Contractor Growth Network

No one wants to think they're about to make a sale and then find out they've just been talking to a tire kicker. You need to effectively weed out tire kickers before you get to that point, otherwise, you're just wasting time.

In this episode, we talk about…

• How tire kickers are extra dangerous to your time, because talking to them feels like you're doing something important, but really, it's a waste.
• Why potential clients typically appreciate it when you let them know right away that you suspect you won't be a good fit for each other.
• Why you shouldn't overdo it when qualifying people, you need to find a balance.
• How dealing with rejection from tire kickers too often can negatively affect you.

Links to resources:

Contractor Sales Academy

To learn more, join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

Everyone's had to deal with rejection in life, and when you're in sales, you have to deal with rejection during that process, too. Being rejected can make you question yourself, and sometimes even your own value! But you have to learn not to let that happen.

In this episode, we talk about…

• How to deal with rejection in sales, especially when you feel would have been the perfect fit to solve their problem.
• How, in those scenarios, to analyze your sales process effectively without letting it cause you to question yourself or affect other sales calls.
• Why you need to approach cold calling sometimes as a numbers game and know that not everyone will like you all the time.

Links to resources:

Contractor Sales Academy

To learn more, join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

Last time on the podcast, we talked about how to build rapport with potential customers. But if you weren't fully convinced on why it's essential to closing a sale, you'll want to listen to this episode for a deep dive into the value of rapport in sales.

In this episode, we talk about…

• How you have to gain trust with a potential client in order for them to go forward with you. And this trust isn't easily gained.
• Trust -and in turn, rapport- are much easier to get when someone is already familiar with you and what you do.
• How a common mistake many contractors make when trying to build rapport is doing most of the talking, when it's more important to listen and make your customer feel heard.

Links to resources:

Contractor Sales Academy

To learn more, join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

Salespeople are taught to build rapport before going into their pitch, but doing it correctly is a delicate art. Sometimes your questions can be off-putting to the potential customer if they seem too random, or if you get too friendly with a potential customer, they may be less likely to want to do business with you. How to build rapport in sales is, therefore, key to the sales process.

In this episode, we talk about…

• How rapport needs to be candid and genuine because if it's forced, it comes off cringe-worthy.
• Why it helps when you truly believe in the product you're selling.
• How there is a lot of value in gaining rapport to build a long term relationship and thus create a loyal client.
• Why spending too much time discussing irrelevant subjects trying to build rapport is not helpful.

Links to resources:

Contractor Sales Academy

Full episodes on Youtube and all major podcast platforms

To learn more, join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

We've all been taught that great things only come out of hard work. And when you're an entrepreneur, you do have to put plenty of work in. But working yourself too hard is a fast track to burnout. Learning ways to practice efficiency in your business and to leverage your resources so that minimum effort gets you maximum results is critical to your success.

In this episode, we talk about...

• How the thought process of "no pain, no gain" can end up hurting you in business.
• The meaning of efficiency as it specifically applies to contracting businesses.
• How to leverage the resources you already have to allow you to put in less effort for the same results (or the same effort for better results).
• Reasons why simply showing example photos of the kind of work you can do aren't enough to land a sale.
• How to leverage your website to help prepare customers' expectations and alleviate their anxiety.
• Why you need to create streamlined processes for calculating estimates and guiding a customer through the sales process so you're not reinventing the wheel every time you get a new client.
• The importance of building a team that you can lead and delegate to, rather than trying to do everything yourself.

Links to resources:

Contractor Sales Academy

To get more efficiency tips, join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For a free website audit, message Chris at https://www.facebook.com/cjlivin

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

It's common when you're starting out with your business to be a jack of all trades so that you can both make a name for yourself and make enough money to stay afloat and get your business off the ground. But once you have some momentum, you must specialize your services by focusing on one niche market that you're the best at.

In this episode, we talk about…

• How when you try to do it all, you end up doing things you don't want to do.
• How if you try to be everything to everyone, you are never able to get efficient at one thing.
• Why customers would rather hire an "expert" who has niched down.
• The ways that niching down the services you provide allows you to provide the best for your client.
• How niching down can apply not just to the services you provide, but also the location you serve.

Links to resources:

Contractor Sales Academy

To learn more, go to our Facebook Group, Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

Money is one of those taboo subjects in our society, and sometimes contractors fall into the trap of feeling like they can't talk about price right from the get-go. However, Chris and Logan break down why it's much better to address objections, like price, upfront with your customers. And by addressing objections upfront, you'll get fewer objections in the long run.

In this episode, we talk about…

• How the consumer feels less frustration when they know the price upfront, and if you try to be secretive about prices the consumer will feel taken advantage of or experience sticker shock.
• Why people have to know, like, and trust you in order to do business with you and how you can win new leads over through Youtube videos that address objections upfront.
• Why telling people the price upfront protects your time.
• How there will always be people whose budget is stretched by your price and others who will be relieved that it's less than they thought, so you should develop standard pricing based on what you need, not based on what you think a customer can or will pay.
• How to present your prices with backup, like professional photos, to make customers more willing to pay.
• Why all the value you provide needs to be clear to the consumer because value is often a secondary objection after price. You have to sell them on how your service is going to positively affect their life.

Links to resources:

Book by Marcus Sheridan- They Ask, You Answer

Contractor Sales Academy

To join the Facebook Group or watch Facebook live videos, go to Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

Most contractors have spent a lot of time honing their skills, whether they be landscaping, building, roofing, etc. But when you're running your own business, you also need sales skills! Logan chats with Tim Brown, founder of Hook Agency, to talk about one of these very important sales skills: attracting qualified leads.

In this episode, we talk about...

• How to develop clarity around lead quality all throughout your team.
• How learning how to sell and properly communicate can help you in all aspects of your life.
• Why learning to pre-qualify your leads over the phone ahead of time will save you time and money.

Links to resources:

For the full conversation with Tim Brown and more, head to our Youtube Page

Contractor Sales Academy

Hook Agency

To join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips, visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

It's 2021! The beginning of a new year is a perfect time to look back on the previous year, and 2020 was a great year for the podcast. To celebrate, we're counting down the top three moments of 2020 on the podcast with snippets from various episodes.

In this episode, we talk about...

• The Shin Fu Process: a 5-step pre-qualification process done over the phone to determine if a client is worth your travel time.
• How it might take extra time for someone to buy your services at a high price point if they don't yet know and trust who you are.
• The Craftsman Cycle that contractors who are starting out often get trapped in, and how to break free of it.

Links to resources:

Book by Shawn Van Dyke: Profit First for Contractors

To join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips visit https://fullsailmarketing.com

Contractors typically learn how to do their work well first, then learn how to sell their business. Chances are, you're already good at gaining trust through on-the-job interactions with your clients, but quickly gaining trust from random people who end up on your website is harder. Tim Brown is the guest today and he's here to discuss how to build a persuasive website that will convert web traffic to customers.

In this episode, we talk about...

• Building persuasion into your website by showing you're trustworthy through testimonials, badges, etc.
• Playing to the TL;DR crowd with concise, eye-catching headers.
• Using clear calls to action and putting "trust factors" around them, like good copy and good images.
• Thinking like a user when you build your site -the average person doesn't care that much about you, they just want their problem fixed.
• How to achieve good balance with this approach, because you still need to talk about your business enough for the sake of clarity.

Links to resources:

To join the Facebook Group: Common Sense Contracting

For more Contractor Growth Tips visit https://fullsailmarketing.com