Contractor Marketing That Works

The Past Doesn't Last if Recast Fast

2012-02-09T11:39:00.003-06:00

Can an Additional 1,751 Web Visitors Be A Bad Thing?

Work-wise, this has been the hardest 3 months of my semi-adult life. More in a moment, but let me back up a sec.

There was a point in 2007 when everybody was gainfully employed, homeowners were current on mortgage payments, blue birds were singing, and the Kardashians weren't famous. It was a lovely, if for a brief moment.

Then in 2008, something that seemed like at least one chapter ofRevelation came to wipe out retirement savings, home values, jobs, lending, and - most damaging of all - confidence.

Those of us stricken with optimism tried to keep a game face. "Money is replaceable," we thought. "Things are re-buildable," we urged. "There is opportunity," we asserted. Yet we knew:

The Loss of confidence and morale crush the human will.

Yet those of us called entrepreneurs, business leaders, or managers for whom other faces scanned for every wrinkle of concern, a bit lip was preferable to a shed tear. This is our job, and the one others scarcely recognize. Sadder, you can share it with virtually no one, excepting therapists and eternally patient spouses. I understand your pain.

After wearing this face that felt eerily reminiscent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, opportunity did emerge. Morale didn't crumble. Optimism found a way to self-fulfill. (Link tells more than you want to know.)

During this, I became even more ignorant, (as if that was even possible!) In truth, what I didn't pay attention to faded; what I did...emerged stronger.

Then something funny happened.

Click for A) A fairly common glimpse into my ignorance, B) The 'hardest 3 months ever' and C) The emerging most powerful marketing opportunity for contractors anywhere.

Weather or Not

2012-01-24T11:32:00.006-06:00

Woke up to hurricane warnings! Stuff blowing sideways past your window makes Mondays less thrilling. This weather happens in the Southeast since the Gulf of Mexico is apparently El Niño's favorite place to do a huge belly buster. (Scientific fact. Ask anybody.)

Every area has to deal with their distinctive weather "signature". And we regularly deal with contractors who feel "the weather" is why they're busy, not busy, on fire, or chipping their trucks out of the parking lot instead of selling. (A solution is coming, if you can believe it.)

But first, here's how the rest of the Nation views your region. If you live in these regions and disagree, the rest of us would like to say, "Yeah, right. Whatever you say."

How Others View Weather in Your Area

The North and Northeast is embalmed under 3 feet of ice for like 9 months of the year. All winter, tanker-loads of salt are dumped over what is called "Goiter's Triangle" that stretches from Detroit to Bangor to Cleveland. To help indoors, millions of Amish Heaters are sent (second one shipped FREE!) to thaw inhabitants. Several regain consciousness and revote in Chicago elections.

The Midwest - in organized midwesterly fashion - has a tornado scheduled every 90 minutes. That's why the show, Storm Chasers (previously called "9 Sorta Bored Idiots in a Van Full of Cameras") drives around Nebraska hoping to outrun 270 mph winds. When the Tornado Generator Vortex Thruster machine is being serviced, a flood is called in to relieve boredom.

In the Northwest, it has been raining since the Paleozoic era. In Seattle, a town where Noah wouldn't have made Eagle Scout, it's not unusual to see a giant squid in a coffee shop, just lying there... lost, but caffeinated. Those raised in the Northwest have never seen their shadow outdoors, thus believe "The Sun" is a rumor. Mildew is considered a crop.

In the Southwest, they pretend to have two seasons: 1) hot and 2) dry, but they occur simultaneously. (Then why the appeal of Taco chips and hot sauce?) The west half of Texas - which is larger than all of Europe - also boasts of "Tumbleweed Season," though it was determined these are actually remnants of the border fence.

As non-conformists, California refuses to have weather. They instead have "trends" which include seismic gyrations, mudslides, geysers, and locust swarms. Oddly, locals contend that it's "Surf's Up" all year at 72 degrees with perfect humidity, yet the Television News shows houses sliding down hills onto Interstate 5, where no one really notices, but honks and refuses to let them "cut in line". California behaves like an island, which could be prophetic.

So, the weather never cooperates. The season never "behaves". You can always find a reason that your business doesn't thrive because of conditions "out of your control." But there are conditions within your control...

How to Make Smart Marketing Beat the Stupid Weather (Plus a 7 Sentence Marketing Plan that WORKS)

The Big Question. The Really Big Question.

2012-01-12T16:53:00.002-06:00

Thursday morning, January 3, 9:15am. My college friend from New Orleans calls to rub my nose in my inability to get tickets for the National Championship game between Alabama and LSU. It would be easier to arrange a Celebrity Smackdown between Obama and Rosie O’Donnell. (I’d pull for both of them to lose.)

“Everybody’s going to be here, but you’re not,” was his comforting encouragement. “I guess we’ll have to trash your character in your absence,” That’s what guy friends do. We have so much dirt on each other that a few more clumps never hurt.

Ladies would plan a luncheon for you if you missed. Feelings would be expressed.

Thursday night, January 3, 6:10 pm,. With the game 3 days away, I drove home resigning to watch the game on TV. My wife had moved past any chance of going too. We “justified” the consolation prize with comments like “The bathrooms are cleaner! And hey, no parking problems!” It would be fine.

Yet my wife greets me at the door with, “You won’t believe what happened. We have some plans to discuss.”

Usually that type comment would portend an ominous issue, like a tree had visited my living room, or my dog was being featured on “When Good Pets Go Bad”. But her tone was more upbeat, and I must say a little breathless.

“Four tickets came available today because a family in Baltimore can’t make the trip. I called them. She said a travel agency in Alabama has the tickets. I called them.” She was almost panting.

“I got the price, which is half of current rate. He’s holding them until tomorrow morning for us to decide. If we don’t call by 9, he sells them on the open market.” I felt she would slump to the floor like the messenger dude in Hubbard’s “Message to Garcia”.

Soon as I revived her, questions emerged:

Would I need to sell my house to pay for the tickets? Do we get all 4 even though only 3 of us can go? Where would the band set up for the party my high-school daughter was plotting in our absence? These questions haunt parents on a number of levels.

Then I remembered the most important question to ask when faced with any difficult decision: “Would the cops find out?” Wait, no, THAT’S not it. But it’s a question that can be used in sales, marketing, business planning, hiring, marriage, or whether to over-spend on a 3 hour sports spectacle, and that question is here…

How My Son Increased His Band's FB Fans by 570% (Without Spending a Dime)

2011-12-29T14:36:00.003-06:00

It's no secret I want to kill Social Media. I consider 72.3% of it a cocktail party with no end and even less of a point. Yet the remaining percentage has some viability for business. The more we experiment, the more we "throw out" the useless, and the more I see a twinkle of marketing light at the end of the tunnel.

No need to send the "But you're a caveman" argument my way; service businesses rank barely above funeral homes and municipal services in number of "likes". True. So this ain't about fixing me. It's about finding a fix for the losers who are selling YOU this current crock that Social Media is the "answer" to your marketing ills. Hardly. It is the answer to their marketing ills.

Last month's Coaching Call with Sheila Lathan (www.snappysocialmedia.com) showed a path that has worked for us and clients. In another call, we found intelligence and strategy in the approach from www.marketinghardware.com. Those traits are mystifyingly lacking in most other presentations.

Yet, as the formula continues to change, and we continue to throw money and brain cells at the answer, I mentioned we were also experimenting with:

Facebook ads. Yeah, I know Social Media is all about peace, love, and understanding but somebody mentioned "ad revenue" in a meeting and Zuckerberg clearly liked it. Though I would personally like to torture him for lowering the collective IQ of those addicted to FB, our ad experiment increased "likes" from 104 to 822 in 21 days. A 790% increase.

Calm yourself. An upcoming Coaching Call and later SMI will cover this technique. For now, focus on this no-cost gem...
Bribery. Oh whatever. There are groups out there who you can pay to generate "likes". Sure, it sounds like digital prostitution to me too, so I didn't go that route. Then my son discovered a way (actually "re" discovered an old principle forged anew) to earn likes and shares, deceptively simple, and astoundingly effective.

He was doing it the "old" way that everybody tells you to do - very slowly, gaining single digit additions after each effort. He then made one change and fans went up 570%. Click to see how (plus get free music, really) ...

"What's So Valuable About THAT?"

2011-12-27T12:45:00.005-06:00

Mood, Money, and Meaning during Christmas

To me, trampling fellow shoppers to save another $10 on a flat screen TV is not in the true spirit of Christmas. Even if the price tag has a smiley face, and the significantly over-nourished counter attendant is wearing a Santa hat.

This one scene contains the elements that Christmas forces us to ponder: mood, money and meaning. Yes, I just used the word "Christmas" instead of the very PC "Holidays". The day signifies Christ's birth, so the celebrant's name is used for the day. Same reason we call it George Washington's Birthday on - oddly enough - his birthday (although advertisers have used it to mean, "Get a great buy on bed linens!").

Since I'm not adept at rewriting history, "Christmas" it is. So let's change the mood. This time of year calls to our very core to "be of good cheer". The embittered feel that this is fakey or insincere if you don't really "feel" it. That's great if the Grinch is your hero, but most neurologists would disagree.

The scientific community (many of whom are embarrassed to be in this editorial) contend that if you do smile, if you do utter affirmatively, if youdo flood your mind with pleasant thoughts, the "pattern interrupt" redirects endorphins causing at least a tinge of euphoria. If those feelings are supported (by others, music, doing a pleasant chore) then the tinge becomes a mood. Thus giving the only credence you'll ever hear to the phrase 'Fake it til you make it'.

The corollary is also true, since bleakness fed is bleakness strengthened. Reminds me of Arthur Miller's fine comment: "Some people brighten a room when they enter it; others when they leave." So, without a hint of fakery or insincerity, I encourage and wish for you to be of good cheer. Beats the alternative.

Now for the real mood changer: money. Today this comprises 3 groups: the "haves", the "have nots", and the "haven't quite paid for the haves yet". The last two groups ain't all that happy about their money situation. Been there.

However, years ago in my earlier quest to absorb every mental stimuli known as "self help" I remember that Robert Allen and Dr. Joe Vitale both alluded to a startling, very different way to view money that changed my perspective forever.

"OU812?"

2011-12-01T14:53:00.004-06:00

Some of you will recognize the above as the 8^th album by Van Halen released 1988. I offer my own version of 8's and bulges below, starting with everyone's favorite food-induced coma day...

8 Things of Thanks

I'm thankful that after eating lethal quantities of oyster dressing that my belly button didn't actually shoot off of my personhood and hit someone. That would be hard to explain, but would reduce the number of family members I'd have to talk to next year.
I'm thankful that I took an extra day off before Thanksgiving, though I couldn't quite figure out what to do with that time slot known as "nothing". I'm a failure at relaxing.
I'm thankful that it never, ever, ever crossed my mind to "occupy" a city in protest of greed. I do oppose greed, as most do. Yet others help disempower it through charity, works, example andnot focusing on it. Second point here and I'll shut up: If greed is amassing unearned bounty, how is demanding equally unearned bounty supposed to offset it? Sorry. Maybe it's the Oyster Dressing talking.
I'm thankful that my daughter is involved in looking at college choices. And getting a scholarship. At her age, I have a fleeting recollection that when the first college accepted me, I was on the way there before they recalculated admission standards.

And if you can stand anymore, here are 4 more,

which includes at least one rather embarrassing admission. Hide your children's eyes...

Tree Dude, Part 2

2011-11-17T09:30:00.003-06:00

I had no idea that Part 1 would trigger such response. In fact, there wasn't going to be a Part 2 until my inbox filled with responses, questions, comments from curious readers.

Let me start with this, and if any reporters take this out of context, may sandspurs invade your undergarments. I do not hold any hostility nor consider the arborist trade much different than much of the service world. (And the respondents in that trade were positively, the exception to any characterization, as evidenced by reading SMI!)

My experiences are the "other side of the trucks" to help all trades see through another's eyes. The difference here: I'm on your side too.

I had a pretty humorous (and startlingly similar) story from reader Tom Fore of Roanoke, VA who shared an exact quote from his Tree Dude after excessive tardiness. See 'Theater of the Absurd' in this issue. You can insert "carpet cleaner", "sheetrocker", "roofer" and virtually any trade you want... that phrase is being openly acted out for frustrated homeowners across America. Honesty points go to Johnny who actually said it.

Interestingly, one of the most thoughtful responses came from one Patrick George of Heartwood Tree Service in NC. After reading his email, I wish he'd make a 450 mile house call. Patrick is definitely NOT 'Tree Dude' but a certified arborist, yet admitted...

"Tree dude fits about 85% of the guys in my industry." That is important for any tradesperson to know because a reasonably-held standard rockets you past nearly 90% of the crowd. Good observation, yet Patrick had a question that was echoed by several others:

"Why did you pick this guy?"

People felt I surely was "connected" enough to get good referrals, or that I could choose someone with an IQ higher than that of wilted lettuce. Yet here's the truth of why I picked him, plus a sales number you have NEVER seen before...

Tree Dude

2011-11-03T11:04:00.005-05:00

We scheduled the tree dude to come out to look at - guess what - trees. That's what tree dudes do. He arrived at the agreed upon 9 O'clock, but exactly 4 days past the one we originally scheduled. His excuse, and I quote: "I was busy." Shockingly, I wasn't shocked.

Please make note of the "expectation" level in your trade, and how to summarily trounce it. In tree dude's case, "showing up" equates to a Nordstrum level of service.

And yes, in case you wondered, he was in a decade-old white GMC work truck, with the faded logo of the former company who had it. Transmission fluid leaked at a transfusion-like rate on our brick pavers. Whatever. It'll save me on Round-Up for my between-brick weeds, but what if I actually didn't want Trans-Medic flowing down my driveway?

He points at the 80 year-old pine tree leaning precariously over my house, which prompted the call. "That's a big 'un." I had noticed that too. He rubs his stubbled chin, paces around the base of the tree, looks at its neighboring trees, then re-surveys the driveway. "How we gonna get that outa here?" he says to no one in particular. He paces back toward the truck, leans against it, looking upward and mutters, "I can't take that down unless you get approval from the ARB."

Oh my. The dreaded ARB.

In our historical/hysterical neighborhood, the ARB is supposed to be the "Architectural Review Board" but was renamed "Always Ranting Badly" since they are content to debate the finish on the screw heads of your fence until the original need for the fence has dissipated. Again, note the expectation. (What is your perceived reputation? True or not, perception is a customer's reality.)

Be the customer on this job with me. Does this guy get the job? Well, the ARB didn't lose the sale. Nor did Tree Dude's "other" guesses cause it. It was because of the following sales killer that may happen in your business, daily, without your knowledge.

The Kid Who Coulda Been a Contenda

2011-10-20T08:59:00.006-05:00

The late 20's kid seems sharp enough, but he hangs with some losers. One of whom is himself.

I met him while he was an intern at the local Porsche dealership, in their very rigorous tech-training program. Given the car's country of origin, Germans and technical obsession are like politicians and money-favors: chemically bonded.

He was eager, clean-cut, clearly gifted for the craft of byzantine engine management systems that balance the immense power and pragmatism of the Porsche brand. This is a near-heart-surgical specialty among mere physicians. To a car guy, he "spoke" the language; to a typical customer, he could tone it down for comprehension.

In other words, an ideal Tech. Except for "the sickness."

After twenty six weeks of training, that are mind-numbing enough for a near 60% drop-out rate (some of their own volition, most due to Porsche's unwavering perfectionism) this kid got his head turned in two ways at once.

His inner voice repeated what had oft been said to him, "You're really good at this. You're going to make it." That was his confidence and drive talking. Yet a dysfunctional ego added a comment he'd never heard, "... and you should now be rewarded accordingly."

Not so fast.

He "forgot" the investment and sacrifice made for him. He disregarded the hierarchy of reward that follows proven work, clearly laid out from the beginning. He was blind to other players on the team funneling work his way, and handling myriad details thereafter.

Though his hands were adept and his head ever-increasing in technical knowledge, he began questioning management (a field about which he had zero training). "Why do you charge this?" "How much did that customer pay for this service?" "Why are these parts marked up so much?"

His next step sealed his fate, just as it has for countless thousands before and since...

"Did You Say Something?"

2011-10-07T16:25:00.006-05:00

About two years ago, a hearing test revealed my hearing was greatly diminished in the higher-pitched range, such as a young girl's voice. "Ahh, that explains it," I thought, since I could barely hear my high school daughter speak.

So I bought a hearing aid that can eavesdrop on bats in a distant cave, only to find out my daughter had quit talking to anyone fitting the definition of "her parents". The return policy on used hearing aids would not be considered lenient.

Here's a typical afternoon conversation. "How was school?" I ask.

"Good", she says.

"Any tests?"

"Nope," this was clearly one question too many, so I decide to go out with a bang.

"Did you know there was a rabid platypus going through your purse?"

"Nope."

And the one-word (or less) answers come, until I consider mild electrical shock as a conversation starter, and finally stop, exhausted.

Contrarily, she has phone service that includes 'unlimited texting', and I'm pretty sure she's on the "Unlimited Text Watch List" for nearly reaching that number. She texts constantly. While she's doing her nails, she can actually text with her teeth. It's remarkable. And disturbing.

As a marketer, I see no slow-down in clutter, alternate communication and mild disdain for "advertisers" attempting to shoe horn messages where they don't belong. DVR allows us to skip those awful advertisers (who pay for the programming by the way) and the chances of luring a frenetic facebooker in with a paid 'traditional' ad are as likely as a congressman clipping coupons.

This behavior has affected all age groups. Your ability to effectively reach them has been grossly affected:

The 'average' texter sends or receives 180 per day. Average online user visits 40 websites a day. Checks email 45 times a day. (Not a typo.) This isn't just "kids" either, since only 29% are 25-34; the fastest growth is in the 55+ age group, who are also the largest of all age groups.

And they're all buyers. All potential customers of yours. The drop in lead generation is not your imagination.

The market has changed. It has moved. It buys differently. It communicates differently. And the 'old way' is not coming back. You're either on the front edge making money or on the back edge playing catch up. Here are 4 Steps to Push You to the Front...

Unique Event takes Contractors to the “Next Level”

2011-09-28T10:20:00.004-05:00

A stalling economy is not the only time contractors ask, “How can I get to the next level in my business?” But in a time of economic uncertainly, that question needs direct answers. That’s what the Next Level Contractor event provides for the dozens of contractors who’ve already signed up – and they’ve recently made room for others (up to 550) to join this online contractor conference too.

Hudson Ink, a creative marketing firm for contractors, and The ACHR News, one of the contracting industry’s premier trade publications, have joined forces to offer The Next Level Contractor event, a series of four weekly online training courses, beginning October 6, on the primary methods for generating income:

Course #1 High Performance Marketing in the New Economy: Get more leads online and offline using blistering strategies formed in the ‘new economy’.
Course #2 Your Next Million Dollars in Maintenance Agreements: See how hundreds of contractors are making millions with no more effort than a simple service call.
Course #3 World Class Customer Service: Leap frog “average” contractors and become “World Class” with simple strategies.
Course #4 Your Step-by-step 90 Day “Next Level” Blueprint: A full course synopsis, plus a unique “90 Day Next Level Blueprint” for success that contains the exact steps to move forward.

The courses are all online – meaning no travel, no hotels, no lost work time. They’re delivered in weekly structured doses by top U.S. trainers, for about 60 to 90 minutes each week.

In addition to the content that takes contractors to the next level, each course also comes with fully archived, no-cost replay; no-cost workbooks; no-cost downloads; and no-cost exclusive follow-up training. Participants will also receive emails between each session that provide a:

Brief summary of the previous session, plus links to bonus materials offered.

“Sneak peek” at the next session. May include workbook and other information to accelerate learning.

Contractors can get a free training video and learn more about the Next Level Contractor event at www.contractorprofit.com.

Marketing Changes to Embrace

2011-09-22T14:29:00.006-05:00

Recently I did a 2 part editorial on "How the New Economy Has Changed Everything". Got more responses than in many years, perhaps ever. (Request a copy at the end if you like.)

Basically, we're part of a very changing economic/business landscape. History will detail the following, but I don't believe it's ever "going back" to how it used to be.

Reasons within three big changes:

1) The seismic shift in information exchange (internet, consumer as 'voice', social viralism)

2) Declining/stagnant real estate values (often south of the mortgage owed, making foreclosure a strategy instead of involuntary hardship) and

3) Consumerism conflict: how we "value" vendors and "justify" purchases. The rules have dramatically shifted.

Evidence supporting #1 above: news media now sees their role to gain audience in the "24/7/365 News Orgy" as out-sensationalizing everyone else.

This means "News" headlines today shift more often than Charlie Sheen during a mudslide. In the news last WEEK were, "Economic Confidence Boosts Retail Outlook" followed by "Consumers Holding Back Citing 'No Confidence".

You wonder if they are TRYING to turn us into paranoid schizophrenics, or if that's just a bonus.

The shifts in communication and commerce have caused reactions in marketing and selling. Big ones.

Once "sensational" marketing has been diluted, lost. You can't out-scream everyone. "High-pressure selling" is the business equivalent to having a sexually-transmitted disease. And "waiting for the phone to ring" is the Old-School admission that you're somewhere between geriatric and irrelevant.

Back to my original treatise: The 'old' ain't coming back. Leaving you with one question -

Will you LEAD amid these changes, or WATCH as the leaders use the changes to win?

And You Think Your Trade is a Commodity?

2011-09-09T16:24:00.005-05:00

I was, as usual, running late for my airport departure. I'm rarely giddy about cavity searches, peanuts disguised as a meal and sitting next to people who consider deodorant optional.

Yet, I'd made arrangement with the nice girl in the lobby for a cab at 2:20. "He'll be here," she assured. At 2:15, I give her an expectant glance. "He's already out front," she motions towards a black car. Not just any black car either.

It was the shiniest black car in all of DC, where shiny black cars compete at a different level. Next to it was a man in business casual, holding a black and white umbrella with a gold cab company logo on it. Soon as he saw me heading toward him, he popped the trunk.

Before I could say anything he asked, "Are you well rested for your flight, or are you hoping to rest during the flight?" He beamed this friendly question - later becoming important - and I answered, "Depends on who I'm sitting next to." He laughed, and in an instant, had carefully placed my bags into the immaculate trunk, motioning me to the rear seat.

As I turned toward the car, he whisked the door open. His manners were so different, I scanned for the hidden camera in case this was a big joke. Once in the car, my shock factor increased notably.

First, it didn't reek like the Sherwood Forest cocktail most cabbies use to disguise their lack of automotive hygiene. It was just clean. There was no debris, no crumbs, and wait... what is that...

Magazines. There were several magazines in the seat backs, including that day's Washington Post. "Take your pick," said Mr. Woods, whose name was on a professional sign preceded by, "Your Travel Host". This was a far cry from the normal hand-scrawled legal requirement duct taped to the seat back with a mug shot. "Travel Host". Nice touch.

He caught my glance in the rearview mirror, "I must ask you to please refrain from smoking since I'm allergic." I told him I was too, so not a problem. (Yet note his request with justification.) He confirmed the airline and airport, and we merged into traffic.

Just to make this scene even more eerie and hidden camera-ish, he said the unthinkable -

CLICK to see what Mr. Woods actually asked, and how your company can copy this.

The Coming Marketing Meltdown

2011-08-24T15:18:00.006-05:00

And there he went. Just like that, my son was in my rearview mirror, standing by the curb next to his 'new' dorm, as we drove back home from planting him at college. Things were quiet in the car. If you listened closely though, you could hear the faint flipping of mental images working backwards.

The prom pictures where I was taken aback that he looked so much like a man.
The early driving days when he looked like a child who'd stolen his parents' car.
The baseball years where the glove was so big his fingers didn't reach past the palm, and the helmet could actually be spun while still on his head.
The diaper years (which we really need to figure out how to eliminate, no pun intended), the cuteness of baby cheeks, missing teeth, and little fat baby joints that could go in almost any direction.

Then I snap back into the present: a young man at college. A father questions much. This is a quick poem, which doesn't have a blooming thing to do with marketing, but if you're a parent, it may hold a grain of value. Click for 'A Father Questions'.

As a business owner, worker, parent, we all want to have made our presence known somehow. Two things we all wonder:

Are we doing enough to make a difference?

Are we leaving the place better than we found it?

If 'yes' to both, congratulations, for you have done your job well. Yet there's a guilt epidemic floating amongst the "going to's" that never quite get done. We're "going to" start saving more, earning more, vacationing more, stressing out less ... one day. And just like depositing a child at college, that day comes, inevitably and you wonder if you did enough.

In a marketing perspective, there is a meltdown happening now that will separate winners from losers. The prepared vs. the "how did this happen?" The outcome is greatly affected by the convergence of: a) Economic recession, b) Major lead shift from Yellow Pages to online, c) Mass "Distractionism". Your Marketing Meltdown Warning here.

The #1 Myth of Getting More Leads

2011-08-10T14:37:00.011-05:00

I hear it all the time. And it is flat-out wrong. It comes out in coaching calls here. I see it posted on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and nearly every Contractor Discussion board.

Contractors, understandably wringing their hands, want to know something like, "Hey, do postcards work?" Or, "Is your website getting you leads?" Or, "Anyone tried radio?"

They focus on the thing that "costs", that is, the media. They've been brainwashed by the media salespeople who all claim "theirs" is best, cheapest, fastest, blah blah. It's all a crock of crack.

What "sells" is the message. Always has been, always will be. A rotten message in any media you choose is still a rotten message. According to Clayton Makepeace, America's highest paid copywriter and marketing strategist:

"The media doesn't make the sale. The message does.
Therefore, the way you persuade people to buy never changes."

You can drive thousands to your website using sophisticated SEO strategies, or rise to the top through Google paid listings. Yet if your message is poor, the traffic comes and is gone, leaving you with one very expensive revolving door on your website. Same with 10,000 letters, a dozen billboards, and the glitziest TV ad ever shot.

