Residential Painting Contractor Success

4 Quick Cures for Slow Business

2009-02-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

If you’re looking to grow or just keep busy, you should check out these 4 proven winners for increasing business.

+ Pick up the telephone and call each of your past customers and make them a special offer not available to everyone else. Make the offer available for a limited time only. While you have them on the phone ask for a referral… ask them if they know of anyone else who might want to have some painting done.

+ Ask your local hardware stores and paint stores to recommend you. You’d be surprised by the number of inquires they receive each week. Even ask the ones you don’t do business with. If they ever hope to have your business in the future, helping you out now is a good start.

+ Find a past customer, who was happy with the service they received from you, who lives in a neighborhood you’d like to get more work in. Ask them to write you a letter of recommendation. Then mail it, along with a discount or special, to the entire neighborhood.*

+ Find another contractor or company who services your type of clientele. Ask them to write a letter to their customer list endorsing your company and services. You might offer to pay for the mailing and/or offer to reciprocate by doing the same thing for them.*

* I’ll elaborate more about #3 and 4 should be executed in my next post.

The KEY

2009-02-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a gift from me to you... it's the KEY.

In my last post, I talked about how you must have the courage to resist all the negative talk about how things are and how bad they’re going to get. Remember, fear is just:

F alse
E vidence
A ppearing
R eal

They key to overcoming fear is in not letting yourself focus on problems, but rather focusing your mind and energy on solutions. If you’re looking for problems you’re likely to find them. If you’re looking for solutions you’re likely to find them too. Which would you rather look for? Which would you rather find?

In a few days I’ll send you 4 things you can do right now to begin increasing business. In the meantime, take notice of your thoughts when problems arise. Do thoughts of the problem consume your mind?

If they do, it’s because you’re focusing on the problem. Instead, try thinking about solutions. Brainstorm in your mind or on paper all the ways you could solve this problem.

Big ways
Small ways
Temporary ways
Permanent ways
Expensive ways
Cheap ways
Outrageous ways
Obvious ways
Funny ways
Ironic ways
Etc, etc, etc.

Get creative and think outside of the box. Think about what someone else might do.

Have Courage...

2009-02-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

I hope all is well with business these days. If it’s been slower than usual for you lately, I want to offer you some words of encouragement.

During economic chaos, when everyone else is talking about how bad things are and how much worse they’re going to get, you must find the courage to act and move forward in spite of this.

Wealth never seems to search out the weak spirited and tends to gravitate towards people that show courage and move forward. You must identify situations, come up with solutions and then take quick action. Start and take action quickly, even if you are not fully prepared, it is the ones that take action that win. Ask yourself: "What do I need to do right now to improve my business that I have not had the courage to do before?"

Fear influences us all but those who learn to face fear and take action are the ones that reach their goals. Most fears are never realized and are only a limitation on you created by your own mind or by the media or by those close to you.

Many people have witnessed the incredible power of the mind to accomplish amazing things but few realize the negative consequences of letting the mind gravitate towards fear or a limited belief system. Fear is just:

F alse
E vidence
A ppearing
R eal

Coming next I’ll share with you the KEY to overcoming the fear and uncertainty of the economic conditions to come.

Scrambling to Make Payroll?

2009-01-21T19:38:00.000-08:00

Do you start to sweat when payroll time grows near? Do you find yourself scrambling to find the funds to pay your employees each payday?

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, this is no way to run your business. It’s stressful and unnecessary. It reflects poor planning and poor financial management. It doesn’t have to be this way, there is a better way, but it takes some time and discipline to get there.

You can eliminate a boat load of stress by resolving this problem once and for all. One way to do that is to create a separate payroll account at your bank.

Once you’ve set up your payroll account, determine what percentage of each of job you’re paid for would need to go into this account to meet your payrolls needs, whether they be weekly, biweekly, bimonthly or monthly.

Create a payroll budget and put money in your payroll account each time you’re paid for a job. Then when payday rolls around you can either write checks from the payroll account or move the appropriate amount of money over to your operating account and disperse from there.

