The Simple Marketing Secret Most Contractors Overlook

Let’s say you meet someone for the first time, and during that meeting, you have a great conversation and realize you have some common interests.  You seem to look at things the same way. 

You just get a feeling that this is a good person, and you may think, “You know, we could be friends.” 

“Could be” is the key phrase, of course.   Because, I’m sure you realize, it would take some specific actions to move from “we could be friends” to “we are friends.”  And one of the things you’d have to do is stay in touch.  You’d have to talk again.  You’d have to be in contact with each other. 

Now, if you’re starting to ask yourself why I’m telling you something so obvious, it’s because experience has shown me that a lot of contractors act as if “staying in touch” is a principle they've never heard of. 

And frankly, that’s scary. 

In most cases, it costs you in marketing expenses around $275-$325 to gain a new customer.  If you don’t keep that customer, you've spent an awful lot for a “one-time” service call.

Each name in your database only represents “could be” customer potential.  No, they’re not active customers any more than a one-time meeting with someone qualifies them as a friend. You've got to take action for that to happen.

The simple fact is this:  regular contact keeps customers.  That involves a number of tried-and-true techniques, such as:

•  Follow-up visits with thank you cards, calls, or emails: This simple act speaks volumes of your company and can boost your image. Have your techs keep a stock of thank you cards with pre-stamped envelopes and they can fill them out right after the service call. This two minute task will let your customer know that you appreciate their business.
• Offer maintenance agreements: How great is it to have a customer pay to remain a customer? This loyalty program is a mutual investment between the consumer and the provider. In a maintenance agreement a customer could get a higher level of service, exclusive discounts, special treatment, or even guarantees. What you get out of this is a reliable income stream. Maintenance agreements can even out your cash flow and provide a year round income.
• Reactivation Letters: Never throw away a list of names. An ex-customer will reactivate and spend money if you say the right things. Tell them that you miss them and if you've done something that might have offended them that you want to make it right with something free or a discount. By getting a response from this list you've saved money that was headed straight for the trash.

Equally important are holiday cards, “customer only” direct mail offers and a customer retention newsletter. 

If done correctly, that last item – the newsletter – is the centerpiece of a well-run customer retention program. In fact, if you only do one thing, make it a newsletter that goes out at least twice a year. 

Fill it with interesting “home care” tidbits so it’s not perceived as “advertising,” and thus forges a far better image and strengthens the relationship. Better relationship equals better retention. 

How to Get a Customer Newsletter

1. You can do it yourself. If you’re prone to writing, designing, graphics, editorial layout and have experience crafting an informative newsletter that can also sell, then go for it! Many times I speak with contractors who do it themselves the first time, then “run dry” for info on subsequent efforts. Therefore, there’s option 2…
2. Hire it out. An ad agency or newsletter creation service can create a special one for you, customized exactly as you want it. Unless your database is over 10,000 or so, the costs can be significant. This is why there’s option 3…
3. Use a “syndicated” newsletter. This is also known as “semi-custom.” It is very fast since the template for the newsletter and most of the content is already done. This also makes it far less costly. Some companies offer ‘ads’ for your company. Stay away from the overly slick fluffy ones since they don’t appear “local” enough to consumers.

A good syndicated customer retention newsletter costs less than $6 a year per customer, including postage!  Not a bad return on investment, especially since it involves returning customers.  Every customer who has written you a check or swiped a card in the last 48 months should be receiving your newsletter. 

All high performing newsletters will have an online component. A QR code can link your printed newsletter to your online version. Hudson, Ink can provide Newsletter customers with an online newsletter portal that is updated monthly with new content and offers for your customers. This improves your online presence, gives you content you can share on your social channels and provides even more helpful and useful information to your customers.

Sending a Newsletter to your customer is like having a cup of coffee with your customers at regularly specified times each season. It’s low pressure and keeps your company at the top of your customers mind.

Always remember, your company’s current customers are the absolute #1 source of your future sales. Loyal customer will end up spending 33% more with your company and sending 107% more referrals to your business than non-loyal customers. And speaking of referrals, newsletters are a great place to utilize referral requests. Most contractors think that referrals “just happen” but that’s usually not the case. If each of your customers referred one other then you would double your customer list right now. For free. 

When you lose customers, you lose all of their future business and all of their referrals to your competition.  When you keep customers, you keep that pool of sales for yourself.  And isn’t that a scenario worth considering?  

