Improving Your Business
Is Our Business

On our most recent home improvement webinar, we offered $100 to the customer who submitted the best idea that they intended to use as promptly as possible. We received a wealth of responses, and wanted to showcase some of the best ones here:

“If you really are number one in your area, then you have to be number one: everything about how you do business needs to say we’re number one – - without using those words.”

“Thank you for pointing out the importance of tracking a lead. From rating it, to following up with it. In the past I would receive a lead, price it, then just hope to hear back from them.”

“Best idea from the webinar is rehashing.  Our company lost sales/money due to management not rehashing appointments to see what happen during presentations.  Shame on us!”

“The countless ideas presented by yourselves which translate into opportunities to modify, enhance and improve for the betterment of our company’s moral and bottom line.”

“Post show – - I will host a seminar in our showroom for all those couples who booked an “in home appointment” but then cancelled.”

“I found the webinar to be very informative, forward thinking and helpful! I thought the energy level and enthusiasm was refreshing! Thanks for the invite!”

“The best idea I came away with from the most recent Yoho seminar would have to be what David Alan Yoho was saying about the home shows and canvassing, from attire to approach and time spent with customers at the show.”

“We have recently acquired a lease option that will open previous leads that couldn’t come up with the necessary funding for a solar system. The take away from the home improvement webinar on how to best reach them is the three part approach: phone call, snail mail, email which we are using to great success.”

“I will be organizing a window seminar at our showroom to generate sales of “rehash” & new leads.”

“The concept I’m taking from the webinar and applying is: not quoting people at shows. Don’t quote – - set up an appointment, and then SELL!”

“The act of sending an immediate email to confirm show leads was very compelling. This will be implemented immediately on all leads in our business. Thanks so much for such an educational webinar.”

“I got a lot out of the canvassing portion of the program. We are going to get more into it this year and the info that was shared was great. I like the part about controlling the herd and not giving up too much information up front. This is hard to do and training is key.”

“The number one point I took away to increase my chances for profitability is rehashing. Not rehashing can be a costly mistake.”

“Loved the ‘nugget’ of following back up on a lead with a second person who can check procedures and flush out/fix the concerns of the customer.”

“We will be implementing the pre-appointment auto-email, as David said – - keeping up with today’s times!  Just need to find a way to do it within minutes of setting.  Thanks!”

“I will be applying the “it depends” response to deflect the price question immediately.”

“I am energized to get to our next home and remodeling show to set up more in home demos.  2012 is going to be great.”

“The more information given to a potential client = the less likely they are going to want a demo.  We have seen this in the past but never really gave much thought as to why people appeared to be satisfied and uninterested in scheduling an appointment after speaking to them for a long time.  We want to develop a script that does not contain a lot of “information”, but creates interest in wanting to meet with us to learn more.  Selling the meeting and not the product during the initial face to face interaction! Thanks again for a great home improvement webinar.  We look forward to more great advice from you and your associates!”

“We will improve our appointment follow up process to include an email with hyperlinks to tell customers our company story and provide additional product information.”

Thank you for providing our company with some much needed advice. We look forward to meeting you at the Home Improvement Profitability Tour in Atlanta. The one idea that I took away from the webinar that I will use today is sending a confirmation email to all set appointments. As soon as David Alan Yoho said it the light bulb came on – THANKS!”

“Love the Revenue Recovery Program. We are just remodeling our office, with a new conference and technology area for customers. We will implement!”

“Sixty percent of prospects will not buy now, but rather hold off and buy within one year.  Follow-up is KEY!”

Our next complimentary webinar is scheduled for March 13th and will be devoted to overcoming objections while in the home. You won’t want to miss it – - we plan on doing the $100 giveaway again!

A major consideration in evaluating the worth of a home improvement lead is its lifespan.  To understand this phenomenon, let’s examine what created the lead in the first place.  While leads for many products and services come from prospects that recognize need and urgency, a high percentage also come from those who spontaneously respond to something they’ve seen or heard.  Therefore, most of those prospects acted on impulse.