It's not the media, it's the message.

Get that right and the market will respond. The media is merely the delivery vehicle. So, what makes a good message? In the last 11 years of focusing on contractor sales messages and selling a few billion dollars of equipment, this is the gold list. Click for the Top 5 Messages that nearly force prospects to respond.

The Joys of Air Travel

2011-07-27T16:54:00.005-05:00

Back when Orville and Wilbur started the first airlines (tagline: "Hope We Make It!") they were shocked people would willingly ride in a plane, much less pay for the experience.

In time, air travel advanced to a stage where hot food was served in-flight (seriously, it happened) by attractive ladies with pronounced cleavage regions. Often during this "golden age", you and your luggage arrived at the same spot simultaneously.

Back then if you were late for a plane, you could always sprint down the runway and the friendly pilot with a gleaming smile would reach out his hand and pull you aboard, apologizing for the inconvenience.

We didn't have much "Security" back then. You could basically stroll into an airport, smoking several Camel cigarettes, cleaning your nails with a machete, and as long as you had a ticket, you'd be welcomed into the plane, with an apology for the inconvenience.

The "safety message" you'd hear was, "You are required to drink Bourbon on this flight. In the event this makes you queasy, here's a baggie. If this plane goes into the water, we hope you can swim. Steaks will be served shortly, so when I come by, please unsheathe a steaknife from my pronounced cleavage region and we'll get started. Thank you."

Today, most flights are delayed up to an hour while a 'stewardperson' mumbles something about seat cushions that double as white-water rafts, then gets the 'guests' on Aisle 8 to sign a waiver that they have a) been doing work outs with an emergency door and b) if everyone perishes it's completely their fault.

One thing that IS the same today are the lap belts. No one has ever explained why cars (many of which don't travel at 25,000 feet) have lap belts, shoulder belts, 3 dozen air bags, plus a Government- mandated glove box that - in the event of an impact - will emit acres of shaving cream.

Yet in a plane, which goes 700 mph (down the runway) and has no bumpers, we still use lap belts from a 1961 DeSoto. On a side note, I have been seated between what I am certain were dual side air bags dressed in business casual. Though I felt 'safe', I was unable to fully inhale from Atlanta to Denver.

No matter, if you want to get somewhere fast, air travel still works. Oh sure, it's not as dignified as it once was, but once you've endured several dozen body cavity searches, 'dignity' is a distant memory.

Why fly?

A face-to-face meeting hasn't been supplanted by the internet; conversational sincerity can't be replaced with email. Warmth of handshake, a genuine hug, and breaking of bread still irreplaceable by any means.

Soon, 6 consultants will travel from various locations to our Nation's capital, which I hear is still in the D.C. area. We've been meeting for 3 years (written about ONLY in SMI), twice a year, in different locations to discuss consulting, contracting, the betterment of both and each other.

Here are the Top 4 Topics We're Covering and how are you affected...

"I Can't Afford That"

2011-07-13T16:28:00.007-05:00

The following is an excerpt from a single conversation, but we hear "similar" comments regularly. If you read the 3^rd paragraph closely, you'll find a very common business fault that strangles many contractors.

"I can't afford that," sighed Carey, a 14 year contracting veteran in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. "I used to say this whenever some 'new' business thing would pop up."

"This happened fairly often. Like when we looked into a new digital copier/printer. The sales rep proved I'd save money over the old way. He'd show what I overpaid in toner, time wasted with employees having to get up and down instead of sending documents by email, the whole thing. And I'd give my standard response, 'I can't afford that'."

"Eventually, after over-spending on our old system, we replaced it. I'd have been ahead if I'd done it sooner. But nooo " ... Carey mocked himself, "I couldn't afford it."

"Same for my old clunky phone system, training my techs, or replacing my aging trucks. Nearly every time I had to replace one, I'd look back and see that repairs, rotten mileage, and lost time in the broken trucks had cost me real money. Not to mention the negative 'image' they sent customers."

"That's when I realized something that changed my business."

What Carey realized is a falsehood that hurts, even bankrupts many small businesses. The link explains this truth: Business die when small problems seem big and big problems seem small.

7 Steps to Lead Generation Riches

2011-06-29T14:25:00.007-05:00

I don't know who said "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing" but it has never been more true. Every week contractors call or question, "How can I get more leads?"

Yet, in that decidedly ruthless way that shocks the inquisitor, we are trained to respond: "What are you doing with the ones you have now?"

By that we mean that there are 7 'main things' to extract full, cash-rich value from your current lead flow. It's right there under your nose...

Where'd they come from? (Market source via media.)
How big is this target source? (What we call "universe".)
How many bought what? (Closing ratio per item.)
What did they pay? Upsell offered? (Transaction size per ratio.)
Do they have friends? (Referral follow up chain.)
What about the ones you didn't close? (Follow up closing efforts)
What system will keep all these customers and prospects coming back to you?

Because to us, we can make the phone ring again. But if you're not maximizing the lead value, then it's only marketing heroin. More is not always better.

Those questions are in order, too. The top one is the most important. A mediocre ad to the best target will outperform the best ad to a mediocre target. Yes, as an overpaid copywriter, I just said that. Truth is, we can usually kick your mediocre offer AND help you find the best list because that serves both of us.

Then "target" in to wherever your offer is aimed. From your customer list to your web visibility, which includes SEO, AdWords, and even your radio demographic, Cable reach, and in house prospect list. These are 'segments' you can define that have a reachable quantity.
That leads to #2.

Is this your current list, dated list, big ticket buyers, referrals, church bulletin, little league parents, or chamber of commerce? I mean, you've got to know the size of the pool. To answer whether it's even worth fishing the pool, check out #3...

Do they close well? Or are they a bunch of mealy mouth price shoppers? Maybe they're rabid for image and product 'z' supports that image. Closing ratio must intersect with ticket and gross profit to be meaningful. Then to #4...

Are they high transaction sales that can make your month? Or low transaction that must sustain volume to be profitable? On either, is there a more profitable upsell you're not offering? Before you leave them...

The Great Email Backlash

2011-06-17T09:53:00.005-05:00

I hate it. We all hate it.

Email has turned into the digital telemarketer during dinner. It's too much, too often, and - in my lowly estimation - too cheap. I wish they'd charge for it so the spammers, slammers, and scammers could just go bother someone else.

In the meantime, you and I nearly dread the return from a vacation, finding inboxes crammed with promised millions, Viagra offers, male "enhancements" and some scandalous promise from the marketing world. (Yes, probably even me on occasion.)

So, the legitimate emailers of the world are sort of trapped by association. This very e-newslettter goes through massive filtration to keep out of the trash (though we lose a few every issue) and has gotten 'dressed up' mightily over the years to maintain a credible presence. We've taken steps to greatly increase readership, some get by the "wrong" filters though.

Measurement That Matters

2011-06-02T14:01:00.008-05:00

We're warned that pride is a bad thing. And I fully understand. Pride entraps its victim in a blanket of mock superiority on its way to personal doom. Boasting becomes pride. Pride becomes conceit. Conceit becomes no one.

Funny, but the ever-boasting blowhard of self-achievement 'thinks' that their accomplishments make them more attractive, more fun to be around, more likable. None are true. Just as this paragraph started, they make you a blowhard. Knowing all this...

My son graduated from High School this past weekend. I am proud of him. There, I said it. He got a scholarship in an honors program. He won the headmaster's Award for Excellence. And all this was achieved with at least half of his parents not being all that great of a student (guess which one!).

If my chest pokes out any further, I will have Eva Mendez' profile... or snap a rib. So I'll stop.

The thing about school is that they 'measure'. Scores are scores, grades based thereupon, college acceptance/scholarships directly correlative, segments sliced accordingly. "Oh, you made a 33 on the ACT test? You go in this stack. And you with the 18, you go over here."

In the job world, the surface measurement is usually money. This - along with pride - is another set up for the Scriptural Sin Grab Bag. Sure, many worthy alternative definitions of success abound: title, influence, responsibility, result, impact. All are important; all worthy of your focus. Harder to measure, but worthy.

Yet here is THE problem with most contractors' measurement and focus Click to see how many thousands of people he can offend in 2 sentences or less...

Clearly Unclear

2011-05-19T15:58:00.004-05:00

Old cars are like young children. Highly dependent, often naggy, hard to predict. Okay in that light, they're like older children too. Yet one of my strange old vehicles needed a windshield because it failed to avoid a 70 mph rock. Silly car. Since it was already having some other mechanical needs tended, I figured I'd get it all done at once.

So, I did what any modern consumer does, I opened the Yellow Pages. HA! Good one. I went to Google, clicked the top couple of names, and actually found one that listed my glass and at a reasonable price. "Wow, I thought. This is so easy." Any time you make a statement like that to yourself, you have doomed the outcome to sheer bedlam. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Proceeding ignorantly - my favorite way - I place the order online. It totals my order, and even politely mentions, "This price includes the windshield, gasket, and all labor. If we find you don't need a new gasket, this amount will be deducted." Soooo easy, said the Titanic's most oblivious passenger.

Afterward, it asks me to pick a "convenient" time. I scan for the option that says, "Never" but then notice THEY can go to the CAR while it's in the mechanical repair shop. "Now that IS convenient!" I say to myself, like getting a ride to a Vampire's blood drive, with much the same outcome.

So, I have the part, the installation price, the date, the place... it's all set! Whoohoo. The internet makes things SO EASY.

Soon after the "confirmation" email (translation: "a wild guess with legal language attached") things went weird. Their CSR (translation: Customer Service Repellant) called. From there, all online promises were off, chuckled at in their dismissal. Just goes to show two things: a) Your marketing and your service had better be consistent, and b) The internet's 'ease' of commerce is commensurate relative to the 'ease' of any customer's communication with the world. Case in point...

Connected Disconnection

2011-04-21T08:05:00.002-05:00

During GM’s darkest hour in July of 2009, Bill Gates groused at some international Geek-Fest that if GM had kept up with technology the way the computer industry had, they would be selling higher quality, less expensive cars and be more profitable.

Having just exorcised my computer from a crippling virus, I’d like to offer that if GM had made cars in accord with Microsoft’s self-professed “progress”, their cars would randomly crash several times a month. Further, the dashboard would occasionally go completely blue forcing you to either replace the engine or throw the car away and start anew… without apology or culpability from GM. Yeah, thanks, Bill – that’s exactly what GM needs.

Perhaps I took this a little personally, this attack on my personal computer.

More deceptively, this particular virus ACTED LIKE IT WAS MY FRIEND. It said, “Malware detected. Click to quarantine.” And since we’ve got every virus protection this side of wearing radioactive-proof puffy clothes, I clicked. Bad idea.

My mouse became possessed and disobeyed my commands. It was doing the digital equivalent of dropping mouse droppings on my desk while giving me a rude paw signal. Soon enough, a recorded female voice suggested I purchase “Malware protection”. I sensed evil in her tone and a realization of defeat. I shut her down, but the damage was done.

I had 3 thoughts (A new record for me!). The first was understandably murderous. The other two suggest there can be life after disconnectedness… and benefits galore.

My first thought: who exactly benefits from the infliction of viruses? Who has time to design these and sit back and hope random damage occurs? The same smarts that created these could certainly do something more productive.

My second thought: Now what? We’re all so computer/email/social media entrenched that I felt like an adult-sized umbilical cord had been unplugged. I fired up my ‘non-networked’ laptop to create documents and limp through my responsibilities. Yet a few times that first day, I found myself with hands perched atop my now-dead keyboard in some robotic trance. My former desk mate and connection to community was a lifeless appliance. It was like finding out your dog had actually been a stuffed toy all along.

My third thought: How can I use this for good? Though my initial feelings were ‘loss’, in time those shifted toward ‘freedom’. Untethered to the constant inflow of emails all screaming “Pick me! Pick me!”, I could actually complete a thought. An editorial. A line of responsibility.

I could catch up on my ever-overflowing pile of valuable though less intrusive mail. (There’s a lesson in that last sentence for you dear contractor marketers. Hint: Mail readers spend 2.4 times more to reading printed mail than emailed equivalents. Source: Digital Age, 2/10, ‘Are You Worth the Trouble?’)

I read my marketing newsletters, trade journals, plus several promotional letters and magalogs. I found it interesting that several “online” marketers have shifted more focus toward direct mail and done so quite effectively. The smartest ones overlap on and offline.

I made time to finish the book, 24 Hours That Changed the World, about Jesus’ last days. My suffering ‘seemed’ like a big deal, but sort of paled to betrayal, wrongful accusation and flogging. You don’t really have to look far to see someone worse off, ever. Also gave me time to finish up related Sunday School lessons for my class of largely disinterested 11th graders. And I thought contractors were a tough crowd. Whoa.

I then relearned how to use a pen. Remember those? Ink flows out of one end and scribes “words” on paper. Then people blessed with the ability to decipher “cursive” (an ancient communication font) can actually read.

And since my Outlook reminders had ceased, I put notes in my DayTimer (ask your grandparents). Works fine. Speaking of remembering, there was a time that a normal human being could remember 20-30 phone numbers instantly. Now it’s done for us. The same person could remember several birthdays, anniversaries (Oops!) and appointments, sans nano-nanny. They could compose paragraphs in clear, successive thoughts, with infrequent misspellings that neither required massive re-edits, paragraph rearrangement, nor any need to use a splchkr.

The fusion of the brain line-links that made us able to do this are evolutionally eroding, suggests author Joshua Foer in Moonwalking With Einstein, How to Remember Everything (a book I just remembered was on my nightstand!). Lack of focus, electronic memories, and regular interruptive distractions caused by our love affair with computers and now hand-held versions thereof, are eating our ability to think.

There is even suggestion that our sway toward “being more efficient” through gadgetry has crossed a line of diminishing returns. That is, more efficient machines are yielding less-efficient people.

You think I’m longing for a return to the stone-age? Could be were in the “stoned-age” as we speak:

Office workers spend 28% of the workday dealing with interruptions (2.1 hours on average).

The average recovery time from any interruption is about 4 minutes.

Employees devote just 11 minutes to a project before being sidetracked.

The IQ of workers who juggle email messages and work falls by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana! (If your staff begins lobbying hard on this point, time for another random urine test.)

53% of workers check their email more than 6 times per day. 34% check it constantly. The word ‘constantly’ leaves little room to be doing any other actual work. Is ANYTHING that urgent. What, are they expecting a message that says, “You’re currently on fire!”?

Honestly, my 3 days of “email time out” and virally imposed disconnection was fabulous. My desk is neater, my brain more full, my appreciation for contemplation in a normally NON-contemplative environment increased.

A popular method of running a faster marathon among those who do? Run a mile. WALK a mile. Rest, recharge, contemplation, prayer. Call it what you will. Even God disconnected on the 7th day. Try it.

Disconnect from the network; reconnect to yourself. I bet you’ll like yourself more than you remembered.

"You Just Have To"

2011-04-06T09:08:00.003-05:00

My resistance to this phrase may be a remnant from childhood.“You HAVE to eat your vegetables” comes to mind, with Broccoli leading the charge. Aside from the fact that Broccoli has the identical silhouette to a nuclear explosion, it reeks. Disguising it with melted cheese is no help; like pouring chocolate sauce on liver. What a waste.

The directives came in waves. “You have to brush your teeth; You have to make up your bed; You have to quit shaving the cat.” That last one was probably true. For months people asked if that cat had recently undergone surgery.

Yet most people – especially those of us faking adulthood - don’t like being told what they “have” to do. Seems like an optionless, foreboding request. We tend to reel back, sensing a plot in the making. The following was no exception.

I got an “automated call” on Saturday. Nothing I love more than chatting with a robot, especially one convinced I was “Myrna Stanley” and telling me “Your prescription is ready to pick up at the pharmacy.” The robot didn’t care I was detailing my boat, layingupside down, with carpet cleaning vapors in my nose.

To prevent being called Myrna by another robot, I call the unnamed pharmacy whose initials and motto could be “Customers Vaguely Satisfied” to let them know a) The real Myrna is probably wondering why your robot hasn’t called her and b) I really need to get back to snorting carpet surfactants.

When I relayed the information, the first words out of her mouth were, you guessed it… “You HAVE to call Customer Service at 1-800-…”

From there, it didn’t go all that well. Yet look at what you’re told you HAVE to do, in business, and what if any of it is really true? The HAVE TO’s of the world are usually thinking “because that’s what the crowd is doing” instead of thinking strategically toward independence.

So I offer “4 Common Marketing ‘Have To’s You DO NOT Have to Do”

1.You HAVE to be in Social Media – Correction: you have a life and business to run. If the brain drain and TIME invested in social media doesn’t pay off, why bother? (Or if you’ve yet to meet a business to MODEL who has achieved worthwhile return) no need to immerse yourself. If dollars per lead (in staff time) don’t yield a suitable ROI (around $75), change strategies or find a media that pulls better. Succeeding in Social Media isn’t as simple as “just showing up” as some would lead you to believe. Plus, there are great ways to minimize the time on Social Media by ‘auto-publishing’ the content to multiple places. (Get a report on Success in Social Media at the link)

2.You HAVE to be in the Yellow Pages – Bull Droppings. You can choose to have a presence, and it’s recommended you spend less than 15% of your Total Marketing budget in there, using a Direct Response format, and strategically linking respondents to your website, capturing email/texting contact information on every call. This is how the ‘new’ Yellow Page ads clobber the ‘old’ ones, even though they’re way smaller, less costly. Want to get your Yellow Page ad critiqued for maximum results per dollar? Click to request.

3.You HAVE to use your co-op for ‘our’ ads – I’m probably about to get yelled at (oh, like this’ll be the first time) but hear me out: Offer to test ‘your’ preferred ad vs. the factory ad on sales results. Then see if they’ll co-op ‘your’ winning ad over the one designed by people who may have never met an actual customer. If you’ll approach the manufacturer this way, you BOTH get what you want: more leads, more sales, from the same or less marketing cost. (Plus, you’ll have a unique ad instead of the ‘me too’ stuff the others are running.)

4.You HAVE to use Slick Mail pieces – Could this advice be any worse? Who made this up? We regularly trounce this silly notion, side-by-side tests, with multiple times the dollars resulting. The point is that you only HAVE to be sane about your ROI.

5.You HAVE to forward this issue of SMI to at least 3 friends. Well, yes, this one is absolute fact. If you don’t, somewhere above your now-balding head, a hole in the ozone layer will open up. Don’t risk it. (Seriously, we DO invite your friends and colleagues as subscribers. Hit your Forward buttons now!)

Contractor friends, you don’t HAVE to do anything in marketing that doesn’t:

•Have a measured outcome that you desire.
•Have a track record worthy of emulating
•Get you closer to YOUR goal (instead of sacrificing your goal to meet someone else’s!)

Builders and Breakers

2011-03-24T15:23:00.002-05:00

There I was, sitting on the beach, minding my own business. We were at Spring Break in northwest Florida, otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera. We took our 11th grade daughter and friend, plus our 12th grade son who didn’t stay with us, but came by for necessities like food, money, and directions to the hospital.

Since there were tens of thousands of teenagers per acre, there was rampant glandular overload. When any traffic would back up, car stereos would impulsively compete for “Dude, Where’s My Eardrum?” Then all youths within earshot – meaning closer than Connecticut – would gyrate and flail about rhythmically, occasionally spilling their fake IDs but never their real beer.

As I watched, I reminisced about my youth. Yet just before acceptance set in, I had an increased desire for a custom Taser with night-vision goggles. That’ll take gyrations to a whole new level.
Anyway, the beach was my escape. It was peaceful, beautiful, with gentle waves in the background. Families strode by, the pace slowed. Yet the contrast was too much, so I decided to liven things up a bit by building a 30 foot sand alligator.

My interest shifted from building the thing to people’s reaction to it. Several dozen people stopped by. Most were complimentary; others just didn’t know what to say to a crazy person who’d do this. Little kids were amazed. And after I’d leave, others took delight stomping on it. Though I briefly considered adding Punji sticks as a fun surprise, destruction happens.
Got me to thinking about building up and tearing down.

You get a great business idea; someone shoots it down saying, “That’ll never work.” Sort of like Twitter. Or you think you can write, and a dozen editors say you stink. Sort of like J.K. Rowling.
Maybe you question yourself, then talk yourself out of what had formerly seemed a good idea. Then you see someone else break through and wonder, “Gosh, I could’ve done that.” And it happens again.

You don’t have to look far for someone to tear down an idea. Here are two examples of contractors who DID NOT LISTEN to the Demolition Crew. And their sales soared. Get ready for something different …

“That’ll Never Work You Silly Nincompoop Person”

Don’t tell that to these people. Read between the lines of how these contractors broke through ‘normal advice’ to create new sales paths.

1. Neill Worlsely (I can’t pronounce it without spitting either) had heard all he needed to hear about Social Media.

“Everywhere people kept telling me, ‘you should do it’ but no one said exactly ‘how’. Also, not one of these people ever said they’d gotten an ROI.”

So Neill applied a Direct Response strategy (courtesy of your favorite marketing firm) in his blogs. “We just did the classic 2-step marketing. First to give away advice, which got us readers and followers. Second to follow up with those people on a service or item for sale."

Of course people said it would never work because he was “giving away” information, some of it controversial such as ‘How to Avoid a Service Call’, and ‘How to Spot a Contractor Scam’.

“I had competitors tell me I was ruining the market. But customers were appreciative and a bit surprised, which gained us the differentiation you always advise.” Results?

We started with under 20 fans on Facebook, but after 5 months of a weekly blog that was about 70% advice and maybe 30% mild promotion, we picked it up to 260. In that time, we generated 61 appointments directly attributed to two-step approach, for about $25,000 in sales. “The way I figure it,” Neill concluded, “this is $25grand in sales we’d have never gotten without this approach, and it costs us roughly zero $. In the same time, I spent $9000 in Yellow Pages <$1800/mth> and its produced only slightly more phone calls, but fewer sales. We’re kind of ‘alone’ in Social Media.”

Bottom Line: Two step Direct Response has worked for eons. Why would it be any different now?

2. “My manufacturer builds awesome systems, and their customer support through the distributor is second to none. But they are not marketers” said Ron. (I can’t use his last name because of some of the info is not terribly flattering.)

“They kept telling me to run their co-op ads in their way and I kept telling them, ‘You’re wasting your money and mine. Let me market differently and we’ll both come out ahead.” They didn’t listen.

Ron got creative and this is important. “I said, ‘I’ll pay for my own ad, done my way, in my choice of media. If I don’t sell more than your method, I pay for my mistake. If I do, I’ll ask you to reimburse me for the ad. Fair?” (Editor’s note: Always negotiate toward the solution the other side wants as long as it gets you what you want.)

After two days of posturing, the distributor called to say, “Fine. We’ll do it. So what are your plans?” When Ron told them he wanted to do an FSI (Free-Standing Insert) in the newspaper, she chuckled. ‘Last time we did that’ she said, ‘we thought the phones had been disconnected. In the entire Pacific Region, we got less than 2 dozen phone calls for 80 dealers.”

Ron gulped, but did it anyway.

“In two days, we got 24 calls, set 16 firm appointments, sold 11 HVAC systems for $37,400.” Not bad for a $600 ad, which the stunned distributor gladly paid, though she said it was probably “a fluke”. Ron went with his instincts again.

“We went on to do a nick under $100,000 in sales, during a fairly slow time off that insert. Then our competitors tried to copy us, and we moved into direct mail. That’s the key. Do the ‘different’ thing – without fear – and you’ll stay ahead of the copycats.”

Bottom Line: Differentiation is a key component of marketing superiority. Following the crowd gets you an amalgam of their results.

Folks, it’s your business, your path, your destiny, your decision. Be willing to understand that there are people who ‘build up’ and those who ‘tear down’. Take sound advice and apply proven strategies, regardless of whether its ‘popular’. (NOTE: Reread the above and note who the ideas were initially unpopular with. Was it customers?)

Questions for You

1. What is something you’ve been ‘thinking about doing’ but haven’t tried? Why not? What – exactly – is holding you back? If it’s the ‘opinion’ of your peers, ask someone else.

2. Why – exactly – do your customers choose YOU over the competition? Convenience, habit, price (I hope not), company image? Whatever list you come up with, build on those strengths and other customers will come in droves. That question, by the way, is the basis of a two-hour consulting call. I just saved you $560, or you can call me and I’ll charge you that to ask you the same question in person.

How to Go Bankrupt

2011-03-11T08:40:00.000-06:00

Mary B’s Family Buffet closed down last week. This place had been a near institution in my town, having come around when the ‘buffet style’ eatery was born.

Back then we called them Cafeterias, but that name faded about the time that Shopping Centers got renamed as Strip Malls. (Sort of like Hobos became Homeless and Getting Fired became a Downsizing Victims, except those phrases conveniently shift responsibility. Discuss.)

This place just fell out of favor, failed to change. I’m fairly certain that at least one of their baked potatoes had been there since opening in 1964. I’m positive a couple waitresses – and their hairdos – were original. Yet so too was the décor, the menu, the ‘cattle call’ feel of eating there. Plus another thing never changed:

Their patrons. It was routine, in the best and worst ways. As their average age approached ‘deceased’, tables no longer filled. Groups of 5 dwindled to 2. Multiple table turns became singles… on a good day. Dinner went from a bustling nighttime family occasion, to a late afternoon salt-free and mostly flavorless event. You could tell this from the outside looking in.

Not changing sounds ‘safe’; yet it is the riskiest of all business propositions, and a complete illusion to the practitioners. It is the precursor to certain demise.

It’s funny. Change frightens most of us, but “new and improved” are the best-selling words in advertising, have been for eons. There’s an important distinction here that will help you sell more, in any environment, at any time, to anybody. Ignore this principle and you too can become the forgotten baked potato of contracting.

What is the Distinction?

