Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category

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Tapping Into The Valuable Realtor Network

Thursday, December 30th, 2010 by victoria

Face-to-face marketing is what’s working best today. But getting face-to-face with enough people can be daunting. Instead of focusing on individuals, think about how you can get in front of groups of people who can send business your way. That’s exactly what one of our longtime Roundtables members did and he’s reaping the rewards. Read more below.

Want more referrals? Consider reaching out to the Realtors in your area like John McCloskey does. In 2008, the remodeler, who’s president of Pittsburgh, Pa.-based J. Francis Company, LLC, started giving presentations about various remodeling-centric topics at local real estate agents’ monthly ongoing education programs. He got himself in the door by contacting the office manager of each agency and offering to bring the agents lunch.

These days, McCloskey still brings real estate agents lunch—several large sandwich trays he picks up at Costco—and gives presentations to about 40 to 60 real estate professionals at each lunch-and-learn session. In the past two years, he’s been in front of approximately 1,000 Realtors. “We do not promote our company,” says McCloskey. “We educate the agents about construction practices; the cost vs. value of the most popular remodeling projects; lead renovation, repair, and painting; changes and trends we’re seeing in the remodeling and housing industries; and how to hire a contractor.” The remodeler supplements his presentations with handouts on each topic he discusses.

The monthly presentations are symbiosis at its best. “People expect real estate agents to know everything,” McCloskey points out, “so it’s very helpful to the agents to have us in their back pocket. This is stuff they can pass on to their clients.” The Realtors, in turn, pass on referrals to J. Francis Company, which has gotten several projects from those referrals. To help keep the company front and center in the real estate agents’ minds, McCloskey concludes each session by telling the agents he’ll give their clients free ballpark estimates on remodeling work they’re considering having done.

Posted in Business Growth, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Does Soft Marketing Really Work? You Bet!

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 by victoria

When money is tight, it can be hard to invest in what some business owners might consider soft marketing like relationship building parties and events. But for longtime Roundtables member, Steve Rehder, it was worth every penny. Here’s his story.

When Rehder Construction, Inc., turned 30 this year, company president and CEO Steve Rehder and his staff celebrated the anniversary with a catered party that united long-time clients and trade contractors in toasting the company’s longevity—and garnered the company some leads, too.

Well before the August 27 anniversary date, Rehder’s staff printed invitations and mailed them to all of the company’s past and current clients and key suppliers. “We made sure to invite our subs, too, because some of them have been with us 30 years,” says Rehder.

The party was staged at the company’s office in Campbell, Calif. Rehder secured the building owner’s permission to extend the party into the parking lot, if necessary. Good thing he thought ahead, because twice the number of people who had RSVPed showed up. “We were amazed at the turnout,” Rehder recalls. “We’d hoped for 30 or 40 people—and instead 80 guests attended.”

There was plenty of food for everyone and lots of giveaways and door prizes, too. After guests wrote their contact information in a sign-in book, they were each given a raffle ticket. During the party, Rehder and his staff gave raffle winners coupons for free dinners at a local restaurant, free carwashes, bottles of wine, company shirts and vouchers for 3 hours of handyman work.

Guests mingled and chatted with each other—and provided testimonials about the company to new clients. “We invited a brand-new client whose kitchen we redid,” says Rehder. “She quizzed people at the event about the company and later told my secretary, ‘Thanks so much for inviting me. This really solidified everything I’ve heard about your company.’ ”

After the party, Rehder wrote personal thank-you notes to each guest and mentioned the company’s referral program. “We got one lead right off the bat,” says the remodeler. “After she received the thank-you letter, a client called me up and said, ‘I have a friend in Palo Alto who wants a second-story addition, too.’ ”

The good will continued after the event. “My staff and I had a blast at the party and the crew enjoyed visiting with the clients,” says Rehder. “It wasn’t originally in our budget to have an anniversary party. I thought, ‘It’s going to cost some money, but it will be worth it.’ And it was.”