I recommend you budget 20% more than your actual payroll amount. This extra 20% acts as an “emergency reserve”. Emergencies aren’t predictable so you’ll be glad you have it in the event of a true emergency.

The “payroll account” strategy may be hard to get used to at first. But once you get used to it, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it. And you’ll sleep a whole lot better!

Learn more about growing a profitable painting business at http://www.paintersuccess.com/.

The Professional Painting Contractor's Bailout Plan

2008-12-28T11:28:00.000-08:00

How to Prosper and Profit during Economic Chaos, Part II

Many of our coaching clients who have implemented what we call the ‘best practices’ are now better prepared to weather the storms ahead. Those who have not need to get onboard now.

You should use the following ‘best practices’ to build your own economic stimulus plan.

Business Management

* Own your business; don’t let it own you.
* Have a Business Plan in place at all times.
* Use systems to create a business that can run without you.
* Turn your business into a sellable asset.
* Have an exit strategy.
* Spend more time working 'on' your business than you do working 'in' your business.
* Have a vision for your business and share it with your employees.
* Grow your business using the “Before, During and After Process”.
* Strive towards Critical Mass. Critical Mass is the optimal number of leads coming in to produce the optimal number of proposals accepted to keep your crews working on the optimal number of jobs.
* Implement proven business models.
* Keep and maintain a database of customers and a database of prospects who never became customers.
* Cash is king: have a Cash Now, Cash Flow, and Cash Later plan.

Marketing

* Have an effective marketing system "working" for you.
* Automate as much of your marketing as possible. Use auto-pilot systems to ensure it gets done consistently.
* Get creative to get the best results. Think outside of the box. Look to other industries for successful strategies.
* Sell “under the radar” whenever possible. Avoid being preceived as a saleperson.
* State and elaborate on benefits and value in your ads; talk less about features and more about benefits.
* Always test ads before committing to year-long obligations like the yellow pages. Only run a proven winner in the yellow pages.
* Include testimonials. This is especially effective when you’ve included a picture of the customer who gave the testimonial. Ads containing testimonials consistently pull better than those not.
* Test ads for effectiveness before committing it a long term stint, such as a yellow page book which will hold your for a year or more.
* Find a good mailing list and use direct mail to initiate contact.
* Constantly track and analyze marketing results, making adjustments as necessary.

Sales

* Find a way to overcome the conscious and sub-conscious roadblocks to winning more sales.
* Position yourself as trusted advisor or consultant rather than a painting contractor or salesman.
* Create a value-building presentation your prospects will respond to.
* Use questions to solicit the customers participation in your presentation
* Give the customer enough detail about how you work and what you’re proposing, but avoid too much detail and definitely avoid using a bunch of technical language.
* Use discovery questions as a sales tool.
* Touch on customer “hot buttons” whenever possible.
* Ask for the sale. And then ask again and again and again until you get it.
* Leave behind your credibility kit.
* Use sales scripts to get desired results on a consistent basis
* Bring up and address objections before your prospect does.

Positioning Strategies

* Acquire a strong competitive advantage and keep it.
* Avoid constantly chasing down jobs. Instead, use positioning strategies to put yourself in the preferred position of being highly sought after.
* Relentlessly pursue testimonials. Turn collecting them into a fun game.
* Create a “wow” experience for each customer to ensure repeat business and referrals.
* Make it easy for customers to refer you then reward them when they do.
* Have a referral system then put it on autopilot.
* Use a Consumer Awareness Guide to elevate your status as the “expert”.
* Offer “no-risk guarantees” and back it up in writing.
* Execute 12 endorsement marketing campaigns (or more) per year.
* Send customers a Client Appreciation Newsletter each and every month.
* Never give up on lost prospects. Put them in a follow up campaign.
* Have telephones answered live during normal business hours.
* Return a proposal to the prospect within 48 hours of your visit, if not sooner.
* Always return proposal in person and discuss with prospect or customer; never mail, fax or email.