Keep two things in mind.  First, lead costs continue to escalate, therefore it is important to develop leads at a lower cost and use them more effectively.  Secondly, you may consciously or unconsciously be killing leads which might otherwise become productive.  As the comic strip character Pogo states to his friends in the swamp: “We have found the enemy and it is us.”

Prior to giving some actual data on this lifespan, I want to be clear on defining the differences between two words that are often viewed as synonyms – - prospects and leads.

A prospect is someone who can use your product or service. If you have found a way to get someone to respond to your marketing devices thereby acknowledging their need, you have a prospect which you can identify for lead purposes. If they do not respond to your marketing devices or that of others they are nonetheless a prospect and will remain so until someone gets them to acknowledge their need and sells them.  You will notice the word want does not appear in this explanation.  There is more than a grammatical difference.  Someone may want to see your product or “get a price”, yet so far nothing has prompted them to respond.  Essentially, they have not been able to determine their need.

What is a lead?  The definition is often as simple as a prospect calling for an estimate, sending in a reply card, or approaching your booth at a show and asking someone to visit their home.  At other times, the lead is deeply hidden in a customer’s response for information, with phrases such as “Give me an idea of how they work” or “Send me some information or a brochure”.  To make this more complex, the prospect may make statements such as “We’re not going to buy now” or “Under no circumstances are we ready to do business”.  These leads become complicated because of the way in which we as humans interpret that language and then qualify in our own mind the value of the lead.

When salespeople raise the issue of good vs. bad leads, or marketers refer to qualified vs. unqualified, they are usually defining this by their value system.  The truth is that the difference between a good and a bad lead is usually the way it is handled by both lead intake and the salesperson.

I do not deny that some leads are easier to work than others; yet a good prospect inefficiently handled may turn up in the salesperson’s category as a weak or poor lead.  Which brings me to the issue of nebulous leads.  Successful marketers create this kind of lead by exhorting prospects to “use this sample”, “visit our website for…”, or “read this free information about…” The word nebulous by definition means “indefinite”.  This is a prospect who may need what you have to sell, but hasn’t yet identified a want. This type of “lead getting” brings the less committed prospect to the table.  While this prospect may not have identified your product as a need, this also means that you probably won’t have a lot of competition when you make your presentation.

Individuals responding to this technique are prospects for the product which lies behind the solicitation.  The lead, once received, requires finessing beyond that of the prospect who says “Give us a price” or “Give us an estimate”.  Nonetheless, this prospect is identifying themselves as a potential customer, because they are someone who needs or can use the products you sell.

Converting this nebulous lead to an appointment requires a scripted appointment setter and some adjustments in your sales methods.  In today’s economy, nebulous leads represent a great potential.  They can be the key to lowering your unnecessarily high lead costs.

We will now tackle many of the questions that we received on shows and events in our latest home improvement webinar on leads. If you haven’t already read done so, please read the previous posting where we also address many of these questions.

1.  What role do scripts play (pros & cons)?

Almost anyone can sell more when they don’t have to think about what to say next. Scripts enable people to be present –“to” and focus “on” the customer’s interests and welfare. Scripts work best when they utilize a methodology in outline form. Essentially, this means a sequence of steps based on the customer’s decision making process. The scripts or “what to say” element is utilized at a more effective level when the user of the script understands the reason for the technique. Understanding that process and integrating it faithfully enables the sales professional to “own” the material and better teach it to others.

2.  Why do most scripts for lead intake and “appointment setting” fail?

Some reasons for failure include:

• They aren’t written based on the customer’s mindset
• They utilize weak language
• No-one has conducted a valid test on the script’s efficiency
• You hired the wrong people to perform the tasks
• There is too much blather (war stories and anecdotes)
• The personnel has received little or poor training.

Rarely is it just one thing, and sometimes it may be all of the above.

3.  If a company develops 75 leads at a home show and has 6 salespeople how do they handle the abundance?  How far out should they set the leads?

I’m not taking your concerns lightly, however this is a great problem to have.

By far, the worst outcome is when you’ve scheduled many appointments, yet you lose business to other companies who get there sooner than you do. Setting leads “far out” means that many will have to be rescheduled or will die because interest wanes along with whatever emotion caused them to schedule with your company in the first place.

