David A. Konkol – Marketing

Michael Lowry Want to know more about marketing a custom building company? Ask David A. Konkol: he wrote the book. Encouraged by a past client who works in the publishing industry, the central Florida builder compiled the wisdom he had been dispensing to clients for years in a compact, hardbound volume that has become the centerpiece of his own marketing strategy. Building a Luxury Custom Home: What You Need to Know (Builders Publishing Group, $24.95) thoroughly orients potential custom home clients to the process, covering everything from deciding whether to buy or build to the final walk-through. It’s a tidy and useful package. But for Konkol, the book is a multi-faceted business-building tool.

Konkol’s authoritative voice on the page lends him instant credibility, as does the hardcover format. Compared with typical marketing materials, “It has a great shelf life,” he says. “It’s hard to throw a book away, so when [potential clients] are ready to build a house, they pull it off the shelf.” Konkol has made sure the book sits on as many shelves—and coffee tables and kitchen counters—as possible, distributing some 2,000 copies to past and current clients, prospects, and Realtors. “Last year I got three calls because the book was sitting on a client’s coffee table and a neighbor or friend came in and saw it,” he says. And reading the book creates not just more, but also better clients. When a prospective client—on the advice of the book—called Konkol before contacting an architect, he knew: “My marketing is working.”

It’s working so well, in fact, that he has begun offering marketing packages built around the book to other custom builders. For a fee, Konkol’s publishing arm will license the book—adapted to the “franchisee’s” business and market—along with a marketing plan and supplemental materials, to a single builder in each of 500 major markets. Fifteen builders have ponied up so far, he reports, and the publishing business is already turning a profit. “After I sell my 100th license,” he says, “I’m going to write a remodeling book.”

Book Cover Design: Chip David Dave Konkol Homes
Maitland, Fla.
www.davekonkolhomes.com
Type of business: Design/build
Years in business: 17
Employees: 5
2008 volume: $5.2 million
2008 starts: 5