Gut Check Time

This is purely my opinion, but I think that many people who were on easy street through the 90’s and much of 2000’s are experiencing a bit of a gut check .  Gut checks are a good thing because it weeds out the weak.  A gut check is usually uncomfortable.  I have just recently started training at an MMA gym here in Birmingham.  It was a gut check prior to showing up at the first practice.  Walking into a gym with the intent of fighting as competition can be a bit intimidating at first.   I have been going now for a few weeks and have settled in to  learning the sport.  The reason I mention this is because it relates greatly to new technologies and Internet marketing.  People choose not to try new technologies because they don’t know what to expect or don’t have enough pain yet to investigate further.  Could this be the case for you?   As an entrepreneur I have always considered myself to be very open minded and interested in learning new ways that I may propel business in a positive direction.  If you are at a place in your business where it is gut check time, I would like the opportunity to see if my company can help you out.  Tell me about any gut checks that you may be experiencing. Maybe we can help one another out.

Search Engine Optimization

This is probably the single most requested item when I first speak with someone about web design. Over the past few months every new customer of ours has requested that their new web pages be optimized for search engine visibility. This isn’t the most difficult thing in the world of web design to do, but real search engine placement doesn’t happen over night.

Step right up folks, and get yer red hot SEO services right here!

Search Engine Optimization is a relatively new industry compared to construction or data processing in general. I truly believe that you have a lot companies out there that aren’t being honest about what SEO actually is and instead are basically using people’s lack of knowledge against them. While this may be a moral issue and I’m sure you could somehow argue that people who don’t take the time to educate themselves deserve any consquences they get, it’s just not good business  to do this. It’s bad for everyone involved and hopefully these people are found and yelped to death.

Search Engine Optimization is a constant, ongoing, proactive process, and one that any website owner needs to be aggresive about, meaning you should always have something going on to promote your website so that your website’s search ranking improves. My point here is that if you as a business owner adopt a SEO plan of action and stick to that plan your website will slowly gain more of a footing within the major search engines, and the keyword (no pun intended) is slowly. You will not have a flood of new internet traffic overnight. A web search engine like google or yahoo can take as long as three months to index your page changes and their behavior is still a mystery to people. In the long run, SEO can generate an enourmous return of investment, but do not look to SEO as some kind of silver bullet for you to reach your sales goals.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Contractors Make

I have a great friend Ron Roberts that is a business coach for contractors.  Ron brings a wealth of knowledge about the contracting business that can help make a contractors life easier.  The following is the abbreviated form of  The 10 Biggest Mistakes Contractors Make developed by Ron .

Mistake #1:    Not selling aggressively

Mistake #2:    Not having an effective lead generation system

Mistake #3:    Working for bad clients

Mistake #4:    Signing bad contracts

Mistake #5:    Not Having a Large Credit Line

Mistake #6:    Failing to Hold Field Leaders Accountable

Mistake #7:    Not Knowing the Cost of Work

Mistake #8:    Accepting High Turnover

Mistake #9:    Pursuing a Foolish Strategy

Mistake #10:  Running the Business Without a Plan

You can get great detail about each of these mistakes at http://www.filthyrichcontractor.com/10BMCMReport.html

Why And How To Follow Up.

I consider myself to be a very aggressive sales person.   Maybe to aggressive sometimes.  My opinion is that it is better to be to aggressive than not aggressive enough.  I also don’t claim to be the ultimate copywriter either.  This is a blog and it does not matter. If you don’t like how I write  then don’t read my blog.

This is the process that I go through.

1. I send out an email campaign in my area to a selected target of prospects.  These prospects are people that I already know purchase contracting services.  Once I get a lead I immediately respond via email to set an appointment. If the appointment is not secured very soon I pick up the phone and call them.  I have the ability to search my database by email address to dig up the persons phone number if it is not part of the email.  It is very critical that the meeting is secured as soon as possible.  When people respond to emails that are ready for information right now. If you respond to their request immediately you have already gained their confidence.  Set the meeting for a data as soon as possible.  Not that day because it lets on to a state of desperation.  The next day is great. Anytime that you can keep the momentum ramping up step on th gas.

