Feast your eyes on this beauty above.

She’s a Prime Black Angus Ribeye. Cooked medium rare (just how I like it), so you get that perfectly rich and juicy flavor.

But here’s the thing…

While I love me some steak, I’m not going to shove the whole 12-ounce cut down my gullet at once.

Instead, I’m going to cut it into small hunks to savor every tender bite. And I’m sure you’re the same way.

It’s a lot like offering your customers financing.

Just like how I’m craving that beautiful cut of beef in the photo, your customers are craving a home improvement project.

They want it. Desperately.

What they don’t want, though, is to swallow the entire cost of the project at once.

I don’t care if you’re remodeling for Richie Rich’s uncle. And it doesn’t matter if your customers have cash to spare in their bank accounts.

The fact is, paying for the full cost of a project at once is hard for EVERYONE to stomach. (Have you read my story about how taking my six kids to the dentist cost me $8,214.70?  I had the money, but I sure as heck didn’t want to part with all of it at once.)

So, why not offer your customers the option to pay in small, bite-sized monthly chunks?

Because when you do, here is what’s going to happen:

• You’re going to close more jobs.
• You’re going to close jobs more quickly.
• Your customers will spend MORE on your services.
• Your business will boom.

But here’s the rub… you can’t do this with just any financing company.

A lot of them take way too long to approve your customers, require unrealistically high credit scores, and rob you blind with fees.

That’s why financing through the GreenSky® Program* is the only way to go.

Just like MYM, the GreenSky Program is dedicated to the home improvement industry.

As a result, the GreenSky Program has over 11,000 merchants and 500,000 consumer loans across a wide range of categories, including interior remodeling, exterior remodeling, roofing, and HVAC.

Seriously, the GreenSky Program has eliminated literally every problem that contractors have with financing.

Long approval processes? Gone.

Delayed payments? Gone.

Messy paperwork? Gone.

Here is what’s left:

• 5-second decisions: Your customer applies via website, phone, or the mobile app and receives a credit decision in as little as five seconds.
• Get paid in one day: You receive up to 20% to 50% upfront funding in your bank account within one business day of customer approval.
• No paperwork: No need to fill out stacks of annoying, cumbersome paperwork—everything is done digitally (and securely backed up).
• Upsell like a champ: The GreenSky Program offers high credit limits and may approve for higher than the requested credit limit. This makes it incredibly easy to upsell on projects your customers finance.
• No enrollment fee: Unlike other programs, the GreenSky Program does NOT nickel and dime you. There’s no enrollment fee and just a small, painless fee per transaction. You’ve earned the money—you deserve to keep it.

If you aren’t using the GreenSky Program for financing, you’re losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. Period.

To prove it, in the next post I’ll show you just how easy it is to upsell and close more jobs when you incorporate the GreenSky Program into your business.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how the GreenSky Program can help you wildly increase profits, visit the MYM GreenSky Trusted Partner page.

Bon appétit.

P.S. The most expensive steak in the world is the A5 Kobe Strip Steak. It costs $350 (tax not included) for 12 ounces, and you can only get it at Old Homestead Steakhouse in New York City. The reviews say the steak is the best thing you’ll ever taste in your life. When you offer the GreenSky Program’s financing to your customers and dramatically increase your revenue, affording this streak will be like buying off the Dollar Menu at McDonald’s.

* 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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Two things that separate good online marketing companies from GREAT online companies are response times and the ability to solve a client’s issue.

A top-five complaint I hear from contractors about internet marketing companies (even the decent ones) is that they don’t communicate well enough and fast enough.

It may take the marketing company a few days to get back with the contractor. And when they do, the answer is often unsatisfactory, vague, or doesn’t completely fix the problem.

MYM is the complete, total, 100% opposite.

Let me tell you about a recent example…

On April 12th at 4:37 pm, one of our newer clients emailed our Digital Services Director, Katie Colihan.

He said he kept getting calls from a random phone number. Whenever he answered, a recording played that said our client’s business listing is not verified with Google and to “press 1” to verify.

The client smelled something fishy about these calls, so he emailed Katie to see if she could confirm that it was, in fact, a scam.

Now, here’s where communication between client and marketing company tend to break down. The average online marketing company MIGHT get back to you… usually in a few days… and usually with a response along the line of, “That sucks. Try contacting Google.”

Not us.

At 5:24 pm that same day (47 minutes later), Katie emailed our client the following:

—

Quick update on this – Kim and I did some digging and found out 3 things:

1. That your Google Listing is indeed verified
2. The phone # that called you is known to be a scam number (See here)
3. Google reinforces that calls like this are scams (see here)

So rest assured that your business is perfectly fine – and that’s just a bunch of whack-a-doodles trying to scam ya.

—

We not only verified the client’s Google Listing ourselves in less than an hour; we also researched the mysterious phone number and provided advice on how to handle these calls in the future.

Bottom Line: We solve our clients’ problems—quickly and thoroughly.

