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How Financing Melts Away Price Resistance

How Financing Melts Away Price Resistance
Here’s what I know based on concrete statistics:

Financing makes the average sale price go up.

It’s incontrovertible.

And the better the terms, the higher the sale.

Because here is the truth—most homeowners get sticker shock when you tell them their project will cost $10,000 or $20,000 or $40,000 or whatever the number is.

But when you come in with financing, you soften the blow.

The thing is, there is a right way and a wrong way to offer financing.

Most contractors use financing as a last-ditch attempt to salvage a sale. This is the WRONG way.

Instead, sell the monthly payment just like car companies do.

What you do is sit down with the homeowners and say, “Mr. and Mrs. Prospect, we offer several financing options to make this project affordable. How much money do you feel would fit comfortably into your monthly budget to make this project happen?”

(Remember, this is at the beginning—not the end—of the sale.)

If the prospect is not 100% dead set on paying cash upfront (many aren’t, and are open to different options), they will either give you a number or say, “Well, I don’t really know.”

If they don’t know, you say, “What about $200? $300?”

When the prospect gives you a number, say, “OK, you know what, Mr. Prospect? I’ll make you a promise. We can absolutely perform the project you want within your budget of [number] a month.”

If necessary, you can always negotiate the length of the contractor later to make the price fit.

Offering financing this way allows you to close deals faster, easier, and at higher prices.

So when contractors tell me their customers don’t need financing because they all have money, I respond, “That may be true, but how many deals are you losing because the customer did not have the money right then?”

Or…

“That may be true, but how much money in upsells are you losing when your customer has to fork over $10,000 at once, instead of $850 per month?”

One of the best ways I’ve found to offer financing as a first resort is through the GreenSky® Program.

The GreenSky Program is the real deal. Upfront payments. Higher credit limits. Instant credit decisions. No paperwork. No enrollment fee.

Your customers apply for credit during your sales presentation through the GreenSky website, by phone, or through the mobile app. They then get a credit decision almost immediately—sometimes in as little as five seconds.

And when they’re approved, the amount can actually be for more than the cost of the project. This allows you to easily make upsells while staying within your customers’ budgets. Who could possibly pass up replacing their entry door for another $10 per month or upgrading their countertops for $25 per month?

Bottom Line: When you lead with financing through companies like GreenSky, you immediately get your prospects thinking about their projects in small, manageable monthly payments—not a five-figure sum that’s going to leave a gaping hole in their bank accounts.

You’re much more likely to get a “yes”… and for a higher price.

Find out more about the advantages of offering financing through GreenSky on our official MYM GreenSky® page.

Basically, it’s a contractor’s financing dream—and a tool that will melt away price resistance in practically all of your prospects.

* All financing is subject to credit approval and credit qualification.  Financing for GreenSky® consumer credit programs is provided by federally insured, federal and state-chartered financial institutions without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex or familial status.

 

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You Don’t Tolerate Bad Salespeople, So Why Tolerate A Bad Website?

is your website pulling it's weight

Let’s take a quick trip to Imaginary Land…

Say you want to bring on another salesperson.

After poking around, you find a guy who has been in home improvement sales for 15 years.

You bring him in for an interview, and he nails it. He clearly has a ton of industry knowledge.

You call his old boss, who gushes about him. He tells you that your new sales guy knows how to close.

After you work out a base salary and commission package with the guy, he signs on.

You put him through your company’s sales training. He absorbs everything like a sponge.

So far, so great.

After a couple training and shadowing your top guy, for a few weeks the moment of truth comes. You hand him 10 leads…

… and he closes one sale.

Your company’s average closing rate is 33% for first-call closes, and 40% for follow ups.

Uh-oh.

The second week doesn’t go so hot, either: 12 issued leads, two sales.

The guy is a newbie, so you cut him some slack.

But things don’t improve in week three: 11 leads, and just a single sale.

You begin to get nervous.

You direct your sales manager to dig into the issue. He discovers your new salesman is not following your sales protocol… at all.

He drones on and on. He doesn’t ask prospects enough questions. He gets flustered after objections.

At this point, you’ve invested six weeks and over $10,000 in his hiring, training, leads, and salary.

Do you get rid of him?

Do you give him another chance?

Do you hop in your DeLorean, gun it to 88mph, and travel back in time to start over?

The answer is obvious…

YOU FIRE HIM, PRONTO!

He is not just falling short of your averages by a giant margin, but he’s also costing you a lot in lost revenue. If your typical sale is $8,000, the eight sales he lost cost you $32,000 in gross profit. You really have no choice but to fire him.

Logically, you’d also give the boot to any severely underperforming employee. Dreadful accountants, substandard installers, bad receptionists—anyone who isn’t pulling their weight.

So why do so many contractors stubbornly clinging to websites that don’t get the job done?

By that, I mean any website that doesn’t do what websites are supposed to do: Make prospects fall in love with your company so they contact you, schedule appointments, and hire you.