Profitability

* Sound financial management practices will keep your business going, even during traditionally slow periods
* Do NOT, under any circumstances, base YOUR prices on what your competitors are charging.
* Invoice customers every two weeks if possible, rather than monthly, to keep cash flowing.
* By knowing your numbers, knowing your profit margin and knowing your break even point, you avoid financial crisis.
* Proactively manage your cash flow.
* Never borrow money to finance business growth; only use profits to pay for growth.
* Review financial statements at least once a month.
* Forecast sales and expenses in advance.
* Adjust your strategy based on financial performance.
* Set up a separate payroll account.
* Already have back up finances in place incase of an emergency.
* Do not take pricing advice from people who work for you.
* Do not be afraid to fire profit-zapping customers.
* Don’t pay for the same job twice.
* Find your niche. Be the big fish in a small pond.
* Build a By-Referral-Only business.
* Know the lifetime value of a single customer.

Leadership of Human Resources

* In order to attract high quality workers, operate a high quality business and provide them with the tools they need to succeed.
* The “Team” approach to building a painting business is the best one for ensuring success.
* Train employees to perform at “maximum” levels of productivity,
* Compensate employees in a way that “motivates” them to always give you110%.
* Clearly define the subordinate roles through Job Descriptions and Job Titles. Everyone should know what is expected of them.
* Recognize the value of talent over experience.
* Good habits are an asset to your company and bad habits, although some can be changed, are a liability.
* A team player, a service-oriented person, is better suited for working with your customers than a negative pessimistic loner.
* No matter how talented or skilled an individual may be, if they possess no drive to do a good job, they are worthless to you.
* Have a hierarchy. Someone must be ultimately accountable and in charge. Assign a leadership position.
* Have written Policies and Procedures. Having employees do things exactly the way you want them done, which of course should also be the most efficient way, helps to eliminate the variables that create inconsistencies in performance. If there’s only one “right” way than it will be easy for employees to make the right decisions.
* Provide on-going training for all staff members.
* Raise your level of expectations and notice which employees rise to the occasion.
* To maximize every dollar you spend on wages, employees need to be customer relation reps, quality control inspectors, and sales reps, all at the same time.

How many of these best practices are you using in your business? How prepared are you to weather the storms ahead? What would having a systematic plan in place do for your business?

Imagine having the business of your dreams in just 6-8 weeks from now. It’s possible when you have a proven system to follow… one that has worked for many others before finding its way to you.

Visit www.paintersuccess.com/blueprint for more information.

The Professional Painting Contractor’s Bailout Plan

2008-12-13T17:49:00.000-08:00

How to Prosper and Profit during Economic Chaos, Part I

Was 2008 the year you wanted it to be?

What will you do differently in 2009?

I'm sure you've seen these or similar headlines.

The Orange County Register: Consumer Spending is Down by 45%

The New York Times: Serious Economic Crisis

Time Magazine: How Wall Street Sold Out America

The Telegraph: Lending Freeze at All-Time High

With the recent stock market crash, bank failures and other industry bailouts, you’re probably wondering, “what’s next?”. It’s a very natural way to think. The housing bubble collapse and grim economic forecasts are very serious. But you don't need new government laws, rules, restrictions and taxpayer money for help and protection.

If you're concerned, nervous or uncertain about your painting business’s ability to prosper during the coming months and years, then what you really you need is to build your very own "economic stimulus" plan.

The good news is that you still you have control over your attitude, your success and profitability, and your ability to create financial freedom and security.

Many of our coaching clients who have implemented what we call the ‘best practices’ are now better prepared to weather the storms ahead. Those who have not need to get onboard now.

In Part II we'll go into more detail and list these 'best practices'.

Automating Your Marketing

2008-10-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Marketing does not have to be a labor intensive job that requires all of your efforts and attention in order to work properly. You can achieve exceptional results using automated marketing strategies. “Automated” marketing strategies are hard at work (on a full-time basis) attracting new customers to your business. They are working when you’re sleeping, they’re working evenings and weekends, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And the best part is...you can be off doing other things, completing other tasks, while your marketing is on auto-pilot.

I’m going to share with you three automated marketing strategies that all painting contractors should incorporate into their marketing mix as soon as possible.

