Brad Finck - What Can Visualization Do For You? - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Brad Finck from RenoWorks. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Welcome to a MetalCast for a MetalCoffeeShop. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and this is all about what's happening in metal construction, and we bring in experts from technology, distribution, manufacturing to talk about what's important to the metal construction industry today. So I am very honored today to have Brad Finck with RenoWorks talking about visualization. Brad, welcome to the show.

Brad Finck: Thank you, Heidi. I appreciate being here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: This is so important. The technology that the contractors are using today and that homeowners and building owners are actually expecting has made such a change to the building construction industry.

Brad Finck: Yes, I agree. And things are moving quite rapidly, especially over the last two or three years. We've been doing visualization for quite a number of years, but we have seen certainly a rapid change in the way it's being used, and we've also seen a much more rapid adoption of technology just over the last two to three years.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, definitely. I think about all the work I did when I was at EagleView with technology visualization I was really involved with it then too, and it's just a whole different world today. So before we dive into that, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company?

Brad Finck: Sure, yes. So again, Brad Finck, I'm the Senior Vice President of RenoWorks, and I deal primarily with what we call our enterprise clients. So a lot of manufacturers, retailers, lumber yards, contractors of course, and home builders. And I've been with the company nine years prior to that. I've always actually been in the construction software industry for probably in the last 30 years now. But RenoWorks specifically as a company, been around over 20 years. So from a software company, we've been around for a long period of time, and all we do is focus is on visualization. So we produce visualization for all of our different customers in various forms, and we really at the end of the day, show our customers what are a certain manufacturer's products going to look like on their project before it begins.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it's such a great company, and I have to tell you, we work with a number of manufacturers and contractors who obviously are using your technology and your services. And it's always one of the highest ranking when it comes to impressions and page views, and interests. There's just such an interest out there for the consumers to be able to see what's going on. I would love it if you would maybe give a little bit of a history of visualization. When did it start overall in the market and how has it grown?

Brad Finck: Yeah, it's interesting because people talk about visualization. I think everybody thinks of the digital approach, which is really what RenoWorks is all about, is the digital approach. But I always like to explain to people when you think of visualization, it's been around forever. People have been using project boards, they've been using sample boards in order to show what products are going to look like. But at the end of the day, everybody has the same question is, "I really like that roof panel where I really like that piece of siding on the board, but what's it going to look like on my whole?" So when I talk about visualization, I really specifically try to pinpoint that as, "What is that product actually going to look like on my project?" Whether that be a remodel project, whether it be a new construction project before it begins.

So RenoWorks, as I mentioned, been around over 20 years, and we started originally by a successful exterior contractor, remodeler actually in the siding and window space, who just kept getting asked over and over, "What is this going to look like on my home?" So at the time, we developed a desktop Windows app, and then over the last 20 years that evolved into an online tool, into the solutions that you actually see today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. Yeah, and what consumers can see, 'cause they do, "What's it going to look like, my new roof, my new siding, how's that going to change the overall design of the home?" So when you look at that working with the homeowners and the building owners out there, how does visualization really help contractors provide solutions? Answer that question basically.

Brad Finck: Yeah, and I think at the end of the day we talked about that the homeowner or the consumer often just can't visualize what that's going to look like. So we offer a couple of different use cases. So in some cases, for example, our contractors take our visualizer solutions, we brand it for them, and they put it on their website. In order for a homeowner or a customer to come across their website, often they expect to be able to tinker with something because they're trying to figure out exactly what that's going to look like.

So what they'll do is they'll upload a photo of their own home and they'll show what those different materials are going to look like. Embedded into the contractor's website. So that's one of the significant ways is if the contractor has a web presence and really wants to enhance their website, putting a visualizer on there can certainly improve the engagement rate, the time on site. And at the end of the day, they can actually capture a lead of that homeowner and see exactly what that consumer is picking as far as product selections and colors, and profiles to give them a much better insight into the homeowner's interested in.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It makes so much sense because what we're seeing, and we're seeing this across the board, is consumers, homeowners, building owners are looking to do more online before they actually have that conversation. They don't want the two-hour talk around the table as much anymore. They want to be able to figure out what they want come prepared with the products, the look, the colors, all of that. So to me, this is really leading. Since COVID, everyone's just become so much more familiar working online and doing that. Earlier when we had been talking, you had said there's different types of visualization. So can you explain that?

Brad Finck: Yeah. And specifically as it relates to RenoWorks, but in the industry alone, RenoWorks we're the inventors to some degree of what I would call photo-based or image-based visualization, which is often when you take a photo of that homeowner's home and then show what that's going to look like with rear roofing profiles, colors, siding, windows, entry doors, garage doors, a lot of contractors have probably seen these visualizers before, often on manufacturer's websites, and most often that is a RenoWorks Solution at play. So that's the image-based visualization. And then the other side of visualization is really what you see a lot of in the 3D modeling space.