Once the meeting is set.  Focus on your A game.  Try to learn a bit about the company you will be meeting with. If you have someone in your business that is more of an expert than you are consider taking them with you.  I greatly enjoy taking my father on waterproofing sales calls.  We focus on the hospital market here in Alabama and Georgia. www.waterproofingservicet.net .   He is a huge asset because he has worked on so many hospitals across the southeast.  Hospitals seem to be a great places to work.  The can not have water penetration that’s for sure.

That brings me to my next point.   I sent out an email campaign and recieved this reply at Friday, September 12, 2008 7:15 AM

Good Morning Kelly,

 

I have EIFS on the exterior of my building; do you do any repairs of that type?

 

Thanks

John Atherton

Crestwood Medical Center

 

And I said Friday, September 12, 2008 9:31 AM

Absolutely

 

What would be the best time to take a look?

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net 

He said at Fri 9/12/2008 9:35 AM

Any time next week before Friday would be fine. Are you local?

John

 

 

 

 

 

And I said at September 12, 2008 9:43 AM

Is next Tuesday at 11:00 AM ok with you? 

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net

He said at Fri 9/12/2008 1:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

That will be fine, when you get to the hospital come in the visitors entrance and ask the volunteers to call ext. 5994 or 5502 and I will come get you at the desk. You will go down Airport Road east we are ½ way down on the left (north) side of the road.

 

Thanks

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I said at Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:05 AM

 

John,

 

Thanks for your time yesterday. I am working up a proposal.  Can you send me a fax or an email with your basic insurance requirements?

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net 

 

Then I said at Tue 9/23/2008 5:44 PM  – I had to wait a bit on the insurance info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John,

 

Thank you for the opportunity to offer quotation for the following services.

 

EIFS Repair Ground Level  (approximately 20 locations)

 

Properly prepare substrate by removing all loose or damaged existing materials.  Install new substrate material where required to achieve proper depth.  Install new base coat and heavy duty mesh material.

 

Install finish coat to match existing as closely as possible.

 

Work can be completed for a price of                                                                                                     $2,732.00

 

Roof or Facade Repairs for drive under roofs

 

Thoroughly inspect roof and curtain wall by water testing utilizing sand bags and other methods to isolate area of potential leakage.

 

Work can be completed for a price of                                                                                                     $65.00/HR (price not to exceed 16 hrs)

 

Remove existing damaged soffit materials at two locations and dispose of offsite. Install new water resistant dense glass material and finish to match existing surface as closely as possible.  This work is to be completed during the evening hours.

 

Work can be completed for a price of                                                                                                     $4,845.00  

 

Power and water to be supplied by the Hospital.  This price is valid for a period of 30 days.

 

Sincerely,

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I said on -  Thursday, September 25, 2008 4:46 PM

Do you plan to do this project?

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net 

 

 

 

 

 

He said on Friday, September 26, 2008 4:40 PM

I have to put it into the system for approval. I plan to do this Monday

 

 

 

 

Then I said on – Wednesday, October 22, 2008 8:22 AM

 

 Any word on the repair work?

 

He said on Mon 11/3/2008 8:40 AM

 

I have been out for a few weeks. This is my first day back and I will check on this.

John

 

Then I said on Mon 12/22/2008 7:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

John,

 

Would you be interested in having us come out and just do the misc. EIFS repairs?

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net 

 

He said on Wed 12/31/2008 8:47 AM

 

 

 

 

I may have some other issues to show you and could involve reworking the EIFS to stop water from wicking into the building and running down an inside wall. I will let you know but it will be after the first of the year.

 

Thanks and have a great New Years.

John Atherton

 

Then I said on – Sunday, January 04, 2009 9:54 PM

John,

 

Happy New Year!  Do you want to take a look at the work this week?

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net

 

He said on – Mon 1/5/2009 10:06 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year Kelly,

 

Yes I have an issue on a building that is connected to the main building. It is a modular building and the EIFS is not attached properly on the roof and water is wicking in and running down the inside wall at a doorway.