I Want to Work with You, Code Cracker

Every now and then, it’s good to be boss. Not during tax season, nor during that ‘uncomfortable’ chat with a certifiably insane ex-employee, nor when the quasi-charity people call you 32 times a day.
Yet it IS good when your lovable staff hits a goal or just deserves to have a little fun.
So, last week we all went to the movies. (Well, they went while I rigged security cameras in their workspace. Ha!) Actually this was my wife’s great idea, so I took credit for it.
We saw ‘The Imitation Game,’ and I asked all to watch for ONE marketing principle from that film. Since it was a WWII code-cracking movie, you might think this was difficult.
Not even a little bit. The movie was superb, yet their observations were astounding. There was one very brief reference to an easily missed nugget, yet SEVERAL people noticed it as their chosen principle.
I was amazed. So, this is how I’d like to work with you this year… The lead is a genius mathematician named Alan Turing who believes he can unravel the Nazi ‘Enigma’ code. Yet, he has the personality of a rotted cactus, which makes him rather difficult to work with. (From first-hand painful experience, people just don’t understand us geniuseses.)
In fact, his team of highly gifted fellow (and one babe lady) code-crackers want to extract his organs. They would rather work against him than have him achieve his dream. That is, until the babe shows him how to get your way:
Be likeable. “If you’re liked, people want to work with you.”
This was a revelation to Mr. Congeniality. “How do you do that?” he asked. “By showing kindness,” said the babe. So the very next day, Alan takes all of their heads out of the vises. Ha! I get funnier the longer this goes… no he becomes:

• Interested in them
• Shows kindness
• And got a team of cooperative, motivated, loyal supporters working toward a common goal

And the movie goes from there, and yes, there’s victory. (See the movie, really.) Yet the ‘lesson’ is that, working apart is self-defeating and working together toward a goal is self-liberating.
Let’s Do This Together
For years, Hudson Ink has worked to establish the largest Marketing Coaching Group for Contractors in the nation. Though it essentially (and by design) ended my $9,800/day consulting gigs, it has been substantially more rewarding for all to work together toward a common goal.
And on Wednesday, February 11, 2015, we’re OPENING THE DOORS for a no-cost, no-strings test drive by having a ONE TIME ONLY LIVE PRESENTATION OF:
The Top 5 Most Explosive Contractor Marketing Trends for 2015
I asked another consultant, Brian Kraff of Market Hardware, to assist me in this presentation. He agreed instantly. I asked other consultants to invite their best customers, and they agreed. This will be a very crowded event! (Coaching members WILL get in; non-members need to be rather rapid about registration.)
We will discuss:

• Bring in more leads using what works today – Online and offline techniques that work together.
• Win on Google using what’s working now – Crack the Google code and master social media.
• Build a higher image and better branding – Learn how to sell more at a higher price.
• Automate your marketing – Learn ways to cut time and stress from your marketing plan.

Plus, we’re dumping a PILE of cool downloads, freebies and more on those who register.
OH, and you know that burning question you have… THE issue you can’t resolve… THE thing keeping you from the next level? Well…
We WANT your questions on that! So register and SEND US A QUESTION! (About marketing – not Nazi code-cracking please!)  Your question helps us build the curriculum.
This will be an open discussion of ‘What’s Working Now’ that requires nothing more of you than showing up! See? We’re working together toward a common goal, and I greatly look forward to it, so get your fanny registered here.
In the spirit of open collaboration, I ask that you invite as many of your colleagues and groups by sharing the link above. I’ll pay for as many lines as is practical. (The registration will close once we reach capacity, so register first, THEN share this link like a crazy person.) Let’s make this thing huge!
Looking forward to working with you.  And for that, we can both be boss.Adams Hudson
- See more at: http://salesandmarketinginsider.com/article-i-want-to-work-with-you-code-cracker.html#anchorEvery now and then, it’s good to be boss. Not during tax season, nor during that ‘uncomfortable’ chat with a certifiably insane ex-employee, nor when the quasi-charity people call you 32 times a day.

Yet it IS good when your lovable staff hits a goal or just deserves to have a little fun.

So, last week we all went to the movies. (Well, they went while I rigged security cameras in their work-space. Ha!) Actually this was my wife’s great idea, so I took credit for it.

We saw ‘The Imitation Game,’ and I asked all to watch for ONE marketing principle from that film. Since it was a WWII code-cracking movie, you might think this was difficult.

Not even a little bit. The movie was superb, yet their observations were astounding. There was one very brief reference to an easily missed nugget, yet SEVERAL people noticed it as their chosen principle.