RenoWorks gets into that as well, where we can take aerial imagery from companies like EagleView for example, and we can turn that into an interactive 3D model where someone not only can look at a photo of their home, but they can actually take a 3D model of their home spinning around. The contractor can see what are the ridges and the valleys and the complexity of the roof are going to look like and actually extract measurements from that 3D model as well.

So I always say that there's the 2D image-based visualization, which often appeals to the homeowner because they really identify with a photo of their home. It's their driveway, it's their trees, it's their garden bed, and so it's their home. It's really very personalized. But the 3D side of things is very valuable to the contractor as well because they can see all of the sides of the roof, in this case, the complexities, but they can take that 3D model and use it to visualize and take it back to a presentation for the homeowner as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's impressive to the homeowner to be able to see that 3D image and then to be able to put the visualization with it.

Brad Finck: Yeah, exactly. And it really lends itself to a much more professional presentation. The contractor sets himself apart a little bit because not are they just doing it the traditional way, but they're taking those images, they're embedding it into their quotes and proposals. And of course, we talked about improving the web presence as well. So there's lots of different ways that you can use that visualization with your presentation and in conjunction with the proposal that you're doing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And really, like you said, manufacturers are on board board. A majority of manufacturers are using visualization, so they're able to take their products and get it into your library, get it into the contractor's library. So talk a little bit about that and just that connection. You and the manufacturers have taken visualization to that next level.

Brad Finck: Yes, and it is really a good point where manufacturers have embraced visualization for a good number of years, which is, again, RenoWorks deals with a lot of the different roofing, siding, door, window manufacturers in the industry today. And you'll often see that when you go to a manufacturer's website, you'll see a solution in place where you can... Let's say, upload a photo or even a blueprint of your home and show what it looks like. But now what we're seeing... And quite frankly, you mentioned COVID.

COVID certainly did accelerate things a lot over the years where people were a little bit more wary of having a contractor come to the home. And of course, they had a lot more time to research and experiment online where visualization. So now the contractors are starting to embrace them a lot more, but the manufacturers have already cataloged most of their products. So for example, all of the metal roofing profiles and colors, and textures or siding, or cladding, or even brick and stone, all those manufacturers have been working with us for years now, have their manufacturer's products cataloged in a RenoWorks Solution. So now, a contractor has those accessible at their disposal as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That makes a difference. So as a contractor's looking at this, getting to put it on their own site, making sure their manufacturers are connected, it all kind comes together. When you talking about contractors... Let's talk a little bit, earlier, you were talking about photo usage, and the photo can be either come from the homeowner or the building owner, or it can also be when the contractor goes on site during their sales call, they can get some pictures and upload that, and show the customer right there. It makes for a great sales call.

Brad Finck: It does, and especially now that the contractor is able to go back on site now that things are getting back to normal, let's say, the contractor's... A door knocker as I call them, they're knocking on doors or they're going to do an onsite consultation because the visualizers are all mobile responsive as well now. So they'll work on a phone, they'll work on a tablet, a contractor can... Before they... Let's say knock on the door, they could snap a photo in about 20 to 30 seconds that image gets uploaded. They gets prepared what we call prepared with all of the different surfaces and slopes, and perspectives of the roof. And then they can be changing colors and profiles right in front of that customer as in the first call. So it was very impressive.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And it goes back to what you said earlier that it all started because customers, homeowners were saying, "What's it going to look like?"

Brad Finck: What's it going to look like?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And now, 20 seconds later you can show them.

Brad Finck: Exactly. Exactly. And this wasn't always the case even five years ago where people who are familiar with visualization, and we run into this all the time, we'll talk to a contractor and they said, "I tried this five or six years ago and I found it a little bit cumbersome." Because back in the day, you had to trace around the roof edges and the wall edges. And you had to use what we call DIY tools, but you had to manually prepare that photo. But now, with the use of AI, that's all done automatically and you're able to do it in less than 30 seconds, have that photo ready to go with almost no intervention.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, with that and your EagleView, you're set, you know what it's going to look like and the measurements.

Brad Finck: Exactly. Exactly.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. So RenoWorks is part of MetalVue. And MetalVue is an amazing groundbreaking program from Sherwin Williams that really helps contractors put together all the technology pieces that they need along with training and on everything to be successful working with metal manufacturers and selling make more with metal. So tell us a little bit about where RenoWorks is fits in with MetalVue and how that's going?

Brad Finck: Yeah, it's going great. RenoWorks is the preferred visualization solution in the MetalVue family of products. And they have a number of different software services and products as you know that encompassed the whole MetalVue family. So as a visualization tool, we've already got visualizers with all of the major manufacturers who are participating in MetalVue today. And so those visualization tools are already on the manufacturer's websites and then they're in use today.

