Fri, 29 December 2017
One of the best definitions of sales I have ever heard on selling“Selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that is good for them, and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result.” Dan Sullivan (who is just a genius) The definition is not that I have something they need and, by golly, I going to make them buy it. Please, please, please buy my services…. So let’s go through the definition again. Selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that is good for them, and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result. So really, what does that look like? What are the steps to actually make that happen? Well I think number one, you really need to listen perceptively. In the old days a salesman pitch was… you get it down, go over it and continue to role-play and do all the things to make sure that you, the sales person, was comfortable with the sales process. I think one of the biggest challenges with something like that kind of pitch is rigidity. It’s great that you should know your sales process and that you should know what you want to say. BUT I think what probably more important than anything is that you need be yourself. You can’t go into a sales situation or presentation to your customer thinking that “I can beat the other guy’s price.” You really need to take ownership of who you are. You have to be comfortable with who you are and you have to have the self-confidence of knowing what you can do. Knowing that you can provide the services and the quality of services that you’re presenting to your potential client. I can’t really say that over all that it works on commercial clients, at least the ones that are only looking for the bid price. I do know that it works well with the residential customers and clients that I have. I don’t do a whole lot of commercial sales for the services that we have, but I follow the same process for that also. I am comfortable with who I am, I know who I am, I know the type of service that I am going to provide. Most importantly, I what that service is costing me to provide! I know the type of profit margin that I need to make to keep my company sustainable in the marketplace. That’s what I mean by knowing particularly who you are. Be confident of the person in your skin. I actually think that once you put yourself in the position of going through the sales process and second-guessing yourself and not knowing what you want to charge… thinking that “I know that Bob So-and-so my competitor was here, and I know what he charges, so I’m going to be real close to him, maybe a little below so that so I can get the business.” That is not knowing who you are. That’s being wishy-washy. That’s not having the confidence in who you are, what you can do and what you can provide to that customer. YOU KNOW that customer sees you weakness, he sees your inability to be genuine and he sees your neediness because they see that battle going on in your presentation. When you chase after what other people are charging, then you’re back to being a commodity and you are not going to make it in the marketplace and be an extremely profitable company. In order for you to have an abundance mindset, you need to be who you are. You need to find your identity so that you can run the course, be positive, be genuine, and be confident in your own skin. Here’s what really happens if you’ve done your marketing correctly and you have educated the consumer correctly through your marketing. Mostly your job is already done. They called you because they want to know if you could provide the value that you say you can from your marketing materials, so they just want to meet you. That’s why it’s so important for you to be genuine when you know who you are. Also, story building is a great part of the sales process. Actually the nurturing stories are the greatest relationship builders. It is like Mr. Rogers used to say, “it’s hard not like someone once you know their story.” As a sales person, we must first be able to relate to the customer to help solve the customer’s problems. I believe by delivering the facts, you build trust and by educating your client, you will give your clients new ways to think about their problems. As sales superstars we do many things… we attract, we teach, we advise, we serve, we measure. And most importantly, we guide our clients and prospects by developing individual brand (that’s us) that stands for trust and expertise. In order for all that to happen, for me to close and get the sale, I have to provide the client with the emotional response or let’s go back to our beginning definition… “Selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that is good for them, and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result.” This just takes a few simple steps. We will have to listen and be perceptive to what is actually going on in the sales meeting. We need to listen to what our customers’ real problems are and how they think that problem can be solved. So what is perceptive listening? Perceptive listening is when you hear, interpreting the words as they are said, AND that you also consider what the person isn’t saying, what she might really be thinking and how she is acting as they speak. This requires you to be totally focused on what their needs are and what you’re trying to sell. Perceptive listening will tell you what the prospect says he Tells You. Prospect says he’s not ready to buy, but what he’s really saying is that he doesn’t understand the benefits of what you’re offering. Perceptive listening is how you draw out what the potential customers are really passionate about allowing you to understand their goals and objectives. In today’s world there are so many teaching opportunities for our clients who are our future customers. Teaching them actually sells them, or at least presales them, by giving them useful expert information. That’s how you build an expert platform, by creating the information they need to make an informed decision, So by creating expert platform, you are now becoming the authority in that area (the industry and the geographic area you serve). Once you become that authority, you normally have very, very little competition. You see, what you’re doing is you are sending a message that by being the expert, you are no longer competing on price as a commodity business. You don’t want to show up at a customer’s house, write out a proposal and say, “this is the price.” You want to go through and educate them. You want to leave behind sales materials. You want to talk with them and walk around the house, or sit down with them and go through whatever you’re going to go through with them. You want to explain the process, what you do and why you do it and maybe the safety factors. Go through all the benefits of working with your company. By what you’re presenting, you are making them more informed, showing you have more expertise, you are better educated and more professional by the way you talk and explain things to them. Then you’re going to leave them with material that backs up everything you just presented. When they go over it, they will say, “I remember he said this, I remember he said that when he went through the information and our Proposal.” So, let me just get you a couple of examples of something that just happened to me recently. In this sales situation I got a call to come out and do an estimate on some work at this potential customer house and he told me that everything he wanted done. I met him at the house, we walked around, and he explained what he wanted done. As we went through, I told him about what our process was, how we did things, how we protected things and as I got towards the end of our walk around the house, I asked, by the way how did you find out about us… His answer was “on the Internet” and he said to me, I checked you out on the Internet. As a matter fact you were the first person we called, and something happened where you couldn’t get out. You were real busy, and we were impressed with all the information that you had on your website. It very informative for us and easy to make an informed decision. We have two other people that we got prices from and we called you again because we really wanted you to come out and give us a proposal on all the work we need to be done here because we felt that you were the most professional. So, I put together the proposal, I talked to them about it and I left him some more information. Basically, everything that we talked about in a report that I give each potential customer and I will let you know how that turns out. Next let me tell you another example of how I presented in a sales situation. I had a phone meeting with someone that I want to buy a particular service. We had a meeting on the phone. I know the man, I like the man, I trusted the man and we had talked before but not about what I wanted to purchase from him. We just knew each other so that was a big plus on his side as we did our telephone conversation. He went over the his products and services that I was interested in, going into great detail about what the whole program was, what the benefits were and how he would help me get through the whole process. We went over the dates of the seminar that I wanted to attend and he said, “listen, this is how I handle my sales process… I give you all the stuff we just went over and you know that the class is going to be very small, like just 4 to 5 people. The class will sell out and if you can’t make this one, that’s fine, and if you don’t want to do it all, that’s fine too. But if you do want to do it, this is the date. Let me know right away if you want to attend before it fills up. We have another class in January that you are also than welcome to attend” and that’s how he left it. He followed the definition to a tee, “Selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that is good for them, and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result.” Go sell your services at a premium! Until next week… There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 28 December 2017
Run Your Contracting Business with Less Stress More Success He created the systems in his family business that allowed him to sell his shares of the family business at the young age of 50 to pursue a consulting career to other business owners create less stress and more success Out of that process, he wrote a book called Run your Contracting Business with Less Stress and More Success, the 7- Power Contractor. Al Levi he is a former heating air conditioning and electrical guy had his own business and at work for 25 years and his family business created systems and now actually had put his stuff in place to enable him to sell his share of his business to his brothers and retire before the age of 50. And of course, in return I thought is giving up some things that he doesn’t want to do to. So now Al has written a book and he does consulting and helps other companies become successful through the systems in the manuals that he created for his company that gave him so early retirement. This is Dave Negri with Contractor Secret Weapon and today is another fine day in Florida. Sorry Sinos. How many of you guys are up in the winter and snow? Today, I have Al Levi with me and I'm excited to talk to him because he is a former heating air conditioning and electrical guy had his own business and at work for 25 years and his family business created systems and now actually had put his stuff in place to enable him to sell his share of his business to his brothers and retire before the age of 50. And of course, in return I thought is giving up some things that she doesn’t want to do to do some things that she does want to do. So now Al has written a book and he does consulting and helps other companies become successful through the systems in the manuals that he created for his company that gave him so so early retirement. He's probably working harder now, aren't you? Let me do it all right. I'm not working. Right. Contract as well. Appreciate that you know the life that I lived then before I was lucky. I was third generation in our company started 1936 and we also did plumbing by the way. Okay. So, it was 24/7 365 and I don't need to we just ran ahead. We literally have our shift on to cover those hours. There were real people there wasn't somebody up and come out. You know it was non-stop and it really was you know. Good news is I was making a lot of money. The bad news it was killing me. So, I had to change the thing and that was what this is all about. You know I created with help from other reasons seven power concepts which is the second things to run a company. My dad did raise myself and my brother was the time we were young teenagers. To be in business meetings. So, we got a big education from him and the nature of it is that we also were surreal entrepreneurs. Beyond that we had a cable, liquor stores. We had an ice cream shop. We had to multi state real estate, the main golden goose was always the contracting business and that was really about the seven thing which was Planning, Operations, Staffing, Sales, Sales Coaching, Marketing, Finance. All those are the seven things because Dave, contractors it feels like there's a million things. We have to handle, a million of things we have to do. And I know what that chaos is about, but it really boils down to seven things I just rattled off and what I changed to be able to make those things systematic the fact that I had all these people that were now in power to help to me to themselves and most importantly to our customers and even better way than we have been That's really what was the secret. And so, I decided because I hope you appreciate the story as well as most contractors. We are able to do it in seven hours you know because they do seven hours in working hours trying to tell everybody this is how long would you say a good employer will give you notice that are leaving two weeks maybe a week. I said you know in my case sometimes my employees would just leave the keys on the desk and I'd have to go and find it you know. In all the places. It's how to get my brothers and my dad three years notice that I'd be leaving. Three years, that was, let it wash over you for a second. So, you would know what kind of fleener I am. Because that was not believable right. I really just wrote all the system that we put in place. Letting out all the ability to create people who are willing with no skills and the people that are willing with skills and that all positions, I don't mean tech position. But inside the office and all the other kinds of things right. The backbone of that is the operations manuals. That's a one of a kind thing that I spent one year of my life. I didn't take all three years while I was doing all my other jobs. I sat with everybody when he walked out without warning calls and stuff I would make notes to create an outline. Of all the things it took all the tests that our company had grown to give and to create that. That backbone I hired a writer. Initially, I gave Dan Callahan to help me run meetings. And we spent you know about a hundred thousand dollars in 1996 money. Now got hundreds of hours putting these manuals in. So, their policies and procedures were plain English. We got fired from the store from our staff from all these meetings and we were union shocked by the way, so, if everybody is listening you would say well that's fine it won't work either. My answer is I was a New York shop at a union shop and trust me. I've been all over this country for the last 15 years doing one on one consulting with people. Now I'm switching that up to where I'm going to be running these program workshop where people can pick a manual with me and show them how to do the same thing at their own company So that's really the essence of what it means that I, I've been doing. But there's a lot more to it. And I want to be careful about how much I live in here because I know you're in the lead but I've got some exciting things to share about how you can really transform your company to make it in a place that's attractive to come to work and that you surround yourself with people that you want to be with. It's a world of difference. It's what you were talking about creating your system before putting books together and working in a union shop of course you know the 90's and so on and I'm thinking about what about today. You know I hear so many stories of people trying to attract the new generation the millennials. And getting to go to work for their contracting company. And there are just some are just having a horrendous time and when you get to that I can assure I also have a franchise. I talked to my partners. He's actually a client I've been to back in 2005. You haven't been to tell us story. Absolutely. OK so in 2005. I'm going to my plumbing meeting and cooling. I got some frame worker or at least I thought I I’d had done framework, you know plunger, you know big kind of steak and the rest of it is like oh, and I have to tell you and finally this is not telling a story I can't get notice from. So, I get a call from these guys in Philly. Two young brothers. They're in their 30's and, all they do is just framework and they're telling me that and they do you know whatever specialized framework and I'm thinking 'yeah right'. So, it's all the job that there is you might be snap in picking up in plumbing, heating and air conditioning and electrical. And so, I get down there and walk around and dirty and you know what I mean disorganized. Pretty much what I expected. But then I sit down and give adjacent to create magics for. And I get an education. I had no idea your client's framework and the way they do it with water Dave, camera and stuff. Was just incredible to me. Wow. That's the joy of this whole thing. And so, the funny part of this is he was a missionary, say's to me because you know how this is this is only like two months into the process they get the picture. He says to me I would love to license the franchises and look at this in a snarky New York attitude and go "franchise this?" How about if we just get the guys dressed to go to meetings clean up the trucks. Obviously, here's the big story here. Two to three years we had got everything. We had got to the point where we let training centers and built new pipes, and meetings guys dressed in this profession and working in white shirts all day long and doing all these things and so I'm not a contractor. So, a lot of I said you know were all good and then I go off with my good friend. Ellen Moore is the model of Ben Franklin plumbing. And so, she finishes over there. She and I had worked together for many years. She says to me "Al, do you know any clients that might be interested with franchising?" And I said "Sure do Olives. I thought you worked with them. Zoomed trained. Not really. So, I called up Jim and I go "Jim, remember you said you have that desire to own the franchise, you still interested? And there's a pause and Jim say "I've been waiting by the phone all this time for you to call." The rest as they say is history. Get a franchise down in Orlando and up in New England and down the Long Island. Me old stomping grounds. That's really great, but you know what's so great about them. They are living breathing the manual staffing systems that are put in place. All of the other things the weekly meetings working on the top five everything that I've create is living breathing. That brings me back to this because that will have nothing but young guys like the breed young people who want to build a career or not have a job who's not kids and motivated young kids. They're not motivated because we as leaders have failed. We are not heeding a vision of where they can go in this company. And they want more. And it's not who everybody thinks this is new. So, I'll take you back if you will when I arrive at my job and like I told my dad well why don't you guys can do this, and why aren't they do this and my dad says sorry you weren't born 30 years your younger, 30 years earlier because maybe you could have done that. But nobody is doing anything around here unless they know what happens to them in a good way. What happens in a bad way. Yeah. That was an education I've got early on. So, here's the rest of that story. The guys from the Vietnam era were just ahead of me when I arrived. Phil Atami was one of them and he's talking to me because we're training new candidates back in the 90s. And he's telling me these kids have no work ethics. They just want to play around. They're not that interested in this. And I said, Tommy it's funny because the old guys used to say the same thing about you and the rest of us. As for the essence of this is Zoom is one example of all the companies that I work with today that take good young millennials and show them there's a career path. And if you don't have a great organization chart that shows where am I today and where can I go tomorrow? You're not going to sign the equal your shoes to your door. But your heart and soul are not there. Alright. What you must have is heart and soul. So that's another way. And from what I'm hearing you say is what you're doing is you're creating a team that's buying in to the whole company and the future of the company it's not a job. And for themselves, that this is where I want to be. Right. My dad had a great line. Employees boat with their feet. Every day they decide that you can be here or be elsewhere. That's a great way to see it. Wow, that is really awesome. So, this is just amazing. And a lot of it had to come with you creating the manuals from the business that you're in with your dad and creating that whole process and how wow this is just how long does it take like for you to walk into company NSA and a decent size company. I don't know 10 ,12 employees and I'm sure most of the time when you walk into something like that they're pretty much flying by the seat of their pants and its chaos. How long does it take to create for them to help them correct that system to get it up and viable in place? You're going to tweak it on a regular basis. Well there are two types of companies that I've worked with over the 15 years doing this job now, and they're one of two flavors. One is that they are fast growers and it's nothing but chaos. Every moment of the day. So, they got this great house built on a really bad foundation or no foundation at all. Right. And my job was to come in Dave, and put a foundation under that company so that control can come back in and stop chaos. Every moment you go there's a plan of we work plan. So, first thing I with planning power which is teaching them how to get a master project list the top 30 and work on the top five which make all the difference. One of the top five is always the operations manager which are my managers and they're pretty much 90-95 percent of the way that they need to have them. Because they make adjustments to better fit their company. And I work with blue frame and photographers and believe or not it's still pretty much the same. Yeah pretty much. Pretty much the same. Yeah getting reform just back to the rest of it and so I fix those areas right around the start. Then we move want to staffing it. That's what needs to be done which is, I teach them how to leverage the manuals and have one of a kind building blocks for training people all the way up apprentice, taxicab field supervisor and all. And so, it's also hands on training center. I built hands on training centers for ever and now I've been all over the place building training centers everywhere we go it's not the training center alone about what we're talking about hands on where you can create the problems that people will encounter in the field of your employees as far as setting faucet showers. If it's it's heating, it's warm their or colder, whatever. It's working breathing and you can simulate all the problems. So by the time they get in the field, attack can do the three most important things she's talked to customers, communicate and today that being said, was it the customer's best interest? in what I call ethical self. No one will ever hear that I want you to sell anybody anything that's not in your best interest. Right. But you are here to serve them. You are the one that's the expert and it's your job to take the blinders off and look around. Not just think fix the handle of the toilet have along the toilet that you know is 30 years old and we are back from our fix in a flap or not. You know you don't change air filter out when you know you really need to change the unit out. Those are the things that you know we train right from the beginning because ultimately that serves people best. You know the fact the matter most couples these they've told got to go to work and you have good high paying job. Nobody wants to take home more time to go hang out with your plumbing heating pool electric guy. So you've got to fix it right the first time. And a lot of times that means selling the right things and doing the right repairs. So sales operation technical are the skills that you must train. That's a where good sale system which is another thing that really helps to ratchet it off. But at the backbone of it all it's really the manuals. The operations man buying policy procedures and that's the way I'm doing it today is still your operating manual. First of all, that's where people will be doing, kind of what I used to do when I came to their shop. So the answer to your question is; the fastest anybody run with all of my programs today and not everybody goes all through the programs. Then what. I've had so many do it in 18 months and they've gone from 9 million to 33 million in sales that just because of me because they were great guys. They just need to get the foundation right. I've had guys typically like the Zoom guys I was talking about thought we had done everything in three years because it's not how fast you show progress out. It's how well you get them. So I don't just come there as and pull up and changed my residence and hang out with you. You got to be able to do these things and get each one of them because they build on each other the good way to see this. Imagine a pyramid the higher and bigger you want that pyramid the longer you want to last. That starts at the bottom not at the top. That's right, the better the base and the selling power concepts are, it blocks. Better those block form which is planning which means working on right thing at the right time, the right way. That's what planning power is. Operating power is having the manuals that handle 80 percent. Nothing's gonna cover 100 percent of what goes on. But handling the 80% of the policies and procedures of each of the boxes on your old chart, the things that go on. So, it's replica and people can be empowered from the day they show up. And then there's Staffing which is again building you know young willing people into skilled willing people and giving them a career path. And that its Sales, have your sales system for both techs and also or ticket sales people. And if you're in a commercial like that was what I called Commercial sales agents the person who goes to order to pick places open up accounts keep them happy and keep them buying from you. Which is critical so there's sales process for that. That's another block. Sales Coaching, which is coaching the right things and you get the right rewards and they win. But ultimately always the customer first wins. Right. Marketing which is what you're seeking is a contractor is right about a call from the right customer at the right time. The three rights of Mark and so we beyond that is Financial which is you know you can do all that off and if you don't charge and if you're not careful about your expenses it doesn't matter anything else, you won't be in business. Yeah it's called The Leaky Bucket Syndrome. Yeah exactly right. And sometimes, you're lucky it was just The Leaky Bucket is exploded. What are you. Yeah yeah I've never heard that one but yeah when I heard one no one guy "Some days you're the bug again. Some days your the windshield". It's a country song. Yes. I love that one. Yeah he was a plumbing contractor. But that was kind of funny. So how did you come up with the idea here. Have you booked. I actually when I changed for me you know it's hard to remember when you make a change. You're in the midst of craziness. Yeah. You know my kind of day was so I could wake up at 5 a.m. get back home in 2 am and get my three hours of sleep. I always have always really love sleeping because the phone next to my head was going to ring. Yeah from the guys who are on the call shift that were stuck yeah. I was mad as heck at them for calling and waking me up Sure. But, he it was needed. That's the awful truth of being an owner. I never gave them enough information. I never documented it. They were in a position where they had to call. Yeah. And it was really kind of crazy when my brother, Richie, and I rode up the manual with them we defied you know. Do these three thing before you call Richie. And, 50% of the calls went away. Yeah I was doing in class education class one day and the guy was a remodeling contractor and his guys were calm all the time. Lucky for him it was just normal business hours so it wasn't like 24/7 like yours was. But he'd finally get to the point he goes what would you do if I wasn't there. But no, I want you to think about. Give me the answer What would You do if I wasn't there. He said you know it's if you ask me that question enough times they come up with the answer. I agree. And it actually in seminars that I teach about how I train a stepping power agent is. If you ask a question and you answer it on your own. Why should I think right? You may ask the question shut up and let them. Even if they guessed wrong. Give me a call because they have the guts to speak up right. And you treat I like that. I think that's great. That's a really good first step. Yeah it was just so then. Next time you about these three or four times before you call me. he said he tends closedown. He said I got some but he said it was nowhere near what I got before then. And it's like you said it's just it's goes back to the training. Yes. And part of that thing now is that we're going to speak to a deeper level issue. So why didn't I share all this information. Why didn't I do all of this stuff. Was the question at all? Yeah. One day this fellow, I was talking about Dan Callahan, he was an industry giant and he didn't go as well as everything else. I was one of the lucky guys that he actually rode in my truck and he's in my truck. I know the same thing but I always read my pages go at all. My friend Dan looks over at me, while I'm driving and he goes "You think that's normal, don't you?". And I stopped for one second and I go "Yeah I do" and then i said "I hate it." And then one second later I said "But I'm really indispensable." And, I just popped out. And that was it. We as owners, first of all what made as great is what sabotages us. Right. Great text, so we were great at whatever that thing was, and so with the the rest of it. Nobody else can do the job as well as us. What you're not saying is untrue but you really can't have people I'm certain but you really can't have people you can't group because you automatically get a lid on the pot and you can't you can't have business run run without you. And you can have vacation. You can't get sick. You have to be on target. All of them. Yeah yeah. Unless you are willing to be in the base. So here are the three syndrome that I finally pointed the finger back at me. So are you ready. Yeah, I like being a rescuer. I like running to the rescue. OK. And I like coming in and be able to you know to pull out that thing. I like being the fire. What I didn't realize is I also was hoping to set the fires that I could put out that way. Here's the last one. You know coming from New York this one will make sense. I like being the guru. Seems right now we're renting. Dave, you don't know how to do that? Really? You know what? I know, would you like to know. Because I'll be happy to share it with you. I was I was operating and when I witness the contractors I worked with over the year they to their credit finally go yeah, I get it. And that is what you have to deal with first. Because even with quick manuals, even with the training centers and everything else that you can do on the marketing systems because every one of these things are a system. If you're not willing to give up those three identities you are automatically sabotaging everybody who's trying to help you. That's that's. Say that again because that's profound. If you are not willing to give up being a rescue or a fireman guru like I was you are automatically sabotaging those who are there to help you or anybody who will arrive. You know. Wow. That was a big Aha moment. It was a big aha moment and I thank my friend for sticking the truth mirror in my face. Yeah. Wow that's it's amazing that that's you know that's one thing in two set. We are in our own businesses or so in the weeds we can't see what's going on and it takes you know someone like you or you know someone to come along and say like your friend did he could see beyond the weeds because he wasn't in the depths of it. I like that analogy. It's really important for that. And you know even to this day Elle Agror who's the one I was mentioning before she has a consulting business in dozen, and we worked together. She also in the branch with me. We had a meeting where she an I know her sister Ellen Gayle in Ellewood she's H.D. and we meet and we look at each other's business even though we talk to each other all the time. That meeting is all about you know looking at things we haven't got every time we have that meeting every year all three of us. Our business grows and gets better. To this day after all these years. Wow that's pretty amazing. If she can have someone that would help you you know that you could go to a lot of times most of us are afraid to unravel the thing before us because so few will get ridiculed. It's dealing with people who are like minded and think alike and want the best interest for you. Put that to can do that. You know it's interesting when you mentioned that when they think about it when you go to the doctor for your health care check-up or you need. When you're not in your clothes off it out at the end of it. It's the same thing with your business which is you can't see it. And I'll give you guys. Listen to this quote I can see it. Here's another. How many times have you got to another company that you don't know. And by the time you walk through door and spend 30 minutes and you know what's broken. Yeah that's good. Why is that. Why is that. Because you're not emotionally invested in it and that's why it's so hard for any individual to do it all on your own. To think that you can see your own business the way you need to. And that's why there is outside people that you know they're the doctors. That's really what it is. Right. I know that you do a lot of consulting and if someone wanted to learn your 7 signatures or your power your signature or seven power contractor system, how do they get a hold of you? How do they reach you? Oh, the best thing they could do is to go to my website which is www.7powercontractor.com . And there's two things, there's a, and you'll see plenty of videos and testimonials from clients. Not because I needed for my ego but I know you need to hear from other people that it's been done right. I don't do one to one consulting like I did before. What I'm doing now is you have two things. When it comes to me is One you can go there to the shop and but this book that's 7 power Contractor System. There's an e-book $9.99. . Link on the website. I wrote it, and I made it short for a reason, for who are incredibly busy I'm asking you for more hours and if you're a quick reader two hour of your life. OK. Because it changed my life and it will change your life. Not because I wrote it and I had a good editor that helped me do it. We really worked hard to make it less. It's easy to make it fat. It's way hard to make it thin and effective. I know it's amazing isn't it. Yes. I created a 39 second video. And that's what I call that thirty-nine second video. It took me two hours to create it. Oh yeah. I know that. I know that. Exactly. And the other thing is I am feeling starting It's really the best thing that you can do to get the systems in place because without it you're going to be stuck in a. You know it's because of trying to write it on your own. If you could take your chances of getting it in the right way and getting buying. I've been up the mountain. What I see myself is a trivial guy. Yeah and you've done it. You know what it takes and I think that for the most part most people are. All right let me buy fill in the blanks and we'll go from there. Well you know to a certain point. You always have to put in you know what's apropos to what's your complete system is. But for the most part it's you know it's cutting time out is what it's doing. The military cannot possibly know what are the books that they're holding out and more that we spoke about way back when they told me you got to read this book, and it was in the 90's it was Michael Gerber's E-Myth. Yeah that book told me why things weren't working and what to do. He didn't tell me how, but it was the first time that I heard that you go if you're only working in the business and never working on it nothing is going to change. And that was what I set about in creating this system. Now that really the catalyst for the manuals that you describe this hotel that work like all automatically and he said that's where I want my business be. Right. So that's what I set off to do. So, it was one of those books that really changed me. That's really kind of the essence of it but it wasn't out there so I had to create it. And the good news is I hired somebody to help me and its way better than it was 15 years ago. What I left on was it not those it was on a thousand dollars all the hours we paid all of that back in two years. In my company. Oh, I'm sure just in two years. Yeah. That's amazing. So whole activity then will call backs, insurance claims. All of the things are now getting better. So, we started to build on top of it with the organizations and better meetings a lot with things that go into it. But that's really kind of back bone essential that you want. Cool. That's awesome. This has really been awesome. I think we're going to put all of your contact information on our Web page when you want to write off. Must have been great. It was really fun talking with you about everything and will look forward to getting you back. You can a copy of his book click here to go to his website https://www.appleseedbusiness.com/ You can contact Al https://www.appleseedbusiness.com/contact/
There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 27 December 2017
Want more profits? Want to build better relationships and build a better brand? With the year-end here, I decided to review all the podcasts for this past year to see which were the most popular. Based on number of downloads, this was Number 1. In fact, this podcast had double the listens and downloads of all the others. On this podcast, I’m speaking with Gregg Burkhalter. Gregg is a recognized authority on Personal Branding and LinkedIn. He has helped countless professionals in the U.S. and abroad define and grow their Personal Brand using LinkedIn. Gregg is known by many as “The LinkedIn Guy”. During our conversation, we discussed numerous topics including:
If you have any questions not covered in this interview, please reach out to Gregg. He provides Personal Branding Coaching and LinkedIn Training via one-on-one and group training sessions, corporate presentations and webinars. Connect with Gregg Burkhalter (770) 313-2385 https://www.linkedin.com/in/greggburkhalter/ There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 22 December 2017
The Art of Asking for Google Reviews with Jonah Canter. Owner of Canter construction in Charleston, South Carolina. They are premier company that does remodeling, it's a fun talk we had together we talked about how he grew his business basically with zero dollars. He's shares how he get’ s so many google reviews and what his results have been with us today going to share that with us today.” Hey welcome to contractors secret weapon. Today, we've got a great day, we got a great guest. And you know, I it's just fun when I have an opportunity to talk with other contractors about their successes and the things that make them grow. And today I have Jonah Canter. He owns Canter construction company in Charleston, South Carolina. They are premier company that does remodeling. So, it's a fun talk we had together with talked about how he grew his business basically with zero dollars. And so, he's going to share that with us today. And so, that you can help your business grow and maybe the same way that Jonah did his. And so, let's get into and Welcome Jonah Canter from Canter construction in Charleston South Carolina. Jonah, I am so glad that you're with us today. It's a really special treat for me because I don't get to talk to many contractors and it's really exciting. So, thanks for being with us today. Dave, I appreciate it as well and thanks for having me on the show. For those of people who don't know me out there my name is Jonah Canter. I'm the owner of Canter construction and also a co-owner of Oceanside construction and design located here in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. And, I've been in the construction industry for probably over 20 years but actively with my companies for the past 10 years and deeper capacities from being the guy that you know the hammer on the nail all the way up to you know being the owner now and having to make a lot of the hard decisions and business decisions that come with it. So, all that fun work. Now, before is be mindlessly just go to work do this to this to this. And now it's like, I got to think about stuff. Yeah, it's a-- I am the organizer of chaos. That's what I tell my wife and whenever anybody ever questions, I have an employee, a long time ago, say to me "Well, you know what do you get paid to do". And I looked at him dead in the face and I didn't embed it I said "I get to do the hundred dollar an hour stuff. You get to do the 14 dollar an hour stuff". So, we'll just keep it at that. But, no. Seriously it's-- I've had kind of a very interesting background. As a kid I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Went on a soccer scholarship to all male private school and Sidney in Virginia went for a year. Hated it. Dropped out. Didn't know what I was going to do. I moved down to Florida. To Fort Lauderdale area and ended up working on boats. That was when you're young and you can kind of be stupid not know what you really wanted to do. And, I slowly made my way back up. And my family is from the Charleston area and ended up getting a job with my brother in law. Believe it or not as a shipping manager for a startup company. And, if you don't know me one thing that I'm very proud of is that if you hand me a shovel and tell me to dig you a trench, I'm going to dig you the best trench you've ever seen. I've just always had a really strong work ethic so, when they put me in that role as a shipping manager I was trying to find ways of making things better faster cheaper for the company and that kind of I guess guest caught the eye of some of the business owners and they kept promoting me within that startup company. To the point where I ended up moving overseas to the Netherlands. And what's their point man for opening up a print facility. So, that was a whole fun time of my life and by this time I was only about 22 years old. Had hair down to my shoulders. You know, still a dumb kid just trying to figure it all out. But when I moved overseas to the Netherlands, I gained that whole business since that operation since like hey they're counting on me and there's people under me who were counting on me. I have take the serious. So, that was a fun part of my life where it kind of, I tell people I grew up very fast at 22 or the rest of my friends were waiting tables drinking and doing whatever they wanted. I was negotiating print contracts with Dutchman and Belgian people at the time. So, anyways the whole point of that is that Amazon ended up buying that company and I ended up working for Amazon and for a while in the same capacity. Opening up these print facilities in various locations other fulfillment centers. I got my business background from working at Amazon. And Amazon's a place if you've never worked for them. It is a really tough environment. They expect the world, they expect, blood, sweat, tears and almost your first-born child will work. And I lasted about three years and my wife said I'll I'll divorce you if you don't quit because I wasn't sleeping and all that. But what it did teach me is it taught me a lot of things that I apply to my business now and in a couple of those things is the customer experience has to be the most amazing thing on earth right. It has to be something that they're not getting because if they can just get it anywhere, well, you're one of a million. But if you supply something they don't have or they are not seeing, that makes you you know, the one-eyed man is king of the land of the blind kind of situation. So I really when I when I came back from all that I started my company and at first it was a cabinet company and House of round 2007. I was old. Now it's feeling good to have not. And then this year of 2008 hit and all hell broke loose as everybody knows now that's going into 2007 was a millionaire and 2008 they lost it all. And in the words of Richard Branson they asked them they said "How do you become a millionaire?" And he said "Well, you start as a billionaire. And then you buy air and company of which is true". But, anyway bottom tanked that I had to shut that company down. Lucky for me the same guys who had started that other startup. I literally was walking down the street and saw them and they were like we are pros and they were like "What are you doing" and I was like struggling and they're like we're getting the band back together. And so, I just as soon as I stepped in my construction light I step right back out of it and I ended up working for those guys for a long time and another software startup until this past year they allowed me to own my construction company and be their point guy at the software company. Yeah, it was amazing situation for me that's why I took it on. Great guys. I have great respect for them and I slowly but surely left that business altogether and focused on my business. But, I guess I'm giving you a little breadcrumbs to show you. You know sometimes you don't know where your life is going to take you but you need to take pieces your life and apply them to the next part of your life. Well yeah. And a lot of the interesting things that I think that nobody really thinks about is that you are here today because of what you went through in the past. Yeah. And the person you're going to be because of what you've learned in the past. Yeah. So, it's important. It really is that when you when you take it into that perspective. Yeah and it's one of the things when I when I got serious about my construction company the one thing that I wanted to do was I wanted I look at things at work. Let me take you back. I was at a conference one time giving a speech and this kid stood up and he said "Hey Jonah you've been an entrepreneur. What--What are you. How do you look for the next new technology or next new thing to land a business in?". And I looked at him and I said you don't. I said you take something that exists now and you make immensely better. So, Uber did that to the taxi industry and Amazon is doing that to almost everything right and right now. So you don't have to be some super smart guy. And the next technology but you have to do is look at businesses that are not being run well as a whole or as a general philosophy and make them better. So, when I came into construction, that's the first thought and I started to look at it. I know you're laughing because you know and everybody is probably listening knows that the construction industry is rife with just idiots. Be honest with you. I mean Darrell is bad business people you name it. And one of my fond jokes that I tell my customers today, just get a laugh but it's true, as I said who knew the minimum bar to success was having all my teeth and showing up on time. I'm going to be rich. And anybody that doesn't have teeth I'm not making fun of you about that but there is a little bit of a stigma there was that I was I was in the paint store when Nana and I was tied to the representative and even talking about my stuff like this. And he goes you know because of that bench and more they have to have training seminars that are painters in different parts of the country. And he said the trainer come in and there's like 100 guys in a room and say Frank's in his book he says probably six eight 10 inches. And he holds it up and then he puts it down and he goes OK well we're going to make this simple today. How many people want to become wealthy in the contract painting contracting business like a bunch of guys raise their hands. It goes OK. He says it's not in this book he said. Answer your phone and return phone calls. So true. So even today I get calls and that's another thing of mine. I pick it up. I try to be responsive and people will pick up and go oh my gosh. I didn't expect you to pick up and I'm like well I'm not like everybody else. I'm going to talk to you because I mean I have the ability in my current role to make sure that every car-- it calls me is answered. And so, there's little things like that that people miss. But the idea I had was focusing on things like that that are I look back now are very small details and very simple and don't cost you money and are simple but mean the difference of the world it changes you completely different from the other guy. I don't care what kind of car you roll up in or truck. I don't care what you look like. I'm bearded with tattoos right. I care how you respond to me. I care about your personality how you react things and so you can be mentally better than everybody else. In that case you're going to be successful so that's what I did with this company. Canter construction and it's really helped me keep myself grounded, keep a good head on where I want my business. It's been very successful for my business as well. But one of the stories I think I came here today to kind of talk about is trying to help contractors who are typically good at being contractors. Their skill sets. They're good carpenters or whatever but they fall short when it comes to the business side. They didn't get the training they don't have the know how whatever. And in that sense a lot of what is left out I think is you know trying to figure out how to keep your phone ringing without paying money. Right. That's the biggest thing for your phone ringing. So, a while ago, I was getting my domain name which is www .Canterconstruction.com . I was trying to get that domain name because it's my last name. And low and behold this other company popped up and they they're like they happen to be related to me 14 cousins or something. Right. And I looked out No. No problem I'll do Canter construction SC for SouthCarolina.com and roll on. And as I started to become successful I started to get these comments from people saying hey I looked up your company and your Web site and there's some old man not a Wilkesboro North Carolina or wherever it was. And I said Really. And I started to look at this and I realized wow these people were looking for me in Charleston and this other companies popping up. Are they going to get my business now or that business.?