A frequent decision is to qualify most of these leads “tighter” than usual. While this works, it most frequently has several negative results – those leads which don’t qualify become lost opportunities which those in your company would have been glad to have when there were fewer leads.  In addition, the salesperson receiving the lead which is/was “more qualified” will want to accept this as the norm and won’t want to return to those leads perceived as “less qualified”.  In short, every time you relax standards, it’s difficult to return everyone to them.

Wise managers utilize abundant leads (as in your question) as an opportunity to set weekend appointments and also to search for opportunities for daytime appointments where the sales manager and owner can “dig in” and agree to cover 6 or 7 leads each.

In short, you invested in lead development, you have an abundance of leads and the entire sales department has to be conditioned to make more presentations while this abundance exists.  Caution: if your salespeople are used to receiving 6 or 7 leads per week and you suddenly give them 14, they will not make more sales, they will become more selective as to who they want to make a presentation to (also called over-qualifying).

Our next home improvement webinar will be in early March, and we will send a notice out when the date has been set. I look forward to our future interactions.

Our latest home improvement webinar on leads brought together over 900 companies to help turn leads into sales in the year 2012.

As is the case with most of our programs, we have an abundance of questions that were not able to be addressed on the webinar. We will also answer many of these in our monthly e-newsletter (you can sign up today on our website).

Questions on Shows, Events, and Showrooms:

1.  How do I keep my full-time people busy? There aren’t enough events.

Full time people can also work mall displays — radiate around recent installations – work on Quality Control programs that provide referrals (business now and later). There’s lots of prep, legwork and maintenance work for them too, especially as your department grows.

2.  In your seminars I’ve heard you say “no chairs” in the work area. Our people get tired and they sneak them in – - what should I do?

You have to check on them yourself frequently, or through a small group of mystery shoppers.  Hire part time men or women who can complete an 8-10 point survey after visiting your booth/display – also let your promoters know that they are being shopped – (it’s like putting a radar sign on the highway – most cars will slow down even if no actual radar is present).  I know this rule may be difficult to enforce, but it is a key ingredient to make your presence at a show more profitable.

3.  How do you avoid giving a price when they walk over to our window sample and ask “How much is this one”?

Usually the prospect does that when they’ve already asked for a “ballpark figure” and were given an explanation about why the price would be delivered in person after evaluating their project.

You could paraphrase the original “depends” response as follows:

“The price of (your product) would depend on the options you chose along with the quantity, sizes and colors – of course – once our representative sees the condition of your (current product), he’ll know what we need to do to order the proper (your product) and install it properly, meeting the conditions existing in your home.  In addition, he’ll be able to deliver a price in writing and as I have mentioned- that price will be good for one full year – may I make a suggestion? (Take control – get to the next step—search for the best time and circumstances to visit – set appointment.)

Questions on Canvassing:

1.  How do I find good canvassers?

A: Recruit and hire regularly using 5-10 sources with a well planned sequence enabling you to identify fearless optimists or manageable mavericks whose current lifestyle is congruent with earning fairly good money in only a few hours daily.  It is the kind of job that will appeal to many different circumstances.

Many of our clients hire college students as canvassers and those individuals who need a second income.  They also hire retired or semi-retired people – in short “people with available time”.  But don’t forget, we suggest the use of a behavioral profile to determine whether the canvasser being hired has a behavior adapt able to this sales support role.  Many of our clients hire canvassers who then become highly successful in that role and they find it good basic training for an actual sales position.

2.  Can I pay canvassers on straight commission?

Yes, but statistically – employee retention is better when paying a base salary PLUS incentives. There are very few stable individuals who can use their own car, work alone despite the weather then deal with the face-to-face “turn down” rate, which is common in this role, even when they are paid a high commission rate. Reminder: strong management (supervision) is the key.

3.  Vans are expensive. It’s a lot less money to send them out in their own cars. Why can’t I do that?

A: They don’t show up or they arrive late or get lost, leave early and give up easier. Sometimes they have friends accompany them. That could jeopardize your plan, create insurance risks for your company and other problematic exposures.

Check out reliable used vans.  They are less expensive than you think.

We will address more of your questions in the next blog posting, and we invite you to give the home improvement webinar another listen. The material that was covered takes constant reinforcement.