 

I am off Friday so any other day is fine.

 

Thanks

John

 

 

 

Then I said on  Monday, January 05, 2009 10:19 AM

 

I plan on coming on Wednesday around 11:00AM.

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net

 

He said on – Monday, January 05, 2009 11:04 AM

 

That will be fine, we are expecting some strong storms during that part of the week if that is the case will you still want to look at it?

 

I said on – Monday, January 05, 2009 11:17 AM

 

That will be perfect.  We can observe the leakage.

 

He said on Wed 1/7/2009 12:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly,

 

Could you send me the original price breakdown in a quote format? It will be easier for me to attach it to the request for a PO if I can do it as an attachment. I am not computer savvy enough to move that part of the email into a quote format.

 

I appreciate you and your Dad coming up today and looking at these issues.

 

Have a good day,

John Atherton

 

 

 

 

 

I said on Monday, January 12, 2009 9:32 AM

 

John,

 

Attached is the quote for all work that has been reviewed.  Let me know if you have any questions.

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net

 

He said on Mon 1/12/2009 2:44 PM

Kelly,

 

I have put the first part of the order into the order system.  The director asked me to do each part separately one line item this month then the next line item the next month. We have monthly budgets to meet and this will allow us to get the work done without being told no due to the total cost of the quote. 

 

I hope we can work it out this way; we really need to get this done for obvious reasons.

 

Thanks and if you have any questions just let me know.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

I said on Monday, January 12, 2009 2:53 PM

 

That is fine with us.

 

Do you plan to release the first part now and the remainder next month?

 

__________________________

Kelly J. Olcott

Waterproofing Services

404-606-4122

Fax- 1-866-666-0538

www.waterproofingservices.net 

 

He said on Tue 1/13/2009 6:42 AM  – To Be Continued.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Green Marketing

What does GREEN marketing mean?  It actually has several meanings for various applications.  Jerry Yudelson writes about GREEN marketing in one of his books in terms of Sustainable Building Practices.  GREEN MARKETING to me means reaching an industries target market effectively utilizing all digital processes.  A tremendous amount of paper and postage is used to deliver messages about many offerings all over the world.  All businesses these days have and use email and the internet.  Most of these businesses can be contacted through their web site via email.  If a business is not utilizing email and the internet then the business is not GREEN.  Anyone that is reading this post uses the internet or you would not be reading this post.  Today an email is a more widely accepted way of communication than paper mail or fax.  Email is fast , trackable, and disposible without a single carbon emission. People read their email as much or more than regular mail.  To begin becoming totally GREEN with your marketing takes a commitment to do so.  You start by setting up a basic email marketing account. I use Constant Contact.  If you want to set up a free trial account for this service you can do so by clicking here.  If you have question or comments about the free trial feel free to ask them here. Even after the account is active it is less than $20.00/MO. Once you have the account set up you can begin adding all of your contacts. You can add your contacts in as many separate list as you want.  The program provides you with the code to add a sign up form to your web site.  One way to quickly grow the size of your targeted list of contacts with email adresses is by using our lead hunter program.  The lead hunter simplifies the process of making calls to introduce your company. The lead hunter is fully integrated with Constant Contact and eliminates time consuming data entry.  I also believe that streamlining processes is what GREEN is all about. Making processes more comfortable and easy for people to get done.   List’s of targeted prospects is another area of my business that we specialize in, so getting the right people to call is very easy. Take a minute and watch this short presentation to see how this works. (click here)  We have developed a conference called the GREEN Action Summit that has been marketed utilizing a completely paperless strategy. On inaugural conference in Los Angeles on September 4th of last year we had over 350 professionals attend the Green Action Summit. www.greenactionsummit.com.   I will expand more on this later.