-- No because they're not in the Charleston area. But it led me to go you know what they are. The Web site didn't look fresh. It looked like it was old PHP. And I said you know they may not care about this. I'm going to call them and we're related so I'm going to ask him to tell us that they'll let me buy the domain. So, I called in a nice lady answered and I just I went in and said hey I'd like to potentially talk to you guys about buying your domain. And she literally went nope and hung up the phone. Oh right. And I was like gosh you didn't even know I'm going to offer like 2 million dollars. I mean I wasn't but you just she cut me off and to this day I even tell people I do not hold anything against those guys. They did nothing wrong. I wouldn't I wouldn't sell my domain right now. Somebody asked me but what if it was it. All of a sudden lit this fire. And I always used the term you know hell hath no fury like me scorned when she scorned me on that. I decided enough is enough. I want to figure out how I would my people search for my name and trolls and how I can be the topless and Google them and so one of the things that I did and going through that is I learned all this on the fly and people listening that know a little bit about that are already thinking he's learning Seo or search engine optimization. That is the goal at the end of this and it's a bit of alchemy and smoke and mirrors. We'll talk more about that. But what I tried to do was how do I get myself in front of people when they do a search for my name? That's how I started. Now, I look at ways of when you look at contractor Charleston how am I the first one. So that's a little bit about what I'm going to talk about. First thing that they may not do well you are. I mean that's one of the things like you know I come up if you're looking for my name or my business but you know you like you're saying if they're looking for your name under your or your business find that to look for contact on an animal and you want to come up there you want to be trained from their face as best you do and that's the harder of the two things that nobody knows you as your or they get your name from somebody else. But people serendipitously finding you that's what you want. Right. Because I'm searching for this. And your result for that. So, one of the first things that I teach people to do is there's a lot of free web sites out there. that allow you to have free listings where you can put your company logo your Web site pictures it's free to do. You can go out there spend some sweat equity in a six pack of beer watching TV and put yourself out and on as many sites as possible. Now will these sites try to back sell you like oh by subscription of course. But the point being there is ignore them. Put them in junk whatever. But you just-- you're starting to build relevance in multiple listings because instead of your name being just on a Google business listing now it's on mana, now it's on porch, now it's on house. So, your kind of like throwing seven eight fishing lines out there. And what you'll probably find when you do that is not much is going to happen with your business and it shouldn't. Really, it's just getting you out in the world. Now the thing that I learned was that after I keep in mind I was doing this hoping for big expectations I didn't see. And I was like huh. So, I went to phase two. And what I initially did was porch was a company that I had listed on and they had to deal with Lowe's where they had a kiosk in a Lowe's and you could buy any of the windows installed or a fan installed. And here's preferred contractors. Gorgeous Web site. So, I went on porch and just had a bunch of people review me and I had maybe 21 reviews and all of a sudden, I went back to that search for Canter construction and lo and behold those people-- nice people-- that they are in North Carolina were third or fourth on google in my area. I was like OK I see what's going on here. And so, the third phase of this chapter having a little bit of success there was I started to look at my Web site and pictures a little more closely. Now keep in mind I have Google Analytics on the backside of my web site. I look at those all the time to see where people coming from when they get to my website what do they do. The thing that I realized from looking at those business analytics was on my first web I went Wow they're popping in and popping out right. I didn't have my number friends center. It wasn't a you know a beautiful like a spider web of capturing them and to them digging in deeper. So, I cannibalize my first web site came up with a brand new clean slick web site. Same one I had today and started to watch the business analytics again and I started to realize that people were then popping in and searching around. They're spending more time when they do get to my Web site. So little bit of just to backtrack as you get yourself out there and as many places as possible prime you then try to focus on reviews which initially I did poor reviews and we're going to get into the google reviews in a second and then you look at your Web site and you're listing even those listings that I mentioned. You always want to have fresh pictures fresh updates to it you may not cannibalize the whole Web site but Google does backtrack and look at things and it notices when things are updated and says oh well you've updated pictures so it gets back into relevance when somebody's searching for contractor and it can help you down the road saying oh we think you're looking for Canter construction. So, I did that for a little bit and then was still not seeing. I wanted to honestly have those people off the first and think page stuff. My wife always jokes she says Jonah if you had a boat I'm pretty sure you would name it. Never satisfied. And that's so true. And I wasn't. So, what I did next was I shamed myself today for not focusing on this but I had a Google business listing and I started to do what I call the art of asking and not asking for Google reviews is very simple and it had the most immediate and profound effect on my business and the business elite that I ended up getting. You have to keep in mind Google is something that not a hundred percent of people have but almost everybody on earth has a G.M. account right. So, the things that you're looking when you're asking for a favor which is what you're doing when you ask for a review you don't want it to be convoluted and step through hoops or to sign up for something that's junk. Nobody's going to do it. It's going to stop the process. But if you make it one click an easy you're going to get reviews. So, what I started doing was I would do work for clients make sure they were totally happy. Jonah you’re the best thing since sliced bread. Awesome it. And then I would send him a follow up e-mail and say hey for people like you who found me on line or found me through a review of through a referral. Google Reviews are a good way of saying I do top quality work. I'm a good guy I'm honest. All of these things. Do you mind providing me with a five-star review and then I would send them a hyper link for the Canter 5-star review right there in the e-mail. What that would do is boom they clicked that hyperlink they go right to the review and they're typing away 5star sin and done. And it's you have to as a contractor you have to understand that you are asking for a favor so keep it simple but Google who runs one of the biggest if not the biggest search sites. Why was I not kidding reviews from Google to begin with? I look back and I want to hit myself from heaven. But what that did was as a couple of things it kept me in check to make sure that my business was running correctly. I was offering good services good customer service good skilled services to clients because I was I wasn't just done when the job was done and the check was in my bank. I wanted something more. Right. So, it's a good check and balance for contractors to keep them. If you want to grow your business you've got to be good at it. You've got to be the best at it and you do that by being able to ask for as many reviews as possible. So, I asked for these reviews over time. And the next thing I realized was it was quiet. And then the phone started bringing. And then the phone kept ringing and I would pick it up and they'd go yes just Kaner construction. I'm like yes. And they're like "oh yeah, I found you online" and I was just ear to ear smiling because up to that point my life-- 75 percent of my business was referral from realtors, friends, whomever and made a good living on that. And, you know, the 25 percent was, somebody just randomly found you and I don't even know if I got the work from home at that point. Fast forward to the day, 90 percent of my work comes from online and 10 percent is referrals. So, that's an amazing flip. And what happens there is, I talked about the alchemy of it. Nobody truly understands as SEO and if they do tell you that they're a snake oil salesman in the fold because Google is always changing their spaghetti algorithm of search relevance and results in everything. So you're always chasing a ghost. But if you know where that ghost is going to appear you can try to target yourself to figure out how to be there at that time and so that's where I'd like to recap and say fundamentals here. Get yourself out in as many places as possible cannibalize. Update your Web site. Make sure that you're asking for reviews. Get it. I don't want to say that you ended up like kind of whoring yourself out there but you really have to promote yourself as much as possible on the Internet. And if you know if you have five google reviews don't even act like that's enough. Right. I have. I thought I heard you got fifty-five. Google reviews Yeah and I'm constantly asking every day for people when we close our jobs. Will you give me a review? Give me review because that's free marketing that I don't pay for I don't use Google Ad Words. I don't pay for any of that and never seen any results. Blood sweat equity which is what we all need in Kontra. I found out ways to keep promoting myself to the point where if you are in the geography of Charleston and you look up contractor Charleston now I'm one of the top guys in fact I come up there against commercial giants in the area. I'll be the 4th guy and the biggest thing is up to 5 to refuse you get your revelations irrelevant and you Cito up your pictures so there's constant upgrading of your gear. Your Web site which is really not a big deal. It's not really done take you all the time but these are the little things you know that Google looks for and there are little things that most your kids can do. It's correct. Now it's funny as people who may start say they're in Florida or somewhere else you might get different results because it does look at your area a likelihood that you want so it doesn't mean you'll look up contractor by me but I don't really care about people necessarily Charleson as much as I do about the greater Charleston area right. But the thing that it's a star that shines the brightest about the reviews and I've had plenty of people telling me this is we saw some other contractors and they had four reviews a new head 50 by 5 star reviews. We called you because we're like oh my gosh you can't have any brothers or cousins that are out there. And so that's a that's a testament to a person who does not know you right somebody who finds you organically doesn't know you from Adam right already knows that they don't trust contractors by very nature. You build that trust before they even pick up the phone and call because they look and go wow. People like this guy and seems to do good work. So, there's tons of benefits not only to getting your own leads and whatnot but also in securing deals and in adding a layer of comfort for particular clients that they're trusting you right off the bat because they like what you say you make it easy for them. Yes. And it's you know it's like you're selling yours. You're doing everything for him like I had and I just did that with one of mine because I said you know she was just rain and rain. She says your mom you don't understand how my mom usually throws contractors off the job the first day like she goes. She thinks again pay by the hour or taking too long. Yeah. Now it's true. So, I should never have a contract to you pay by the hour. That's terrible. I know that so I said so. So, she was you know at my house were thinking about selling and I go. So, we got through. You know as I said my mom loves you guys she goes You must love your job or your work. And I go Why did she say that. Because you're doing all the little stuff the meticulous stuff and she said I said you write a review on that which is good. Absolutely. So, you know I did and I provided was the link and a lot of times that will do. I don't have anywhere near 55. But I'll give him the link and I will get this is what I heard you say change it if you are you know just so they can cut and paste it. Yeah, I thought about doing that but I kind of like that kind of off the cuff because sometimes I get reviews that are comical to me but they're a testament to my crew. So, I have a guy named Pete who is a phenomenal phenomenal guy. I pay him a lot of money but he's an OCD neat freak. You'll never find another man like Pete. And somebody wrote this company is awesome and Pete is the cleanest person I've ever met on a job site. But you think about that. You were both laughing and it was funny. But to a client who that's important to that's going to be a selling point to them. Right. Yeah because that's what I hate is when I got to clean up after someone come into work and my house absolutely. So, there's you know when it gets back to the review part of it I think you know people just need to understand how reviews are actually hidden money in it and a great example is and I've done this several times as contractors will get into situations where there's a wall and you're doing some work and you don't know what's behind it. You can't rip it up before your a contract with them. You get into it and you're like hey I'm going to charge 2000 dollars for whatever it is. And you open up the wall and you go oh man this isn't as bad as we thought. Yeah, we can do that two. Whatever. It's only about 15. Hunter Well you know what I do. I'm not greedy. I go back to that client. I go Hey Guy Lady whatever we were going to charge you to I'm going to reduce this to 15 because it's less work. And I think I think you'll be happy with that. And it's a fair price at that one. I don't want to overcharge you. And the look on their face is like oh my god Jonah I would have honestly, I would have never known that. And you could have just taken my money. That's amazing. I appreciate it. What does that build absolute trust that this guy now forming. Oh yeah because the next thing I'd say is hey you know what. Since I saved you five hundred dollars. I'd rather be a five-star review that's worth tons of money to me. So, it's got to be you know in that sense you've got to be a guy that you know you're shifting and understanding that I may be taking 500 dollars out of my pocket but what am I gaining I'm gaining a five-star review or referral and somebody who 100 percent trust me. And if anybody goes Man I need a contract or I'm going to be the first person in their mind. So, there's important. You know having values in this industry and not being shady can get you positive results and not being shady of simply charging people for what they should be charged. And when you see something like that you know help them out. So, you know don't be afraid to charge them. But given the value that they're expecting. Absolutely So that's really awesome. You know all that free stuff that you can do it takes time and it doesn't happen overnight but it does take time but everything works that takes time anyways. It does I mean if you think you're going to get into a business and make a million dollars tomorrow you'll be sadly mistaken. The truth of this business is you need to be able to weather anything that comes out you. I'm building my business so that when the next bottom drops I keep on rolling through it with a smile on my face while everybody else is selling their 80000-dollar trucks and houses on the water and they're screwed. I'll be buying up those properties from them and that's what you're really trying to do is you're trying to futureproof your business and you do that by getting in the trenches and doing this kind of small nuanced work and doing it right so that when it does come time when everybody starts to fold you'll have plenty of guys trying to do work for pennies on the dollar because they're struggling. And I just have work coming in you know. So that's I think that's a you know important value to have. That's really been very very interesting especially with the reviews you've got 55. So that's just that's just being consistent all the time always asking because here's what I read an article not too long ago. And it just blew me away that when you ask somebody for review or testimony that was really astronomically low I'm going to say 50 percent of people actually do it but 90 percent of the people check it. Yes. Yes. And that's why you have to be diligent but not too pushy. I've sent I sin no more than two reviewer a review requests. I'll ask them. Do you mind right. Yeah, no problem. I'll send him an email with a link. Nothing happens I'll send them a follow up e-mail and say hey just want to make sure you got this. Do you mind giving us a review. If I don't hear anything I move on because I'm not going to be pushy about it because it feels forced at that point. But you are right. And for that very fact. Keep in mind what people typically write a review about negatives. They 100 percent write you a negative review but they very rarely will write you a positive review. So back to the 55 google reviews I take that as a testament when people see that some people know that and go wow. I mean it's like when you're on Amazon you buy a product you can see people who are complaining about the shipping of the product and you're like That's not a product review. You can't do that. I don't care. You screwed it up but Binda two and three stars. Those are the ones you're paying attention to because people were looking and they'll write about hey it broke down after two weeks or didn't work out to ship it back it was damaged. Those kinds of things are a valid product reviews. And so, when you have a product that's got a five star review I don't even read all of them like done. So, you are going to buy it whatever. I trust that through the social media aspect of this that that the group hive mentality works and it's a good thing. Any last thoughts on the google reviews and I know the end here just I just want to tell people you know just take what I've told you and put your own kind of spin on it. You may find results in your area depending on your geography north south east west wherever it is may vary. Just keep in mind if you're the best person at doing this and you're doing it without paying a company to do it for you you're going to win. You've got the tenacity. Ruiz is the hundred percent of keeping. And also, just expect that results may vary but they may take some time but they will start to see the fruits of your labor if you will. So, and I also Dave I also like to tell people feel free to reach out to me with questions or comments any kind of feedback I'm a very open book. I like people to respond. I like helping people and I have a couple of different ways you can do that. First you can email me directly. This is my direct e-mail is Jonah jJonahcanter@gmail.com That's my direct e-mail. Feel free to send me any comments there or if you want to have a more fun aspect of our company and you're on Instagram. I'm a huge Instagram or I love it. I think it's the best thing on earth. You can find me at Chuck town which is my personal account or Cantor construction which is the business account and you can see pictures of us goofing off on the job sites. In general, having some fun. Feel free to reach out and either way you can be a voyeur and just look at the pictures. Or you could feel free to ask me any questions. I am an open book and I want to be able to help people so please do reach out. Cool. That's awesome. Thanks so much for spilling your guts and sharing this. It's really been fun we're going to have you back again. Talk about something else. That sounds good you know always do it Dave. I appreciate it. Everybody listening.
To connect with Jonah Canter Gmail: jonahcanter@gmail.com Instagram: @canterconstruction @chucktown (personal account...me being goofy)
There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 21 December 2017
"Keep from crippling your business with these 20 marketing mistakes" and today is our last day. It's true, Marketing Mistake number 16: Using catchy tunes, jingle, slogans and mottos instead of real solid reasons to have people buy. Do you monitor your competition? How about just asking your What they want? But here's one. It's using-- number 16 is using catchy tunes jingle slogans and mottos instead of real solid reasons to have people buy. Say you've heard them, they're everywhere, they're on the radio or in a television. In fact, you probably catch yourself seeing your humming at least a couple of different jingles or tunes throughout the course of the day. You know, you can't get that crazy thing out of my head. You find yourself quoting some catchy slogan or motto you've heard or read the question you can ask is if they're so catchy. And I find myself singing them, humming them or quoting them. Aren't they working? Aren't they doing their job? And the answer is yes, of course. They're working and yes, they're doing their job. So, if jingle slogans and tunes are working and doing their job, then why not use them? It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your advertising. And, here's the key one, your marketing dollars. So, if you want new customers, you want more customers, people who can and will come to your place or business or pick up the phone and call you for services willing to give you their money then these tunes jingles and slogans may not be the best use of your money. Why is that? OK, listen. Here's a funny thing and I've read the article not too long ago-- it could have been a long time ago. But what's the difference? You know the Eveready battery? Bunny did it. He's been around going around and now they have a new furry guy. There's millions of dollars, and I mean millions and millions and millions of dollars, on that one stupid thing. Having let it go back and forth. Now if you asked people what's the battery associated with that bunny. More than 50 percent can't tell you. They just think it's a cute bunny. So, what has been the purpose of spending millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars? I don't know but I know you don't have millions and millions and millions of dollars to spend on marketing like that to get you were. You want people, you want instant credibility, you want instant access, you want instant results right now. And that's why we're talking about direct response marketing and all we do. So as a business owner, you have to decide whether you want your dog on your postcard, you want a pretty song to go along with your marketing or not. Really, that's the basic thing. So, you know your letters, your ads, your promotional campaigns, need to be treated like commissioned employees. Yeah, you wouldn't send employ out singing a jingle or tune or say "hey here's my dog. See how cute he is on my card."-- No! You want results. So, that's what you need to do. They need to be--there needs to be an accountability to the results that you want. So, you wouldn't allow your Sales people to go call on prospects and customers and like you said sing us the jingle, research a slogan, you want results. Silly? --sounds silly, doesn't it? It does. Yet day in and day out, you hear all this type of advertising. But remember here is the key: your ads and letters, your marketing should provide information about your products and your services, make an enticing offer, give compelling reasons why they should buy and why they should take action now. And remember, you know from our discussions about accountability and testing previously, each ad should be able to be measured as to its effectiveness. It's all about being effective and getting the results, you want. So, number 17: Not monitoring your competition. You know a lot of people say "Well, I don't have competition". Listen, everybody has competition. So, you learn a lot from your competition. Sometimes, they can be your best source of what to do and what not to do. And you should set up a system to periodically research your competition to see what they're up to. Some of the things that you should consider are:
You know this is kind of important. How many salespeople do they have? Who their sales people call on if they call anybody at all? Say I know I have my roofing contractor. He doesn't allow his sales people to go call on people. All the leads are generated through the company. And so, he gets to monitor them as they continue to grow. And he knows exactly where they're going and how they're doing. So, he controls everything and you know what? We're glad. Matter of fact, a lot of times you know they'll get some and they'll be you know doing a neighbor's house and they will come by and say "hey can you give me an estimate" and he goes I can bet you're going to have to call. "I can't do it today because I have this huge schedule of things that have to be done. But if you call my assistant then she will put you on a schedule.". See, it has to go back to the company before they can't do anything on their own, which is a great way to monitor things. Yes. Monitor your competition so that you can become better and you know, in your competition that mean you guys have to be enemies. In fact, your competition to be one of your greatest allies of sources for additional untapped income. You know, maybe things that you do that they don't do or things that you do that they don't do and you can cross-reference the sales say, you know, like I don't do commercial paper. So, I would refer that to a commercial painter. So, I mean just because I do painting it doesn't mean anything. So, here's this and here's one that I'm going to give you is a bonus. I don't think I've ever talked about this before and they may have. But I don't remember. Listen go through Google go through all the people in your Web pages. You know, they come up first, second, third, or fourth, whatever's on the first--first page and call them. See how they answer their phone. Now, there's going to be surprising things to see even if they call you back, would be one. And here's an intro you, want to actually see how many people that are on Google that are not no longer in business. Yes, really. No longer in business. And you're going to want to get their phone number and have a read directed to yours. That's a whole other marketing strategy altogether. But, if you pick that up man it's going to be worth mega mega bucks to you. Marketing mistake number 18: Failing to ask your customers what they want. So, number 18 are getting down to the wire here. Failing to ask your customers what they want. That's an interesting one. What do you mean by that? Well, listen, everyone in business from insurance companies to computers, cars, clothes, stores, service businesses, they all respond with something like: low price. Well, that's not true! Because if you take a look around and what people spend their money on, what they drive, what they wear, what they live, where they live, what were they doing now? Even quickly come to the argument that that goes right out the window. It's not all about price. So, yeah, nearly every business, if you exhibit hesitation in buying, the salesperson and that's you, too, the owner, will, you know, always try lowering the price as the first resort. That's because we are so conditioned to price-- cheap prices. But it doesn't have to be that way. So, let me give you an example of what happened to me one day. It was kind of funny. I had a lady and I went over. She wanted a painting and she wanted everything painted. The walls, the ceilings, the doors, the door jams, the baseboard. And so, I put together a price on everything. Because I always try to give them what they want. And then later on, give them what they need per say. So, we get all done and give the price she comes out and she goes "wow! that was a lot more than I anticipated or was expecting to spend." I said "OK. So, you know, you asked me for a price to pay everything. What-- let's go over from what I see that does not need to be paid and why? can we do that?" She goes "Well yeah sure." So, we took a look at everything and actually the ceilings you painted maybe one did in the whole place. So, I said well that's going to save you a tremendous amount of money. And then we would there's a couple of little things that didn't need to be done and we just had it from there. But did I lower the price. I did, but I didn't. I didn't give her a cheaper price. I gave her price based on what we were going to do. We just lowered the price in essence by what she really needed to have done or wanted to have done. And so, when someone comes to you and says "Wow! it was a lot more than I anticipated", then you know, then you need to work from there and not just go low as I can give you a discount. Because that's not necessarily what we're looking for. They're just not sold on what has to be done. So, I always ask, well, you know, what don't you want painted? or what don't you want cleaned? You know, the way this is everything written in stone this is exactly what you want. So, we can go back and take a look at what you really want and sometimes we don't listen. Sometimes we do and we give them. But, we just need to go back and really go back to and say "What do you really want me to do?" What are-- you know. So, and, you know, from the amount of time that you've been in business, you have a tremendous amount of experience and expertise on what you've seen will work with what, or what won't work with a lot. And so, just be-- forget about the price issue. Be more concerned about giving them the value of what you have and maybe not charging as much, not by lowering your price but by lowering the amount of services you're going to do. Does that make sense? And, you still get your--you still get your margins, which is what you really need, is your margin. Now, that's just a particular sales situation. So, there's other ways. There's lots of ways to find out that you can determine on the wants of your prospects or your customers and that's just surveys and questionnaires. Whether by phone or mail or some of the easier and most effective ways to do that. So, you can follow up after purchase. Find out how they liked the product or service they bought. See if there's any questions on how to use it and ask if there's any other products or services that they might be interested. See, you're opening up that door. Remember, we talked about it before. They're into buying mode. They just bought that they want to buy some more. And they said "Well, you know I had thought about this after you left". So, that's another thing. Here's a couple of reasons why people won't spend their money with you. You know what? We've already discussed that people buy what they want before they'll buy what they need. Think about that. They'll buy what they want before they'll buy what they need. There's no trust. You haven't established a level of credibility, trust or believability. They need to make a purchasing decision. And of course, there's no value. You haven't created enough value or perceived value in their minds equal to, or to exceed the value with money that they're willing to exchange for your services. What is perceived in the customer's mind is reality. So, perception is reality and there's a nobility. Some people, genuinely, don't have the ability to pay for the item. They have financial problems or loss. And, see those aren't your customers. So, once you've established the level of trust, people believe you and they can afford it, then you'll be able to make a bigger sale by selling them wants to the needs. Remember, it's what they want, it's not what they need. So, just take the word "need" out of the vocabulary and you'll actually be much better off for it. Marketing mistake number 19: It's not working with joint ventures. This one. Number 19 is one of my favorites. It's not working with joint ventures because I do work with joint ventures. That's why it's one of my favorites. So, what is a joint venture? It's a teaming up with another business can be one of the most profitable things you can do. And they, in turn, become a win ,win situation for the both of you. So, here's how it might begin. Let's say-- I'm going to tell you what I did and I've done it numerous times and it works great. And I have the ability to do marketing so this helped me out a lot, too. So, I have roof companies-- roofing contractors who sell Roof cleaning for me and for them. And we've created a joint venture. I do-- I put the marketing material, I put together their "Thank You's", I put together their warranties--the warranties I have and I send them out. So, the only thing they have to do is sell them. Sell the service and I'll get a call or I'll get e-mails and say "Dave, this has got to be done". And, I also just did that with a new one the other day I was out and about. And, as I was doing some painting at a house and they were having the screens removed during the hurricane here. It wiped out the guy's screen enclosure, and it was torn down and these guys were there. So, the owner was there and I noticed on the side of his truck, you know, we do pressure cleaning. So, my question was to him: "Do you guys do fresh cleaning or do you sub it out and use other people to you know to do that for you?" So, he says we-- because I don't do pressure cleaner 'cause we don't do that anymore as we've just been too busy replacing screens and doing repairs and stuff like that, he says. But I do have, you know, people that I refer out. And I go "Can I ask you a question?" he goes "Oh yes, sure". I say" Would you rather make money by referring them out? Or would you just rather refer them out? “He goes "Explain to me Lucy." I say here's what we do, is we pick it in marketing programs. We do route cleaning, we do pressure cleaning and we do, you know, know painting. So, what we've done in the past is we've worked with business owners-- who would be in our marketing materials for them. And, then they could just refer us to their customers, or you know, you guys do the proposals. Send me, you know, it needs to be done and I'll schedule it and I'll do it. And then you collect the money and you keep, you know, the markup. I'm going to tell you it's X amount of dollars for me to do this. And your upcharge it and you keep the profit and you send me a check. He goes "Oh, I liked that idea". He goes "Send me some more material". I said "Awesome. We'll do that". So that's-- it's just that simple-- joint venture. Now, do I have to go out and get his customers? --No, he's got his customers. He's going to either sell them or refer them and I said I even put down I said: Listen. if you guys are too busy, I'll go do the estimate and I'll do it on your paperwork. It doesn't matter to me. Because we both win. So, I have two customers now. I have him as a customer and I have his customer, who becomes my customer in the interim after we've done business. So, is that a unique-- that's a great way to get customers. If you've never thought about it before, it needs to be part of your arsenal for getting and keeping business because it's like gravy. You don't want to spend any money in marketing because you've created a relationship. And that relationship will grow and continue to grow forever. So, do you have to stop at one? -- No! You can do as many as you want! And it always becomes a win win for everyone because it's something like this guy, he doesn't want to do it anymore. And he would rather make money then referred out. So, always appeal to the pocketbook.
Marketing mistake number 20: Risk Reversal. So, this is one of a lot of guys are afraid of. I mean literally afraid of and that's risk reversal, not using risk reversal. So, suppose that customers are not happy with a purchase that they made from you. Do you have to give him a 100 percent money back guarantee? -- You don't have to. Could you offer it? -- You could. Do you think they'll take advantage of you? -- in your mind you're saying yes. Listen. I'm going to tell you from past experiences over the 26 years. Well, I'm going to just go for the last nine because this is what I actually put on all my proposal. We have a tear up your check guarantee. If we can't make you completely satisfied with our work, then we're going to tear up your check. Has anyone ever take an advantage of me on that? -- No. So, but why do I do it? Because it's a risk reversal. The people would say "Well, if he's willing to do that, then I can trust him hopefully to do the right thing at the right time, give me everything he said he's going to do". Now, even-- and I try to give to you with everything. We'll do with our painting. We'll give it a 10-year warranty guarantee on painting for certain things. Now, do other guys do that? -- No! That's why I do it. I've seen five years, I've you know, do a ten year to press the point that I'm going to stand behind everything I do. Have I ever had to go back and do a warranty call? -- No but it's there. I've done-- you know, it's a crazy thing even. I know there's a lot of guys who claim they won't give a guarantee I'll give you two thousand days. And I dropped it down because of the humidity and the heat and the rain in Florida. The 24 months. Do I ever get called back on a warrant for that? -- Yes. Do I go back? -- Absolutely. Because I am-- I honor my word, first of all. But, I charge enough in there to figure that into an hour. That's going to take me an hour to go back and catch up. So, why not do more than when everyone else is willing to do. And when you do that, you create that risk reversal. You want them to be able to feel good about doing business with you. So, if all the risk is on them, that hey I'm going to let all this money and there's nothing in it for me, then they are going to be a little hesitant. You want to take as much hesitancy away from them as possible. So, it could be a money back guarantee. I am not saying it has to be. I mean, I just saw something that was kind of interesting the other day it was on the TV. Certain plumber for every minute they're late from their scheduled time or their appointment. I believe that they'll knock five dollars off the bill. So, if they're 10 minutes it's 50 bucks. After 20 minutes that's a hundred bucks. So, it sort of makes them-- how do you say-- So, it makes them accountable is because of what it does. And, me calling as a person who wants the service done. If that's out there, then dude I'm going to call them before I would call someone else because people showing up on time in the service industry is rampantly bad. So, these guys have overcome that with, you know, with this particular guarantee that they're using. And there is another one of them a carpet cleaner I knew who didn't answer his phone all the time. You know, because you try to answer your phone when you can. And so, what they did was, to get the people to leave a message, he would say listen "I'm so sorry that we could not answer the phone at this particular time. But, if I don't call you back in ten minutes-- within ten minutes-- then I will give you a 25 percent discount or 25 dollar discount off of the service that we're going to give you. How's that?" So, you know, the sky's the limit. You just have to be creative on what you're going to do to do that risk reversal and remember it is risk reversal. So, I'm excited that we finally got to finish this up. If you did not get your free download on the-- this whole report that they put together for this series, then you can do it on this show notes page also. And we're making it available to you for free. I mean, normally, it's probably-- I'll not even tell you what I charge for it. So, it's a material. It's FREE. I want you to have it for free. I want you to grow your business. I want you to be the best you can be. And I want you to grow your business to-- it being a lifestyle business for you. And not that you run the business and the business doesn't run you. So, until the next podcast. Be profitable. If you didn’t get the down load yesterday get it now Keep from Crippling Your Business with These 20 Marketing Mistakes Here is your download There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 20 December 2017
"Keep from crippling your business with these 20 marketing mistakes" Mistake number 11: Not calculating the lifetime profit value of your customer. And there's really no question about it. Our customers are the most valuable assets that we have. Get your free repot today I don't want to rub in any mistakes into you because it's not your fault, honestly, of the things that you may or may not be doing because you didn't know better. And we're here to help you take these items--these 20 items. And of course, don't get bogged down with the 20, really. When you go through these and you get a workbook, which today is number five. And we're going to do one more day of the series, but I promise you on day five that I'm going to have the download for this report--this book that we put together for you on these mistakes and how to overcome them. The key is overcoming them. And don't think about having to do all 20 at the same time. Pick two or three of the ones that you think that would be the most effective to your business right now. And then once you get those done, pick the next three and go through those. And, you know, if you just do three, you're going to be so far ahead of your competition that it's just going to--you're going to get excited, honestly. About the different and the amounts of profit you're going to make and the things you'll be able to do with your business because you're finally tuning and you're making your business better. So, let's go into mistake number 11 and how are you going to overcome that. You know what. This has really been one of my pet peeves because you hear me talking all the time about transactional business and many of us are set up for transactional business. But, one of the biggest challenges that I see, many of us, and including myself from the very beginning, is not calculating the lifetime profit value of your customer. And there's really no question about it. Our customers are the most valuable assets that we have. And since we've already purchased them from, you know, as as leads and they've already purchased from you previously and then experience the benefits of doing business with you and presumably they're pleased with those experiences and they're likely to purchase from you again if given the opportunity. Oh, that's the key if given the opportunity. So, we need to do that. And they're likely to be free to others who may need or watch your services or what you sell. So, nearly every business allots more money, time and effort to the acquisition of new customers. They do to keeping their existing customers. And I love what Dan Kennedy says in years and years ago: "You need to build a corral around your customers so nobody gets access to them". And that's done by numerous things that we've talked about in these podcasts. So, it's been proven time and time again that it costs you five times more to bring out a new customer does to retain an existing customer. Think about that, five times more. What if you could spend half as much or spend as much? Take that budgeting dollars and cut them in for new customers, cut them in half. Get new customers and, you know, keep in touch with your old customers on a continuing basis. So, determining the lifetime profit value of a customer, it's simple and it's the most profitable thing that you can do for your business because what you're doing is you're setting your sights out. You're really laying down the groundwork and you're projecting out and it really is numbers man. They can get really exciting. So, I want to take a look at how most business owners take a look at transactions. Let's say that you have a customer that you just, your average ticket sales is two hundred dollars and you're thinking about them in the form of "Well, I'm just doing them today. It's a 200 dollar profit it costs me X amount of dollars to acquire them". You know, whether it be through a referral or whether it is a marketing piece, it costs money to buy customers however you want to put it in whatever frame you want to put it. So, we have a tendency to look at that customer as a 200-dollar transaction. Let's say for the fun of it: it's a hundred and seventy-five-dollar profit that we walked into that transaction today. I want you to take one step further and look at it this way. Now this chart is going to be in the Workbook. So, look at it this way: You got to the average sale and we're going to say it's 200 dollars. The number of sales per year for that particular customer or let's say it's three times a year. So, that's six hundred dollars a year that you're going to get from this customer. Now, how many years are you going to keep that customer? Let's say 10. Just for make it nice and easy to figure. So, now that customer is worth what? Six thousand dollars! So, with this going into the mindset, your mindset of walking that door of that 200 hours, is no longer a 200-dollar transaction but it's a six-thousand-dollar transaction. But let's take another step further, just a little bit further and this can really get exciting. Let's say that you get one customer that is referred to you each year by this customer and let's say that only 50 percent do business with you. So, now you have three customers that are doing six thousand dollars a year and that's a year, but over the course of a 10-year time. So, now you've got your six thousand dollars from your original customer, and then eighteen thousand dollars from your referrals, so that's twenty-four thousand dollars. And that's only in the first tier of referrals. It can grow exponentially. But, I'm just trying to keep this simple. So, if you get three customers from that person and you keep them for 10 years, plus that customer, you have twenty-four thousand dollars for the business. So, it's no longer a 200-dollar transaction, but it is a 24-thousand-dollar transaction. Now, that gets exciting. And it gets passed--you pass the whole home of everyday business because now you're looking towards the future of all your business. It's no longer a transactional mode of the one day: one-dollar profit, but it's the future profits for the future. So, listen. I've had customers for 25 years. I've had--and I've even taken some of them and one day I was running through and I had a lifetime value of-- from one customer was over fifty-five thousand dollars in business. Man, that's just plain exciting. So, you can get past the transactional thought. You just have to think way ahead and plan way ahead. Mistake number 12: Failure to calculate the costs of losing a customer. So, here we go, number 12 Failure to calculate the costs of losing a customer. And I don't want to take too much time on this. It is very important. And it's more important if you have been losing a lot of customers. So, I really want you to think about this. But, it's the numbers are just staggering. So, you know, we calculate the lifetime profit value of a customer. So, let's take a look at what it cost you, if you lost a customer instead of gained one. So, let's suppose for a minute that: One of your employees got a customer upset with you and they stop doing business with you. No big deal, right? I mean there's a lot. They're just one customer. It's not difficult to get another one to replace them. So, how much would you lose if they never returned? So, let's take a look at our previous example. We talked about that one customer, ten years is worth six thousand dollars and--but, I'm not going to--we're going to negative effects ripple, more than positive talk in effect especially today with the Internet. So, let's say you have an unhappy customer. Then they were to tell 12 people about that bad experience because they always tell more people about bad experiences and they do good experiences. And let's say those 12 were to tell six others. Total number of people that are affected by one bad experience-- just one would be like eighty-five people. Can you imagine that? Somebody posted something: A company this company ABC something sucks and they really did a bad job and bought all that other stuff. Now, it's only 25 percent of those people chose not to do business with you that comes to 21 people. So, 21 people times six thousand dollars is what? 120000 dollars with a business--just from one bad experience. Now, once you get too uptight about this this is just one thought on, you know. Yeah, getting rid of or losing a customer somehow. So, you say how to--"What do I do about that?", "How do I not lose a customer?", while you need to have really good trained employees, you need to be able to be diplomatic about things but, you know, there's tons of stuff you can do. And the best way to do that is to give your customers all the love, the care, the attention, the service you can. To kill them with service, you go overboard, you make it nearly impossible for them, even consider doing business with anyone else. Regardless of the price, location, convenience and any other reason become, not only the preferred place, preferred person to do business with, but the only one that your customers will consider doing business with. So, over perform. Wow them. Kill them with kindness. Because you're talking about thousands and thousands of dollars of future profits. We're not talking about today's profits, we're talking about future profits. And, if you don't have to work hard, because you've already got them. The hardest you have to work is to keep them happy and excited and let them know that you love them and care about them.
Marketing mistake Number 13: Not selling to your existing customers. Oh, didn't we just talk about cross-selling and up selling and all that stuff? Yeah, we did. But this is another item-- another sideline here. So, the best prospects are the people that we've already-- purchased from us before. So, they've already experienced the products and the services that we've offered, as well as, you know, all the great stuff that we have for them. So, they know us, they liked us, they trust us. At least they did when they first bought from you and they gave you money. Hopefully things haven't changed. And ideally, your relationship with them has improved. And how will it improve? By you continually keep in touch with them on a regular basis. So, if nothing else makes good financial sense, to attempt, to sell your customers before looking outside for new prospects. But, what do you mean by that? Have you ever come up with a new service? Or, here's one that really, that I think a lot of times we overlooked and we don't think about. A lot of times our customers call us for a particular item. So, I'm going to use myself as an example. I would do, before I would do a lot of drywall repair and I would get pigeonholed into, well, they've only done drywall repair. So, I would have to continually-- educate them on the other things we did. And I would do it in different ways other than just direct selling to them. I would tell them: "Hey, did you know that we did this or we did that?". And then of course, you all know that I had a monthly newsletter that goes out every month and each month I would put in a-- project of the month. And it would be something else we did. So that they would know that we did more than what we've been pigeonholed for. So, I mean that's just one way to sell them on a regular basis. Other things that you do. So, I just mentioned a newsletter, and I'm going to say that's the best way to sell them without selling them. You know, if you have a referral rewards program, for your customers for referring one to another, you can publish those results in a newsletter. This reminds your customers about your program and entice them to participate in another. And one thing that I would do is, I would always thank. I had a column, thank the people that referred me. People--man, I'm telling you, it's exciting when they say: "Hey! I saw my name in print!". But, honestly, people are not going to care about you unless they know that you care about them. So, always think of ways to sell your existing customers more of your services and products. And honestly, and any time you're thinking about adding on something? RUN IT BY YOUR CUSTOMERS FIRST. Because like I said: They know you. They Like you. They trust you. And, if you're looking for that service, then they're going to purchase it from you because: they know you, they like you, they trust you. number 14: Changing your marketing even though it's working. Wow, that's a big one! A lot of us get bored with our marketing. And even though it's working, we want to pizzazz it up a little and we're really not paying attention to it. So, that's one of the most common mistakes that we make with our marketing, is to try something out, find out it works. Then stop doing it and then try something else. So, really, a better approach would be: to find something that works, tweak it--a certain part of it, try it again, tweak it again keep on doing. Remember that we discussed with regard to testing previously. As long as something continues to work, man, don't give up just keep trying to prove it so it will work better. Guaranteed, it will not work for ever. That's why we always talk about testing and measuring. But there are several reasons why people change--or most of us business owners changed from marketing even though it's working for us. Number one: we don't test our ads promotions and we don't monitor the results. So, we don't know what's working, we don't know what's not working and how well it's working and how well it's doing or even if it is working. I know I just said a lot. We're not really sure whether it works or not. Was it because we don't test it? That's really the main thing. We get tired of doing the same old thing every time and change her ads just for the sake of change. Now listen, I have to tell you this: Sometimes boring is better and that's boring on my side. Remember that when you're attracting a customer that that customer is a new person with new eyes on that one marketing piece that is working. The only one that gets bored with it is you! But if it's working, DON'T STOP DOING IT! Continue to do it. So, they hear about something someone else is doing and they want to see if it were for them. Usually, very little thought because that decision. "It looks pretty, so I'm going to do it!". Don't do it, don't be tempted to do that. The only reason you would ever want to change at any ad, campaign or promotion is to see if you can make it perform better. Any other reason shouldn't even be considered. That's it.