We will now continue answering questions from our latest home improvement webinar. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to read our last blog posting where we address more of the questions that were asked during the program.

Q: You mentioned “lead control”.  How does that relate to giving salespeople the freedom to handle the lead in the best way because they are experienced to do so?

A: A reminder – if a lead is any inquiry coming into your business, it then has to be structured into an “appointment” (which usually requires scripting).  A properly scripted “lead to appointment” has created information beneficial to the salesperson and anticipation on the part of the prospect.

Now let’s assume the lead is issued to the salesperson.  Most efficient sales organizations have policies where salespeople are required to turn in their leads immediately after the presentation. Unsold leads were rehashed along with “no-sits”, often producing an increase of 12-14% of the volume extracted from the same leads.

Incidentally, in well managed sales organizations, once the lead is given to the salesperson as an appointment, the salesperson is not permitted to call and requalify the lead. If that process is elected, you will immediately determine a lower sit (presentation) rate.  Some leads are easier to work than others, yet a good prospect, inefficiently handled is often categorized by the salesperson as a weak or poor lead. That constitutes a break down in the marketing to sales program and will usually lead to higher marketing costs.  Leads retain dominant value for about 48 hours. While they are not dead after that, they lose the strength of the impulse which created the contact.  When you receive a lead, act on it ASAP.  Confirm that you are interested in it and don’t set conditions about whether it is worthy of a sales call.  The chances are that you and your salespeople may need training on how to handle leads of this nature.  Most of our clients confirm leads (irrespective of the source) within minutes.  They have computers set to verify their interest in the prospect immediately.  Any delay diminishes the prospect’s value in your eyes and it diminishes your value in theirs.

Q: How do the most successful companies handle lead intake and lead distribution to their salespeople?

A: Many confirm their leads within 5 minutes of their receipt (via email).  Lead intake, confirmation and rehash personnel are rescripted and highly supervised.  Salespeople are required to return a confirming sheet from all prospect contacts, enabling telephone follow-up in conformity with the “Do Not Call” laws.  Sales managers frequent “ride-alongs” to observe and enforce methodology.  In a recent survey, we were able to measure the success of the companies who had diversified lead development and strong controls in place.  In most cases these controls produced an increase in sales.  Many saw their 2009 sales exceeding those of 2008.  Many also require a quota of self-generated leads by their salespeople to achieve monthly bonuses.

Q: We were inundated with questions regarding less qualified leads.  Some requesting “information only”, others coming from 3^rd party sources which had incurred delay on reception.  While these leads require laborious techniques, they often bear fruit.

A: We call these “nebulous leads”.  Nebulous meaning not clearly defined.  These leads are frequently developed through “3^rd party” sources who run elaborate promotions or lead development campaigns.  When companies receive these leads and try to bring them to a point where a product and a price proposal can be presented, they experience a great level of frustration largely because their organization at all levels (1) call intake, (2) lead setting, (3) lead issuance is not on the same page and what follows is chaotic lead “mismanagement”.

Here is some thought on how to identify this kind of lead which was acquired by the means explained above.  Individuals that we classify as “nebulous” are usually prospects who haven’t committed themselves – yet would be open to listen and look.  The lead, once received, requires finessing beyond that of the prospect who says “give us a price” or “an estimate”.  Nonetheless, this prospect is identifying themselves as a potential customer.

Add them to your database and continue to follow up with them on a semi-regular basis. However, here is the caution, follow up too often and you may risk them opting out of your marketing, but if you don’t follow up enough they may forget about you entirely. As such, you need to continually strive to achieve the perfect mix.

Q: We hear the word “prospect” “lead” and “inquiry” used interchangeably at many seminars.  Are these all the same?

A: No, and here’s why.  A prospect is someone who can use your product or service. If you have found a way to get someone to respond to your marketing devices thereby acknowledging their need, you have a prospect which you can identify for lead purposes. If they do not respond to your marketing devices or that of others they are nonetheless a prospect and will remain so until someone gets them to acknowledge their need and sells them.

Q: Doesn’t this kind of lead represent a real challenge for salespeople who have never had to use them before?

