for an A-frame style, excluding shipping and tax. For more information and to request bulk unit pricing, please visit wwwshedgeekcom forward slash cold hyphen spring hyphen enterprises and fill out your information and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible, or simply go to the Shed Geek newsletter and click on the greenhouse picture to fill out your information. Thank you for considering our greenhouse kits. We are excited to work together to bring greenhouse kits to your line of products.
Shed Gal:I love that, from greenhouse kits to your line of products, I love that there's it's such a fun industry and it's there's a sense of camaraderie between those of us that reach out to each other. It's you know, it's you know the people. I went to that hauler is shed haulers bash back in March in North Carolina and I it my expectations were so high. I was like, oh boy, this might not be good. It blew me away Even though my expectations were so high and I've met, met, so many great people there. And I mean there was I don't know like for dinner. There was like 700 or 750 people or something. I mean it was huge.
Shed Gal:But the camaraderie and you know it doesn't mean that necessarily everybody likes everybody. But you know, I heard someone recently say, you know, even if there's a hauler and maybe we don't get along, maybe we don't, maybe there's just a personality thing. Listen, if that haulers broke down beside the road, I'm stopping to help and and I I see more of that happening with the shed dealers too and I and I and I absolutely love, love that. Yeah, I want everyone to win yeah.
Shed Gal:Well, I you know, I just posted something about that the other day and it's like it's truly excuse, I am. I mean it's I want everybody to win. It makes me sad when people have all the outside reasons why, but they don't know what to do and I think they're just you know it's like a convenient excuse as to why their sales aren't what they should be.
Pam Karousis:Pam said it, not me Pam said it, not me, I said it. It was a convenient excuse and you just have to kind of look at well, why is this happening and how can I get more customers, and what do I need to change and what do I need to do? That's different, because there is a solution out there. You just have to find it.
Shed Gal:Exactly, and oftentimes that involves reaching out to someone who's walking the walk, not just talking the talk yeah let me ask you this um, so you, you know you probably represent old hickory, you know for k and k barn sales. Do you offer anything else on your, your display lots?
Pam Karousis:um, we have kind of started offering the hang this up shed storage system.
Pam Karousis:So I have a couple kits in my office, and my little garden shed has some of their stuff, of course, hanging up there to demonstrate. You know how cool that system is. So I have kits available for them to buy and walk away with and when their sheds delivered, so we offer that and that's been a really great option for a lot of people. They see how that storage system works and right away they're like oh, I get it. If I can get everything off the floor, my life is better.
Shed Gal:So I'm paying this up and they're not a paid advertiser. Perhaps I should reach out to them, but they have really good product. Do you do metal carports or metal buildings, or just the old?
Pam Karousis:We have started selling the reliable metal buildings and we started, oh, probably about a year ago. They came out to the lot and put a big carport up and they, you know, like an RV cover and then they build a garage with a lean to. So, yeah, we do a couple of those a month.
Shed Gal:Wonderful. I, I'm a firm believer that, uh, offering both is a wonderful partnership because it isn't trying to you're not trying to drive someone away from an old Hickory building, you're trying to service the customer. And if you can get more customers there, you know, someone might come in for the metal carport and end up with a you know one of your sheds and someone might come in for a shed and find out that the metal building. I think it's a great partnership. You know I'm talking to a lot of folks with some of the biggest companies in the country. It seems like the inkling is that's the way this industry is going.
Shed Gal:You know, when I started out the first year or so, it could have been 18 months, like honestly, pam, I don't know, because it was all a whirlwind but I was given bad advice and was told I also couldn't sell metal carports because it was a conflict of interest which didn't make any sense to me.
Shed Gal:And then when I brought them on, I was like, wow, I'm noticing that a lot more people coming in. And so I think the little mom and pop and this isn't meant to scare anybody, because I could be completely wrong the little mom and pop shed lots like I started seven years ago. It's not a sustainable business model going forward for most people. You know I was lucky if I had eight or 10 buildings on my lot and fortunately because I was one of the only games in the state of Washington, western Washington certainly one of the only ones advertising on Facebook. I literally dominated the market and but I could not do today what I did then Like I could. If I opened up the same way, I would not have the same results. It's a different time.
Pam Karousis:You have to grow with your industry. Yeah, you have to grow with your industry and you have to always be thinking. You know, I don't know if you've ever read that book. It's called who moved my cheese. Oh, I love that book.