Posted in Business Growth, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Are You Letting Great Prospects Slip By?

Friday, November 5th, 2010 by victoria

This year, we instituted a lead capture system on our web site to identify prospects who come to our web site via Social Media, Search Engines, or referrals. I strongly recommend this marketing tactic to every remodeling company which has a web site – and that should be everyone!

Our lead capture system uses what some marketers call the Law of Reciprocity to work.

The Law of Reciprocity means: to give and take mutually; to return in kind or even in another kind or degree.

The law of reciprocity, simply explains that that when someone gives you something you feel an obligation to give back — and visa versa.

I’ll share how it works for us and then help you see how to make it work for you.

Visitors to our web site see an offer for a free, value-packed informational report. The title and content of the report was written to specifically appeal the kinds of people who would be strong members of our Remodelers Advantage Community – motivated, improvement-oriented, remodeling company owners.

When interested visitors click on the link to receive the report, we ask them for information on themselves and their company as a condition for downloading. We don’t ask them for much, because asking for too much adds what ecommerce marketers call “friction” which can be a turn off – but enough to tell us if they are a good prospect for our services. Web site visitors don’t mind providing this limited information because they are receiving valuable information from us. The Law of Reciprocity in action.

If we find that the visitor is a good prospect, he/she is invited to join our community. Now, we all know that not everyone is ready to buy the first time they contact a company. So if they don’t choose to join immediately, we don’t give up. Instead we nurture this prospect so that, when he or she is ready, we are the first company that comes to mind for strategic business improvement help.

We nurture these prospects with a series of informational, personal emails—each one building on the next as we provide more information on the benefits of membership. Our nurturing program lasts about 18 months.

Let’s translate this to your company. What do visitors see when they visit your web site? Most web sites have no way to capture information and those that do are often an anemic link to “Sign up for our newsletter.” Boy, that’s exciting! (sarcasm)
Come on, you can do better than that!

Instead, create a 1-3 page special report that will capture their interest and compel them to take action to receive it. Think about what kinds of projects you want to attract. If you want to attract people who value sophisticated design, you might create a report titled Exciting Home Design Trends. To attract homeowners considering a new kitchen, the report might be titled Maximizing Your Kitchen Remodeling Investment. A report on additions might be Five Great Tips for Creating a Fantastic Addition.
Before they are allowed to download, ask them to return the favor by telling you something about themselves. The most essential information is email address so you can reach out to them again. Other information you may want to know: Are they planning a remodeling project and for what time frame? What is their zip code? How did they hear about your company?

Now, reach out to nurture this valuable prospect and make sure they remember you when their ready to take the next step: Hiring a remodeling company.

Posted in Business Growth, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Don’t Ask: Recommend!

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 by victoria

The last blog post I created focused on the need to become a great salesperson if you are really interested in maintaining a successful business. Boy, the hits to the web site were off the charts! So obviously we hit a nerve with that discussion. So, I decided to give you more information on sales and to do this, I”ve asked our Director of Business Development, Ted Dubin, to share a few of his pearls of wisdom from his many years as a sales professional.
“One of the techniques that I recommend to all salespeople is that they need to be able to recommend the best option to their prospects, ” he says. “Too many salespeople will invest tons of time coming up with a great idea, developing an effective plan, working for hours to fit the budget, and they, they’ll turn it all over to the prospect and say ‘What do you think?’”

“Instead, be the professional you are, be confident in the solution you created and say, ‘This is the solution I recommend. . . ‘ and then go on to support your recommendation.”

Ted says, “People like to buy but they don’t like to make decisions by themselves. They look to you to be the leader and to tell them what’s best for them. If you know you have a great product, you’ve done your job and qualified them well, you’ve built the customer’s interest through a series of open-ended questions, then you should feel very confident in what you’ve developed and what you’re recommending.”