24 Hour Free Recorded Messages: This is a strategy that has proven to be a long-time winner. Having a Consumer Hotline (a.k.a. 24 hour free recorded message) is a highly effective way to attract a steady flow of quality customers.

Advertise your “hotline” phone number in your newspaper and yellow page ads.
The purpose of the message is to predispose prospects toward trusting you and buying from you. You accomplish this by divulging tips and secrets the prospect should know before hiring a painter.
In my Consumer Awareness Guide I include several articles that could be converted into message scripts, including The 7 Costly Misconceptions About House Painting Every Homeowner Should Know Before Requesting Estimates and 14 Important Questions You Should Ask Any Painting Contractor Before Hiring Them.
These titles get the prospect’s attention. If you were thinking about hiring a painter and saw an ad with a hotline number and the words, Before Hiring A Painter, Call this number and learn the 14 Important Questions You Should Ask Any Painting Contractor Before Hiring Them. Free message, call 24 hours a day, you’d call just out of curiosity.
The message is actually intended to warn people against making a poor choice in painting contractors, but at the same time it should clearly establish you as the smart choice for a quality job. Your message should direct them to leave a voice message if they would like you to call them to schedule an estimate. Then all you have to do is respond to those who have left messages.
See how easy this is and how it works even when you’re not?!

Email Blasts: If you collect the email addresses of your customers, and I highly recommend that you do even if you don’t plan to email them in the near future, you have in your possession information that can be used to create automated marketing.

Email programs allow you to store email addresses in groups that can be easily accessed with just a click of a mouse.
Those who regularly send you referrals could be included in one group, repeat customers and those who send you the occasional referral could be in another group, etc.
To start your email marketing campaign, all you have to do is write one single message and it can be sent to all of your customers (or just those you choose), barely costing you a dime.
You can even set up the messages in advance and schedule their delivery so they arrive first thing in the am or late at night or one week from now. By setting up several messages in advance you can send your customers a sequence of offers to be delivered throughout the month or the year.
This type of marketing can be set up once, yet provide results automatically over and over again allowing you the time to do other things.

Voice Broadcasts: This is a little know and little utilized strategy in the painting industry.

A voice broadcast is a voice mail message that you have recorded in advance and is sent out to your customers.
Due to wonderful technology, a computer can call all (100-10,000) of your customers and leave your sales message on their answering machines.
Could you imagine calling even 50 of your customers to tell them about the great special your having? It would take up so much of your time — would it be worth it?
When you set up a voice broadcast, you usually create a message to be delivered to an answering machine and you create a message to be used in the event a live person answers the telephone instead.
Studies have shown that a marketing message left on an answering machine generates more sales than if left with a live person. As a result, it has been determined that the best time of day to launch a voice broadcast is between 10am and 2pm. It is during this time that it is less likely a live person will answer the telephone.
Voice broadcasts are currently being used by dentists, carpet cleaners, pest control companies and painters with outstanding results.
For more information on how to create your own voice broadcasts send me an email at support@paintersuccess.com.

Each one of these automated marketing tools is a great way for painting contractors to leverage their time and energy. Used together or in strategic combination with other marketing techniques, automated marketing gives you the ability to keep in touch with your customers and build lasting relationships with them.

Learn more at http://www.paintersuccess.com/

Avoid Getting Stood Up for Appointments

2008-07-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

Time Management is extremely important to busy entrepreneurs like yourself. And, if you’re like me, you don’t have nearly enough time in the day to do what you need to do.

Here’s a useful and effective tip to better manage your time: Don’t let customers waste your time by standing you up for appointments. Okay, easier said than done, right? But here’s how you do it.

For many years I’ve been using an extremely effective method to avoid being stood-up. Before, when a customer or prospect called to schedule an estimate I used to say to them “Please call me and let me know if something comes up and you need to reschedule this appointment, otherwise I will see you on such-and-such date at such-and-such time”. They would reply, “okay”. Sometimes they would call and sometimes they wouldn’t; it was about 50/50. If you’ve ever shown up at a prospects home only to discover no one is there, you know how frustrating and really annoying this is.

