Are you not getting as many leads as you think you should? Or do you run ads but not seeing the results you feel like you should be? Well your ads might not be your actual issue, once you get a potential customer’s attention you have to be able to convert them. And the first conversion starts when they take action, like filling out a form or reaching out to you. From there you engage and nurture them until they become a paying customer. Let me show you what I’m talking about, plus I’ll show you how I boost our clients sales by 20% with just one feature!
Step 1 – Awareness
This is where you have your GBP, Facebook, Ads, and any other sources that promote your business. This is the easy part that you are already doing.
Step 2 – First Impression
This is where all businesses fail or succeed, the first big pitfall, because this is when customers strip check your business, so you better be ready. They first want to see your reviews, how you respond to them, especially how you respond to the negative ones, they want to see visuals of where they might be showing up at to make a purchase, they want to see visuals of what your buildings look like and what you offer, so include lots of pictures, show off any special deals you have going on, and have your business information posted somewhere that is easy to find! This is going to give potential customers their first impression of your business, so the more of this information you can put out there, the more comfortable they’ll be to take the next step.
Step 3 – Making a connection
This is where the 2nd biggest pitfall for businesses in the portable business industry happens, speed to lead is key here. You need a way to engage with each customer that takes the next step, and reaches out to you. You need to do this almost instantly otherwise they lose interest and move on to someone else. Whether they download a brochure, reach out through a chat widget, Facebook, email, or call! We utilize automations for our clients, when a customer downloads a brochure, customers get an automated text asking how we can help, the chat widget on their website goes directly to our clients’ phone through our mobile app, and if our clients can’t answer the phone, we utilize an automated missed call text back that initiates the conversation with the customer. This lets our clients dominate their competitors with speed to lead. This one step alone has boosted our clients’ sales by almost 20% just because they started utilizing automations. This is great if you can’t always be at the phone ready to take a call, or if you work on-site.
Ex. Think about how many calls you miss every week, I’m going to make up an example, I build custom greenhouses and sheds, I typically miss about 1 call a day which is about 30 calls a month. Now let’s say I typically close a safe 20% of the calls I get, so 30 calls a month multiplied by 20% is 6, so 6 more sales that I could be getting, say I get $500/building commission or I’m a builder and get $5,000/building. That means I could be getting an extra $500 x 6 = $3,000 in commission each month if I’m a dealer, or if I’m a builder I could be getting an extra $30,000/month in sales, just by utilizing a missed call text back feature, Not even including how all the other features play in and help. This also keeps customers from moving onto your competitors, because once they receive a message from you, they are now invested to see how you can help them.
Step 4 – Sale
Now you have made a connection and gained a customer’s trust, this is where you either have what the customer is looking for or you don’t. This is the primary stage for nurturing each potential customer to become a paying customer. You need a fast and easy way to respond to each potential customer question, quick response time is expected in today’s world so try and stay on top of answering any questions or concerns they may have. Next, you need to have clear communication, give details and be precise when answering questions, be ready to provide pictures and examples specific to their asks, and it’s also a good time for you to point them to check out your Facebook or website where you have updated pictures of your recent buildings or projects. This will save time compared to digging for pictures each time you talk with a customer. You want this step to be seamless for customers, keeping the trust you have already and building reliability between you and the customer.
This step is where you make the sale, the customer has decided what they want and you have worked out all the details. When you go to collect payment you need to make sure it is easy and not outdated. Many people still just want to collect checks or cash, this is ok for some customers but many people want you to send them an invoice that they can pay with their phone. It removes having to meet with the customer one more time just to collect payment. So have a simple solution to sending invoices and collecting payments. Our clients that run our system for automations also have access to invoicing within the same system making it easy to send and collect payments within minutes. Little tip, our clients also utilize a review request automation that collects feedback from customers once you have delivered the final product, which pushes for new positive reviews, that then boosts your GBP, bringing you even more customers;)
Step 5 – Referrals
This is where the magic happens, we all know the best and easiest clients to work with typically come from referrals or recurring buyers. So many businesses in the portable building industry don’t pay any attention to this goldmine and are completely missing out. Once you have done the hard work why start over every single time, trying to market and go through the whole sales process again with someone new? Yes you’ll have to do this still, but you could be getting so many new sales utilizing previous customers. They are your best social proof, so not only will they buy from you again, they will also want to tell their friends, especially if an incentive is involved. We set up each of our clients with a happy customer campaign, which means once they make a sale and get happy feedback from a customer, that customer is then added to a monthly campaign that regularly sends out special offers that draw them back to you for another sale while also incentivizing them to refer you to their friends, letting all sides of the deal win. You make a sale, the customer doing the referring gets a deal, and the new acquired customer also gets a special deal. Think about how much you are willing to spend to make an extra sale, now what if you could save that money and just put a little towards the ones who already love your business, letting them do the hard work for you. Referrals never run out either, which is a great thing because you constantly make new happy customers, and those customers never stop meeting new people.
Conclusion
You need to make sure you are utilizing GBP, Facebook, and your website. But it doesn’t stop with just having them, you need to make sure they stay optimized. Remember they are the foundations to your business so don’t ignore them and make sure you are making posts and updates to them regularly. Next, stay on top of communication and being reliable for each potential customer, don’t lose track of where each customer stands in the sales process either. Do follow ups, just because you didn’t hear back from them doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, people are busy and get caught up in life. So do your follow ups, you’d be surprised with how many people respond apologizing about not texting or calling you back and then proceed to buy from you after you check in with them. Remember referrals are a gold mine, it takes time but they are always there so stay on top of your referral program. Lastly, use systems, they will be a game changer in your business, making the process from start to finish an ease for you and your customers.