Marketing mistake number 15: Taking advice from the wrong sources. OK number 15. This is a big one. Taking advice from the wrong sources. You know, it seems like everyone is an expert nowadays. An advice is so freely given and offered even if you have no intention of seeking or asking for it. We have friends, we have family, we have co-workers, we have associates, we have other people in the trades and neighbors. Nearly, every person you come in contact has something to say or some advice to offer. And for the most part-- it's well intentioned. Except for-- listen, I'm going to be really honest with you on this one. If you go to some of the Facebook groups and stuff like that, and you ask questions, there's a lot of people on there that it will automatically give you bad information on purpose. So, you know, be careful on where you go to get your information from. Hey, when you seek information, check it out. See if it's a credible source. Other information comes from self-- can't even say that right. Self-proclaimed gurus and experts. Some who've never even been in business. That's the amazing thing. It'll pay you big dividends to carefully consider the source of any and all information that you receive. You know, check it out on your own. Just don't blindly do it too often. Testimonials are used to relate the work done in a field or a project that beats absolutely no resemblance to what you're involved in. While, the principles are constant and specifics can and will always change. Here's what I mean: "A principle is timeless that never changes". For example: in advertising, a principle would be that you get more readership from an ad using a headline, a specific, on the other hand is the application of a principle to a unique situation. So, in our advertising example that we've used, how the headline is used, may vary from one type of business to another and some headlines. Like an autobotic shop for instance may run headline that relates to their business. A Printing Company will still-- while still using a headline, will want to tailor the headline to a need of the printing customer and prospects. The point is this: Make sure the advice you get, whether it is volunteer or sought out, comes from a credible and reliable source. And make sure that someone has specific knowledge of the business or at least they can relate to the specifics of your business. Test it and timeless principles that apply to all businesses. So, just be careful of who you listen to and the people they give you free advice is probably the most costly advice that you will ever get. So, next one, we're going to pay for it till tomorrow. Marketing mistake number 16. But, I just want to let you know that I have downloaded. It will be on the page-- show notes page. I promise you the workbook and the for this whole series. On day 5 but I've got 5 more quick ones that go through and that will be tomorrow and it will be the last part of the series. However, I get it. I have promised to I'm going to have the workbook on there so you can get a go to the shows page and get your workbook. I promised you on day 5 , I would give you access to the Report Keep form Crippling Your Business with These 20 Marketing Mistakes Down Load it right here There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
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Tue, 19 December 2017
Day four of our series on 20 marketing mistakes: "Keep from crippling your business with these marketing mistakes". today we are on mistake number eight: The failing to use testimonials. "How do you get testimonials?" Okay, so testimonials. And so many people say: "How do you get testimonials?", "How do I get testimonials", "Why do I get testimonials?" but more so-- "How do I get testimonials?" Well, I'm going to tell you the importance of them and we're going to show you how to get them in this series- In this episode today. And of course, remember that on week 5, which is next week, I'll have the whole report ready and upload it onto the show notes page so that you can get your copy of everything we talked about. And there's a ton of worksheets in there. Like here's a testimonial letter that we put together. So, testimonials is one of the most powerful tools that any business owner can use. But it's also one of the most underutilized. They're not limited to any one type of advertising or any promotional media. So, you can put them in your ads or in radio announcements, if you get newspaper layouts. Especially, if you're doing stuff on a large scale but you can put them in your postcards, on your Web site, in your-- in all of your marketing because they are your silent sales people and actually they're not really so silent because they're there. People really take notice that you have someone that gave you a, you know, a testimonial but it's an endorsement. Rather than a testimonial. But the principle is pretty much the same. It happens when another person makes a positive statement or recommendation about a certain product or service you did in marketing. Sometimes known as creating herd mentality. Robert Cialdini talks it about in principle of consciousness that is if other people who are like me say this product or service is good it improves the probability that it'll be good for me too. See, the psychology behind it. Celebrity endorsements are simply another form of testimonial and are very, very effective for certain well-known actors celebrities say something is good, then it must be good. Therefore, I should give it a try. So, most people know that in like commercials or endorsements of the actors reading prepared script. Written by, you know, professional cop writers saying you pay to do that but still in a certain amount of credibility when the actor says you know in sufficient numbers that you know this product is good. Well, your own clients become the best sources of your endorsements that you could possibly watch. Especially, if they're known to those you're marketing to or if something else is in common with them. People that live in the same town have similar businesses, belong to the same organization or association, same neighborhoods like in your postcard or your mailing say "hey we just did Bob Jones". I was very happy and he said to reach out to all of the people in this neighborhood to let them know that. So, you have to get his OK to do that. But you see where I'm going with that. And even in community, now in so many communities, they have Facebook groups and what you want to do is you want to get that customer to not only give you a review maybe, you know, google reviews page or local listings but it's more powerful if they can write you a testimonial and put it in your local you know Facebook community page because everyone in the community knows that you've been working there. That is an awesome. If you haven't thought about that, do it because that's where you're going to get a ton of work. Especially if you want to own a community. So, there's only three reasons people don't buy from you. They have no use for your product or service, they can't afford your product or service or you haven't developed a level of trust and believability with them in you to do business with you. So, there's so much you can do if a prospect can't use or pay for your service. There's nothing you can do about that. But there is a lot you can do to wipe away the underlying layers of skepticism and that's through personal testimonials. Because really, no one likes to be the first person to do something, no one likes to be the first person to try something, you know, because we feel like we're the guinea pig. So, you know and really testimonies are not hard to get. One of the most effective ways it is to send users of your products or service a questionnaire. And I've got an example in here in this in this workbook for you. And that's what I've always done as I've always sent you know a question here. You know, "Did we do the job that you thought we what you expected us to do?", "Did you. What were some of the things that you were afraid of beef when signing up?" Because that's really a big thing. "Did we do things to your satisfaction or beyond" And so, basically when you send them a customer survey --and I always do it by mail because it's more personal. And I know that they get it. So, what I would do is I would create the form I would send it to them in a self-stamped envelope that's going to increase your rate. And then a lot of times too is if you do an e-mail you want to e-mail them also it's up to you. Some people are lazy I would rather get the personal touch. But for some people, um, and I've done it this way too is I will write the review, based on what they said to me about how they liked their service, something special we did for them that they liked. And I will put it in an e-mail with a link to my google reviews page and say you know, "Thanks so much for doing business with us.", "We really appreciate you." And "Would you be so kind as to click this link and give us a Google Review?". And this is below being what I heard you say. Feel free to change it any way you want and makes it easy for them the easier that you can make it for them: by putting together the testimonial, by putting a self-addressed stamped envelope are going to increase your odds so much for getting that review. And so, the cool thing is, now when you get to testimony's back, and when you get to google reviews, you can just cut it and paste it onto a piece of paper and bring it with you when you're doing proposals. Say, "Here's what some people said about us"., "Here's some of what some other people said about us" and a lot of times now I'll take those and I'll stick three or four of them together in a section like if I'm doing painting I'll do, you know, like painting surveys that I've had, and we do some pressure cleaning --it will be some pressure clean surveys and how we did, and you know and so on. So, you see where I'm going with this, so and then I'll put three or four of them when I give them the proposal it's in there so that they know, "hey how are other people like me?" and they may know them specially if they're in that area. OK another cool way to get testimonials is you can call your customer and record it. Just let them know you're recording it and ask them, you know, about how you did, and stuff like that and then put that on your Web site or have a transcribed even. Which is kind of easy. And then you can put them wherever you want you put it in your your proposal package, you can put it on your Web site you, can do whatever you want with it. These are just different things that really you can do to exponentially grow your testimony base. OK,one more thing on testimonies. If you're in an interaction with them, don't, you know, you don't want a-- They did a great job. They were very good. Better than they expected. You want to play a little bit of detail in there like they saved me five 500 dollars. Not necessarily. But you see where I'm going with that. They did the extra things above and beyond whatever we expected them to do. Now that's an awesome testimony. You know I just had one. We just had this lady's house and I asked her for testimony because you just raped and not because you know we did a great job. Yes, but she was excited that it was her mom's house and her mom who had always throw people off the property because she thought they were there too long. She didn't realize that she thought they were being paid by the hour. We weren't getting paid by the hour. She totally gave her a contract price and we were going to stay there until we got it done and the lady was excited. And one day the daughter who is take care of the project said to me she's my mom really loves you She says you really love your job. And I go "Why did she say that?". "Because you're just taking so much time to be meticulous". And I said Isn't that kind of funny because she was throwing everybody else off the property because they were taking too long and we just loved that for some reason which I'll take it and she wrote an awesome review. Google reviews page. So, use testimonials. Get them and make them and make them part of your standard operating procedure. Because those reviews, those testimonials are like cash in the bank. Those are your sales people who are going out for you and bring giving you credibility to whatever you're doing whatever business you're in. OK, we're marking steak number nine: failing to establish and obtain referrals. Man, this is such a big one that most people just miss it. You know getting referrals from users of our services and our products is one of the quickest and most painless ways to get business. Now granted that it's not consistent but it's like I always call it gravy money. You know if you can get a bunch of them to come in on a regular basis you don't depend on it. But it is added growth to your revenue. So, but if you don't have a system and that's how everything grows and your business is through systems then you're just going to suck behind one. So, you know referrals are simply happy and satisfied customers telling others about that are a positive experience with you or giving permission to contact other people in their name which is kind of cool in a lot of times if I would have someone call and introduce me and then I'll contact them. So, it doesn't have to be hard. It's just a system. And if you don't have a system in place like I said before then you're really stuck in a Heinl. Because this is a revenue builder for your business and so many people are really missing it. So, there's a forceps system and it could be more --but we're going to cut down the forces-- earn, earn the right to referrals by providing exceptional service, not great service, not good service but exceptional service. You know, you, in order to have a raving fan you have to do things differently than everyone else. You have to go the extra mile and give the extra whatever it may be an extra tweak to what you're doing. I know one guy has a crew that does remodeling and handyman stuff. And what he does is he devotes the last half hour that day to doing things for the customer that just wasn't on the list. Man, we got an extra half hour again paid. Bob says that you know what is there that we can help you with to just get some a couple of little things out of the way. Now that is exceptional service and even. Here's another an exceptional thing that you can do is send him a gift thanking them for doing business with you. No one does that. Almost no one does that. Matter of fact the the percentages are so low we can basically say that no one does that. But I know your competition doesn't do that. So the next one is ask for the referral from your satisfied customer. Hey, let me just simply ask. You know, who might be candidates for your service. Now, I know that you might feel a little awkward about asking for a referral but you know what, you've done a great job. You should be happy with what you've done and you should be looking at it this way. I do a great job and anyone who use my service will be greatly benefited by what I do. So, why wouldn't I want others to lead me in the direction that they could help their friends? Also by the use of my service it's that simple. It's just really looking at it from a different point of view. You could send a campaign and a postcard campaign every couple of months of asking say hey do you know anybody that's looking for our you know for our services or type service whatever you're doing. So, reward is another one. Man, I'm telling you this is really, a kicker that no one had let me go. No one but the percentages are so small. That most people don't even think about this. Someone gives you a referral, you need say thank you it could be a real estate agent, could be a past customer or a client. It could be a friend. You just need to either call them and say thank you so much for for referring us to your friend because, listen, they're giving they're giving--they're telling their customer when they refer you that hey I trust Dave and he's going to do the best job he can for me. So that's a big step for them to even refer you but send them a gift too. Send them a thank you card. I know that one of the things that I do for fun when I get a referral from a non-customer, I'll just send them I thank you card. A handwritten thank you. "Thanks so much for trusting us with your client's best interest. I want you to thank you with this Starbucks card you get a cup of coffee on us and I'll even give them a lottery ticket and say: "Hey! We haven't got the job yet but hopefully you'll win some money out of this and maybe you can take us both out to dinner. Just have some fun with it. " Really. So there has to be rewards, can be discounts, or free merchandise. One of the things about your customers is, you know, for referrals sake you could give a discount to any new customers that they refer you. However, they will also get the same discount. See, I'm always thinking about the person who's referring me to. However, you want to do it. But just think about ways that you can be different than everyone else. That simple extra steps that makes you outstanding service that gives you outstanding service. So, really with everything reward is, it doesn't have to be grand or costly, it just needs to be sincere and timely. You know and show that you really do appreciate the confidence that they put in you to refer you and show to gift and name the person that you can contact. So, I always say "Thank you Bob for referring Joe. I really appreciate you trusting us with your friend and we promise to treat him as well as we did you." Something to that effect. So, number four part of this is next. You know, you've earned the right to ask for the referrals from your customers or clients then have asked them and follow up with a reward for their help. You're in the perfect position to ask them for more help. Ask them is help. But you know what, something we probably didn't even touch on and as far as the mindset goes it's that you've earned the right to do it ask them for a referral because you did give them, and they let you know how well she did. Remember you have to be X potentially great. You have to go above and beyond what everyone else is doing. And you know in this marketplace that's really not a whole lot. So, after all if you are in your client's shoes and you've gotten great service from someone you've done business with you'd like people to know and receive the same service once you of course you would especially if you've been thanked in some way and shown that you were helpful and appreciated. Listen competition is fierce in the marketplace today. You know that. And you have to get past the price. So, there's often a little difference between competing products services and prices but getting referrals from your clients can no longer be considered a luxury. A nice thing to do. It is a must to help you build your business. So, listen we did. I did get some more stuff on referrals go to episode 177. Stacy Brown Randol. She was awesome. First year business did a hundred and twelve referrals without even asking for them. And I actually just had a weapon or not too long with her and for another business I used. And so, she said we can put it up on the website so after the first of the year we'll get that up and ready. Okay now our marketing mistake number 10 not cross-selling or up swelling or having a back-end. So, this is so important. You know sometimes we get stuck and then we give them the proposal and we don't try to sell anything else or we don't notice anything else that needs to be done around the house and or we cross-sell or have other products or services that we can sell in conjunction with Tolar offering says. So, you know when we're marketing or doing promotion for our business it can be costly. For some businesses, the money it takes to get a prospect in the door to get you in the prospects door. and get them to respond to our ads sometimes is more than the total profit for the sale. Now, by design, lots of companies do that. I'm not going to recommend that. But you know if you have too much to think about the long-term benefit of them doing business with you which would cover lifetime value. And we're going to talk about that next. I think so. So, a lot of businesses look at spending money on marketing as a negative or a wash so they don't end Gresley engaging in marketing doesn't have to be a business costs blurrily an investment and anything that costs you for your business is really a bad way to look at it in a negative way to look at it as most other things that we do for our business. And I'm not going to say all but most are investments into the future of growth of our business. So, we have to look at what kind of return, are we really going to get on it. . So, there's four primary ways to build the business.
So, for now let's limit our discussion to item number two. How do you get customers to buy more? Well we've already established that the most cost-effective way to do business. And so, if you want your business to grow-- really grow -- and do and least painful way then with maximum results and minimum costs you need to establish a systematic way to get people to upgrade their purchase or to buy additional products. So, it's going in with one thing and upgrading to another not to switch bait and switch. But just progressive increase. So, people go through the variety of emotions prior to, during and after a purchase especially a large purchase. So, in a time leading up to the purchase they go through a phase of excitement. You've been through there the anticipation. What the service is going to are prof's going to do for them. And then sometimes they even go through periods of skepticism or doubt but that's if the person really wants are offering those feelings are pushed aside and excitement anticipation will take over. So, the only time most of time you're going --to get one were kind of a buyer's remorse here-- because when you force them into the sale but if you've done such a great job that they've sold them self then there's never going to be buyer's remorse. So, in feeling you know a lot of times that can be overcome when you talk about the benefits of using your products as a service. So, buy at the end of that sale, your customer is probably the happiest and the most pleased with you and your relationship than at any other time. See that's kind of weird because you would have thought it would have been after you did the services but they're excited. Now they've got you've. You're solving the problem and you're the man or the woman that's going to take care of that. So, they're so happy that they've said yes to their offer and they've even reached into the pockets of the person to open up their wallets check and give you some of their hard-earned money as a deposit. Or so depending on the size of the purchase. It could be a lot of their money. So, you've just south of a problem for him like I said. So, this is the ideal time when they are most pleased with you. And when you've come to the rescue for you to recommend other options or additional purchases. OK, so here's what it isn't and that's show someone to just purchase from you or they they made an agreement to pay for you buy your services or pay for your services order it however you want to say it. This is really the best time because to upgrade the service to sell them something else because they have already mentally in the buying mode. So, you can opt sell. So, if you're just painting walls you might suggest painting trim if you're doing pressure cleaning the driveway you might do pressure cleaning the house or the pool cage. You know simple add ons that because they've called you for one thing doesn't mean that they're not willing to do something else because they're in a buying mood. That's the cool thing. So, any upgrades or additional sales that you make now are just pure profit since there's no advertising costs there's no overhead expenses that were create use create sell. You're already there. There's no going back. You see where we're going with that. So, if it's really in their best interest to purchase from you then you have a moral obligation to see that they get the very best use of that product or service and that means you may have to make other products available for them to purchase. How cool is that? So next one is market number 11 and that is tomorrow too. Yes, tomorrow we're going to talk about mistake number 11 and a couple others but not calculating the lifetime profit value of your customer. Man, this is so, so missed by so many people because most people are transactional and which want to get you past that we want to get you into making a profit today tomorrow or the next day and forever with the same customers. So, come back tomorrow and will-- the next episode and we will start the day five of the series. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 18 December 2017
"Keep from crippling your business with these 20 marketing mistakes "Mistake number four: Not taking massive action. An old Chinese proverb goes something like this--Confucius say: "Hungry man sitting with mouth open waiting for roast duck to fly in have a long wait". Hey this is Dave Negri with Contractor's Secret Weapon. We're still continue our series "Keep from crippling your business with these 20 marketing mistakes". Today we are on day three. So why am I doing these series on these marketing mistakes? I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did. These are painful mistakes that I've gone through in my past 26 27 years. And I want you to have a better start, a better life and a good finish -- a good ending to your business. Mistake number four: Not taking massive action. An old Chinese proverb goes something like this--Confucius say: "Hungry man sitting with mouth open waiting for roast duck to fly in have a long wait". So, it is with marketing. So many businesses have great ideas and plans, but they fail to take action. They're waiting for things to be just right before they do anything. To some extent, that's understandable. But you're not going to get the perfect marketing piece. You need to, like we said before, a test and measure but considering that most businesses-- especially small businesses-- are tied for money. They want to make sure that their advertising pieces are laid out just right. The message is clear and that they're getting the very best deal on the advertising rates. Or they're getting the biggest bang for their buck in the market conditions are favorable and make no mistakes. All of these things are important. They are very important but it's critical that we don't get paralyzed into not taking action because of them. So, let's take a look at Apple Computer for instance. Back when Apple was first getting off the ground, articles were written about them and how they were--they use the ready aim fire--well actually the ready fire aim approach--and that's is they get the product ready. It wasn't perfect. They fired they got it out into the marketplace. They aimed, listened to the customer feedback and made the modifications and got back out there again. This is no different from the way many small-- even mid-sized businesses run their marketing campaigns today. They get an ad a promotional letter or campaign ready. They sit back and analyze it for months and then they may or may not actually run it for whatever the reason it could be. No one's buying now it's the holidays. Well that's the misnomer. Some of my best contracts have been during the holidays. So, what holds people back? Why don't they take the chance? Why don't I take the chance when I was younger? Why don't you take the chance now? Why not get the ad out there and see what happens? That's what Apple Computer did. Who knows? Maybe the ad or the promotion will be successful, maybe it won't. But they will never know unless they tested to see it. If they continue to wait and wait and wait, Apple would not be in the position they are today. Because they acted upon everything that they did. So, I'm not advocating wisely spending money and blindly running ads promotions just to see if they'll work or not. You certainly must put a lot of thought into the market that you want to target. The message that you're going to send to them and the offer that you're going to make to them. This makes careful and calculated consideration. But any business--even your business, even my business--can learn exactly what Apple Computer found out--that the market will tell you if your product is right or wrong for them and whether or not your prices are too high. And they'll tell you exactly what you need to do to make it saleable to them. Not only that as a bonus so tell exactly how much to charge for. Isn't that amazing? So, how do they do that? You ask. It's simple. When you run an ad a promotion, if a lot of people respond to take you up on your offer, it's obviously work. If the response was too great, it means that your offer was way too good and your prices were probably too low. On the other hand, if you get no or very few responses, then something is wrong. Either your marketing went to the wrong target, the message you're sending it's not clear, and the offer that you have made isn't attractive enough for them to justify parting with their money. The price could be too high. But if you conceptualize the ad design it lay it out and spend months on and analyzing, you won't learn nothing. Except that your procrastination has cost you a lot of unnecessary time and a lot--a lot of missed income. Better to get the ad out in the marketplace and find out if it works or if it needs improvement. Don't second guess it. Let your market evaluate it for you and tell you what corrections that need to be made but do it carefully--testing as we discussed earlier. Once you find out what works and take massive action, roll your ad or a mailing can't pay out and let it bring you the profits you've worked so hard to earn. OK, number 5-- Marketing mistake number 5: Using institutional or image advertising. Okay, what is advertising? It's simply a process of letting others know about your product or service. Institutional or image advertising is a type of advertising that most companies--large and small--use most often. Not really good, not really bad. Well, this type of advertising can alert the market to the fact that a product exists. It does very little to create a desire in the minds of the buying public to own the product or at least inquire more information concerning the product or services. So, it's sort of like image advertising. Well, what is that? It's sort of like Coke--you know Coke is they show you the bottle. People want it you think they're going to drink it but they spend billions of dollars in marketing over the years. So, a better, more effective cost-efficient form of advertising is called "Direct response advertising" and we talk a lot about this a lot. The idea behind this type of marketing and promotion is to get the reader or the viewer looking at your ad to take some specific action. Either they make a call, they pay a visit to the website, or where the product or service can be seen or purchased. And perhaps, I'll in a reply. So, you want to get them to react to your marketing. But when you consider the fact that your client or prospect couldn't care less about your company, or the fact that you want to sell them something, that adds up to a big waste of time. Makes waste of your money, and money that can be utilized to other places. It's true that institutional or image advertising can be build brand awareness and that's okay for large corporations who have millions and millions of dollars to spend but you don't have that. Most small or medium sized businesses simply can't afford to spend advertising that way. You need instant results or as close to it as possible. So, most institutional advertising is not customer focused and instead, it promotes how great the company are paying for the ad is. And since there's no call to action, at best the results of that kind of advertising produces--are bad or deferred results. For the most part, people don't care how great your company is and we've said this over and over and over again. They really care more about what particular product or service that she can do for them. Remember the old WIIFM? What's in It For Me? Well, that's all about direct marketing--direct response marketing. You see, customers have their own wants and needs that want to be satisfied. They will only buy what you're offering if you can show them how your product or your service satisfies those wants and needs. That's where direct response advertising and marketing comes in. So--the type of advertising this type of advertising actually shows the viewer, the reader -- the advantages of your product, the advantage of your service. When it can provide for them let them know exactly what step they must take it to either get the product or service or to get more information about it. So, it's designed to present enough information, to give a compelling immediate reason for the viewer of the ad to take a specific action. So, to tend--that to send a coupon: pick up the phone and call an order for more information or to stop by your place of business. Well, for most of us are not going to stop by our place unless you've got a showroom. But most contractors don't, but some do. So, direct response marketing will bring in more response, more inquires, more dollars than any other type of advertising or marketing and is trackable--it is measurable. You know exactly where your money's going and if it works or not. That is you'll be able to quantify exactly how many dollars you pay for marketing efforts, how much does it cost for lead, how much is the cost for sale. You know, this is where your results come from. So, direct response advertising is simply the most effective type of marketing for most businesses and effectively use can bring in immediate profits to your bottom line. It isn't that what we're all looking for? So, moving right along. Marketing Mistake Number 6: Not identifying your ideal or your target market. And if you know me, I'm really--really hot about target market and I don't waste your time or your money by going elsewhere. Because those are the people who are spending money with you. So, the question is: "Who do you market to?" Should you be marketing to the same people? Are all the people the same types of people? If so, was it a plan to strategy? If they're not the same, then why aren't they the same? See, your target needs to be really well-defined and you can go back to some of the other podcasts we had. Actually, a whole series on just the target market can go back to that and you'll find out more about target market. So, you see you, can have the very best product or best service on the planet. You can have the most attractive offer to the lowest price, lots of bonus, personal attention and the best service available. But, if you offer the wrong package to the wrong market, guess what? That marketing is going to fail. On the other hand, what if your package or your total offer isn't that good? Let's say it's just average. Let's also assume that your prices are not the lowest but they're at least in the ballpark. You've really got nothing special that the rest of your competition can't offer. But if you have a great list to market to--a well-qualified, highly motivated prospects with the authority and the ability to buy, and many case home owners, and who's-- who's your target on the homeowners. Most of the time it's the women. Now with that kind of market you just about can't lose. Target your marketing efforts to the right people can make or break the entire advertising or the marketing campaign. And if you're a small businessman, you can't afford to have that happen too many times because it will drive you right out of business. One of the best ways to make sure that your marketing is to the right group is to go back over your records and listen. Create that list of your best customers, your best past clients. You know the people in that group and these are the ones or the right people to market to because they've purchased from you before. You want to know who their neighbors are, who their friends are, the types of circles they are in--even in the cool thing, even if they have in a community group-- let's have them in a subdivision-- there are some awesome strategies for that, too. If everyone who inquiries about your products or services or makes a purchase from, you should go on that list. You should capture at least--the very least--their name, their address or phone number, their date of purchase, what they bought, how much they spent. If they're using the Internet, you should also try to capture their email. And there's other ways to capture their email if they become your customer, you just tell them you're going to have to email him the proposal so you always have their email. So, the cool thing about all this information-- I'm sure you've heard it before from many other people in different industries-- there's money in the list. So, you can run promotions, so you can keep in touch with them on a regular basis like with a newsletter or something like that. Remember, all things being equal. People would rather do business with people or businesses they know, they like and they trust. So, another thing you can do is send out a customer questionnaire --when I think we're going to put that in this program for you later on and when we give you the free report when it becomes available. Because-- now, here's the cool thing. Send it to him by mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope. You'll get more that way and then there's other email techniques that you can use a few other emails and they have a Gmail then you can send them a link to your, you know, Google pages refuse and stuff like that. But, the question here is great to send in the mail because it just lets you know the service you did, what they expected. And now, it becomes a testimonial letter for you--that you can keep in your packet and send it out with your proposals. So, you know this is-- this is pretty cool and you can--and there's tons of things you can do with it. So, really the cool thing about having your list and marketing to your list on a regular basis is that you have no competition by advertising and promoting to your own customer list by direct mail. No one knows what you're doing but the recipients. Your competition doesn't know. It's sort of like stealth marketing at its best and that makes you more professional and it makes you go to guy because you are continually keeping in touch with them. Yes, it's more work but the rewards are well worth the work. Especially, if you if you put it into an automated-- automated process. Marketing mistake number 7. Not using headlines. Think about how you read the daily newspaper or how you do news feed on the internet. If you're like most people, you read it by using a headline search, you scan, you pursue and you go through what you're looking at and reading only the headlines. And if one happens to catch your interest, you may read the accompanying article. So, what is that doing? The sole purpose of a headline is to catch the reader's interests and create a desire for them to read for. That's why they call headlines and that's why they're printed in large bold type--So they grab your attention. So, the best place to see good headlines is in a newspaper or like to inquire. And one of those papers they have some headlines because they write those headlines so they'll grab your attention so you read the article. The worst place? -- a lot of marketing material: yellow pages. I mean look some of the full-page ads under the heading of insurance in the Yellow Pages. Tell you what not to do. See if any of these headlines compel you to read further or want to find out more. Here's a few headlines that I found in the insurers section and I'm just going to use the old pages for an example here because it's the easiest automobile insurance. Really, I'm in the automobile section of the book. I would hope you sold auto insurance. "Western Pacific Agency". So, who cares? What benefits that to me? Sorry but the name of your company doesn't excite me or make me want to read further. So, your headline it's not your company business. Better things to do than shop for insurance? Well, answer: Of course, I do. And that's why I've got better things to do than answer that dumb question or read your insulting ad any further. "Insurance shop”: What's the benefit to me? -- Insurance, Computer codes, so what? Any one of the number of companies can do the same thing. Why should I call or read any further? See, none of these are great headlines. They don't compel me to go any further, they don't compel me to check out the service any farther. And, you know, so this sort of sucks. So, the example isn't only limited to insurance companies either.