We stay so busy, we don’t need a website

Since the birth the Internet, having a website has gone from a novelty to a necessity. Today, people judge your business more on your website than they ever have before. It’s just that simple - everyone has a computer and everyone has Internet access, and this makes it easier than ever before to find information about a company. In the beginning everyone was saying, “Word of mouth is how we get most of our business, so why would we need a website?”, or more typically “We get most of our business through referrals.” (I would say most of all, when I was a freelance web designer, that’s the response I got when making a cold call – they would say that and then look back down at whatever they were doing at their desk.) That’s great if you can do that. I suppose we here at the Data Bridge could shut down our website and just exist on the business we got through our current client’s recommendations. We get a good portion of our business through referrals. That’s a great thing really, it’s like free marketing. Well, it is free marketing come to think of it, and you can’t beat that…

Well, ok, that’s great of you have a large customer base, but what do you do if nobody knows about your company?  How do you get in contact with people that have no idea your company exists? I mean, these people don’t know you from a hole in the ground. Maybe you should wait until your current customers go totally out of their way and tell  people they pass on the street about your company. Some people are never happy. Some people just love to complain, and they are not happy until they complain about something. What sort of referrals do you get then? Let’s say your company makes an honest mistake. Businesses are human too. Do you really want to be known this way, or have some sort of resource of positive information available about your company to offset some negative opinions? What about your company and it’s large customer base? Is it really growing at the rate you want it to?

You can do these things, and more, with a website. You can get new business from people who you would not normally be in contact with. You can store positive, honest feedback about your company to offer potential customers when they’ve heard the wrong thing. You can even give more ammo to your current customers when they make a pitch to their friends on your behalf. And now, websites are more inexpensive than ever to develop and maintain. In this age and in this economy, there’s no reason to not have a website.

A website can work for you in ways you never thought it would, and we can help you get started. If you are interested in seeing your current website do more then go over to our contact us page and let me know what you need from your website. I’ll let you know what we can do for you. This is the best time to have a strong, professional presence on the web.

Ways To Start A Lead Pipeline

“Pipeline” could have several definitions.  Pipeline, as it is being referred to here, means “new opportunities to quote service work”.

Service work is much different than new construction.  If you have any experience running a service company you will clearly understand the difference.  Service work takes place directly with an owner and typically brings higher profits and a shorter wait on your money. 

New construction work is very easy to find.  Every general contractor is excited to see another sub that they can break it off in.  You do not have to look very far to find out about new construction. You are bidding against many contractors, and most of the time the sub that gets the job had made a mistake on their bid.

The Moral of the story is that doing service work as a contractor has more reward, less risk, and none of the headache that come with new construction. The reason that most contractors just hang around in the lions den of new construction is because getting into service is much HARDER than getting into new construction.

The unique element about service work is that it is spontaneous.  Some service work is planned for, and, in most cases, the work is not advertised. Owners and managers normally have contractors that they know and call on.  The key is being the contractor that they think of when the time comes. Keep in mind that there are many competitors out there working to get the same piece of business that we are. So what do we do?

First we need to identify the people that have the highest potential need for our services.  This should be as many categories as possible for example -  condominum owner associations, apartment complex managers, hospital service directors, car dealership owners, etc.. You get the idea.  At some point in time each of these types of facilities will require some type of service work, and the more people that know about your service the higher the likelihood of you getting a call with an opportunity to generate revenue.

THE LIST

OK -  everybody has some kind of list.  Lists come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are handwritten, some are in quickbooks, some are in Outlook, some are in excel, some are in access, some are held within SQL databases.  Most of the time a company has a list created throughout the lifetime of their business.

You can use a list to communicate with your prospects in several ways.  You can call, email, mail, text, fly a plane with your advertisement above their building, stand in front of a potential client’s building with a sign, send a voice broadcast with a prerecorded message.  The reality is that people are all different and respond better to various types of advertisement.  Another reality is that when someone needs a services they are going to call the first person that they can remember that can satisfy the need for the service.   This means that if we do not communicate with our clients on a regular basis that we are greatly compromising our lead pipeline. 

MAKING THE LIST WORK

Putting the list to work is much like digging a ditch.  There is some labor involved that most people do not like to do.  Fortunately the ones that do the labor get the reward.  That is true in any industry.