We may not embrace personal change readily, but we expect and pay for change in the things we buy, own, and use. The reason is the same: Don’t make me change if this has done the changing for me. Brief example with the ‘answer’ contained in these behavioral files…

For Example: Training seminars for businesspeople were at one time about “movements”. The movement from the employed downtrodden to the eager employee primed for advancement. Then the star had to actually ‘fit in’ so the movement went from the frightened and incommunicable to the Toastmaster. The Toastmaster could speak well enough, but lacked confidence to “do”, so the Self-Actualization movement of the 70’s helped people meet a job task with confidence.

By the 80’s, this false confidence was deemed impotent (at best) and thus Personal Power emerged, mostly out of the EST (Werner Erhard) and NLP (Tony Robbins, its most famous spokesperson). The “you can do it if you see yourself doing it” and mental power over obstacles enlightened nearly 20 million people to buy the Personal Power audio training series. Self-help exploded with product.

By the 90’s, we were exhausted from doing it ourselves. The motivation and self-actualization waned; we just wanted someone to do most of it for us. “Kits” and “Packaged solutions” were born.

You could Deal-A-Meal your way to weight loss, you could lie on the Ab Roller and get a washboard stomach, you could stick on a patch and quit smoking… will power be darned.

Now we’re fully into the “just do it for me” zone. I want a personal trainer who’ll do everything but actually lift the weight. (I guess that’s next.) Instead of teaching me the principles of sales mastery, I want a sales coach in my ear, telling me what to say to each prospect. Better yet if you just come and close the sale and give me credit. Millions upon millions are spent on coaches – and deservedly for the good ones – to “unstick” us from our complacency to where we started this…

Change.

The ‘rule’ is that either you’ll change or the world will change for you. And if you haven’t picked up on it, the “mass” behavior hasn’t changed an iota. Sure, each stage sounded like a solution, but throughout there are the “changed” and the “unchanged”. The money flows FROM the second group TO the first group. Happens every time.

The cool thing is that just realizing this can change your money flow.

Pondering and productivity are rarely linked. Actually doing the steps takes you to change. Yet most don’t. They sit, they “wait” to be changed, they “wait” for the crowd to come back. They wait, and eventually turn the “OPEN” sign the other way around.

Sears Holdings. Borders. BlockBuster. OfficeMax. Pier1. And yes, Mary B’s Homestyle Buffet.

Your Action Plan:

1) if you’ve been “thinking about” getting better at something for the last few years, look around. My guess is others had the same idea and a few did it. So, your “thinking” is great; your implementation may lack. Get a coach and follow the advice.

2 ) If you’ve “wondered about” online marketing, or retention marketing, or consultive selling, or contractor publicity but didn’t know where to turn, your curiosity is asking the right question; but incomplete research has become an excuse for you.

We keep a list of “hot” advisors in most every topic related to contractor sales and marketing. Doesn’t matter to me where you get help as long as you’re willing to change for the better.

3) If you’ve had a “Nagging concern” about any topic in your business related to change, your subconscious (or the Holy Spirit) has dropped that on you for a reason. It is trying to get your attention. Seek those who have been through this same challenge because they love to tell the story of how they changed and beat it. (If you’re a contractor consultant and wonder how a lazy pig like me who doesn’t love travel gets to have the best job in the world and be with his family every night, email me. I’d love to tell you.)

It has been said that you can tell the age of a man by measuring his resistance to change. I say you can equally foretell his proclivity for business irrelevance by the same measure.

Get out of the buffet line. A feast awaits those willing to change.

The Coconut Pie Theory of Relationship Building

2011-02-23T08:11:00.001-06:00

Her face reflected the kindness of mothering and intelligence of years. You know these ladies; the ones who have tricked their husbands into thinking he makes the decisions. They dress age-appropriately, yet are well-enough preserved enough to bend age to their interpretation. They’re fun to talk to, socially intriguing, elegant, yet tough – the steel hand in a velvet glove approach.

All regions have their versions. The South mints a particular kind that ‘seems’ to be surface-without- substance. Yet the genteel exterior has a core that is unafraid of confrontation. Like the South itself I guess.

She looked at me when describing a relationship problem with her nearly grown daughter and said, “Honey, if a coconut pie won’t help heal the wounds, you need professional counseling.”

Her look told me the truth had just been spoken. I only needed a little explanation. I resisted telling her my version of this as an inept car fiddler, “If a hammer won’t fix it, you have an electrical problem”. Nope, hers made sense. For all of us.

Around here, anything is a reason for good food. Southern funerals have generated more catering contracts than all the marketing combined. Most any Southern mother’s first and last questions for any houseguest are the same:

“Do you want something to eat?” A note to those of you visiting from other regions, “I just ate” is not an acceptable response. The question wasn’t “Are you hungry?”

Though the jokes about expanded waistlines hold merit, the act of having a meal is the binder of relationships, the settler of emotions. It is the “breaking of bread” carried forward in rich tradition.

My interlocutor had confided a slight family problem with her daughter. She found herself unable to even get to “the subject” without her daughter getting defensive, averting blame and avoiding the topic. Her mother’s response: Arrive with a coconut pie.
“I didn’t care if she ate it. It opened the door toward peace without me opening my mouth about it.” She paused. “By the third bite, we began talking. By the time we finished a piece, we were both crying. By the time we mutually decided to ‘sneak’ a bite from the next slice, we were laughing.”

The soft side of relationship-building works.Can be conversation. Time together. Giving without expecting return. A coconut pie. Just being there and willing counts for plenty.

Just returned from a National Conference where the ill-guided event planners asked me to speak (as in “publicly”). At these conferences, I get to meet all sorts of members, clients, prospects, organizers, other speakers. Fellowship, fun, and food all in abundance. Good stuff, but I must admit something right here:

I have on occasion had the ever-so-convincing devil of “Why Bother?” on my shoulders before these events. The “Does it really matter?” questions. The “Don’t they know I’m ‘available without me actually proving it?” lazy streak. Yet the afterglow snatches those thoughts.

Conversations were struck that would’ve never happened in any substitute media. Many of you shared current problems and challenges (why I attend). Other shared the joys of record-setting years looking for ways to get to the next level (the second reason I attend).

Yet the most rewarding part of these conferences is the interaction. The relationship-building that’s done by just being there and willing.

It is the exact same with your customers. You cannot be effective and absent at the same time. You cannot truthfully say you appreciate customers without proving it. You cannot settle concerns by ignoring their presence. All require availability.

Kindle the relationship with your customers. Fling open the door of being available. Prove you value their presence. Don’t let “Why bother?” take over. Build the relationship and the revenue comes.

Relationships are the slice of life. Enjoy.

Questions for you:

1. How many ‘touches’ do you have with customers per year? (Ideal is 24, that is = 1 appointment reminder by phone, 1 thanks by phone, 1 thanks by mail, 1 follow up/referral request, 4 newsletters, 2 holiday-cards, 8 non-sales emails, 4 sales emails, 2 ‘sales’ pieces mailed. Note, you DO NOT earn the ‘right’ or the response rate to sales offers without the other pieces. Our newsletter customers get way higher response rates from their sales offers than non-newsletter customers. Not a coincidence.)

2. Do your staff members exhibit true relationship-building with customers? Do you give them authority to solve problems? Do you have an incentive for them to go beyond “normal” customer service? (Example: We have a “Customer Service Spotlight” story to end our weekly meetings. In this, we hear how a coach ‘fixed’ or greatly enhanced the results for a customer. Part of the culture, can easily be a part of yours too.)

Two-Faced or True-Faced?

2011-02-10T10:50:00.001-06:00

“This is going to hurt you worse than it hurts me,” I’d hear just before getting my rearward region spanked into next week. Whenever I used to hear this phrase – which was shockingly regular – I used to think, “Then why do it?” I mean, can’t we spare some pain for BOTH of us by overlooking that little melted-crayon-in-the-EZ Bake incident?

Didn’t work that way. Found that out when I had children. It was one of those “upside down truths” that you appreciate with age.

Later on, my early sales training had brainwashed me into thinking that manipulation and aggression were actually the more tender side of selling. When various closes and techniques were being discussed one day, an older, quite wealthy salesman halted the conversation with, “I don’t ‘sell’. I just give people reasons to buy.”

From that moment on, it stuck. My whole “sales” idea got turned upside down (or right side up!). Earning trust, giving useful ‘buying’ information, and truly counseling people with the good and bad side of a product or service came much easier. Sales “closes” were more often the work of the customer themselves. This rid the anxiety of over-selling and gave sincerity to the “Congratulations” for making a good decision.

This approach allows you to be true-faced, not two-faced.

The wealthy salesman made another comment, more powerful than the first that proved he was ahead of his time. Ignoring This Shift Can Kill Your Online AND Offline Sales…

That path lead me and Hudson Ink into the world of “two step” marketing; first getting a request from a customer for more information, and following that with a conversation that would lead to a sale, or not. Either way was/is fine. Another bit of upside-down truth:

You get the sale by creating a customer; not the other way around.

Web Marketing further confirms the success of this buying pattern shift. Consumers can access mountains of information that didn’t formerly exist. Their new-found empowerment has led to a sometimes hard-to-swallow set of “old” sales and marketing dogmas. The hard-driving, “close early, close often” salesperson is increasingly frustrated. Websites that employ sales overkill are labeled “spammy” and avoided similarly.

Sites like Zappos, Amazon, even WalMart, realize that transparency aids the sales process. Relationships are built before the sale and increase closing (conversion) rates. Openness and resistance to “hard-sell” also increases referral rates and positive online reviews.

Customer Retention results soar with gentle non-salesy recontact. This is why we’ve seen Customer Retention sales absolutely explode in the recession-weary world. People want the relationship, and reward it handsomely.

Contractors who invest in Customer Retention are getting excellent returns now. (8% of your Total Marketing Budget toward Customer Retention can trounce any other 8% in any other media with its hand tied behind its back. Want a FREE in-depth report and free sample of ‘The Ideal Customer Retention Sales Strategy’? Click here.)

Lesson: When you craft and cultivate relationships, you forgo “hard selling,” though your sales increase. There are no “closes”. There are only “openings”. You merely continue the conversation, advising, “being there” for them, and gaining more business, faster, as a result.
Oh, the remaining sage advice spoken to me by the wealthy salesman? “Salespeople don’t sell the most; Advisors do.” More than a pithy comment, it’s true. Confirmed by MarketingSherpa.com in a recent study. Advisors outsell ‘salespeople’ 4:1.

Be an advisor. Then you too can be true-faced.

Questions:

1. Does your marketing talk more about you or about how you solve customers’ problems? (Change the “we” stuff to “you” stuff. Don’t be afraid to give free advice.)

2. Is your Customer Retention marketing budget more or less than 8% of your total marketing? (If below 4%, you likely have a steady stream of “forgotten” customers going to the competition. Click for a full Customer Retention report.)

3. Do you have “old style” salespeople or “old style” marketing that are sales-focused and performing less than they did just 3 years ago? Make the shift.

Fishing for Some Answers

2011-01-26T11:19:00.000-06:00

Growing up, I fished a lot. Since my father died before I could remember, my uncle stepped in to be my surrogate. Plus, he needed someone to back the trailer. And deal with the bait. And drive the boat. I was more than willing since I had some ‘learning’ to catch up on.

Lots of days, the trip was valuable even if we caught nothing. This came in handy more often than I admit to other fishermen. We had a good time talking, out in the sun, and discussing, as he said, “which one of the 4,812 reasons the fish didn’t bite today.” As a career writer with Readers’ Digest, he had a knack for phrasing.

The top reasons – for which the fisherman had no influence – were the usual, such as water temperature, presence of food, and whether or not we were so blooming hot we had to move the boat or we’d burst into flames. (Some sunspots are cooler than Alabama in July.)

Yet the esoteric reasons for not catching fish were casting ability, bait presentation and lure retrieval. All this was the fisherman’s choice.

We eventually arrived at an honest conclusion. Shockingly, it impacts your marketing and your business, everyday, even among your customers and employees. Click for advice from two over-baked fishermen, potentially feeling the effects of Vienna Sausage. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

A NOT-SO PROFOUND OBSERVATION

When we didn’t catch fish, it was due to the uncontrollable reasons. When we did – you guessed it – it was skill, pure and simple.

My Uncle Allen has long since passed away, but the lesson stuck. We’re all fishing, all the time. In the upside-down logic of human behavior according to fishermen, we let the outcome determine who gets the blame for it.

Could be we’re fishing for a better job, deeper love, more respect, fewer hardships, more money, less stress, more peace. Okay, throw in rock-hard abs, whiter teeth and a magnetic personality.

“The reason I lost my last job,” said a recent applicant, “was because of my dumb boss and his stupid ideas.” (This same stupid guy is among the top franchisees of a company in the Fortune 1000.)

A televised weight-loss competitor said on the air, “It’s a fast-food conspiracy that keeps us fat. The food is too available, too fast, and it smells good.” Pause for smacking plump lips. “Plus, the prices are pretty reasonable. Something’s wrong there.”

What? To me, those are the very mission of the company. I was waiting for her to say ‘addictive’ which all of us in business are still looking to achieve. Soon as I can figure out how to get people hooked on Hudson Ink, I’ll let you know. I’m not above attempting hypnosis.

So, what are you looking to ‘fix’ this year? And is that fix within your control… or outside of it?

Do you believe your increase or decrease in leads is solely due to the weather? Partner with the weather by forcing early season adopters. Tempt late season procrastinators with close outs. Increase your efficiency in peak season to do more with fewer people. There are ways around this.

Do you believe your town is “just not big enough” to grow your business? Then add up the cumulative sales of all your competitors. That’s your market. You just figure how hard you want to work to go get it.

Do you feel marketing is a waste of time and effort, because your sales ‘really’ come from ‘word of mouth’? Then name ONE company that’s successful without marketing. Wait – if they have a sign, a logo, or can be found online, they’re marketing.

Do you believe just having a website is ‘good enough’ and if people want you, they’ll find you? Then consider that 64% of home service sales are now researched online first, before they ever call you. Also, your online reputation can turn hundreds of leads from EVER calling you in the first place. Your web marketing must enter the ‘new’ phase of human behavior.

What’s your biggest marketing problem or challenge for 2011? Don’t hold back. We all have them, me included. (Contrary to my publicly manipulated reputation, I falter and stink up the marketing joint too. But don’t worry – you don’t pay for those, I DO. The information/advice you get here was gathered from a variety of blunders and experiments. )

So how do you end this sentence: “My biggest marketing challenge is…”. Click to send it to us. We’re happy to lend guidance. That’s why we’re here.

Free advice: Keep fishing. It’s impossible to catch anything with your bait still in the boat.Happy Fishing.

P.S. I’ll be speaking at the ACCA National Conference again this year, for which I appreciate the opportunity. If you’re going and plan to sit in during the ONE TIME ONLY “Web Marketing Avalanche Formula” click here so I can come meet and greet you. I’ll do what I can to bend favors in your general direction!

My New Year's Goals

2011-01-13T08:29:00.000-06:00

I was glad to adopt one of my New Years Goals taken from a website that recommended: “eat breakfast like a king, dinner like a beggar.” I interpreted that to mean eat a small dinner, but not necessarily out of a trashcan with a glass of cooking sherry.

Anyway, this morning I followed the breakfast advice with a friend. Somewhere between his first and second egg, he mentioned that his college-aged daughter needed to curb her spending. Turns out, that even with a good allowance, she was over-spending on clothes.

“It’s unbelievable” he said, mopping his wheat toast across the plate, “she has many clothes in her closet, with tags still on them, unworn.” He shook his head. I added a comment or two, since I too have a daughter who believes designer clothes are near the top of the "Needs Pyramid”, just above oxygen.

We determined that women have some ancient biological compulsion for new clothes, different hair, and small shiny objects.

We admitted that we’d not changed our basic “look” for about 20 years. Same hair, shirt style, and jean brand. Simultaneously, we announced our “jean size” as clearly printed on the tag. I can’t imagine a lady proudly displaying her clothing size on the outside of the garment. I mean, even the “full figured dudes” don’t mind showing a 48 inch waist. By the way, all women will tell you they’re size 6, as if that means something.

This slight difference between men and women yields a significant marketing technique.

It may also ruin my marriage, so please don’t tell my wife.

If you look back at couples’ photographs, you’ll see the man has scarcely changed, except that job stress has caused his hair to shoot out of his head. The lady will have had 21 different hair styles (and maybe colors) since the photo was taken.

She may exclaim, “Oh, dear, I remember that blouse! That was ‘the style’ back then!” The man is incredulous because he’s wearing the same clothes in the picture, and potentially the same underwear.

I buy my dress clothes from a place that touts, “Quality clothing that never goes out of style.” If a ladies shop even uttered this phrase in a hushed tone, they would go out of business by sunset and mobs of angry but fashionable ladies would burn the place to the ground. I’m telling you, we’re a different species.

And this difference should reflect your biggest marketing shift for 2011. Big Question:

Who’s really doing the buying from you? Statistics say that 91% of in-home purchases (products and services) under $1,000 are transacted by the female. (Not ‘paying’, but ‘transacted’.) This drops to 69% for up to $2,500. After this, the man “acts” like his input is valued (a charade orchestrated by women since Eve and that whole apple fiasco) and ‘major’ purchases at $5,000 and higher climbs to roughly 50/50.

So, if the stylish, approval-conscious, thank-you note writing, sweet-salad eating, thoughtful one is doing nearly all the buying in your service range, who is your primary marketing target? Stay with me here…

Look at your ads. Is your message about “family comfort” or “cheap service”? Let me tell you, she may be a hard shopper, but she’s not cheaping out on clothes or her family. It’s insulting to put a “cheap” tag on her home and her values. Got it? Then drop it.

If your reason to advertise “Lowest prices in town” is just to get calls, don’t complain to me if you get a bunch of price shoppers. You basically begged ‘em to call.

Look at your landing pages. Does your website attempt to pound visitors with hard logic? Or befriend them with helpful advice? Does it use technical jargon, or display benefits that mean something?

Look at your newsletter. Are you talking about the greatness of your company and its glorious history? Save that for the company picnic. Tell buyers why that matters to them. No one likes a braggart, but everyone likes a problem-solver.

Look at the images in your marketing. Do you display a lot of trucks and tools? Great. Show that to the guys in the warehouse, they’ll love it. But unless they’re your buyers, get it gone.

Let this year be the year you shift your message to fit your true buyer.

1.Attract with emotions
2.Convert with helpful authority
3.Retain with friendly efficiency

Do this and you’ll have enough new business to make this your best year ever. Maybe spring for a new wardrobe. Nah. Buy her something instead. You’ll come out even farther ahead.

How Can It be a Happy New Year if Your Sales Are in the Toilet?

2011-01-05T09:03:00.001-06:00

In the post-Christmas headlines, turns out Santa will actually lease out reindeer this year to make ends meet. As a result, Blitzen has formed a hostile Union (I never trusted him anyway; sounded like a Commie name) Elves are marching at the Pole, demanding pay during the off-season. Sickening.

If the joy of Christmas was only in retail dollars, then we’d all be reading “‘Twas the night before Chapter 11”. Not exactly uplifting. Yet if you’re reading the good news out there, your perspective may be a little different.

• Americans are saving more money now. There is more money “on the sidelines” now than the entire GDP. Gosh, I wonder what they’ll spend it on when they’re ready to buy?

• Some store sales were off slightly for retailers, but the numbers of customers was down. Translation: Well-heeled customers are spending more per transaction. Further translation: Customer retention for valued customers critical. Spending retention dollars trying to lure cheap customers, financially off-setting.

• 9% Unemployment – I ain’t bragging about this number… except that the market is flooded with qualified talent. When we were last shopping for an employee during 2.5% times, my best applicant would’ve lost at “Are You Smarter Than a Door Knob”. I welcome the talent pool available. Probably time to “better the flock” for all of you.

• Recessions Breed Ingenuity and Efficiency. Good. Saving money, extending access, bumping “reasons to buy” benefits, increasing and rewarding retention… all good. Marginal contractors, those “afraid” to market, those who think “selling” is somehow beneath them will apply for jobs at those who don’t.

• In-home service contracting repair business actually increases – Why? Less elective replacement means more repairs. Pent up demand WILL cause a surge later. I’m no analyst, so no debates please. I’ll ONLY defend the first part of that prediction, which is reason enough to be clamoring for customers now.

Other Examples Of Sales And Marketing Lunacy For 2011

• Trying to say you’re different and better without proving either. Consumers are sick of trying to make your sales case for you. They don’t have time. You’d better be clear, repetitive and focused with your USP.

• Hoping customers will trust you and call you with no indication they should. Amateur ads look like ran them. (Hint: “Amateurs”.) Worn out claims with zero supporting evidence is what everybody else does. Prove the opposite: Use more testimonials than ever, laud your awards, plaster credible logos, boost guarantees. Run amateurs back in the corner. This economy will bring out lots of one-truck fast-buck contractors. If you blend in with them, to your market, you’re one of them. Good luck with that.

• Attempting to be found while playing hide and seek. If you go silent this year “trying to save money” you’ll also save tons of money by keeping your service fleet parked. No one is coming to look for you. I don’t sell media by the way, so I have nothing to gain, but I DO tell you to be excruciatingly smart with your media and marketing buys. (I’m sick of saying it, but “Cluster Control” and other strategies we’ve mentioned for the past several months are working.)

• Thinking you’ll get superior sales results from average performers. Contractors can’t be lazy, can’t accept the “same old same old” can’t expect new results from old methods. Much of this is training. Much also by copying examples of super-successful (such as our interviews in Mega-Marketer Club which many of you say is MORE valuable than my insightful editorials! How dare you!)

• Trying to go it alone. I’m in three marketing coaching groups, pay for various memberships and off-site seminars attempting to get better, stay better. It’s WAY more efficient for me to get the blueprints from others than trying to make ‘em myself. So trying to figure out your own taxes, write your contracts, create marketing strategy, sales boosters, and efficiency tweaks all while you’re trying to run a business is crazy. Ask your Trade Associations for help, check their resource pages. Pick an industry event (or more) where you can learn AND implement strategies to help you out. This alone will distance you from the complainers, the followers, the marginal. Plus, just getting with other successful seekers puts you in an Achiever’s Mindset that you’d never get sitting at your desk.

Those are some things that WILL make for successful contractors in 2011. You will be able to hire some of the best trades-people in the industry this year. Customers – left alone by their former contractor – will be waiting to latch onto professionals. Smart contractors will network with other smart contractors and trainers to get even better. Sounds like emerging opportunity to me. Sounds like a New Year worth celebrating after all.

Never Too Late

2010-12-16T07:59:00.000-06:00

“Never too late” is what many of you told me about the last editorial. Indeed it isn’t. It’s never too late to teach your children, nor to learn from them, nor to be a kid again.

Got some fabulous responses from you, including Mark Onuffer who said,

“I think the biggest thing my children have taught me is that you can have children today with their morals, thoughts, and direction in the right place. They have developed into an upstanding young man and woman, by making the right choices, using their minds and their common sense. I am very proud of them.”

Good to hear. If you watch much VHI, you’ll find that Mark’s first comment is a well-grounded concern!

Offering encouragement to those with children about to leave the nest, Deborah Strafuss said,

“Communication happens across many miles, without words. Stay connected, stay open, be accepting, always be who you are – they will always come back to connect and check in.”

Great advice. And with any luck, they’ll remember where to send the checks.

Yet, in a response mostly likely to cause a grown man to well a tear, came this…

As I leafed through dozens of kind responses, I came across this one. Stopped me cold, which turned into warmth. You’ll see.

“I learned from my son it is okay to be different. When he was 3 months old, he had a brain tumor removed that was about the size of an orange.

I was still in the Navy and the doctors said Ernie would never be this, and would never be that. They said he’d ‘always be dependent on someone else, that he’d always need someone to take care of him.’

He had it tough. Other kids picked on him. And all those things a father wants to teach their sons… to throw a ball, shoot some hoops and pass along what my father did for me, such as working with my hands. I could not do those things.

Yet I will say, the doctors were wrong on a couple points.

He is now 36 with children, working on his 2nd or 3rd Masters and working full time. He can look at a column of numbers and add them in his head faster than I can on a calculator. He may not walk or see well, but he has a good life and is happy.

He lives away now. He is independent. We talk often, but it is never enough. I first heard the song “Cats in the Cradle” bringing Ernie home from the hospital.

What a blessing it has been to have this gentle soul in our lives.

As fathers never really let go; but we must. I feel your pain and pride Adams; every day.”

Thank you, Dean Soliday for sending that message to all of us. I feel I’ve already unwrapped my present.

And lastly, it sounds like Kurt Wessling’s daughter may have the key to life when he wrote...

”My nine year old daughter is teaching me to relax. Not everything is so important. We we will get through the ‘stress’ in our life. Her advice to me is good: ‘Smile every day!"

When I think of children and Christmas, it brings a smile. For some, that smile changes from one based on the giddiness of an old man with a fantastic story named Santa, to the godliness of a young baby with an even more fantastic story named Jesus. Gifts from both, no matter your belief.

And part of our gift to you is to ask you to give something away, today. Give thanks to someone who’s not expecting it. Give encouragement to someone who needs it. Give time to listen to someone who feels they’ve run out of listeners.

Wherever you are, its’ never too late. Merry Christmas.

School’s Never Out for the Learner

2010-12-01T07:49:00.001-06:00

This can’t be right. My son is not really going off to college next year. Heck, it was only a year or so ago I was coaching him in baseball, when “winning” a game meant less than the snow cone that followed. For the record, I stopped coaching when the 9 year-olds had better strategy than I did.

Nope, he can’t be going off to college. Because it was only a few months back that I drove he and a friend to a dance, filled with anticipation and anxiety about actual dancing, or perchance a kiss. Giddy expectation, largely unspoken, filled the car.

Men – though deemed to have the emotional capacity of cauliflower – can sense these things. We just don’t talk it to death.

