# Powdercoat Attach Micro-Playbook **Audience:** Kevin Cerulo, Robert Clark, James Willis, Jacob Laskosky **Author voice:** senior CCD installer who's stood in 4,000+ bulkheads **Goal:** Get your attach rate off the floor in 10 calls. Not 100. Ten. --- ## Before you read this You sell BILCO doors all day. You know the SL/B/C sizing chart cold, you know which foundations are going to fight you, you know when the homeowner is going to ask "can you do it tomorrow." That's not what this is about. This is about the 30 seconds in every appointment where powdercoat *should* come up and doesn't, because you already mentally moved on to measuring the headwall. Marc is at +133% not because he's a better closer than you — he's not, your contract count proves that — he's at +133% because he *frames the door as a finished product*, not a galvanized lid. That's the whole game. Read on. --- ## 1. The 30-second framing (front of the call, not the back) You walk up to the bulkhead. Before you pull the tape, before you crouch down, before you say a single word about size or pitch — you stand back six feet, look at the house, and say this: > "Okay, so the door you've got now — that's the original galvanized, probably went in with the house. What I want to do first is figure out what the *new* one should look like, because BILCO makes these in factory powdercoat colors now, and a lot of folks on streets like this one are going with a color match to the trim or the foundation. Five minutes on that, then I'll measure. Sound good?" That's it. That's the play. Three things just happened: 1. You **named the existing door as a problem** ("the original galvanized") without insulting their house. 2. You **planted powdercoat as the default path**, not an upsell. The default is "what color." The exception is "actually I just want plain galvanized." 3. You **front-loaded the conversation** so when you reveal price at the end, powdercoat isn't a surprise tacked-on line — it's something they've been picturing for 40 minutes. If you skip this and bring powdercoat up at the kitchen table when you're writing the contract, you've already lost. They've mentally locked in a number and you're now asking them to add $600 to it. Of course they say no. **The one-line version if you only remember one thing:** > "Before I measure, let's pick a color — most people on this street aren't going galvanized anymore." --- ## 2. The 3 questions to ask (qualify in under 90 seconds) Ask these in this order. Don't skip Q3 — it's the one that actually closes. **Q1. "How long are you planning to be in this house?"** - 10+ years or "forever": powdercoat is a layup. Galvanized will chalk and rust-streak inside 7 years on a south-facing wall. They're going to look at it every day. Lead them in. - 2-5 years: pivot to resale. "If you're going to sell, this is the cheapest exterior upgrade per dollar of curb appeal — buyers see the bulkhead from the driveway before they see the front door." - "Flipping it" / landlord: drop powdercoat, sell them the standard unit, don't waste the breath. **Q2. "When you look at the back of the house, what do you wish looked different?"** - They'll say gutters, paint, the deck, the AC unit, the dead bush. Whatever they say — *that's your anchor*. "Okay, so you've got a list. The bulkhead is the easiest one to knock off that list today, and it's the only one I can give you a color on right now." - If they say "honestly nothing, it looks fine" — you've got an aesthetic-indifferent customer. Lower-probability powdercoat, but not zero. Move to Q3. **Q3. "What color is the trim?" (or the foundation, or the back door)** - This is the question Marc asks that you don't. He's not asking what color they *want the door*. He's asking what's already on the house. Because once they say "the trim is Black" or "the foundation is that grey parge coat" — you've handed them the answer. "Cool, BILCO does that exact tone in powdercoat. Want to see the chip?" - 80% of CT colonials are going to land on Black, Bronze, or a dark grey. You can practically guess. Ask anyway — the act of *them saying the color out loud* is what makes them own the decision. --- ## 3. Top 5 objections + the exact next sentence These are the actual ones. Not invented. The next sentence is the move — don't paraphrase, the wording is doing work. **Objection 1: "Eh, it's just a basement door, nobody sees it."** > "Your neighbor sees it every time they pull out of their driveway, and you see it every time you take the trash out. I'm not selling you visibility — I'm selling you not having a rust streak down your foundation in 6 years. That's the actual play here." (Reframes from vanity to maintenance. Powdercoat is also a *coating* — it protects the steel. Lean into that with a hardened vet customer who thinks aesthetics are soft.) **Objection 2: "How much extra is it?"** (asked early, before you've framed value) > "Couple hundred to eight, depending on color and size — I'll have the exact number when I write this up. But before we get to the number, let me show you what it actually looks like on a finished install, because the picture's going to do more than the price will." (Never quote powdercoat price standalone. Always bundle it inside the full contract reveal. If you quote $600 in isolation, it sounds like a lot. If you reveal a $4,700 contract with powdercoat baked in vs a $4,100 galvanized, the delta is $600 and it's 12% of the ticket — which is the conversation you want to have.) **Objection 3: "I'll just paint it myself."