Look in your category of your business in all the marketing piece. Go to the head, go to the yellow pages and look under the headlines. See if they don't make the same mistakes. Go into, you know, pull up painting and Google and see what it says. Painting company: "We do painting", "We've been in business for 25 years". Who cares? But see, that's the problem. You want people to care. You want people to read further. So, you need to really, (be) compelling, headlines that are closed with catchy headlines like: "Teeth lead to man in money con", "Boy, 10, recovering from dog attack", "Zerok cuts 5000 local jobs". So, these are attention grabbing headlines that are going to make you get your attention day in rush to weigh. Interrupt to whether you're thinking and you want to actually figure out why. Matter of fact, there was a really good one the other day that I found on linked in post. Believe it or not. So, here's the news feed isn't linked to any other day I got an e-mail that says: "These jobs will go away by 2030". Heck yeah! I'm going to go see with it is. "Navy wants smaller warships that pack a bigger punch". So, here's another one that's pretty cool: "10 signs they're going to hire you and treat you like dirt". Are you going to read that article? Well, you're going to certainly think about it. So, here's how, so you see where I'm going to is you got to create an interest to grab their attention so their eyeballs are peeled. So, here's one for maybe just your business. You redo it the way you want. "Local home owners save thousands using contractors proprietary services". I mean you can go wherever you want with that one. So, here's another example. We're going to use a computer company: "East Valley computers" --or here's their ad: "How to sit at home and make twelve hundred hours a week with your computer even if you don't know how to use it."-- Would you read that article? Absolutely. So, I want to get your creative juices flowing. Don't think about being a plain Jane or a plain Bob. Whatever. And I think about what can I do, what can I use headlines for, and how am I going to get them so that they'd grab-- actually grab m potential client’s eyeballs? That's really Chuah and you know 500 dollars off it's not going to do it because everyone offers 500 dollars. So, let's continue-- just a hair more. Hey, we're getting to the end of our time. I just want to thank you for being here. But tomorrow is: Number eight: Failing to use testimonials. How do we get testimonials? So, tomorrow we'll let you know. Hey, have a great day and we will catch up on the backside tomorrow. Be profitable. Have fun. And enjoy your business and your profits. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 15 December 2017
We're on day two of keeping from crippling your business with these 20 marketing mistakes. So, we're on day two. mistake number two is failure to monitor your results. Don't track. In other words, your tracking sucks. Results -- That's all that counts in business-- is results. You want to track results. We're going to have day three, four and five but today marketing mistake number two. Before I get to that, remember if you stick around 'til day 5, the end of day five we'll have the 60-page free report for you. It's not just report, it's a workbook to help you get through everything that we talked about this week in this series, to help you make your business better so that you can have the lifestyle that you have been working for to make it easier. You want to automate it and grow it. So, let's just make that happen. So today marketing mistake number two is failure to monitor your results. Don't track. In other words, your tracking sucks. Results -- That's all that counts in business-- is results. You want to track the results. Any promotion worth putting your time into -- your money, your effort behind -- is worth measuring how well it performs. That's tracking. Only by knowing what kinds of results a certain marketing effort produces can you determine whether or not to run it again. You don't want to throw good money after bad or what you may need to do to change or tweak in order to make it more creative. So, in order to make it more creative, you have to know how it works. Remember, I think it was a couple episodes back. The numbers will set you free. This is part of those numbers is tracking. So, it's absolutely amazing how many business owners don't understand this simple concept. "Well, it takes too much time. I don't know to do it." But you'll know how to go out of business when everything comes crashing down though what the Yellow Page advertising salesperson sell them an ad in their local phonebook or better yet they'll have some coarse Yellow Pages is really coming back. Some people are using great abundance. So, don't laugh when I said Yellow Pages but in other ways some social media expert will tell you that you need to spend thousands of dollars on Facebook ads. Why? You need to track them to find out why and how they work. They're in the business of selling advertising. You're in the business of selling your business. Your goods and your services. That's what we're trying to do is teach you some of the things about marketing so that you can effectively learn how to not necessarily do it yourself but know the background and the core differences and what it takes to do it. But we're going back into I'm getting away from things. Whether or not, you want to know whether or not, a prospect call or customers obtain is a result of a particular marketing had. The ad has no accountability and or measurability. So next year, at the same ad gets run, the same results are had and the business owners continued complaining about how poor business is. But you're not going back to find out why how the reasons why business is so bad. And it's saying the same thing happens when we do any magazine ad. Welcome the magazine ad or direct mail campaign. I know some guys are doing Val pack and successfully and other. There's all kinds of types of marketing. The key is that an astute business person, you should never ever, even consider, running an ad or executing a mailing campaign or promotion without having some type of response mechanism to measure the results. My philosophy is I can't track it. I don't do it. It's as simple as that. You wouldn't think of ordering and paying for product--any kind of product--and then not checking to see if it was received. Well, that's the same thing when you're marketing. You're ordering a product, you're sending it out but you're not seeing how well it was received. So that's what the tracking is all about. Many business owners in the whole run ads and their papers, magazines, money mailers, whatever the case may be, sent out a mailing and never bother to see what kind of results the ad produced. I know. I know it's crazy but it happens every day and millions of dollars are wasted because of it. And maybe you've done it. In the beginning I did it. I don't do it anymore. I said if I can't track and they can't get down, I refuse to do it. Some people even go as far to say "Well, my advertising isn't to bring in customers right away." Well that's kind of stupid. I'm sorry to say that. Its purpose to keep my name in front of our prospects, trade top of mind awareness, so that when they're ready, they'll remember me. You are not Coca-Cola. You are not Wal-Mart. You don't have billions of dollars to spend and throwing your name out into the marketplace. You want trackable results today. As soon as it goes out. Top of the mine awareness is important. But you know what, you're top of mind awareness--I'm going to be honest with you--Needs to be to your paying customers so they remember who you are on a consistent basis so that they don't go to your competition because they forgot who you are. There's no question that you need to have top of mind awareness but you can't afford to operate your business on deferred results. And that's what that is. So, you want top of mind awareness? Let's go back to your current customers or even people you've given a proposal to. Keep them top of mind. Keep them in your funnel. Maybe we'll do business with you in the future. Each one of your ads and mailings got to have to have a definite targeted purpose. And each ad must be measured to see that it is in fact does accomplish that purpose. And we'll talk more about that and later section. But for now, here's the simple forced system you can go and set up to measure the results of each and every advertising promotion campaign you run from now on. Put together an advertising promotion results analysis book. Simple three pages bind you can work well for this or just to make up a spreadsheet but put it into a binder. On one side of the binder, insert a few clear plastic page redactors. Print up some copies advertising and promotion result analysis forms found on the page of the report that we're going to give to you in episode number five. But make up your own right now and every time you run an ad or promotion, print a copy of the ad or the promotion and put it in and tape it to the page facing in the opposite direction analysis form--how many calls did you get? What kind of response? What the sales were for that particular ad?" Then in one Binder, place all your ads and sales letters. That is the as polls the best. And another binder place ads and letters that goes to marginal results or at least broke even. And then a third binder put all the losers. These are ads and letters that absolutely bombed. They sucked. They didn't get no responses. Then when you get ready to do another promotion or mailing you know which ads or letters that you can depend on or at least which ones you can model the next promotion after. Now, regarding the third binder. Well stay away from the ads and then Binder. Those ads have already proven to you that they you won't want to run them again. So, stay away from. But in the second binder--the one that has a marginal break even adds or letters--That's the one that you may want to experiment with. Look over the ads and see what may have gone wrong. It could be spelling just the way words are worded in a particular order. Just one little tweak could make a big monumental difference just because they as a nose didn't make a big profit or get the big response that you would have liked. Of course, and hardly ever is there anything to get the response that you would like. You have to continue to tweak and make better because it's a continual process. Once you get it to where it's pulling then you'll leave it then you may want to test another section or another targeted area. But the sometimes a little tweaking like that and adjusting can turn a mediocre ad into the real result producer. So, by doing this, I hope you see the advantage of doing this by having a copy of the ad or the promotion or the results they produce in a central place. It makes developing your next promotion so much easier. No more guessing, no wondering, what has to be done but keep track. Tracking is everything. Not only will you save time but it will be a proven winner. And make life so much easier. There's a 2 percent response 3 percent response. The difference will make all the difference in profits to you running the ad and promotion costs the same while it pulls 2 percent or 3 percent. But the actual one percent is a 50 percent increase response rate. Let me say that again the difference between a two percent response rate and a 3 percent response rate is a 50 percent increase in response rate. Don't think of it's just a 1 percent is a 50 percent increase and that 50 percent increase can mean tons of profit. A marketing mistake number three, not testing your marketing strategies. One of the worst things that we as business owners can do is a form of our products or our services or even our marketing strategy. Oftentimes we spend so much time developing the ideal program are the ideal strategy that we get so close to it that our objectivity goes right out the window. It's important not to get blinded by how well we think our marketing efforts will pay off. Even with all the necessary research in place nothing is certain. The real key is how the market responds to our efforts and our offers. So, before you invest at any significant amount of time, money or effort in any marketing or promotional effort. It's smart and wise to test the effectiveness of your campaign that way if it doesn't work the way you thought it would or should have said necessarily or unnecessarily resources. Here's a couple of examples to illustrate that point. Let's say that you want to do a direct mail campaign to 20000 homes in a certain radius around your business so you read a list of home owners. You print up all the pieces, have someone stuffed the envelopes, fix the postage, haul them down to the post office. Then you sit back and wait for the calls and orders come in. Same thing with eddm. You're going to go through the same process. It's just not going to be as labor intensive but after a couple of weeks you look at the results and you find that you have only received 19 responses and you quickly take out the calculator you figure out how figures that you just pulled whopping point 0 0 0 9 5 percent. At that point I would be angry and frustrated. But it doesn't sound like a good return on your investment does it. Well it's not but sadly that's the way that most businesses operate. But now let's suppose instead of all those 20000 pieces being identical you melt at the same time you decide only to mail 5000 the first time and let's say you came up with five different approaches or five different ideas and you can even bring it down to hundreds. You know you want to do deal 500. But I've found that when you are measuring and testing the it's nice around a thousand. So if you do you know 200 200 200 and 200 you will get your results. But that's just what I found. You might be able to do better with less. I don't know. So now you go to the printer you have let's say you're going to do the 5000. Let's see. You go the printer and you have 1000 of each idea printed and then you mail them and after a couple of weeks by monitoring the results you noticed that idea number three had the best response. You had 12 orders. So, it's not--so not a great response--but far better, then the other's letters combined and you have not, only not spent a ton of money on your marketing campaign but you haven't tipped your hand to the other people that wanted to send out with an ad it doesn't work. So, now let's go back to the drawing board and find tune the letter that pulled the best response and make the headline more attention grabbing the benefit, the reader and gain more appealing and the offer more attractive then sent it to another thousand names. Ah, this time you get the letter. The post 47 responses or the postcard that's four-point seven percent response. Not bad in anybody's book. But you've only used six thousand of your original 20000 names you have 14000 left. Now the interesting thing--and we're probably going to is at a later time. But if you send out a three-step letter, it'll increase your odds. It'll increase your percentage of your response rate. But let's go back to staying on task here you still have 14000 left. Now you have a control letter by tweaking the letter again and you may find that it pulls even better. If it does, then this letter or postcard or marketing piece becomes what we call the control. Just because you got 20000 names doesn't mean you have to mail the same piece to all of them at the same time. That's what most businesses do. And that's why so many of them have given up on direct mail because they haven't dissected it. They haven't taken a look at it. They haven't played with it to get the responses they want. So, once you get a letter that's pulling well, keep mailing it. In short run, always trying to be the control letter. So, don't slam bang it. But do it in control runs. Do you see what has just happened? -- By monitoring the results, by testing your mailing, you were able to come to a complete flop of promotion into a huge, huge success. You're testing is never complete. Just because you run a couple of different tests doesn't mean you stop testing. Should always be testing something different to see if you can be the control. So, I know right now a lot of you are saying "Man! That's a lot of stick in work that I have to do." Well, you know it's work is going to bring business. And if you don't, it'll put you out of business. I know it's pain, but we've got to keep on things too. We've got to create a system so the business the system systems run our business. That's really what it's all about. You want the lifestyle that you were dreamed about when you created your business and you haven't gotten there yet. These systems will help you get there faster, more productively and more in a straight line than it will if you just throw mud up against the wall and that's what most people do with their marketing is throw mud up against the wall. That's without testing and measuring. So, like you said your testing is never complete. For instance, suppose you're doing a direct mail piece of residents and you want to know whether you should use an envelope with teaser or a plain white envelope. The answer can be found by testing. And here's one way you might do it splits your audience into two--group A and group B that can be arranged by zip codes. Group A will be consisting of an address and services group who will have addresses in different steps group A will have teased or copy on the envelope and group B will have in a plain white plain white envelope. So just for the fun of it to let you know I've used paper bags. I just want to get it open so it works. You just have to keep testing and see what works. It's important if the content in the envelopes be exactly the same because if the test is going to be accurately measured you can only have one verbal at a time. And in this case, it's the different envelopes. Now when your responses or orders come in you simply keep track of the zip codes that they came from so you'll know very quickly which envelope pose the best. This is assuming of course the various zip codes are consistent with similar demographics--similar demographics the same type of people. Once you've determined which delivery system is best you can go on and test other components of your mouth. Some things that are worthy of testing-- just a couple of things-- Headlines, sub headline, super heads or press headlines bold body capping bullet points or statements the offer of the price guarantee a return policy whether or not you use graphics which graphics pull best drawings. The list goes on. Pictures of people I knew one guy that used pretty people in all this marketing and he was a window cleaner and got excellent results. If your marketing can't be segregated by zip codes you can use specially coded coupons or response card. Use different codes for different variables for testing. You might even use different phone numbers and we've talked about that in other podcast some businesses have responded. Ask for a specific person or department. So, for instance you asked for Susan, you'll know that they're responding to one particular offer. If they ask for Heather, they are inquiring about the same offer but with a different variable being tested. So, just keep testing when the phone is answered in the car d says ask for Susan. Please say "I'm sorry, Susan it's not available right now. But, can I help you?" So, you told the truth she isn't available and if you are able to keep them, what what's more you've identified which offer is calling and I don't what piece of marketing that you're responding to. Testing is everything. These are just simple strategies here. What you do ever-- Or whatever you do -- don't fall in love with your project. You need to be objective. Don't spend too much time trying to analyze and figure out why a particular thing works or why another doesn't, simply doesn't matter why. What matters is what works. A small test can run into the marketplace and let your customers tell you what works and what doesn't. So again, don't make the mistakes. Don't fall in love with it. Just test it and measure it. And then you want to follow. Tomorrow we're going to go into number four. Not taking massive action. So, and 5 and 6 if we've got time. Remember, on day 5 stick around we're going to have the hole. Actually, the whole workbook and free report for you guys keep keeping from crippling your business with these marketing mistakes as a download on day 5. So, you'll get this whole thing. You can walk through it. You can take notes you can scribble on it. So, it will help you grow your business much farther. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 14 December 2017
Keep for crippling your business with these marketing mistakes, There's about 20 marketing mistakes that many of us have gone through in the past maybe some of you are doing them right now Dave Negri here with Contract Secret Weapon. Thanks so much for being with us today. I'm excited to start a new series that we're going to be going through over the next five days. And I'm in the process right now of writing the report and it's looking like it's almost finished at about 60 or so pages of this report are going to be doing this podcast on over the next five days or so. Oh, the title keep from crippling your business with these marketing mistakes. That's right. There's about 20 marketing mistakes that many of us have gone through in the past maybe some of you are doing them right now and we want to give them to you as a gift, but they won't be available to episode number five. So, stick around episode number five series and we'll have this 60-page report ready for you in the show notes page so that you can take advantage that goes for the workbook and revisit the podcasts if you want or just go through the show notes. An old sales trainer Reed Motley said nothing happens until something is sold. And of course, he was right selling or the process of getting goods and services into the hands of consumers and having them exchanged money for those goods and services. Our whole economy is really built on and the mere selling of a product or service someone does what is suggests that a job has been created in order to make manufacture or produce that thing that was sold and in order for that item to be purchased. Another job. Produced and sold product are offered a service of some type had to be in existence in order for the buyer to have the money to exchange for that item. Well it's that process that process what we call marketing is the bringing together of potential customers or we can call them prospects and certain products or services. So that a person seeking agreement can be reached. Now that purchasing agreement is a sale so just not just regular marketing, but effective marketing is critical to the success of a business. Of course, any business and in fact your business and mine with ineffective marketing our prospects may never find out about the product or service that you have to offer and that they may need. They may want or that they could even benefit from and consequentially a sale has never been made. That really sucks when you don't make a sale because no one knows who you are. So, the statistics tell us and you've heard it over and over again 80 percent of small malt businesses will go out of business in the first year that are in business and those that remain 80 percent of those will not be in business five years from today so make no mistake These are alarming statistics. Yet even with those incredible numbers people still. Take their dreams into the marketplace with little or no planning. That really is where we get hurt and with little or no regard to the harsh harshness and cruelty of what the market place can bring without proper planning. So, it's all about planning. Common sense coupled with resistance for others have done in the past should tell us that if a business is going to expect to succeed in today's competitive market then that business is going to have to do a number of things right or at least better or perhaps differently than most other businesses that have gone on before. You need to have your head above the crowd waving your hands. However, that may be so it takes more than low prices. We've said this over and over again for business to remain competitive in today's market because even the person with the lowest price gets beat by someone who is even lower. I don't know how they do it but that really sucks, and it makes no sense at all. So no longer is a possible for a business to maintain their competitive advantage for an extended amount of time because of the products or services they offer or the prices they charge. The availability and affordability for many businesses to take advantage of cutting and take cutting edge technology. Low Price skilled labor and more efficient delivery and distribution systems makes it possible for increasing number of businesses to enter and compete in the market place. This just wasn't that way just a few years ago. So even if a business can offer a unique product or a unique service or perhaps even lower prices on similar products or services that are currently being offered it won't be long until competition finds a way to duplicate that or at least pretty closely match that business's performance. And that puts an end to the competitive advantage of the original business help. So if a business can't depend on its products its services or prices for their competitive advantage if they expect to survive and thrive that business is going to have to perform acts potentially in a number of critical areas. Marketing is a major key to success in business. Unfortunately, most people take their dreams harder and life savings into the marketplace in the form of a small business are not even aware of some of the most important factors that contribute to and can even sure their success. If you're like me when you first went into business, you just got an idea. I can do it. I've done it before. I'm going to go do it for myself I'm going to make more money and boom go do it. But luckily, I learned along the way before I went out of business. So contrary to public belief and much misconception designing creating and building and growing successful and proper enterprise that commands a dominating position in the marketplace doesn't automatically require hard work. Frustration and enormous costs there's no question and you probably won't get much debate that there more competition is stiffer competition than ever before in nearly every industry and profession. I see more and more people in the line of work that I'm in new trucks better looking trucks new driving around on a road that I'm sure you see the same thing. But there's also been even though there's more competition and it's more demanding. There are more opportunities especially for business businesses whose owners and interests understand a few basic fundamental concepts. You can get the edge. It really doesn't matter if you head up the largest corporation in the country or if you run a weren't one person home based business. Or contracting company or window cleaning company is immaterial. There are just a handful of things you need to know to gain a competitive advantage in your marketplace. And mastering just three of the most important of these things will enable you to write your own ticket to success. So, you and I both know that this year in this country is Grace and most prosperous time the world world's ever known a huge number of businesses and even large and well-established businesses are closed their stores never do business or provide the products or services to their customers. Again, there are so many businesses billion-dollar businesses that have gone out of business overnight. Others say it's because of poor business management practices. Another there's another school that teaches that some businesses are started by the wrong people that certain people lack entrepreneurial skills and it would be better off working in their respective businesses as technicians or employees rather than trying to run a business. That's funny but when you get right down to it for a business to even be a business in the first place that business has to have customers some want to exchange for dollars for the products and services that the business sells. You can have all the funding in the world you can have great management skills you can have a tremendous entrepreneurial mindset but unless and until you have someone new purchase what you have to sell in the form of products and services in sufficient numbers you'll never have much of a successful business enterprise and you only generate an average income at best. So here's a fact worth considering. So most businesses fail because they don't have enough customers buying from them on a regular basis. Most businesses don't attract a sufficient number of new customers or they let their existing or current customers slip away. That's a no,no. In most cases it isn't always because of the owners, managers or operators of those businesses didn't try. Quite often it's a result of not understanding and implementing effective customer getting and customer keeping strategies. Let me repeat that quite often it's a result of not understanding and implementing effective customer getting and customer keeping strategy. The bottom line is if you really want your business to be successful you have to make getting and keeping customers your number one priority. Let me put it another way. When was the last time you heard a company going out of business because they had too many happy satisfied customers buying from them? My guess is never. On the other hand, you can probably name quite a few businesses that are no longer around because they didn't have enough people buying from them coming back for more. And referring others to them. And that's where marketing comes in. But others know about what you have in such a way that they are compelled nearly force to find out more and then ultimately to buy the products and services you offer from you not your competitors. Most businesses know, not most every business makes mistakes with their marketing efforts some mistakes are worse than others. Some can even be deadly and if done often enough or severely enough can put the very business out of business. But so much for other businesses. What about you. What about your business what about your enterprise. How are you doing. What mistakes are you making that could be holding you back from making the income and enjoying the lifestyle you've always dreamed about. Matter of fact that's probably the reason you went into business. So, we're going to take a look at these 20 critical mistakes most businesses make. And as you go through them think about your business and see how you're going see how you're doing and each one of these areas remember marketing or the ability to get your message to others about the goods and services you offer in such a manner that it can Pelz them neutrally forces them to do business with you in one of the most fundamental yet misunderstood areas in business today. Properly you'd utilize effective marketing can skyrocket the business to new and dreamed of heights not understood or utilized. The business can sink like a lead weight if you can get control of your business and avoid mistakes these costly mistakes you can expect. Outstanding results if you can get a handle on just a couple of them. You will still get much better results from your business than you're getting now but if you fall short on any of the items that we're going to talk about and your competition masters them watch out the lead you into dust and you can afford to have them do that. You need to be number one in your marketplace. OK. Let's go. Mistake number one marketing mistake number one failure to let your prospects and customers know the unique benefits they get from doing business with you and not your competitor. This question that goes through each of your prospects mind before they choose you to do business with you and through each of your customers mind before they return to buy from you again. And it's a question you must take time to form an answer to. Without such an answer you become like every other business who sells the same product or service that commodity it doesn't matter what product or service is being offered your customers can go nearly anywhere and find the exact same or very similar products or services offered for the same price perhaps even less money than what you charge. Okay think about yourself for a minute. Why do you shop at the same stores or eat at same restaurants over and over again? Most likely just because they offer you something you can't get from their competitors. Maybe they're closer to where you live or work or maybe you like the way a particular restaurant prepares a certain meal. Perhaps it's the environment or the people who work there or maybe you just feel comfortable almost like you're at home while you're in their place of business. It may not be one single thing that influences you but rather a combination of several factors. Nevertheless, the businesses you continue to frequent give you something special something unique something you just can't get anywhere else. It's that uniqueness that keeps you coming back. Over and over again and most likely has nothing to do with the price if you expect people to do business with you rather than your competition. It's imperative that you have something to offer your competition doesn't have preferably something your competitors can't offer something that sets you and the products or services you offer. From everyone else in your type of business that's what's known as your unique competitive advantage. Or you ca you have heard the concept refer to the USP unique selling proposition U.S.A. Unique Selling advantage to PTF personal differentiating factor unique personal appeal that keeps going on and on for just descript. In any case the name or what you call it is not important no matter what you choose to define your unique factor is the most critical, yet most often overlooked marketing tools in business today without a clearly defined factor that difference you and sets you apart from a warehouse who offers the same or similar products or products prospects will encounter. There will be no reason for others to do business with you. Rather than your competition why on the other hand a well thought out carefully identified U.S.A. which we said was unique competitive advantage doesn't have to be difficult. It's simply a matter of identifying what you have to offer to your clients your customers and your prospects beyond what the products or services you can provide. Let's say you're involved with a product or service that is so similar to others in the marketplace that there's no significant difference between them. You're a window washer painting contractor pressure washer in that case here U.S.A. must be something you or your firm or business can offer. Exclusive of the features or benefits of the products or services you sell even if even if the advantage you offer has to do with quality service dependability convenience professionalism cetera just to say those facts are not enough. You must find ways to quantify or identify specifically how those items benefit are provided Fannings is to the end user. When you use phrases like top quality the best most reliable service is dependability delivery. We offer top of the line products the best service and the lowest prices. They ring hollow in the ears of your prospects and clients. They've heard them over and over and over again and they are vauge. If they're vague they are meaningless. Not only can most of your competitors say the same things they do say them instead you want to be very ,very clear about how the advantages you offer will benefit your customer. Tell them exactly what they can expect from you. It may be that you only offer your customers clients and prospects the highest quality. The top headline products. If so great but tell them in a very specific definable quantifying terms so that they understand exactly what the highest quality the top of the line means for them and how they will benefit. Maybe you have the lowest price in the industry or your market area if so that's good but how much lower are you. How much can your prospects of customers save by buying from you. Perhaps the support you offer them in terms of education or service or marketing assistance is superior to that offered by your competitors. Maybe you go a step further than your competitors in your services. Let them know. Here's a really cool example. That was used for years and years and years go by. Schlitz brewery,they wanted to become they were number four in the marketplace and they wanted to become number one. They really didn't know how to do it. And so, what happened was they brought in. I can't remember who the copywriter was they brought him in and they wanted him to go through their plan put a marketing campaign and when he went through the operation they went through where they were they were I think a fresh body of water all the water was filtered five or six times it came in all the bottles were made and then they were steam clean and pasteurize whatever the case may be and it went through a long list of what they actually did to get that beer out and McCaskill and this is pretty awesome. This is really amazing. And the owner goes everyone does this. He says Yes everyone does this but no one knows that you do this. You have to tell your potential customers exactly the step by step process and what they did that and it was a short matter of time that Schlitz became number one in the marketplace and held them for like four or five years. Unbelievable because they took the simple things and they let their customers know what they did. Yes every painter basically does the same thing every window cleaner does the same thing. But if use pacifically line it out item by item every carpet cleaner does specifically. Probably the same thing. But if you let them know Step 1 remove all your furniture. A lot of whatever the case maybe you give it to them so that it looks like that you are very meticulous and tedious and it's a benefit that they're not taking from somebody else. You need to be the number one person in your marketplace. So you know it could even be course better trained people. You could have certified people Sales people or sales advisors you know great things to offer but in themselves they don't say much to use these features. Like I said to their fullest advantage you must quantify them burning them out lay them out so that it yes, it's a pain in the neck for you. But to the customer they think they're getting something more than they're getting from someone else it becomes a benefit. We try to shortcut to many things spelled exactly clearly and specifically what advantage and benefits your customers will gain. Whatever you choose to make your U.S.A. remember it must be perceived as desirable to your prospects and customers in other words they have to consider it to be of value to them. So you can make your proposition that's something exclusive to you and your business operations the most. A more exclusive or proprietary you can make it less competitive competition you'll have even by changing the name of a process that you do to make it your own process instead of industry standards. You can do that. There's something then. Oh whatever it is becomes your unique competitive advantage. U.S.A.. That's the thing. The reason the advantage that will make not only worthwhile but beneficial and advantageous and advantageous even desirable for others to do business with you. Now here's what you can do. Make a list take out a sheet of paper write it down every fantasy you can think of on why someone should do business with you. Get a big list don't worry about whether or not your competitors can offer the same advantages or not. At this time just get some points on the paper thinking in terms of how your business might fit in the following categories. The name of your business has a say what you do. The proposition in such a way that there can be no mistake can't be any doubt about the type of business like remember the hair club for men. What is this was the hair club for men. So what does your business does your name tell what you do and as another example if you didn't know it was meant men's clothing. What would you think of the Men's Wearhouse sold men. What about your business. Can you use the name to your advantage in exclusive niche? Are you trying to be all things to all people or do you occupy and dominate or at least have the potential to dominate a certain market? A tighter group that you can cater to more control you'll have and the more opportunity you can have to dominate and control it. Expertise do you have some type of specialized understanding of the particular market segment, so you can become recognized a recognized expert. If you do when people look for you for help and expertise they can't get anywhere else. You'll have a tremendous advantage. Okay guarantee if you have an unusual guarantee you can use that as a competitive advantage. We'll discuss later on the concept of risk reversal and guarantees later your marketing position. How are you viewed in your marketplace? How do you stack up against your competition? What is your market perception of you versus other competing businesses? Domino's didn't go ahead to head with other pizza shops trying to make a better pizza instead they went after the quick in-home delivery or delivery and nearly completely dominated the market in a very short time. Because they changed how other people saw them and last price. How are your prices compared to those charged by your competitors? Do you have the lowest price for your product and operate as a discount operation or do you take the higher price point position and operate at a more exclusive level either position can be an advantage depending on how you position your business and the products and services that you sell around them. These are just a few of the areas that you may want to consider as competitive advantages. Of course there are more but at least this will get you thinking. So, step 2 segregate your list into three groups those exclusive to you and your firm something your competition cannot offer be those that can be offered by both you and your competition and see those currently offered by both you and your competition but which they are not capitalizing on presently. So, if you know they do but they don't advertise it could be a plus for you. The best advantage you can gain will be from choosing to group a exclusivity. Those areas in which your competitors cannot perform these are the things that you can do for whatever reason and you will want to capitalize to your foolish advantage. Group B. There's things that are offered by both of you. The last group can be used to real advantage, but you have to be careful on how you do it formulates your UPC develop that effective UPC and tomorrow will go into mistake number two on your marketing. Remember stick around till day five. We're going to go through the rest of these pretty quickly and on day 5 we're going to give you free download this whole 60-page report that will help you be grater you see and grow your business more effectively. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 13 December 2017
Google pay per click instant gratification with your marketing. One Click Lindsey is a Web strategy expert with small businesses and helps owners to utilize the web to produce more traffic and traffic leads. Today we talk about
Check out the show notes below I'm really excited for you to be here today. I have a truly and energetic guests with me today. Her name is Lindsay Anderson. Actually, we also know her as one click. Lindsay as you you'll see a little bit in a few minutes. She is a Web strategy expert with small businesses and helps owners to utilize the web to produce more traffic and traffic leads . That's one of them for Web sites or Web company name is Web impact. And I hadn't met Lindsay for real in person and back in September at a seminar we were both at. And I just wanted to have her on the show because we had brought her on our team and she built our new website. Her and her team and I am thrilled. And you'll hear that our conversation. But I just want you to welcome one click Lindsay today and we're just going to have a blast. So hey today I have got the one click Lindsay in the house or we got Lindsay Anderson and they're both synonymous they're the same person and I'm just Lindsay I'm just excited to have you here with us. speaker: I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for letting me be. speaker: I know I'm excited. Well let’s just so you know when we talk in September it was kind of cool to just get to meet you because you had become a part of our team and developing our new Web site. And that was exciting. So that's a shameless plug for Lindsay that she created our Web site so you guys have a tour of, so you need to go there. You can see what kind of work she does. speaker: Its really awesome but you mostly want to go there for the awesome content that Dave is dishing out over there on his daily podcast. speaker: Great. I love it. So, give everyone a little bit of background story about you and how you got to be called one click Lindsey. speaker: Yeah. So, my specialty Dave is to get people to make that one click on your Web site which typically means you get some contact information from them because quite often people are not ready to call you and they're just kind of looking around at a contract like if they're looking for a plumber or a painter they're kind of looking around see what their options are and quite frequently they're not ready to call you and sign up. So, the best thing you can do is try to get that come that contact information at a minimum get their email address at a maximum you can get. Trying to get their phone number their name and their email would be super awesome. Obviously the more you ask for the harder it is to get. But back to my story I have a specialty in driving people to these pages. speaker: Getting them to hit that button and getting their contact information. Why am I called one click Lindsey because I had a chiropractor client that we were working with and he actually shared an office building with me and we both ended up showing up for work on the. At the same time every single day. But he wanted me to run a traffic in Leeds campaign for him and I gave him the Build-A-Bear approach, I was like you know online marketing it's kind of a long-term game you have to do some AB testing. speaker: I just can't go out there and make ads and bring in the leads like it just it's a process. And throughout the whole time we would walk in every single day and I'd be like duck because you kind of gave me a hard time as I got my money where's my leads you know. speaker: Awkward. speaker: And I was like Doc, Doc you just gotta give me time once if I can get them to make that clear because you are operating on some Facebook ads and some paper click ads and the landing page. I just got to get them to make that click. And once I do then you'll have like this never-ending funnel of traffic and leads for our practice business. And finally, one day I made some changes to the landing page one evening and I came in the next day and we had about 20 e-mails for him on the list. Things started working. Yes. And I must say he was mocking me so because I must have said the word one click ,one click to him a hundred times and he said well if it isn't one click Lindsay finally made magic happen. And there you are. And I was like Oh I like that and so being the marketer that I am Dave I picked it up and I was like my name now is one quick one because it's so much easier to remember than Lindsay Anderson or your business name right. speaker: Yeah although www.trafficandleads.com is a pretty sweet business name. It speaker: is. It is. But if you notice today it was kind of. Now here's an interesting thing. speaker: And it's kind of funny because I went to google images and I put in Lindsay and Lindsay Anderson. Yeah. OK. And I think it was like two pictures of you there. OK. Well when I put it in one click Lindsay. speaker: You DOMINATED. Yeah. speaker: Maybe I should name a couple of my images Lindsay Anderson, so I can do a little better on google image search but honestly a lot more people call me one Click Lindsey to be quite frank with you. speaker: I know that's pretty cool. And it's really easy just one click your name comes up your address comes up and bingo you're there and you've got the whole story. speaker: I do. There you go. speaker: So that's an awesome name. So not though. This is kind of interesting. And I didn't plan on going there with this but I'm not going to throw you under the bus or anything but. speaker: No, I wouldn't do that. speaker: But you know how just you found out what were for you it's like the one frequency. How important is it for contractors and every other business owner to find that one thing that would work for them? Give them the name recognition that they need. speaker: And I think this actually I think this actually wraps perfectly into the topic we were going to cover today so I'm glad you brought it up because in the world of contractors a lot of you can be really in that situation that you know they're all the same. And people are just comparing by price. I as a web developer and an online marketer I run into that all the time. And so, it's so important to figure out that one thing that will get people to remember you or recognize you so you can be different from the rest of your competitors and I don't care if it's cheesy because you know what One Click Lindsey is cheesy. Definitely my husband totally thinks it's cheesy but whatever it is like you can't just be Joe Bob's painting and like you know without any anything distinct. Like maybe you specialize in X Y Z that's something distinct or your name is distinct. It's so important. Otherwise you're just grouped in with the rest of them and you'll just get those people who are price shopping, and nobody wants to run a business based on lowest bids. speaker: But yeah. So, I know one of the things that we talked about in September and now is that I've never really been a huge fan of Google Pay per click. But I'm becoming more interested and more interested and I think that's why I want to talk about today because with Google pay per click mobile it really changes the game for contractors. speaker: Yes, it does. Pay per click. I mean it is especially for contractors. I feel like it's so important and I know this is not an interview about you Dave but why do you not like paper click. speaker: Why were you turned off on it originally because we had done other a lot of it has to do with and experience in knowing you know yeah. speaker: And another challenge I had with pay per click they didn't do it right. And not to say so of a small fortune to navigate. But there again that wasn't my fault. Pay per Click is more as direct result marketing. It's just a different form. If you do it correctly right. speaker: Yeah I mean and if I may explain why pay per click might be even a better option than Facebook ads and I would also like to talk about how you can use those in conjunction for a superstar type of campaign. So, when you think about it when people are looking for contractors they're like quite typically literally in the market in ads. And so they're going on Google and they're typing in roofing contractors Idaho or Portland or wherever you're at in this whole list comes up. speaker: Now the very best place to be Dave is in the google maps or the organic listings like those are clicked on. Eighty percent of the time. And that's where you want to be. So I always recommend to contractors to always be running and SBO campaign in the background because if you can get up there to the top seven of the Google Maps and also inorganic you're going to get all of the leads. And so, it's so worth it to run a campaign. But if you are not up there and even if you are I still recommend running a P.P.C. campaign because people are actively searching for these on Google versus when we're running a Facebook ad campaign you like what are the chances you're going to be able to get in front of somebody who's literally looking for a roofing contractor that's going to be a little bit more difficult versus someone actively searching and you coming up on a page and that's why you'd want to run a PPC campaign. speaker: And I also want to mention to folks when we talk about Google ad words it's an amazing platform and you should totally do it. But don't forget about being you can get less expensive clicks and you can run campaigns over there to see which one does better. I've literally had people that have killed it on being and we've spent as Dave said a small fortune on our words and we shut all the outwards off and we're just running everything on being. speaker: Wow. That's pretty amazing. speaker: Yeah. Just because it's a little less competitive over there. Yeah but that's kind of interesting and you have to remember Internet Explorer is installed on everyone's PC laptop that's the default. That's the default browser and everything so people who aren't even that technically like interested in downloading Chrome or who even care about what browser you use they're going to use Internet Explorer and that will default to being. speaker: So, here's the other thing about Google Ad Words. Let me yet. So, here's the thing. This is kind of what else we're doing. So, the other thing we're doing on Google outwards is we're going to we're going to run a really awesome Google AdWords campaign. We're going to be driving people to a website. And maybe it's an opt in or maybe it's just a landing page whatever it is that you're driving people to. There's a hundred different ways to do this but you drive people through clicks through longtail keywords on Google PPC and then you got to make sure your Facebook Pixel is there or on your landing page. OK. speaker: And your Facebook Pixel everybody who came from a PPC campaign and then you turn around and you start running ads to them on Facebook. speaker: And so you're basically getting, like you're getting a really active audience because obviously they were on google searching for roofing contractors and then you can retarget them there on Facebook. So that is a really great way to get even more value out of your PPC campaign. speaker: Wow. Not yet. Double Exposure. speaker: Exactly, exactly where as I mentioned before sometimes on Facebook it can be a little bit difficult to find that audience of people who are actively searching for a contractor since it is a very like immediate need you know. speaker: Yeah, I mean I've found some groups where guys are just you know some guys are doing are doing Facebook advertising further their services and stuff like that and then are complaining that they're not getting any business. A lot of money and I'm going well you know you can't go out and upsetting the flow of things for the most part when you're on Facebook and you're advertising because people are there to just interact socially and you know they're not it's not a go to place to find yeah I mean and like you just put yourself put yourself in just a regular Facebook type of person situation you're looking at you're looking at these ads and like an ad for some you know roofing contractor flows through like you're just going to skip right over that because you're not in the business for a roof if you were you've already gone to Google and kind of tried to figure out who you were going to go with at that point. speaker: Like it's gonna be really hard to target that audience and part of Facebook like the wonderful part of Facebook that you can create these wonderful lookalike audiences and stuff like that. And that may or may not work for you but it's still going to be really difficult. speaker: Yeah ,yeah. Because they're not they're not actively buying. I mean I would think that if you were going for as a contractor let's say if you're going to try to run an active campaign on Facebook then you'd have to make it look like a social thing. speaker: Yes like homeowners saves thousands by blah, blah , yes like an info ad. speaker: Yes. Or of course on Facebook. You can always play the long game which is have your Facebook page you keep you know you update your Facebook page three or four times a week with whatever it may be. And so you are always you know kind of top of mind for folks when it comes time for them to select a contractor. speaker: The long game it's a long shot of real long, long game and it's kind of funny because it's in the society now people go everywhere to look to see if you're even a viable company. speaker: Yes, so you see what you do after you do that too. speaker: I know it's one of those necessities, before you know years and years ago when doing Web sites came out it was and there was no real necessity for stuff like that per se. People would do it as a trying to think as we were just certification in the sense that yeah you're you're a viable business. Yeah. And now it's like I've actually I've been to places for my pain because have gone and done painting estimates and it's kind of funny because some of them that they already picked me to do it. speaker: Yes. So I go there and I go through the whole thing and they go OK give us a color chart. Now I know you know from all the years that people don't ask for a color chart until they're ready to buy and I didn't even give them a price yeah but yeah, they checked me out and checked everything out. speaker: So that’s when you know its’seally important to have your presence on the web. speaker: It is. And this is a whole other episode Dave, but having those reviews on your Facebook page getting clients to review you on Facebook and Google really important and I know it's super annoying for small businesses but you gotta do it. You got to do it. speaker: Just one of those things that you know it's one thing I've got to do. Well no it's not. You need to take that vocabulary. Not one more thing I've got to do is one more thing that has to be done. speaker: Yes. You have to you have to ask those customers to review you. Yeah. speaker: Yeah. Not only that but you don't have to do. You're going to have somebody else do it. speaker: Yeah that's true. You know there's a system for almost everything. Yup. speaker: I want to add one more thing My good buddy Dave and I are recording this December 1st of 2017. So, Facebook is getting so like this may not even applicable in a year right because Facebook is getting super smart. I don't know if you've heard these rumors or tested it yourself Dave but pretty much your phone is listening to you. So let me give you an example my brother in law and I were talking we were my phone was sitting on the kitchen counter and we were talking about this new insta pot and it's basically like a pressure cooking crockpot. OK. I've never heard of it never talked about it. He was literally the first person that was telling me about it. I kid you not. speaker: I go to Facebook and there is literally an ad there for it. I'm not kidding. And so Facebook is listening to us. They're getting smarter. And like in theory they'll be able to serve ads because you're going to be sitting there talking about pink color and painting your walls and then then an ad like that would be applicable to you. And Facebook is listening to you like this is happening right now. speaker: Kind of freeky isnt it? speaker: Yeah but I'm like you know what. On one hand it's like that's creepy but then on the other hand it's like yeah. Because my brother also that the spots I totally clicked on the and went and bought it. So, it was extremely effective. speaker: Oh, wow that was pretty cool. speaker: There you go. Yeah because it was actually ended up being like an Amazon deal of the day thing. So, I had to pick it up. speaker: Wow. Awesome true story. speaker: That is cool. speaker: So, know I heard about a little bit about pay per click mobile as opposed to just you know basically it's simply different animal or does it get use from you and with your paperclip it get it gets used in conjunction. speaker: And I mean it is really important because like 85 percent of the people now 85 I'm sorry 70 percent of the people that are doing searches on Google are definitely coming in from a mobile device. And so you definitely want to make sure that you have all of that set up and add words correctly. And when you send people to a landing page that you're not just sending them to your home page but you're sending them to a mobile friendly landing page like that's one part that people really mess up with on Google Ad Words is they kind of just send people to their home page for you. Yeah like that you're just going to waste and spend at that point. Now here's a helpful little hint for those just getting started either on mobile AdWords or regular AdWords. You can go in. speaker: This is what I recommend you go in and you set up an account for ad words you put your credit card and you do all that you give afterwards your very best shot at creating an ad and your keywords your locations and everything like that. And you basically pause that campaign at that point and then either see a phone number on Google they change every day you'll either support phone number or shortly after you do that Google actually sends you a coupon for 50 dollars free AdWords credit and they will ask you to meet up with a representative to talk about your campaign. So I highly highly recommend that you take them up on this because what will happen is that lovely person in Google on the other side of the phone will offer to basically set up your campaign for you which you want to do because AdWords is so complex with negative keywords and match types and budgets and links and all of these things like it's a monster. speaker: So, let her set up the ad for you. Put in your 50-dollar ad words credit and run it and see what happens. So that's a free way that you guys can try and see if you can get any phone calls or clicks for free on ad words. I highly recommend it. Speaker 21: Cool that’s great way to get started. speaker: Yeah. And why does Google do that because Google wants you to be successful on outwards because then you'll continue to put money into the system. If they can help, you'll be successful and it works for you. You'll continue putting hundreds of dollars into the system. speaker: Yeah. So, do it. All right. speaker: I'm going to for the fun of it. Yes. Yes. Have something else someone want to form. speaker: Yeah there you go. There you go. Do you talk a little bit more about issues with outward campaigns? speaker: I would like OK I'm going to get everything I came out of you know within an amount of time. speaker: OK. So we can do another one someday. Yeah, we came to. Yeah totally. Because there's so many things to talk about but now I mention one of the biggest things that happens with speaker: They send people to a non-Facebook pics old website. That's not a good idea because you could be retargeting them on Facebook. The third is you just go out and you write a super generic ad and hope for the best outcome. speaker: What's that again is that I call home flyers. Yeah. speaker: And like that like you got to be. We talked about at the top of the show. You've got to like to give them a reason to click on that ad make it unique. Put something in there and see if it's going to work. So, don't just do a super duper generic ad. speaker: And finally, as I mentioned before Google is Google AdWords is a really complex monster and there's things like negative keywords which mean like for example, like let's say you're running ads for your painting business you can go in and say OK Google this is what's called a broad type keyword. Anyone who types in house painting you don't like. speaker: Have me show up unless they type in the words house painting jobs because then all of a sudden, you're just going to have all of these people who are looking who are painters looking for a job. And so you have what's called a negative keyword list where you can basically exclude like a whole lot of key words to make sure you can get rid of certain searches like that. Now there are lists out there you can go to Google and you can type in Google Ad Words negative keyword list and they'll give you a lot of ideas like people who are doing research or taking a class or want it for free or all of these negative keywords so before you do any keyword Google AdWords make sure you have your negative keywords set up there. Speaker 21: Because. Yeah. Because and you know you put into your painting and yet to be a host of different things like painting colors. speaker: Yes. You don't want painting color. speaker: You don't want paintings or how to do well maybe they're just looking for how to video. speaker: You don't want to how to. speaker: Then daily you can go into the AdWords you can look at this report and it will actually tell you the keywords that your ad came up for that was clicked on. So, you're going to go want to interview those reports and if like some like maybe you didn't include a specific negative key word and someone with entering painting jobs showed up and you forgot to put jobs in there. You can go and continually add to your negative keyword list. Speaker 21: So it's like any other campaign or any other Marketing campaigns going you tweak it so you get it,So, everything you want to do in that space. speaker: Yes. And I all I'll tell you what. Like I'm literally six weeks in on a outwards campaign for a client of mine and we are finally getting it down to the cost per lead that we need. Like this is and we've gone through hundreds of revisions. We've had hundreds of keywords you know yeah like it's just it's a process and I cannot stress enough that words he can't just go in like put a thousand dollars in there and hope for the best because it won't work out. It just works. It's too competitive. speaker: Yeah that's kind of funny. I had somebody once who are kind of what do Facebook ads. And I know it's a little different but it's just funny. We said you know you need to do a couple ads. They said OK, so they win they go. We put 100 dollars into the ad and I go OK. speaker: And it was on like that and I go yeah, I know this is what I mean I don't know a whole lot of off Facebook ads but where did you did you tell them to just spend it all at once or five dollars a day. Oh, we didn't know you could do that. Did you tell them to go somewhere what do you mean tell them to go somewhere? I said them you could give me 100 bucks I would always take me out to dinner. speaker: Right. That's right. speaker: Oh, hey this is cool. Really awesome. All of us need information is all these little tidbits these gold nuggets that they will help people with their Google ad words. But let's say that they don't want to they want you to do it for them. How do they get in touch with you? speaker: Yes. Thank you for allowing me to say such a thing so you can check me out at all my blogging is at One Click Lindsey.com. You can spell that however you want. With or without a wand or spell it out I don't care. It's www.oneclicklindsey.com or my name of my company is www.TrafficandLeads.com So you can reach out either way and we can set up a time for a consult and then we can get you over a price quote because we can set up funnels where we set up your landing page and your email sequence and we nurture that email list or we are or we also can do all ala cart where we just run add words campaign or we have a monthly program where over 6 months we just improve all of your online marketing system. So, by the end of the six months you have a well-oiled machine of dependable traffic and leads for your small business. speaker: Wow that's pretty awesome. Now yeah. Yeah. That is really cool. speaker: The whole program I like because most people don't. They're thinking I'm going to spend a fortune but if you put them on a program and say we're going to do this this this and this and this which you expect then that makes it more fun. speaker: Yes, well and I think a lot of people I guess the reason why I came up with that last program Dave is because people get really overwhelmed. I mean we've talked about 100 options here just about SEO and PPC and Facebook ads. I mean just online marketing there's just so many options so that monthly program we pretty much planned it out and because I know what I'm doing I'm able to say this is where you're going to get the most bang for your buck. We're running Seo campaign in the background. We're running you know Facebook ads in month one or maybe Facebook lead ads or whatever it is and kind of just plan it out. speaker: That's really cool. Thank you. Yes. So, do it again tell us how do we get to you again. speaker: Yeah. ww.oneclicklindsey.com Yeah. or www.traffic and leads.com or of course you can reach out to Dave because him and I are pretty good friends anyway. speaker: And really got to go to my Web site and take a look. But it got all her stuff. I mean she's got a ton of stuff and it's good day. Thank you. speaker: It's so neat to you know to be able to get to share you with our audience and see you at our Web site. And I'm really excited. speaker: Thank you. It has been so much fun to be on your show today. Cool speaker: . I'm excited. Thank you so much for being with us. speaker: It is my pleasure.