Shed Gal:I love that book. I read it several years ago, yep.
Pam Karousis:Yes, so you have to always be thinking ahead. You know what's coming up, what can I do different? What can we offer that's going to meet the market in a few months, you know. So you've got to plan ahead for that stuff.
Shed Gal:Yeah, and, being a very historically conservative industry, that does present a challenge of technology and we've all seen it, but I do see it slowly catching up. I'm going to really really encourage people, but I do see it slowly catching up. I'm going to really really encourage people dealers, manufacturers get outside your comfort zone, bring someone in that can make the changes that need to be made to, to, to bump you forward because, um, we know there are things that are changing and if, if you're, if you're two years behind, you gotta get out there and lead are changing and if you're, if you're two years behind, you got to get out there and lead, and so for. For the two lots that you run, approximately how many buildings are on each of those lots? Your sheds?
Pam Karousis:I think parkman has about 22 on that lot plus the two steel structures. The garage is like a 20 by 20 with a lean-to added. Very nice RV covers. Big Kirtland is a big lot. There's over 40 sheds on that lot and I'm kind of in charge of putting the signage in the buildings and making sure that every single shed has the size, the price, the sale that's going on. How much they're saving.
Pam Karousis:You can't just say it's 10% off. You have to show them what 10% or 15% or 20% looks like on that piece of paper. They're like, wow, we could save $1,000 on this. You know and I think that's a big motivation is just having great signage. You don't want them to walk into a shed and wonder, well, how big is this? Well, what style is this? Well, you know, how much is this? You don't want them to have those kind of questions.
Shed Gal:I see that happen all the time and so I'm so glad you brought that up. And I'll tell you in my past life I was told that you are not allowed to give out price sheets and you are not allowed to put up pricing on the building. And I said that I am not allowed to give out price sheets and you are not allowed to put up pricing on the building. And I said that I am not allowing myself to represent you. Now I did stay and I did put up pricing and I did. You know, I did give out price sheets and I sold sheds like nobody's business. So you know, we're not going to debate whether one's better than the other.
Shed Gal:Now I have an acquaintance in Arizona who does not put pricing up and he's very, very, very successful and for him it's like, hey, it's not my style, it's a turnoff to me. I'm not going to go to Safeway and take three gallons of milk of different brands' milk up to the register and wait to get a price. It's 2024, but but there are different. You know, full disclosure. There are different styles. But I think, I think we know that, statistically speaking, most potential customers want exactly what you're giving them. You're giving them the size because they don't know.
Shed Gal:I mean, sometimes I'll walk into a shed and I have to look at the number to you know, because pretty soon they all start looking the same. They certainly don't know. They don't want to have to for me. I know you're trying to sell me something and there's a difference between being selling me something than me buying it. If I have to ask the price, I like the full disclosure. Whether a person puts a, I don't think we need to debate whether the price needs to be on the outside or their inside. Who cares? It just needs to be somewhere. But I love that. I think that that's the. If folks are thinking well, I'm not going to put pricing up because that's the way it's always been done. That's where it gets them in trouble.
Shed Gal:If they are really solid in their sales and it's working for them. That is not the same as well. That's the way it's always been done, so we're not going to change it.
Pam Karousis:You've got to move forward and give the customers and I have signs that say sheds are open and they're little tin signs with the frame and, and I put nice lettering on them. You know little sticky letters that are done very nicely. It says sheds are open. I have others that say look inside, you know, so that if they get there and I'm not there, they know that these sheds aren't locked. You can look inside. And the other big thing I changed was we used to post the size and the price and all that on a wall inside and I'm like this is a lot of work keeping these sheds clean. So I posted on the door so when they open the door they have it right there. They can take a picture. You know they're not dragging mud through my sheds, so it keeps everything so nice and they have the information as soon as they open the door and to me that's a big plus.
Shed Gal:That's how I would want to shop and not have to go into each one and walk across to see what size is it, what price is it and I actually I really appreciate you bringing that up, because we actually hung our pricing on the outside and we laminated it, and that's the other thing. Folks, laminators are like 20 bucks on Amazon, amazon Basics brand, amazon basics brand 1999. You know, when I, when I go in a shed and I see the, you know the piece of paper, paper, all you know, flopped over on the wall and you know sideways, and it's like it's doing more, it's doing harm.