A: A prospect requesting an estimate, responding to direct mail or registering at your booth at a show may openly declare “need.”  However, often the need may be deeply hidden in a prospect’s response for information, such as “send me some information”.  To add complexity, the prospect may say “we’re not going to buy now.”  This is complicated by the perception that the prospect hasn’t stated their need and the lead gets labeled as weak or poor.

The more sophisticated companies don’t try to force the “information only” lead upon the salesperson who had no respect for this kind of lead or doesn’t understand it.  It still requires marketing skills to turn that into an issued appointment.  One of our clients in a Midwestern city makes the following comment regarding this kind of lead after he developed a marketing technique with a series of “follow ups” which ultimately produced an issued lead (appointment).

“Most companies – don’t – or – won’t follow-up on an “information only” lead – we do.  Over a period of 6 years we sold $1,900,000 business with leads such as these.”

Q: What techniques work the best with unsold or unissued leads?

A: In our experience, a system that uses scripting, which in turn encourages a prospect who, in the past, hasn’t seen the demonstration, to view it now. This process is called rehash.

Take an example of a prospect who received a presentation that wasn’t sold, but later agrees to have someone come to their home and review the original presentation and price proposal (in well-run companies this also includes sales which were cancelled or were credit rejected).  Rehash requires a “refined” technique that starts with a scripted phone call that contains no risk or threat to the prospect – in fact, implies a “benefit”. This task is never allocated to the original salesperson.  It is, for the most part, a call center issue made by a marketer, not a salesperson.  The rehash lead is seldom, if ever, issued to the original salesperson (for obvious reasons). He/she didn’t’ sell it the first time and the no-sale or cancellation may have been created by a malfunction in the presentation.

All leads which do not turn into issued appointments or remain unsold, or those cancelled or credit rejected should be accumulated into a database.  We call the use of this database to manufacture sales asset recovery. The company has an investment in these leads and any sale made from the database has very few costs related to “reissuance”.  Most successful companies acquire 20% or more of their revenue annually from their database and their customer solicited referrals.

If we did not get to your question, please email us directly at admin@daveyoho.com and someone will get back to you shortly – - and don’t forget, part two of this home improvement webinar series will be held on Decmeber 13th.

Last week’s home improvement webinar on lead generation was a rousing success. There were over 950 companies on the program and we received numerous questions. As is frequently the case, we did not have enough time to answer them all on the webinar so we took the opportunity to respond on our blog (the first series of questions and answers are covered in our latest e-newsletter – to receive a copy e-mail admin@daveyoho.com).

Here is a sampling of the questions we received:

Q: You give the impression that many home improvement companies have tried canvassing, yet few have been successful at making it work “long term” within a practical budget.

A: As we pointed out in the webinar, it is not uncommon for companies with a canvassing program to issue as little as 30% of their canvass leads as appointments. In addition to that, they may only gain entry into 40-50% of these homes for a presentation.  They experience a closing ratio lower than they do for other leads (some of this is attributed to the salesperson’s dislike of that lead). Then top this off with marketing costs that sometimes exceed 20% (some even much higher).  Not a practical way to do business.

Q: Has your company made a study of effective canvassing programs?

A: You bet, and here are some of the basics:

Unless companies subscribe to a plan that includes territory and time selections (by management) for canvassing in middle income neighborhoods, they’re off to a poor start.

It is human nature to try to find the path of least resistance. Better neighborhoods with higher income families frequently represent better education and more well-informed prospects and in turn represent more complications in developing a lead.

But there’s more to it than that.  Actually, there are about 51 components for an effective program. The script language is extremely important.  Intelligent people with money to buy the products you offer have to receive information which they see as beneficial.  Many canvassing groups use a mini-presentation book at the door.  One company we studied has canvassers earning $40-60,000 annually with a fully loaded marketing budget of approximately 9.6%.

Q: What kind of results can be effective with a well-managed canvassing program?

A: The better managed companies have a 50-60% issue rate, a 60-80% sit rate and marketing costs below 15% (fully loaded).

Here is an actual case study of a very efficient program:  Canvassers working (average) 4 to 5 hours daily produce ½ lead per hour set with the homeowners by the canvasser (via cell phone) with their office. This translates into a 60% (minimum) presentation (sit) rate and a minimum of 1 presentation (sit) produced in less than 8 hours of the canvasser’s effort.

