“I feel like we can run the table.”

That’s what Green Bay Packers’ Quarterback Aaron Rodgers said week 10 of the NFL season.

At the time, the Packers were a paltry 4-6 and in danger of missing the playoffs.

Everyone—analysts, fans, critics—was pronouncing them dead in the water.

After Rodgers’ declaration, though, something downright magical happened.

The Packers won their final six games of the regular season, finishing 10-6. They not only made the playoffs, but also won their division.

During the Packers’ regular-season win streak, Rodger’s stats were ridiculously great:

• 15 touchdown passes
• 71% pass completions
• A 121 Quarterback Rating
• And ZERO interceptions

That’s practically unheard of, even for an elite NFL quarterback.

Rodgers making good on his promise—and doing it in style—surprised everyone… except for Rodgers and the rest of the Packers.

That’s because Rodgers understands the power of positive thinking.

It might sound cheesy, but believing in yourself is one of the keys to unqualified success.

When you have TRUE faith in your abilities—and you tell yourself that you ARE great and that you CAN step up to any challenge, no matter how daunting—you’ll be flat-out amazed at what you can accomplish.

It’s like some hidden, dormant part of your brain awakens. Your self-assurance will shoot through the roof. You’ll feel unstoppable.

Plus, positive thinking is contagious. Put yourself in a positive mindset, and watch it spread to your employees.

Aaron Rodgers is the leader of the Green Bay Packers. He’s the guy the other 52 players on the team look to for inspiration and guidance.

So when Rodgers says he believes his Packers can run the table, his teammates gain a huge confidence boost. “If our leader believes in me, then I believe in me.”

And this positive thinking is still working for the Packers well into the playoffs—they sent my Dallas Cowboys (the #1 seed) packing in dramatic fashion.
When you inspire your own team with the power of positive thinking, they’ll start to put in more effort, work smarter, and become more loyal.

And when you AND your team tackle the job with a positive mindset, that’s when you can achieve Aaron Rodgers “run-the-table”-type success.

P.S. Next post, I’ll show you how to make this Home Show season MVP-worthy and achieve 2 to 10 times more leads.  Stay tuned.

P.S.S  Aaron Rodgers might be a witch.

Save

Let me tell you about the Curse Of The Volkswagen Beetle.

My oldest daughter is a really, really good kid. So when she turned 16 years old in 2012, I decided to buy her a car.

It was a 2006 pale blue Volkswagen Bug.

Here’s what it looked like:

My daughter LOVED it.

And I loved that it had just 36,000 miles and was only six years old (at the time).

To be extra safe, I bought an extended warranty for about $1,500.

Since the car was relatively new, had low mileage, and was protected by an extended warranty, I assumed my daughter would get years and years of use out of it.

My mistake? ASSUMING.

A month after I bought the car, the transmission started acting up.

Cost of repair: $1,300.

Amount covered by warranty: $125.

After I got that fixed, the catalytic converter needed replacing a few months later.

Cost of replacement: $770.

Amount covered by warranty: $65.

About a year later, I needed to replace the drive shaft:

Cost of replacement: $500

Amount covered by warranty: $0.

Finally, in December 2014, the engine completely gave out. It would have cost $7,500 to replace it—basically the total cost of the car in GOOD SHAPE.

That’s when I said, “Nope, I’m done.”

I sold the car in its broken down state at a loss of about $6,000.

Factoring in all of the repairs, the worthless “warranty,” and what I originally paid for the car, I lost over $8,300.

All because I assumed the car was in good condition.

It reminds me of when I spoke to the owner of a large HVAC company about his mailing campaign.

His company generates a big chunk of revenue through direct mail. The first time I talked to him (in 2014), he told me they would send six mailings a year to their customer base that hasn’t either purchased an HVAC system or the company’s service plan.

Here’s the gist of the conversation:

Me: How many customers are you mailing to every six months?

Client: Around 40,000.

Me: Whoa, that’s a lot. How far back do these customers go?

Client: Since we started the company in 2002.

Me: Do you get good response from the customers who are eight years or older?

Client: (pondering) I’m not really sure.

The client assumed since the mailings bring in big profits, everything was hunky-dory.

Not so fast.

After the call, the company dug into their numbers a little more. Here’s what they found:

83% of the leads from these mailers came from customers who had service within the past five years, and 65% within the last two years.

Sure, the company was making good money off these mailers. But think of how much money they wasted on old, unresponsive customers. They could have used that cash to mail to their newer customers more frequently and generate even bigger revenue than they already were.

Lesson: Just because something is working, don’t assume it can’t be improved.

Another example…

A client who was a kitchen and bathroom remodeler was advertising heavily on TV and the radio… but only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Here’s how my convo with them went down:

Me: Why just those days?

Client: That’s when homeowners think about remodeling.

Me: How do you know that?

Client: A marketing guy told us a few years ago. That’s the way we’ve been buying it ever since.

Me: Do you know if that’s when the calls actually come in?

Client: I can check.

When the client pulled up the report, here’s what we found:

Uh-oh… those numbers don’t exactly match to the days they advertise.

Monday and Tuesday are good. But Saturday and Sunday are an advertising deathtrap.

Money, meet drain.

Radio and TV are “farming” (i.e. branding) marketing activities. You have to put yourself in front of people as much as you can—and at the times they’re most likely to see or hear you.

We changed the client’s radio and TV advertising schedule to reflect this. Instead of advertising only on days the client assumed brought in the most leads, we started advertising five days a week (Monday through Friday) to reach as many people as possible.

(Check out these blog posts on radio and television advertising to create ads that move the needle.)