Surely, we’re not selecting colleges for my boy. Not the one for whom I was just shopping for the used truck that’s been in our driveway now for 2 years.

Fathers know, but find it hard to swallow. Those who work at working, selected to slay the dragon of financial stability and craft creation know: the time comes too quickly. We were even repeatedly warned, “the time will come too quickly.”

But as with our universal inability to ask directions when clearly lost, we admit and accept not. Our inner pioneer is either comparatively blind or comparatively naïve, “It’ll be different; We’ll figure it out. I’ve got time.” It kind of was; we sort of did; time is up.

Now, with swelled pride I watch this accomplished high school senior weave through the college maze. Yet I also hear faint strains of Cats in the Cradle in the background. A man knows.

Here’s hoping he becomes famously wealthy in record time so he can support me and my eternally-patient wife in a lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed.

Click for: 3 Lessons My Children Taught Me, 2 Lessons I hope I taught them, and 1 We All Keep Re-Learning

3 Lessons My Children Taught Me

1. “This isn’t your childhood; you already had yours.” We have all seen other parents “living vicariously” through their kids, which – to me – is a nice way of saying, “Hey, I was a loser, so I’m going to FORCE you to correct my mistakes!” This of course, renders them a bigger loser. Will they ever learn? I once found myself attempting to create a museum-quality display “with” my son for a 5th grade project. I reeled back, seeing my own horrifically ill-designed volcanoes, and decided: it’s his grade, not mine. Thankfully, this extracted me from all future projects, except for the semi-regular mad dash to Hobby Lobby 7 seconds before they closed because the project was “just remembered”.

2. “The degree to which you object now is likely the identical degree to which your parents objected then. So how’d that work out?” Oh shut up. Next question please.

3. It is possible to learn new levels of love, understanding, and patience. Gandhi would be proud. When you’re young, you love your mother, and probably your dog. Then you love your spouse. And you think that’s it. Then your children come along, and a whole new wave of capacity appears. If you’re really fortunate, you recognize that God loved you enough for any of this to happen in the first place.

2 Lessons I Hope I Taught Them

1. It’s good to experiment. No, not with drugs or seeing if pregnancy will REALLY happen, but combine things that are not often combined. The “norm” really isn’t. Poke at an old problem with a new solution; who says you “shouldn’t” wear a t-shirt under a short-sleeved shirt? Try the oysters for crying out loud (my son once tasted dog food, of his own volition, when we were actually cooking steak that same night). Kids are going to experiment. I say let ‘em. Better with clothes and hairstyles than with car keys and alcohol.

2. Persuasion, Influence, and Decisions form your life. Maybe you should learn how to direct them, instead of being directed by them. This is a gray matter subject at best. I hope my children know what is trying to get “sold” to them and more importantly, how. Further, strong stands are often for movie heroes only, so I hope they understand that deftly-guided influence works as well, at a lower blood pressure.

1 Lesson We All Keep Relearning

1. Other people are really strange. Good thing we’re perfectly normal.

Yes, my son really is going to college. He’s naturally smart, handsome, comes from unflawed genetics, all that. So if you head the endowment at a high-caliber college where scholarship money flows onto the manicured grounds, send a link to your application. I’ll get back with you, soon as I face the fact that this is really happening.

Your Turn:

What Lessons Did Your Children Teach You?

Do any of your children work with you? What lessons are YOU learning from that?

Social Networking: Business Builder or Time Waster?

2010-11-04T12:04:00.002-05:00

Last time, I mentioned the frightening reality of seeing 191 Facebook invitations. Even scarier than that many people pretending to be my friend is that many were people I’d not heard from since we “accidentally” swirled their head in the toilet in 7th grade.

I’d suggested ‘splitting’ the Social presence to a) Friends, family and b) Business. Then, my marketing mind and all 3 of its neurons went a step farther:

Seemed wise to take a poll on the contractor business case for Social Networking. And we got the responses. Oh man, we got responses. Some were a little ‘heated’. At least one was likely from toilet-swirl head himself.

Controversy forces truth and helps affirm belief. So, among the contractor readers out there, one thing came through loud and clear.

And that was a general belief that Social Media is a big ol’...well, you can insert your own word there.

Not so fast. There are a couple warnings - -

Do not defend the personal case for Social Media after reading this. I get it. Totally valuable within limits, each can define their own.

If connecting with family, linking with old friends, or a video of you going into a spasmodic fit after shooting Dream Whip up your nose “works” for you, go for it.

Yet if you disagree with the assessment or have an angle to share, we’d love to hear it. Link below.

The Results Are In. And they aren’t that pretty…

Here are the questions and the answers.

1. I think Social Networking is a great way to stay connected and I do not distinguish between business and personal. We’re all one big happy wedgie.

Agree: 11%
Disagree: 82%
Other: 7%

2. I think Social Networking is a great way to stay connected and I DO try to maintain distinctions between business and personal.

Agree: 73%
Disagree: 21%
Other: 6%

Conclusion Questions 1 and 2: Clearly, a separation of personal and commerce exists, should exist. Recommended: Create user groups for your business.

3. I believe Social Networking has brought us/the company more business.

Agree: 14%
Disagree: 46%
Other: 40%

Conclusion Question 3: A full 85.5% said they either ‘did not’ get sales or what they got was a waste of time.

Worthy pursuit from this conclusion: Find those who get sales without spending disproportionate time.

4. I believe Social Networking is mostly a colossal waste of time, brain cells, a contributor to A.D.D., and possibly a drop in GNP.

Agree: 34%
Disagree: 51%
Other: 15%

Conclusion Question 4: Between 50% and 100% more respondents felt Social Networking was either a waste of time or virtually impossible to determine.

5. I’d like to see how to engage Social Media for my business with a good ROI relative to money AND time spent.

Agree: 88%
Disagree: 6%
Other: 6%

Conclusion Question 5: 8 times more want this ‘ideal’ but are unclear how to get it. We’ve already got the solution framework laid out. “Automation” without mind-numbing input and resource waste is critical. We’ve hired a couple experts and vendors to complete. Contact us if you have input for this.

What is most obvious: Contractors ‘want’ to engage, ‘see’ the need to engage. Yet sort of like going door-to-door and ‘effectively engaging’ with the entire city, the time investment is currently unvalidated.

Therefore: have a presence, link between Facebook and Twitter accounts, change your pages daily, spend less than 20 minutes per day on this.

The Anti-Social Network

2010-10-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

Just in time for Halloween, I re-activated my Facebook account. Talk about scary. Since I’d “forgotten” to post anything for the last 8 months, somehow 191 invitations piled up. And we’re not even to the scary part.

While wading through invitations, I attempted efficiency. And in my first ‘re-post’ announcing my new-found efficiency method, I ticked off the Facebook community.

What I meant to do was separate my business life and personal life.

I just felt that the business community didn’t really care about seeing a photo of me wearing a cute but overly large cowboy hat while in my underpants. Especially since I was 32 at the time.

Let this be a lesson to all those who “thought” the job interview went great, but the call-backs went strangely silent. That video of you on stage at the Marilyn Manson concert holds a clue to your spate of unfruitful interviews.

Anyway, when I posted about separating the two worlds, and my ‘limited’ acceptance of friends, some were annoyed. Yet I believe there are…

4 Facebook ‘Friend’ Segments:

1. People who you’ve lost contact with, and are sincerely happy to have them ‘linked’ into your life.

2. People you’ve lost contact with, that you frankly don’t miss.

3. People you sort of knew, but considered anti-social, weird, a little too into Star-Wars, and most likely to be wearing footed pajamas well into their 30’s.

4. The Unabomber

I really only want to stay in touch with Group 1, and might stretch to Group 2 for entertainment only. Yet some users “collect” friends, like baseball cards or matchbooks (with similar emotional investment) so they can proclaim, “I have 7,812 friends on Facebook!”

This elicits jealously among those in footed pajamas, causing them to rewatch the entire Star Wars trilogy – or my preference, its eulogy – during which they begin “friending” people they haven’t seen since the entire 5th grade gave them a wedgie of galactic proportions.

Thus the reason I got so many invitations.

I half considered starting an Anti-Social Network where those with fewer followers are revered.

Now to the business sector. Mixing B2B and Social Media (aside from LinkedIn) is often viewed as handing out business cards at a funeral: you just don’t do it.

Yet there are clever ways to achieve social networking goals and business goals simultaneously without revealing too much “Personal” and without being an overly promotional buffoon.

Next time I’ll share the Business Side of Social Networking.

Midterm Mindlessness

2010-10-06T10:34:00.002-05:00

With midterm elections just around the corner, the political rhetoric has been ratcheted up a few billion notches. And in case you missed it, the focus seems to be on our still-lagging economy. If I hear one more political ad promising the complete and total turnaround of the U.S. economy within 24 hours of electing Joe Schmoe, I may just have to start a campaign of my own. Why?

I’m as sick of the economic non-news as you are. (Part of the reason its called “NEWS” is something in it should “NEW”.) I’ll go so far as to say the following, which could cause a flurry of hate-mail being sent my way.

There’s no point in crying about the newest Economic non-news, especially if…

1. We start looking at what’s more important in life than money. How can it be bad to return focus on family, simplicity, and doing without meaningless clutter? Gosh, we might read a book instead of forking over $50 to go to the movies. Which one could “enrich” you in two ways?

2. We remember that if we weren’t selling our stocks or homes when they were “up”, why in the world would we become anxious in contemplation of doing so when they’re down?

3. We recognize that the “value” of our gains was merely “potential” value, only becoming realistic if sold. Big difference between “potentially” and “realistically”. Potentially your service van can compete in the Indy 500. Realistically, you’d be better off on foot.

4. Embrace the “C” word. I’ve yet to see homeowners go without heat, or plumbing, or electricity. Be very thankful you’re in your field of work, and that commodity is not a four-letter word. And more importantly…

5. Just be thankful, period. You’ve got health, or the hope of improvement, plus family, friends, and faith in better days ahead. Even what Americans call “poverty” materially dwarfs 70% of the rest of the world. We need to show less attitude, more gratitude.

6. All this stuff is God’s anyway. We’re just renting it. (Some of us a little behind on the payments perhaps.) Regardless of your faith or belief, there’s a pretty decent chance you believe someone other than man made the earth, its resources, its glory. Further, I’ll imagine you’ve yet to figure out a way to take it with you when you’re gone. Want what you have.

If THIS is what the economic turmoil brings us, bring it on. It’s here anyway; neither you nor I caused it; we can only control how we respond.

A choice, as I see it. Now go share some good news. There’s plenty enough to go around.

Thoughts and considerations –

1. Do you have ONE PERSON you’d like to thank? I bet more than one. Why not ‘pay out’ with some thanks to somebody who could use it? Pretty darn easy to. Click here to get started.

2. Do you have a whole BUNCH of people you’d like to thank at one time? Like, um, maybe YOUR CUSTOMERS? We have contractor Holiday Cards available again this year.

3. Would you like to triple your market penetration for pennies? Check out the radius marketing program through Express Copy.

2010-09-24T12:18:00.003-05:00

In Proverbs we are told that the wise learn from the mistakes of others. Using this method, I must be a fantastic teacher.
Mistakes are powerful lesson builders. Nowhere is this more evident than when you a) Measure everything, b) Are in the “Marketing for ROI” business, and c) Have teenage children in your household.

Email marketing inherently brings mistakes. Since it’s free and everyone can send an email, you see both wise and idiotic marketing side-by-side. Usually the higher the media cost the higher the research and testing.

Yet the wise have certainly learned from the mistakes, testing multiple email methods to maximize results.

Here’s what a 4 year study from the minds of MarketingSherpa in a multi-million dollar test updated June 2010 says are do’s and don’ts that are costing you big time. There were dozens but I condensed it to The TOP 9 EMAIL MISTAKES from Contractors. A few of these are shockers.

• The “From” line: How many emails do you send with your company in the “From” area, thinking, “Hey, they know me and my company, so this is a good, trustable source?” WRONG. One of the primary strengths of email is being “personal”, so making the “from” box appear personal is the exact same advice behind “blind” or “shielded” Direct Mail envelopes. (As your PowerPack advised you years ago!) Personal emails get read first, many company ones are trashed instantly. Get in that first group.

• Remain consistently “known”: Often a company will send an email from the salesperson, then from the CSR, then from accounting, then back to the the tech to confirm an appointment. BAD IDEA. Finally, the branders ‘win’ one, but we knew this one anyway. It is better to have either a) consistent spokesperson communicating in the ‘from’ line by name, OR b) “customer service”@, OR c) Something creative like, “TheDreamTeam@”.

• Watch the “Subject Line” Branding Attempts: Have you been told by the “experts” that putting your company name in the subject line is a good branding idea? WRONG. Findings from the research team indicated, “This single mistake sends response rates tumbling.” Another shot in the ‘branding’ vs. ‘direct response’ marketers mini-war.

• Subject Lines RULE Open Rates: Are you sending emails without thought to the Subject line? Are you ‘salesy’ sounding things like, “Check this out” or “We have some great deals”? KISS OF DEATH. Fact: the highest paid group in all of marketing are Direct Response copywriters. Within that, are the elite “headline” writers whose fees can be in the thousands per hour. Yes, per hour. Their trade has ballooned by writing emails that get opened, and that dear friends is from “Subject Lines” since they are the ‘headline’ of your email. I save the emails I get with the best ‘Subject’ lines, and have for years.

A Hint: Novelty, entertainment, intrigue, question, controversy ALL outpull the corporate ego schlock everyone else is sending.

• Subject Line Brevity: I got a subject line this week that said: “Come By Our Booth at Comfortech to See the New ” Really UnSmart. Due to the various pane previewers out there, most can’t even SEE more than about 30 characters. Keep Subject lines under 40 characters.

•Formatting Nightmares: We all get emails in two basic forms: HTML (graphics, formatting) and plain text (plain and legible). But which is better? This battle has raged on like, “Is it Lady Gaga or Lotta Gaggy?” The answer is finally here.
Send in HTML but with very plain graphics. Why? The test showed that high graphics – though nice to see – slowed emails, reduced opens, and appeared as ‘blanks’ more often. And thought Plain Text gets read more often, it does NOT share stats like HTML. Thus, the “hybrid” model. (If you send in MIME format, your emails will be sent in both formats, but you’re still cautioned against high graphic emails.)

• Common Link Mistakes: Lazy marketers or unaware contractors often send links that are more than one line long, causing it to slip to the next line, rendering unopenable except by cutting and pasting. Response Killer. Avoid link-wrapping and long tracking links.

• Prefix Disaster. Lots of email senders think its “old fashioned” to include the http:// because you don’t need it. HOGWASH. Include the ‘http’ because larger providers won’t present your link as “live” without the URL. Give the full prefix or expect a far lower open rate.

• Readership List Death. Many business owners felt that “cheap” or “free” meant “smart” in their corporate communications. So many swapped out product announcements, home show appearances, and newsletters from hard mail or traditional “paid” media to email. The study showed two things happened, both bad.

First, email is to be short or linked to a longer subject like we do in SMI. When the email was long, it was summarily discarded. (We reported this in SMI over two years ago.)

Second, since email is known to be cheap and fast, customers saw company information delivered this way as cheap, thus deletable. (How “warm” do you feel when you get an e-birthday card vs. a mailed one? Just checking.)

Research shows that mailed vs. emailed gets higher open rates, better branding, imaging, and most importantly higher response rates. The study showed between 4 and 22 times the response rate for a variety of items from the same company, for same product, to same list. Pretty good test.

Hudson, Ink recommends (this was not in the study) that you send short, content-rich emails to your broad “free” list, linking them to a longer article or product info within that email. Then supplement your email communication to your “paid” list (customers) with real mail. This way, you’re communicating both ways to the higher value list members.

We have seen response rates actually increase over the past 2 years with traditional “real” mail. (Same as the now-famous Wall Street Journal article on Direct Mail versus Email response.)

So if you’re going to use email – and you should – use it well.

So there you have it. Keep this list. Forward to a friend. You just saw how to make all the emails you send get opened more, read more, and pull better.

The Real Wealth in Contracting

2010-08-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Hallelujah. We now have a kitchen. Or most of one. At least I have a sink where I can wash my coffee cup without first having to remove some ladies' undergarment apparatus from Woolite. (Once it took me nearly two hours to untangle a halter top that had some origami kind of twisted front. I still don’t know if I got it right.)

We can now cook food in something other than a microwave. Since my teenagers eat roughly 11 meals per day, our home – when viewed from Google Earth – looks like a glow stick.

My refrigerator is no longer stylishly perched in the entrance hall, seemingly saying to guests, “Hi, welcome to our home. Please have some butter.”

And tracing my 12 weeks of family torment back to where it all began, we are once and for all…

Formica-less.

I hadn’t realized the kitchen design embarrassment my wife had endured all these years. The indestructible Formica had served us well, though it was potentially more suited to the Space Shuttle belly pan.

We now have quartz and marble countertops. Yet with manufacturing cleverness, they could be reconstituted Formica made to look like other materials, only priced 400 times higher. In fact many “hardwood floors” are really Formica with different names, same as many politicians.

Though my first home cost less than this renovation (I have no idea if that’s true, but you must make this type comment so others will do the “renovation gasp”) my wife is happy. And that counts for everything (unless you’re attracted to misery, punishment, weeping, gnashing of teeth, and sleeping in the yard).

You should be excellent at a) getting and creating “happy” customers, and b) committed to keeping those customers. Sure, you can have a “satisfied” customer and “hope” they call you back, but that’s so yesterday, so basic, so not you.

Though your job skills are important, no skill is more important than getting and keeping the customer. Why?

What value are your skills without customers? In this economy, not much. A fantastic plumber with no work is heading toward being broke. An “okay” plumber good at keeping customers and with a constant 2 week backlog is heading towards wealth.

You’ve got to be more than “just” skilled. Things have changed.

Here’s How The Contractors Fared, And Who Is Most Likely
To Take Their Business To The Next Level…

• The GC – Stayed in touch after he did a smallish bathroom job for our daughter’s room. He stayed busy while others moaned, and remembered to keep the pipeline full by treating ‘past’ jobs as ‘current’ customers. Smart. He scored this job and has a nice backlog of work. 2009 was his best year ever. Grade A

• The Plumber – Did fine work. However, he never said his name, never left a card, never asked to look at other plumbing issues in the house. We had to be reminded he was the plumber on the previous bathroom job. Guess he doesn’t care that we have plumbing in rooms other than the kitchen, or neighbors, all in 100 year old houses. He just does his work, disappears, hopes. Hard to call or refer a phantom. Grade D-

• Electrician – Did fine work. Uniforms, truck signage, left a card on every visit, we get his newsletter, postcards. Also called behind the work to check. Subsequently (and I’m no big customer) this company has done Hudson Ink’s 3 commercial properties, a warehouse, another house, and neighbors on both sides. Grade A

• Floor Dudes – Did ‘fair’ work. Has the people skills of a bruised turnip. Swept sawdust into our new floor vents, like we didn’t notice. Lucky they didn’t come on while the floor was wet. Fast, rushed, left zero company info, never called back to check or make good on the misstep. Our house and offices all have hardwood, as do all our neighbors. Oh well. Guess they don’t need more customers. Grade D

• Painters – Neatest painters I’ve ever seen. Cleaned up daily. Left swatches, mixed custom batches, really exceptional. To their discredit, never checked to see that we have other walls, or that I was planning to repaint our office façade, like I do every year. Even the company that did that job last year disappeared too. Never called, emailed, recontacted, nothing. I have no idea who it was. Guess I’ll just Google for painters. Grade C

• Countertop/Cabinet Contractors – Fabulous work. My wife’s birthday was during this time, asked if the marble could at least be ‘set’ while she was away as a surprise. They willingly complied, did an excellent job going “one step beyond”. I won’t forget that, nor them. They left company info and called after both jobs, Recontact works folks. Grade A

You may notice that the grades have little correlation to the quality of work. They have everything to do with getting called, referred, or remembered by a good “retained” customer. Recontacting customers means you’re keeping them by keeping yourself relevant.

A message from your customers to you: We’re paying customers. You paid to earn us. We want to remember you, call you, refer you, buy more from you, but need your help. Please don’t ignore us.

Once you’ve gotten a customer, your most important job is to keep that customer.

Getting Perpetual Traffic to Your Website: Google’s New Little Secret That Has Changed the Rules

2010-08-04T08:47:00.000-05:00

Were these the good ol’ days? Back when Yellow Pages were the dominant marketing resource for contractors (around the Paleozoic era, just before Larry King’s birth) basically all you had to know is –

How big of an ad can I get for how much money?

After that, the Yellow Pages would design an ad that looked shockingly like every other ad in the book, and overcharge you mightily. If you paid more for more years, you got closer to the front of the section (whoopdee!). If you resisted, they would break your legs and call you names. It was a simpler time.

Though Yellow Page lookups have plummeted (down 24% in last 48 months, a precipitous decline – the online SuperPages not doing much better), they’re not dead. Yet a good bit of their viability has been drained by…

The internet. Okay, let’s call it Google. (You can suggest Yahoo, Bing, or Ask, but Google has 71.63% of the market according to Hitwise.com.) When you own the cards and the chips, you get to make the rules. Enter SEO.

Before the internet, we had to go based on “who was reading or watching what”. Now, we must get psycho-graphic and determine “What questions are prospects asking before they find me?”

In essence, this is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

So, everyone began looking at keywords, search strings, relevance, and recency as methods to be “found” on the internet. Changes here are near constant. Case in point - -

There are 3 hugely popular SEO myths that DO NOT WORK anymore, and one ‘secret’ Google revision that has really changed rankings.

3 Popular Phrases that are Totally False today:

1. If you build it they will come. No they won’t. Let me rephrase this. “If you build it, you will be charged.” Basically, you can build the Taj Mahal of websites but if no one can find you, what was the point? Do not let your web designer “forget” to include SEO as one of the main reasons you’re investing.

2. Content is King. Content used to be King, but has now become a second Lieutenant. It is still very attractive, but can be overwhelming. Content per site is actually shrinking. The new “King” is activity (thanks Google!). More in a moment.

3. Being ranked first means you have the best site. No, it means you have the most “findable” site in that search string. I’d rather finish 3rd-5th in ranking (still top half of screen, first page) and have the most conversions. Even though I’m a lead junkie, I’d rather have closeable leads than window shoppers.

With that out of the way, what is working now?

Through Google Analytics, find how people are finding you. Easy to go to www.google.com/Analytics and see where you rank in your chosen words.

Keyword Check: Are your ‘best’ words used throughout your site? In your Title, Meta Tags and Head tags? Now check density of word usage. If “Plumbing in Sacramento” is a search string, then use that phrase early per page, and up to 3 times per 300 words.

Keyword tip everybody misses: DO NOT just post an image on your site with some undecipherable code. Place keywords in the ALT Tags for all your images. You’ll thank me later.

Video is more “active” than text. Label your videos, title it for relevance among hopeful viewers.

What are the top pages on your site now? Look for commonalities on those pages to see why they get more visits. Apply these tactics to your conversion pages.

Index Status: Check whether your website has been indexed by major search engines. If it is not indexed, all this SEO focus is pointless.

Are you socially acceptable? Put links to Twitter and FaceBook on your website, and cross link from them back to your site. Completely fill out your profiles, again using keywords as appropriate.

Blog your little fanny off. A weekly ‘editorial’ is really a blog, and that can be posted on Blogspot.com

Backlink check: When a link to you starts on another site and points to you, that’s a backlink. Getting quality backlinks is critical. So get listed in directories, post on related forums, get quoted in blogs and submit your articles to directories. Check backlinkbuilder.com. I do not recommend ‘buying’ backlinks. Dangerous territory.

Google’s Most Recent “Change” that will put money in your pocket. Get ready. Where you used to be able to get ‘found’ on static content, now Google ranks “activity” on your site. This means as you gain popularity… you gain findability. I know, it’s the chicken and the egg thing. Easiest thing to do is stay active. Add links, add articles, add posts, add customer reviews, update news, change dates, Tweet like an over-caffeinated canary, add video, post your printed newsletter on your website.

Kitchen Nightmares

2010-07-21T07:51:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know, we’re redoing our kitchen. Someone forgot to tell me that when contractors remove your kitchen, the upheaval is only slightly less than if you sold your vital organs.

Rethinking that, since I’ve now consumed more than 300 of each variety of microwave dinners (said appliance on a piano bench in my living room), I would gladly trade my spleen for a completed kitchen.

Since we’ve no provision for doing dishes, which I’d initially thought was a huge benefit, we invested in plastic utensils. One package contains enough flatware to satisfy all the spitball shooting fourth graders in America until 2012.

Note to the plastic utensil manufacturing industry: they don’t work. A photograph of a knife and fork actually outperforms this stuff. The spoons work on room temperature items only. They snap attempting to move one shaving of ice cream and melt in soup like Uri Geller stared at them. The fourth graders have discovered the only true use for your products.

So, as a family, we now eat scalding microwave synthesized food with our hands. This means we scream and growl during dinner. This renovation has erased millions of years of evolution in eight weeks.

Also realize that this “no dishwashing provision” means that plates, glasses, and the occasional serving dish must now be cleaned in our laundry sink. I have now actually seen some type of ladies undergarment apparatus soaking with a piece of pasta and ricotta floating nearby. I almost gave up Italian food on the spot, but regained my senses. Further, I could easily gross you out with the little fudge ripple incident, but I won’t.

Now, onto the contractors.