I was amazed. So, this is how I’d like to work with you this year…

The lead is a genius mathematician named Alan Turing who believes he can unravel the Nazi ‘Enigma’ code. Yet, he has the personality of a rotted cactus, which makes him rather difficult to work with. (From first-hand painful experience, people just don’t understand us geniuseses.)

In fact, his team of highly gifted fellow (and one babe lady) code-crackers want to extract his organs. They would rather work against him than have him achieve his dream. That is, until the babe shows him how to get your way:

Be likeable. “If you’re liked, people want to work with you.”

This was a revelation to Mr. Congeniality. “How do you do that?” he asked. “By showing kindness,” said the babe. So the very next day, Alan takes all of their heads out of the vises. Ha! I get funnier the longer this goes… no he becomes:

• Interested in them
• Shows kindness
• And got a team of cooperative, motivated, loyal supporters working toward a common goal

And the movie goes from there, and yes, there’s victory. (See the movie, really.) Yet the ‘lesson’ is that, working apart is self-defeating and working together toward a goal is self-liberating.

Let’s Do This Together

For years, Hudson Ink has worked to establish the largest Marketing Coaching Group for Contractors in the nation. Though it essentially (and by design) ended my $9,800/day consulting gigs, it has been substantially more rewarding for all to work together toward a common goal.

And on Wednesday, February 11, 2015, we’re OPENING THE DOORS for a no-cost, no-strings test drive by having a ONE TIME ONLY LIVE PRESENTATION OF:

The Top 5 Most Explosive Contractor Marketing Trends for 2015

I asked another consultant, Brian Kraff of Market Hardware, to assist me in this presentation. He agreed instantly. I asked other consultants to invite their best customers, and they agreed. This will be a very crowded event! (Coaching members WILL get in; non-members need to be rather rapid about registration.)

We will discuss:

• Bring in more leads using what works today – Online and offline techniques that work together.
• Win on Google using what’s working now – Crack the Google code and master social media.
• Build a higher image and better branding – Learn how to sell more at a higher price.
• Automate your marketing – Learn ways to cut time and stress from your marketing plan.

Plus, we’re dumping a PILE of cool downloads, freebies and more on those who register.

OH, and you know that burning question you have… THE issue you can’t resolve… THE thing keeping you from the next level? Well…

We WANT your questions on that! So register and SEND US A QUESTION! (About marketing – not Nazi code-cracking please!)  Your question helps us build the curriculum.

This will be an open discussion of ‘What’s Working Now’ that requires nothing more of you than showing up! See? We’re working together toward a common goal, and I greatly look forward to it, so get your fanny registered here.

In the spirit of open collaboration, I ask that you invite as many of your colleagues and groups by sharing the link above. I’ll pay for as many lines as is practical. (The registration will close once we reach capacity, so register first, THEN share this link like a crazy person.) Let’s make this thing huge!

Looking forward to working with you.  And for that, we can both be boss.

TRUE STORY: How to Not Win Customers

Next year we’re celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. That is, if she’ll start behaving soon. (Camera cuts to me pleading, “No dear, I didn’t make any snide remarks in a public forum. May I peel you more sunflower seeds?”)

Since we’re going like way out of town, I headed to the post office to update my passport. Funny, my kids have been to Europe twice since my passport expired. Something is seriously wrong here.

And something is equally wrong with the United States Post Office. Yes, I realize they spent all their lunch money when Reagan was prez, but if you’ll look at this stupid sign at the entrance, you’ll see this is one of dozens of things very rotten about their message. And this same thing applies to you in your business. Check out the dumbest greeting sign ever…

The parking lot, by the way, holds 80 cars, and I never see more than 5-6 there. And are the words, ‘…or less’ really needed here?

Imagine this idiotic sign in front of any place that might want customers. Or might want them to linger. Can you imagine Starbucks doing this? There’d be bedlam in the social media streets. Baristas would leap from drive through windows.

So, they have serious sales problems, and are doing their best to curtail their nonexistent customers to 30 minutes. Got it.

I pick on this sign, not for the lunacy it is, but as an indicator of systemic failure. Yes, the problems persisted indoors.

The place looks shabby. Soaked ceiling tiles, half drooping. Hand scrawled signs haphazardly taped to walls with friendly notes like, “Don’t let your children play on the rails,” and “Stand behind yellow line until next teller motions.” (Motions? Motions for what… a pardon?)