Actually, I already know the answer to my question. I’ve asked hundreds and hundreds of remodelers.

Here is usually what they tell me…

  1.  Don’t Realize The Website Is Not Performing

This is by far the most common reason. Business owners often have no idea their losing prospects left and right because their sites lack the power to turn lookers into buyers. They don’t understand the key elements of conversion, which includes an Identity, headline funnel, social proof, and evidence.

  1.  It’s A New Website And They Don’t Want To Start Over

This the second most common reason, but it makes zero sense. This is like holding on to the salesperson in the story above simply because you’ve already invested time and money in him. It’s an emotional, even prideful decision that’s illogical. It’s ALWAYS more expensive to keep an underperforming website (or employee) than it is to bite the bullet, start over, and do it right.

  1.  No Confidence They Can Do Better

This relates to #1. It’s the misconception that all websites will perform about the same as long as they look relatively good. In addition, many business owners have already been through the “website development” ringer with a few marketing companies over the years, and they’re convinced that they all stink. While that conclusion is largely true, it’s not ALWAYS true.

  1.  Get Compliments About Website

Cognitive dissonance on display here. It’s tough to believe your website is underperforming when everyone says it’s great. But consider the “tryout” episodes of American Idol. Someone who is AWFUL auditions and honestly thinks they are amazing. For years, family and friends have told them they are great. But when they are scrutinized by professional talent evaluators—and common sense—they’re clearly terrible. The “American Idol Effect” happens all the time with websites.

  1.  Don’t Understand How Important A Website Is

This is becoming rarer these days. But there ARE still business owners who are convinced that only their repeat and referral business they’ve gotten the past 30 years can continue to sustain them. They simply don’t believe their lousy website hurts their sales. Except that’s not true. It’s exceptionally difficult to see the business you’re missing from a crummy website—after all, you don’t see (and therefore miss) the people who never call.

Is This You?

Clearly, a terrible salesperson is easier to spot than a money-sucking website. That’s why we provide free Website Conversion Audit for businesses curious to know if their website is pulling its weight.

We’ll scrutinize your website and grade it a 0 to 100 scale based on 18 specific elements.

It’s our opinion, but trust me… if we say your site scores a 32 out of 100, you have a lot of work to do. (By the way, the average score is 32 out of 100… yikes!) We’ll also analyze your SEO and PPC rankings and grade your “website visibility.”

If you discover you’re hemorrhaging opportunities, give yourself a break.

You’re in business, and you’re going to make mistakes. Those mistakes are going to cost you money sometimes. It stinks, but it’s called life. Just don’t continue to knowingly make the same mistake—that’s just silly!

Click here now to get your Website Conversion Audit.

 

P.S. Since I’m on the topic of great websites, I want to remind you about MYM’s Awesome Contractor-Referral Giveaway. If you know a contractor or company that needs to “fire” their current website and replace it with one that gets REAL results, refer them to us now. You’ll win an AMAZING gift if they become the next MYM client.

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Refer Us To A Business Owner Who Loves More Leads

get more leads
Show me a business that doesn’t have power over the flow and quality of their leads, and I’ll show you a business owner who is stressed.

Super-stressed.

Because without controlling lead quantity, you’ve essentially turned your business over to luck. And if you believe luck is in the driver seat, you probably have more bad luck than good. Just saying.

If MYM is managing your PPC campaigns, you already know the solution. And you know we guarantee specific results or you don’t pay.

My question is: are you willing to help a fellow contractor business owner get the same thing?

Refer them to MYM and get a sweet bonus for yourself.

When they sign up to have MYM manage their PPC campaign, we’re going to manage YOUR PPC campaign for free for 3 months.

(You’ll still pay for the ads themselves, but the management will cost you nothing for 3 months.)

Email me and type “I have a referral for you. Please give me a call” and give us the best number to reach you. A member of my team will reach out to you.

 

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I’ll Grade Your Home Improvement Website, But Be Warned, You Might Not Like The Results.

I’ll Grade Your Website, But Be Warned, You Might Not Like The Results.

I’ll Grade Your Website, But Be Warned, You Might Not Like The Results.

By Rich Harshaw

Do you know how many home improvement leads you get a month from your website?

Most contractors don’t. They just sort of shrug their shoulders and hope they’re getting all the leads they should.

Here’s the truth: You’re not getting even close to your fair share.

Actually, that statement isn’t true: You ARE getting your FAIR share. Because home improvement leads have to be earned online, just like anywhere else. It takes work. And brains.

And you’re getting exactly whatever share of the online leads that you’ve earned. It should probably be a lot more. There are tons of good, quality leads to be had.

My entire business is dedicated to helping remodeling contractors with marketing and getting more leads—both from the internet, and from offline sources. That’s why I write these blog posts, put on webinars and seminars, and why we offer our marketing services for construction and service companies.

But I don’t just want to talk—I’m a man of action. That’s why extending an offer to you right now to grade you on your current lead generating efforts.

First, I’ll grade your website on how well it converts. Most contractor websites get an “F.”
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