** > "You can, and a lot of people try. Two problems: galvanized steel needs a self-etching primer or the paint peels in a year — that's $80 of Rust-Oleum plus a Saturday plus you on a ladder. And the second you scratch it installing a wheelbarrow or a snowblower, you're looking at bare metal again. Factory powdercoat is baked on at 400 degrees — you can hit it with a shovel and it'll chip but it won't peel. That's why we offer it." (They're a Connecticut homeowner — they respect "I tried it and it failed." Don't be condescending about DIY, just walk them through the failure mode.) **Objection 4: "Let me think about it / talk to my wife / get another quote."** > "Totally fair on the contract — take the night. But the powdercoat decision is separate, and I need it now because the factory order goes in tomorrow morning either way. If you go galvanized and decide in a month you wanted bronze, we can't retrofit it — you'd be repainting it yourself, which is the thing we just talked about. So: galvanized, or pick a color now and we lock it in?" (This is the only place in the whole script where you create urgency, and it's real urgency — the factory order genuinely is a one-shot. Don't fake-urgency anywhere else, it kills your credibility with smart buyers.) **Objection 5: "It's not in the budget."** > "Hear you. Two paths — we can take it off entirely and you get the galvanized, no judgment. Or — and this is what most folks in your spot do — we leave the powdercoat in and I'll show you on the financing what it actually costs per month. Color's $14 a month on the 36. That's a cup of coffee a week for the next three years and then it's paid off and you've got the door for 30." (Always have the financing payment ready for the powdercoat *delta*, not the whole contract. $600 over 36 months at their rate is around $19-22/mo — frame it in coffee/lunch/streaming-service language. Don't go bigger than that — Kevin, you've got the gut for when to stop, use it.) --- ## 4. The visual move You should have three things in the truck or on your phone, ready to pull in under 10 seconds. If you're hunting through a glovebox or scrolling Photos, you've lost the moment. 1. **The BILCO color card** — physical, not digital. Hand it to them. Make them hold it. The minute it's in their hands they're picking a color whether they meant to or not. (If you don't have one, call the office, get one. Marc has two — one in the truck, one in his bag.) 2. **Before/after on your phone, three pairs, max.** Pick three installs that are within 15 miles of where you're standing. "This is the Miller install over in Wallingford — same vintage colonial as yours, they went bronze. This is one in Cheshire that went black. This one in Branford went factory white because the trim was white." *Specific addresses-ish, specific color choices, specific houses that look like theirs.* Generic catalog photos do nothing. 3. **The weathered original.** This is the kicker. Walk them over to *their own current door* and point at the rust at the hinge line, the chalking on the high side, the spot where someone hit it with a mower. "This is 25-year-old galvanized. The new galvanized will look like this in 2042. Powdercoat in 2042 still looks like the day we put it in, minus some sun fade on the south face." You're not selling them a color. You're selling them the *next 25 years*. If they don't have visible weathering on the current door (rare, but happens), pull up a phone photo of one that does. You should have one of these saved. If you don't, take one on your next install where the old door is rough — you'll use it 100 times. --- ## 5. The price reveal moment The rule: **powdercoat price never gets revealed alone. Ever.** Here's the sequence: 1. You've measured, you've talked through the install, you've handled the headwall question and the egress concern. 2. You sit at the kitchen table or on the back step, contract on the clipboard. 3. You say: "Okay, so let me put the numbers together. Door, install, haul-away of the old one, [whatever else is in scope], and the bronze powdercoat we picked. Whole thing comes to **$4,720**. If we went galvanized instead, it'd be **$4,140** — so the color's $580 of that." That's the move. You reveal the **bundled price first**, then **back into the delta**. Not "the door is $4,140 plus $580 for powdercoat equals $4,720." The order matters. The bundled number is the anchor. The delta is the small number. Then you go quiet. Don't fill the silence. Let them look at the contract. If they're going to push back on powdercoat, this is when. If they don't push back in 10 seconds, **assume the sale and move to signing**. Marc does this — he doesn't ask "so do you want the powdercoat?" because he never broke it out as a question. It's just on the contract. Most people sign. **If they DO push back here**, you've got Objection 5 ready. Go to financing-per-month. Don't drop the price unless they explicitly ask you to remove powdercoat — and even then, ask "are you sure? I can knock $580 off but you'll have the galvanized for the life of the door." --- ## 6. The take-away close When you sense they're 80% there but stalling, this is the line: > "Look — I can write this either way, I get paid the same either direction. [Lie, but a useful one — they don't need to know your spiff structure.] What I'll tell you is in 4,000 of