What we also then offer is for a contractor who's participating in the MetalVue program, they can have their own visualizer with RenoWorks, and we have various different levels. They can have a fully blown what we call branded enterprise solution for their website, or they can have a product that we call RenoWorks Pro, which can be up and running in less than an hour. And then they can be using that tool as well with all of the different manufacturers, metal roofing libraries that they happen to be participating in that program.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Excellent. I've seen this and I see when the contractors come in. And they partner with a manufacturer who already has all their profiles, their colors, everything loaded up. And then through this program they are receiving leads, which they can then run using RenoWorks or even sending something out ahead of time. There's just so many different ways. And then obviously, really wanting to get RenoWorks on their website, so that is drawing even more people to decide to use metal.

Brad Finck: Exactly. And again, it can be used as a sales tool, which we talked about earlier, whether it be in consultation, it can be used over a webcast like we're doing now. Do a lot of in-home consultations or as you mentioned, if a contractor does have a significant web presence and really wants to increase and accelerate that side of their business, a visualizer makes perfect sense for their website.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. So when you really are thinking about it, everyone out there who's listening to this as you are looking at adding metal or doing more metal. Metal roofing, metal siding, all of this. This is really the opportunity to not only get the leads, to get the technologies that you need to run those leads, but then to be able to really have this beautiful visualization and opportunity to engage with that homeowner on a way that is almost becoming expected a little bit, I think from homeowners.

Brad Finck: It is, and it's also important to note that it really leads into a lot of upsell situations as well. So for example, most of the metal, in fact, probably all of the metal contractors out there also sell asphalt shingles, for example. They sell various brands. And so the programs that we do offer, if you have a contractor solution, of course you would have access to all of the metal manufacturer's products in there, but you would also have access if you wanted to asphalt shingle libraries. Maybe you also do siding, maybe you do windows, maybe you do entry doors. Those libraries are all cataloged as well.

But it's a great situation where price is always is an issue with a homeowner. And so you could say, "Well, okay, Mr. And Mrs. Homeowner, this is what it's going to look like if we put an asphalt shingle on your roof. And now, this is what it's going to look like if you're going to put a standing scene, and this is what it's going to look like if you have a stamp pattern." So you can actually show them a good, better, best scenario through the visualizer tool, and it often leads into an upsell situation. Because now they can say, "Oh yeah, I don't mind spending a little extra money because now I see graphically, visually what that impact's going to look like."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right. And when you put the durability, the longevity, the sustainability of metal alongside that beautiful picture, yeah, it is a perfect upsell opportunity. And we're seeing that. It is happening with contractors right now who are all part of the MetalVue program. So okay, let's break it into two different things. First of all, for contractors who want to get involved in the MetalVue program and have access to your beautiful product, how do they get started on that?

Brad Finck: Probably the easiest way is just to contact us at sales@renoworks.com. And of course, you can always go to renoworks.com. We have another website for our RenoWorks Pro solution called renoworkspro.com, but sales@renoworks.com is the easiest way. We'll give you sign up for a free trial. We can get you do live demonstrations for you, walk you through the finer points of the program, and you'll have access to our entire experts of sales team in order to ask questions. And then if we set you up with a free trial, if you want to take that step, no risk, you can play with it yourself. Make sure that it's going to work for you, have access to your different manufacturer's, libraries that you want to use and ensure that the program's going to work for you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And if you're not getting into a MetalVue right now, which I know some people are looking at different pieces of MetalVue, including Roofing Passport, RenoWorks, but that same thing sells@renoworks.com, you can get involved, you can start doing it way before MetalVue or then that will help lead you into it to sell more metal.

Brad Finck: Exactly. The MetalVue program is very robust. There's lots of components to it, as we all know. And so depending on what's important to you, people bite off different parts of it, when it's appropriate for them. But visualization is one of those things where you're going to get the benefits out of it, whenever you're comfortable getting into it and diving into that piece of it. But the return on investment's always there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. It's amazing. Such a great technology, Brad. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing it. And thank you for being on MetalCoffeeShop and getting that out into all these contractors. We love it.

Brad Finck: No, thank you Heidi for having us, having me, and I really appreciate the time. And I look forward to talking to anybody or having any questions, I'm always here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. And you can find all of this information on MetalCoffeeShop, definitely on the MetalVue program. That's the first directory on there. You can get all this information. And then RenoWorks is right there on the directory. You can find them on find information, how to get involved, and we're going to be having a lot of articles, this kind of podcasts. And we're also going to be doing a metal talk here in a couple of months with Brad. So you'll be able to really figure out how to incorporate this into your business. And if you already are using it and want to do more, this is also a great opportunity to get in touch with Brad, to get in touch with sales. And maybe take that step into the MetalVue program since you already know about visualization. So Brad, one more time. Thank you so much for being here.

Brad Finck: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. And thank you all for listening. This is the information we want to bring to your business every single day. Please check out all of our MetalCast podcast on MetalCoffeeShop under the RLW navigation or on your favorite podcast channel. Be sure to subscribe along with your YouTube channel for MetalCoffeeShop, subscribe and ring that bell so that you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you next time on MetalCast.