Connect with One Click Lindsey https://www.facebook.com/moretrafficandleads https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneclicklindsey/
There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 12 December 2017
Ever think about selling your business or buying a business, I get to talk to day with David Barnett helping business owners prepare to sell or buy a business this is his expertise. Preparing today for tomorrow. David Barnett has been working with small and medium sized businesses for over 20 years. He's been a business loan broker and a business broker. He's sold over three dozen businesses for others and has worked as a consultant on over 200 more sale transactions. David works with people trying to buy and sell businesses all around the world and has authored 7 books. 3 of them have been Amazon Best-Sellers. David maintains a YouTube channel with over 250 videos all about buying, selling, managing and financing small businesses. Some of the things we talk about are real eye openers when it comes to
This is what David talks about when he does his seminars. Great so in your business do you write yourself a paycheck that is equal or greater than what you would earn doing the same work for somebody else. to because to me if you have a business you have your salary or your wages which should be equal to what you would earn someplace else and then you have a profit right and if you have a profit above your wages that your time and effort is worth that's a business if you're working for yourself and you're just taking the same amount of money out as you would if you work for somebody else then you do according to me. I don't actually own a business you own a job right. There's a lot of people out there who like the flexibility of calling their own shots and they want to own a job even if they have to work in harder to earn that profit they'd rather go fishing when they want to and that's fine if that’s what they want to do and then there are the people who work all week and they take home less than what they would if they work for somebody else and those are the challenging situations that I call hobbies because a hobby is when you put time in and don’t make any real money. The main reasons business owners put their business up for sale is
I'm always telling people that they need to be running their business as though it was going to be put up for sale tomorrow all the time because quite frankly something could happen tomorrow that might make you want to put the business up for sale and you won't have time to get it ready or you'll end up for example selling it for far less than you could if it were properly prepared and you know what's funny is when you when you actually prepare your business for sale implementing systems policies procedures getting everything down on paper having the tools to manage it except for a miraculous thing happens. In almost every case the business has become easier run. And more profitable. And running your business actually becomes a greater pleasure and more lucrative in the present even though you're not selling it because you've gone through the steps of getting ready to go. Always being prepared.
Connect with David Reach him at www.DavidCBarnett.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbarnettmoncton/ There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 11 December 2017
Scott Hansen Shares with us today about reigniting your passion. Some great tactics and strategies. To move us from the ho hum of our lives back to the passion of why we started our journey. Scott really wants to help the entrepreneur the business owner move to what he calls turn the lights back on in their business to help them get to the next level of success because we only get this thing called life once there are no redo’s in life. Why not become the best version of yourself in order to do that and have the kind of business or have the kind of life that you truly, truly want. Being passionate with your passion, lot of guys you know they get into the normal everyday stuff and they forget I think you'd probably say they forgot about that why they just do the things they do. They forget about the why. How do you get re inspired, how do you get re motivated if you're going through life and it feels like Groundhog Day sometimes. I would suggest to anybody that feels like their challenged they're stuck or they have plateaued. Getting reinvigorated this is going to be an interesting answer but let’s go with just two answers.
Why, a lot of times Groundhog Day does kick in you get up the same time you have the same breakfast you see the same people you do the same type of business you leave work at the same time you take the same way home you eat the same dares the same three to five dinners and then you watch the same T.V programs. And then you do it all over again kind of sort of all the time. Change it up, go join something, go do something else outside of your norm I don't care what it is if it's going to join a book club if it's going to you know go to a different gym if it's going to take a different path during your running whatever it is do something anything that's different that's outside of your comfort zone.
Now that sounds obvious Well OK if I want to have a million dollars revenue let's go for ten million dollars. If you really want to get reinvigorated again is not only set a goal but goal set a maybe even a materialistic goal So for example let's say you're driving a Camry, maybe a stretch for you is a Lexus. Set some huge massive goal that at the end of that carrot stick is something that you can actually tangibly touch maybe it's a trip with your family maybe it's a new car for yourself. The reason why we're not inspired by our goals is because we set goal three and a half percent more than what we did last year, and we hope and pray we hit it. That it's not even fun and it doesn't get you out of bed jumping right. You say how many people can I inspire and help today, that can open you up to a lot of different things in your business. The short answer is well if you're obviously a contractor and you do you typically deal with a set of clients every day if you ask yourself Who can I serve today, how many people can I help today, that's automatically going to have your brain think wait a second I'm currently doing business with five or ten clients but if the question is how many people can I help today that opens the parameters to more than ten clients. That means I have got to go out and talk to more people that's going to excite me more about my business and that means I'm going to help them. Potentially with our products or services. In the short of it reigniting your passion is going to move you to new heights in your life and your business. Scott Hansen has a special gift for our listeners A sixty-minute break through session Free to our listeners A 12-month growth plan he is waving the $2000. Fee for our listeners.
www.sixtyminutebreakthrough.com
connect with Scott http://scotthansenconsulting.com/ https://www.facebook.com/creatingyourreality1210 https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescotthansen/
There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 8 December 2017
Stop pre-judging your customer in the sales process Listen we've all done it and some of us more than others. We do not know what our clients can afford or not afford, want or don’t want or how they will react because someone else didn’t do that before, so don't put that roadblock on your path to success so stop prejudging, Do you think you can predict the client's reaction with hundred percent accuracy let me tell you a story I love this story Zig Ziglar one of my heroes Stories that were just awesome, but you know he started out selling expensive pots and pans and one day he had to go up to this house where he had an appointment When he entered the house, it was a real tiny house had five or six kids and they didn't look like they could afford anything. Zig prejudged the whole situation He starts going through his presentation and he talks himself out of the sale. He is telling himself that these people are poor, living all cramped up In this little house he's going these people will never, never be able to afford this pots and pans set. So, just in the middle of the presentation he packs up and he walks out the door then say we're just packs up and walks out the door and the guy goes chasing Zig out the door and says to Zig where are you going with my cook ware set. Talk about pre-judging. So, from that day on he never pre-judged anyone Lear form the master NEVER prejudge any one on what their ability to purchase their ability to figure out what they wanted he would just present the facts give it to them and let them make their own decisions So today when you go out to do a presentation be you best, do the best presentation of the facts and let them make the decision. Because if you make the decision in your head for them you have automatically lost the sale. STOP IT. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money
How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb
Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 6 December 2017
Let’s talks about getting past front-end profits we think about going out and getting new clients all the time and more and more on how can we get them into our funnel or get them as clients, the front end is making money today but what about tomorrow the future? When we think about the most it's making that first sale with the prospect that's called the front end that's the first sales subsequent sales are, back end sales. So, we'll talk a little bit about that but why are we so engrossed in the front end of the process? Well mainly because most of us are transactional we want it to happen today and today only many contractors are not thinking about tomorrow per se mostly or the future and so let's talk about how we all think. We need more clients and so that's what we concentrate on. But do we need more clients, yes, we do obviously need to think about getting new clients is very important but there's another very important profit center. It's called the backend profit center.so the front end has to carry all of our advertising costs for example let's say you run an ad let's say you wanted to add vail pack or you do some EDDM postcards and it cost you three thousand dollars. And you only get three clients out of it, first that sucks because you probably have a bad marketing piece but it costs you one thousand dollars to get each one of those clients Now if your average job for those three clients is let’s say twenty-two hundred, twenty-three hundred dollars then you made out OK, but if your average job was under one hundred fifty bucks you lost money big time. Some big companies intentionally lose money and on the first sale that may sound ridiculous but it's not to a point. They know that they can afford to buy a customer basically this is what they are doing with this strategy by offering the first sale as a lost leader, they know that what they're doing it's figured in the whole crux of things that means they're willing to lose money on the first sale just to get that person as a client, so they can buy over and over and over again. There is a lot of profit in future sales. Weather it be new products, or repurchasing the same product. It could also be up sells and cross sales to a different product category. I think you get the point. Get past front-end profits. Include a plan to create future profits, back end profits in your sales cycle. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 5 December 2017
Why you want to respond to complaints fast, turn the negative into a positive. We all get phone calls and the phone calls we get for getting new customers are the ones we love, but you know the ones that complain are the ones that we hate I mean literally hate. When we see the number on the phone we just cringe so today I want to talk about how to respond to complaints fast, why you want to respond to complaints fast, so you know it's kind of funny as we sit down and we look and we get all these calls of people who complain and hopefully it's not too many, but if it is a lot then that's a whole other area that we need to work on. And that's service and probably the need to raise your prices because you're cutting your service short. We're just going to go into responding to complaints fast. Keeping an even enhancing client relations is to respond to complaints quickly and efficiently never ever leave a client unhappy even if they are a bad apple, and you want to get rid of them. The best way to get rid of them is to make them happy even if you have to give them part or all of their money back. You say are you crazy I've done all that work why would I want to give him the money back? Yes sometimes you need to give them a portion of money back just to get them off your back and you know they can say bad things about you today with the Internet. It’s called webtribution, retribution on the web it's more likely that they will then they won't so if you don't they'll go to and tell everyone they know what a terrible company you are thinking of as money well spent from bad publicity and write it off as advertising because it is a marketing expense when you. Get to the point where you've got a customer’s complaining and whining and just, make them happy however you can whatever you can do to make them happy do it, because you know what really happens they’re going to complain to all their friends and tell them how bad you are and if your name comes up to your company's name comes up they're going to say you know I had a problem with them. If you take care of it quickly and honorably this is what will happen with your customer. I had some problems in the beginning, but they took care of everything. And therefore, made me a happy customer and I'm glad to endorse them and refer to them. Think of it as an advertising expense to create a happy customer , a loyal customer, a raving fan. If they are a bad customer them take care of them and don’t so business with m again. It’s like this never, loose a customer. They are 5 times expansive to replace than keeping s good customer. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 4 December 2017
It’s all about Helping you become the better leader we need leaders and we need great leaders. First class leadership is and starts with three pillars of unique qualities. Who are those first-class great leaders the greatest leaders on earth? for example, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela much more Gandhi.
And then they day loved what date did they were you know they had passion you know what why is it important to have passion to love what you do every day.
Having courage to push the red button knowing you are making the right decision which gets you closer to your final goal. The guts to make to do the painful unpopular costly decisions which you have to make to get you closer to your goal, your dream, your vision. “Never Give Up“ A quote from another great leader Winston Churchill.
Great leaders analyze where am I in my journey. Like playing chess. You have to know where what position you have and what position the other person has you know that that determines your next move.
Hamid Safaei is best known for mentoring on leadership, personal development, and conflict resolution, Hamid Safaei is a certified executive coach who helps leaders, senior managers, and budding entrepreneurs discover and cultivate their potential. Hamid is passionate about helping both individuals and teams to always be at their best. He has led successful business transformations for a number of Fortune Global 500 companies. He has developed ImOcean Academy, a unique institute where he applies first-class coaching tools and techniques combined with best practices. He regularly publishes learnings on www.imoceanacademy.com and www.first-class-leadership.com on subjects such as leadership, realizing goals and dreams, the Wheel of Life, stress management, target setting, and bringing potential to fruition. His passion is to create a better world by and with better leaders. His biggest dream is for peace in the Middle East, which he sees as a fundamental step for the peace in the world. Hamid aims to achieve breakthrough results in the peace process in the Middle East by 2025. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. Connect with Hamid www.first-class-leadership.com http://www.firstclassleadershipbook.com/ get his book on leadership 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 1 December 2017
We're going to talk about one of the things that everyone really wants to run away from conflict. Dr. Clete Bulach boils that down to a commonsense approach to Four Techniques to Keep You from The Conflict. And each one of them has a win or lose. When there's a conflict you can win, lose and you can lose, lose and you can win, win, The secret of being a good leader is knowing when to take on the conflict, when wait till another time to take it on. The competitive style. When we win you lose tends to be disruptive? The win,win in a win, win you try to find out what the other party wants. And you try to give it to them, so they can win also, in a win, win you try to find out what the other party wants. and you try to give it to them, so they can win also. When you can't find a win when you go to lose, lose and that's compromise When you compromise you have to give up something, you give something up and the other party has to give something up also in order to get the deal done. In Lose, lose you get something right so lose, lose compromise is a valuable tool in dealing with conflicts, if you can't get to a win, win you go to a lose,lose right and it's not it's not that everyone you lose and actually you lose and to win. Yes, you're losing something to get something you wanted. The other one the most intriguing one is avoidance, when do you avoid a conflict? Listen to the podcast in its entirety and you will really from Dr. Clete Bulach wisdom in this area of conflict. Dr. Clete Bulach has been on over 100 radio talk shows on topics ranging from leadership, school improvement, bullying behavior, character education, use of power, school culture and climate, If you listen to this podcast and find areas, you might need to change that is great! There is nothing wrong with being the best you can be. Connect with Dr. Clete on his web site and look at his books! http://www.westga.edu/~cbulach/index.htm E-mail: cbulach@comcast.net There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your underwear at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 30 November 2017
Are you over paying your taxes? … more than likely, so Diane Gardner wants you to STOP overpaying your taxes! Going through I0 Expensive Tax Mistakes Contractors Make. Diane shows each of us how to keep more of our hard-earned money. Diane Gardner is an expert tax coach, Quilly award recipient, and best-selling author whose proactive planning approach gives clients a leg up on Uncle Sam and helps them dodge the tax bullet. Diane saves small business clients between $5,000 and $50,000 in as little as 60 minutes! Today we get a chance to spend some time with Diane Gardner a certified Tax coach and go over some outstanding ways to keep more of the money that we make in our business the legal way going over strategies about actually, keeping more of the money by legal means, in reality, being able to keep more poof our hard-earned profit. More profit and isn’t that what we all go in for is to make a profit. In our interview Diane spills the beans on some rather unique ways we, as business owners, can keep some of that money we’ve been paying maybe needlessly to the government.
Get Diane’s free Book Below for the other 6 ways And why do we do that? Pay more than we should. Maybe it’s because we are afraid it’s going to cost us money to hire a professional, it’s a good thing none of our customers feel that way or all of us would be out of business. Now on a serious note we are spending a fortune on taxes doesn’t it make sense to have someone on your team, yes, your team, that help you plan and in many cases, redirect that out go of money to a better place your bottom line. We always talk about increasing your profits and marketing to get more business, raising your prices to make more profit. Now we are talking about profits in a different way and actually keeping those profits with the proper tax planning using a proactive tax preparer like Diane Even if you raise your prices, if you don’t have the proper tax planning in place, then all you are doing is giving more to the government and by-passing your bottom line. Stop the madness, check with Diane Gardner and see how she might be able to help you keep more of your money and pay less taxes legally! She will take a look at your taxes to see if you are paying too much Connect with Diane Get your free book 10 Most Expensive Tax Mistakes That Cost Contractors Thousand$! http://www.taxcoach4you.com/books/10-expensive-tax-mistakes-cost-contractors-thousands/ There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 29 November 2017
How do we get chosen over the competition? We must stop thinking about comparing apples to apples. We really need to set up our proposals so that our customer only has to choose between you, you and you. By giving our potential customers options, that’s how we get them to compare apples to oranges and pick you, you or you. Many of us come in to this sales process and we say we need to compare apples to apples. If you can't compare apples to apples and you know that you may lose, why not move the process and make the whole process into your favor? We want to compete on value not price and we've talked about this many, many times before you want to compete on value. Let's take it another step further let's say. We're going to offer more than one way to get the job done so we're going to give him multiple options on pricing. If you have one offer then the potential customer will have two choices, your competition or no. And you don't want to do that. How do I make my proposal more attractive? You want to give them choices, we will use my painting business as an example. 3 choices never 4 choices that is too many however if they want to modify between two choices that you have. Now you have a winner because they are moving in a forward direction to doing business with you. So, let’s say we give them the 3 choices.
I going to say the important thing here is when you list out the actual scope of work you put everything in, how many square foot of wall space to be painted all the preparation, everything to the smallest detail. There are 2 keys here the detail in the scope of work, so they can actually feel the work being done and refrain from putting the price next to the proposed work. I know this is different but hear me out. Create the proposal without the price, a, b and c on page 2 do an overview and put the price there. Why you ask? So they can choose what they like before looking at the price. We all tend to look to the right and decide on the price before we even look at the scope of the work. Let’s change it up, let’s get them deciding what they want done before they see the price and then the price may not really be a factor. What if you closed an extra 10% of your proposals by changing it up. Go figure out what that would mean to the bottom line of your profits. Just one small micro change can add thousands of dollars to your bottom line, There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 28 November 2017
TRADES UNITED RECLAIMING FUTURE (T.U.R.F.) In 2017, Chris Hinkle was hired to restructure a local plumbing company. Once inside the company he was mortified at the tremendous disadvantage small TRADES EMPLOYERS face in the daily operation of their businesses. He instantly formed T.U.R.F. to give a layer of protection for ALL TRADESMEN. That led to the development of the T.U.R.F. CONCEPT that is revolutionizing our American Wealth System and will ultimately TRADESMEN on top. T.U.R.F. allows TRADESMEN to CONTROL industry COSTS. Chris Hinkle is passionate about the construction trades industry because he believes the construction industry is really the backbone of the US economy and the construction trades are really treated poorly from the Government labor laws to the insurance providers to the manufacturers and suppliers of goods to the construction trades. Economy magazine says in in twenty sixteen real estate construction contributed one point two trillion dollars to the nation's economic output which is total six percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. And he would argue that it's much higher than six percent because at the top of that there are seventy percent is consumer spending but where the consumers get that money to spend are appreciating values of real estate but take out loans of credit they refinance their homes they sell whatever they're going to do but they have that infusion of class of cash that stimulates our economy. To begin with. So, you take this this group of people all this industry that make up this industry and you look at the overall impact on the economy is caused by the construction industry in one form or fashion. In fact, you can make a further argument that this country was founded upon skilled labor people coming to the New World in order to learn and hone their craft and make a living, and nobody appreciates them. It’s the trades that made America great and built everything from the ground up and we area as a country loosing because no one is training for the trades to keep America great. Connect with Chris Hinkle Join the quest to make the construction great and profitable on a level playing field. There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 27 November 2017
Peter Mehit has recognized that every successful business owner has this one thing in common they all know their numbers without a doubt, that’s why he says the number will set you free. Peter Mehit has worked across many industries worldwide as a professional consultant. He has also been intimately involved in the startup of four different companies either as a member of the launch team, or as owner and team leader. He has held positions of trust from senior manager to vice president and has acquired a broad base of experience as a result. He expert in process and workflow optimization solutions, Mr. Mehit can quickly and clearly communicate this information so you will be able to easily implement the necessary solutions in your business. There are 3 things that you got to focus on that’s in Peters book Killer Business plan which you can get on Amazon the link is below. The real things you need to focus on being a small business owner is
These three things increase your odds of success and go from being nil to about eighty percent. If you set up the perfect business and nobody buys your stuff, then you are what they call in the technical term is screwed you are screwed The first thing is the customer, so everybody is has got to be just like hitting a note on a piano everybody's got a natural customer that that matches their vibration that will buy from them just because they see themselves in you as a person. Everything comes down to the value whether it's real value or proceeded value. So, the customers the first thing then the second thing is really an off shoot of the customer. The second thing How do I attract my customer? One of the most important questions you can ask your customer is “How Did You Find Me” Peter says I would actually tell people like for example say you're say you're a carpenter, and you're just starting up, drive two towns over to somewhere where you won't be a competition for somebody and start talking to people in carpentry businesses. Find out what works what doesn’t Remember we as business owners are the loneliest people in the world, so you can relate to them. you're going to start forming a circle of people that you could talk to. Get to know who your competition is and what they offer. Other business owners and they're going to tell us what works and what doesn't work. The third thing is keep track your money. In the beginning keep it simple Get a three-ring binder, that's divided up either in three tabs or five houses college rule books that are by subject. and then in the first on the first tab is you're right the word revenue and that revenue is you just record everywhere where money came in and then the next tab is expenses. And then the next tab says just expenses that are expenses for running the business. If you do your notebooks with you all the time as you spend stuff you just date what it was and how much it costs Then at the end of the week you total up those amounts and you take it you take a separate piece of paper in the fourth tab and you take, here's the revenue, here’s what it cost me to do the job here's what my expenses where you subtract the two the expenses and the job costs from the revenue and you see whether you made money or not. It’s really a simple to do it in the beginning. Start to pay more closely more attention to the numbers.And then they're going to grow and learn and graduate into some kind of real accounting system on their own. But what most people do is they go I have money in my checkbook therefore I'm doing great THE NUMBERS WILL SET YOU FREE! The thing about it is the people who have become great the people become millionaires the people become wealthy in any kind of business know their numbers they know they know their numbers for sure. Connect with Peter Mehit today 800-741-8444 call to get your free 15 minuet consult on any business problem you are having. Go to the contact page and put in there Send me the Book he will send you a free pdf of his book. Killer Business Plan.
There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at Shell@contractorssecretweapon.com and she will send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 24 November 2017
Never star tomorrow till it's finished I know that we all make plans we all set our goals, but can it be done better? Our weekly plan and our daily plan we set out what we've got to do for the week we'll set out on Monday and know what time we start our business let's say or what time our crews go out and when they come back, you’ve got that crew list of who's going out who's go where, and you've got one for yourself. And if you don’t things just get crazy. If you haven’t got here we go again having it pre-planned out. We are in big trouble. Years ago, I had a mentor that was very wise. He said NEVER START TOMMAROW UNTIL IT’S FINISHED. Our minds like structure, we really do perform better when we lay out everything and have a plan to execute. If you plan your day as you go you live in utter chaos because you are allowing, allowing to give up control of you day to circumstances. Who is in control your circumstances or you. The only way for you to be in control is for your day, your week, your month to be planned, Only in a perfect world will all of your plans go unscathed. But when you have it all planned out you have control of weather you allow yourself to become interrupted. You gage the importance of the possible interruption. Now for me I personally like google calendar to plan out my day and week and I like to print out and take it with me and write in the changes for the day or add in for the week It really doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it, that is make that schedule up in advance. And get as detailed as you need especially when it comes to making appointments, name, phone number, address, time to be there, and important talking notes about the job or estimate. Another famous saying is set your goals in concrete and you plans in sand. Having a written plan for the day or week the saying means be flexible. Of course, the only way you can be flexible is by planning ahead. Make sure you stop by the website and pick up your free audio book 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers Maybe you'd like to be on our show if you have a story to tell on how you overcame maybe a big hurdle in business or something you feel like you'd like to share with other business owners to help them grow, Just email my assistant at Info@contractorssecretweapon.com put in interview in the subject line and I'll have her send you out one of our guests sheets to fill out and then we can go from there. info@contractorssecretweapon.com Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 23 November 2017
Becoming consistent on the important stuff, what is important stuff, what’s not important stuff? How do we do that become consistent. Did you know that it takes twenty-one days? To create a habit and it takes two days to stop a habit, well it seems like it takes two days. If you stop really quick if it takes like forever to get started up again. It's sort of like pushing that car you know takes it two hands and it and you puff and you push to get that car rolling and you're pushing it and then as it rolls you could probably push with one hand well that's what consistency is like once you get it going on a steady pace its almost effort less but once you stop, you have to go through all effort to get up and running again. One of my favorite sayings I live by is Never Give Up. Why because its much easier to get up after the fall thane it is to start over again. What makes us inconsistent?
So, keep doing it until it becomes comfortable, like walking what do you think would have happened if every time you fell down when you started walking your mom put you back in the crib and said I guess you’re not ready to start walking. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
In order to grow we have to embrace being uncomfortable, embrace change or we will get left behind our businesses won’t grow. We won’t grow. John Maxwell put it this way paraphrased no one can grow past the leader if they do you are in big trouble. He calls it the law of the lid. Jim Rhone one of my favorite speaker talks about his boss telling him he need to make a million dollars Jim agreed whole heartily. But his boss’s response to that, was not for the money but what you will learn and become along the way> So, grow Create your systems for marketing, for follow up for being profitable create your goals and be willing to change and grow to get there. By getting consistent on the important stuff it will come together for you. Make sure you stop by the website and pick up your free audio book 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast Email my Assistant at info@contractorssecretweapon.com Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 22 November 2017
As contractors we tend to do things halfway so today is about completing the task. Why do we do things half way? We get excited and distracted by some many things that are going on in our business like add new strategies, new thoughts, new tools, new products that we take them all in at once and we get so excited and distracted by them about it that we. And we don't get it we do it half way because there's just too much to do and we haven't created a system to do it so like if you've been in business for five years there's no reason that you should be waiting around for the phone right. You should have five different goals systems in place that you're working on. Going beyond five really is a recipe for disaster if you have picked the top five most important things that you want to happen within your business. And you really want to get down to three things especially on a daily basis. Have you ever read Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy that's super book on getting things done in in the way that you want to get them done but it will be the hard things first? Get a free audio down load at of eat that frog at the bottom of the page We all have a tendency to get distracted and I know I do to have a little A.D.D. We are always putting out fires and this is one of many reasons why we don't stick to the task at hand of the things we want to do because we're always putting out fires we need to be the fire chief. Not the fire department so the fire chief points people in a right direction he directs the process. Sit back and look and see what are the important things, what are the tasks that I need to do that are important to keep my business running so that I can create a step by step system in place. We're going back to plans again of how to get this done so that it gets done in the proper fashion so that we stay on task and we get things done and there's nothing worse than starting a project getting something half-finished and then putting it aside half complete with no end in sight to completing the tasks. The key to completing the task, finishing the project is to make a plan then follow the plan step by step. Keep it simple Free audio down load of Eat That Frog click here no email requried Make sure you stop by the website and pick up your free audio book 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast Email my Assistant at info@contractorssecretweapon.com Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 21 November 2017
Your Future Without Planning is no future at all! We don't set goals when we should, we don't plan we should, just a lot of things we don't do but we should. The reason we don’t do all this stuff is because we are busy, or we get busy and the busyness dictates our life. And that really sucks. So why don’t we? We don't set goals when we should, we don't plan when we should just a lot of things we don't do. But it's not because we don't want to, man we want to we always want to I find myself a lot of times doing stuff and getting stuff on my mind and I go making notes I got to get this done again get this thing get this I got to set my goals. I’ve got to make time to do that and there's always something that gets in the way I'm sure that you can relate to this. Doing nothing is not going to increase my business. I love what Zig Ziglar says “if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time” If you don't set the goals you can't be disappointed where you end up At the outcome you can't be disappointed that there's no business now we just finished up a whole series on goal setting you can go to the tab or the series on goals your blueprint to success there’s a bunch of great stuff in there that will hope you get through the goal-setting process. Why do you want to set the goals? How do you set goals? First of all, you need to set aside time. It could be an hour, could be two hours of uninterrupted time. During that time, you must make out a list of the things that you want to do so you can set your goals and figure out what do you want to do or where you want to be. Set it up in 90-day increments actually for me I like to set it up in six months that is 2 /90-day increments. Want a very simple process of goal setting? Go listen to the podcast 6 figures in 6 Months with Ron Douglas he lays out the simplest straightforward way to plan out your next six months. There are 3 things that hold us back in our goal setting
Go figure who would have thought fear would be a big one. It boils down to what do I want to do, where do I want to be this time next year to set my goals, how much money do I want to make ,how much time do I want to spend with my family, do I want to work six days a week maybe I want to only work 4 days, how much revenue do I have to do in order to work four days a week? Because no one says you have to work sixty, seventy, eighty hours a week no, one says you have to work forty you have to create income. Profit remember you are the one in control or you are supposed to be. Make sure you stop by the website and pick up your free audio book 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast Email my Assistant at info@contractorssecretweapon.com Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 20 November 2017
We are going to talk about why some of us do nothing and then talk about how to get past doing nothing. You might think that doing nothing is a new business owner scenario but it's not a new guy problem because it catches up with us as we grow our business and we get complacent. We don't do anything at all because we're expecting things to happen. Let's go back to new guys so you start off a new business you have got a great trade you're actually good at what you do. You get some business and the customer is happy with what you have done for them. And you're hoping that they will refer you, so you stick around, and you wait for your phone to ring. And therefore, it's not ringing because you don't any marketing in place so that's what this whole podcast is built around was doing marketing how to do it how to get into a system. If you're a new guy here's a couple things that you can do to get you off and running join a networking group you know we talked about this a lot of times before but networking groups will get you involved with other people that are like minded who are trying to expose their business to other people, so you can help each other out. Forward motion is what needs to be done what do I mean You need to be doing multiple things, marketing strategies and there are a lot in the beginning you can just use your time to get known out there. Another terrific way helps each other out one of the things that I one of the things that I did and in the very beginning I would make up flyers and staple to a piece of wood and throw a thousand in an evening. It would take about 2.5 hours. It’s called moving forward and keeping yourself moving so that something is going to work.
Another fantastic way is to get a hold of real estate agents. Listing agents and Buyers Agents. This strategy can work great on both sides.
And they give it to their client as a Signing gift to help the seller spruce up the house to get it ready to sell. No marketing expense and you get to play with the pricing, so you make a profit. Now if they are moving local you have a new customer for life.
There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download. 4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast Email my Assistant at info@contractorssecretweapon.com and we’ll send you our guest sheet.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 17 November 2017
A forgotten secret to success, what is it really, I believe it’s something that is not talked about much in the business world. And when we are done today it may set you on an extended path to your success. Success without fulfillment is empty I just want to talk about so what does that mean, we all strive for success we all work hard we work probably harder than we want to build a type of business we want so I just want to go over some things and say that I think that is not talked enough about and you hear in dribs and drabs. On one of the other podcast episodes it was EPISODE 136 WITH Kellen Kautzman about using Philanthropy this goes beyond using this as a part of your marketing, it’s really creating an extension of yourself. I really want to talk about giving not just in the marketplace and not giving back. I'm sorry that's just one of my pet peeves I just really hate that word. Giving back And I'm really not a huge fan of being politically correct but when you talk about giving back is sorta makes me feel like I've stolen something, and I'm obligated to give back as some sort of act of doing wrong. I'm not obligated because I haven't stolen anything. See where I’m coming from. And now giving is another thing I think that you know there are so many people that feel empty from their success and I'm not saying this is the main thing that will fulfill your emptiness because, for the most part, an emptiness is. Is a spiritual void but we can get into that another time, today we are just talking about giving and again and not giving back because you haven't stolen anything why should you feel guilty about giving back. I believe that there's a portion of each one of us that deep down inside there is that part that we want to give we really do when we don't know how to do it or what to do. You hear about people like Tony Robbins who feed thousands of people every year. And you think that is awesome. I’ll bet you, he started with one. You are saying, I wish I could do something like that, but I don’t have the money. I have a friend that he says man I would love to be a philanthropist and I go What's stopping you he says so I don't have any money. You have a dollar don’t you. You have time,
Here is a little secret I’m going to share with you Money Magnifies who you are. It all starts with a thought it gets placed into your yearly goals. On what you want to achieve. As I think about it really balances out who you are and who you want to become. I had a conversation with a real estate investor the other day and we were talking about this subject about giving and he picks up properties and sometimes they are full properties with clothes, furniture, dishes the whole works. For the past few years, he takes all the good stuff and packs it up and brings it to a place that gives this stuff away to people in the city who can use it. I asked why he did this and the answer that came back was, I could take and sell this stuff and make more money but in reality “it just makes me feel good it sort of makes me feel whole by thinking about others not just myself and my needs. That’s why I give it away.” I’m going to challenge you today as you contemplate your journey to success that you consider others in your goal plan and ad this portion to your goals. If you are already doing it awesome. If you have thought about or this is a new concept for you There is om much to gain it is actually unexplainable,the experience will knock your socks off. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper-targeted, laser-focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 16 November 2017
Whitney Nicely has a passion she's got a business she's has systems and goals, she has a unique way of creating a real estate investing portfolio. And as you listen to this podcast you’ll see the simplicity of her system. Whitney Nicely went from no investments (or strategies) to 19 houses, 19 apartment units and 7 chunks of land in less than three years all bringing monthly money to her bank account on auto pilot. She has traveled the United States speaking on stages, teaching her simple strategies, and meeting with other successful real estate investors- and still buying houses the way she teaches others. She went from flipping truck to flipping houses in a rather unique way. As we talked many questions came up about starting real estate on a part time business.
I asked Whitney about how much competition there was in her market place on investing in homes. Her response there are more houses out there that she can purchase. No competition. I really believe the competition lies within our own thinking. It all has to do with having a positive mental attitude. And abundance mindset.
Connect with Whitney Nicely 865-556-1635 Take the first step by joining Whitney's real estate investing Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/whitneybuyshouses/
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper-targeted, laser-focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 15 November 2017
Today I have a special guest Craig Cody. He going to help us figure a few ways to not paying the government as much money as you do and therefore making more profit, because you get to keep more. Craig Cody is a certified tax coach, certified public accountant, business owner whose company is dedicated to helping his business clients take advantage of the tax laws that are in place to help business owners keep more of their hard-earned money. As a certified as coach Craig belongs to a select group of tax practitioners throughout the country who undergo extensive training and continued education in various tax planning techniques and strategies to become certified. Why is Craig’s company different that other CPA’s and accounting firms?