One of the keys in this last case study is the “canvass manager” who makes everyone (including himself) adhere to the “model” of the program.

Is it easy? No. Is it successful? Yes. Is it cost prohibitive? This particular company operates with overall marketing costs at 13% and their canvass program (fully loaded) is slightly over 12%.

Q: We are considering hiring a company to do our canvassing.  What are some of the cautions?

A: We received the same question from 12 companies who participated in the home improvement webinar.  If you tried canvassing on your own and couldn’t make it work, or it was too costly, you may succumb to someone who encourages you to let them do the canvassing and provide you with the leads.  There are several smaller companies who provide this service – however – be cautious of “canvassing companies” who want to sell you leads. Several larger companies who provide this service do not appear to have “long term” success stories.

Q: Our salespeople don’t like the canvass leads, so we haven’t been successful with closing many.  Apparently our canvass program “stinks”.

A: Your question probably contains the answer.  You hired salespeople, promised them bona fide leads and they expect to get them. However, if you are allowing your salespeople to determine the source of leads you will never get a canvassing program to work, and since this is but one form of face-to-face lead solicitation (which also includes “shows” and “events” and “SFI programs”) the failure is not in the lead, but in the method of adapting a salesperson on how a face-to-face lead has to be handled to obtain results. Unfortunately this is a management failure.

Management frequently “succumbs” to the complaint of the salespeople that these are “weak leads”.  When the sales department convinces management this is the case, the marketing department is told to get a stronger lead. Ergo: the number of leads decrease and management is unhappy because they don’t have enough leads for the salespeople.  Weak canvassing methods include “looking for”.  Successful canvassing programs treat the canvassing department as part of the sales methodology. At the risk of being repetitious, modern techniques require that the canvasser be hired with a behavioral profile indicating sales “traits” and the ability to follow special scripting devices which often includes a mini presentation book. The appointments were set via cell phone from the canvasser and the prospect to the call center.

Again, at the risk of being repetitious, The successful companies measure not only the number of leads which are produced by hourly effort, they measure the hours it takes to produce a sales presentation from the leads acquired with a marketing budget of 12% to 15%.  In short, the entire process is treated as a science – not – an art form.

Q: We received numerous questions on “diversified lead sources”.

A: Today’s marketing techniques, whether for a small company trying to stay alive or a large company attempting to expand, have to include diversification. Smaller companies may have 10 or 12 sources for lead development; larger companies 30 to 50 sources.  Companies who choose not to diversify their home improvement marketing typically tell us:

• The majority of their leads are referred to them through a satisfied customer.
• We are a recognized name in our territory, so we don’t do much advertising.
• We invested heavily in print ads – yellow pages – web design – or similar and couldn’t make it profitable.

Here is what you have to remember.  In every market and for every product or service sold in that market, there are a certain number of prospects who develop a “need” for most of the products sold.  The trick is how to identify and find these prospects then sell them without resorting to being the “lowest price” in town.

The next “trick” is to find ways to identify and attract prospects who haven’t yet met the explicit need level, but could be convinced to “take a look”.  That requires a good marketing technique which then has to be balanced with a strong sales technique.

This is not being critical of those who get “referred” as a good contract or source, because referral leads are great; most salespeople love them. The reason they don’t get more of them is usually determined by their lack of “asking for them”. If you can develop enough business without advertising or spending promotional dollars, I applaud you. However, keep in mind that past customers should be solicited for referrals with a plan that meets the requirements of your local state laws.

We will answer more questions on our next blog posting so make sure to subscribe so you can receive updates as they happen!

They responded to your marketing message.  They became prospects, customers (hopefully satisfied) and they can be the source for quality inexpensive leads. The term proximo marketing is used to define any type of marketing around completed jobs or jobs under construction

For siding, roofing, gutters, windows, cabinet facing as well as other products we recommend a marketing method called “hang em.”  This is a door hanger which briefly describes the product(s) being installed on a neighbor’s house.  It requests phone, email or fax responses.  In this format you extend the range to a larger number of neighbors, perhaps an entire development.  “Hang em” is phase one, which can be followed by direct mail, direct solicitation or both.

