Business Planning with Purpose

Be cognizant of the top three areas where most companies fail to create a more air-tight plan.

NeoCon, hosted annually in Chicago at theMART, provides a massive snapshot of the commercial design industry’s latest innovation. Team Interrupt was there this past June to take in the sights and offer their perspective on the current state and future of the show and the industry.

It’s strategic planning season.

It’s easy to get so caught up in the B2B world that you forget to take the consumers’ everyday world into account. It’s important to remember the lives consumers are living each day.

Providing a good customer experience starts with understanding your customer. Taking the time to recognize how contractors operate and what they need to provide better service to their customers allows you to better serve contractors. Working to show a contractor how to best use your products to improve their business can mean better service and increased profits for both of you.

Change is a difficult, yet necessary part of life. Interrupt Senior Account Executive Mark Nowotarski shares his thoughts on change both personally and professionally.

An affordable housing crisis is facing millions of Americans and affecting every state across the U.S. Building materials companies have a responsibility to help.

Airports may be the next big center for commercial and industrial development. The birth of a new transportation-focused metropolitan sub-region, the aerotropolis, is on the horizon. How do your products and services fit into this new business model?

As online shopping continues to gain traction, the overall retail experience is becoming more critical to the success of big box retailers. Online product research now plays a huge role regardless of where the purchase ultimately occurs. Whether buying online or in-store, the consumer shopping journey often begins long before the final sale, challenging all retailers (especially big box) to more carefully craft the sales path from beginning to end.

Marketing partnerships can create exponential success for the brands involved. Value-added, expansive audience, corporate-startup, and long-term strategic partnerships all offer wider exposure and an increased customer base for companies of all sizes and backgrounds.

Like many antiquated processes, yesterday’s marketing approaches no longer fit today’s buyers. Modern consumers demand a more personalized, long-term approach, which is defined by the new term known as lifecycle management.

The fastest-growing residential areas in the U.S. are where wildlife meets urban life. While beautiful, these exurban communities will require innovative building materials to combat the dangers of mountainous and coastal living, especially as our climate changes.

The nature of business is changing even faster and more rigorously than in decades past. Marketing will serve as the main driver of this change, delivering greater customer experiences and more relevant business strategies through comprehensive data analysis.

The entire Interrupt team pitched in to help you prepare for the upcoming year. From channel strategy to digital trends, here are our top predictions of the biggest factors to impact your business in 2019.

It’s the holiday season and we’re all thinking about giving (and getting). As you think about the gifts you’d like to receive the most, consider what you actually need. Especially when it comes to your business. Challenge yourself to add items to your wish list that will pay back in dividends, versus fix a simple want in the moment.

When you let fear stand in the way of growth, you’re failing. Sure, it feels great to be comfortable but if you stay stagnant and avoid taking risks, you’re essentially hurting your business and chances for exceptional growth.

Looking forward, we’re expecting big changes in the construction industry. It’s time to get prepared so you can prevent commotion in your operations and come out ahead. In this post, Bill takes us through his forecast of the future to help you understand what’s expected over the next few years.

Senior Account Manager, Mark, gives us insight on how he helps his clients look past their competitors to find unique sources of inspiration so they can lead their category.

Today, you can’t win business with fishing trips and golf outings. If you’re selling to the trades and businesses, you need a deeper understanding of your customers’ pain points, their business’ success factors and how you can help their business outperform their market. It’s a journey and in this post, we’ll help you get started on the right path.

After all the effort spent on building a strategic plan, 90% of companies still fail to launch. In this article, we define clear ways to achieve your goals and make sure that the important time spent on planning doesn’t go to waste.

You’ve heard about the importance of creating a great customer experience (CX), now it’s time to learn about the real driver of success — employee experience. In this post, we explain how to engage your team to encourage greater results through higher productivity and company loyalty.

The feed basket still seems to be strapped to many companies across the construction industry as they continue to search for the best places to invest their profits. It remains obvious that rapid spikes in success are still preferred over organic growth, with many companies willing to pay a premium for the proven performer.

They say age is just a number. But when it comes to an aging workforce, numbers matter.

Based on the energy and conversations coming out of some of the industry’s key shows, there’s a lot to look forward to for the rest of the year. First, we look at how to prepare for the inevitable ups and downs in the marketplace.

“What gets measured gets done.” That simple statement is a guiding principle for us — both at our agency and with our clients.

Part 4 in the Killer Customer Experience Series

After 30 years in the industry, it continues to amaze me how infatuated manufacturing companies are with the new construction (NC) market.

Set aside some time to make a list of gifts that you, as a leader, will give to your business to make it more successful.

One guarantee in business is change.

We had the opportunity to attend the Hanley Wood “Builder Connections” conference in Dallas recently. It’s a great concept.

Manufacturers and suppliers need to wake up to how tech is changing LBM.

Business and leadership is simple; we usually just choose to make it more complex than it needs to be.

Here are a few tips to help your company spring into action for a successful 2015.

Home builders, like most business people, have straightforward motives.

All signs point to continued homeowner interest in homes that are greener, more energy efficient and resilient.

It’s a musical playlist that gets me thinking about the complexity of “simple.”

Expertise in the building materials channel is what ensures you get results.

First, remember that planning is a process, not a project.

There are approximately 100 million existing U.S. homes, and about one million new homes are added each year.

Enabling a consultative sales process through structure, data and technology.