Tax coaches like Craig Cody play a big part in helping their clients keep as much money as possible. Imagine talking to Craig on a monthly basis to strategically Plan your tax strategy. Much different than many of us that have gone in for a meeting with our CPA and our meeting is, here is how much you owe the tax man, and this is the due date. See you next year. Not that our CPAS aren’t doing their job correctly they are they figured out what you did from the past records and let you know you owe accordingly it’s pretty cut and dry. It’s not your fault you probably never knew that there were tax coaches and CPAs that would look at where your business was going and could advise you on your business before you actually got to the end of the year. There is. Connect with Craig Cody https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigcodycpa https://www.facebook.com/CraigCodyandCompany Get your free book Craig’s Gift to our listeners 10 Biggest Tax Mistakes that Cost Business Owners Thousands www.craigcodyandcompany.com/secretweapon
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 14 November 2017
How to Do 6 Figures in 6 Months by Ron Douglas is a no nonsense straight to the point book about just doing that within your business. Growing your business to that 6-figure mark fast. Ron Douglas is husband and father of 8. Kicked out of high school in the tenth grade, Ron went to street racing and broke his back in a car accident at 18. He was paralyzed from the waist down and learned to walk again making a full recovery. He became a prison guard and 19 and was on the riot team by 20. He worked death row from 22-24 and gained a unique perspective on life while there. He has been an entrepreneur since he was 24 and has started and sold many companies. He has started several companies that were making over $1M in the first 12 months of operations. Ron has been on Discovery Channels Blue Collar Backer TV series for season 1. Realizing how much time it took away from his family, he turned down the offer for five more seasons and continues to help people on a more personal level. He has been featured in NY Times, MSNBC, CBS, and FOX. He is the author of Six Figures in Six Months and loves the art of creating a business. Some of the highlights we talked about today Ron’s version of a vision board set up in 6 month increments basically it’s a working goal board start at the end and working forward. An example you want to you have a business and you're just starting out in a landscaping business and you want to be making one hundred thousand dollars. And want to do a hundred thousand dollars in a year. You are going to break the 6 grids down to months, start with end and work back wards Its like going on vacation and planning for a nice vacation you don’t just hop in the car and go. You make plans, what route do you want to go , how gas is it going to take , how many stops along the way and what are those stops going to be. Is it going to be an 8 hour a day drive or 10 or 12. So many things to plan. Yet many get in their business s and just go and then are not satisfied where they end up. By default, they chose the path and the end. Ron’s unique approach to a mastermind Ron like myself is a huge proponent of masterminds, but in one of his businesses he took a rather unique approach to the mastermind idea by creating one with his employees, The results were transformational for all Ron’s business, and his employees. Each one of his employees grew to the point that 4 of the 5 went and started their own businesses. They became business owners one of the 4 purchase that business from Ron4 and the 5th still works at the company and the lead tech. I’m sure many business owners are thinking that’s crazy why would I do that train my employees to go into business for them self, my question why wouldn’t you , You are doing it all the time embrace it and help create a better business environment.
Connect with Ron Douglas Get your FREE book 6 figures in 6 months And you will get invited to his closed Facebook group
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 13 November 2017
Let’s talk about what no one wants to admit to or even admit to is that we are all procrastinators on some level or another. Today with Lyman Montgomery we are going to discover ways to beating procrastination by developing a focused driven lifestyle. One of the profound statements I picked up from Lyman’s book Living a Focus Driven Life Style is “we are addicted to our distractions “ One of Lyman’s clients he was in sales and he was at his computer and literally get a jolt of energy every time the sales jumped to a three percent higher mark, I mean he literally every time he heard that little bell notification so yes I mean literally get addicted. How about our phone we feel naked without it on us? We have the settings on sound, so we know when we get a text and have to look at. How about when we post a comment on Social media we keep checking to see if any one responds. Absolutely crazy! About that procrastination thing. There’s basically four reasons why we as humans procrastinate
I'd say the top four excuses are
And so we convince ourselves number one, I don't know how to do it number two is not challenging enough number three I don't feel like doing it so I'm waiting on this magic easy button that I'm going to push and I'm going to be flooded with energy and excitement to do something and it never comes. And then you have the lie as an excuse where well I'm not skilled someone else is much better at doing this and all of these become excuses rooted in an emotion called Fear. Fear that if I do it and do it well. In his book Lyman talks about a concept called fifth F I S T. And what that stands for is all of us look at the facts. To find out more about Lyman Montgomery and connect with him about living a more focused lifestyle.
Connect with Lyman at https://www.focuseddriven.com/
| 877-Info@focuseddriven.com | 877-275-3039 275-3039 | 877-275-3039 While you are there get your special gift: 7 Strategies to Get Focused, Productive & Profitable and Growing your Business Book: Focused-Driven Lifestyle
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 10 November 2017
Sharon Bolt shares with our listeners the simple steps on how to get free publicity. Publicity is how to create the win, win situations with the media and you and your business time and time again. The wonderful thing about learning how to write a press release on your way to get free publicity. You are validating your expertise now, today. You are the one at the helm so to speak. You could wait forever for someone else to validate you, your business, your expertise. Is more fun if you validate your expertise and it can be done today In the English the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of an expert and it's a person who is very knowledgeable about and skillful in a particular area. Isn’t that what we are, Very Knowledgeable about our business. So be bold, step up to the plate and yell it from the rooftops no Tell your story with free publicity. You can become the celebrity in your marketplace by following Sharon Bolts simple steps to free publicity. By becoming that celebrity expert in a sense in your local community now people are going to look at you differently than someone else in your field does. Let’s face people love being connected to a celebrity expert. By becoming that celebrity expert, you have positioned yours very well. Your potential customers expect to pay a higher price. Celebrity status in business means that you become very quickly the go-to person. Yes, it elevates you above the rest. Connect with Sharon
Get her Free Report on How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Press Release That Creates Win-Win Situations with the Media http://getfreepublicitytoday.com/ https://www.facebook.com/getfreepublicitytoday/
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper-targeted, laser-focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 9 November 2017
How Can I Get There from Here- Goal Setting? Talking about setting those goals. The whole spectrum of goal setting.
It’s all up to you! 95 % of us who haven’t put it down on paper and planned out what do we actually want to do with this upcoming year. That means you are in the top 5% because you are here looking to se how you can become that person you’ve been striving to become. I know it’s not the easiest thing, nor is it the most fun thing to do. I have to force myself to take a couple of days and write out what I want to do, where I want to go and almost more importantly what I don’t want to continue to do. Can you imagine going to the travel agent saying I want to go on a trip…. how many questions do you think you are going to be asked? Tons. Why? Because you can’t get from here to there unless you have some sort of plan. It’s no different with our business. Without a plan to follow guess what you can’t get mad on where you end up. Let me say that again Without a plan to follow you can’t get mad on where you end up. The key is, “where do you want to go? what do you want to do? and how do you want to do it? “ Last year you might have had had a great year! If you do the same thing you did last year it’s probably going to be good again for most of you, Don’t you want more? So, if you do want more, how much more? More what…
You’ve got to know what you want so you can get there. OR have you thought about it this way? What did you do last year that you could tweak just a little more to get exponential results? I’ve got to think it’s beyond the 10% you can easily make more this year. You want to do 10% more business, but how you going to do it? Can you believe that just by tweaking one little thing you can get 20 or 25% more business? What if you could do that without getting any new customers? You may be thinking, “but we all want new customers.” Yes, we do, but on whose terms? Goal setting from a different approach Here is a different thought, instead of thinking and planning about growth, you also should be thinking about some cutting back to grow! How do I do that? If your married, you need to make your wife happy first! Number one motto in my house is, “Happy Wife, Happy Life”. And that’s the truth. So, you need more profit.Not necessarily more revenue in. What are you not going to do is work even more, instead you should be thinking about cutting out to grow. Like cutting back or out things that are low profit margin things, so you can make room for the more profitable things to come in. Bring in more profit by creating a void in your business! I know that really doesn’t sound like it makes sense, let me say it again you’re going to cut out low margin items or low margin services to create a void, the void will fill in that gap. This is one of those laws of nature that is true. If you are married, you know this is a true fact. Your wife cleans out her closet, that creates a void in the closet, see how fast it fills up! So, what will you cut out? OK, let me take give you an example… I’m cutting back one area in my business, I want to create more revenue and higher priced tickets for more profit. I want to make more and serve my customers better. You’ve got to think about what is the best use of your time for your business. You cut back on things, so it can be more profitable in other areas or do things that will bring you in more profit. It’s a trade off… stop doing one thing to do another. Goal number one, I want to make more money. I want to increase my revenues by 10,15, 20, 25% so what does that mean? Do I need to get 25% more new customers, or do I need to figure out a way to sell 25% more to the customers that I have? Smart and cheap money is trying to figure out how to sell more to the customers I already have because they already like me, they know me, they trust me and it’s not going to cost me any money to get them because I already have them. Or maybe you need to raise your prices, increase your profit margins, do bigger jobs and smaller jobs because you can and should do it. Start with the end in mind and then break it down to a 90-day bite size pieces. Maybe you are working 6 days a week, why can’t you work 5 or even 4? Why not… you’re the boss! What if you could schedule your crews 4 days -10 hours a day then they could be off 3 days a week. Why couldn’t it be done. Remember you are the boss. What does it look like? For argument sake let’s take 25,000.00 a month worth of business. I want to do $25,000 month, with 20 days, that’s $1250 a day that I must do every day. 20 days, but what if I want to take a day off every week and only work 4 days a week? You can even do it with your crews … 4, 10-hour days. With 25,000 a month and 16 days that s only $1,562.00 each day. Whatever you want to do as far as the amount of business you can do it, just play with the numbers and make it happen. Remember it’s all in your hands, whether you grow or not. It’s just like taking that trip! You can’t get there from here unless you have an itinerary. This means it has to be written down, so you can celebrate when you reach your destination. It’s the anticipation of getting there. I’d say good luck, but luck comes to those who work the smartest, not necessarily the hardest.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper-targeted, laser-focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 8 November 2017
My guest today is Tom Hopkins it’s a real pleasure having Tom on the show we are going to chat about Goal Setting and how goal setting is can be you blueprint for success. Tom is recognized as the top sales trainer the number one sales trainer in the United States having over 5 million people attending his training events. I have read many of Tom Hopkin books and been through a number of his Audio courses. (cassette Courses) That tells you how old I am. We’re winding down this year and coming up to the end of the year and many of us have set most of our goals for this year and we can do some final adjustments, to help us reach the goals and projections we set in place last year for this year. This year is “pretty much “over. It’s that time of the year to star planning ahead for next years
Tom Hopkins says that our life is like a huge blueprint and for that blueprint to work it has to be planned out and drawn out just as if you were going to build a house. If you can’t see what the end result is how do you know what you are going to build. Imagine wanting to build yourself a nice 4-bedroom house with 3 bath rooms and a 2 car garage. You want to start building right away so you call the lumber company and tell them you want to order the wood for the house. They are going to ask you how much wood do you want. No, they are going to ask you for the blueprint so they will know exactly how much wood you will need, Without a blueprint you can’t build your dream home Without a blueprint you can’t build your dream life or your dream business. This next year is coming up fast I can’t believe this year is almost over everything goes by so fast. and before you know it will be over and if we don’t make the time to draw out that blueprint for the future we will end up exactly we didn’t plan to be, nowhere. How can we get mad at the results if we never took the time to plan the future? As business owners we should take time to sit down and just take an hour total get away from everyone and if we are married sit with our spouse and say okay, “here’s what happened this last year, here’s what we made, here’s the income, here’s our profit, here’s our goals and we reach them. Then they have to really sit down lay out a plan to get there, like a blueprint which is how you build a building. What do you want to happen with your business, your growth, your profitability, your employees, your systems? Not just think about what you want but make a list of things you don’t want just like you would when designing you home. This is your future. Make that appointment with yourself put it on the calendar and make sure you make that appointment. Commit it to paper and go over it regularly be committed to your future. Go to Tom Hopkins site! There a ton of tools to help you sell … www.tomhopkins.com Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 7 November 2017
Let’s Talk About Next Year NOW It’s All About Goal Setting. We are coming upon a very crucial time of year for most businesses. Because this year is almost over. So, we need to really start planning next year before it’s too late and we realize that the new year has already started and now we go into catch up mode. We are fortunate to have Rocky Romanella sharing his expertise with us. From a timing perspective weather, we are a large multinational company or a small service business with only a hand full of employees at the end of the day we should be entering into the goal-setting mode. I know that a lot of times we don't want to think about the future because we are so entrenched into what we're doing today that is just one more thing added to our plate that goal setting thing, we really do have to take that time and take a look at what are we going to do next year. As you're thinking about your goals and thinking about it where do we want to be as an organization in the next eighteen months? Thirty-six months and maybe five years down the road, I know sometimes it's difficult for entrepreneurs and owners to think like that because they're so involved in the day to day and the tactical part of the business. It's important for you to kind of remove yourself for some period of time a few days a kind of like do it off-site go for that walk, park yourself someplace where you do your best thinking. And start to think about where would I like my organization in the next eighteen months and so on
From an organizational perspective
Businesses of all sizes are to make sure that you're not missing a trend or missing an opportunity to position yourself or your company no matter what size it is to what's going on in the marketplace.
What are the changes going on, so you don’t miss opportunities in the marketplace as an early adopter? When they did an analysis of Wayne Gretzky the hockey player they realized he wasn’t the fastest skater, wasn’t the toughest skater. What made him the greatest skater of all time was and he simply said I go to where the puck is going, not to where the puck is been. That’s the philosophy we need to take on as we make plans to grow and set goals in the goal planning stage of our business for future growth. Rocky Romanella’s 40 years of experience in leadership and he wrote a book “Tighten The Lug Nuts, The Principles of Balanced Leadership” and explores why true leaders can add value as a trusted advisor, mentor, and visionary who uses a process approach to lead it’s the organization its people to new levels of success. Like Rocky says, “the speed of the leader determines the pace of the pack.” Get your copy of Tighten the Lug Nuts Principals of Balanced Leadership. This book could help you move toward a more balanced leadership style. Think about it! If you are more balanced so is everything else around, you! There is even a 100-day plan to get you where you want to go… To connect with Rocky Romanella Info@3sixtymanagementservices.com Phone: 678-438-1837 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockyromanella/ Order the book today. And balance your leadership style… Tighten the Lug Nuts from Amazon
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper-targeted, laser-focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Mon, 6 November 2017
Today we get to talk with Al Levi a former heating and air conditioning and electrical business owner. What do we have to do in this fourth quarter to get prepared for next year’s growth? Al Levi is the author of Running your contracting business with less stress and more success the seven-power contractor. The seven-power contractor is a leader who is in command of the seven major areas of your business that require attention as the owner leadership planning operations finance selling marketing staffing and sales coaching, of course, it's written by contractors for contractors just like this podcast. Today we're going to discuss what contractors should be doing to focus on the fourth quarter for success in next year you’ve got to start with a plan and to me, my favorite expression is that I was told which is I think if you don’t plan you get a plan put in place for you and you're not going to like the results, Those plans are many times systems and procedures. The funny thing is that. We as business owner become slaves to our contracting business when the systems and procedure should become the slaves to run the business Al says I got tired of waking up every day to the fire that I thought I put out yesterday and I was so busy in what I call firefighting I was never had fire prevention plan and so that’s the best way to think of it is as fire prevention. As you move into the fourth quarter this is your golden opportunity to finally spend a portion of your day or week or month on fire prevention and what I learned was I used to say to myself you know what. I'll get to that when I get when after the season or when I slow down and you know what happens is that you forget what is you needed to address. The hardest thing is to address it right now. Al says what I learned to do was to use the fourth quarter to come up with what I called my top ten list. The ten things that I thought that I wanted to do in the next year that was going to have the biggest impact on my business on what I was feeling at this moment of pain it really helped me focus on the ten things that I want to make the business better. When you're overrun by too much you've got to prioritize and so being forced to keep it to ten allowed me to pick those most urgent things that would be able to help me transform what need to be addressed. 10, not ten thousand, break it into the little nuggets. Here is the promise that you have to say to yourself though is that these ten things well either fix your biggest problem, challenge or give you the greatest chance to grow and be profitable. The hard part is that when you come up with your top ten and you look at it put it away. Ask yourself objectively if I work on these will they either fix my biggest problem, challenge or give me the chance to grow? Getting a written plan together Procedures -what does it take to run your company. Staff hiring Training from the how-to in the field and sales training for your staff Taking young willing people in training them being able to have a good sale system that's repeatable by people learning. How to market better that gets you right customers at the right time the right way Learning your financials so that you're running the company real world financials. If you really want to win the war you must work on these things that you have said that are going to make that big change because that battle is always going to be breaking out the goal. The goal is not to win a battle today the goal is to win the war that means again a portion of whatever you're doing is working on fire prevention, not just firefighting. The fourth quarter is a great time to kick-start this because if you wait until the beginning of the first quarter you’ll be always trying to catch up. Connect with Al Levi Al has helped many businesses create more success with less stress through the 7-Power Contractor You can a copy of his book click here to go to his website https://www.appleseedbusiness.com/ You can contact Al https://www.appleseedbusiness.com/contact/
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 3 November 2017
Today I’m going to talk about a topic that I've wanted to talk about for a long time. The topic is live by price die of by price and see I've got my DECIDE hat on for you today when I get through today I want you to decide Not to run your business by selling cheap prices to compete in the market place. Selling the cheap price proposition is not conducive to being profitable Some of the best ways to talk about that is just tell some stories and I'm going to start out with me. So you know the truth and how I screwed up many times myself and I have made many mistake sort of learn as you go. Many of you know that I have painting business and years ago we did a lot of a lot of new construction because I was young and learning I don't want to say young and dumb but I was learning. I was learning How to grow and expand my business but there were a lot of missing things that I never really knew about I always thought that if I did more volume. I would do more business so therefore we would go after new builders to grow my business volume. I have seen many business owners chase the volume. but I always thought that if I did more volume I would do more business so therefore we would go after new builders One year high I had tripled my business and when I came to the end of the year I went from three employees to nine employees my business revenue shot up like crazy and when I looked at the profit verses volume I actually made less money with more employees a lot less money. I had my eyes on the wrong things. Almost put me out of business. Like most contract work you usually are given a price that you have to work with like trying to stuff a 1o pounds of apples into a 5 pound bag. If you’re a subcontractor most of the time you are bidding on cheap work you do the work and what happens if you contractor or unhappy builder decides they don't want to pay you. OR they want to extend out your payment. I remember one time in my painting career that I had a draw in for fifty thousand dollars and went to go pick up my check and all they had for me was five thousand dollars. That was a painful Friday and made for a lousy weekend. What did I learn from those lessons. Never work to stay busy and always e be in first position to be paid. More Revenue is not necessarily more profit there's lots of times where I get people who call me and say we can keep you busy. Being busy is not my main goal being profitable is first then being busy while being profitable. Being cheap is not the answer. There will always be someone cheaper who will beat you on price so stop trying to compete on price, Decide that you're not going to go for the price proposition you're not going to die by a price. Be smart about growing your business over deliver on your services and build that value proposition so that price is not number one on their list but down the list as number 4 or five. These are the types of customer you want to have to grow your business. While you are here at the website leave us a review on I tunes and share this on social media at the button below,
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, Get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before someone beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 2 November 2017
Today have a Lindsay Phillips with smooth sailing business growth in the house. She is the captain of content marketing. Lindsay just became part of my team and I'm excited about what she's doing for me so we want to introduce her to our audience. We put together a podcast for contractors about content marketing because it seems to be that and it's not just contractors it's basically every business, we get so wrapped up in what we're doing with our businesses. We miss out on what should be done with our content marketing, and what does all that mean? Today we going to talk about some of the biggest mistakes that a lot of service business companies do when it comes to content marketing. I think a focus on social media marketing I mean content marketing just kind of give a brief description. It's a really broad term I mean it's like all those ideas that you have in your head your knowledge your experience and any way the you share that with your prospects or your clients whether it's video or blogs or podcasts, social media through e-mail that's content marketing you're delivering that information that you have that's of value to someone else because you're helping them when you're serving them. But I do find that a lot of contractors, they don't see the importance in social media. The results aren’t as measurable as a putting out door hangers or targeting a specific area. When they think social media, a social media post well how come I'm not getting call from it right away? It's all about you're being top of mind to the people that are in your area of influence. For instance, if you want to go looking for a painter or a plumber. Where do you go, Could be google, a Facebook page, and there is no content, there's no blogs, there is no pulse I mean honestly people are going to wonder if you're even a viable business. So it's those kinds of thoughts that are going through your prospects mind and that matters. Then the other thing is too is that if you're really inconsistent right like let's say you're really good for a Week or so and then you're kind of off thinking it's not important for a couple months. So it really boils down to a couple of key elements that will help you with your social media.
Content good content
Be consistent That means to do it on a regular basis.
There are 2 schools of thought around this 1.You can do it all yourself. How has that been going for you? 2.You can add a team like Lyndsey’s to do what you don’t want to and she can make your life easier. Lyndsay Phillips is a serial entrepreneur; self-professed organizational freak, client-appointed task master plus project ninja and warrior content marketer for life & business coaches, accountants and other online entrepreneurs across the globe. As the CEO & Founder of Smooth Sailing Business Growth, she leads a rock star team to support entrepreneurs who are seeking fast-paced business growth but finally have come to the realization that they can’t do it alone, do it all, and do it well. Host of Sailing to Success Podcast Connect with Lyndsey Phillips Talk with her about being part of your growth team http://www.lyndsayphillips.com/ Email captain@smoothbusinessgrowth.com Go Download Lyndsey’s Client Attraction System (free) 8 Easy to Implement Marketing Strategies to Attract More clients & Grow your business GO HERE
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Wed, 1 November 2017
We've got to talk about LinkedIn advertising today with AJ Wilcox. We discussed LinkedIn advertising and how it's great for business to business. You know a lot a lot of contractors that I know of do a lot of commercial work so this could really fall into the ballpark, of helping them create more business and better relationships. Absolutely yeah LinkedIn, it’s grown so much there are so many changes that have happened I mean it's a whole different animal than like just Last year. At the time of recording most people if not all should be able to post video themselves what you don't have yet is the ability for a company to publish video. Facebook and LinkedIn what is the difference It's a different mindset isn't it. Absolutely I think there are two things that really set LinkedIn Facebook apart. They're both very, very good platforms for different things I think there's a data difference and I think there's a mindset difference so well however from the data side. When you very first set up your LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn is asking you things about who you are professionally and this is the first things that you put in Meanwhile on Facebook, Facebook is asking for your personal things. And you've got to be really diligent to get all the way to the end where it starts asking you work things again its at the end. You're going to fill those things out on your profile so that's a difference in the data. Facebook has your personal data not necessarily your business data. LinkedIn is vice versa on the mindset difference what I tend to find is that when you're online again you're either thinking about your work or your career and so when you can give someone an offer that augments one of those two things you're going to get a really good response rate versus on Facebook most of the executives that are on Facebook they're trying to look at their pictures of grand kids or you know run the go like blossom steam player playing a game of Farmville or something so big differences in the way that people actually interact with the platform even if it's the same person. LinkedIn people when you're on the platform you're looking for information. Become a better marketer. Well I think the biggest piece of it is that because of advertising on LinkedIn is technically what we call a display so it's something that someone is not actively searching for. The mind shift that you have to make going into any kind of social ad really is not a sales aspect like most people think of when they think marketing but it has to go to more of a consultation of helpful nature and what I mean by that is if you show an ad on Linked In that just says here's our phone number call us. A we'll give you a quote. No one in the world is going to click on that because they're so happy surfing around in relative anonymity and the prospect of hopping on the phone with someone and getting a sales pitch is like whoa you're asking too much. Its like asking for marriage on the first date. So, what we do instead is we ask for some lighter commitment up front here is a free white paper download Here's a guide a cheat sheet. Join this free webinar or something just to start engaging them and when someone approaches good advertising or any kind of social advertising if they're thinking about it from that how can I be helpful standpoint I think that it changes everyone's thinking and marketing I love that how can I be helpful? AJ Wilcox Is a master at LinkedIn Advertising So if you're considering if you're going to have a serious about maybe I should be advertising on Linked In. Think about who it is that you're doing business with if that office managers if it's property owners if it's business. Connect with AJ to see how he might be able to help your organization grow through Linked in Advertising.
Twitter https://twitter.com/wilcoxaj?lang=en Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilcoxaj/
The ultimate LinkedIn check list
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Tue, 31 October 2017
Today I want to talk about when is the best time to give a discount? Starting off I’m a huge Fan of NOT giving discounts to New customers, I would rather sell the value proposition charge a little more and give them more, deliver more than they anticipate building that relationship with them so we can do business for a long time a real long time. Let's talk about psychology behind new customers and giving discounts and why I'm so opposed to giving that new customer a discount. If you're going to market your services weather by on Facebook or you do postcards or you know using A great tool Radius bomb and do postcards that way or even advertise in a local magazine. When you put in a discount to attract business. Then what you're doing is attracting the people who are looking for this kind of services but at a discounted price. And that's OK if that's what you want to be known for. If it's not then why do you want to attract people who are only looking for discounts? I know you're saying. I'm going to turn that person into a regular long-term customer. Well that is a nice thought but the majority of the time you don't, because they're always looking for a discount so they're not going to build that relationship with you that you were hoping for buy enticing them with a discount. Here's another thing that happens to you is that the person referrers likeminded people. Who do you think they are going to refer to you, people looking for that discounted proposition. It like being on a hamster wheel. They're going to refer people who expect you to discount, the whiners and complainers for the most part. Let's say not all of them are whiners and complainers but they do have a tendency to complain and whine and expect that discount. You know that's what you're attracting so really, it’s all your fault. These are the customers you are attracting. It is you fault and it’s not your fault you have set in motion these events of attracting discounted business . It’s not your fault because you really never thought about the end results and what you were really doing. I’ve been there, all you were looking at was getting more business, more revenue and hopefully more profit with the possibility of creating long tern relationships. But this is what really happens because you attract that type of customer from the very beginning on selling them the discount proposition they are not looking to build a long-term relationship. If you're going to give a ten percent discount or you're going to give a twenty-five-dollar discount that's profit out of our Business. How much business to you have to make up To replace that money you just gave away? I know the thought process. Oh I'll get it on the next time they do business with me. I’m telling you that for the most part they are not going to do business with you because they are discount shoppers. My ultimate question is this why do you want to put yourself through that trouble of discounting to get customers,when it ultimately causes pain and frustration in the pong run? You're going to do this for two or three years or longer and you're going to get fed up with the people that are complaining and whining and you're going to smarten up and you are going to start moving to a value oriented customer base a new customer base. And you will slowly purge the customers that are discount shoppers. When will I give a discount to a new customer it’s all done in the wording If I am giving a proposal for multiple services to be performed at the same time as, Pressure cleaning the drive, clean the pool deck, clean the lanai screen, clean the roof, wash the windows. I will give a bundle discount if 3 or more items are cleaned than I will create a bundle discount. I will give a discounts to my regular customers at certain times ,the key to that is when giving a discount there has to be a reason for doing the discount,
Use your imagination Build a good customer base without using discounts. Be known as the value guy giving them value for what they for which you what they paid for. While you are here at the website leave us a review on I tunes and share this on social media at the button below,
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Mon, 30 October 2017
Tom Mulliez Takes us through some of his key learnings that helped him stop and go and change direction from one way of doing business to doing a shift that just might transform his industry of offering guided out door tours. Tom Mulliez with ITreckkers.com a company that through one platform would help everyone experience a better experience to the outdoors’s. His goal is three-fold
We all face the same challenges and go towards those same successes so I want to bring Tom on today so he could share with us from a business owners perspective we could talk about the journey. Tom is an avid outdoors guy I asked how he came up with the idea of guides outdoor activities. Ten years ago and we had booked a fishing charter. In Savannah Georgia I believe and it just was a terrible experience you know on paper it seemed greatand we knew what we were looking for and when we got there the boat was not as advertised the captain seemed over it and it's just overall it was just a terrible experience he cared more about the thirteen hundred dollars he was putting in his pocket than creating a long-lasting relationship or someone that could refer him. That's why you know that that night I remember going and saying this is crazy we can't even find a great experience all the time and we know what we're looking. So how do we create something that allows for creating that great experience and that's kind of where the idea started forming. I was able to really put in time into the business model but the business plan wasn’t right and the launch and launch which was a utter failure. The first attempt. It didn't work out the way I wanted to now you know so first really quick two weeks into the launch this is all wrong so. Which was good I mean you know if you think about it I failed really quickly which was great fired all the people I was working with. my background is in customer experience. I knew nothing about how to market online and I knew nothing about how to develop and build websites and all that stuff. But I had a great idea that I could conceptualize what I wanted to look like and all that but I picked the wrong partners first mistake really dive deep into that and so then you know we launched the summer fourteen failure relaunched in April fifteenth. And really slow to get going but we got a first couple customers and first you know a little bit of repeat business, One thing led to another and here we are now across the entire state of Florida offering outdoor adventures. Actually we realized that we were not doing a good job of repeating that customer base when using third party guides so we have a mix of in-house guides and we have a mix of third party guides and in the house we bought the boats we bought the camping gear because to just be clear we do fishing camping hiking and paddle adventures across in Florida and so, we have our in-house guides who have our own gear and our return rate there was really high and then when I compare that to the return rate on the other guides in our network I realize wait a second something is not right Here. Either they're providing a poor experience from but in our survey. They're providing great experience but customers are not coming back and we realized they're not coming back because they're being stolen from under us. The guides you know who are the least business savvy individuals are only thinking about tomorrow's bread and not how to have someone else make the bread for you forever so for example someone we were driving ten thousand dollars’ worth of business to in a year is cutting us out of our own customers in order to gain that extra fifty bucks. Well lo and behold now we realize it's happening and you know we get rid of that person who was making ten thousand dollars a year off of us and now they lost it all. They didn't decide that this relationship was valuable to them enough that it would cost them fifty a trip to have a steady stream of business coming in. It's their loss but for us you know we can't sustain a business model where we're just constantly doing the entire value proposition and then be losing out on that repeat business. That’s where all the future profits are made. That's why we've took taken steps we've taken to stop that from happening. Actually,works better for everybody because there are things that we provide that that other people can't you know a guy who's on the water doing his job which is guiding. Can't return a phone call or can't answer the phone when he's with other customers, whereas our customer service we are there ready to go on weekends or weekday mornings whenever the customer calls we're going to pick up. When they aren't able to do that themselves so eventually we had some customers come back to us. By making all those mistakes and challenges Tom Mulliez at Itrekkers figured out what was going wrong and made course corrections to become a better company to become at better customer service , better at customer relations,figuring out how to change the way people interact with his company concerning the outdoors and outdoor adventures. Buy building a raving fan base in accordance with his goal that will help change the face of the outdoor guided tour industry. Tom Mulliez with ITreckkers.com a company that through one platform would help everyone experience a better experience to the outdoors’s. His goal is three-fold
Connect with Tom at He would love to answer any questions about the outdoors.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/iTrekkersLLC Twitter https://twitter.com/iTrekkers Instagram https://www.instagram.com/itrekkers/
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before some one beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 27 October 2017
If you really want to grow your business, this is one system you want to put into place. Most contractors shoot from the hip. They wake up and look at their business and say, “I don’t have enough business” and then start marketing. Let me tell you form experience, it’s much nice to have your sales funnel full. Today I want to talk about good post card marketing and what do you have to do to make them more effective for your business? I’ll go through the process then tell you at the end how to use another media to test your message to see how it works for about $50.00. You will end up with 2 types of usable campaigns from two different media. So listen to the end! I see on the Facebook groups a lot of contractors are getting ready to try some new marketing techniques to ramp up their business. They are asking questions about which is the best?… flyers, door hangers, Every Door Direct Mail post cards, Facebook ads, even pay per click on Google. I go through the posts and I see a lot of postcards, EDDM postcards that a lot of the guys are using for their business and they post them on Facebook and ask how this look does or ask for others examples of theirs so they can get some ideas. I’m going to say most of them are pretty but many of you are asking only one question. You should be asking so much more about the mailers than just if they look nice. Questions like:
Marketing is hard work. Most business owners send out flyers as post cards. Actually, they send out flyers for everything. Why? Because most don’t know that marketing is a science. So, what basically happens is the contractor gets upset when they don’t get the results they really wanted or expected. When this happens (that you don’t get results) 2 things happen in your mind:
I would think that I would rather have my post card marketing be effective than pretty. So if I was sending out a minimum (500) that’s what, less than 175 bucks. By the end of this session I’ll tell you how to Create A Marketing Piece and test it so that you know relatively fast whether it is a winner or loser. So here is what I’m going to do, offer something that I’ve never offered before. I’m going to work with just the first five people who respond to this. Send me or email me a copy of your post card, front and back to info@contractorssecretweapon.com and I’ll critique it for free and I’ll help you make it better so hopefully you will get better results, because it’s all about results. There’s a caveat… those five people that send their postcards, I’ll help you make them better but I’m also going to post them on the web site to help others see what we did. So let’s design a post card! Your Offer What’s your offer? What is going to be the bait to get them to call you? I’m going to tell you what you are not going to use as bait is a discount! Why? Because if you do you are attracting customers who are only looking for a discounted service. If this is your tactic, then you have no right complaining about people who shop on discounts or price. Why? Because you are attracting them… this makes sense because you fishing with “bargain bait”. A free report it could be emailed, mailed, or a recorded message. Why do you want to do this? Because you should want more than the small amount of people who want your services now. You want to be able to put people in your funnel, to keep them as warm prospects so that when they are ready, you are at the front of their mind. If you are going to spend money to attract customers, make sure you squeeze it for all you can get out of it, not just for the present transaction. What could the free report be?
I find reports and recorded messages to be the best bait. Think about what would motivate your customer to use your services? Make sure to state the benefits like “Enjoy a day at the beach while we make your windows sparkle.” Or “Is your home dirty? Your roof and dirty windows are an embarrassment to the community (a clean roof adds value to your home)” Or for commercial, “Pressure cleaning also removes the liability risk of slipping and falling on Algae infested sidewalks.” Benefits are a must… people buy benefits. Like on a cold winter day, your seats on this new Ford Explorer make you forget how cold things are outside quickly! If you want to run some specials do not discount, you might want to include a freemium. A freemium is a bonus or a prize for doing business, something of high perceived value. This could be a free cleaning of a drive way with roof cleaning, a $159.00 value till March 29th. It could even be a free pizza for having us come out and give you a proposal.
And another important thing on your material… only market one, yes one, service! You don’t have to worry about all your other services, they will always ask you what else you do! Your logo very small and obscure, remember people only care what you can do for them, not who you are. And you must know the area you are marketing to, you must know your target and market only to those people. Now, how to test your marketing piece… testing it very inexpensively to see if it is going to pull in new customers or clients. Run a Facebook ad to test your marketing piece and see if it pulls and if not, change the ad. If it works after your changes print up your postcard and send it out to your target market. The nice thing about Facebook is that you can pick your target, zip code, gender, income, house price, etc. Really, Facebook is the place to try your post card marketing ad before you spend a fortune on a whole postcard marketing campaign. Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, Get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before some one beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Thu, 26 October 2017
In today episode in our contractor marketing podcast We talk about What business are you really in?
Let me ask you what business are you really in? If you answered one of the above or the trade you are in. That is how you derive your income. If you can’t get customers on a regular basis through lead generation or marketing you have no business. You are really in the lead generation business how do you get leads proper marketing You want immediate results marketing. Why should you run an ad a second time if it doesn’t pull the first time. You shouldn’t run the same ad. Are you marketing into a black hole? Stop It. If you learn how to put to put together a proper pulling piece you will have instant results marketing more on that next week Do you Track your marketing how far do you go? Do you really want results or feel comfortable? What is education based marketing? Are you a last-minute marketer? Connect with Pete https://bustoutthebigguns.com/welcome His free webinar https://impactwebinar.com/lead-gen-webinar How To Mail Out 152,143 Post Cards With Out Spending One Red Cent
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, Get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before some one beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Wed, 25 October 2017
Don’t get bullied by sellers of bad and boring advertising. This episode is about GOOD contractor marketing, how to create good direct response marketing with a call to action. We have gotten past the Boring marketing We have gotten past the Bad Marketing. We go through seven steps to creating a successful ad How you appeal to that emotion. How to get your piece of marketing in the A mail pile. What makes the marketing piece captivating is it the headline or the offer it could be both. We discuss how to have your marketing be the information giver, prescreens your potential customers and gets them predisposed to buying and who you are and warms them up for the sale. We go over what you need to have great a great compelling marketing piece, so you will know what you should expect in a marketing piece so that you don’t get bullied by sellers of bad advertising! Make sure you listen to the next podcast in this series What business are you really in? Go to the link below to preview some good marketing pieces that get potential customers to call. Examples of Good Marketing http://bit.ly/2gdAlT4 Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now. Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Painting Contractors, Get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before some one beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Tue, 24 October 2017
Today's podcast is number two in series copy cats are losers. and it's about bad marketing. Its bad and bad marketing is we are going to talk about. And to make it clear on the copy cats are losers. You know I’m talking about your marketing. When you copy someone else’s, marketing without finding out how It works you’ve lost the minute you place that ad or sent that postcard or face book ad. Here is what you’ve lost profit that could have been strategically placed to make you more profit in your marketing approach to bring in more business and high paying customers. You’ve lost because I hate to say it you got lazy and depended on someone else to write your add who you thought was smarter than you because they had advertising sales on their business card. Our goal with this podcast series is to help you discover the right things to ask and to have a fairly good idea on what to put in your marketing to make it work. so, you will learn the difference between the boring, the bad and the good. So you can stop loosing you hard earned money and getting very little or no results. just remember I are a contractor too. I ve made the mistakes wasted the money then I got Dan Kennedy, Craig Garber, and a bunch of other top marketer's books and read and read and went to seminars so I could learn how to stop throwing money away and actually get people a, real customers calling me, You will be able to go to the link below and look at these and get an idea. Examples of Bad Marketing http://bit.ly/2yrthvY this first ad is going to be example number one and it's in our bad category mainly because it's probably size wise I say it's crammed full . Five and a half by eight you know one of those little flyer magazines that you get it's got a lot of I mean a lot of content in it I think that's what one of the things that makes an ad bad is that there's so much content into it that of course we always feel like we're spending a ton of money. We want to get as much stuff crammed into that space that we can so that everything is covered sometimes that is not the best way to do it. but in this particular want to sit by redoing your cabinets you know change only the fronts of your outdated cabinets reface don't replace. There's really no compelling headline there there's pictures you know little before and after pictures and is old and outdated the new now updated. There is so much stuff crammed into the ad That it is confusing. Confusing says I’m not going to look any more I’m not interested Again, there is no compelling headline something to grab your attention to make you want to continue looking at the ad. There are 3 actual examples I use today. Go the link above ad really take a look at the marketing pieces and see if you can see what I’m talking about. It all about knowing and learning what to expect from your marketing and what should be in your ads so that some sales person doesn’t sell you a line of goods. They are sales people who work for marketing companies they are not marketers. The next episode we get into good marketing and what to expect and why you position it a certain way. The link above has bad examples so you can be aware of what not to do.
