Christopher Land of Dallas Epoxy Guys on Why Education Beats Price

Most contractors are nervous about putting prices on their website. Christopher Land, who owns Dallas Epoxy Guys, did it on purpose. His site has an instant quote tool where a homeowner enters the size of their floor, picks a system and sees what it costs.

It might sound like an invitation to be shopped on price. Chris sees it the other way around.

“If we’re just going specifically off of a price point, we’re probably not going to be the right contractor for the client at the end of the day,” he says.

The tool is there to be fast and useful, not to win a race to the bottom. “We wanna give our clients a fast response,” he explains, “but at the same time, we wanna become a resource for our clients.”

Education is the pitch

Ask Chris why customers pick one contractor over another and he answers in one word: education.

“I personally believe that education is part of the pitch,” he says. “You’re educating your clients during that process where they feel comfortable enough that you are the person for the job.”

He draws a clear line between two ways of running a coatings business. One contractor shows up, gives a number and repeats that a hundred times. The other spends time explaining the job, so the client can make “the most educated guess on the type of installation that they’re looking for and or contractor.”

That is also why he is comfortable talking about money early. He thinks more contractors should simply ask what the client wants to spend.

“I think a lot of contractors just need to get comfortable asking the client what their budget is,” he says. “I can provide you 10 to 15 different applications that are budget friendly for your budget. However, we won’t sacrifice our name and our quality for a price point.”

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“We won’t sacrifice our name and our quality for a price point.”

If a client is focused only on the lowest number, Chris would rather send them somewhere else. “If they’re strictly focused on the price point, we typically would recommend them another contractor.”

The hard years

The calm, process driven business Chris describes today was built the hard way.

“My first couple of years in this industry, we worked eighteen, twenty hour days, six to seven days a week,” he says. “I did that three years strong.”

His crew was glad of the money. But the cost showed up at home. “We were missing out on important things around our family,” he says. “I’m big on family, man. I’ve got five boys, five amazing boys and a newborn.”

That experience shaped how the company handles calls today. Chris believes in work life balance, but he also knows a missed call can be a missed job. His rule is simple: if a client calls before noon, the team tries to get back to them the same day. If they call after noon, Chris typically calls back within a day.

Doing it all alone

Like many owners, Chris started out wanting to do everything himself.

“I wanted to build it all myself. I wanted to be on every job. I wanted to oversee everything. I wanted to perfect our craft,” he says. “But at the same time, when you’re building a business, if you do everything, you can’t do everything perfect.”

He spent his first year working alone. “My back still hurts from that first year,” he says.

Looking back, he would build the team sooner. “You’re building the team while you’re building the business,” he says. “At least in my opinion.”

How follow up really works

Chris does not use one follow up process for every client, because residential, commercial and industrial buyers behave differently.

Homeowners, he says, decide fast. “If I’m doing a walkthrough, you’re getting a price before I leave,” he says. “And we’re gonna try to close that job before I leave that house.”

Commercial work is slower. A 10,000 square foot warehouse is not a two car garage, and the people signing off need to trust who they are dealing with. Chris describes a process that can take two to three months, with a check in about every two weeks.

The goal is to be useful, not pushy. When one commercial client needed a specific level of chemical resistance, Chris sent them articles about their exact installation. That gave his contact the information they needed to make the case inside their own company.

“We become their resource,” he says. “We make them look good.”

Advice for homeowners

Chris’s approach gives homeowners a simple test for any coatings contractor: did they explain the work, or did they just give you a number? A contractor who asks about your budget and walks you through your options is doing exactly what Chris believes good contractors should do.

Advice for new installers

For people just getting into floor coatings, Chris’s biggest advice is to get involved in the industry. He credits much of the company’s growth to faith and to the network he has built.

“If you’re not in the room creating the noise, you’re outside of the room and you’re left to just kind of fend for yourself,” he says. “Get involved with the community, get involved with the industry. Understand that there’s people in this industry that wanna see you win.”

He is just as direct about failure.

“Failure is part of success,” he says. “I truly believe that in order to succeed, you must fall. And you must fall and fall and fall because you learn through that failure.”

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“If you’re not in the room creating the noise, you’re outside of the room and you’re left to just kind of fend for yourself.”

Bringing the industry together

Chris has stood in front of the industry before. He did the decorative live portion of World of Concrete three years straight, running live demonstrations of what epoxy can do. But he noticed something there. Everyone stayed with their own product line, and there was little real community.

That is why he supports the Golden Pour Awards, an event that brings contractors together for one night. He sees it as a chance to network, build relationships and shift how coating contractors see each other.

“I think the change starts with us,” he says. “If it doesn’t start with our willingness to be a part of something bigger than us, if it doesn’t start with us putting our ego aside and really trying to develop our industry, then it can’t work.”

He is excited to help make the night happen, and even more excited to see what comes after it.

“We’re just at the beginning stage of it,” he says. “Put your seatbelt on and hold on, ‘cause it’s gonna be fun.”