This Conversation Actually Happened

ME: (After being properly motioned), “I’m renewing my passport and…
ZOMBIE LIKE PERSON in grayish blue, to match her blood: “He’s not here. He’ll be back at 1:00”.
ME: “Uh, he? (I’m struggling already.) “He, the Passport specialist?”
ZLP: “Yeah. He takes the pichers. He’ll be back at 1.”
ME: “It’s 5 after 12. Can I get the forms to fill out and come back?”
ZLP: “You can do that and take it to CVS or Walgreens. They’ll do the photo. You pay them the $35 fee.”
ME: (Thinking) Did she just send me to the competition?
ZLP: “Here’s an envelope. I think they’ll sell you the postage too.” Yells in back. “Hey Mike! Won’t they sell him the postage after they take the picher?”
Mike, avoiding the menace of photography during lunch: “Yeah, they can do all that.”
ME: (Dumbfounded that photo-boy was there the whole time. I’m sent away without a passport, photo, or postage from the very place you’d expect THAT at a minimum.)

I leave stunned, with a touch of zombie-itis setting in as I pass the stupid sign on the way out.

At the CVS, there was no customer repellant signage. No “he” eating an egg sandwich, unable to help. A very helpful 4 minutes later, my photo is taken, the form reviewed, postage affixed, and process begun. I bet every CVS trainee in America can click the camera button, especially for the $35 Passport fee, plus the $110 for the processing, including $8.90 for the postage. How much did CVS keep?

Then she kindly asks for an upsell: “Do you want to look at some travel-size toiletries while you’re here?” That type behavior will probably get you kicked off the Customer Repellant team at the Post Office.

A Question that leads to Wealth:
Are you adding or reducing friction with your customers?

With every customer contact, you’re doing one or the other. The Post Office was solid friction. CVS was like ball-bearings with Z-max poured on them.

• Is your CSR trained to advance the call? Or to put people on hold? My friends at CallSource tell me that the average appointment set rate for contractors is a painful 64%. That’s like 36% of the people being sent to the competition, eager to buy.

• Are your techs versed to advance the sale or relationship? How many mention the Maintenance Agreement and the discount they could’ve gotten? Do they ask for a positive online review? How many mention your other services?

(Two different consulting clients told me this month that their ‘other’ services fall behind when one is super busy. My question: “HOW CAN THIS BE when they are in MORE HOUSES?” Blank stares and silence ensues.)

• Does your follow-up contact ask about satisfaction? Referrals? Other services they wish you offered? Gather the email address? Bump to an Agreement?

• Does your outbound marketing only tout ‘sales’? (Fastest way to lose credibility.)  Only 55% of your marketing balance should be Direct Response, and I’m aggressive. The other should be Image, TOMA, and Retention. (Call your coach.)

• …Or vague generalities, with nothing unique?  “We’re fast, reliable, and honest!” Oh really? My clients are slow, unpredictable, and steal constantly.

While pondering the New Year, make some new changes to reduce friction everywhere you can. You’ll find far more business will slide your way, along with referrals, reputation, and more reasons your customers will grow blind and deaf to the competition.

They’ll be the ones eating the egg sandwich, wondering where all the customers went.

- See more at: Sales&MarketingInsider.com

HVAC Marketing Year at a Glance

Plan by the Calendar 

We work with over 3,000 contractors a year, and the number one problem we help solve is “marketing control.” You’re a contractor. You control job flow, costs, time, design and personnel… but you often have no control of the marketing that generates the leads and sales.

Take control and get more customers in less time at a lower cost. Higher income and less stress are the natural results! Use these monthly snapshots to guide your marketing in the year to come…

January

Coming off a Christmas lull, buyers can be hard to shake. Yet your New Year’s resolutions should be to never let a marketing opportunity pass. Your marketing plan and budgets should be in place, spending around 4-6% of projected sales on marketing depending on your marketing personality profile. (You can get aMarketing Budget Calculator, based on your goals, at no-cost at the end of thisarticle.)

The weather should be bringing you enough service leads, but no need to wait around. Send letters/emails or make calls to “non-closed sales” over the last 90 days offering added incentive. Send postcards to larger groups touting your service benefits with a New Year’s Gift Discount. We’ve found $20 off to be the best combination of incentive and profitability. Post the discount opportunity to your Facebook page, with the link pointing to your main site.

February

Winter’s chill is lessened in warmer states; still frozen in cooler ones. Thus for warmer climates, prepare an “end of season” direct response replacement offer as appropriate. Colder states continue pumping selected service groups to build customer database. All states can consider a “Buy a New System at Last Year’s Price” offer to stir reluctant replacement callers.

