Here’s A Plan To Plant Some Money Now… And Harvest Even More Money Later.
Once You Know What Your “Most Important Number” Is, You’ve Got To Find The Cash To Pay For The Marketing. Here’s How You Do It…
Written by Rich Harshaw.
Last blog posting I challenged you to set a goal using my “Most Important Number” method.
In a nutshell, your Most Important Number is the number of sales per month you need to get in your bread & butter product category that would get you where you want to be, financially speaking.
So if you’re currently selling an average of 8 window jobs a month (assuming windows is your “main” product), would 20 jobs per month get you where you want to be? What about 25? Or 50?
Whatever that number is, that’s your Most Important Number. Go back and read the posting again to fully absorb the concept.
This week’s challenge is more formidable: to figure out how to get the money to create the marketing budget to get to your Most Important Number. While we’re doing that, we’ll also cover how to spend the money.
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Everybody WANTS To Be Swimming In Cash… Here’s Some Practical Contractor Marketing Advice To GET YOU THERE.
You Need To Find Your “Most Important Number”; It’s The Missing Link Between Where You Are Now And Where You Want To Be.
Written by Rich Harshaw.
Let’s talk about goal setting for a minute.
If I ask 100 remodeling contractor business owners to tell me their goals for their business, 100 of them will respond in terms of an annual dollar figure: $1 million in sales. $3 million in sales. $10 million in sales. Whatever their number is.
While these goals are commendable, they’re also big, vague, and hard to wrap your brain around. If you’re currently doing $1 million in sales and you’d like to get to $2 million, it’s nearly impossible to see how to get from point A to point B. These kinds of goals are stillborn; they lack power to motivate because they’re too hard to conceptualize.
Which is why I encourage remodelers to figure out their MOST IMPORTANT NUMBER instead.
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The One Most Willing To Walk Away From A Negotiation Has The Power.
What Could Be Better Than Getting
A Great Deal On Advertising… AND Playing With Fire?
Introducing The Ultimate Negotiating Tactic For Fearless Marketers.
Next time you go to negotiate advertising prices with your local TV, radio, or print salesperson, first stop off at Wal-Mart and pick up a new Aim N’ Flame. It just might be your most powerful negotiation tool.
In a recent consultation with a 2-day bath remodeling company, a client told me that they had decided to quit advertising in the local newspaper. Their $2,000 a month ad HAD been pulling 20 to 25 home improvement leads a week for an average of about $80 to $100 a lead—very acceptable. But over the last 6 months, their lead flow had slipped down closer to 8 or 10 a week—not great, but they were still able to make money. Now with the rate increase—about $2,500 for the same ad—they were ready to call it quits with the paper. They wanted my advice on what to do with the money instead.
Not so fast!
Rule #1 of negotiations is to understand what motivates the other person so you can position yourself to give them whatever will make them happy. And in this circumstance, it was easy to see that the paper was STARVING for business. So many advertisers had already bailed out that they foolishly decided that they’d have to raise their prices to continue to make ends meet.
Since the client was fine with paying $80 for leads, I told him to call a meeting with the sales person and bring a pre-printed, pre-signed check for $15,000. That’s right—FIFTEEN GRAND. He assured me that his cash flow could handle the $15,000 hit, so I told him to bring the check. Then he was to look at the salesperson and say, word for word:
“I am holding in my hand a check for $15,000. I would like to give it to you today. This check will represent a pre-payment for 200 home improvement leads that I am willing to pay you $75 each for. You will run my ad as much as possible, and every time we get a lead, you can deduct $75 from my account. We are willing to utilize a trackable phone number so you and I both will know exactly how many leads result from your publication. You can either take this check and immediately begin running my ad, or I can take this here Aim n’ Flame and burn this check right now. You have 5 seconds to decide. Which do you prefer?”
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