The next step (beyond direct mail) would be personal contact.  Here the salesperson (or canvasser) makes a house call to get a specific appointment.  If your salespeople seem loath to take on this task, hire canvassers to do the job instead.

Don’t give up after the first pass through this neighborhood.  Thirty days later repeat the process with another “hang em” and a direct mail postcard a few days later.

David Alan Yoho makes the following recommendation to all of our clients: Mail the radiation letter upon approved status using the customer’s name and address (with approval). Mail a postcard the week before the installation. Knock during the job and hang ‘em then – in conjunction with obtaining referrals, etc by visiting the customer.

The wise home improvement marketer takes advantage of the completed job and utilizes it as a center for proximo marketing. Working around the job isn’t complicated.  Mostly it just isn’t done wisely.  If your product is a sunroom, kitchen, deck, bath or similar, these lend easily to an open house format.  The agreement to do so is structured during the sales presentation and invitations are sent out to neighbors over your new customer’s signature. The RSVP invitation can extend to ten neighbors on either side of the completed job and to twenty on the other side of the street plus those in the general neighborhood who are friendly with your customer.

A continental breakfast, lunch, brunch, or snack paid for by your company and hosted by one of your staff becomes an inexpensive “lead potential” and contact.  Each attendee signs a guest book page giving name, address, telephone and email address, as well as permission to re-contact by phone for product changes, special offers, etc. Remember, you will need the latter to meet the qualifications of the “Do Not Call List” (check your state for specific qualifications).  A power point presentation with before and after pictures and a lead form can make these neighbors ideal prospects.

During the “open house” provide an inexpensive gift (i.e., gift card from gas stations, supermarket, or fast food restaurant) as a thank you for their attendance.  The presentation on your company and product should be limited to general information.  You are not selling the job. That remains an aftermath responsibility of the salesperson that will get the lead.

In the case of those who attended your open house, and you have their phone number and email address together with permission to call, you are now in a position to glean additional prospects as an aftermath of the installed job.  If your sales presentation to all prospects and a follow up includes solicitation for referrals you will find that proximo marketing pays off with low cost leads.

The advent of e-mail marketing has led many businesses to lessen their use of more traditional approaches such as direct mail and telephone, and the reasoning behind this is simple: E-mail marketing is less expensive, and it capitalizes upon the technology that more and more customers are comfortable making purchasing decisions from nowadays.

However, many companies take it a step too far, in that they abandon the use of direct mail and telephone altogether, when in fact this will do more harm than good.

The most effective method of communication is a multi-channel approach whereby a mix of these methods is employed to reach as many of your customers/prospects as possible.

Keep in mind that a portion of your database will not use e-mail to consider what you are offering. The same is true with direct mail and phone solicitation. To effectively reach every potential buyer you need to employ the use of every potential channel.

For the purposes of this posting I am only going to discuss phone, e-mail and direct mail although there are numerous other strategies you should be using as well.

The question you need to ask yourself as a business is: what is the ideal mix of multi-channel marketing?

While there is no definitive answer, a recent marketing study put out by the University of California sheds some light onto how you should develop your marketing mix.

According to the study, customer spending hit its peak when phone and direct mail contacts were combined 6 times each (this does not include e-mail). The thinking is that direct mail and phone strategies are complementary in terms of their impact on customer behavior.

In regards to e-mail:

• Per every phone contact, the ideal number of e-mails is 5 to 6
• If you bump this number up to 3-5 calls, the ideal number of e-mails drops to 2 to 3
• Per every direct mail contact, the ideal number of e-mails is 5
• If you bump this number up to 5, the ideal number of e-mails drops all the way down to 1

It is also vital when developing your marketing mix that you focus on not being too intrusive. Your customers and prospects value their time and if you interrupt them too much they will begin to see you as a nuisance.

The same marketing study listed the ideal number of single channel contacts over a 3 month period of time:

• 3 via telephone
• 3-4 via e-mail
• 9-10 via direct mail

In a time where everyone wants to abandon direct mail, many customers view it as the least intrusive of all these methods, and as such you should continue to incorporate it into your marketing mix.