Pam Karousis:Right. And what I what I use is those heavy protector sheets like what goes in your notebook I use a heavy clear sheet. They're cheap on Amazon and I cut the little three ring binder part off and then I put the price sheet in there and staple it on the door. So it's not affected by the weather if they leave the door open, you know. So I love that.
Shed Gal:I love that. Yeah, leave the door open, you know. So I love that. I love that, yeah, definitely, definitely protects it. I think that's fantastic. Do you think, you know? And we're not going to debate that? I think a shed that protects people's belongings or or serves their purpose is a good shed. So we're not we're not debating the quality differences or or that, um, but do you think that you're seeing, like what I'm seeing of that companies are getting really creative on the things that they're they're offering? Or I see different companies offering wiring and some insulation in, you know, and some doing split units, and certainly in washington state, absolutely that was not happening when I started seven years ago. They're progressing. Are you seeing that too? You know, in the industry?
Pam Karousis:well, you know old hickory does offer a few insulation options. You know it's not the. You know r17 pink stuff or anything like that. It is is mostly the foil backed. You know stuff that they can offer.
Shed Gal:Yeah, like the radiant heat barrier.
Pam Karousis:Right, yeah, but you know, the other company I worked for did offer wiring included in your shed and who was doing the wiring for them. This was interesting to me because it was the vocational teacher at the vocational school that taught electrical trades. So I'm just putting that out there. That you might want to partner with somebody. Don't offer that, but this fellow has done it for other deals I've had and I can highly recommend him. So you know, it's just about kind of offering solutions for them. If they bring it up, you want to be able to offer a solution instead of saying I don't know.
Shed Gal:Well, yeah, yeah, exactly, and I think you know we didn't have electrical options and so I had partnered with oh my gosh Chris and Allison Mesa. Hi, chris and Allison, if you're listening, they're at a Gold Bar, Washington and Diamond Plate Electric, and I had actually posted something on social media when I started because people were asking about the electrical we didn't do electrical about the electrical.
Shed Gal:We didn't do electrical and, uh, I put it out there about I would love to meet with the electrician so that I can get comfortable referring them. And they are the only people who offered to meet with me. Others, even though I said I want to be able to meet with you, they were like, well, I'll mail you some business cards, I'm thinking, or we're too busy to stop by for 10 minutes. I was like, well, if you're too busy to stop by for 10 minutes, I was like, well, if you're too busy to stop by for 10 minutes, you're certainly too busy to probably take care of the customers. Those folks we met at our first lot. I'm still friends with them and they're amazing and we referred them to tons of people and so, you know, I love that. We have to get, I hear all the time well, that person down the road, you know they offer something we don't. Who cares? Figure out a, figure out a solution. That's what you're doing.
Pam Karousis:Yeah, I absolutely think that's really amazing big suggestion I have is show up at your lot, I mean what are you?
Shed Gal:are you doing the dealers I work with? I don't make it a suggestion. This is your standard operating procedure. You actually need to be there, I know.
Pam Karousis:To be there. Now, I'm the type of shopper that I kind of want to go when they're not there and look around, because I'm afraid they're kind of high pressure, but then when I'm ready to buy I would definitely want someone to be there, and I've had so many sales because they'll tell me you're the fourth place we stopped at today and there was nobody at the other three.
Shed Gal:Yeah, that's how I learned. That was my experience.
Pam Karousis:I'm like well, I'm here to help you and I don't have a closed sign on my door when I'm not there. It says questions, I'm available to assist you. Please call me, and it has my phone number. It never says close. I will answer my phone from 9 am to 9 pm, Seven days a week. Yeah.
Shed Gal:And I really hope there's some viewers and listeners that are taking wind, because everything you're saying is what I'm seeing. In fact, on my, my new office, I have a little. It says it's a flip flop welcome sign. It says it's it's super cute, I didn't make it, it was creative, I didn't do it but it says welcome and then on the back, at the end of the day we would flip it over and it does not say closed, it says for service, please contact us. So same, same type of yes. Yes absolutely.
Shed Gal:Do you have a couple of pieces? Yes, be at your lot, that's a helpful piece of advice. And again, the days of the mom and pop show, where you know people could kind of just do this as a side gig. Uh, just my prediction. But they're, those days are going to be gone before too long. Um, we're having to progress, we're having to move forward. What are a couple of other piece of advice that you could give to dealers that may be struggling that they, what can they do today to start changing you? You know their actions.