The General Contractor has been great. I keep wanting to say something small-minded and bitterly satirical (my specialty) but – darn the luck – he keeps doing good work. Yet some subs have had slip ups. In no order, here you go - -

Electrical – As mentioned earlier, this is the ONLY company that landed on all three “lists”. (See the SMI, May 12, 2010 editorial). I also shared how they did it (See the SMI, May 24, 2010 issue.) These people’s prices make most jewelry stores look like thrift shops, but they’re good, reliable, fair and – here’s the kicker – highly professional. Quite unlike the…

Floor People – Far as I can tell, our hardwood floors needed sanding, staining, and clearing. Not exactly nuclear fusion. The only real skill test was matching the color to the other floors in the house. When they arrived at 8:02 one morning, bucket and brushes in hand for this step, I asked one question, “Is that the same color as the rest of the house?” This person, who appeared to have been tossed out of a Wolf Mother concert, never looked up and said, “I think its close.” That’s a quote. By 8:12, he’d left and I’d yet to reattach my jaw. The floor didn’t match. They promised their next coat would. We’ll see.

HVAC guys – They had to move a couple floor registers and build some new ductwork. They came on time, were orderly, but flubbed up one hole. Instead of making excuses, they fixed the problem. They did outstanding work, and impressed me mightily with this: they quoted me on an equipment upgrade using the tax credit, plus have re-contacted me twice to pursue once the kitchen was complete. Excellent selling by these guys. This professional upsell is worth about $6 grand of pure genius. In contrast to the…

Plumbers – Great technicians, but their business manner makes me wonder if they were raised with bi-polar jackals. They’d measure and cut perfect holes for their feed and waste lines… then ream them beyond recognition to fit the pipes. They put gorgeous copper piping behind the walls… then put a USED PVC as the trap line we’d see under the sink. (Honestly, it looked like scrap that washed here from Katrina.) They watched as the contractor gingerly slid a 650 pound oven over protective plywood as not to scratch the floor. Yet they dragged the new dishwasher over the same floor like a reluctant pit bull. The parallel grooves in our ‘new’ floor resemble the tri-oval at Darlington.

So they get to pay to redo the floors. In so doing, they’ll “throw away” half their net profit because they failed to put down a piece of plywood. Ridiculous. My wife was fairly sick about this.

If you’ll read closely, you’ll see that the “problems” were often not the craft; nor were the “solutions”. Neatness matters. Professionalism matters. Showing up on time counts. Accepting a mistake is remembered. The bare minimum is for you to do your craft well. What sets you apart is crafting yourself well.

To paraphrase long-time sage consultant Ron Smith: You don’t just fix the problem; you fix the customer.

Stay tuned.

Questions for you:

What can you do, starting today, that proves to a homeowner that you are different? (Think neatness, clarity, protecting property, cleanliness and proving it.)

What do other professionals in your town do – in any trade – that demonstrates true professionalism? What can you model?

Sales Meets Marketing

2010-07-08T09:03:00.001-05:00

Marketing is a method by which sales opportunities are created. Marketing can bring you the leads, but if you can’t close ‘em, what’s the point?

I interviewed a young man for a marketing job the other day. He contended that his sales experience translated into marketing prowess. Not so fast…

I told him, without attaching superiority to either skill, it was like comparing a tournament fisherman to a commercial fisherman. One is more event focused; the other more process focused; both generate fish, or in this young man’s case, sales.

For the best salespeople, their skills are not natural. They’re trained – and train others – to sense when a buyer is in suspended disbelief (a good state by the way) or when they’re eager for you to get to the price. They’re trained to recognize when they’ve pushed internal ‘buy’ buttons, and need to bring out the proposal that second. The transition to the proposal should look as natural as breathing. Yet it’s ordered, intentional, and studied.

You can’t get this good by “winging it.” Training is the only way. It helps improve our marketing to homeowners and it’ll help you close more sales, at higher prices. Here’s how:

 Share your Summer marketing promotions with the entire staff at a weekly meeting. For July it could be your Summer Postcard Retention campaign. August can be an end-of-season Replacement Lead Generation. A simple plan is better than no plan.

 During the meeting, all must know where the ads are running. Make sure to “offer” details and deadlines (if you don’t use deadlines or limits, you’re losing lots of leads). Nothing is worse than a customer service representative (CSR) getting a call from an excited homeowner grasping a hot letter and responding, “I don’t have a clue what you’re referring to.” Buzz kill.

 All techs, salespeople, and CSRs must know your intended upsell for each offer. For example, water filtration from a leaking pipe, or an IAQ inspection that’s included with any service, or the maintenance agreement package included with an equipment upgrade. The logic is that if they enter the home with no upsell then they’ll either leave with either a standard or no sale. If given an upsell, they get one more level to raise average transaction size.

 Whether these sales close or not, you must follow up. Your CSRs and eager salespeople will follow up with a planned script to make sure needs are met, more information given, and referrals requested. The credibility gained by doing this – sale or no sale – guarantees your differentiation and future calls.

 Extra Sales Bump: The last sales follow-up comes back to marketing. This is where you send what I call the “unclosed prospect letter” to all fitting the description. We’ve offered this to clients for the past few years – though you can create your own – and their average sales rate from sending it is 4%.

See, it’s an intentional system. Whatever you’re offering this Summer, marketing and sales must work like a team. When they’re unified, the effect compounds to maximize leads, closing ratios, transaction sizes, and referral rates.

As you go through this Summer, you’ve got some economic jitters to contend with, and those are more easily overcome with planned sales responses. Likewise, your marketing can allay those fears, and as discussed here before, your marketing – not your retreat – will be more important this Summer than ever.

Let your sales and marketing combine its muscle to bring you more leads, richer sales, and happier customers. It’d be our pleasure to help you do that, now it’s up to you to do the rest.

Think You Got Some Bugs in Your Customer Service?

2010-06-23T09:52:00.001-05:00

For the most part, our other copywriter Jessica is easy-going. She’s very contemplative, enjoys verbal jousting, has a great sense of humor and a quick wit. The best of copywriter traits.

That said, she’s not exactly a pushover. Once a very thin line is crossed, her inner calm turns into an enraged lion with venomous snakes for hair. (Did I mention Jessica was female too?)

Fortunately – for national safety – this rarely happens. Yet in what is turning out to be the “Best Worst Customer Service Story of 2010” (no applause yet, we’re only half way through the year, and we’re renovating our kitchen, remember?), Jessica’s line was crossed.

Oh, and I think you’ll be more than a little entertained to hear what happened next, in her own words. Customer Service lessons in abundance.

How NOT to Do Customer Service

By Jessica “I ain’t taking this anymore” Knight

My sister, brother-in-law and I woke on a beautiful Saturday to go to the “big city” for shopping and massages. A few hours later, not only were our muscles gloriously melted from the spa treatment, but our arms were filled with clothes, and most importantly, fabulous new shoes.

Since shopping and massages are so tiring, it was obviously time to hit our favorite Italian restaurant. Side note: I cannot eat pasta. So going to an Italian restaurant may sound like the dumbest idea since the doggie Snuggie (it’s real – look it up), but this restaurant will substitute pasta for grilled vegetables. Plus, the food is always fantastic. Decision made.

We walked in and were quickly seated by the overly-perky hostess who proceeded to knock a full bottle of olive oil onto my shirt. As I watched my shirt soak up enough oil to blame BP, I looked up for her response. It was one word long: “Oh”.

No apology, no wet nap, no oil boom, nothing. Mentally, I registered her disregard. So, greasy but undaunted, I spent the next 10 minutes in the bathroom drying the oil so I wouldn’t ignite when they lit the table candles.

Soon enough, our food comes. Oh joy. After a few bites I grab for my water, and there bobbing in the ice cubes, is a bug. We’re not talking about a gnat…we’re talking about an actual roach doing the backstroke in my water. This ain’t good.

Given my recently dismissed oil issue and now this, I politely and calmly called for the manager.

Now contractors, put yourself in my new, fabulous, shoes for a moment. A customer has a setback, then another, and now he or she is asking for you. You can either shine and be their hero… or you can spiral this thing out of control.

When the manager arrives, I explain the situation about the bug and the uncapped oil spill. As a repeat customer, my only “intention” was to a) Alert him to the problem(s) and b) Get a new glass of water. His reaction?

If you’re expecting an apology and, “Let me get you another drink and some napkins,” or even comping the meal, prepare to be shocked. His real response was to shout, “You’re not getting your food for free!” He was inching toward the line. Snakes were indeed beginning to grow out of my newly coiffed hair.

I gathered enough resolve to re-explain the oil slick and roach, and that I only asked for a glass of water. Once I had, he escalated his own crumbling position with, “I think you have an attitude problem.”

Unleash the lion.

In as good an Al Pacino as a lady can do, I said, “You think I have an attitude problem? Nope. I’m about to demonstrate an attitude problem for you.”

That’s when I stood and walked to the six tables surrounding ours, to start six conversations that all began with:

“Do you see this roach in my drink? The manager (my attitude induced finger pointing) doesn’t think this is a problem. Do you?” Snarls and gaggery ensued.

Half the tables got up and left, including a party of 9. I sat down, my performance now over. We gathered our things and as I departed I mentioned to the properly horrified manager, who’s repulsive non customer service attitude had just cost him at least $1500, “Now that was an attitude problem.” And we left, never to darken his door again, all because of a glass of water.

Let’s be sane here. People – your people, my people, others – are going to make mistakes. But the response is what makes all the difference.

In this case, the manager could’ve replaced the water, shared my feelings, and offered to pay for whatever laundry bill to clean the shirt. I’d have been happy. If he’d also offered to comp my meal (all of $17) I’d have been overjoyed. A wise manager would’ve done so instantly.

Yet the greedy and uncaring manger lost 3 additional tables, wads of Saturday night revenue and lost customers forever. As Adams has written many times, unhappy customers will tell 12 others their story. And that was before Social Media and the internet. Ooops.

Now your reputation is a few clicks away from being broadcast. An exponential increase to the damage can result in moments.

So if you leave a customer’s house a wreck, or don’t show up with the right materials, or have a dreaded “call back”, your reputation is on the line based on your reaction.

The lesson? Don’t be afraid to over correct. Spending more to save a customer and stem the bad word of mouth can save you (and make you) tons of money in the long run. Investing in your current and repeat customers generally has a better ROI than trying to replace them.

Bon appetit!

8 Wise Things That I Have Learned, Some of Them Just Yesterday

2010-06-09T09:23:00.002-05:00

Having had a birthday this week, I decided to assemble my list of wise sayings and observations. When you start seeing gray hair, you can do this too. This article has very little to do with marketing, except for the last one, so consider yourself warned.

If you don’t think birthdays are worth celebrating, try skipping one. Same goes for every day, including this one.
If your wife of 25 years asks you before you go out, “Are you wearing that?” this does not mean she’s been stricken blind. She essentially means “You look hopelessly unkempt, inappropriate, and stupid.” Your options are to a) change clothes or b) prepare to not stand next to her for the duration of said event. Either option can have advantages. I did not just say that.
The next time a company worth $40 billion asks for a permit to drill a hole in the earth, please ask if they can fill the hole they make. My sheetrock guy, carpenter, auto bodyman and dentist – who aren’t worth $40 billion - make holes and know how to patch them. They consider it part of their job, and would be insulted if you thought otherwise. Related to this…
I wouldn’t order any oysters until 2025. Or later.
When your teenage children drive you nuts because their moods are governed by tides on an evil and distant planet, remind yourself of this: Your tolerance of them now is in direct proportion to the tolerance they’ll have for you later when you’re telling them about gall bladder surgery. Again.
If you feel the need to make a smarty pants comment to a waiter or waitress, don’t do it until after your food has been served. If you are with someone who forgets this rule, make sure you order something significantly different from them. For instance, if you order soup and the rude person does too, you should immediately say, “I have a sudden craving for the flaming lamb kabobs instead.”
If you’re caught napping at your desk, the all time best response is, “… in his name we pray, amen.” Though a good response, if false, you may be punished more discreetly and severely that just being honest with your boss.
If you are Nike and your trillionaire client with a squeaky clean image seems to have misplaced his wedding vows, it is in poor taste – marketing or otherwise – to try and buy back public sympathy with an ad campaign featuring his deceased father. My advice: drop him. Just do it.

And so, since I’m sure there are tens of thousands of cards in the mail wishing me so, I’ll wish myself a happy birthday. See? Wisdom is knowing your audience.

Idea. Tools. Action. Results.

2010-05-26T09:49:00.005-05:00

I know tons of idea people. I generally like them, but when they say they’re “going to” do something, I don’t hold my breath. Before long, they’re onto the next thing, having talked themselves out of the idea’s implementation with any of the 467 reasons their last idea never got implemented either. Their inability has nothing to do with the merits of the idea, or their skill.

I know several tool people. They love gadgets, hardware, software, tools... doesn’t matter. “Things” are fun to research, consume, read about. They have deep, specific knowledge of skill. Many have closets and book shelves filled with the next thing that’s gonna change their life. Except life often gets in the way of using the tool for that purpose. Their inability has nothing to do with the tool or their recognition of its value.

I know far fewer action people. Some act first and think later, but as long as no one gets killed or fortunes get evaporated, no real harm done. Sometimes they confuse action with results. Experience often (but not always) guides them to get better at choosing opportunities. Their ability often comes with little core talent of the “craft” required to succeed, yet a great talent in confidence, persuasion, and team building.

Then there are the rare “results” people. They love outcome, feedback, improvement, measurement from before and after. They’re un-fun to be around if results are weak, but when the results “matter” (choose your definition) their joy and elation is contagious. The best don’t mind a fair critique, but their determination often overrides or makes them relatively immune to criticism. Their wisdom is often copying others’ proven results using similar input; their failure is thinking all the good results are ‘theirs’.

If the first two groups don’t recognize their need for the last two groups, inactivity becomes a death sentence. If the last two groups don’t see the value in the first two, they turn into opinionated, reckless blowhards. (Often setting them up for a career in politics.)

My Pollyanna point: It takes all these traits – rarely ever found in one body – to generate a model by which successes, fortunes, and world changes are formed. Sometimes just hearing about results inspires the rest of us to action.

At This Moment I Was Doomed

2010-05-12T09:35:00.001-05:00

We’re finally doing it. We’ve committed to ‘the deed’. And though I’ve been dreading it like getting an amateur colonoscopy, we’re finally redoing our kitchen.
When we moved into our lovable and creaky 1911 house, it had been ‘updated’. But that was when Seinfeld was the rage, most women’s hairdos appeared to be the result of electrocution, and cell phones were the size of microwaves. (Little known fact: Early models did cook bacon.)

Like most guys, my kitchen needs were limited to a 48 quart cooler and toaster oven, so I didn’t really “notice” any urgency to the cause. Yet after some nagging threats knives being pulled discussing this with my wife, I finally admitted that Formica – an indestructible product first used in Jane Jetson’s kitchen – may be slightly out of style.

At this moment, I was doomed.

Within seconds, designers and contractors swarmed my house. My silly question: How did countertops trigger a major renovation?

Because, you idiot, the cabinets upon which the Formica is cryogenically fused are stupid and clash with everything in the world. The new cabinets will then horribly outclass the wretched appliances including Harvest Gold HotPoint Double Oven which has grease stains older than Larry King. That’s how.

This is when you get a look that basically says, “I’m surprised you still remember to swallow after chewing.” I was dying a slow death here. A tip to those of you who still have Formica: Move. Save your marriage and just move.

When the swelling went down, we met with a registered Kitchen Designer. Of course, the “UN” registered ones are all in jail – or should be - for putting the trendy farm sink outside of the “preparation triangle”. You just don’t do this.

Within moments, the Designer had suggested moving doorways, installing thousands of can lights and updating to a stove bigger than my college apartment. It had big red knobs. Something called a “Pot Filler” was mentioned (a second uninvited college reference resurfaced. I kept it to myself). Lastly, white marble was to cover every surface, I think including the windows. I glanced at my wife who was in full kitchen lust. Tiny but appropriate froth formed at the corner of her mouth. I began scanning the classifieds for a night job.

Cue The Contractor

Last summer, we added a bathroom for my daughter and the contractor was excellent. Good quality, on time, on budget. We “mentioned” the kitchen then. Wisely, he was semi-regularly in touch, even though he stays booked when many contractors weren’t.

(Make a note people: “Call me if you decide to do something” isn’t good enough anymore. He knows there are many skilled contractors around; several prowl our neighborhood.) Once the appropriate lip froth was wiped away, he got the next phone call.

After he saw the initial plans it was determined that we’d need every subcontractor in the tri-states area, including those for trades that hadn’t been invented yet. Then things got interesting.

The designer had her list of subs, clearly influential here. (Take another note.) The contractor had a list. (Note again.) Now if your note-taking hand isn’t cramped… we did too.
Only one subcontractor was on all 3 lists. Guess what this contractor did differently than the others? Put your best guess in the comments section.

Yet there will be a parade of subs, some below $2,000 in work. At least 2 over $20,000. Not big money for many of you guys, but multiply it by all the work going on in your town now. Somebody’s getting it, because somebody’s on “the list”. My advice:

Be On “The List”

Over the next few issues, we’re going farther into the “referral chain” than I’ve ever revealed. There are free jobs in this methodology, but most contractors overlook it or think they “just happen”. They don’t. Coaching members, expect an upcoming call on this topic.

You can also TWEET the living heck out of me, where I give random updates as they happen… as long as my wife doesn’t kick me out of the house during 8 weeks with no kitchen.

Are You Running The Business – Or Is It Running You?

2010-05-12T09:32:00.000-05:00

My 16 year old daughter and her team just snagged a spot in the state track meet, and I, by proxy, am feeling pretty accomplished. My thinking is that those speedy genes came from somewhere and there’s at least a 50% chance that they came from me. Of course, just thinking about all of that running has me panting with exhaustion. So maybe the genes came from her mother’s side…

At any rate, running a contracting business gives you a great feeling of accomplishment and sometimes a great feeling of exhaustion! One of the biggest risks is that your attention is pulled in so many directions that you lose sight of the things needed for your survival. Like with a lot of things, the secret of success is no secret at all. To excel in business you will have to do the following three things (or your failure is relatively assured):

1.Technical proficiency: 78% of contractors come from trade or on-the-job training. Getting more training is needed to improve your technical proficiency AND to improve your ability to solve your customers’ problems. But your expertise here is useless in realizing your business goals without…
2.Effective Business Systems. This is about a little thing called money. Your financial and operations picture dictates how well or if you’re being paid well enough to stay afloat. Yet without sales, it doesn’t matter. Here’s why:
3.Marketing runs the machine, not the other way around. Your sales are directly related to your leads, which ARE your ads, and comprise much of your marketing efforts. If you have a problem with your sales, you must determine: is it a presentation problem, closing problem… or a problem with lead generation?
Good marketing brings in leads. But don’t let your understanding stop at that point. Marketing is not about getting more leads.

Wait a minute – did I hear myself correctly? Yes, I did. Effective marketing is not necessarily about getting more leads. It’s about getting the right leads. To know whether you’re getting the right leads, here are some other things you should consider:

•Cost per lead is paramount. Who cares if newspaper placement costs you $100 more if it brings you more leads per dollar? Don’t freak out about bigger postcards, first-class mail, or a bigger Yellow Pages ad. Review what the expense brings you. It’s an investment, remember?
•Fewer shoppers is very cool. When you do creative marketing, you are – by definition – making a creative offer that is typically not duplicatable. Thus, it’s unshoppable. Thus, you’ve just put yourself out of the “discounting” business to “get the job.” Please don’t make me write “thus” again, except for thus…
•Higher margins. Fewer shoppers and unique offering means you can ask and get more for your goods. Try 2%, or 5% more to start. My guess is that you won’t lose one single customer except for Mickey McCheap, and you’ve been trying to dump him for years. The rest is yours to keep. We write lead-generation ads that openly tout increased benefits without saying a word about how “cheap” the service is.
•Success through seasonal dips is what most contractors want. With great marketing, you can turn your leads off and on like a switch. HVAC, Electrical or Plumbing Agreements, system offerings during mild weather can generate repeatable income each year. Start with a tune-up or service ad first, never attempt to sell a Maintenance Agreement in broad-market media. That’s a loser. (Believe me, I know!)
•Better Ad rates, Better Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), More “Me, too” customers all result from a steady stream of good marketing pieces. Everything from a newspaper presence, yard sign visibility, lead-generating Yellow Page ads, postcards that stand out, Newsletters people actually read – it all adds up to smart marketing, real profit and, ultimately, a successful contracting business.

In this way, you run the business instead of it running you. Isn’t that the goal?

Driving Me Crazy

2010-04-14T09:58:00.000-05:00

Who could imagine that my ‘baby’ girl just turned 16? I remember when my wife told me ‘we’ were pregnant with this, our second child. I was driving the trusty Chrysler minivan (legally mandated for all young parents back then) on a heavy switchback road in western North Carolina called ‘tail of the dragon’ to give you an idea of the curviness.

In a car with sporting pretense, this is a dream road. A minivan on this road was like wearing a burlap bathing suit to the Queen’s coronation. Hardly appropriate. For several seconds after she told me, I was in stunned silence, mouth agape, almost plummeting into several ravines. A little personal aside:

We’d tried for 5 years to ‘finally’ get pregnant with our first child. Yet that little miracle was 10 months old in his car seat when she told me of the second. And this little girl has been regularly surprising ever since.

She’s an accomplished pianist, outstanding student, and has a smile that could melt cast iron. And like all dads of teenagers, I am stupider than a turtle on crack. (I’m waiting for that to change, hopefully before I’m too senile to appreciate it.)

Yet the real surprise of the day, is she is now a legal driver, piloting her very own (used) car. Wow. Another shocker was shopping for this car. Double wow.

Let’s just get this out into the open: Car dealers used to have a reputation slightly lower than most sewer rats or even plaintiff attorneys. Some of this was undeserved, but mostly it was because they were conniving, lecherous, money-grubbing deceitful organisms in snappy outfits.

In those days, you’d walk onto a car lot, looking for say, a nice used Caprice in the $12 grand range. An hour later, you’d drive out in a bent Cadillac Brougham with the Wayne Newton package and a payment book totaling $48,724. In your review mirror, a guy with a Televangelist hairdo and a white belt would be counting money that used to be yours.

Not any more.

Possibly due to being sued every 30 minutes for 20 years, car dealers wised up. Then CarFax came along, and the internet happened, and ‘reviews’ started. Then ebay, traderonline, cars.com, yahoocars and craigslist all illuminate the ‘global car lot’. (Hint: Same with your business today.) Prices, options, and reviews could be relentlessly shopped. Reputations got earned or lost far faster. (Ditto.)

My daughter narrowed her search to a particular year, color, and body style of Jeep. Mean old dad gave her a firm “do not exceed or bodily harm could ensue” price range. Luckily, this necessitated a diligent search. She’d come home from school and zero in on 3-4 cars daily that ‘fit’ most criteria, saving links for me to contact

Dutifully, I emailed each (24 in all) with the same message, same parameters. The responses and reactions varied wildly. (See Bonus article at end.) This gave me a cross-section of sales and marketing methods, with suggestions for you on each.

What the Smart Guys are Doing Right

1. Systemized Yet Personal – The top-tier guys use the information gathered online to ‘aim’ a personal email message, in sequence. The call was equally personalized, effectively scripted. Additional links in emails in case I “upsold” or “cross-sold” myself. Pure genius. They realize people aren’t making inquiries for fun.

Suggested: Have a sequence of 3 personalized AutoResponders, give options to contact, and that you’ve assigned a specialist to them. Use links back to your site, suggest upgrades or accessories. Give options to get your mailed newsletter (forces them to give address and another opportunity for relationship.) If people are inquiring, they’re serious.

2. Transparency and Disclosure – The top tier guys are making sure you’re hyper informed. Just ‘offering’ a CarFax and a Consumer Review whether people get it or not (often free) earns huge credibility points. People are nervous out there, for good reason.

Suggested: Inform prospects on your website – not just about how great you are – but about product comparisons, energy costs, reviews, testimonials. Your mailed newsletter will also contain product and service cross-selling. Today’s buyer wants to ‘know’ you, and that’s often done through multi-media, smart marketing.

3. “Cheaper” isn’t Better – Interesting. If I didn’t bring it up, the dealers I considered ‘best’ did not force ‘cheap price’ down my throat, yet the old school cheesy guys did regardless. To me, this cheapened them. The better guys talked of reputation, warranty, options to make this car what I wanted. The top guys told me they could add a sunroof, leather interior, navigation, and a host of ‘cost plus’ upgrades. The cheap guys only talked cheap.

Suggested: Don’t assume all your buyers are in bargain mode. Assume they want quality, then go from there. Good to have bundled pricing ‘tiers’ for all, naming them accordingly. Cross-selling and upselling other benefits typically has a far higher margin, thus a worthwhile part of every script, communication, newsletter, follow-up.

In all, I ended up buying from the guy who was probably 2nd most impressive dealer, but had the car. Credit to the most impressive guy: When I told him what I’d found, he said, “If I were shopping, I’d buy that one too.” Yes, I kept his contact info as well.

The least impressive dealers, probably the bottom 10, never called back, never emailed again. Four of the top dealers have sent me follow ups – automated thus zero cost – just as impressive as the first.

The difference between ‘top’ and ‘ordinary’ is huge in image, sales, and reputation. But doing the ‘right things’ versus ‘hardly anything’ isn’t much – a few well-worded emails, some excellent sales training and the shockingly rare ability to listen to prospects and help them spend their money.

Victors, Victims, and Volunteers

2010-04-01T09:49:00.002-05:00

SAFETY TIP: Do not try to remove a 10-pound fire extinguisher from its bracket with your head. You really should just use your hands.

I was minding my own business, really. I’d leaned down in my garage to see if I – a mere mortal with a flawed sense of mechanical aptitude – could remove the front bumper cover off my needy car to get to the horns.

See, it had wimpy horns. And in the intelligence of the Dodge Viper assembly team who likely considers honking inferior to just lighting up the tires to escape harms’ way, they’d stuck the horns in a thoroughly unreachable area. I knelt all the way down to see the dinky little horns beside the radiator. Then I stand up abruptly.

Major ouch. At my height, I don’t bump my head very much, so I made up for several lost opportunities.

