#1 Best Advertising

Guerilla

Targeted leads are best. If they attend a home show they are more than looking at home improvements. That is as targeted as you can get. Street fairs are usually very inexpensive and generate a good quality LOCAL lead.

If you remember to GENERATE LEADS not try to sell your service at these events you will do well.

Put a couple of women who are well informed on your trade in your booth and you will generate alot of leads. NEVER put a salesperson in the booth, they try to sell instead of gathering names and phone numbers of interested prospects.

At a recent show in Orange County we put a sales rep in one booth in one hall and a Lead Generator who knew Much Less about the product in another booth in another hall. Both got similar amounts of traffic. The salesrep generated 12 leads in 10 hours. The Lead generator generated 41 leads in the same 10 hours.

And remember, these are highly targeted leads.

Also remember that ALL leads that meet your cost per lead goals are worth continuing even if some other source is more effective.

Keeping a varied and targeted marketing attack is the key to success. A 1 or 2 legged stoll can't stand up and neither can a 1 or 2 leg marketing attack.

Mike Finley

In my opinion that is extremely misleading and a vast generalization.

There is a huge difference between the 12 leads generated by your sales rep and the 41 leads generated by your pretty girls.

I'm betting out of the 12 leads your sales rep generated the company ended up closing at least 6 of them. Out of the 41 leads the hookers generated, I'm betting the company was lucky to close 4.

You are talking about the difference of qualified leads and just generating names or a mailing list to waste expensive time on weeding through the chaff later.

This gets even worse as the complication or dollar amount of your product goes up, because you run into the tendency of people who are considering spending a big chunk of money or are considering a complicated product need to get some answers to specific questions, and hookers can't do it, but a qualified salesperson with a tech on the floor with him certainly can.

Go to a big trade show and take a look at who has the hookers and who has the sales staff and techs on the floor and look at what they each are selling.

Mike Finley

At the very least you should realize that in the home improvements field the wife is responsible for well over 90% of the final decisions. Having a couple of gals handing out lollypops and pens might get the men to siddle over for a peak, but you risk turning off the wives real quick.

DecksEtc

But Mike, the hookers/lollypop girls are fun to look at!

We need guys at other booths to have them to help us out!

Grumpy

Mike I'm not sure if that's true... the 90% thing I mean. In the roofing business I have found that it's a group decision most of the time. Usually the husband chooses the quality of the roofing material and asks all sorts of technical questions and then once we get that nailed the wife picks out the colors and styles.

Ofcoarse there are times when it's only the wife or only the husband making the decisions, but it usually goes as stated above.

Mike Finley

Grumpy, keep in mind that I think it is fair to say that most people look at roofs as utilitarian, being they keep out the rain and have to work. But bring up a kitchen cabinet and watch a husband gone into agony as his wife decides over the shape and color of a cabinet pull for 3 days! The husband will want to talk to you about football, while the wife wants to see every sample that exists in the metro area. Get a wife involved in what color the toilet should be, the faucets, take a husband and wife to a granite slab supplier and see what happens...

... wait till you get married! LOL

Mike Finley

LOL! Yes they are!

PipeGuy

At that point I'm looking around desperately for the poison Kool-Aid - PLEASE! Anything but having to answer one more rhetorical question from the wife. Just BUY SOMETHING already!

Grumpy

Mike I've stood out in home owners laws for literally hours holding up shingle samples to the wall so the wife could take a peek and which matches the bricks better. I think the wife choosing the color and style of the cabinets is the same as the wife choosing the color and style of the roof, but if my case it's usually the husband that determines the nitty gritty details of the roofing system.

Mike Finley

Haha!

See you get it too!

Have you ever had a wife want the husband to climb up on the roof with the shingle samples so she can see what they would look like up there? LOL! It may sound funny, but I bet somebody has gotten it before!

Grumpy

No, but I've had the wife want ME to climb up on the roof... and I've done it too many times!

I've gone so far as to nail a few shingle sup there so the wife could look at it in differnt times of the day.

Mike Finley

HA HA! That's what you get for being a customer service whore!

CGofMP

Speaking as a poor unedumacated homeowner I only WISH that the roofing company that gave a roof certificate (guarntee) to the seller's realtor (and thereby us) was a customer service whore.

Have had some minor problems since moving in and had to deal with this a**h*** far too many times. I would have saved a great deal of acrimony and unhappiness (not to mention the waste of everyone's time) if Grumpy had appeared on our doorstep instead of this guy.

You just keep it up Sensi Grumpy. If I had you for a roofer, I'd go door to door advertising in my neighbrhood FOR you!

__________________
Memorable Places - My little home on the web
Member of the White Knights Of Contractor Talk

Mike Finley

Aw, now his head is going to get so big he will only be able to look at his monitor one eye at a time!

DecksEtc

...ad he won't be able to climb in and out of his truck either!

DBS01

Your rationalization is quite right, but i have read some information where an engineer for a hi-tech pump manufacturer was asked how he decides who to purchase the parts for his products from, his answer was " who ever has the best looking sales rep". Now I know that sounds sexist but Guys think when you are scaning for a check out line at Home Depot or anywhere don't you look for the hottest chick and avoid the wrinkly old lady? don't you think your customer would be the same?

SEX SELLS, and yes even in the construction industry.

REMEMBER YOUR GOAL IS TO GET A NAME. NOT QUALIFY THEM. Sometimes your salespeople will give them all the answers they need, they may be a great potential buyer but if they have walked by ten other booths with contractors who sell the very same thing as you, who will be remembered just another salesman or pamela anderson???

Give your lead time to focus on you and your product and sales skills LATER - don't let them be distracted by all the other hoopla going on during a trade show.

GET THE NAME. - USE THE LEAD - multi step letter process if you have to. revisit their project interests even after a NO, - sometimes a no means not right now.

ANOTHER GREAT LEAD THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE PAID FOR AND PROBABLY NEVER HAVE USED ------------ YOUR PAST CUSTOMERS !!!

DID YOUR CUSTOMERS USE ALL THE SERVICES YOU CURRENTLY HAVE??
DID THEY BUY A ROOF BUT NOT GUTTERS, OR SIDING, OR WINDOWS??

THEY MAY HAVE NOT HAD THE NEED WHEN YOU SOLD THEM THE FIRST TIME BUT NOW (3 MO LATER OR MORE) MAY HAVE A NEED.

WHAT ABOUT JUST A REFRESHER IN THEIR MIND WITH YOUR COMPANY???

HEY "SMITH'S" - HAVNET TALKED TO YOU IN A WHILE HOPE YOUR "ROOF" IS STILL WORKING GREAT FOR YOU, JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW WE ALSO DO " GUTTERS , SIDING, WINDOWS, ETC" WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON OUR GREAT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS.....

THIS WILL ALSO GO ALONG WAY FOR THEM TO POP THAT IDEA IN THEIR HEAD "YEAH, MY NEIGHBOR, BROTHER,CO-WORKER, ETC, WAS ASKING ABOUT A ???? MAYBE I'LL TELL THEM ABOUT YOUR COMPANY" YOU MAY BE SUPRISED HOW MANY JOBS YOU CAN PULL FROM THIS FREE LEAD. :Thumbs:

__________________
Dbs01 - metal roofing Guru
Diamond Building Systems