What Disney Can Teach You About Bad Execution

So, this past weekend I went into a Disney store with my daughter. She had $20 from the tooth fairy who visited Grammy’s as well as her own house (I don’t know either) that was burning a hole in her pocket. As she perused the aisle of princess trinkets, I noticed a small, little end cap out-of-the-way towards the back of the store. Compared to the rest of the displays, this one was pretty run down. I couldn’t tell what was being sold on this display until I was about 5 feet away. Book Your Trip to Disney Here! That [...]

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What Coke Can Teach You About Marketing

Wanna be the top rated brand in the word? Spend north of $2.6 billion a year in advertising and be around for the last 100 years with some of the most innovative advertising ever. Don’t have that kind of coin? Specialize like Coke Coke has about 100 products in its stable; from water to tea to…soda. But the product that started it all…the grand-daddy, is Coke. And the Coke brand gets the lion’s share of the $2.6 billion Coke spends on advertising. How much does the Coke brand get? Well, Coke doesn’t break out ad spend by product line, but [...]

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Little Yes’ Yield Big Sales!

I have seen some of the best contractor sales presentations fall off a cliff right at the very end for one reason… No one asked for the sale, shy do the presentation? If you can’t bring yourself to asking for the sale after getting into your truck, driving to the appointment, spending the time it takes to build credibility and rapport then be OK with “we’ll let you know”. Then shame on you! What to do instead There are a number of ways to get to a decision, and it really is a decision you want; either yes or no, [...]

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Contractor Website Basics for 2012

I often find myself explaining to contractors during sales calls what the bare bones minimum they should have when it comes to their website. Sure, many want all the bells and whistles, but they cost, and with so many people having champagne taste and beer money, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a quick and dirty post on what you NEED to have, versus what you want to have. Minimum Setup for Your Site  Home Page – Obviously your site needs a primary landing page where most of your referral traffic and traffic from offline [...]

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Pretty Cool Feature From WordPress

So, in my stats yesterday, I see a note that says “see the fireworks you created during 2011.” Which is basically a statistical analysis of my blog traffic, user engagement, etc. here at Darren’s. So, I thought I would share some of the info and say thank you for stopping by, I hope the information has helped. One note, the number of posts for the year and total posts do not count videos for some reason, which add about 100 more posts to the yearly and cumulative totals. Why do I mention that? Because I did the work, and I want you to know [...]

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Presentation Idea Using Google Maps Street View

In my post the other day talking about giving people what they want to buy, there was a decent conversation started in the comments about what platforms or tools contractors could use during their onsite presentations. Tablets and iPads seem to be the main focus, but I came up with this quick idea while talking to a client yesterday and thought I would share it with you. What you will need: Google Maps & street view Photoshop – If you are cheap like me, you could use GetPaint.net instead or Any current job-specific software you use to alter photos Now, [...]

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Sell What People Want to Buy

Imagery-It’s not just something they create at Disney, but they sure are good at it. But what does imagery have to do with contractor marketing? Simple. Imagery is the art of selling what people want, not what you have to sell. In other words, let’s say you are a deck builder, and it is the middle of winter, and you happen to run across the Smith’s who are interested in a deck for this spring. Imagery is the art of selling the dream, and making that dream seem so attainable (sign here) that the Smith’s would be fools not to [...]

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Relationships

Relationships are hard, and I didn’t realize until this year just how hard. And since we are on the cusp of a new year, and new beginnings, I am going to brand this year the “Year of the Relationship”. Relationships that matter That sub-head is a bit misleading in that it denotes there are any relationships that don’t matter. They all do. Every one of them, and I am going to talk about them briefly here. Personal relationships This one is the toughest for me as 2011 saw the end of my 17-year marriage. There were a lot of things that [...]

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5 Things To Do This New Year

1. Actually Market Your Business – Stop talking about it and really do it. Do something to promote your business every day. And don’t give me you don’t have the money. There are plenty of things you can do for free. If you are lacking imagination, check out Craigslist again as well as Backpage. 2. Set a Budget – Committing to a budget (either time or money) will help you move to action. If you have more time than money, find free services (see above) to market your business. If you have more money than time, hire someone like me [...]

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Add Sizzle to Your Proposals or Stop Boring Prospects to Death!

I have said here before, if the only way to improve your product or service is by lowering your price…you are doomed for failure. You might as well sell off all of your crap and go back to working for the man. If however, you are prepared to offer a better user experience than your low-priced compatriot, keep reading. You see, people WILL pay more for perceived value! Coach sells purses for $400; Wal-Mart sells purses for $40. They both do the same friggin’ thing, yet Coach is having a fantastic Christmas season…and so is Wal-Mart, but more on that [...]

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