Our “high-touch” service is no accident; we’ve structured our company specifically to provide unparalleled client communication and support. How this came to be is actually an interesting story, and you should read about it on our New Client Criteria page.

After that, think about whether you could use the kind of internet marketing company like MYM.

The kind that ALWAYS has your back, ALWAYS responds quickly, and ALWAYS gives “full measure” to solve problems.

That wouldn’t be a bad marketing company to have in your corner, would it?

P.S. Speaking of giving full measure… we provide free comprehensive lead-generation and marketing audits to all contractors interested in our services. We like to show prospective clients right up front that we mean BUSINESS. So click here now to get started—it’s $4,500 worth of services on the house.

P.P.S. If a suspicious phone number ever calls you, look it up on 800notes.com. It’s a free reverse-phone-number-lookup database in which the general public posts information about questionable phone numbers that call them.

For example, here’s the page for the phone number that called our client.

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.

2.  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.

3.  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.

4.  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.

5.  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.

Please don’t be offended, but there’s a really good chance that you’re absolutely terrible at negotiating with TV and/or radio stations.

I don’t care how good you are at negotiating other stuff, it’s an absolute certainty that you SUCK at negotiating with these guys.

The reason why is simple: You don’t speak their language.

Yep; media has its own “language,” and if you’re not fluent in it, you’re going to end up buying swampland in Florida when you thought you were getting oceanfront property in Maui.

It’s one of the main reasons you need to come to my 2-day seminar in Dallas on April 26 & 27. To learn more about the event click here.

Let me give you an example.

I’m working with a new client in Milwaukee. They got interested in radio and TV recently and started trying to make a buy themselves.

Here’s what they ended up with:

This is swampland, pure and simple. Let me explain:

1. After we researched the market, we determined that this is actually the 4th or 5th best radio station for them to be on. That might be okay if the DEAL was so good that they just couldn’t pass it up, but….
2. They have no way of knowing how good this buy is based on this document. It states that they will get 20 spots a week for 24 weeks for $800 a week. Is that good? Unless you know HOW MANY PEOPLE are going to hear those spots, it is 100% impossible to judge.
3. The Endorsement by “Elizabeth” (on-air personality) is way overvalued—it’s 20% of the budget. We found out she endorses FOUR companies simultaneously—that’s too many!
4. The sponsorship on the left and the list of stuff on the right is FILLER GARBAGE that is worth approximately nothing. If you don’t know that, it’s a problem.

When I called the station and had them send me the numbers on this buy (which the client never ever saw—by design of the station), here’s what I got:

The Cost per Thousand (CPM) looks pretty good at $5.26. But then you realize that they are padding this with a bunch of GARBAGE (circled above) and it’s not so good. In fact, it’s terrible.

It’s like going to the store and getting 4 pounds of bananas… 1 pound is fresh and ripe and good to eat, but the other 3 pounds are old and moldy and useless. But all you know is you paid a certain price for all 4 pounds.

Let’s ask them to take 3 pounds of moldy bananas out, and just sell us the 1 pound of GOOD bananas.

I did exactly that; I asked them to remove the garbage, which exposed what a bad deal this really was:

Boom, the price (THE REAL PRICE!) just MORE THAN TRIPLED to $16.30 (CPM).

When I told her what I wanted, she then pulled a fast one on me—trying to trick me:

Okay, look, the price is down to $9.99—a big reduction. Except she used 30-second spots instead of 60 second spots to artificially lower the price.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, they will pull this crap on you all day long.

I went back and asked to price it out for 60-second spots:

Okay, now the schedule is right, but the price is terrible. I would NEVER pay $14.04 CPM for radio for my clients.

Would you? Would you even know?

I sent this “lower the boom” email; note that I am asking for a price almost 2/3 less than what she had offered:

Three hours later, I had this offer in my inbox:

$9.99… the same price she had previously offered me for 30-second spots. That’s a huge reduction with just one ask. I am sure I could get 20% to 35% more off… but since I don’t really want this station anyway, I decide not to put the thumbscrews on her.

Instead, I focus on getting a better price from a better station, and I am able to get prices of $8.00 CMP and $7.56 CPM from two stations I like better…

Then I start to negotiate with TV stations.

Long story short, I negotiated with one of the best stations in the entire market to get on for $3.50 CPM.

The original deal they had negotiated was $16.30. I ended up with a deal on a better station on TV for $3.50.

That’s media buying like a boss.

That’s how I negotiated deals that are literally 4,500% better than you.

If you think your AGENCY is doing a better job than you could, you’re probably right.

If you think your AGENCY is doing a better job than I would, you’re almost certainly WRONG.

The problem with agencies is that they almost always leave the negotiation to some junior-level wannabe who sucks at buying media.

When I took over Jericho’s $1 million media budget in 2015, I was able to negotiate deals 20% to 30% better than what they had been paying.

It happens all the time.

This is what you will learn at my “Make The Jump” seminar on April 26 & 27.

I hope you can make it.

You need to make it.

I’ll see you there.

Sincerely,

Rich Harshaw

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