Two very loud ‘clonks’ rang through the building – the first being my head removing said fire extinguisher from the bracket, the second being the extinguisher hitting the floor, scattering tools about the cement floor.

I got to my feet and poured a bottle of water on my aching head, clearly needing stitches. I contemplated going to the emergency room, but images of waiting behind gunshot victims and those with various communicable diseases coughing in my general direction made me to reconsider. (Avoidance of additional pain, a sales lesson worth noting.)

So, with icepack on head, I watched Americans in Idle with my sweet wife and marginally concerned teenagers. The next day I went to the doctor who did his embroidery and sent me on my way. Got me to thinking.

Stuff happens. Quickly and without notice. There are ‘accidents’ so named because there’s no one to blame for their occurrence. I guess I could’ve gone ‘victim’ and sued the contractor who installed the fire extinguisher, the fire extinguisher company for not ‘softening’ the edges of said unit. Plaintiffs and the tapeworms posing as their attorneys have gotten paid for more preposterous things, I assure you.

In this economy, we’re hearing more about “victims” of its wrath. For the guy or lady who lost their jobs due to plummeting sales (which govern the economic machine, lest you forget) out of their control, “victim” could be apropos.

Or for those whose livelihoods have taken an epic-sized belt tightening due to skittish customers or the collectively paranoid lenders that used to keep the pipelines flowing, the “victim” word accepted. Yet for many hoping for a Victim card, might I suggest a different word…

Such as “Volunteer”. You make the call:

Case Study: A contractor who had been doing well in the go-go economy, was seeing his agreement renewal rate slip, his closing ratios tilt downward, and his margins erode to get the jobs. “This is the economy” he told us.

We suggested circling the wagons and protecting his customer base first, locking down renewals, beginning a low-cost referral campaign, then getting aggressive with Direct Response acquisition strategies for better-heeled, less price sensitive new customers.

In essence, he responded “Nonsense”, and promptly spent $60,000 on a radio campaign that was more about his ego and price-cutting than existing customers. Failure ensued.

During the past 12 months, he’d actually reduced his Customer Retention campaign to fund the “new” marketing. In time, his “old” customers heard the “new” offer, saw it as superior which generated two responses: a) Cut me the same deal or I’m gone and/or b) If that’s how you treat loyalty, I’m gone. Thus, his respondents became a mix of current customers seeking a concession and cheapskates.

Immediate margin erosion and accelerated customer exodus sent our contractor into a tailspin. Most profitable leads dried up. Ninety days later and half a staff later, he still has $15grand a month due in radio, his YP budget was never trimmed (suggested for 3 years, “couldn’t give up the priority placement” said his ego), many current customers and their agreements defected due to inequity and inattention. Some defectors commented on a blog site and reflected same in Google Rankings. Not good.

He admitted that he’s very likely a couple pay cycles from the “B” word if things don’t improve. Called his company a “victim” of the economy. Your assessment?

Send responses to editor@hudsonink.com. Hottest strategies for ‘Joining the Victors” next issue.

There are victors, victims, and volunteers. This economy is making their distinctions very clear. Joining the victors is mostly a choice to do so.

NOTE: A discussion of “Victor” strategies in lead generation will be covered in a one time webinar hosted by the NEWS on April 14. Called, “Phones Not Ringing? Top 7 Ways to Generate More Leads”. Very limited seating remains. More here: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=198591&sessionid=1&key=5239ED983DFE7328DF1AA7EC49A026DB&partnerref=hudson&sourcepage=register

7 Steps to Lead Generation Riches

2010-03-17T07:38:00.000-05:00

I don’t know who said “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” but it has never been more true. Every week of this ‘new’ economy, contractors call or question, “How can I get more leads?”

Yet, in that decidedly ruthless way that shocks the inquisitor, we are trained to respond: “What are you doing with the ones you have now?”

By that we mean 7 ‘main things’ to extract full, cash-rich value from your current lead flow. It’s right there under your nose…

1. Where’d they come from? (Market source via media.)
2. How big is this target source? (What we call “universe”.)
3. How many bought what? (Closing ratio per item.)
4. What did they pay? Upsell offered? (Transaction size per ratio.)
5. Do they have friends? (Referral follow up chain.)
6. What about the ones you didn’t close? (Follow up closing efforts)
7. What system will keep all these customers and prospects coming back to you?

Because to us, we can make the phone ring again. But if you’re not maximizing the lead value, then it’s only marketing heroin. More is not always better.

Those questions are in order too. The top one is the most important. A mediocre ad to the best target will outperform the best ad to a mediocre target. Yes, as an overpaid copywriter, I just said that. Truth is, we can usually kick your mediocre offer AND help you find the best list because that serves both of us.

Then “target” in to wherever your offer is aimed. From your customer list to your web visibility, which includes SEO, AdWords, and even your radio demographic, Cable reach, and in house prospect list. These are ‘segments’ you can define and have a reachable quantity. That leads to #2.

Is this your current list, dated list, big ticket buyers, referrals, church bulletin, little league parents, chamber of commerce? I mean, you’ve got to know the size of the pool. To answer whether its even worth fishing the pool, #3 comes into play…

Do they close well? Or are they a bunch of mealy mouth price shoppers? Maybe they’re affluent, rabid for image and product ‘z’ supports that image. Closing ratio must intersect with ticket and gross profit to be meaningful. Then to #4…

Are they high transaction sales that can make your month? Or low transaction that must sustain volume to be profitable? On either, is there a more profitable upsell you’re not offering? Before you leave them…

Number 5 relates to finding a better ‘target’ than going back to the ‘pool’ again. Plus, no marketing dollars to find their referrals. The neighborhood, church members, business people in same category, seek commonalities and target your presentation accordingly.

And for #6 and #7 that most contractors miss severely…

What happened to those who didn’t close? You think they were window shopping you for fun? Find out why they didn’t buy and that’s the key to a fortune right there. Resolve that, go kick bootie with a far higher result from #3 - #6.

For #7, this is my age-old but more solid-than-ever (thanks to the economy) “Retention” message. The commonality among contractors doing well and those, um, “not” is powerful retention. Those who didn’t fill the pipeline and then build a high-sided inescapable pool into which it flowed are quite sorry. They had customers in there, but they escaped. Now they get to go back to #1, spending new marketing dollars to recreate what was lost. Not exactly ideal.

Yes, that’s how we multiply your efforts and results from your “existing” incoming leads. And you thought we were magic. All we can really do for you is a) Create a better message to make the phone ring, b) Make sure we aim it at the better targets, c) Let you extract full measure of the results.

Sound like a plan? Go back to your list of incoming leads now. Ask yourself the 7 questions. If you need us to help you fish them deeply, regularly, and to extract full value, that’s why we’re here. Otherwise, you’ve got plenty of bait in this article to catch a boatload.

Answer to the Marketing Brain Teaser from Last Entry

2010-02-03T10:50:00.001-06:00

Help me. I posed a question to all readers, got a ton of responses, some of which were actually correct and devoid of curse words. ALL were interesting. Very cool to get different perspectives.

Summarized question: “There are four elements in your ‘Marketing Equation’. Two mentioned in the article were ‘incoming leads’ and ‘conversions’ (or commonly ‘closing ratio’). What are the other two?”

Before you read the answer, my intention was to gather the four BIG elements for those of you not running your marketing by formula. I said in the article, “other numbers are just fluff”.

Since I uttered that statement, I’ve been asked to step down by Democrats, Republicans, and the Sham-Wow guy, who is now the Slap-Chop guy. I regret any convenience I may have caused and humbly apologize to everyone except the Yellow Pages.

Admittedly, there ARE other meaningful numbers and I’ve given credit where due.

Here are the winners AND numbers to know in your Direct Response marketing formula, plus another highly insulting remark to the Yellow Pages.

1.Leads generated– only attributable to Direct Response marketing. Direct Response ads have – as their name implies – a lead generation component and are accountable thereto. If you sent out a Holiday Card or TOMA or Retention piece and were hoping to count “leads” as a result, you may as well plant a strawberry vine and start looking for cumquats.

2.Leads converted – Often based on #1 per campaign, but also as a general measure of closing ratio for all leads. I do NOT like blending “all leads” together since a customer calls in as a lead with a 70-80% closing average vs. a ‘first time caller’ with a 30% closing average.

3.Cost per lead – This figures in the media and fulfillment costs and as such, gives you a baseline for measurement. Advertising during the SuperBowl might get you 1,000 leads, but the CPL will likely be rotten. This figure generally runs between $75 and $200, still a potential loser at the lower price (insolvent unsellable prospects) or very profitable at the higher figure. Has to do with transaction size and of course…

4.Profit per sale (I’d have accepted ‘transaction size’ too, since that’s way easier to figure, is more part of marketing than operations.) People often ask, “How many leads should I expect from this campaign?” and there are general numbers (1% from Direct Mail a long accepted but now shrinking ‘standard’) yet even these overlook this more revealing figure. Not only is the list smaller for an $8000 bath remodel for example, it’d take far more $79 drain cleanings to make them equally profitable.
The above is why it is very important to know and use the “Break Even Rate” in direct response marketing, which is revealed below, but FIRST…

The Winners Circle:

There were several correct answers yet the most concise AND correct answer goes to Chris Kowalski who had a 7 word email that said, in its entirety:

1.Cost per lead
2.Profit per closed lead
I like it when people get to the point! All who submitted a correct answer will get a copy of Marketing Secrets. Hope you’ll write us a review!

Yet since I’m completely unfair, biased, and make up the rules as I go along, I’ve decided to award 2 honorable mentions –

The Runners Up:

1.Keith Calicoat wrote, “Decrease acquisition cost per customer and raise the frequency of transaction per customer”, which gets partial credit. Keith also put in, “If I win, I don't want the hot dogs!” Fair enough. That makes two of us.

2.J.S. Woolery from Home Energy suggested “raise average order size”, which is a great way to increase profits NOW from virtually every sale. I still contend that most contractors could increase prices by 10% today, not lose one customer (okay, the cheap ones) and put the entire bump on your paycheck.
BONUS feature today is the Break Even Rate Formula:

A/B = C

(C/D) x 100 = E

(E/F) x 100 = Break even response rate

A= Cost of Direct Response campaign

B = Profit per job/service offered in ‘A’.

C = Minimum job/services needed to break even

D = Average conversion (closing rate) on leads for this type job

E = Number of total leads needed to break even

F = Number of pieces mailed/audience

Obviously, the goal is to exceed “D” and “E” by the largest number you can. Now you know why the combination of these factors rules your fortunes.

I recommend a break even rate on ALL Direct Response ads you do for 2010. But then again, I recommend the slap chop, but only if the Yellow Page ad rep’s finger is in close proximity.

Have an awesome day. Let us help you make it even more of one!

No Private Investigator

2010-02-03T10:43:00.002-06:00

One of the biggest complaints I hear from contractors is, “I just need more leads.” And for the most part, the more leads you get the better. (There are negatives to “too many leads”, but I’m getting ahead of myself which isn’t that hard to do.)

Anyway, absent the need for more leads, we’ll assume you’re getting leads at rate ‘x’ and converting ‘y’ to sales. Ridiculously, MOST contractors focus way harder on the ‘y’ (closing or conversion rate) than increasing ‘x’.

The trick to massive sales growth is increasing both.

NOTE: There’s a ‘third’ and ‘fourth’ element in this equation that are the ONLY numbers worth following in your sales stream. Most everything else is just fluff. The next 10 people to tell me EITHER of those will win either a) A pack of unrefrigerated hot dog wieners or b) A first-class marketing book that I just happened to write. If you choose ‘a’, I’ll assume you have a copy. The email link to send your answer is found after the ‘click’.

So, delving into your current leads – the ones you’re getting today, right now - there are two questions to consider:

1. Where did they come from? (Media source, which includes your own database.)

2. What happened after the call?

About 70% of contractors DO NOT gather the source. Since all marketing should have an ROI, this is like not asking the bank about the interest rate. This economy rewards prudency. The days of “guessing” with unproven marketing are over.

As far as “What happened” after the call, slightly more than 70% only know TWO things: It sold. It didn’t sell. And that boys and girls, is flat out silly.

I’ll get right to it:

The five things are –

1.Sold: Transaction size? Previous/new customer? Attempted upsell? Attempted Agreement sale? Equipment survey? (That is, do they need IAQ, adding a bath, discuss security lighting? etc.) The survey alone is free, leads to far more gold from the database in this ONE step.

2.Sold: Follow up procedure. Thank you call with referral bump. Thank you letter with referral bump.

3.Sold: Relationship and referral procedure started. (Added to hard copy Newsletter, ezine list.) A 30 day schedule of recontact becoming more prevalent, but if you have none, every 90 to start.

4.Didn’t sell: Reason? Elimination of reason? Set follow up appointment? Incentive to call YOU back? Clearly state next action step.

5.Didn’t sell: Result of follow up contact. (Minimum of 3: >Phone call plus email. >Letter/postcard. > Phone call. If remains unsold, then low cost relationship procedure started. Email reminders, always included in direct mail campaigns.
If you can just change your response to the outcome, you can generate far more sales with very little effort or out of pocket costs. You’ve already PAID for the lead, why not extract full value? (Yes, I’m cheap.)

And now for the promise to improve your CSR’s performance today -

Tracking leads is important because if not, you might be wasting money on dud ads. It’s so easy to do. All you have to do is instruct your customer service representatives (or whoever answers the phone and fills appointments) to simply ask the customer how they found out about you.

You may be shocked by what you discover. What media brings the best ROI? How strong is your word of mouth? How many referrals are you getting now? How can you triple that?

Even better, you get a chance to prove your superiority on the phone. First, I make no secret that I hate automated attendants. The world in fact, would like to strangle the next auto attendant they see.

Yet even if your callers aren’t forced to press buttons for five minutes or aren’t on hold for listening to some top 40 station – a CSR can still blow it. Here are 3 things your customer service reps should always avoid saying:

1.“Well, you’re going to have to…” No. The first thing the customer is going to think is, “Come on! I don’t have to do anything!” Ask nicely. Try, “In order for us to provide you the best service, would you mind…” or “Could you please provide me with this information so that we can be sure to omit any possibility for a mistake?” Let the customer know that he or she is helping to facilitate the fixing and they’ll be much more likely to respond with something other than a quick hang-up.

2.“I’ll try…” Don’t try. Either say you’ll do it or tell them no. If you don’t give huge discounts on new systems, then say you can’t do that at present. Don’t say you’ll try to get them a discount if you know it won’t happen! Customers resent a lack of commitment, so don’t show that weakness.

3.“It’s against our policy.” It’s hard to dodge this for one main reason. The company policy is there because it needs to be followed. Just don’t use this phrase. Customers can’t stand to hear it and it has become one of those horrid business clichés that CSRs use as a scapegoat to avoid extra work or explanation. You owe the people who pay your bills (your customers) an explanation. At the very least, substitute this worn out phrase with words like “our best procedure” or “proven approach”.

Okay, I’ve given you more than your money’s worth for today (especially considering the price) and ask you to pick an action to go implement.

Soon you can be reading a profitable book or have a nice lunch to send your competitors.

Let’s Play Stump the Stumpy Guy

2009-12-22T08:36:00.000-06:00

I usually do the interviews for our coaching calls. I actually like being on that side of the mike, hopefully helping “decomplicate” the expert’s topic, cutting volumes of information into bite-sized chunks, suitable for complete digestion.

But last Thursday, at 5:30 pm, it was my turn to squirm. Copywriting and marketing superstar Dan Kennedy called to interview me for his apparently information-starved Copywriting Students. In my world, being interviewed by Dan Kennedy is like having Jimmy Johnson ask you to drive him around the block.

For one hour, I had to fake my way through sounding intelligent. And in this smart, tough crowd with a fairly expensive $30,000 annual tuition, that wasn’t going to be easy. So, in-between making up big words and ending every other sentence with “in this economy” to sound relevant, I attempted to offer advice.

The REAL reason I was on the call was for having been the idiot who won a new car last year, but turned it down in exchange for an equal amount ($35,000) of copywriting work from contest sponsor Kennedy. Yes, I – the self-proclaimed copywriter – sort of “paid” 35 large for 8 pages of work.

Whatever. I didn’t need the car, but felt I could use learning from a good coach. (Can’t we all?) Of course, those winnings became yours because we took what we learned and applied it to not only our marketing, but to what we offer you.

But during the interview, amid all these people ‘tuned in’ to hear the answers, Dan throws me a curveball. He asks, “If you had all your copywriting tools taken away except 3, what would they be?” There I am, mildly choked to answer, clock ticking, sweat forming. And it’s below.

Whether you’re copywriting “student” or not, the answers still go to the core of marketing. Remember, this was not a “beginner” crowd, so my answers aren’t the normal “big headline, bold guarantee, and hot bullet points” that you’re sick of hearing. And shockingly enough, in the light of day, I still stick by these answers…

Below, you’ll see my answer. I’ve put in italics how you can use this hint in your business, whether marketing, selling, or negotiation. They work for all, and that’s a promise. So, a peek behind the marketing curtain…

AH: “Well Dan, I’m a big fan of the Provocative Headline, Big Promise Headline, The Killer Offer, Powerful Guarantee, and all that, but I assumed – hopefully correctly – that your students (and I frankly) have enough resources on those topics from you and other training. Here are the ones I consider more advanced, more stealthy, that you do NOT hear about much, but generate massive results for us and our clients -

1. I’ll call the first one ‘Planting Psychic’ Seeds. Some may call it ‘empathy’ but its more than that. I like to write as if I’m listening in on what keeps these guys up at night, and shock them with the well placed ‘prediction’ of that state.

The “You’re probably wondering…” is a nearly worn-out but effective version of that. I want to let my clients know that I understand what keeps them up at night, or the problems they’ve faced, or even where their mind is at the moment.”

Contractors – you too want to do this. Force your marketing language, website, sales presentations to enter your customer’s subconscious. Make them say, ‘YES! That’s what I was just thinking!” and you will magnetically gain acceptance. People want to be understood without having to explain themselves.

2. Curiosity Accelerators – I often drop in a foreshadowed thought, hinting at something yet to come. I try to give the readers’ subconscious a moment to dwell, then DESIRE the object of their curiosity. Such as, “I’ll explain that in a moment, but first, here’s why nobody’s doing it…” See? They hear, they hang, anticipation and momentum are built.

Contractors – This is done WAY too little in your websites, and especially your sales presentations. Your Maintenance Agreement forms are the WORST at this. Why? They tell too much, too quickly, ending forever the ability to let the customer ‘weigh’ out the value before you blurt it in their face OR attempt to defend it! An example:

Websites stupidly put, “Read what others say” as if anyone really goes to read a bunch of bragging. Curiosity is OVER. We all know it’s awesome or you wouldn’t put it there. Instead, pepper it ‘inside’ the message, such as “You’re probably thinking I’m full of beans, but so did David Wanker from Canker who said…”

See the difference? Don’t make ‘em hunt it down. Make them want it. Also…

Most Agreements typically line up a bunch of gobbledegook on a page that is SUPPOSED to seem beneficial, but it’s tiresome, boring, hogwash to a customer. All they’re scanning for is the price, but nothing else means anything to them. Instead, you should line up and explain why the bullet point is tantalizingly valuable, THEN put your price in the two-tier method, compared against an UNmaintained system failure.

3. My next most crucial element is “The Turn” as Maxwell Sackheim called it. This is very difficult for most amateur marketers and salespeople. This is where you go from consultive coach to presenting the offer they should accept. I mean, if they’ve expressed a need, it is your duty to present a viable offer.

Contractors – too much of your marketing, and many of your “salespeople” simply spout off specs, scribble something down, and blurt out a price as if magically people’s Visa cards will float from their highly guarded wallets. Ain’t gonna happen. That’s called “Order taking” not “Selling”.

The turn is where you skillfully build a communication “bridge” from “I know you, and know you have this problem” to “Now that we know each other, here’s how to solve it. Just look.”

Your presentations and marketing sales pieces have 3 parts: the opener, the presentation, and the close. These are essentially seamless except for a clinical sales discussion, and the turn is between presentation and close. So, if you’ve got great presentation skills and a lousy closing ratio, it is THE TURN that is causing you to fall flat.

All successful infomercials have “the turn”; watch them. (Heck, all great movies and books have “the turn”) Become a student of the turn.

So, there’s your look into a formerly secretive ‘list’ of items I use to persuade you, and you to persuade others, now advising you to use in your marketing and selling. Happy Sales!

Adams Hudson

Questions:
□ If I took all your marketing tools away except 3, what items would YOU keep?
□ How effectively are your sales presentations at any of the 3 items on MY list above?
□ Do your sales presentations need a makeover?
□ Does your marketing need to be polished up for 2010?

Repeating History’s Repetition

2009-12-22T08:33:00.000-06:00

For some reason, a group of historian type people want to tour our offices this Sunday. Further, they’ve asked me to speak to them in some meaningful fashion, relating the historic mission for downtown and our role in it. Personally, I feel they’re really hoping I’ll say nothing but serve Bourbon.

Long time SMI readers will remember that our renovation of this 1880’s building (5 years ago) employed most every tradesperson in 3 counties, including trades that hadn’t been invented at the time. I was billed virtually every time they inhaled, and charged overtime for their exhales.

There were many excellent, pleasant, skilled techs and companies that came through here, doing exquisite work that has withstood great use. There were also a few tradespeople with skills and attitudes that rival meth-addicted wharf rats, except with less dexterity.

Of all those trades folks – perhaps 20 in all – I still use exactly 3.

That coveted group includes:

The electrician (charges more per hour than a cosmetic surgeon, but worth it… darn it), the roofer (needs shock therapy to return a phone call, but competent and fair) and the HVAC company (undermarketed to a fault, but fair and reliable.)

Why do I still use them? And why will I unhesitatingly recommend them to the 30 or so assembled ‘influence peddlers’ on Sunday, and any other time? The reasons you’ll read are the exact same as why they’re doing well in this economy, and the others, well, aren’t.

A “hint” given first …

The historic group this Sunday is touring properties to see and hear firsthand: 1) How does a historic building function into today’s business environment? 2) What obstacles and advantages does a commercial restoration entail? And 3) How does an overly-critical short guy ever get to manage anything? Plus, why can’t he spell “INC” properly?

In addition, every time there’s a tour through here, people also ask “Who” did the work? What’s generally implicit in the question is “Who would you recommend?” (Pointless to give names of the UNrecommended.) And there’s a free lead source for the contractors who understand and work this angle. I may only be telling 30 or so people on Sunday, but they all have homes (I think) and are “influence peddlers” to their peer group. Very important. Somewhere in your town, right now, someone’s asking a knowledgeable person “Who do you use for your ?”

How did these 3 companies get to be the answer?

1) Relentlessly regular contact. I promise you, I could not – at gunpoint – tell you the name of the plumber. Or the tile setter, landscaper, brick mason, window man, painter, or locksmith… all of whom I’ve needed several times since, and been asked about umpteen times more. But the “chosen” tradespeople have stayed in touch, making them a) Stand out against the sea of ‘call-me-if-you-need-me’ nincompoops who FORGOT that people FORGET (ironic isn’t it?), and b) Rise to the top of ‘recall heirarchy’ as Maslow said it or TOMA as we say it, plus c) They become the default choice for referrals. Smart to recontact. They stay in touch ‘mostly’ through mail, occasionally by phone. Two attempted ezines earlier, but those floundered and were systemically eliminated in favor of regular mail.

2) They use Professionalism as a Competitive Advantage. This is going to make some of you mad. Whatever. Trades in general do NOT have a very professional demeanor, thus status, assumptions, and price points are commensurate. I don’t make the rules, but you tell me – Two guys have IDENTICAL diamonds for sale. One guy is in an exquisitely elegant, hushed environ, immaculately dressed and as polished as the gem he represents. The other is wearing an Alice in Chains T-shirt, hasn’t shaved, and smells vaguely of Vienna Sausage. Which one are YOU going to confidently pay WAY more money to? Oh, silly me, I never mentioned that either one spoke. Guy #1 coulda been on out work release and Guy #2 a graduate gemologist, but you didn’t wait to make your judgment either. You got that impression purely by the professional ‘aura’ presented. Don’t expect your customers to be any different.

3) Great Customer Service Creates Price Elasticity and Pain of Disconnect. That’s a mouthful, but a high degree of Customer Service means I “pay” more but “get” more… though largely intangible and without ‘cost’ to the company. This is attributable to general courtesy, appointments confirmed, neatness, prices submitted upfront, material options presented, follow-ups initiated by the company, and thank you via phone and with invoice. After that, I’m in their “sequence” (newsletter, recontact, see #1.) The “Pain of Disconnect” is a direct response marketing term for a loyalty creation that is hard to ‘unhook’, thus, “going back” to the non-Customer oriented contractor makes an odious comparison. Good customer service is by nature, relatively rare, highly attractive, and very “sticky”. Train for this and financial gains naturally flow.

Maybe you read this and say you “knew” these 3 elements, are sick of hearing of them in some form or fashion, and were looking for something “new”. Why? History, as they say, is a great teacher.

Questions for You:

1. What is your ‘system’ of recontact? There is no “winging it” in a system.

2. What is ONE THING you could do TODAY to bump your professionalism? (Phone courtesy, uniforms, truck rewrap, new logo, better ads, scripted presentation, burn the Alice in Chains shirts?)

3. Scale of 1-10, what is your company’s customer service ranking? How could you make it go up today?

Minority Rule

2009-12-22T07:51:00.002-06:00

An old adage: “When the word on the street is ‘buy’, it is definitely time to sell.” This supports the contrarian’s favorite point that the grand herd called “they”, are generally far behind, already approaching irrelevance, since the leaders have long since left the party.

Zig whenever “they” zag. It is true elsewhere.