Instead of writing about the labor part I decided to create a presentation that describes it better.  Take a look

Setting up this system is what we do here at The Data Bridge.  Whatever you are already doing marketing wise can be supplemented with the lead hunter.  There are so many advantages to this system.

Are you abandoning your prospects?

Every time you touch your prospects by calling them, emailing or mailing them something, you are scoring points with them. Just because they have not jumped up and thrown their arms around you yet, does not mean that your message has not penetrated their consciousness to some degree. Each contact scores a certain number of points with your prospects and moves them closer to the point where one day they will be ready to do business with you. 

Our biggest marketing mistake

One of the biggest mistakes we make in our marketing, in fact probably the biggest mistake, is to abandon our prospects too early in this process. We get frustrated and give up on them. Then we move on to another group of prospects until we get frustrated with them. Meanwhile the group of prospects we abandoned is left hanging just when we were getting them warmed up to us.

By jumping from one group of prospects (or one zip code or city or county) to another, we lose the cumulative effect of all the points we have worked so hard and spent so many marketing dollars to build up with our prospects. It is equivalent to earning 100,000 travel points on one card and then before you get to cash in your points, jumping over to another card and starting all over again from zero.

Stick with one group of prospects until they buy or die

What does this mean for our marketing strategy? We need to stick to the same group of prospects. Once we have identified a good group of prospects that has all the right characteristics to do business with us, then we need to continue to communicate with them until they die or buy.

Call your prospects when they put up their hand

E-Telemarketing with The Lead Hunter is a dramatically different approach to telemarketing because it combines email with telemarketing to build on successive contacts with your prospects. It is not a one call and out strategy which just does not work any more. You first communicate your message to your prospects by email and then when you have identified which prospects have warmed up to you based on the number of times they have opened your emails, you call them. It stands to reason that you will have a lot more success calling prospects who have put up their hand and indicated their interest.

Check out the lead Hunter – http://www.thedatabridge.com/help/leadhunter.html

Let’s Talk Contracting

Hello Contracting World:

After being out of contracting for several years, I decided the time was right to come back.

Seems funny that now would be a good time to get back in.  I recently conducted some marketing around the state of Alabama and ended up with profitable business. Profitable business has its way of getting your attention.  You can check out more about  those projects at http://waterproofingservices.net/currentprojects.aspx 

The nice thing about being in construction this time is that I have 15 years experience and a clean slate.  Not to  mention an email marketing system that has proven over and over to be effective.

This time around,  I am more educated to the pitfalls that a construction project can bring.  For example, pricing work too cheap is a sure death sentence to your business.  High quality work demands a high quality price. 

Dave and I have been talking about putting a blog up for a while.  I plan to post frequently.

If you are struggling with your contracting business right now, I have some very affordable tools and resources that could help you out.  Other good contractor info can be found at www.filthyrichcontractor.com

Hello world!

Welcome you to The Data Bridge Blog. I am the IT Director for The Data Bridge and also very excited about being able to share with you more information about our company’s doings here online. This should add a degree of clarity about what goes on around here and will not only allow us to showcase our services, but will help our clients as well.

In the past few months, we’ve been working out a lot of technically challenging things here at The Data Bridge. We’ve added important reporting capabilities to our email campaigns like link tracking and address verification, and have also created a new product out of our in-house call center management tools that we call the “Lead Hunter”. Our project management software is in the second stages of it’s beta testing and is being used daily by our beta testing partner, Atlanta Demolition. We’ve just finished a new website promoting our green building conference,  the Green Action Summit, at http://www.greenactionsummit.com, so check it out, and sign up as an exhibitor. We had a huge success last year and we know this year will only be better.

If you have any questions about any of this stuff you email me at david@thedatabridge.com, or you can email Kelly at kelly@thedatabridge.com. If you want to know more about the Green Action Summit please email elizabeth@greenactionsummit.com. Thanks for reading and check back often for new and improved content.

Stay busy!