Accessory/add-on sales can include a direct response thermostat replacement, furnace upgrade offer, or humidifier. Use social sites to post benefits of each accessory; not to ‘sell’ but to educate. Use your main site to sell.

The strategy during February is to gather more names for your hottest list. All calls – prospects, demanding service, and quotes – should be on your list to mail for your customer retention push coming up next month. This is critical. Watch for your zip code response penetration. Those who respond most have elements of “commonality” that is important for future targeting.

March

March is the beginning of your customer retention push. This means sending newsletters to your active customer base (activity within the last 48 months). Pre-season tune-up and preventive maintenance offers can begin in warmer climates. Cooler climates need their “End of Season” or other direct response promos out. Final call for getting winter’s “non-closed” sales to respond! Make your offer compelling, with the primary benefit stated in the headline.

April

April is big for IAQ and a continuation of tune-up plus maintenance agreement sales. Better to “cast a broad net” for tune-ups, then go for maintenance agreements in one step. The only place you can sell an agreement effectively in one step is in your newsletter. Use ads and postcards to spread the message.

We like Facebook posts that educate followers about benefits of IAQ, and agreements. Many are tempted to “sell” on social sites, but the “85/15” path of advice to selling is far more appealing for long-term gain.

May

According to plan, your newsletters went out last month, right? So, May begins another prospect acquisition phase that should continue through summer.

May is also the end of school, beginning of vacation and warm weather. Capitalize on this with massive “Pre-Season” replacement offers and last-minute tune-up or preventive maintenance offers.

This is the time to snatch leads and sales from competitors who are “waiting on the weather.” If you miss sales now, they’re out of the market for a long time. Be very aggressive. Use your hardest direct response ads now. The two best performers in our Marketing Powersuite are rebates that can be used toward vacations, and “trade in” offers on old systems.

We also advise using the 2-Step Lead Generator for web-based leads. First step is to post a very strong, very persuasive promotional offer on your site. Second step is to send a short email to your entire target list, with a link to that page. The next “adjustment” to that offer is a short post on social sites with a link to the landing page. Our recorded results for this method have generated 4 times the traffic in 14 days. Get the details in the 2-Step Lead Generator

June

June has hit us with the distraction of vacations, outdoor activities… and hopefully some hot weather. Your techs are the key to more replacement and HVAC upgrade leads.

Train techs for these “green lights.” Repairs over $400 or on 8 year-old systems should be replacement prospects. Recession-weary consumers will be interested in financing offers or incentives, so make sure your techs are well-versed. DO NOT let “declined repair” customers go without hearing from your salesperson or CSR to close the deal post-visit.

High image marketing helps support high margin replacements. All service calls – every single one – should be offered a maintenance agreement.

 

Okay, that list can get you through the first half of your year in good order. Save this post as a reference tool.

Just as in your contracting jobs, your marketing results are better when you have a plan. Catch a glimpse of the future, and let it become clearer by following a proven path. Share this vision with your staff to make it even more real.

It’s up to you to make this your best year ever.

Get a free “2015 Marketing Budget Calculator” by emailing to freestuff@hudsonink.com. You can also call Hudson, Ink at 1-800-489-9099 for help or visit www.hudsonink.com for other free marketing articles and reports. Remember to follow Hudson, Ink on Facebook and LinkedIn for more marketing tips and tricks.

How to Map Out Strong Content

Can you influence a prospect in 7 seconds? 140 characters? 23 words? Your answer better be yes if you want to win friends and influence people in a marketplace that’s got a microscopic attention span.

With prospects, you’ll get an initial 10 seconds of time – tops – to grab their attention. That’s about 23 words, or the length of a tweet. For a broadcast message, you’re down to 7 seconds. For copy, a lot of readers stop at the headline. If that.

So what does it take to communicate? Consistency. That way, as your messages are shortened or broadened, they all communicate the same thing – affirming your image and brand.

Once someone becomes aware of you and enters your “content funnel,” the amount of time they’ll give you increases. It breaks down like this:

• 7-9 seconds – headline, tweet
• 2 minutes – infographics, videos, blog posts
• 5 minutes – magazine articles, long webpages
• 20 minutes – white papers, webinars

Your goal is to get your prospects to consume larger pieces of content as they move toward your products and services. And you need to keep the message consistent throughout. What will help?

Create a map – A message map is a one-sheet tool that defines what points you want to emphasize on a topic and how you can support your points – whether you’ve got one minute or 10 minutes of attention span. It’s basically your main message, 3 supporting statements, plus supporting detail.