He goes on to say, “To feel that confidence. . .
1. Qualify the prospect with a series of open-ended questions designed to help the client recognize that they should accept your recommendation.
2. Be sure that the client can afford the recommendation.
3. Be sure that you’ve spent the time needed to really come up with the best solution that truly fits their need.
If you’ve done these things, then be the leader and tell they what they should do and why they should do it. That’ll be the key to also demonstrating why they should do it with you!”

Posted in Customer Service, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Becoming a Great Salesperson: Tools for Staying on Top

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by victoria

In the past 3 weeks, I’ve heard from six different remodelers who are very concerned because clients are accepting proposals that are priced significantly lower than their own. It can be devastating to one’s morale to have worked for weeks on a detailed remodeling project proposal only to be told that they’re giving the project to the lowest bidder.

This is almost always a bad decision. I’ll bet every one of you can tell a story about a client who did the same thing only to find that change orders were rampant, customer service was nil and the entire experience was a nightmare.
Clients that choose the lowest price rarely get the “deal” they expect.

A reporter for a midwest publication recently called me to comment on this trend and I told him something I don’t think he expected: “Haven’t these homeowners ever heard of the saying — If it looks too good to be true, it probably is? The homeowners are causing a great deal of the problem because they’re pushing remodelers to cut so much that they can’t deliver the experience that they know clients expect.”

I mean really, what do homeowners expect when they accept a proposal that is tens of thousands of dollars lower than the next?- in many cases, that amount is lower than the legitimate costs of remodeling professionals. Do they really think that the costs for these jobs vary that much from company to company? Seeing significantly lower numbers should be a huge red flag to the consumer. But in many cases, they see the projected savings and all reason goes to the side.

So, one important tactic to overcome this trend is to become an outstanding sales person — someone who knows how to communicate the value of the job, the value of a great customer experience, and the value of working with an established, knowledgable company.

What have you done to improve your selling skills lately? Our Remodelers Advantage members are sharing information, listening to sales training teleseminars, participating in webinars, and searching out the information they need to really ramp up the effectiveness of their sales ability. Many are participating in Sandler Sales Training or other professional sales training programs. At Remodelers Advantage, we’re putting more and more emphasis on marketing, and sales throughout our community.

Improving sales skills is not a silver bullet and it’s not going to have an impact overnight, but it’s time to realize that selling skills (not aggressive, hard selling techniques, but consultative, relationship-building tactics) are going to be your strongest tool to overcome the bad apples who are consistently underpricing the market. That is, until they go out of business.

Posted in Leadership, Sales | No Comments »

Growing Your Sales Team: Is the timing right?

Monday, August 9th, 2010 by victoria

I was reading an article from INC. magazine in which the author talked of attending a presentation given by a successful entrepreneur who asked the large audience, “Who here is involved in selling the company’s products or services?” Everyone held up his or her hand. The presenter responded, “Shame on you! If you are the owner of the company, you should hire salespeople to sell your products or services. You should be focused on selling the company!”

In other words, your highest impact activity as a company owner is to build the value of the company so that it is worth something to someone else — someone who will buy it! This was an epiphany to the author of the article and has struck a cord with the several remodeling company owners with whom I shared it. Their common response: “Boy, I’d love to be able to focus on building value in the company instead of having to sell the remodeling!”

Today, I’m seeing more and more remodelers and painters taking the first step and bringing on sales professionals, most for the very first time. I’m enthusiastic about this direction because it means more feet on the streets promoting your brand while uncovering prospects. We have a group of members in our Remodelers Advantage social network who are sharing commission structures, job descriptions, and working together to start the process of building a sales team right. So, first, establish a strong sales team which will allow you to move your focus elsewhere.

Second, focus on building value within the company with documented processes and procedures, detailed job descriptions, production systems and communication techniques, an organized client database, a proactive marketing program, and key managers that bring enthusiasm and creativity to the table. This level of organizational development shows that the company isn’t solely dependent on the owner’s experience to function but will continue to grow profits and a community of delighted clients based on the huge value within. It’s a business improvement strategy that could have huge positive effects for your company. Now that’s worth something!

Posted in Business Growth, Business Management, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

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