Those rare folk who sold at the height of the market – deemed idiotic at the time – are now considered enlightened. The crowd moves in huge swells and sways, while leaders in thought and action pull away, immune to the self-appointed critics. The top 14% of the earners in the U.S. out-earn the remaining 86% combined, all of whom are certain “their” way must be right. It sure doesn’t seem that way…

Currently, about 40% of the population spends exactly what they earn or less – zero or negative savings. Another 40% eke out a living, with less than 10% of their income for ‘non-essentials’ including savings, recreation.

The next 15% up are considered the new mass affluent ($155,000 household income and higher, a group 23% larger than just 10 years ago. Yes, even now.) The top 5% generate over $500,000, some way over. Categorically, they’re considered “thought leaders, business leaders, community leaders” – and there’s just one word consistent in those descriptions.

Before I continue with the peep show (a marketing hint right there) let me back up a sec.

This has not been the most fun year for the contracting majority. You can’t pick up a newspaper or listen to news without being reminded. Those of us in business, out to slay the daily dragon, now get to hear the constant chorus of wails and moans in the background.

“They” begin to seep into our dreams, leaking from under the foundation, causing a less enthusiastic voice answering the phone, a less than committed upsell, a pulling back on the marketing reins, and a tail slowly tucking inward because “they” are all doing the same.

“They” are usually wrong. So accepting that and responding accordingly is Step #1 of the vastly more successful, tiny minority. In other words, they zag quite regularly.

They are deaf to the crowd’s advice. They are mute to chiming in on the “me, too” Pavlovian response to bad news. They’re blind to seeking crowd approval. (And yet, ironically, their self-esteem supremely well-intact.)

And in contracting, despite the fact that consumers are spending less and more resistant to the optional than ever, small numbers of very successful contractors tout the rarely discussed “good”. They draw it inside their ranks, becoming “bad news immune” and thus a magnetically more confident company. This too is contagious.

Supporting that –

□ Consumer Trends found out what we all know: “Nearly ¾ of the American public has tired of the recession news, some openly resisting same. Buying pattern increases indicate a renewed attraction toward durable, reliable, trustable.” Advice: Same for the past year – Good news is attractive. Reliably market your reliability. If you go silent in your marketing, your phones follow.

□ “A drop in new housing starts is bringing renewed interest in existing home-improvement, energy upgrades, environmentally-sound investing.” Advice: Pay attention to the word “investing”. Unlike the “norm”, now is not time to low ball every bid. Flaunt your higher priced upgrades that can demonstrate a sound investment. (Hint: Your Proposal Books and online consumer videos need updating.)

□ More good news: “Is the do-it-yourselfer dead?” HGTV saw massive drop in popularity of “flipping” and “do it yourself” shows in favor of maximizing value, with the subtext of professional trade contracting. (Holmes on Homes, Renovation Nightmares both illustrate “false economy” of unprofessional and DIYer.) Trends to watch: Shows for contractors supporting model customer service, smart marketing, image-enhancement. Advice: As in a recent editorial, some “normal” contractors send homeowners (me!) to a big-box to “save me some money”. If you’re a professional, you should either support professionalism or quit the profession. Fair enough? The successful minority shows the risks of DIY and unprofessional work on their websites, newsletters, and publicity.
□ Customer service is becoming the great “separator”. People are tired (and distrusting, see first bullet) of the low-image, slacker contractor – rudely handled phone calls, the follow-up that never happens, the unanswered after hours phone, the static and self-absorbed website all indicate “old” think. Consumer buying, repeat buying and referring all follows superior customer service. Advice: The majority falsely believe they’re “saving money” by cutting training and expertise.

Do the different thing, contractors. Follow the advice of the successful minority. Tap into that however, and whenever you can. Be willing to do what’s different from the crowd, most of who are complaining. That alone will get you noticed.

I believe that 2010 will widen the gaps in the “haves and have nots”. The “haves” will not have gotten there by following the masses, that’s a promise.

Questions for you:

1. What are you doing differently in your marketing? Sales presentations? Customer service? How is the “language” in your shop different from that of the “normal” contractor?

2. Do you regularly “shop” the competition to see how they either blend in or stand out? (Our Competitive Intelligence guide in your PowerPack is an outline in doing this, or you can do it yourself.)

Before You Hit “Delete” or Run out the Door…

We've all heard enough 'bad' news this year to last for several more. Yet, if you believe we still live in a great country, if you still have enough health to get through the day, and still have the love of family and friends among you, you can indeed be thankful.

And regardless of your income, the many blessings you have – and even enumerate in your conscious now – makes you a very rich person.

The Power of Referrals

2009-10-14T08:31:00.003-05:00

Andrew Leslie is a man they don’t make anymore. Hard-working, Cajun born, duty driven. If the deep caramel skin (that’s about as smooth) and the tell-tale accent reeling quick witted tales didn’t make you question his age, his overbooked work ethic would.

Though just days from an age 65 retirement, I’d suggest training if you tried to keep up with him. I’ve seen his own shadow almost give up in frustration.

He had a full time career with J.R. Smith, helping assemble a few million specialty plumbing products, then moved into receiving, spanning as he told me, “23 years, 5 months, 2 days and about 6 hours… or thereabouts.” Andrew is rarely without supporting evidence.

Yet his “other” full time job was being a father to son, Eric, who’s with the Federal Railroad and daughter Rachelle, vice president of a bank. Andrew also unhesitatingly calls his nieces Kerry and Kimberly – both business owners – his “daughters” since they raised them as well. His wife, Eva, was equally active, but Fibromyalgia and Arthritis had other plans, enlisting Andrew as supportive caretaker for the last 14 years.

And his other full time job was lawn maintenance. He probably did other things, but I am getting tired of listing them all. Yet atop all this…

He was also a master of generating referrals, as many as he wanted, when and where he wanted. At the price he said, and here’s how he did it.

He was our lawn maintenance guy. Did it by himself too. Pulled a neatly-crafted and packed trailer behind his trusty silver Dodge Ram truck. Weed eaters, blowers, and a Snapper Mower than was more an extension of his hands and feet than a separate machine. Many a Saturday, I’d see Andrew, turning a zero radius circle around one of too many pine trees, never dropping a shaving of bark nor the ash of his Kool, with the fluidity of an ice skater, (yet thankfully in khaki instead of spandex.) Where he willed, the Snapper went.

And if our yard wasn’t enough, he had the neighbors to the left. And the right. And two doors down, plus the next one, and a couple more he’d hit on his way home. Master of efficiency, he had to “disengage” from one customer who was well off the route. “I had to tell her the drive was too much for an old man” he said to me once, adding “She wasn’t all that darn nice either.” I laughed, but he wasn’t done. “I hope she doesn’t move to a yard that’s more convenient”.

You can tell by the ‘connection’ to customers that if Andrew got one job, he’d get all the other ones he wanted, where he wanted, at the price he said. Shopping was over. Why? Because Andrew’s referrals were so enthusiastic you’d half question if there was some pyramid scheme of sudden riches coming to the referring party.

He got jobs – at will – in our neighborhood of yard-crazy people (historic neighborhood in the deep south, need I say more?) that is regularly patrolled by the ‘big’ companies. Their postcards were tossed, their TV commercials rendered us blind, the radio ads made us deaf. All we knew when prodded was, “Andrew does our yard,” usually recited like unwavering, slobbering robots. And we were.

Until Andrew retired from us.

Finding his “replacement” will be in word only. Oh sure, the “new” guy may have a little more bounce in his step, some more “moderness” to the approach, and potentially more eagerness for additional clients. But he ain’t gonna be Andrew, and that’s a fact. The beauty of Andrew’s legacy, only briefly shared herein, has a marketing thread of fascination for me in that he scored 100% of the jobs he wanted, sans price-shopping.

He “Advertised” his work while doing his work. A neat truck, parked out front, with good well maintained equipment was better than an interstate of billboards. If you’re NOT doing this, plus yard signs, and/or parking pylons, and/or door hangers, and/or windshield signage, how are the neighbors to know you’re ‘endorsed’?

Focused marketing efforts. Andrew controlled his jobs instead of the other way around. Sure, he could’ve gotten jobs in multiple inconvenient locations, but he focused on a particular customer, in a particular area, and “owned” that area.

Pricing insensitivity. Andrew could price a job since he had to move his truck a few feet, spreading the ‘windshield time’ over the adjacent yards, where others had to quote from a ‘rate sheet’ that unwisely assumed a trip charge regardless of relative proximity. Smart.

Established a Referral chain. Each new job came with a blessing and endorsement from the previous. This was the ‘first step’ in a three step process that followed with…

Asked a simple question of the potential referrer: “If I introduce myself to your neighbors, is it okay if I tell them that I do your work?” Who’s gonna say ‘no’ to that? No one did. Thus the near simultaneous 3rd step…

Qualified Introduction: Andrew would introduce himself as being the lawn maintenance professional for and wondered, “I love this area and these great lawns. If you’re looking for someone to take care of it, I’d be honored. The said it’d be okay to call them to ask anything you’d like about my service.”

Generally a phone call would ensue, which began the blathering, which ended in “SOLD!”

Regular re-endorsement and relationship building – We got an invoice monthly, sometimes with a hand written note (bill stuffer anyone?) and a Christmas card every year. It’s the small stuff that can make the strongest glue.

If Andrew had been a “company” of more than one, I’d have recommended all these, but using media to broaden the message. The message remains the same…

Your referrals will not “just happen” in the numbers you could get if you “made them happen”. Andrew made his happen. You must target, ask, follow up, and perform as promised, then repeat. If you do this for 23 years, 5 months, 2 days and about 6 hours… or thereabouts, you can grow your referrals and retire happy too.

Happy retirement Andrew. Me and my overgrown yard already miss you.

Questions for You:

■ What “ACTIONS” do you take to ensure that one customer leads to many? I’d suggest a 7 step follow up procedure, beginning on the first day following a new customer contact, spread over the next 120 days, with 2-4 ‘programmed’ contacts until they moved, died, or told you to go away.

■ What “SYSTEM” is in place to make sure the actions don’t get “forgotten”? This is a biggee. Our “Endless Referrals” program is designed to be just that, putting a single person in charge of this (should take 20 minutes a month) to enact.

Calendar Marketing

2009-10-05T15:33:00.002-05:00

I don’t like it when contractors read the weather page to see whether they’ll be busy or not. To me, an utter loss of control. Yet in the 5 “Ms” of marketing, “month” is number 4 and thus mightily important. (This week’s poll: What are the other “M’s”? Guess and you may win fame, shame, or something in between.)

There is great validity to marketing within a known field of “timing” relevance. That is, chocolates during valentines, anti-depressants during the evening news, stuff like that. For another example…

At last report, it had rained 732 times in the past 4 days. It’s so wet, the fish are complaining and I’m going to see if Al Gore can arrange some “Global Drying”. This is neither politics nor weather.

This is about relevant timing and opportunity. In the past 45 days…

We have called a plumber for persistent drainage problem. A roofer for small leaks in two buildings. An HVAC contractor about dehumidifier in one of those buildings. An electrician for a leak-related fault in some track lighting. A neighbor about his gutter system (that he couldn’t see). A landscaper about a diverting berm and French drain.

There were 2,600,000 homes (NOT including commercial) affected in the recent high rainfalls in the southeast alone. Though I’ve occasionally felt like it, I trust I’m not the only one who needed a contractor. Multiply that by at least 6 trades, that’s lots of service calls.

Question: You want them Google searching or YOUgle Searching? Thought so.

This applies to the first cold snap. Most lightning strikes. Most burglaries (for home lighting and security). Most rain, hottest, driest. Energy prices up, energy prices down. And for you, your slowest months need the most attractive off-season offers. (See “Swimsuits in the Winter” ads in your PowerPack and many others, for example.)

All have a timely relevance in the mind of the homeowner, and YOU need to be in their mind when the need hits.

So, while other contractors are scanning the weather page, crime reports, or moaning about how energy prices have risen, you’re forcing your way into their conscious mind, up front and out front of the others leaving it up to chance.

Look at your calendar right now. There is your ‘map’ to marketing relevance. Each month, a wave of consciousness overtakes and replaces the previous. Your job is to be in front of that wave to get the call, as opposed to behind it waiting and hoping. Big difference.

Did you get your free 12 Month Marketing map yet? We publish about 2,000 per year, and give all of them away, with ZERO chance of “reprinting” once they’re gone. Friendly advice: Make a polite request and get one now. You are now in competition with 12,000 other contractors.

Aside from getting into prospect’s minds ahead of the need, you’re also ‘programming’ your marketing, sometimes up to a year in advance. Think of the load off you, your staff, your budget, and your media contacts. You can use your calendar or ours, but use the season as the reason to program your marketing plan.

If your “negative” voice is saying, “Hey, WHAT IF I market for an item in a month that does NOT produce the highest need for that product?” Then what have you lost?

Was it second highest? Did it only make new 3 times instead of 5?

You may wonder, “What if something just HAPPENS and it was not on the calendar?” Then you readily and aggressively market that.

Quick Case Study: Tornados had stricken an area, resulting in much insurance-covered roofing work. Yet HVAC contractors started getting calls for repairs that should’ve been part of the now-released coverage. Our tactic: Created newspaper, postcard, and radio scripts that began, “Do NOT settle with your Insurance Company until you read this”. And that my friends, landed millions in necessary, legitimately covered work for hundreds of happy homeowners.

The market has a barrier of relevance and you want to penetrate it, with consistent regularity. Be the company who’s “there” in their consciousness as the needs arise. Lead the market, don’t trail it.

Questions for you:

What are the TOP ‘calendar driven’ items coming up in the next 90 days?
What products and services help solve problems related thereto?
What marketing pieces do you have exactly relevant to that solution?

The opportunities are there. Are you? Contact us for help.

Crack for Clunkers

2009-10-05T15:28:00.005-05:00

Maybe I missed something. Just read that the Government Used Car Lot traded in 700,000 soot factories on wheels they call ‘clunkers’. Good that we got some unsafe and/or vile vehicles off the road to save Americans from our dependence on foreign oil. Read on.

Given that the average clunker got 12 miles per gallon and the pristine ‘new’ car (with a pristine payment book for our formerly non-spending shoppers) gets 25. Driving 12,000 miles a year, the deathmobile uses 1,000 gallons; the bluebird of vehicular happiness uses 480. Love it.

That’s 520 gallons saved per vehicle. We are geniuses! For the 700,000 vehicles, we just saved 364MILLLION gallons of fuel. We are even more smarter than geniuseseseses! Since we get 23 gallons of automotive fuel from one 55 gallon barrel of oil, that’s about 16MILLION barrels of oil we don’t have to buy!

Take that, Oily Mongers! Since we’re currently gulping down 6million barrels of your crudeness a day, we just saved nearly 3 days worth! HA! Go find another customer!

For my next to last calculation (because my abacus is smoking) at $75 per barrel, that’s a savings of $1.2billion dollars. The savings are racking up like crazy now! The only slight negative here is that it cost us $3billion to save the $1.2b.

If anyone in the health care debate brings up “Cash for Cankers,” I’m moving to New Zealand.

By the way, this is not political commentary, policy debate, or assailing the effort to save fuel or car dealers. This is about shallowness and mismanaged relationships.

Though the Clunker program brought great throngs of people trading in $500 cars for $4500 and the ensuing “great news” of heavy spending surge, I have a fairly dire prediction for the next couple months: ain’t nobody trading in any more clunkers unless you pay ‘em handsomely. Sorry. Get ready for really ‘bad’ car sales numbers. We’ve built an expectation we can’t continue, and it was NOT based on loyalty.

The best relationships may start with an inducement, an urgency, a ‘reward’ (faster service, discount coupon, tax credit offer) but will not last unless one of two things happen. Whether a car dealer or a contractor, the same rules apply:

Offer another incentive, equal or better than the last. This shallow “gimme” based relationship is why I caution that over-using Direct Response is like crack, i.e. ‘more is better’. This is a downward spiraling, profit robbing model.
Build a solid (preferably programmed) plan of contact that deepens trust, instills confidence, reinforces value, and requires cooperation from both sides.

The first one is easy to offer, harder to maintain. The second is harder to start, easier to maintain. And the second one kicks bootie every time.

You wanted something more glamorous? You wanted me to talk about getting more leads for less dollars, or how to guarantee differentiation in your market? You’d rather learn how to turn one sale into many? You feel our time would be better spent discussing the nuances of phone-melting headlines?

Well, if you practice the rare art of “active” customer retention, all of those things can happen. It is truly, the “X-factor” in a contractor’s marketing arsenal.

Of course, this is already known by a small, well-rewarded group of contractors who’ve held a tight lid on this weapon.

In fact, a few years ago, I began polling contractors on “Who uses customer retention?” and only about 6% did. Now that figure is nearer 11% - and growing.

Given that contractors don’t spend where there’s no result, I’ll let you conclude why this number has nearly doubled in three years. This is also the marketing method that has gotten most of the credit for “saving” contractors in this recession. The profitability among “those who do and those who don’t” seems to be widening as well. Makes sense.

Regardless of which group you’re in, you may find the following useful.

If you already have a Customer Retention program:

Increase your aggression for maintenance agreements in stand alone mail/email and in your newsletters. Do not limit newsletter mailings to MA customers only, since you want to increase the natural ascension from “normal” customers to MA customers.
Push for greater differentiation through IAQ initiatives, which, due to a high-tech nature and health slant, can elevate your marketing position considerably. (Request a free IAQ Marketing Report from us if you want to read more.)
Stealth pursuit of web-based lead generation allows “customized, flexible lead flow” largely under the befuddled noses of your competitors. Those who get in early tend to maintain an advantage. This is inexpensive and fast.
Continue to wean yourself from Yellow Page addiction to fund and extend your newsletter, thank-you campaigns, and follow-up referral sources. Allow your remaining YP ad to be a pure lead generator – small, fast, and uncluttered.

For New Retention Marketers

For those who have just recently begun a customer retention campaign, allow it to build momentum. Too many contractors get the instant differentiation benefit and positive comments from customers, yet have a tendency to jump to the next thing. These sporadic efforts lose the momentum and bring confusion to your staff. Remember, retention is a program, not an event.

Also, realize that the effect of retention marketing is like compounded interest – the true benefits requires continued application. It builds on itself, multiplying the effects, allowing low-cost marketing advantages for the earned loyalty, shorter sales cycle, easier upsells, more referrals, and a greater response rate.

For the “I’m Still Thinking About it” Group

The remaining 89% of contractors who leave their customer base at risk are either “hoping” their customers come back or must regularly initiate an incentive to generate new leads. Doubtless if you’ve read this far, you’re looking for change.

The first one is to change your mindset. And since it’s my job to be your personal tour guide for guilt trips, check this mind-shift:

The “normal” contractor gets a customer in order to make a sale.
The “marketing” contractor gets a sale in order to make a customer.

Admittedly, that sounds odd, and the scarcity of those who actually understand this mind-shift is almost the point. But this should make it clear…

The contractor who is wisely counter-intuitive in marketing wins the marketing. Period. Those who think, act, and do like everyone else get results just like everyone else. I’ve also noticed that his or her complaints are just like everyone else’s too.

So, by really understanding and applying the contractor marketing mindset, you’re automatically in the small segment that has differentiated from the pack. No matter how you initially get your leads and customers, make sure your effort to keep them proves you value them. After all, they’re customers, not clunkers.

Request a free Customer Retention Report and Fall customer newsletter sample.

Corduroy Pillows Are Making Headlines!

2009-09-10T08:30:00.000-05:00

Get it? HA! Okay, that was bad, but it got you here. (Marketing Lesson #1: Your headline's main job is to get your prospect to your next statement.)

So, what got you where you are now, and where are you going next? I mean, humans are presumably the only of God's creatures who think of the 'future', though someone needs to tell me how we know this. (Did scientists poll wolverines and platypuses with questions about living out their dreams?) Regardless, the past is an awesome teacher about the future.

The core of every survey, the reason we "apply" for loans, insurance, jobs, etc., is to allow the past to be a vaguely reliable predictor of future behavior. (The sub-prime mortgage research teams apparently overlooked this fact. Too busy interviewing wolverines.)
I get calls from contractors who say they're 'stuck' at a certain sales level. As an overpaid consultant, I'm trained to ask, "And what have you done differently in the past 24 months?" The highly predictable answer is "Nothing much." No changes equals no change. And why was there no change? The core cause - usually unspoken but obvious - is fear.

During this "R-word" economic time, contractors more often call to get marketing 'suggestions' to get out of their financial calamity and make the phone ring. We make suggestions, by the dozens, in both broadly publicized media and to private coaching clients. Results shared, stories retold, strategies revealed.

Oddly, the ones who never did anything different during good times are just as resistant to change anything during bad times. Why? "Fear", plain and simple.

The past behavior weaves its nasty way, right into the future. Goes both ways.

The hyper-active, hyper-achievers seem to relish in differentiating behavior. (Marketing Lesson #2: Market leaders, by definition, don't copy and can't wait on the crowd. However, they often sensibly "reformulate" based on proven criteria.) Those stories, new successes, and "breakthroughs" carry them into the future. They tend to see a wave coming and prepare to ride it ahead, while others frantically splash about.

Which way are YOU going next?

5 Things the Super Successful DO NOT Do

1) Accept the Norm – A few examples: If “normal” contractors spend over half their budgets in the YP and perennially complain about the sorry results, the leaders shun same. Our top clients spend about 20% in the yellow pages – less if we can make a business case for it. Likewise, the “normal” ad is a stupid, puffed up, ego-driven and ridiculously ineffective ad designed for “Free!” by the staff whose design criteria is to “not stand out too much”. Leaders advertise with customer-focused direct response ads that DO stand out.

Likewise, if the “crowd” is not having success with Maintenance Agreements, the leaders find a way to pile them on. If the “crowd” is not getting publicity, the leaders focus on it. If the “crowd” doesn’t want to invest in customer retention, the leaders quietly amass legions of devoted fans by using it.

2) Resist Outside Advice from Qualified Experts – The “fear of change” aspect again. Leaders typically hire specialists in finance, estate/succession planning, insurance, legal, marketing, sales, personnel, and technical training. They see these as “investments”; the crowd sees them as “unnecessary costs”. In time, the gap between the investor and the fearful non-spender widens. The “crowd” calls them lucky. The leaders would call the crowd names, but they have bigger things to focus upon.

SIDE NOTE #1: Our Coaching Clients typically say things like “just having someone on my side, giving advice and urging me forward is worth several times the fee”. That was NOT a plug to join OUR Coaching Program, but to find someone, some place, where you get a regular “sense of mission”. Looking at the same walls, the same employees’ blank faces, generally will not do it.

SIDE NOTE #2: This month’s Coaching Call is with none other than sales superstar Joe Crisara, who had one of THE most provocative (and successful) short sales videos I’ve ever seen here. Coaching Clients WILL get a double earful of Joe’s “Triple Your Sales” magic on this call. Be ready. (Not in Coaching? Click to find out how to join.)

3) Refuse to look at the “Hole in the Bucket”. If the website visits are going down, there’s a reason. If the response to direct mail has sunk, there’s a reason. If your ‘old’ customers aren’t calling you back, there’s reason. If you regularly hear people ‘not’ requesting a certain tech of yours, there’s a reason. All are costing you. Turning the other way doesn’t make it go away or get better.

Self Admission Time: Though our ‘renewal’ rate for newsletter clients had gone up, I still wondered about those who did NOT renew. So we launched a 3 part mail/email/call campaign to all who – for any reason at any time – didn’t renew. It’s amazing. Many new phone calls, old clients feeling “appreciated”, and new orders came in. The hole in the bucket, now smaller.

There are negative habits, practices, trends in your company NOW that are reversible. Take a hard look at them. Be the leader who a) Admits b) Takes corrective action c) Measures and repeats accordingly.

4) Being ‘Hurt’ by Criticism. Sorry, but we’ve become wimpy, politically-correct, crybaby prone fence-sitters concerned about everyone’s self-esteem. This is, to me, the ‘fear’ behind change. We fear resistance, reluctance, ‘making a wrong move’ (so we make NONE) or offending. Respectful leaders forge ahead without bullying but also without regard to slings and arrows of sideliners. Most critics do little other than criticize. So, if you have something you’ve “been thinking about doing” for awhile, there’s a God-given reason it won’t leave you alone. Apologies to Nike, but just do it.

5) Expect New Results from Old Habits – The “old” model has died. This economy just gave it a not-so-respectful funeral. Those who change are going to manifest their destinies accordingly. Yet following the same marketing pattern, sales presentations, going to the same discussion boards and same industry events with the same speakers, are NOT going to bring change.

Best thing you could do is buy a plane ticket to visit a business you want to become and find what they did. Ask whose advice they sought, what ‘systems’ they have. You’ll find that they were never afraid to change. Emulate that.

Watch for these 5 nasty habits in your business, and pick one thing you can change now. You’ll soon make far more headlines than corduroy pillows.

Questions to consider:
1. Which of the above 5 are most damaging to you now?
2. What people can you involve to change it?
3. What’s the FIRST step you can take to change it?
4. What day will you do that? Now, go do it.

The Pricing Spiral

2009-08-24T09:48:00.000-05:00

My son is 16, which of course means that I have been downgraded in intellect to somewhere between a sponge and a dead moth. My “inclusion” in many of his activities is often restricted to no closer than 3 zip codes. I remember being a teenager too. So, imagine my elation when he suggested a summer trip and I got (sort of) invited!

What was his idea of a trip with Dear old Dad? A roller coaster tour. Yes, a tour of the best parks in Ohio, whose new state motto is, “Come Hurl in a Loop-D-Loop!” Sounded like fun to me. Let me back up a sec.

First, he’d never been a wanton, crazy thrill seeker. Second, I’ve scarcely mentioned a desire to go 100 mph upside-down in a spiral either. Third, Ohio? Are you nuts?

Turns out I was wrong about Ohio. The drive was beautiful. I mean, 'Get out of the car and take a picture' beautiful. Gorgeous green rolling hills, picturesque farms, Amish Cheese flowing out of Amish Cheese wells. Unreal.

