Remember what I pointed out in Part 1: 

A visitor to your site is actively looking for specific answers to specific questions.  The two biggest questions they have when searching are: 

1.      Do you do what I am searching for?

2.      Why should I choose you?

Most sites we have seen spend all of their time on question #1 and forget #2 or bury it deep within the site. (on the about us or services page). This is a major mistake.

Some other important considerations for your home page - you have 2-3 seconds to grab their attention:

• The phone number and email address should be easily found - upper right hand corner seems to be the place of choice today.
• Your list of services should be easy to spot or find.
• Some images and if you can do it without it being distracting - a slide show of 3 or 4 images with links to your portfolio.
• Links to your blog (if you have one), your Facebook page (if you have one), white papers etc are all good to have.
• Make it easy to scan - use bullets and short paragraphs

Other Must Haves

FAQ - this is often left off - a well thought out FAQ will move your buyer much closer to calling you - think about all the questions people ask when they meet you - answer those on the site and you will spend a lot less time in your initial meetings

Images - great images alone won't make someone call you but the lack of great images may make them cross you off their list. All good companies have some great images - use them and include descriptions if there is any doubt about what is the image.

Some things to avoid with images:

• Images that dominate the page - "I expect you to have great pictures" - I want to know why I should call you - we have seen sites where the images literally took up almost the entire space you could see upon landing on the home page. This is a big mistake.
• Flash - This rarely works and is more likely to make people quickly hit the back button or close the page - this is especially annoying if people have to wait to have it load - more people will leave than stay while they load.

Make your site easy for the visitor to find the answers to the questions they have.  Getting too caught up in graphics,  bells and whistles on your site makes it too hard for a visitor to find what they're looking for and they click away.... never to been seen again.

Next week - how to create copy that will differentiate your company.

Until Next Tme,

-Mike Jeffries
866-926-5100

You've heard me talk about it and you know it yourself, your past customers are GOLD. 

Not only for future work, but for referrals.

Yet many, if not most, home improvement contractors don't systematically connect with their past clients.

I know. it's a pain in the neck.  What do you say?  How do you get it to them?  And unless you have someone in the office dedicated to all this, it's just too time consuming. 

On the other hand, there are contractors out there that have "cracked the code".

We'd like to find out what you're doing so we've put together a simple, anonymous, on line survey.

Click Here to Take The Survey   (5 minutes.tops)

And in future weeks, we'll share with you what we've learned, and what others around the country are doing to stay connected.

Until Next Time, I Wish You Much Success

Mike Jeffries

866-926-5100

Mike@ClosingSuccessSystem.com

Many home improvement contractors set the appointment and don't make contact with the prospect again until they show up at the home.

This is huge mistake becasue you're missing a chance go impress your prospect and start distinguishing your company from the other guys the prospect may be meeting with.

The materials you provide your prospect BEFORE you step through their door can establish you as the obvious choice to do business with, before you ever meet with them.

Remember, the prospect needs to be educated about what to look for, what to look out for, and the important and relevant information they need to know in order to make the best decision. 

The materials YOU provide answer those questions.  So when you show up for the appointment, you're confident you can easily answer their questions and start talking about when you will start their project.

These tools should act like a tiny army of salesman that scream credibility and integrity - it will be so obvious to your prospect. Do you really think anyone but my clients are doing this?

Of course not.  

But when they did, they started getting testimonials BEFORE they started the job:

This is an actual email one of our clients received the day after he used the tools of the Closing Success System during his proposal visit....

Hi Mike,

I'll mail the check out to you for the 10% deposit along with the signed contract. 

What helped us make the decision is your presentation of your product and your service.  We found the binder and the chance to take a look at it when it was convenient for us very helpful.    The information answers a lot questions and for us  it gave us insight into what we should be looking for in a great painting company.  I think it is wise and helpful to do what you did in your binder and back up your statements/facts with proof and examples of your work. 

What you are doing is a great way of marketing and it made a good first impression on us.   

We are happy to give you our business.

Sincerely,

Gina and Jason 

That is why this is so cool. Your competitors will start losing business and they won't even know why!

It's Like Starting the 100 Yard Dash at the 50 Yard Line

(Yeah - You'll Leave Your Competition in the Dust)

Until next time, I wish you much success

Mike Jeffries

866-926-5100