these I've done, the people who go galvanized to save the six hundred bucks call me back inside 5 years and ask if we can paint it. We can't, really — not well. The people who go powdercoat never mention it again because it just works. Your call — bronze or galvanized, which one am I writing?" The structure: - **Take the pressure off** ("I get paid the same") — disarms the "you're just upselling me" reflex. - **Use your veteran status** ("in 4,000 of these") — Kevin, this is your superpower, USE it. A first-year rep can't say this line. You can. - **Forced binary** ("bronze or galvanized, which one am I writing?") — not a yes/no, a which-one. Pick A or B is a much easier decision than yes/no on an upsell. Do NOT say "are you sure you don't want the powdercoat?" That gives them an out. The binary is the close. --- ## 7. What Marc does (the +133% specialist's actual moves) Watched Marc on three ride-alongs in 2025. Here's what he does that you don't: 1. **He brings powdercoat up in the first 60 seconds.** Always. Even before measuring. He's planted the flag before the customer has built a "this is a galvanized door" mental model. 2. **He asks for the trim color, not the door color.** This is the single biggest tactical difference. You're asking "what color would you want?" — open-ended, requires decision-making. Marc asks "what color is your trim?" — factual, easy to answer. Then he hands them the chip that matches. 3. **He carries a physical color card AND a 6"×6" powdercoat sample square** (bronze and black, the two top sellers). The sample square is the move — they can feel the texture, see how it catches light vs. galvanized. Holding it makes it real. Order one from the office, it's like $40 and it pays for itself in the first sale. 4. **He never says the word "upgrade."** He says "the powdercoat version" or "the bronze one." Upgrade implies "more than the standard," which triggers price anxiety. "The bronze one" implies "a flavor choice," which doesn't. 5. **He bundles powdercoat into the contract before the customer agrees to it.** Then he reveals total price (Section 5 above). This is borderline aggressive but it works because by the time the contract comes out, they've been picturing the bronze door for 30 minutes. Pulling it back out feels like a loss. 6. **He has a "no powdercoat" exit ramp ready.** If the customer firmly declines, he doesn't push past one objection. He says "totally — galvanized's a workhorse, you'll get 25 years out of it" and moves on. He's not closing 100% — he's closing 70%+. The trick is not pushing the 30% who genuinely don't want it. That preserves trust and protects his reviews. The unlock: **Marc treats powdercoat as the default and galvanized as the opt-out.** You four treat galvanized as the default and powdercoat as the opt-in. Flip that mental model and your numbers move overnight. --- ## 8. The 10-call practice loop One week. Ten in-homes. One powdercoat pitch per call, **no exceptions, even when you're sure it's a no.** Especially when you're sure it's a no — those are the calls you're leaving money on. **The protocol:** | Call # | Day | Goal | Track | |--------|-----|------|-------| | 1 | Mon AM | Use the 30-sec framing from Section 1. Just that. | Did you say it in the first 60 seconds? Y/N | | 2 | Mon PM | Same framing + Q1 from Section 2. | Did you get a usable answer? Y/N | | 3 | Tue AM | Framing + Q1 + Q2. | Did Q2 give you an anchor? Y/N | | 4 | Tue PM | Full Section 2 (all 3 questions). Pull color card. | Did they hold the card? Y/N | | 5 | Wed AM | Add the before/after phone photos. | Did you find a comp install <15mi? Y/N | | 6 | Wed PM | Add the weathered-original walk-over. | Did they look at their current door's rust? Y/N | | 7 | Thu AM | Use Section 5 bundled price reveal. | Did you reveal bundled-first? Y/N | | 8 | Thu PM | Full script through Section 5. Stay quiet after price. | How long did they stay quiet? (seconds) | | 9 | Fri AM | Full script + take-away close from Section 6. | Did you use the forced binary? Y/N | | 10 | Fri PM | Full script, full delivery. This is the rep. | Sold/Not — and which objection if not? | **Debrief format — 5 minutes after each call, in your truck:** - What did I say in the first 60 seconds? (write it down, exact words) - What was their first reaction to the color card? - Where did I lose them, if I lost them? - What objection did I get, and did I have the right next sentence? **End-of-week scorecard:** - Calls run: ___ / 10 - Powdercoat pitched: ___ / 10 (target: 10) - Powdercoat sold: ___ / 10 (Kevin's baseline ~6% → target for week 1: 3/10. Yes, 30%. Read the math at the bottom.) - Top objection encountered: __________ - One thing I'll change for next week: __________ Bring this scorecard to the Friday sales huddle. Marc will look at it. He won't judge — he wants you to win because the company wins. --- ## The bottom line You four don't need to become Marc. You need to attach powdercoat at the *company average*, not above it. The average is around 35-40% attach on residential bulkhead replacements (per the 2025 contract data). Kevin is at roughly 6-8%. Closing half the gap — getting Kevin to ~22% — would add ~$180K of annual revenue at his volume, with most of that flowing through as margin because powdercoat carries ~55-60% gross. You don't have to be great at this. You have to be *not bad* at it. Run the 10-call loop. Pitch every appointment. The numbers will move. — end —