At least as long as it’s not horribly ineffective.

When you are crafting your home improvement marketing strategy, there are a number of questions you need to ask yourself.

Do you know what is and is not working?

Do you know your lead cost for each of your Internet strategies?

Do you know what a ‘goal conversion’ is?

Are you reviewing your ‘goal conversions’ in your Analytics weekly?

Do you know how many leads your website is generating?

If you answered no to any of the above questions, you might be wasting valuable marketing dollars and not be aware of it. You have many great opportunities to be able to use your website data to track your results for better goal conversion and see a significant return on investment.

First, let’s start with some definitions:

1. Goal conversion – Any action that a visitor can complete on your website that results in a lead (or data acquisition) being submitted to you for follow up.

Are you aware that 50-60% of your conversions online will come in by phone? Do you have a separate 1-800 number to track and credit your website  for this call?

2. Google Analytics – Tracking software that monitors vital statistics on a website and shows how many visitors came to the site; the amount of time visitors spent on the site; how many pages per visitor that were viewed; the bounce rate (percentage of people entering and leaving from exact same page); and percent of returning visitors vs. new visitors, etc.

In order to be tracked properly in Analytics, goal conversions need to be set up and tracked by “unique” thank you pages. Once this is done, Analytics can report goal conversions by your various traffic types:

Direct – Visitors coming directly to your website

Organic – Natural, ‘unpaid’ website traffic

Referral – Outside websites sending traffic back to your website

Paid – Pay per click traffic

Other – Traffic from unique trackable links (such as newsletter traffic, for instance)

Wouldn’t it be nice to have this info at your fingertips to let the data tell you what the best decisions are for your website and Internet marketing strategies? Are you interested in tracking these results so you know what is and what is not working in order to increase the number of goal conversions from your website?

To end with, let me leave you with a quote: “The value of web Analytics solutions is not in their ability to collect data, but to measure customer behavior which provides a basis for replicating success or driving change.”

Bring Me My Leads is unique in developing Internet marketing strategies for the home improvement industry because of our association with Bee Window, so we have proven benchmarks from our clients. We understand what works and what does not work, and since we live and breathe it on a daily basis we understand how to crunch all the necessary numbers (cost per lead, demo rate, conversion rate, etc.) and how to track all of these results.

Search Engine Optimization is rapidly becoming one of the best ways to promote your website online and ensure that you get listed high in the rankings by Google and various other search engines.

For those readers who are not familiar with the practice of SEO, expert Aaron Wall defines it as: “The art and science of publishing and marketing content in a way that brings significant profitable and targeted traffic to your website.”

Because of this shift in Internet promotion there are numerous providers available that make ridiculous promises that are unattainable. Be very dubious of any company that:

• Promises to take you to the top of Google’s search rankings in a matter of days
• Only fixes your “meta-keyword” tags
• Offers to fix your website to make it “SEO-friendly” so that fine tuning over time will not be a necessity
• Creates numerous doorway pages and mini-sites that are simply duplicate copies of your primary site. This is a sure way to get black listed.

However, there is another problem with SEO that exists further below the surface and it involves the conflict that it can create with your website copy.

A company that you end up working with may do all that they promised in helping you work your way up the search engine rankings – - yet as a website owner your ultimate goal should be conversions whether they be in the form of leads or sales. Just because something is 100% SEO optimized doesn’t mean it’s engaging for visitors.

There is a practice called “keyword stuffing” that involves placing keywords an inordinate amount of times within the copy on your website. There are two types that can be damaging to your brand:

1. The over-reliance on these words are deemed to be “black-hat” tactics, and can get you penalized or even banned by Google
2. An abundance of keywords is used, not to the point where you will be penalized but where it detracts from the copy and does not leave the website visitor with a good impression of your company.

In either case you are setting yourself up for failure in the long run. Strong SEO takes time and practice (and in many cases some struggles along the way). However, make sure you take the time to educate yourself before you invest thousands of dollars into optimizing your website.

Also, take a look at the latest list of the top SEO companies in the U.S. and if you have any questions about best practices don’t hesitate to contact me directly at brad@daveyoho.com.