For contractors, choosing an exterior door often comes down to finding the right balance of appearance, performance, maintenance and price. And lately, what customers want that door to look like has been changing.
Curt Fransen, Sales Manager at the Spahn & Rose location in Dubuque, Iowa, sees that shift firsthand. For the past five years, Mid-Am Building Supply has served as a Spahn & Rose vendor parter, providing an extensive variety of interior and exterior doors.
Ready to Meet Door Trend Needs
While Craftsman-style doors have been a familiar choice for homeowners for more than a decade, Fransen says customers are increasingly moving in a different direction.
“Customers are looking for modern designs, which are typically minimalistic and include ‘equal-lite’ glass and panel configurations,” he says. “This trend has evolved away from the Craftsman style, which has been prevalent over the last 10 to 15 years.”
For contractors, keeping up with those changing preferences can help during conversations with homeowners who may know the look they want but need some guidance getting there. Having access to different door styles and configurations gives Spahn & Rose another way to help contractors match a product to the project.
Value Goes Beyond the Door
Looks are one part of the equation. On many jobs, customers are also asking contractors for products that offer long-term value without adding maintenance headaches.
Fransen points to Mid-Am’s Steel Mark prefinished white door from ODL as one option for customers focused on economy and ease of ownership. Paired with a vinyl-wrapped frame and brickmould, the system provides an exterior door package that addresses those priorities.
“The Steel Mark door combined with a vinyl-wrapped frame and brickmould, provides excellent value to the customer,” Fransen says.
The ability to offer different solutions is important for a lumberyard serving professional builders, remodelers and homeowners. For contractors, it means having a resource that can help narrow the choices based on the needs of a particular project, from design and budget to ongoing maintenance.
Responsive Service Matters
Product selection is important, but Fransen says there is another factor that weighs heavily when Spahn & Rose decides which vendors earn its business: the people behind the products.
“Typically when working with our vendors, sales representation is essential in who we buy from,” he says.
That relationship becomes particularly valuable when a customer needs help navigating door choices or the Spahn & Rose team has a question about a product. Fransen says his experience with Mid-Am has provided the kind of access he wants from a supplier.
“Our Mid-Am sales rep is very responsive when reaching out for assistance on any doors from their product offering,” he says.
For contractors, much of that vendor relationship happens behind the scenes. Having a responsive supplier supporting the Spahn & Rose team can help get questions answered and identify options that fit the job.
As customer tastes continue shifting toward more contemporary designs, contractors need door suppliers capable of meeting those changing expectations while still delivering practical options for customers concerned with price and maintenance. For Fransen, Mid-Am’s combination of product choices and responsive sales support has made it a reliable part of the door business at Spahn & Rose.