Pam Karousis:Look at your ads on Facebook. If you don't have ads on Facebook, I suggest you start Watch how your ads are written and, you know kind of pay attention to the details we talked about. Show up at your lot and look at your lot. As a customer would look at your lot, you know, I drove by one the other day and it was overgrown with weeds and there was nobody there and I was just so disappointed for the owner of that lot it looked abandoned, so you want it to look like there's someone here. A lot you know have it clean, have a priced marked.
Pam Karousis:I have a really great idea I'm working on for another type of demo shed that I think is really going to rock the industry and my sales. So I'm going to have to keep you posted on that, but it's another vision I have.
Pam Karousis:So I'm going to start working on that project here pretty soon and I think it's going to be a really great sales tool to use, even if I'm not there. So I can't wait to get that done and send you pictures and see what your thoughts are on that, because I think it's going to be phenomenal.
Shed Gal:I can't wait. I can't wait. I think of us meeting through Facebook. We're long-term relationship and eventually I'll get out to Ohio and we'll meet, and if you get out to Arkansas, let me know. Or Oklahoma. So I'm going to do a couple of flash questions that I didn't prepare you on. So what is your dream vacation?
Pam Karousis:Ooh, dream vacation somewhere with my grandkids, just to go somewhere. Vacation somewhere with my grandkids just to go somewhere, stay at a nice place, have stuff for them to do. My grandkids are just freaking awesome kids. They are just so wonderful to be around and I love watching them. They are just never a problem. So anywhere I could take my kid, my grandkids, to the beach or anywhere. It's a big day for me.
Shed Gal:I love that Last question. If money was not an issue, what is your dream car?
Pam Karousis:My dream car. That's funny because I used to work at a Mercedes dealership Years ago. I was in just in the office at a Mercedes dealership, so my dream car is actually, I think, the one I'm driving now. It's a 2012 Toyota RAV4. And I just love that car. It fits everything, it goes through everything. It's been my little buddy, as you can imagine. I've done a couple upgrades, you know, here and there to make it more functional for what I do, but you have, it's just like I have it just the way I want it. My mechanic keeps saying you know, pam, one of these days, like, don't even talk to me, I can't be friends anymore if you're going to talk about replacing this car. So I would probably stick with. You know, my dad has a Toyota Highlander, which is very nice, but I love my.
Shed Gal:RAV4. So I didn't expect that answer, but we did actually have someone on months ago that said a Toyota Camry was their dream car if money wasn't an issue. And now the Toyota RAV4. So I'm seeing a pattern of Toyotas being dream vehicles, so I appreciate that. Before we wrap up today, do you have any questions for me?
Pam Karousis:um, yeah, gosh, where do we get more training on all the stuff that you're accomplishing? Because I would love to get more YouTube videos, more information. That way, you know the Shed University was great. But then you get home and you're like, oh, I want to know so much more.
Shed Gal:I actually am putting together a master class program and it will be available and I'll tell you what. It's going to be very expensive. I see this as companies needing to invest in their employees. What I train on is repeatable and it is proven and it is, you know, it's not your daddy's shed sales anymore. It's we've got to change so that that will be coming out at some point. I am working on that. I am working on that in my, in my spare time. So, um, but as always, you know, reach out anytime.
Shed Gal:I think the camaraderie of being able to just reach out to our friends in the industry and ask questions, or you know, um, if I do better, you do better, If you do better, you know someone else does better, it's, it's the, the pay it forward thing, and that's the biggest thing I see in this industry. To just wrap up, that question is people are put in positions of training who have never sold a shed and it's very, very expensive for the companies and it's it's, it's very ineffective overall. I mean, you and me are going to be rock stars regardless of the lack of training we got. Stars regardless of the lack of training we got. But most people they need that and I, you know it's just, I'm doing my part to try to help the industry, so all right. Well, thank you all for listening or watching to this week's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Pam, it has been my absolute pleasure. I am Susan, the Shed Gal Gal, and we'll see you again next week.
ADVERTISMENT:Hey, this is Mo Lunsford in sunny Union Grove, North Carolina, and we want to say thank you to all the guests and listeners.