Marketing’s New RulesTM means that some of what is old is new again and some things have been changed forever by technology.
Rule #4 – Learn from the Most Successful People in Your Business
This is a quote from an email Jeff Walker (a brilliant businessman) sent me this week and it hit home.
“One of the big things I learned back then was that I could short-cut my path to success if
"modeled" other people who were having extreme success in whatever area that I wanted to excel in.
It sounds so simple, but it's a powerful concept... and it's one that most people ignore.
No matter what your problem there have been thousands and thousands of people who have faced the same problem... and SOLVED it. All you need to do is study what they did, and do it.”
Our system and almost everything we teach is based on the best practices of our clients.
The quickest and most efficient way to learn something is to model someone that has already done it and that is what we have done for you.
We’ve taken all the best practices and packaged them for you and each week we give you one more idea. Naturally, becoming a client means you get them all.
I will say without reservation that every one of our clients has contributed to the Closing Success System.
Every one.
Each client was doing at least one very smart thing that their competitors weren’t doing and many were doing a lot more than just one.
We aren’t talking about trade secrets – we are talking about best business and marketing tools and practices like:
The screening questions they ask prospects
How they handled different objections
What lead generation tactics worked the best and avoiding the ones that didn’t work at all
Who are the best referral sources
What they say when they follow-up on a proposal
The amount of training their employees get
How they answer the phone
The color of their trucks or uniforms
And much more
Let me guess.
You learned your trade from someone else didn’t you? Someone who taught you all the tricks of the trade.
Let me repeat this:
The quickest and most efficient way to learn something is to model someone that has already done it and that is what we have done for you.
Great ideas are just that until they are put into action.
Action Item: Call someone you know is successful in your industry and ask for some help on one particular topic you know they are good at. They will be flattered and will most likely be glad to help you. If they aren’t call the next person on your list.
Marketing’s New RulesTM means that some of what is old is new again and some things have been changed forever by technology.
Rule #3 – The Spider Effect of Referrals
We always ask our clients this question: “Do you have a systematic way to generate referrals?”
The typical answer is “Well we usually ask for them.”
Translation – they don’t have a system and they probably ask for referrals sporadically.
This seems so simple but it takes discipline to do it consistently.
You need to have a system that will make it easy and at the bottom of this newsletter you can download a very cool tool that will do this for you as long as you use it.
So why ask for referrals consistently?
Your closing rate will be much higher 70 or 80% or more
Less haggling about price and more focus on quality
Little or no dollars to do this
But here is the real big one – there is a spider effect of referrals.
Referrals spread out in all directions and multiply and that means your ROI on the initial lead can be 2 or 3 or 10 times higher.
Think about that for a minute. Say you spend $1,000 on lead generation and you get $10,000 worth of business and $1,500 profit. Not a bad return.
Now let’s say you ask for referrals and get just one more deal worth another $1,500 in profit. Now you generated a $3,000 profit from the $1,000 you spent, just by asking.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Here is a personal story from last week.
On Thursday, my client recommended me to a web designer who was looking for marketing help for her client. The web designer called me and after a 15 minute getting-to-know you call referred me to her client. I called immediately and my call was routed right through to the owner. We met on Monday and I submitted a proposal on Tuesday.
I also called the web designer right after the meeting to let her know how it went. I now have a new referral source and she will likely refer me out in a lot of directions because I made her look good to her client.
How to Attract The Low Price Shopper – Guaranteed!
If you want to attract the low price shopper do these 2 steps:
Meet with the prospect for as little time as possible or not at all
Simply complete your proposal with a price and mail or email it
At best, the only people that will hire you are the low price shoppers and at worst, this is a complete waste of time because you are far less likely to close the sale.
Now I know many of my readers are probably thinking “Hey we know that and we don’t do that.”
Ok but here is what we found working with some very successful clients:
They didn’t have a sales process in place that they followed consistently
The busier they got, the more likely that they would only do the 2 steps above and hope for the beOk I don’t always follow my diet and exercise plan either.
So what can you do to fix this?
Set up a sales process that works for your size company. For example:
Step 1 - Create a lead or prospect sheet and include the key questions to figure out if this is a lead you want to pursue (hint: you can make money on it.)If you get a call from someone 30 miles away that wants you to: paint 2 rooms or cut their lawn or patch a small roof leak or some other small project – my advice is don’t waste your time unless this is a referral.
Just screening out the deadwood up front will save you hundreds of hours a year. You can use that time to work smarter at getting better leads and closing them and that means more time to deliver that proposal in person. There are so many advantages to delivering the proposal in person yet most contractors drop it in the mail and hope for the best. Have a system and you can easily knock them out of the box.
Just being busy doesn’t translate into success. People sometimes think that since they are busy they are effective and making money. Maybe they are but I have met a lot of busy people that weren’t making much money and they didn’t have time for themselves either.
Following a system will make your more efficient and help you close more business because your prospects will realize you are organized and many of your competitors aren’t.
Let me repeat this.
Your customers and prospects will be amazed that you took the time to deliver your proposal and answer their questions. It’s also a lot tougher to tell someone “no” in person.
If that sounds ridiculously simple consider these facts:
70% of participants in a recent survey said “they don’t return my calls promptly”?
56% of home remodeling companies answered the phone live in another survey.
Participants in another survey were asked what does “phone calls returned promptly” mean to them and the answers range from 5 minutes to 24 hours and everything in between.
Just answering your phone and returning all calls will generate more business because most of your competitors aren’t doing that.
How is it possible in this age of instant communication that contractors can’t figure out how to answer their phone and return calls promptly?
So how can you distinguish yourself from your competition?
Here are 3 ways that you can use technology to help you:
Use an answering service. They can quickly screen your calls into prospects and clients. They can then send you an email or text message with the subject line prospect or client.
Forward your office phone to your mobile number.
Set up a separate phone line that you only use in ads so you know when that phone rings it is a prospect.
Finally, set a goal to return all calls within a specific time period: one hour, two hours, morning by noon, afternoon by 6PM etc. Rate yourself on how well you do.
Let me repeat this.
Your customers and prospects will be amazed at your responsiveness and just answering your phone and returning all calls will generate more business because most of your competitors aren’t doing that.