Remember: who is the message for? Your customers. And they want to know: “what’s in it for them?” Put benefits in your first 9 seconds so that the customer knows what you can do for them and why they should contact you. “We keep you comfortable year-round” is a basic message, for example. But you add more when you…

Make your supporting points – Create three supporting statements that relate to and explain/ prove your main message. That would look something like, say: “We keep you comfortable year-round through expert installation and repair, innovative energy efficiency and friendly, personal service.”

This first map is your main message – the one that should be included in everything you do. And it should stay within the 9-second, 23 word cut-off. From there, the amount of detail and supporting information varies based on the type of content and where it fits within your content funnel.  

It’s About Time

It’s time for a new health aid to become fashionable. Many have made the leap, but one lingers…

Glasses are very fashionable, and the more you spend on them, the more fashionable they become. Make sure the logo is huge too. Soon I predict the logos will cover the entire lenses.

Braces – once a public admission that your parents wanted to socially torture you by chroming your mouth – are now sought after. In a cruel twist, parents are being begged for braces, stumped for plausible responses. “Oh honey, you look fine. Here’s some anchor rope so you can floss.”

Hats are mostly to shield the sun or keep your head from freezing like a butterball turkey in winter. Then there’s this genius who chose style over function… 

If only there was a hat that could shield your eyes.

Now I proclaim Hearing Aids as the next fashion statement. Especially since I just got a pair. (Of hearing aids. I heard that.) In fact, I hear EVERYTHING now. Once the Fashionista at the Hearing Aid place programmed them, I started hearing conversations on distant planets, so I had her adjust them down to where I could only hear a butterfly burp at 50 paces.

But I never expected this…

Whenever you say “What?” more than 40 times per hour, it’s time to get your hearing checked. And one of three things will happen: a) You’ll emerge needing hearing aids, b) They discover a trout lodged in each ear or c) You’ll wander out in denial, unaware that the staff is screaming for you to pay your bill.

I chose ‘a,’ since I’ve already been through versions of the other two. And man, what a difference.

I didn’t know what I’d been missing.

I no longer have to study the lip movements in movies in an attempt to determine whether I’m watching a romantic comedy or a horror movie. (Often, the same thing.) I don’t laugh in a group because other people are laughing. (I have now discovered how often they were laughing at me!)

I can now hear my wife when she whispers. I can hear my daughter even when I’m not looking at her. Once my wife asked, “Did you ever go pick some basil for dinner?” yet I was POSITIVE she’d said, “Does it ever snow when you pick your nasal in winter?” I stared at her for 15 seconds.

NOTE: My particular hearing problem was mostly that I couldn’t hear the pitch where females speak. (This came in super handy sometimes. For reference, these can be turned OFF as desired.)

Far as how they ‘look’; I don’t care. I can hear. And for those who notice the discreet wire, I begin to speak into my lapel and look around suspiciously. These things are smart too. They ‘talk’ to each other and filter out harsh sounds, such as “Where do I send the bill?” while being able to pick up the discussion of Crème Brûlée from 4 tables over.

I didn’t know what I’d been missing.

And so it is with many things. We “dull” ourselves to how far we’ve slipped. It’s gradual, nothing major, but when you look back, it becomes glaringly obvious.  Those 5 pounds a year add up. The 10-12 cigarettes a day put nearly 4,000 on your lips a year. And the business that isn’t getting a “tiny” 3 leads a day is losing 1,000 leads a year.

If your website was super-hot in 2008 but remains unchanged, it is prehistoric. If you thought “I really don’t lose customers” but don’t have a program in place, you lose 11% of those customers a year and all the referrals with them.

If you wonder why your marketing seems to have “fallen on deaf ears,” it’s probably time for a checkup. Things have changed, friends. People, finances, the economy, media and even how people buy… it has all changed.

Learn what you’ve been missing.

We’re giving away MAPs (Marketing Assessment Plans) during the FIRST TEN DAYS OF AUGUST ONLY. They take you a few minutes to complete, and it takes us hours to compile your unique marketing assessment. (Coaches can only accept 40 total requests, so it would be wise to complete yours soon.)

There’s nothing ‘sold’ in these assessments. So what do we get? We compile mountains of research, benchmarks and norms that help us in our global contractor marketing applications. You will get actual baselines for contractor norms, along with many suggestions on improving your marketing performance.  Just go here to fill yours out.

And remember, the next time we meet at a seminar, I can hear what you’re thinking.

Adams Hudson