Pearl Certification: A powerful tool for contractors and their clients
Home Energy Medics is seeing demand for home improvements in their area, consistently getting calls from people who are uncomfortable in their homes. “It’s where your family spends most of their time. To be uncomfortable in your home is not something anyone wants to experience,” Vicki Wells of Home Energy Medics said.
As a member of the Pearl Contractor Network, Home Energy Medics has been able to differentiate itself to meet growing demand. “There are eleven audit companies in this area. We’re the only one that offers Pearl Certification,” Vicki said. “Being a part of the Pearl Network is a way for us to put a stamp on all of our work, proving to the client that we are different and that we are better than our competitors.”
Scott Donelson, president of Home Energy Medics, notes that Pearl also helps them serve a very special client. “We have military that move here or are going to move here in a typical three-year rotation. They’re asking, why would I do all these improvements if I’m just going to sell my house in a couple of years? With Pearl Certification, we can clearly show them that the work we do on their home has real value for them,” Scott said.
“We live in a very transient community, having that differentiator, having that documentation to show that the house will be worth more, it can push people over the edge. It’s all very positive.” – Scott Donelson, President, Home Energy Medics
Caleb provides a great example. “This gentleman had serious mold issues in his attic and had gone to approximately six different companies in order to find the very best to provide this service. He found companies that provided very, very similar solutions at similar prices to what we were offering but what pushed him over the edge to close with Home Energy Medics was the opportunity to have the work Pearl certified. It was that one thing we had over everyone else that made it happen,” Caleb said.
“My clients are really, really surprised by the fact that this type of work is able to maintain value in their house. A lot of time this is the type of work that is out of sight and out of mind. Despite spending thousands of dollars to improve a house, buyers just don’t see that on the backend when the house is put on the market.”
When you tell someone that you can help them be comfortable, reduce the money that they’re spending in their home, and make the value of their home go up at one time– it seems too-good-to-be-true. But through Pearl Certification, we make it happen.
In fact, independently certified homes can sell on average for 5 percent or more. “Five percent increased home value alone will pay for the improvements, and then some,” Scott said.
Home Energy Medics’ clients get it, too. “If I send a client the studies that demonstrate that a Pearl Certification of Home Energy Medic’s work can increase their home’s value, it is always helpful. They are honestly amazed,” Caleb said.
Another benefit of Home Energy Medics’ partnership with Pearl is that it introduces third-party verification into the equation. “It’s something that no one else is doing. We do a lot of work in houses that have had work done by other people. We’ve come back in to figure out a solution to actually make their house more comfortable. In that case, for the other company, a third-party verification would have been really helpful. Not many people do that,” Caleb said.
Saying that a third party is going to review and certify our work is really powerful. It says that we trust our own work enough to have someone else look at it.
Pearl has also become a powerful business development tool for Home Energy Medics. Vicki witnesses it in her early phone calls with potential clients.
“Our sales have doubled in the last year. I spend somewhere between 15 to 30 minutes on the phone with each client that I’m trying to sell. Since I’ve introduced Pearl Certification into my conversations, we have seen significant increase in sales and productivity.” Vicki said.
“It’s not just us saying it. We’re able to provide a website. We’re able to provide documentation. We’re able to help them increase the value of their home. Everything that I tell them, I can prove. And that’s a really powerful selling tool,” Vicki said.
Vicki brings up another benefit, which is that Pearl helps her and Home Energy Medics extend and enhance their conversations with existing clients. She jokes that during the process, homeowners may forget about the Pearl component.
At the end, when they get an email that says, here’s a letter for your lender, here’s a letter for your appraiser, here’s your certification ... It’s another way for us to engage with the client. It benefits us AND them in more ways that I can count.