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Mon, 23 October 2017
Today's podcast is number one in series copy cats are losers. and it's about boring marketing. We are going to start with the boring side of the marketing which most contractors gravitate to. Most business owners gravitate to because it’s easy. Easy does not mean correct or right. Many times, it really comes down to 2 things 1.Knowing that we need to advertise and market our business we take the easiest path. We have someone come to our business or calls us to advertise in the local high school program and we do it. Because we want to be in that part of town, so we do it and our ad gets put together. They put together something with your logo, telephone number service, (boring) and you feel satisfied because you met your obligation to market your company. Then you wait and no calls,
Sound familiar. Let's get beyond boring and move to the next step We will give you enough information to know what boring marketing is and show you how to stay away from it! We also help you discover how to move your marketing in the right direction so you can get an actual return on your marketing investment and not feel like you are throwing money into a black hole, knowing you need to market but not knowing if it is actually working. Examples of Boring Marketing http://bit.ly/2zbyWUw
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb
Painting Contractors, Get up to a 24% better response rate just for having the right memorable telephone number 1-800-PRO-PAINTER.Check out your area before some one beats you to it and it’s not available. https://www.1800propainter.com/
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Fri, 20 October 2017
Our attention span at least in the United States for reading is five seconds a goldfish attention span is eight seconds ours is really five seconds because there's so much to distract us. We have five seconds to grab their attention it doesn’t matter what media we use. It could be
All of what we do to communicate to get customer has to be doen with in the first 5 seconds. Today we have Bethanie Noanami she ended up in tech while working as a senior in high school. 25 years later, here she is ; coaching World changing business owners like you. I teach you the technology you need to scale your business and give you the time you only imagined since starting your businesses. Imagine a less complicated business life. All you must do is take action! Technology was designed to automate manual things and make our lives easier...not harder! Technology is an essential component of everyone's lives. Imagine what happens when your systems aren't in order in your business world. Bethanie helps business by educating us on what we don’t know about the technology so it becomes our friend and works for us. Bethanie can help you bridge the gap between the black hole of technology and being able to use technology effectively. Connect with Bethanie https://www.facebook.com/bethanie.nonami/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethanienonami
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Thu, 19 October 2017
Debt holds us back financially in our business and our dreams it’s time to change we can be free of debt or at least relieve some pain. They say that the average American pays 23% of his income in interest. Can you believe it? What could you do with another 23%? Today we have an opportunity to have Whitney Hansen of Whitneyhansen.com and Host of her own podcast The Money Nerds. She teaches millennials (anyone who really wants to get out of debt) how to pay off debt and gain financial independence. I give them the tools to have more fun with money, while sprinkling in a little weirdness silliness.
Whitney knows what she is talking about through experience and education she loves connecting with people who want to change the debt incumbered life and have fun doing it. Connect with Whitney Hansen Get her Free Guide 3 Best Tips for Paying Off Debt FAST https://www.facebook.com/WhitneyHansenCo/ Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now . Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb
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Wed, 18 October 2017
Sonya Karras and Sacha Kaluri joined me today so that we dive in to what seems to be a big concern for many business owners, What does it take to mentor the next generation, What are some of the key elements in bringing up the next generation and helping them become responsible business owners or even great employees? They share how they each got started on their individual journey and how years later joined forces to become a more powerful team talking to kids in schools throughout Australia. Creating their brand by helping others. Listening to them, you can tell they are passionate and driven about the next generation. Hopefully their enthusiasm is contagious and you can get some great take aways that you can implement in the lives that you come in contact with. Sonya Karras and Sacha Kaluri two of Australia’s most sought after motivational speakers. Speaking to more than 200 school groups, parents, corporate companies, government agencies and Not-For-Profit organizations each year for the past 17 years. They are the Directors of the Australian Teenage Expo, their country’s largest youth educational event. Co-creators and presenters of The Sonya and Sacha Show on national TV program and they have a radio show too. Being Social commentators with a column to the Herald Sun newspaper (One of Australia’s most widely read newspapers). Authors of a parenting book about young people “The Two Worlds Of Your Teenager”. (Being released on the 1st of August) Finally for two years running they are the official Australian Ambassadors for the United Nations New York Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. You can connect with Sonya Karras and Sacha Kaluri Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now . Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb
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Tue, 17 October 2017
Mark says are you tired of wasting money on marketing that simply doesn't work? Would you like to follow a proven marketing system built exclusively for small to mid-sized growing businesses? Mark is a small business owner also so he knows what business owners go through when we try to create a spot in the market place. He is also a Duct Tape Marketing Master Consultant and Amazon bestselling Author. The Small Business Owners guide to Local Lead Generation. He loves to help small businesses create and implement successful marketing systems to help them reach their desired goal. A marketing system that drives results to your business, because that’s what you want results. Mark believes that challenges in small business sales and marketing are not insurmountable and they can be met with a disciplined and focused approach he believes that technology and media landscape today makes it easier than ever for small businesses to compete and win against larger competitors. Ultimately, we want to have a full online marketing presence online and offline that generates a consistent steady flow of leads profitably for the business that's what we're after.
Connect with Mark http://fortunemarketinginc.com/ Get your 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success. Drop me a line to mark@fortunemarketinginc.com Also get Marks Book The Small Business Owner's Guide To How Can Your Small Business Possibly Compete Against the Big Guy? https://www.facebook.com/fortunemktginc/ Mark Z Fortune @FortuneMktgInc
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Mon, 16 October 2017
This is a teleseminar I did with Jim Palmer for one of my other businesses to put on our education page. The content was so good, I asked Jim If I could double dip him and use this teleseminar for our contractors at Contractors Secret Weapon. This episode is a little longer than normal I didn’t want to break it up. It’s that good. 100% open rate for your newsletter. That’s is a bold statement. Even for the Newsletter Guru Jim Palmer. Top tips to have a great newsletter.
Things that will alienate your customers.
Tricks to get a 100% Open rate:
If you are looking to build a great loyal following with you customer base where they will never forget who you are then you should connect with Jim and his team Today
Connect with Jim Palmer At http://www.nohasslenewsletters.com/
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Fri, 13 October 2017
In the early years is where I learned the hard lessons like many of you have. I got tired of competing on price, everyplace I go was price, “how much is this, how much is that going to cost,” and they compare me to somebody else. So basically, without realizing it I was a commodity – like McDonald’s hamburger – and nobody likes being a commodity. I learned how to market to get people to call me. I positioned myself as the expert in the market place I no longer have to compete on price, I was no longer a commodity; I knew how to put things in place where price wasn't an issue. Granted, price is always an issue to some point, but would you rather talk to your customer where price is number one or price is number four or five in the list? Number four or five, because there are other things criteria, when it gets down to price and criteria is at four or five on the list, it’s about other things first and is the value they are getting, worth that price, so it’s no longer the price only, there's so many things. As I got in to the selling game I came to the realization. If you don't know how they buy, what's going through their mind how they think, then you will sell according to the way you buy, If you sell the way you buy how much money are you leaving on the table or worst how many sales are you loosing because you don’t know how your customer thinks. There are 4 types of buyers based on time and money.
These are the customers you really want to go after. Look for the next episode sign up for iTunes or Sticher and get delivered directly to your phone when it comes out.
Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now . Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb
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Thu, 12 October 2017
Today we are learning how to farm that's a very peculiar word. Most people outside of the real estate industry never really think about farming when it comes to business. Farming is cultivating the ground properly for harvest, the harvest is the profits that sustain your business and your lifestyle. A hefty harvest is having to be profitable so let's talk about what is a farm. Most people know what a farm is in a literal sense, a farm is a geographic location where the farmer plants his crops and he will work the soil until the harvest is ready. And harvest, is where he will get his crop. As it relates to our businesses we get good paying customers and a fair profit to run our business. Your target, as we have talked about in the past you want people who have money to spend on your services. We are going to call your target market area the farm. The soil type is the areas in where your target market lives. You need to become the expert in your market place your farm area. In order to pick the best farmland that will produce the largest profits for the amount of fertilizing that you will do. Fertilizing is your marketing or your touches. That may not just be one marketing piece it may be a continuation of three or four or five it could be a drip campaign it could be numerous things in which you do to cultivate your farmland. Just like watering your crop. By picking the area with medium size homes, luxury homes apartment complexes Management Associations, hospitals, parking garages the list goes. The only wrong farm is a target market that has no money for your services. You will need a budget to plant seeds and fertilizer and to water the area to be able to pick out the weed.(people who will not be our customers.) You will always be planting take a porting of the profit you make and set aside money for seed money marketing. If you eat to seed you will not be able to plant. There are so many ways to keep and farm a community it is endless to the imagination.
Look for the next episode on Target Marketing sign up for iTunes or Stitcher and get delivered directly to your phone when it come out
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Tue, 10 October 2017
Who can get you in front of your target? What other types of businesses that have the same types of customers you have that can get you in front of your target market. Sometimes it makes sense to go after other businesses who can introduce you to your ideal client. I'm going to use my buddy Justin as an example he has a contracting business where he does foundational work for all homes. His best clients are those who own older homes. If he marketed to those people individually in these old sections of town he basically wouldn't get much of a result in his marketing, he would be spending dollars with mostly empty results. But when these homeowners find out that they need services like his. It becomes very important to them that his services will solve their problem. Their need is triggered when these home owners go to sell their home. What Justin has done is he's created a team that helps his company be the go to company that can fix their foundation problem. His team consist of
What he does is create letters of introduction, letters on how to solve the pain of that home seller who wants to sell his home but can't because he now has a house that can't be mortgaged by a bank or insured UNTILL the foundation is repaired. Let's say the realtor has a homeowner that wants to sell but has a challenge because an inspector found some foundational cracks or some structural problems that that need to be repaired because now it's important. The insurance company, the realtor, and the home inspector these three types of people make up his outer circle of his target that will, lead him directly to his ideal customer which we're going to call the bull's eye. Who can you use or who can use you to help solve problems that will get you to your target market. This strategy is awesome there is not of dollars to be spent on marketing to attract new customers as there is in the conventional form of marketing. Look for the next episode on Target Marketing sign up for iTunes or Sticher and get delivered directly to your phone when it come out Our sponsors
http://traffic.libsyn.com/contractorssecretweapon/003-196.mp3 Check out this episode!
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Tue, 10 October 2017
Here we are on number two the series target market no shotguns allowed. How your target market creates you more profit. Your target market is going to help you work smarter and not harder. You want the customer to chase you, with the proper marketing. All is possible. So how does your target make you more profitable? The size of your business will depend on the area or areas you choose to service. You are going to pick out your target area where they live, your target client who they are. You decide to work those specific areas, you're not all over town like you once were. You're doing this strategically extracting business from those areas. Any calls that come in from areas that are not in your target set them up on an off day a makeup day. You are in control of the time place on you yourself, your crews, your travel time and your down time. All your time just gets tighter, spending less time to running around you are learning how ot be in control. Ultimately you will own those targeted areas, if you keep marketing to those areas directly until it doesn't pay for you to market to those areas, you will know when to stop. You are going to have to set up some tracking system for the areas you market to, a simple excel spread sheet will do, keep it simple. I said that you will stop marketing to that area when you feel it's necessary to do so. Not quite true you will always drip those people who became your customers so they don't forget who you are. You will do this on a regular basis. I call it maintenance marketing. This way you always have people in your marketing funnel. You can move away from the transactional thinking, to long term profitability thinking. You're going to hear me say this a lot stop chasing the dollar. You want to be purposeful about everything you are doing, remember we as the business owners need to be control of our businesses so don't let our customer run your business. We are more than service providers, being in business we are problem solvers first. This is what will set you apart from being a commodity to a specialized business.
Why target?
Our next episode Can Other Businesses Help You Hit the Bullseye of your Target? Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now . Then let's make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb http://traffic.libsyn.com/contractorssecretweapon/002-195.mp3 Check out this episode!]
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Tue, 10 October 2017
Discover What a Target Market is. Your Avatar I want to welcome you to the beginning of our series of many series The title of this series is target marketing no shotguns allowed We are going to go through what is the target market or maybe what is an avatar depending on your age? Target marketing no shotguns allowed We're going to identify your target market who's your avatar. If done correctly, figuring out who your target market is you're going to stop chasing the money. Your target market is going to look for you to do business with, instead of you chasing the business. Most business owners are transactional. They leave a fortune on the table Through this series we will go through how you're leaving a fortune on the table by being transactional. (not having or defining a target) Let's start and look at who your avatar is or what they look like let's go through a list. Let's go backwards, and say who is your best customer? Who is your best customer? Are they married are they divorced are they a business owner are they a professional, a doctor, a lawyer, high level manager or they just an average Joe. Does the wife work if she does maybe were does she work? What is their income level, where do they live what type of house do they live the price of the house? Your target should be in a position that they have discretionary income, they might be looking for a service provider they might be looking for quality and not necessarily price. They defiantly are not going to do it them self. Do they have a need for everything to look nice ? I want to go after the busy professional because they work hard they play hard they have discretionary income which means. They have extra money. They budget money to get the things done around the house so they can go enjoy life. They know that by hiring someone to do the work it actually costs them less that's a mindset Yes, it is a mindset for them. It should be a mindset for you also because this type of target market are looking for professional service providers. Create the target so that when you think about them it rolls off your tongue. Write it down so everyone on your team knows the type of customer you are looking for. This is what your target can look like Bob and Mary are married they're about forty-five to sixty-five they have kids in college or kids in high school. Bob is an executive with a large corporation or owns his own business. Mary is a stay at home mom she takes care of the kids and she loves her home because she loves entertaining, she believes that a well-kept and maintained home will bring the best resale value when and if they choose to sell their home in the future. Mary takes care of the home Bob takes care of the money. Bob works hard and loves to spend time with Mary. Bob enjoys playing golf on the weekend and is not going to do any work around the house. Because he works too hard bringing the money. His weekends are important to him. He can afford to have someone else do the work that needs to be done around the house to help maintain its value for future resale purposes Bob budgets his money for your types of services. Bob and Mary are always looking towards the future they're not looking for just today they live in a nice neighborhood homes ranging from five hundred to nine hundred thousand dollars this is what your avatar should look like or sound like should just flow off and you know who they are there in your mind it's targeted it's well defined. The most important part of defining your target is now you can pick and choose who your customer should be instead of going after every one to td business with. Look for the next episode on Target Marketing sign up for iTunes or sticher and get delivered directly to your phone when it come out Our sponsors Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now . Then let's make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. Go to and fill out the form to get more information. http://contractorssecretweapon.com/money How about 100 free postcards sent out to your best prospective customers. Radius Bomb sends out hyper targeted, laser focused postcards using a map while sitting in your under ware at your kitchen table then go to http://contractorssecretweapon.com/radiusbomb Check out this episode!
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Tue, 10 October 2017
Pia Silva is an entrepreneur, speaker and writer Pia Silva is a partner and brand strategist at Worstofall Design where they build Badass Brands without the BS for 1-3 person service businesses in 1-3 day intensives. It's never been easier to capitalize on the knowledge and expertise you already have. With a few simple steps, some formulas for finding your badassery, and some stories from the trenches (believe us we've been there) you can start earning big bucks just for sharing what you know with others like the badass that you are. Badass Your Brand is for you if you:
The key is understanding how your brand and your business work in together to attract high paying clients. With a few simple formulas, some easy to follow guidelines, and a bunch of mind-blowing questions, Badass Your Brand will take you from generically selling your services like everyone else, to quickly standing out from the crowd so you can stop hunting for clients. Go connect with Pia Silva at Worstofall Design Claim your spot to this free training now WANT to start attracting high-paying clients? Take our upcoming training: pia@worstofalldesign.com 917-882-6437 https://www.facebook.com/pialovesyourbiz/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/pia-silva-86b2723 https://twitter.com/PiaLovesYourBiz Our sponsors
Check out this episode! http://traffic.libsyn.com/contractorssecretweapon/bad20ass20your20brand20pia20silver.mp3
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Thu, 28 September 2017
Smart Wealth Building with Todd Tresidder episode 193
Todd Tresidder is known as the financial mentor looking at smart investment strategy wealth building advanced retirement planning and entrepreneurs and with a distinctive human twist and if you heard him before you know he's distinctively human.
Todd's call to action is invest more build wealth retire early and live free and I like to live free part
Todd talks how to catch up on your retirement savings when you're behind and there are so many thoughts behind that.
First of all, when you design a wealth plan you know the whole premise here the starting point is you have to have a plan to achieve wealth because if you don't have a plan then you're going to produce random results.
The saying is if you don't have a plan and somebody else has a plan for you.
Right where you become part of somebody else's plan and so you know if you're a contractor or you're building the business on your own.
You're a guy that's moving your life or you need to create your plan that's going to Chief financial independence because it's not enough just to make the money see there's there's a couple components to the equation in traditional financial planning but we're also going to go into nontraditional strategies here, but in a traditional model you know you make the money in your work and then you have to translate it from earning income over to the asset side and there's a fission in efficient ways to achieve that goal and so one of the things about having your own business which is one of the asset classes you can work with you.
You must match the asset classes to the skills resources abilities and goals you bring to the equation.
So yes one of things is different from the way I teach wealth planning from how most people are how traditional financial planning teaches it in traditional financial planning right you go sit down your financial planner and what does a guy do he asked you some risk profile stuff and looks at your goals and looks at your spending level and then they, they punch this stuff in no computer and then they print out this beautiful brochure thing glossy with you know pretty pride charts and all this stuff.
And so what people do this initially bring it home stick it on a shelf and let it collect dust they never doing with it and there's a couple problems with that one is that it's not actionable there's nothing for you to do because the premise of the entire plan is that you supposed to make as much money as you can spend as little as you can and shovel that savings over to your financial planner so he can stick it in a magical asset allocation form a so you're rich some day in the future right does that sound familiar
Again it's just easy to call out because that's how it's done every day in the business and so the way I teach it's totally different OK what you want to do is you come to the equation with skills abilities resources goals.
OK you've got to take those and then there's three asset classes you can use to build your wealth in this is different from how traditional financial planning teaches it traditional is it's all about 1.Paper assets as they can sell you like stocks bonds mutual funds insurance
Because that's how they make their money they're selling you investment products of course that's what's going to go into the financial plan and so the way I teach it is there's actually three asset classes the ones that are the traditional financial planning offers are what I call paper assets right against stocks bonds mutual funds insurance that kind of stuff and so that's what in one category called paper assets the
2 . The 2nd asset is something each contractor's already building which is your business business entrepreneurship and the
3.Third asset is a real estate and income producing real estate and so one of the favorite strategies I have with entrepreneurs right on the whole which doesn't exist in most financial plans is owning the real estate that your business is housed in.
Yeah so you know pretty much any accountant worth his salt would tell you that if you plan on being in business for fifteen to twenty years in most people do if you have that kind of time frame in your business it almost always makes sense to own the property
Even if it doesn't make sense on a straight cash flow basis in the long term it almost always pans out on the property now why that's key in a financial plan for a contractor is that that can become a source of retirement income when you sell right because then you can lease the property if you can what you can do is you can have the business become the lesser you beat you're the owner the business then leases it from you and that way that's a way of translating money out of the business and into the air and into your personal equity side and then what happens is fairly low risk because as long as you stay in business you stay profitable the business pretty much guarantees that you'll be positive cash flow on the property by right.
It's an extremely low risk way for you to begin to build wealth and the other thing that's great about owning real estate that your business is housed in is it will usually almost always provide inflation adjusting income that you can never outlive and there simply aren't that many assets you can say that about.
And then another aspect that makes sense she strategy for contractors one it's not rocket science right you have to become some big investment genius to do it most contractors own their home you know at least they intuitively understand how to buy a home or buy a piece of real estate and so an intuition will take you a long way on real estate and so I'm not some big Let me be clear in some
I'm not some big real estate advocate right I'm talking about this mainly because it's a sort of a no brainer strategy for most contractors in their wealth plan and it's not commonly taught by financial advisors because again they can't sell it to you just as I can't sell to you but I'm an educator I'm not I don't sell investment products.
Todd Tresidder’ s call to action invest smart, build wealth, retire early, live free. If you want to check out Todd Tressider s website to get an example of what he is talking about Go to www.financialmentor.com (website) and see how it is set up to give potential customers what they are looking for in his services. Our sponsors
Direct download: Smart20Wealth20Building20with20Todd20Tressider2020193.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 21 September 2017
Know Who You Are Selling to with Heather Havenwood. Episode 192 Today we have Heather Havenwood CEO of Havenwood World Wide LLC. Also known as Chief sexy boss she is a serial entrepreneur. Today’s highlight we really got into talking about one of her clients a contractor. Really getting into knowing who you are selling to and being that person, they can relate to you can close more sales. Most of us guys we have tunnel vision we see things a certain way and that’s great if only our customers saw things the same way. Heather sees Contractors as artistic. Her contractor kitchen contractor. He sold and installed kitchens and wanted Heather to fix his website. Not realizing that he needed to be fixed first. Or some adjustments had to be made whit him first. Yes, his website did need to be changed but that wasn’t a priority to get him where he wanted to go. They were getting referrals so obviously doing good work so Heather said let's talk about your markets.
Who are you selling to. He said he sold kitchens like most of us guys tunnel vision we sell. But who ultimately buys. Whose kitchen is it. It’s the woman’s kitchen. Even if the guy and you get along if she doesn’t like you there is no sale.
If you are selling garage modifications. Guess what the women could care less. The guy is your customer.
Heather even goes into how do you talk to the women client. And why you talk to her and ask questions a way.
This has been a great talk for contractor to really take a hold of and really put into practice.
Heather really let it all on who to really look at who is our customer first and then build a sales platform around that customer especially women.
Let’s face it women really spend the money so we should do everything in our power to learn how to relate to them.
For those of us who are married listen and learn.
Contact Heather at http://heatherhavenwood.com/
https://www.facebook.com/heatherann
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherannd
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Direct download: Know20Who20You20Are20Selling20To20with20Heather20Havenwood.20Episode20192.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 14 September 2017
This week we have Tom Reber for the Contractor Fight Podcast. Tom is a Marine veteran and a man who leads contractor fight podcast and former owner of a successful residential painting company outside Chicago. I got out of the Marines I worked for my uncle for couple years ran his crewsa, Fast forward another couple years and up start my own business and we. Outside of the Chicago land area we're out of a little ten by ten room in my basements and within three years we're doing a little over between three and four hundred jobs per year. What happens so much in the market place is that contractors don't get credit for their abilities. And a lot of that is our own fault. We don’t give ourselves the proper credit for or own expertise We need to be our biggest fan! if I can be honest it simply comes down to I don't think we are our own biggest fan you know if you're going to be a business owner if you're going to take on, everything that comes with having your name on the check right and then. You first and foremost must make the most important sale you make every day is that one to yourself that you're the man or woman for the job. You have to own it. You must believe there is no better option in town than you and you've got to get your head right around then, if you don't have your head right around that really understand the value you're bringing people. Then you're going to have a harder time building your business that's so true . One of the challenges is many contractors don't see themselves as the business owners. You know winning this contractor fight that I'm all about is about us taking back our dignity as contractors you know for too long, we have told ourselves a B.S. story that you know life has to be a certain way for a contractor you know to too long contractors have made crap money you know I you know it does not have to be this way. We need to come to the realization as contractors we have value in the market place. And we should be paid in accordance to the value we bring to the market place. Tom Reber says we need to own our crap To contact Tom, you can https://thecontractorfight.com/ https://www.facebook.com/contractorsalesacademy/ Our sponsors
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Thu, 7 September 2017
Monetizing your Divine Genius with Chris Miles episode 190
Do you have the passion with in your business to set yourself apart? Chris Miles is known as the cash flow expert. He's a leading authority on how to quickly create cash flow. He finds an average of thirty-four thousand dollars extra per year. On what they already have and consistently teaches audience and how to do what no other financial adviser can or will and that's achieve financial prosperity while spending time doing what they love the most not in, Twenty years or thirty years from now. Monetize the divine genius and how not to be a commodity. We all have this unique fingerprint right and we can live on this planet you know we all have these unique make up of our passions skills education experiences strengths or gifts talents things like that that make up who we are and when we are truly understand like who we are what we have to offer In your business or how much time you take It's shouldn't be a time based type of transaction. how much value do you really create in a way that people want to exchange money for if they believe they're getting a better deal than the money. You're not just the painter you are you become an artist to that person or client. it's really this taking your strengths and just magnifying it more and focusing on the overall outcome. We all have this unique thing that we can bring to the table, we figure out what that is and what people really truly value and makes it so much easier make money or get set yourself apart from the competition in fact which you'll realize. There is no competition. The only thing that can really set you apart is your passion the right passion is just so essential and so critical to amplifying and really exponentially increasing your talents ,this is what attracts your customers and keeps them. I wonder if it's just a great lesson for everybody is you know whatever you're passionate about you need to bring it out in the forefront of whatever you're doing in the way you contact your clients or work with them or your potential clients just because that's going to make a difference really. Connect with Chris Miles at Chris@moneyripples.com Stop by his website http://moneyripples.com/ Get a copy of his book Beyond Rice and Beans
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Direct download: monetizing20your20divine20genius20chris20miles2020episode20190.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 31 August 2017
Seo for Growth with Phil Singleton episode 189 Phil Singleton walks the walk when it comes to explaining what Seo really is and how it works very simple so that even I could understand the whole concept. In a nut shell. Everybody uses google. Weather you have a product or a service you want to be out there. But you must be there so people can find you especially in your local area. You need to be found so Your potential customers can find you. This is what Phil does for you. It’s like this when you need someone to fix a tooth you go see a dentist you don’t try to do it yourself it could be dangerous. Same thing with SEO oyu hire an expert like Phil So He can do what he does best (you ad him to you profit making team ) and you go do what you do best.
In his book SEO for growth Phil says that the actually wrote in English for the most part so we all could understand it . It’s all about a system and taking the time to map it out and then put the plan into action.
Get Phil’s Singletons book Seo For Growth this will take you to amazon to go check it out read a chapter Go to www.seoforgrowth.com
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Direct download: phil20singleton20seo20expert2020episode20189.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 24 August 2017
Today with Brian McNeill we get really into talking all about sales Brian gives the reader in his new book the power to overcome objections, the power to isolate the close, the power to close more sales. Brian’s company since 1992 have helped companies to hire, fire, train, motivate, and develop sales people and he loves contractors, since that is where he started his sales career. And you can tell that we have a ton of fun. In Brian’s New Book Ask for the money how anyone can close more sales. Even you. Brian gives the reader the power to overcome objections, the power to isolate the close, the power to close more sales. We talk about some of the great authors that helped him with his sales, Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar and one of my absolute favorite authors Og Mandingo.in my early years Ogs books were like reading classics. Easy to read with such great relatable content to you personally and to the sales situation. In sales your integrity is at stake when you have a product to sell and you don’t do your best to make that sale . Brian calls it the sin of the desert. When you know where the water is and you won’t tell anyone else about it. Brian has some profound teaching about sales that can and will get you to another level Connect with Brian McNeill At www.Verypersonalcoaching.com Go to his page for contractors, http://verypersonalsalescoaching.com/for-contractors-only/ Phone: 919 345 4893 Email: brian@verypersonalsalescoaching.com Our sponsors
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Thu, 17 August 2017
Paul Reed says he helps influencers hack their limits to reach new heights. You can SOAR! if you are in business, you know that there are times you get stuck and can't figure a way to get to your next level. Sure, it’s happened to the best of us and it could be happening to you right now. We get to a certain point in our business and wham the same things happen all the time. It could be I can’t seem to get past a certain income level or a revenue level. I can’t seem to hire the right employees, or get better customers. It like being on a hamster wheel and you go around and around and then suddenly it stops and you fall off. You get back on and start the process all over again only to come to a level of frustration, and for each one of us it is a different level of frustration. Paul Reed and I had a great conversation about.
Some of the conclusions that Paul Reed revealed. On getting unstuck
By finding out what has us stuck we can get unstuck and move on
Paul’s offer to our listeners, that’s you Get your 15-point pdf, Questions you ask to achieve a goal Go to http://www.paulreedthis.com/contact/ Fill out the form and ask for your 15-point pdf Questions you ask to achieve a goal. Breaking it down that goal so that is set.
And for the first 5 that go to the page to get this and fill out the information he will schedule a free 30 minute call with you to set that goal in your subconscious mind to make goal come to fruition.
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Thu, 10 August 2017
We are a marketing resource to contractors in the building, painting, pressure washing, roofing, plumbing·heck almost any trade that you can mention. Our goal for this podcast is to help contractors stay on top of all the different marketing topics that
Direct download: gregg_burkhalter_the_linkedin_guy_personal_branding_186.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 3 August 2017
How to Have More Clients Than You Can Handle For Your Service Business with Todd Tresidder 185 Everyone wants more business how about you? Todd Tresidder is known as the Financial Mentor. He is an expert in smart investment strategy, wealth building, advanced retirement planning and entrepreneurism – all with a distinctly human twist
. He teaches "How to have more clients than you can handle for your service business",
What is his Strategy
Some high lights of our interview
What does that mean
Todd Tresidder’ s call to action invest smart, build wealth, Retire early, live free If you want to check out Todd Tressider s website to get an example of what he is talking about
Go to www.financialmentor.com website and see how it is set up to give potential customers what they are looking for in his services.
Our sponsors
Direct download: How20to20Have20More20Clients20Than20You20Can20Handle20For20Your20Service20Business20with20Todd20Tresidder20185.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 27 July 2017
Why is Google Local Important to Your Business with Joy Hawkins184
Joy Hawkins is a Google Local SEO expert.
Need Help Making Sense of Local SEO?
We all need help with the ever-changing updates with Google Local
Joy Hawkins is a Google My Business Top Contributor.
She regularly contributes to many online communities in the Local SEO world, including the Google My Business forum (Top Contributor), the Local Search Forum (Top Contributor), and the Local University Forum (Moderator).
She is also a contributor to the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors survey.
Joy is the owner of Sterling Sky in Canada and is the author of the Expert's Guide to Local SEO, which is an advanced training manual for people wanting a detailed look at what it takes to succeed in the Local SEO space.
As we talked about all the recent changes Google is making we talked mainly about the local and how some of those changes really can benefit your business. I was amazed that there are about 200 factors that make you rank on the local page and that reviews are a big factor. And mow how easy it is for your customers to leave you a review especially if you have an android or google maps on your I phone.
On Google my business page you can now have coupons or special s available in your feed .
Another neat thing that is available through the Google my business is you can create a mobile page somewhat like a landing page for your business while you are waiting for your website to be built. Or maybe just a landing page?
If you would like to connect with Joy and have her help you in any way You can email her at joy@sterlingsky.ca
You can even connect with her on twitter @JoyanneHawkins Need help in any of these areas
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Direct download: joy20hawkins20google20local2Ccontractor20marketing.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 20 July 2017
Let’s Get Your Phone to Ring with Dennis Daniels episode 183 Is you phone ringing enough with qualified buyers? If not let’s create a way. You can dial it up and dial it down when you have enough business no pun intended.
I’m not talking about buying leads from a company that sells 4 or 5 leads to each contractor for one lead a potential customer. the key here is the fastest to the phone usually gets the deal why because that potential customer is call now because they want results now the fastest to the call back usually wins.
What if that lead company was you. The customer is responding to an add placed for you it has your number and that call comes directly to you and no one else.
Direct one on one, what a way to start a relationship. They call you and get you.
Dennis Daniels and his partner Patrick Zanders company takes all the guess work out of this system for you. They have created an ultra-unique way to have motivated, solid customers right in the contractor’s local market essentially raise their hands and say, "please help me with my project". These are highly targeted, highly motivated exclusive customers that contact our contractors directly. What we have available is a mobile campaign that has the contractor in front of the people that are searching for a way to get their projects done with a button that says, "CALL ME"....and they do!!!! Here are a couple interesting facts:
These 2 facts alone can spell SUCCESS for a accurately positioned contractor! You see, we work directly with Google to create compelling mobile ads and make sure that this is at the very top of every search in the contractor’s area when it comes to selling customers wanting to get their project done. We uncover as many as 30,000 different search words and search phrases so that when basically anyone looks to locate the contractor that they can hire to get their project done in their local market...They will see our contractor 1st! Oh yea...and this will happen on day one, not some unknown day in the future. So, when they access the internet using their phone in the contractor’s area and say 'best contractor near me" or any variation or search term that we uncover, their location will be tagged by Google and matched up with our contractors ad. They will see it at the top of the page and they will see it first. They will see that this contractor can help them with their project and since they are on their mobile device, they can and will, click a button and call the contractor immediately....
This could be a definite game changer for your business.
No wondering where the business is coming from and when the business is going to come in It’s all up to you now you dialup the ads run and when you are too busy you slow it down. Your leads are just like a thermostat you adjust the temperature.
Dennis and Patrick’s company Best Home Services Leads are dedicated to making your phone ring with motivated buyers. You herd on the podcast how much was involved in setting up your ad and the positive and negative keywords even with all the upfront work Dennis and Patrick have been generous to tour listeners by giving a 250.00 discount off the750.00 setup fee. To help get you started. The discount last for 3 weeks until August 3rd Each call to your phone you will be charged a separate charge of 70.00.
Register for your discount, fill out the form and talk to the guys at Best Home Services Leads and see how this can be good fit for you.
I want to secure my discount and get more information Today
You can also go to www.besthomesrevicesleads.com check out the website at the top right hand corner click on Contractors Secret Weapon if you don’t you will not be able to qualify for the discount they are offering you our listener.
Direct download: Lets20get20your20phone20to20ring20dennis20danniels20pay20per20click20183.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 13 July 2017
So, what is the definition of disruptive marketing?
Direct download: Disruptive20Marketing20episode2018220contractor20marketing.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 6 July 2017
The One Call Close with Kayvon episode 181 Kayvon the one call closer for all who love sales you are going to love this weeks episode and for all who aren’t sure about the sales process you are going to walk away with a tone of take awaits. Kayvon says stop selling and start closing. His question to you is “ Are You Frustrated By Constantly Losing Potential High Paying Clients Over The Phone”?
The One Call Closer System™” is built on a unique methodology specifically designed for high-value service providers who want a steady stream of high-ticket clients – those that pay $5000-$60,000+ each for your offers. For many of us the phone weighs a thousand pounds which is an internal thing we can be our worst enemies. Scrips will be your best friend one of your best systems. Role playing will help you become the best you in the sales process. You will learn how to set your tone how to answer objections and how to become the professional. When you are just starting out you need to be recording your calls and then listening so you can hear how you said it what you said and the questions they asked. There is a huge difference between selling and closing, there are great sales people but fewer closers. Kayvon reiterates It’s the closers that make the big money. Do you really want to take your business to another level ? Then you need to contact Kayvon. Go to his website and check him out https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayvonf/
Direct download: The20One20Call20Closer20with20Kayvon20181.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:39am EDT
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Thu, 29 June 2017
More Profits by Listening to Your Customer with Terry Ogburn 180 Terry Ogburn has come up through the ranks form employee to starting a one man Air conditioning company and growing that business to one of the most profitable companies of its kind in the area.. Why? Because he recognized that runs efficiently with systems. And that was one of his strong points. Building and implementing the systems and continuing to tweak that system so that it made the company extremely profitable. As you listen to some of the techniques he used you may consider talking with Terry Ogburn to help you get organized and make more profits. One of my big takeaways was that he listened to what his customers had to say and what they needed and he delivered. Because he delivered he wowed his customers and created raving fans that would tell their friends. All this before the internet. Terry has a love for helping small business owners grow their businesses. A little about Terry Ogburn erry began his business career in 1979 when he invested his last $118.42 to start an AC Service. He had no car or truck, but he had knowledge and the ability to build relationships.
Today Terry Ogburn is the renowned owner and Lead Business Coach of Ogburns Business Solutions. His proprietary coaching system and personal devotion to the development of others has contributed to the success of hundreds of small to large business ventures. Connect with Terry today Take advantage of his free gift 1 hour face to meeting on helping you with time management With go to meeting tell Terry you listened to this podcast.