So, we went to two terrific parks: King’s Island near Cincinnati and Cedar Point in Sandusky. These are not your normal amusement parks with people with questionable hygiene – and a low inventory of teeth to prove it.

These parks are immaculate. The rides are incredible and the focus of their incredulity is on “Roller Coasters”. If you’re thinking “up the clickety hill, down the other side, ‘Whee’, ride’s over,” you’d be criminally mistaken. They’re rocket launchers on tracks. They hurtle into outer space, narrowly missing other planets at speeds that actually put you into the future.

>> Click here to read if Adams still has most of his organs AND the marketing lesson in PAYING someone to make you go upside down at warp speed >>

Value Lesson: It may be worth noting that the average attendee spends $50 to enter, is totally on their own to navigate, figure out ride choices, and spends – on average – 90 minutes per ride standing in line. This means, in 8 hours, with eating, walking, and required bathroom visits, they can ride 4 rides, 5 if they forego food. (Not the worst idea.) My son and I rode 19. Our average wait? Under 2 minutes. Lunch? Free. How’d we accomplish such a thing?

Given that I only plan on doing this once, and Cleveland is 1070 miles from my house so I can’t really “drop by”, we did what’s called the VIP tour. Our personally-appointed guide knew exactly which rides did what. She also got us in through the “exit”, meaning no wait. Ever.

One ride, called “Top Fuel Dragster” was new to Cedar Park. It was so popular that the wait was – get ready – just under 3 hours. The ride lasted 40 seconds. Lest you feel that was being gypped to Madoff like proportions, please know a couple fun facts - -

It was 41 stories tall. Not a typo. You start off, strapped into a padded car that renders you paralyzed from the eyelids down. Then it shoots horizontally, from 0-120 mph in just under 4 seconds. When your eyeballs almost hit the people behind you, the thing turns 90 degrees straight up said 41 stories to give your thoughts time to catch up. But no, they over shoot and merely orbit with space junk among other thoughts, many of which are just two words, starting with “OH”. You turn around at a navigational satellite next to Ursa Major and head straight down 180 degrees – in a spiral – to make sure your spleen comes out smoothly (no one knows from where) and clears the horrified onlookers below. By the time it stops at over 1g, you know exactly what snorting Red Bull laced with LSD must be like. Before you exit, you check your pants for potential waste fluids, and stagger away.

People waited 3 hours for this. We rode it twice in 6 minutes. But I had the time of my life, albeit now sans spleen.

So the questions for you, oh seeker of the truth, are…

Q: Am I cheap?
A: Yes. But I like to call it “value oriented”.
Q: Am I easily sold?
A: You ever read these editorials?
Q: How much is the VIP package worth?
A: You tell me how much it’d be worth it to you to ride the rides, on a once in a lifetime trip with your child, building far more memories than standing in line having to go to the bathroom for the last half of the wait. Send your guess here.

This is about “price elasticity”. You think your drain cleanings are ‘x’ because that’s what people charge. You think your services should be ‘y’ because that’s what people charge. Price elasticity exists in all markets, for all people. You must locate the ‘value’ for them and charge accordingly. Next issue will explore that.

Part of my value – and one clearly known by the amusement park people – is that a vacation is typically not repeatable. The “best time” means making the most of that time, with price an often secondary consideration. I assure you, I never once considered price while spiraling upside down, out of control wishing I’d never heard of blue ice cream.

Finally, I don’t know about you, but time with my children is special and moving by faster than any ride at the park. Now where are those seat belts?

Questions to consider:

1. What do you charge for a “normal” service for the top 3 most common services you do?
2. What would customers pay extra for to make this extraordinary? Name 3 things.
3. What would they pay? Ask around. You’ll be surprised.

Love Hurts

2009-08-11T09:48:00.001-05:00

I love contractors – seriously. That’s why you get to read exploits with the various good, bad, and ugly varieties out there, hopefully learning along the way. Today, we’ll look at a bad and a good, while I play the role of the ugly.

Now, this may be a shock, but the deep south is hot. This causes electrical panels to erupt, irrigation systems to work overtime, and hvac systems to burn their little bearings up. Contractors love it here.

A couple weeks ago, a tenant at our old office (we still own) called the property manager to say, politely, that she thought the ac vents were blowing hotter than the ‘bad place’. (No, not Cleveland.) The property manager suggested his “ac guy” take a look, and I agreed. Told him, “Whatever he says, I’m probably fine with it. Just get the system and her cooled down.”

After about 3 hours for him to actually make it out to the property, he checked the outdoor unit (without announcing himself to the tenant – take a note) and surmised that it was too small for the building. This was made more astonishing since I later found his company had done the installation. He also said the duct system (which they didn’t do) was “a mess”.

I waited for him to give me a suggestion, or options, but he said nothing else. So I just asked, “Then your only recommendation is to replace the system? That’s it?”

His response? “Yeah, that’s about it. If you’re interested, I can go back, do some more measurements and give you a quote.”

Let's see, it's 103 ̊; this is Alabama; it's late July, I have a tenant who is about to ignite, and his statement, in case you missed it, is: "If you’re interested, I can give you a QUOTE."

Not terribly impressed, I felt stuck, so I answered “Sure, I’d like a quote, but in the meantime, can you do SOMETHING, like make sure the charge is up, the system clean, or even let me rent a couple window units to help her out?”

“Nope, I don’t do that. Plus, I'm kind of shorthanded right now. I’ll try to get back by there in a couple days.”

Maybe I expect too much. But my blood pressure was just under the level required to boing your eyeballs out on cartoon like springs.

Mr. "Get a Quote in Days! Not Hours!” seemed a little lacking in the customer service department, and perhaps a couple pounds shy of coolant himself. Given this, I made my way to the dreaded Yellow Pages, called another company I had used in the past. Can’t remember now why I didn’t use them again. (Take another note.)

Says they’ll be there in about a half hour.

Wondrously, he’s early. The tenant lets him inside (note). He handles her very professionally, apologizes for her inconvenience (note #3), takes a look and calls me. “The unit probably is a quarter ton too small, but mainly just dirty, both of which are exaggerated by the heat. BUT, we’re gonna clean it up, reduce some flow to the storage room she’s hardly using, pump that to her office (note) and I recommend you install some solar tinting on the back of the building. I don’t do this but have a pro who can” (note)

Whoa. Not bad for the first 20 minutes. “How about the duct system?” I ask.

He replies, “Beautiful. All hard pipe, well-crafted. Not sure who did it but it’s first class.” (note)

Credibility of Contractor #1 goes subterranean. “Can you help her out a little now, and then go ahead and schedule whatever repairs will make the unit work for her?”

“Sure thing. I don’t have window units, but I have a bunch of desk fans I picked up at Harbor Freight and left her a couple. She seems appreciative. I’ll call the window tinter now and give him your info…”

“No need to,” I interrupted, “just have him do it and bill me”. (Please note, sales occur quickly with a trusted referral.)

One day later, Contractor #2 does the work, drops the temps in the office, re-calms the tenant, reclaims his fans. Calls me to give the update.

He then quotes on a Maintenance Agreement for the building. Done. Asks what else I need. He’s installing a new system at a warehouse as I write this. We’ll see how that goes.

Funny thing. A little turns into more, long as you keep the momentum with some customer service and good sense. Don’t make doing business with you too hard. Rivers of money are forged with the path of least resistance.

Questions for you:
1. Is solving your customers’ problems your first concern?
2. How much income do you lose a year if this scenario is repeated in your business just once a month?
3. Once your image is shattered, it’s hard to repair. How are you using service to keep a higher image in your market?

Death of a Salesman

2009-07-17T15:58:00.001-05:00

“Billy Mays here, for Oxy-Clean.” Wow, we won’t hear those words again, unless his near clone of a son, Billy Mays Jr. does it. At the moment, unlikely.

Those of you in our Coaching Group have heard me laud Mays’ show, “Pitchmen”, regularly due to the background of how products were positioned, priced, and pitched. A fascinating introspection into the world of influence on a mass level, quite applicable on the individual level.

I’ve also encouraged you to pay attention to most any oft-repeated infomercial since it was a) Successful and b) Worthy of study for the ‘sales triggers’ and sequence of pitch to apply to your own business.

Billy Mays had a sixth sense about such things. Getting to ‘know’ him through the show allowed us to see past the tightly groomed beard and over-zealous voice affectations rising and falling under the blue starched shirt.

To him, and to those who do any craft well, their zeal is real, thus credible. We knew without any pretense, that he was there to ‘sell’ us something, something new, amazing, wonderful, and probably something we could live without.

Do I really need to Mighty-Putty a hose reel to the wall in 4 minutes flat? Didn’t matter, nor that this product (plain old two-part epoxy) wasn’t ‘new’ at all. When Billy Mays pitched it, “For the incredibly low price of just nineteen ninety-five… here’s how to order”, over 10 million orders poured in.

That’s $199,500,000 from a 1 minute commercial folks. Not too shabby for a product that had sleepily laid in bins at auto parts stores, hardware stores, general merchandise stores, grocery stores, and drug stores for nearly 20 years. And therein lies at least 1 part of the sales epoxy: the ability to ‘see’ the opportunity others miss.

These sales masters clearly don’t “need” a new product, only a new way to package or angle the product, re-aim it to a different audience, remove the mystery of its use, while maintaining the mystery of its miracle (very important). And the second part was the Mays’ epoxy – we’ll call it the hardener – is the beauty of the pitch.

There are 5 parts to a well-crafted pitch, as old as PT Barnum, as cutting-edge effective as the iPod, and as copyable as a slow dance. Here they are –

“The 5 Step Pitch of SuperStar Salespeople”

Anyone who says, “A pitch is a pitch,” may as well be talking about baseball, because neither is true. There is art, craft, timing, skill, indelibly linked to a single emotion of persuasion. If you’ll watch the infomercials closely, you’ll see they all start at the same place, which is precisely where you should start…

1. The problem. Be it weight loss, wrinkles, an overcrowded purse, no time to go to the gym, acne, flabby abs, halving meal time preparations, or by golly needing that darn hose reel to stay stuck on a brick wall, the “problem” is framed harshly.

No one cares about solving a minor problem, so the “old” method of trimming the dog’s toenails (which seemed fine only moments ago) will now cripple him and get you turned into the SPCA. Those “old” pants you used to fit in would be great if you didn’t have a rear end the size of Missouri. And that wrinkle on your forehead that TO YOU seemed small is actually making strangers on the street call hospice for you or have you carbon dated.

There’s no time in direct response for minimizing the issue, and actually there is no point. You either agree or you don’t, and are welcome to change the channel, unless of course…

2. The Proof convinces you. Whatever you “thought” or “suspected” is now confirmed. A dude in a lab coat with an unpronounceable last name tells you so. The Swedish Sleep Institute has confirmed it, NASA took that crap into outerspace, the 4 half-drunk neighbors think YOUR Magic Bullet Margaritas are the best, and Tony Horton – whose biceps actually won the Kentucky Derby – swears you’ll be able to bench press a building by Friday if you’ll just watch the DVD.

Billy Mays showed Magic Putty pull a Naval Carrier; Oxy Clean turned a vat of red dye clear; he erased stains, greened lawns, and uprooted weeds right before our eyes. What other proof does a person need?

Aside from my playfulness here (done to dramatize their universal existence) the preponderance of proof is what takes you from mental query to mental acceptance. This is the exact step they want you to be at, and as your mind enters this “what if” stage, out comes…

3. The Probe. These are deeper questions that ask your subconscious for a “yes”. Once asked for and gotten, you’re just millimeters from whipping out your Visa, but not yet. You must now ask yourself, “Could it be that I’ve gotten that out-of-shape?” or “Wouldn’t it be fun to scrapbook?” or “Can I get my vitality back?” and “Why do I pay the exterminator when that plug-in thingy will electrocute any bug that even considers coming to my house?” The probe appears to be an impartial judge, merely an internalizing of a fair question. This is the same thing you’d do presenting your prospects with your contracting offer.

“Why put up with that leak any longer? Why not be comfortable in your own home? Shouldn’t you lower your energy bill?” Get your prospects to probe and make their subconscious seek you as a solution. This bring us to…

4. The Presentation. Ta-da, here’s the solution. You asked, and here’s the answer that supports your very own conclusion! “I am sick of my partner wanting a ‘too firm’ mattress, so check it out – a SLEEP NUMBER BED!” Or “Man, I do need exercise, but don’t like the confines of the gym, so that Tryke thing is for me!” And “Yes, I hate hours of back-breaking labor or paying a detailer hundreds of dollars, so the ‘Miracle Wax’ is the answer!”

Each presentation is indeed the rabbit-out-of-the-hat syndrome. Your contracting offer must ‘answer’ or ‘solve’ the initial problem you handed your customer. I don’t care WHO handed it first, your job is to make it stink to the rooftops (at least) and present your solution as the fragrance from on-high.

This step also contains the price and the negating thereof, known as the guarantee. There must be an offsetting acceptance where the gain far outdistances the pain (price) and IF that is just hype, there’s always the fall-back (guarantee).

Your presentation is not separate from the price; price is a merely a trivialized component. The dollar amount is ONE element within a well-crafted presentation, minimized to nothingness. “Sure, you COULD throw all these hopelessly stained clothes away, or eliminate the stains and save hundreds!” Or “A private fitness coach is $200, $300, $400… but you get 28 sessions of P90X, each like a one-on-one private lesson, for just $90.”

The dollar amount is then dropped again in one of several ways. Payments are extended. The amount of product is doubled at the last second. The last payment may be dropped entirely. In any of these, the lingering pain of payment is dropped to a non-issue. But if a molecule of hesitancy remains…

The guarantee saves them. It is the safety net of perceived risk. The bolder the better. “We guarantee you’ll save 25% on this 16SEER system, or we’ll write you a check for the difference.” “We guarantee this water heater will be the last one you ever buy for this house, or we’ll give you a new one, all you pay for is minimal labor.”

Billy Mays’ presentation helped turn Oxy-Clean into a $300,000,000 soap. How? It was safer, faster, worked better, less harm to your clothes, less toxic than the competitive (bleach), worked ‘naturally’ (a great distrust over the unnatural in case you wondered), was cheaper (more loads due to concentration), and who could argue with what they saw?

Once you’re nodding, or salivating, the final frontier is upon us.

5. The Push. Also called the “Call to Action”. In this, a sense of urgency pervades. “Operators are standing by for your call, but you must order in the next 7 minutes to get all the bonuses mentioned.” I don’t need to elaborate here, we all know them, and they do work.

In contracting, you don’t use these enough. Inventories run low, and people HATE to wait, so why not use it? Price increases do happen, but few contractors use that as an incentive to act. Crews get busier in the summer, so a return to normal NON discounted pricing is expected. The Tax Credit rebate ends in 2010, but who knows when they could pull this program? We can schedule you in for Tuesday, but if you wait, it could be another 10 days. All of these are legitimate “pushes” to help make the decision, and to make it faster.

In fact, using the 5-step pitch can radically change your business. Too many contractors focus on “product” which you’ll notice was NOT one of the “P’s” covered. Why? Because no one wants a drill… we just want the hole. Focus on solving the problem, with convincing proof, and a credible presentation filled with price and pain minimizers. Then gently push toward the acceptance.

Billy Mays showed that sincerity coupled with a gift toward the dramatic, we all wanted cleaner clothes, better lawns, sharper knives, and better glue. And we’d buy any of it from someone we trust.

So relaying that homeowners want safer, more efficient, cleaner, and more comfortable homes shouldn’t be too hard. But wait! There’s more! Because since they trust you to help them make good decisions, it should make both of your lives easier.

Questions for you:

What problems do I solve for homeowners?
What 3rd part proof do I share with them to support the solution?
What probing questions do I WANT them to ask themselves?
Is my presentation convincing? What are the steps I take to convince. (If you answered ‘none’, you’re NOT convincing, you’re hoping.)
How to I incentivise action? How do I follow up to help?

Why I Hate Twitter

2009-05-07T14:36:00.002-05:00

I could almost just generalize with “Social Media” in the above headline, but it sounds more violent and unruly to hate something with a cartoon name. I mean, it’s like “I’d Like to Scrub the Toilet Bowl with Sponge Bob”; who wouldn’t read that? (Power in a headline.)

Anyway, “Twitter” and other social media sites are indeed the rage. Facebook, with a mere 200 million users, is hardly a kiddies’ playground anymore. LinkedIn (sort of like Facebook for business) is “the” social hangout for commercial connections. With myriad other discussion groups, subgroups, and topical hotspots for micro-niching, how’s a marketer to make it anymore?

Heck, we got kicked off of two social sites in 40 minutes because my 20-something year old intern failed to read the rules. He posted a mildly promotional link (“mildly promotional” to a marketer is like “moderately costly” to a Government Official) on both, we got an “instant death” email, and that was that. Oops. Been kicked out of better places.

But we continued down the Social Media paths as an experiment, attempting to see why it was so crowded, being reminded of Yogi Berra’s famous quote: “It’s so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.” As it turns out, he was more prophetic than imagined.

Before you get your twit in a wad, or unlink me from the scintillating post that “you’re going to breakfast soon”, please put on the marketing glasses for a second. My first and main interest is the “who”. It is the defining, crowning, all-valuable “who” that dictates the message and its hopeful response.

If a market’s sole value is sheer numbers, then there’d best be a unifying language, problem, villain, or passionate cause in their psyche or the marketing is for naught. Have fun with that “branding” campaign; just don’t ask me to pay for it. Thus, my “who” needs definition. The reason I also hate card decks (Money Mailer et al) for contractors is the same: big, broad, ill-defined numbers.

By all accounts, staying “active” long enough to define your Social Media groups is time consuming. (I’m bracing for the email response now “IT IS NOT! MY BOSS WOULD BE MAD IF I SPENT MORE THAN 7 HOURS A DAY DOING IT!”) Some experts claim just “30 minutes a day” but I ain’t buying it.

Any interruption in our ADD prone world takes 10 minutes to refocus, so if you’re tweeting your little pecker off (bird analogy) at each twit, that’s a lot more than any 30 minutes. And going “silent” in this group is not endearing. Plus, given the parameters of the group, “marketing” to them is not nice or socially acceptable. Seems a three-time loser in productivity.

Yet, in a nearly redemptive statement that all marketers do not have leprosy, FaceBook has just announced sweeping changes to their advertising rules. They may now realize that ad revenues actually support media. (Just ask XM and Sirius.) We’ve got an experiment going there too; I’ll let you know.

In Twitter, you get 140 characters per Tweet. (Every time I talk like this, I imagine myself wearing huge orange shoes, scanning for Sylvester the Cat.) This is scarcely what we’d call “long copy”, and without a TweetDeck (organizational tool) you’ll be mind-numbingly insane before you establish enough of a relationship to even mention what you do for a living. Snidely, you may be in the minority there anyway.

So, back to the numbers. The hours spent, the nose-time invested, the “ad aversion” mentality, message brevity, and response reaction time all lead me to conclude this is a currently sorry place for B2B. For the time/productivity wasted, you could buy a radio station and get your following that way.

Twitter has its place – obviously - but do NOT consider it as anything other than a tangential media. It is really NOT for business any more than hanging out at the bar or golf course is designed for business. That may come as a long-term, profitable way to rationalize the time spent, just don’t mistake the mission.

So, let the crowds check it out; let the Today Show feature it; and let the marketing gurus laud it (and be sure to watch for their “how to” packages, kits, training on “mastering it” at an e-commerce site near you soon!) You’re advised to spend your time more productively.

Next time, FaceBook and LinkedIn.

Until Then, Here are some thoughts on how (or if) you should consider Social Media...

Common sense first. Do your target buyers use social media? If so, READ THE RULES and register. Follow the lead of those claiming success. Basically, understand the WHO.
How big is your database? If of the above group, ask them to sign up for your Facebook page or follow your Tweets. See how many do so.
If your database is under 500, is building the list on social media the way to go? Similar to #1 above, you must know who they are and if they are online.
Once you’re POSITIVE social media is right for you: start a Facebook and Twitter account. Stay focused on your profession, not what an idiot your Congressman is, or how Dale Jr keeps getting the shaft this year. Let people know you by your profession, and put SOME personal things in there, but never damaging or unnecessary polarizing.
If it gets active, get a Tweetdeck. Far easier than the Twitter tool. In a shocking display of efficiency, Tweetdeck helps organize your posts, replies, and followers.
Provide quality content. Just like the golf course scenario, it helps to ‘give’ advice before expecting someone to pay you for it. You can discuss technologies, ‘green-ness’, point to articles (hopefully ones you’ve written), other sites, books, more. you need to be a “Helpful authority.”
Get Promotional and Get Gone. This is why you do #6 instead. If it becomes the “you show”, then you can get banned, deleted, cancelled and otherwise “offed”.
There are some benefits to consider:
a. Fast feedback. (Quantity and quality of your responses is a great measure of your success.)
b. Good posts get spread virally. Clever, informative posts get shared on other networks, creating more links and exposure.
c. Cross –promotion. You can put other sites, blogs, of yours on Twitter, Facebook, linking them back and forth. (Of course, once on your site, you can promote.)

Let us know your THOUGHTFUL thoughts, reactions, responses, or suggestions by sending an email to TwitThis@HudsonInk.com. Some selected comments may make it to our editorial or blog. Thanks!

There's Goodness In The Badness

2009-04-02T08:22:00.005-05:00

Housing starts are up. (What? Someone in this country is being paid to build an actual house? Someone tell CNN!) Pending home sales up 2.1% from February to March. Unemployment slide slower than expected. Retail sales better than both 3rd and 4th quarter projection. Consumer confidence – perhaps the most important of the indices – plateaued in March from a 6 month freefall.

Sure, you’re used to me doing April Fool’s jokes, but this time I’m leaving that predictable hilarity to others. (“Contrarian” being my continued advice to you.) This is good news for real, though the perceptions remain “bad”.

People are paralyzed, polarized, or both by “bad” news (it also sells media, opinions, and short-term dependency.) Yet people are magnetically attracted to good news, and right now, “good news” is the attractive contrarian approach more than ever.

You can change one perception into the other, because as an entrepreneur, you’re in charge of both.

In other good news, the Hudson family returned with all the ligaments we had before our ski trip. (click to read last editorial if you missed it.) If the ski vacation business mirrors America even slightly, then more people are staying home (important to note contractors), saving more, and being more sensible. This is certainly not a bad outcome, even though skiing vendors say post-boom business is off 30%. Considering the escalated prices paid for dinners, they’re making more money off of less food. Complaints were few, because regulars told me they enjoyed their trip more due to less crowding. Take two marketing notes there.

Yet the whole buying public seems to be in a holding pattern of collective schizophrenia: “Capitalism is good; gluttony is bad.”

A fine line of perception divides them. Hard to spend your way out of a recession when – to a large degree – the inability to save enough for a “proper” down payment triggered it. (Feel free to disagree openly in your comments; I’m not running for office.) Regardless, most buyers aren’t inclined to plunk down for the unnecessary when they might need supplies during the apocalypse. “Showy overbuying” is definitely out. Makes you feel good to be a supplier of required services doesn’t it?

So, what perception isn’t selling now? Okay, cars, namely American ones. The perception is that this is due to a “quality” issue. Sure, the US Auto Industry has its woes, but quantifiable quality is not among them. To wit: since its inception in 1990, Lexus has won the world-acclaimed “JD Power Customer Satisfaction Index” (the top “Oscar” of automobiledom). Until this year. It was won by the very American Buick. The most “unreliable” car on the list? Suzuki, which last time I checked was Japanese.

However, the perception (important word for salespeople and marketers) among the public is that the average unreliable Buick is driven by a 112 year old female who needs a periscope to see above the steering wheel. Sorry if that’s NOT you, but that IS the perception. (I owned a turbocharged Buick Grand National, loved it, but every time I drove it I had the irresistible urge to shop for dentures.) Likewise, we think, “If Japanese, then reliable.”

Both are factually incorrect; perceptionally intact.

So, perceptions are running the asylum, and you and I are inmates.

What perceptions are in the market now? The general perception is that contracting is down (as an industry). Yet the #1 reason our clients miss a paid coaching call: “We’ve been too busy.” They’re having record months, amassing customers from quieted competitors because services are in high - and potentially increasing - demand.

That’s one perception you can drive a stake in. Good riddance. I’ve written so often about not becoming a silent statistic to your customer base that I’ve chosen to only give the shorthand list here –

1) Thank you cards 2) Scripted Thank you calls 3) Scripted Follow up surveys/referral generators 4) Newsletters 5) Maintenance Agreement bumps 6) Radius Mailings 7) Google and YOUR own website “Rankings” (no one is taking this seriously enough; thus a leadership role awaits you)

Then there’s the public perception (not your customers) that contractors are messy, unprofessional, and on the edge of trustability. Whatever, I don’t make the opinions. Your job is to obliterate that perception about you.

As an entrepreneur, you’re the Chief Perception Officer out there. For the last several months, we’ve urged clients to resist the dour attitude, find the good news, focus upon finding more. Become the “anti-contractor” image. He’s quiet; you’re loud. He’s amateur; you’re professional. He forgets his customers; you tattoo your logo into their frontal cortex. His ‘fleet’ looks like extras from a crash film; yours like a showroom. And on it goes.

So if the “norm” is to gripe and become a long-term repellant, then the “contrarian” becomes a relevant long-term attractant. You’re an entrepreneur, this is what you do.

In his February 24th State of the Union Address, Barack Obama publicly declared that “The future of our economy relies on the imagination of our Entrepreneurs.” Regardless of your political convictions, those 12 words are about business, and the perception of your role in it. Curl up with the complainers or gather gold with the gainers.

Benjamin Franklin – our nation’s first millionaire by the way – persevered through adversity, always seeking the “good in the bad”. He said, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain… and most fools do.” He followed that up with, “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”

Get moving.