Lesson: Assuming you’re reaching as many prospects as possible without actually looking at the numbers is like throwing your money in a pile, dousing it in gasoline, and tossing a match on it.

Bottom Line…

If you’re wondering how to generate more leads with your marketing, take a look at your numbers.

You may find your ASSUMPTION that something is working is just that…

An assumption.

Save

With home show season almost here, I thought I’d share some tips for boosting foot traffic to your booth.

These are ironclad methods we teach our clients to generate up to three times more leads.

And I’m giving away the farm… right here, right now. For free.

Let’s get crackin’…

Pick The Right Home Shows

The one thing you don’t want to do is set up shop at a show where tumbleweeds outnumber humans.

Do some sleuthing on any home show you’re considering. Ask the show organizer for references from the previous year’s show. Then call the references and ask about attendance, attendee responsiveness, and if they’re attending this year.

If for some reason the organizer doesn’t give you references (not a good sign), check the event’s website—you can usually find info on previous attendees there.

Pick The Right Booth Location

Location within the show determines whether your booth is bustling… or a bust.

Try to get a spot smack-dab in the middle, or near the middle on the right-hand side. Why the right side? Well, ever been to a grocery store? Most of them lay out a counter-clockwise path for customers because studies show that’s how people tend to “migrate” while shopping. Crazy!

Also, try to get a booth next to a national company. They get lots of attention, so you can piggyback off their foot traffic.

And if possible, shell out extra for a premium location. It may cost you a little more upfront, but you’re practically guaranteed to experience better results.

Integrate A Powerful Identity

Infuse your booth with your business’s identity from head to toe. Make sure you articulate who you are, why you’re better, and what people can look forward to when they hire you. Convey the message with—you guessed it—power, passion, and precision.

Also, don’t slouch on design. You want banners and backdrops that attract the eye, not repel it (or worse, get ignored).

Here’s an example of home show materials done right:

Have A Giveaway

Giveaways are massively effective for drumming up interest in your booth. They also give you a reason to follow up with people after the show.

Make the giveaway amount large enough for folks to WANT to enter. A $100 remodeling giveaway? No one cares. A $10,000 remodeling giveaway? Now we’re talking! If you’re afraid of giving away that much, just think about how many leads it will generate, as well as the fact that—depending on your margins—the giveaway will only cost you about half the face value. You’ll easily more than cover the cost of the giveaway.

Lastly, have pre-printed signup forms, or—even better—a lead-capturing program like iCapture in Market Sharp. This way, you can effortlessly keep track of your leads and won’t have to juggle a bunch of drawing slips or try to read people’s chicken-scratch writing.

Attract Attention With The “Big Bill”

Want to grab passerby attention? Stop handing out pens, candy, and trinkets. (Seriously, has a free pen ever enticed you?)

Instead, give out Big Bills. These are glossy, oversized flyers that look like money on one side and contain your identity on the other.

Example:

The denomination should be the same as your giveaway amount. (So if your giveaway is $10,000, the “bill” side should say $10,000.)

Sticking a Big Bill into someone’s line of sight and saying, “Hey, I want to give you $10,000!” as they walk by stops them in their tracks. Try it and see.

Ask People Questions

Gauge a prospect’s urgency and interest with 6 to 10 questions that start out general and become more specific. If they give you rushed answers, they’re probably not interested; however, if they engage with you, you might be talking to a future customer.

Here’s a list of questions you can use if you sell windows (adapt to other projects as necessary):

• How old is your home?
• Are the original windows still on your home?
• Is there anything specific that bugs you about your windows?
• Do you think your energy bills are too high?
• Does your home get drafty?
• Are you here actively looking for windows, or are you browsing?
• Do you know how to tell good windows from bad ones?
• How long have you been thinking about replacing your windows?
• Have you received a bid yet?

Book Appointments Right There, Right Then

Setting appointments on the spot should go without saying, but I’m amazed at how often contractors don’t do it. And if you use a CRM program like MarketSharp, there is especially no reason not to set appointments then and there—these programs make it ridiculously easy to capture, store, and organize lead info.

Also, offer leads extra incentives or an exclusive home show special for booking an appointment.

FOLLOW UP!!!

Sorry for yelling, but I need to. Contractors usually follow up well with hot leads, while letting the rest collect dust.

Fortunately, the giveaway I mentioned above provides you with an easy way to follow up with ALL of the home show leads you generated. Here’s how you do it:

• Call them and say, “We have not yet drawn our Grand Prize winner, but we have drawn several first prize winners… and I’m calling to let you’re one of them!”
• Make the prize a gift card for your company that’s worth some fraction of the Grand Prize—maybe $200 to $500.
• When you tell them they’re a winner, they’ll stop trying to find ways to get you off the phone and start fixating on the fact that they just won something.
• Once you confirm their address and tell them you’ll be sending the gift card, say, “I noticed you said on the form that if you win the Grand Prize, you’d use it for windows.”
• Ask them qualification questions about the service they chose. If you detect interest and urgency, double the gift card amount if they set an appointment then and there.
• Go to their house with your best closing game. Voilà.

Whew… that was a long one. But it was worth it. Follow these tips, and you’ll create a stampede of leads to your home show booth. Just watch.

If you need help with your home show materials, that’s why MYM is here. Get in touch with us, and we can provide you with all the materials you need to make your next home show—and every single one after that—a rousing, lead-generating success.

Head over to our Home Show page for more details.

P.S. Need advice on a thousand and one other contractor marketing topics? Tomorrow, I will dispense a marketing education on every subject you could ever possibly want to know about. This info is easily worth seven figures… and I’m giving it away for the sum total of $0.00.

Stay tuned.

Save