I teased this episode in the previous one, so here it is! Did you know that your good name can be good marketing? I want you to think about this. How many companies do you buy from on the name alone? Have you ever hired a babysitter or other service provider in your home because they come from a good family name? How many times have you done the opposite when the company or person in question has a poor name and reputation? I work very hard to add value everyday to our good name. The Carfagno name means something to me. We are disciples of Jesus. We are hard workers. We are honest. I could go on and on. What are the values you add to your good name? I encourage you to develop these in your home and with your family. Transfer these values to your kids.
 
 I get inbound leads through my website and Google every month. This is so cool to me. We've followed Jesus. We've worked hard. We've been honest. This has earned my name and our company a great local reputation. Our Google profile has 34 5-Star reviews, an article showing us winning the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year for 2022, and many other helpful insights for prospects to learn about us. When I receive an inbound lead, my policy is to call within 1 business day. It's a boundary. I chit-chat and learn about the job. I always ask how they find me. Usually, I hear. "I searched online and found you highly rated in the area." That means so much to me. I desire a good name and this is showing it. The Carfagno Name in my area is respected and I'm so thankful for that.

A lead came in recently that seemed like any other. I returned the message within 1 business day. It was a local accounting firm. The office manager and I chit-chatted about the job and then I asked the question. "So, how did you find me?" I expected the same thing. She said. "I searched online and saw the name Carfagno. I'm a Carfagno on my mother's side. I wondered if we were related. I just went to our Carfagno Family Reunion. Maybe you were there? Your name got me to click on the Google profile and I saw the big award you won and your reviews. It felt right." We spent 5 minutes on geneology trying to find out if we were related.

This is a side note. I live in Harleysville, PA but grew up in Norristown, PA. When I was a kid, I used to joke that although our name was obscure and uncommon, there's a half page of Carfagnos in the Norristown phone book. After college, we moved to Greenville, SC. There wasn't a single southerner that could pronounce my last name. I was the only Carfagno down there. We moved to Upstate New York for 16 years where plenty of Italians lived. More could pronounce our name, but I still phonetically spelled C, A, R as in Ralph, F as in Frank, A-G as in Gary, N as in Nancy, O to just about everyone. There were no Carfagnos in the New York phone book. We moved back to Montgomery County, PA in 2018 and I felt like I was in Cheers. Everybody knew my name. They could say Carfagno. They could spell Carfagno. Heck, many of them knew a Carfagno. Here's a funny one. My uncle Bob Carfagno married Patty Carfagno. Her name was actually Carfagno when they met and they weren't related! She married a Carfagno in her first marriage, kept the name, and married Bob! In my area, the name Carfagno is more known. It's a marketing niche of its own. I know this won't apply to all of you or perhaps not many of you at all. But imagine you have a name that is less popular or common. You go out and make a name for yourself and add value to your name. Then when prospects come across your Google profile and see your name, they feel good about hiring you.


Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website