<\/a>I have been spending a lot of time lately helping contractors close new business. Or, more to the point, helping them learn how to do it themselves. So, I thought I would talk about it here a bit.<\/p>\n

Selling is what happens after the marketing works<\/strong><\/p>\n

But for many contractors, the sales call process is a pain in the…butt. They would prefer shaving the tip of their pinkie off as opposed to sitting in front of Ms. Smith while trying to close her on a new kitchen.<\/p>\n

And because the “sit” comes so infrequently these days, guys are getting rusty. Or worse, they never really learned how to sell because money was sloshing around all over the place a few years ago and they could pick or chose the jobs they took.<\/p>\n

Why I care<\/strong><\/p>\n

My job is to get your phone to ring, your door to open or your email box to fill up. That is where most marketers would be happy. Your YP rep, newspaper person, or Google account executive would tell you, “hey, we did our job, the rest is on you”.<\/p>\n

Well, I say, what good is getting to the water’s edge, right? My job is to fill your pocket with $5 bills where $1 bills used to be.<\/p>\n

That’s why I don’t care what kind of traffic your site gets, or how many times your phone rings. If you talk to me, you know I want to know what has converted. What has actually turned into a lead, which has turned into new business, and then turned into a referral source.<\/p>\n

Because it doesn’t count until the register rings boys and girls!<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no other metric more important these days than the sound of the cash register closing with money in the draw, am I right?<\/p>\n

That’s why I get on you when I KNOW you have a pile of leads sitting somewhere in your office that needs to be dusted off and called again. Yeah I know, you called them…100 times. Well, call them again.<\/p>\n

The Law of 17<\/strong><\/p>\n

17 is the new magic number people. That’s right, according to some ridiculous marketing statistic somewhere, people need to hear your name, see your logo, work truck or ad 17 TIMES before they remember you.<\/p>\n

Of course that is French for ‘spend more on marketing’, but somewhere between 1 and 17 is the real number. And I would tend to believe it is on the higher end of that range than the lower, wouldn’t you?<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to me…cause it’s all about me!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can’t help you close more business if you stink at closing, or stink at developing referrals, or stink at developing a features and benefits speech that get’s people to buy into your story and say ‘YES! You must be the contractor for my project’, so we are going to talk about sales, and selling and closing a little bit around here.<\/p>\n

And this is where you come in!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I give away more free stuff here than a bridge and tunnel\u00a0 hooker, and I already know all this crap, but you guys need to start helping each other out here too. So I want to know your ideas and what works and what doesn\u2019t, so put something down there in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been spending a lot of time lately helping contractors close new business. Or, more to the point, helping them learn how to do it themselves. So, I thought I would talk about it here a bit. Selling is what happens after the marketing works But for many contractors, the sales call process is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contractor-marketing","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n