Direct download: More_Profits_by_Listening_with_Terry_Ogburn_180.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 22 June 2017
Build Your Business from the Inside Out with Joan Sotkin episode 179 Have you ever thought about what makes you tick, what may hold you back? Why you may sabotage your business? Joan Sotkin helps entrepreneurs and practitioners experience freedom from struggle personally, professionally, and financially. She is THE expert when it comes to understanding how emotions learned in early childhood can affect a person's business and financial outcomes. Thousands have benefited from her groundbreaking book Build Your Money Muscles and her online programs. Joan's latest, highly-acclaimed program is Rewire Your Brain for Prosperity & Financial Freedom.
In Joan’s Book Building you money muscles. She has 9 simple Exercises for getting rid of your money problems once and for all. Joan says Let go of the family-of-origin issues and poor financial habits that are holding you back so you can reach your full financial potential.
Here is a small sample of what you’ll find help with in Build Your Money Muscles.
Connect with Joan Sotkin
Direct download: Build20Your20Business20From20the20Inside20Out20with20Joan20Sotkin20episode20179.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 15 June 2017
The One About Business Credit Made Easy with Ty Crandall 178 Business Credit what’s it all about? Is it different than personal credit? Is it easier to get? Ty give us some eye-opening thoughts when it comes to acquiring Business Credit. You know that old saying if you need money don’t go to the bank. It is sort of humorous unless you ae the one looking to get access to the cash you need to grow your business. One of the reasons you may get turned down for a business loan for your residential banker is because your residential banker is just that a residential banker. More than likely you are trying to get a business loan based on your personal credit score. What many of us don’t realize like Ty Crandall explains is that you should have business credit that goes along with your business. By having a business credit score your business is qualifying not necessarily you personally. In this podcast interview Ty Crandall discuses for us
Some of the other great bits of information we discuss is
Ty Crandall is an internationally known speaker, author, and business credit expert. With over 16 years of financial experience Ty has become the authority in business credit business credit building, business credit scoring, and business credit repair. Ty is the author of one of the most popular books on business and personal credit building named Perfect Credit. Ty has also written one of the best-selling business credit books Business Credit Decoded.
Connect with Ty Crandall Face book : https://www.facebook.com/TYCrandall1 Twitter : https://twitteer.com/tycrandall
Direct download: The20One20About20Business20Credit2020Made20Easy20with20Ty20Crandall20178.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 8 June 2017
112 Referrals Without Asking, Her First Year with Stacey Brown Randall 177 She received 112 referrals her first year WITHOUT asking for them. What would 112 referrals mean to your business this year. Stacey Brown Randall has cracked the code. Do you love referrals but hate asking for them look no further? Stacey Brown Randall has one mission for business owners you to help you avoid business failure. No matter where you’ve been in in your journey Stacey has walked your path. Stacey has cracked the code for getting referrals. What would it be like to be able to have the option To go out and give quotes on referrals as opposed to cold leads. The numbers don’t lie Cold call leads you will close between 25 to 30 percent and if you have marketed and purchased those leads multiply that times 3 minimum for cost effect. So, 3 leads equal 1 sale. That not bad but its lots of work. Its money in your pocket. Let’s look at the referral process you have a system like the one that Stacey has put together. You don’t get 112 leads in your first year without a system, nothing successful happens by accident. With your referral system, here is what happens when you get a referral.
How much did that potential customer cost you? And in reality, you have had an increase of 55% of closing productivity. Look at it this way in its simples forms 10 purchased leads, you close 3 @ 200 per sale = 600.00 sales 10 referral leads, close 8@200 per sale = 1600.00 sales That’s a no brainer where you should spend your efforts, Connect with Stacey Brown Randall And Get Your Referral Guide
Direct download: 11220Referrals20Without20Asking2C20Her20First20Year20with20Stacey20Brown20Randall20177.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:00am EDT
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Thu, 1 June 2017
Every successful business becomes successful by creating systems, creating a good work environment and attracting the right team members. Michael Mindes is the Founder and CEO of Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG) which is a multiple award-winning publisher of hobby board games. In this capacity, I have grown TMG from a side business into a company approaching $2,000,000 in annual revenues, a team of 10 people, and all without any outside investment.
Michaels rather unique approach to running his business that have become rather successful for the growth of his business. He has take his love for creating games and turned it into a thriving successful company . His company tag line is To heal the world by providing games that strengthen family, unity, communication and love. You can check out his array of board games at you can connect with Michael Mindes LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmindes/
Direct download: All20Successful20Businesses20Have20Systems_Michael20Mindes20176.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 25 May 2017
Discovering Video to Grow Your Business with Tabitha Carro 175 Doing It on the run, no expensive equipment just your smart phone create videos for your business growth. Everything has been exploding with video, mainly because of social media, Everything has become very visual and now because of the ease of having a smart phone makes taking video and editing so much easier. Some of the basics Keep you lens clean. The little things that we don’t think about that can make our images look much better. Especially if you are a carpenter and there is dust flying or even a painter or just eve a smudged finger print Check you in app phone settings for sharper images. Keep your phone steady for taking videos you might want to get some sort of mount, There are so many scenarios you can take advantage of to create a video and promote your business. This is one area you can move ahead of the competition and own your market. Tabitha Carro, the I phone visual marketing addict Tabitha says thank to using my IPhone, I’ve been able to:
Learn to market your business from your smart phone Take the FREE course http://tabithacarro.com/ Connect with Tabitha http://tabithacarro.com/clkn/https/www.facebook.com/Smartphonemarketingschool/ http://tabithacarro.com/clkn/https/twitter.com/tabitha_carro http://tabithacarro.com/clkn/https/www.pinterest.com/tabitha_carro/ http://tabithacarro.com/clkn/https/www.instagram.com/smartphonemarketingschool/ http://tabithacarro.com/clkn/https/www.youtube.com/channel/UCz8cd17e8fjSFY-VcSeUS1Q
have you gotten your FREE 15 secret Weapon Strategies to Getting Higher Paying Customers?
Direct download: Discovering20Video20to20Grow20Your20Business20with20Tabitha20Carro20175.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 18 May 2017
Mailshakes.com Personalized Printing 1 or 1001 with Mike Schnitzius 174
MailShakes.com is a simple done-for-you follow-up system Are you fed up with all those emails? Guess what so are your customers and potential clients. Would you like an alternative to all that white noise going on in your email box, With Mike Schnitzius from www.mailshakes .com there is another alternative. Weather you have one personalized mailing or 1001 personalized mailings to go out at the same time Mike and his team can help you make those mailings simple mailings, Mike will even help you design what your needs. Why not make you customer or the people you have just met feel important. You know an email is not going to accomplish making any one feel important. Mail shakes will even help you separate you from your competition by helping you wow them. Go to www.mailshakes.com and check out the site and see how simple it is to get personalized mailing into the hands or you best customers and your best potential clients. Mail shakes has an easy to use subscriptions 3 different levels to best fit your needs . There is the One Man Show, the Mom and Pop and the Big business levels really designed to meet your need and best thing there is no contract you can change levels whenever you need to use more. So your not penalized for switching it up.
Go check out www.mailshakes.com to make your life simpler and wow your customers all at the same time. You can also contact Mike info@mailshakes.com And you can r reach Mike by phone also 610-269-4720
Direct download: 2017-03-162017-50-172020mike20mail20shakes.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 11 May 2017
How To Put a Million Dollars In Your Savings Account in 10 years with Ruth Anne King 173 Maintenance agreements are the key to generating reoccurring revenue. Its business that you don’t have to resell each time they run out of or need a new widget. They say the easiest sale is to your existing customer. Instead of creating new products and services to add to the sales list, why not create a program that will create value to your home owner and have it delivered or preformed at a scheduled time and create a reoccurring sale that get charged to their credit card monthly. If AT and T , Verizon, your insurance company, Amazon, Apple can do it why can’t you? You can so let’s get started. Ruth King is a seasoned entrepreneur who has owned and operated 7 businesses over the past 25 years. Her first business, “Business Ventures Corporation”, began operations in 1981. Through “Business Ventures Corporation” she coaches, trains, and aids businesses in achieving their most desired goals.
Profitability Master, Ruth Anne King, is a seasoned, serial entrepreneur who helps businesses get and stay profitable. Since 1981 Ruth owns or has owned eight businesses including Profitability Revolution. She grows her own businesses as well as coaches, speaks and helps other small business owners reach their goals. If you are selling your business today, you need to know that the price that others will be will to pay is will be based on the amount of maintenance agreements you have. In other words, the more reoccurring revenue you have, the more valuable your company is to a potential buyer. So if you have little or no maintenance agreements it lessens the value of your company. When people are looking to purchase a company they are not just looking at the yearly revenue, they are looking at how many loyal customers do you have that do business with you on a regular basis. Maintenance agreements are the key to generating reoccurring revenue. Its business that you don’t have to resell each time they run out of or need a new widget. Do you think that might solve some of your cash flow problems? I think it might. To make it work you have to create value for the customer to want the program. To get a hold of Ruth Anne King Her phone number: 770-729-8000 (office) www.TheUglyTruthaboutSmallBusiness.com
Direct download: Ruth20Anne20King20put20money20in20your20savings20account20173.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 4 May 2017
Playing cat and mouse with your social media presence I mean Is your social media hit and miss are you just throwing out articles so you can say you have a social a media presence? To win at the game of social media you might go back to the beginning and look at what it was created for, Building relationships, As always building relationships is the age old truth to building businesses. Social media is a new tool on the block. And when used effectively it will gravitate customers to you by building relationships. Don’t get me wrong marketing is good but if that is all you do on face book or on any social media platform then you are short cutting the maximum effect you can have with potential customers and followers. Social Media was created to be a RELATIONSHIP platform, NOT a marketing platform When you shift the way you use social media, the opportunities to turn relationships into revenue are limitless.” Kyra Reed Kyra Reed is a social media industry veteran and a community-focused brand innovator. Reed brings a unique and fresh social-first approach to brand marketing and digital strategy. Kyra’s approach to digital marketing is helping you lay a successful foundation so you can get yourr social media game on, Markyr will help set your brand up for long-term gains and success. Social media is the public face of your brand, It requires a distinct individual voice and message, with an understanding of your audience with the correct content that will get the engaged with you. Connect Kyra Reed http://www.markyr.com/ Social Media Strategy &Training for Entrepreneurs, Coaches and Small Business Owners Kyra@markyr.com or sarah@markyr.com Contact them to check out their courses that are available or you can give them a call Tel : 831-217-7900
Direct download: Kyra20Reed20laying20a20foundation20for20social20media.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:00am EDT
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Thu, 27 April 2017
Tighten The Lug Nuts Principals of Balanced Leadership with Rocky Romanella 171
Looking for some balance in your business? Throughout the years Rocky has had great leadership positions and is sharing those principals in his new book. Like Rocky says the speed of the leader determines the pace of the pack.
Rocky Romanella s 40 years of experience in leadership and he wrote a book tighten the lug nuts the principles of balanced leadership and explores why true leaders can add value as a trusted advisor mentor and visionary who uses a process approach to lead its the organization its people to new levels of success. Along the way, he has explored ways to for you to add value to not only the company but your employees. so, you become that trusted manager or owner, that mentor by building strong relationships. Rocky Romanella believes the true measure of a great leader is someone who leaves things a little better than they found them. In Tighten the Lug Nuts, you’ll follow Joe Scafone as he demonstrates the importance of small acts of kindness, the power that comes with understanding your role, and the freedom that accepting responsibility affords.
Learning how to tighten the lug nuts in your own life will help you from becoming overwhelmed with it all. His leader ship style will allow you to take the steps to become balanced and a valuable leader.
Get you copy of Tighten The Lug Nuts Principals of balanced leadership. That could help you move toward a more balanced leadership style. Think about if you are more balanced so is everything else around you There is even a 100-day plan to get you where you want to go . To connect with Rocky Romanella Info@3sixtymanagementservices.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/rockyromanella/
Order the book today And balance your leadership style
Direct download: Rocky20Romanella20tighten20the20lug20nuts20171.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 20 April 2017
Marketing Your Brand Through Story Telling with Lauren Hazel 170 Story telling is one of the best ways to get people engaged in any situation and of course the best situation is when it happens to be your potential client and they get engaged through storytelling to purchase your product or service. Lauren Hazel is a direct response copy writer who has mastered this little-known secret when she stumbled upon the process when she was tutoring students in New York City. Because of her process, she was one of the highest paid tutors in arena, commanding as much as 10 times the average tutor. Needless to say, through this interview you will come to realize that Lauren hazel is not average when it comes to helping her clients get extraordinary results by helping them build their brand through story telling. What does Lauren Hazel really do she helps small businesses use the power of story to grow their sales and attract more qualified leads and she specializes in email marketing and would love to discuss on how you guys can use email marketing to grow and create reoccurring revenue with your businesses by developing having her help you develop your brand story.
Lauren knows her craft just like you know yours. She knows how to get people to respond to words as created in a story,I know you are a great sales person once you are in or at the door.
The question is Who is selling you in the door? If you’re looking to get one up on the competition connect with Lauren .
Get your FREE business Story Check list
Connect with Lauren :
Direct download: stroytelling20lauren20Hazel20episode20170.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 13 April 2017
Keeping More of Your Profits with Travis Jennings episode 169 Today Travis is going to help us discover how as business owners to keep more of that hard-earned money. There is more than one way to keep profit from our businesses, many a business owner leaves this one out. Is this story familiar you’ve worked your this year you look at your yearend numbers and say WOW I really did great this year. Then you give all your numbers to your CPA and when you get the final figures back you get WOWED again because you’ve got to pay out a lot in taxes. There goes that profit that you worked so hard to just pass through your hands. And to think a lot of this transfer of wealth could have been prevented. Travis takes us some of the ways that you can legally use the tax code in your favor. It was written for you the business owners you just must be better informed. That is where Travis come s in
Travis benefits from spending almost a decade delivering remedies, systems, and support to improve families’ personal finance, investments, and taxes. Over time, he learned that one of the key differences between those with wealth and those without, is the type of financial education and guidance they receive. The current financial industry compensation structure pays advisors based on the percentage of the money they manage which creates an environment where advisors make more money as they manage more money. As a result, the brightest minds head upstream to manage the top 1 percent. 1-800-296-2602
Direct download: Keeping20More20of20Your20Profits20with20Travis20Jennings20episode20169.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 6 April 2017
Taking Control of Your Online Reputation with Ajay Prasad episode 168 Are a few customers damaging your reputation? What if you could get in front of it How about getting more reviews and better reviews? Could it all be possible? 92 % of potential customers check reviews before they even select a business. And the more up to date reviews are a major factor in choosing a business. So how does your business measure up. Well if it could be better in any way shape or form then this week’s guest Ajay Prasad of of www.Repugen.com will help you to understand how Repugen can be a big part in getting more and better reviews. With his system, you will be able to spot some of the challenges your clients are having with your company. And you will be able to fix those challenges. Example one of his clients is a doctor’s office and when they asked for reviews they were few and what was coming back the poor reviews were all about one person the receptionist. Without a system like this this business owner would never have known what was going on in his office in a negative way. Then you have all the positive things also. If you are a serious business owner, you will welcome the poor review with open arms so you can fix it to better serve that client but to improve and be better for all new business. Why should you care so much about any kind of reviews more business for one? The other reason clients that write raving reviews usually become your raving fans. How will RepuGen improve your online Reputation?
Get in touch with Ajay
And go check out the website
Direct download: 2017-0Taking20control20of20your20online20reputation20with20Ajay20Prasad20episode20168.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 30 March 2017
Aaron is a Seattle Realtor, real estate investor ,author, educator and speaker.He believes the performance that matters to people is not how well a realtor or business person has done for themselves but how well they have done for their clients how do you serve your clients.
To get in touch with Aaron Hendon Get a copy of his book
Direct download: 2017-02-232017-43-592020aaron20hendon2020167.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 23 March 2017
Discovering the 9 Forms of Power with Dr. Clete Bulach episode 166
Dr Clete Bulach is a leader in the education field and today we can have him on our show to talk about the 9 forms of power. The question really is how well do you get along with other and 9 ways to make that happen. We have negative forms of power and positive forms of power. How you use your power especially as the leader in your organization determines the outcome. Of your overall effectiveness as the leader and ultimately will affect your profitability. If you want a positive outcome and a profitable outcome than this week with Dr. Clete Bulach goes through 9 forms of power that can help you move forward. There is servant leadership a real key to running a business and then there is the negative side of that coin Sort of like with my my dad growing up do as I say, not as I do. This attitude does not make a great work environment. The servant leader shows that they care, have compassion, and will show their people the correct way to do things. Dr. Clete Bulach has been on over 100 radio talk shows on topics ranging from leadership, school improvement, bullying behavior, character education, use of power, school culture and climate, If you listen to this podcast and find areas you might need to change then change there is nothing wrong with being the best you, you can be. Connect with Dr. Clete on his web site Take a look at his books http://www.westga.edu/~cbulach/index.htm E-mail: cbulach@comcast.net
Direct download: Clete20Bulach20920power2020episode20166.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 16 March 2017
Creating Freedom and prosperity. Chris Miles is the “Cash Flow Expert” an authority on how to quickly create cash flow and lasting wealth for thousands of his clients. Where does all our money go? We spend most of our waking time working our business to create good income without realizing we have a leaky bucket. Chris has helped his clients fix these leaky bucks with some simple strategies that you can get a handle on when you go and download his book at money ripples .com titled “find an extra $500.00 a month without getting another job or feeding your family rice and beans. 7 secrets to free up cash today, An excellent read that will help you realize where some of those leaks are coming from and how to plug them so you can have more of the money you made. So that you can have your money work for you instead of you always working for your money. The real key to real wealth is not only making more money but holding onto the money you’ve made and them make more from that. But where do you start. Well you start with Chris, Chris consistently practices and teaches small business owners how to do what no other financial advisers can or will - achieve financial prosperity, now and in the future, spending time doing what they love most.
Go to www.moneyripples.com and get the book Find an Extra $500 a Month WITHOUT Getting Another Job or Feeding Your Family Rice & Beans! Contact info for Chris is Phone: 801-407-4634. Email: info@moneyripples.com
Direct download: Finding20and20Fixing20Money20Leaks20Chris20Miles20165.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 9 March 2017
Being Top Ranked with Scott Dennison episode 164 No matter what business you are in everyone wants their business to be top ranked on Google. Everyone wants to be recognized on the first page but more importantly they want the leads, the calls thy want to convert those leads and call to more paying business In Scotts Book being top ranked he talks about the 3 types of contractor you need to get the book just to see what type of business owner you are. In Scott Dennison’s book, he gives you the information on how to be that top ranked business. He really has a desire for you to be that business owner that dominates his market. Why not you Somebody is why not nock then out of the way and dominate your marketplace. So, what type of business person ae you? Are you the guy who works out of the back of his truck doing those odd jobs to keep money coming because you don’t have enough of your core business to make any money or the technician who is so busy doing everything himself in his business that he can grow. Or are you the business man who knows that your job is to hire the right people to execute the work so you can work on growing the business. I’m going to take a WAG and say you are either working up to the business owner and the business owner because you are listening to the pod cast and gather all kinds of information to grow your business.
Get Scotts Dennison’s book / Becoming Top Ranked https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Top-Ranked-Marketplace-Competition/dp/1934275115 Go to his web site get the information he has available for you to move in a positive direction Connect with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/top-ranked-roofer phone (727) 388-6631
Direct download: 2017-02-022020-36-5320Scott20dennison20top20ranked20164.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 2 March 2017
Upon this page, I'm heading to make clear what's heading on with mobile websites, how you can shape out it influences you and how to handle it next. Meet to "mobile-first indexing". Nowadays that more and more searches on Google happen on mobile each 12 months, they want their search index and the results you see to stand for the majority of their audience - mobile people. What does this mean for you? Google is the company that settings much of the traffic to your site is raising the bar on what's required for your website to continue getting traffic from Google. Rather of seeing your sites desktop version and demonstrating the desktop version to the people searching for your services Google will see your site as if it only existed on mobile. In their official post, Google told us, "Our search index will still be a single index of websites and programs, our algorithms will eventually mostly use the mobile version of the site's content to rank pages from that site. " How large a problem is this for you? You can find out in the next minute by starting your smartphone and yanking up your website on the phone's browser. Is definitely the print easy to read? Are typical of your sites pages visible? May you navigate from webpage to page easily? What about the pictures? May you see them? Perform they load quickly? In the event that you answered yes to my questions, awesome! In the event, you had some "no's" mixed in with your "yes" answers you might have a problem and you should proceed to another 1-minute test. Go here: https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly and enter your web site's URL in the pack towards the top. In a few seconds Google, will say if your site meets their basic conditions if you are "mobile-friendly". There are 3 various sorts of results you can expect. First would be a passing grade. For a short time now many new sites were built to be "mobile responsive" or mobile friendly. For those who have a reactive design, your site resizes for these devices that is visiting. Cell phones see a smaller version of the site but all the content and internet pages are the same. This is actually the best solution for each and every site owner. A second group of owners are those who were proactive many years ago when it was clear that more and more internet search got been conducted on cell phones and tablets. These individuals invested in a "mobile" version of their site, however that mobile version may or may well not have solved the challenge you now face. If you have a mobile site visitors are redirected to the mobile version automatically when someone visits from a phone or gadget. If the address of your mobile site is m. your domain. com or some variety of that, then you have a mobile site. This solution can work but I'll extreme caution you because technically you have two different websites. In many cases there will be different webpages and varying content on each. For now, make sure both sites signify your business well but make a plan to eliminate the separate mobile version by upgrading your website to a reactive design at your original opportunity. The third group of sites are those that simply aren't set in place up for mobile site visitors. These sites are hard to see and practically impossible to read. Really true that after asked Yahoo says "Don't worry" if you don't have a mobile site. They notify us they'll "Crawl your desktop version instead". We would, however, not wait in getting this settled. If your competition all have quality mobile sites therefore you don't, I would expect that to eventually take its toll on your business. It's also possible that minus a mobile site that your desktop site is old and in need to a major update too. Since Google ranks sites they feel are the best, its always a good idea to own one of the better roofing sites in your area. Let's say you passed the mobile test with flying colors - your results show you do have a mobile site and it represents your business well. Is there something that can be done to gain a benefit over your competition? Certainly - Google is testing many things in deciding where to rank your site, but one you might not exactly think much about is in fact one of the biggest factors. It's the speed of your site. And before we do any victory dances, a few check this quickly. Check out to the Google Velocity Tool and run quality. With some mystery and magic, Google is heading to test your mobile and desktop versions of your site and inform you how fast they load and if there are problems, where to find them. Knowing if there is a problem, you may need your web guy to help you get everything working as needed. Discovering and addressing site speed issues makes a lot of sense when almost 40 % of web users expect your site to load in 2 just a few seconds or less. We've talked about three simple tests you can run to determine if this is a problem for you or if you're free to relate with your holiday break celebrations. When you've passed these tests, congrats. You should be well positioned to get more visibility in search motors, more visits to your site and hopefully a wholesome increase in your leads and sales in the new year. Are you mobile friendly : https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly Googles speed tool https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/?_ga=1.66391214.1006696618.1475166267
Contact , Scott Dennison 727-388-6631 https://linkedin.com/in/scottadennison
Direct download: scott20dennison20google20mobile20platform.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 23 February 2017
50 Shades of Marketing Whip Your Business into Shape and Dominate Your Competition. Naresh Vissa 162
50 Shades of Marketing Whip Your Business into Shape and Dominate Your Competition. Naresh Vissa 162 In Naresh Vissa's book 50 Shades of Marketing Whip Your Business into Shape and Dominate Your Competition. Our conversation goes like this I know that digital is here to stay but I wanted to recap the first chapter in your the book you say direct marketing is the only marketing you need to know how can you expound on that because I know it covers a wide realm of things. Naresh: if you read my bio earlier and I got a lot of great experience from some of the best direct response marketing companies in the world and I name chapter one of my book 50 Shades of Marketing Whip your Business into Shape and Dominate your Competition, chapter one is called why direct marketing is only marketing you need to know because at the end of the day direct marketing is the greatest of our allies now what is direct marketing direct marketing, it simply means that a business directly connects with a consumer not necessarily their customer but a consumer, the problem with doing a lot of marketing that people are kind of brainwashed into thinking the problem with a lot of marketing is you don't really know who we are marketing to you're just kind you are marketing but you don't know if there's going to be a return on that of marketing avenue with direct marketing, you can carefully plan out campaign so that you directly reach your customer, so how you reach that consumer is up to the person running the campaign, up to the business owner. Historically marketers use channels like snail mail, coupon telemarketing, etcetera. Now today the best form of direct marketing you can still use direct snail mail but you can also do email marketing which is the most effective way to directly market and then there's also content marketing like running a website or if not even a website but a blog or podcast these channels directly can connect with consumers to give you an ultimately we are looking at finding or creating your perfect target market as opposed to using the shotgun approach. Some examples of using the shotgun approach are newspaper ads, radio, magazine, free to the public newspapers. One of the best medias to run targeted ads is Facebook. One of the other topics we talk about in this podcast is the market and financial trends where we in the scheme of things and what can we look out for and forward to. Naresh Vissa is Founder and CEO of Krish Media & Marketing – a full service online and digital media and marketing business consultancy, agency and solutions provider,utilizing strategies to streamline sales and branding processes. He has worked with leading publishers, media firms and institutions such as CNN Radio, JP Morgan Chase,EverBank, The Institute for Energy Research, Houston Rockets, Houston Astros, the American Junior Golf Association, Agora Publishing, and Stansberry Research. You can connect with Naresh Vissa http://www.linkedin.com/in/nareshvissa Subscribe to his newsletter Grab a copy of his book on Amazon #1 best seller -50 Shades of Marketing Whip Your Business into Shape and Dominate Your Competition
Direct download: 5020shades2020of20marketing_Naresh20Vissa.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 16 February 2017
How To Design Your Winning Formula with Ling Wong episode 161 Ling provides content strategy and copywriting for service professionals, with the focus on helping them create a personal brand so they can STOP being a "commodity" and stand out in the marketplace. Ling Wong is a word smith and knows how to get you in front of your best clients so you can sell yourself and your products and services. We as business owners have learned over the years to become very proficient in at selling our product and services. That once we get in front of them. We rack our brains create marketing programs and spend a ton of money getting in front of potential clients so we can have a good closing ratio, See we know how to sell once we get in front of the client we know how to sell our services but we don’t necessarily know how to sell ourselves, let me repeat that one we know how to sell our services but we don’t necessarily know how to sell ourselves to get in the door. That’s where word smiths like Ling Wong come in, with the proper words they can provide you with the winning formula combining the best of who you are what you do and your portion of delivering the goods. Now you have a complete package. Before you only had an incomplete package and didn’t really know it, but in the back of your mind you really didn’t know what was really missing, you really knew it could be a little better, know you know why. There is a piece missing how do I get in front of my potential customer so they know who I am and what I must offer in such away they call me. That’s where ling comes in Ling Wong helps coaches, consultants, service professionals, solopreneurs and small businesses apply these best practices to their specific business models and circumstances. She publishes weekly on her blog http://business-soulwork.com/blog/, and you can learn more about her professional accomplishments at https://branded.me/lingwong. Ling Wong :: Intuitive Brainiac | Creativity Mentor | Copywriting Alchemist. Author of “Copywriting Alchemy: Secrets to Turning a Powerful Personal Brand Into Content that Sells.”
To get in touch with Ling so, she could help you create a personal brand and getaway from being a commodity
Direct download: How20To20Design20Your20Winning20Formula20with20Ling20Wong20episode20161.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 9 February 2017
Who’s is in control of your money? with Damion Lupo episode 160 You should be, do you want to be is the question? But you say how can I be in control? Today I have Damion Lupo with Total Control Financial Damion’s passions are helping his clients and potential clients realize there is a more powerful way to have control over their money so they can be in control of their retirement income, His goal Disrupting Wall Street - Empowering Main Street ® In this interview, Damion Lupo talks about red arrows and green arrows and if you are familiar with the stock market you’ll get it if you have money in the stock market you understand the craziness of watching the red arrows go down and the green arrows go up.
One of his stories he relates to one of his clients in the construction industry for 35 years Damion said I was talking to one of my clients just last year and we were working on some of their money strategies and was a couple the husband had been swinging hammers and building things for 30 35 years and we were talking one day about their wealth and this is when they had their money in the stock market and so what I heard was you know every day we look at them we look at the news and we see these arrows like the newscasters jump on there and they say today the dow jones is up and it's a nice green arrow and the market went up and they go all we felt like we were richer but then we got nervous because maybe tomorrow it's going to be a downward arrow and today if it's a red arrow then we will feel poorer and what we notice is that we're on this freaking roller coaster and our emotions go every which way.
My gosh what's the market come to do know and there's going to be a narrow experience and I listened to them and I way you are not the only ones that are going through this I totally get that because I've been wiped out in the stock market several times says Damion .and I designed a system so you don’t have to stay on the roller coaster so they said we don't like it how do we get off this thing I said well there are some options it's going to take some work. I mean you guys are smart you you've been out there and you work your butts off so you don't have any problem with with engaging and learning what you need to know. I mean did this this guy was building beautiful houses and I said if you want something different I can teach you how to take control and get off that roller coaster and start driving your financial future and they said get us off the roller coaster Now they don't care where the arrow goes because they are in control of controlling their future and their money .If you control your money you have a lot more options to control your future what your life looks like
The Quick & Dirty Guide to the Q.R.P. Have a rollover 401(k) and not sure what to do… this is your answer Your step by step guide to taking total checkbook control of your 401(k) rollover funds. Do something productive and stop getting screwed by Wall Street and the Big Money Managers. Tired of Wall Street's games? Our Self Directed 401k eQRP is the most powerful retirement plan available putting IRA’s to shame. With our eQRP you are your own custodian meaning no annual management fees, ability to purchase and hold REAL GOLD and Real Estate. You can also defer and deduct up to $120,000 per year off of your taxes!
Connect with Damion Lupo at And get your Free Down load of book
Direct download: get20control20of20your20moneyDamion20Lupo20160.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 2 February 2017
Construction-Ed a new platform for contractor learning.159 Now the biggest challenge is going to have is the coming and going is to set time aside time to diligently study and go through that what you purchased so that you will get the most out of it. Look at all these awesome teaching programs that are available and you think to yourself theses are some awesome classes but I’ll come back after I’ve straitened out some of the business challenges Incorrect thinking Just want to stop by and take a look and see how this can help you with your business to get the education from the pros that have already made all the mistakes and are willing to share that information with you so you don't have to make the same mistakes. And you can email Jeremiah jrizzo@construct-ed.com and you can put in the promo code secret weapon to get your first class at 50% off
Direct download: Construct-Ed20with20Jeramiah20Rizzo20episode20158.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 26 January 2017
SIT DOWN, SHUT-UP, AND COLOR! Leading the “MY” generation. D. Kevin Berchelmann 158 Entitlement thinking…don’t you just love it?? More and more, many employees feel that the rewards of business, employment, and hard, successful work are a ‘right,’ not the reward and recognition for performance, or results of a business need. What’s up with that?? Kevin calls it the “MY” generation. His session on leading through these entitlement ideas is entertaining, and sure to evoke responses from all attending. After all, we all ‘know someone who…’ Now, don’t be misled into thinking that this “MY” generation is “generational.” It isn’t. It crosses all ages and demographics; all industries and backgrounds. It is certainly not a play on words representing Generation X, Y, Z, Q, or any other such ridiculously-labeled group of people. It’s people just like you. And me. Us. So, it’s growing like a weed, and we can’t blame it on a single age-group (darn it!). What, then, are we to do?
It’s not just in the construction arena it’s in every arena and we are seeing more of it as more eople come onto the workforce its including every generation. The entitlement feeling is like morphine across all generations now so it’s something we al have to eal with. But what causes or caused the problem with this type of thinking and behavior? It hasn’t appeared all of a sudden or on its own so what are some of the possible caused of this thought process that seems to be running rampant in our work force It’s not like we are victims we woke up one day and it was just there. Think about this you have a policy at work could be something as simple as being late It’s your policy that tardy ness is not tolerated, the offence along with the consequences are in the hand book but when someone comes in a little late the apologize the first couple of times nothing is done and now they feel entitled why there was never any consequence. So let me ask you this who’s fault is it for the final attitude and behavior. The boss is. I know this seems small and of no consequence, it does lead to a much larger epidemic of poor attitudes and behaviors. Now let’s get to the nitty gritty. Whose responsibility is it to repair the damage that has been done? Whose responsibility is it to retrain employees to change this undelaying attitude? It’s always easier to blame someone else. But that’s not the correct answer. Kevin Berchelmann has some great thoughts about the work environment and how to help create strong leaders. Does your company desire to have Kevin help your leaders lead and have your organization succed?
You can finds out more and connect with Kevin at http://triangleperformance.com/ Email him info@triangleperformance.com Or call 281.257.4442
Direct download: SIT20DOWN2C20SHUT-UP2C20AND20COLOR2120Leading20the20201cMY201d20generation.2020D.20Kevin20Berchelmann201582028229.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 19 January 2017
Run Your Contracting Business with Less Stress More Success with Al Levi 157
I'm excited to talk to Al Levi today because he is a former heating air conditioning and electrical guy was part of his family business for 25 years he created the systems in his family business that allowed him to sell his shares of the family business at the young age of 50 to pursue a consulting career to other business owners create less stress and more success by helping them implement the systems to manuals that helped the family business become more streamlined. Out of that process, he wrote a book called Run your Contracting Business with Less Stress and More Success the 7- Power Contractor. A 7-Power Contractor is a leader who is in command of the seven major areas that require their attention as an owner—leadership and planning, operations, finance, selling, marketing, staffing, and sales coaching. Written by contractors for contractors just like this podcast.
Al talks about the struggles many of us have and actually create for ourselves and how to overcome them.
Is today’s generation in the workforce any different than past generations entering the workforce and how to have your systems work in step with your employees?
We talk about how the implemented systems and manuals on policies and procedures once in place actually paid for themselves I the following areas
The implementing of systems and policies and procedures, in reality, helps you have your employees buy into the company process. Why
Al has helped many businesses create more success with less stress through the 7- power contractor You can a copy of his book click here to go to his website https://www.appleseedbusiness.com/
You can contact Al https://www.appleseedbusiness.com/contact/ 480-205-5164 ● fax: 212-202-6275 ● al@appleseedbusiness.com
Imagine .. Vacationing without worrying about your business? Really
You will join me, Al Levi, on June 8-9, 2017, in Phoenix, Arizona for my BYOM Workshop where you will…
Be one of just 10 non-competing plumbing/heating/cooling/electrical companies to learn directly from me you must have a minimum of 1mm in revenue per year to be considered. Spend two days customizing your operating manuals so you can immediately roll them out to your employees Improve your business in a life-changing way with a potential return on investment that no new truck or piece of equipment could ever equal
I invite YOU to be one of those 10 companies.
All you have to do is click here to register for your complimentary 30-minute phone call with me to verify if you will benefit from BYOM. Click here to register for your free 30-minute phone call with Al
Disclaimer: By reading this, you agree to all of the following: You understand this to be an expression of opinions and not professional advice.
Dave Negri makes no guarantee or other promise as to any results that may be obtained from using the information provided. You are solely responsible for the use of any content and hold Contractors Secret Weapon all members and affiliates harmless in any event or claim.
If you purchase anything through a link in this email, you should assume that we have an affiliate relationship with the company providing the product or service that you purchase, and that we will be paid in some way. We recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing anything.
Direct download: Run20Your20Contracting20Business20with20Less20Stress20More20Success20Al20Levi20157.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 6:30am EDT
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Thu, 12 January 2017
Productivity minus the busyness STOPS the madness Anmol Singh 156
Direct download: Productivity20Minus20Busyness20STOPS20the20Madness20Anmol20Singh20156.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 7:16am EDT
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Thu, 5 January 2017
Relationship Marketing on LEGAL Steroids Joshua Lattimer 155
It’s really awesome to have Joshua Lattimer back on the program Today we really go into relationship marketing and Josh has really taken This concept to a whole new level and putting a new twist on the whole concept by renaming it the Gratitude effect. Why is important to make you customer to feel really important appreciated and loved. It cost so much less to keep a customer than it to go out and get a new one. Yet we continually go after new business because most business owners have leaky buckets. And the only reason they have leaky buckets is their customers are leaving because they are not treated special . Heck most business owners never give that customer they just did business another thought. Regardless if you Send Jim the importance of making your customers feel appreciated love and having a real relationship with them rather than only focusing on a wham bam thank you ma'am transaction right and leaving them high and dry look little businesses don't follow up sometimes at all or not enough with their customers. This is your company's biggest asset this is the thing this isn't like the gold mine in your pocket for whatever reason we completely neglect it ,not on purpose but it can kick and devastate your business and it's one of the big reasons businesses get stuck at the same revenue level for 10 or 15 years because they're getting as many new customers in as they're losing on the backend and they're just spinning their wheels because they have no retention strategy in their business at all that's really unfortunate but send Jim tries to do is solve that problem yeah it's going to cost a fortune to get new clients in the business and in fact it actually cost 8 or 10 times more to get a new customer than it does to keep a current customer. Everything is about math so do the numbers does it make good business sense to lose customers on the back end while your dumping money into the top end of the funnel to replace the ones your loosing or would it be wiser to take a good portion of your marketing and focus on keeping your customers the ones that support your business and do some new lead capture for new business for actual growth.
To learn more about Send Jim and how you can plug your leaky bucket and retain your profits and grow Click here to get your 14 day trial Sign up for send Jim right here and send me the paid receipt and I’ll send you a bonus of 15 sequences So you can get your account up and running
Direct download: Relationship20Marketing20on20LEGAL20Steroids20Joshua20Latimer20155.mp3
Category:pod cast -- posted at: 7:07am EDT
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