Now, when I’m scheduling appointments with customers or prospects, I say “Will you call me and let me know if something comes up and you can’t make this appointment”? Then I shut up and wait for them to reply “yes, I will”. When they say “yes” or “yes, I will” it mentally commits them to do what they say they will do. It is a much stronger commitment than just “okay”. If the customer does say “okay”, I reply with, “You will?” in the form of a question. This prompts them to say “yes” or “I will”.

This small and seemingly insignificant change in how I ask has made a profound difference in the number of no-shows I experience. Try it, see how it works for you and let me know.

You'll find more useful articles at www.PainterSuccess.com

How to Double Your Income Without Spending More on Marketing

2008-06-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

If you could wave a magic wand and improve just one thing in your business to guarantee you more income, what one thing would you change?

Think about it for a moment. You might say get more leads, better or more qualified help, more efficient scheduling, or get better at goal setting. All of these skills may help you on some level. But the single biggest thing you can do to increase your effectiveness and make more money than ever before is… Get Better At Sales… Get Better at Winning Jobs

How much more can you make by improving your sales skills? The answer is so incredible, at first you won’t believe it.

Let’s say your closing ratio is 1 out of every 4 jobs you bid on. Don’t get me wrong, this is not bad; I’ve had painters come to me saying they only win only 1 out of every 5 or 6 jobs they bid. But what if you could do better? What if you could win 4 out of every 5?

Now do you see you could double or even triple or quadruple your income?

Wouldn’t you agree that this not only better maximizes your time, but better maximizes each bidding opportunity? Every opportunity to meet with a prospect and give them a bid is an opportunity to close the sale and make money.

Just a little increase in your selling and closing effectiveness can yield big results over the course of an entire year. You could go from making $500,000 to making $1 Million. And you did it all without paying one additional dime in marketing cost. Your marketing budget doesn’t have to increase by a single dime.

The only change is that you got just a little bit better at sales and closing. So what’s the single most important thing to dedicate yourself to so you can guarantee more income? That’s right. You guessed it. You must… Become Better at Sales.

Now the question is, “Can I become a better salesperson, or are people like that just ‘born’ that way?”

Good news. Yes you can learn the skills. When we look at good salespeople we tend to just see the “art” of it at work and many think, “I could never be like that”. But underlying that art is a true “science” and it’s the application of that science that will allow you to perform the art.

In my coaching program, I’ve trained countless painters to be masters of sales and winning bids and I can train you too. All you need is a willingness to learn, and willingness to practice and implement what I teach you. Are you in? Want to solve all your cash flow problems forever? Make more in a single month than you’ve ever made in a year? I have many clients who’ve done both and you can too. And you don’t even have join my coaching program to do it.

Of all the secrets and tips I teach, the most valuable (if you apply it) is this… Get Better at Sales. Improving your sales skills is the greatest investment you’ll ever make in yourself.

If you have salespeople or estimators who do the selling for you, let me train them for you. They can win more jobs and make you more money. They can learn how and I can teach them. I’ve put years of perfected techniques and strategies into an easy to learn home study course. It’s called Sales Mastery for Painting Contractors.

Go check it out now at www.paintersuccess.com because winning more jobs is the best way to make more money without spending more on marketing. I promise, you'll be so pleasantly surprised and excited by how inexpensive this course is, you'll want to get it and start using it right away.

Win More Jobs by Becoming the ORANGE

2008-06-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

Competition can be really tough this time of year.

But YOU don’t have to play by the same rules as your competitors. By creating your own set of rules, you take control of the game.

I’m going to share with you some of my best strategies for triumphing over low-priced competition. Check them out and then start thinking about how you can begin using them to your advantage.

Competing head-on with every painter in your area is not only frustrating and time consuming, it’s also not necessary. You don’t HAVE to do it.

Competition can be stiff during the busy season. Everyone wants to fill up their schedules with work. So how do you successfully compete against others, especially those who are willing to undercut your price?

The answer is in NOT competing head-on. Customers try to make their choices based on what they perceive as an “apples to apples” comparison. But since levels of skill and professionalism vary widely from painter to painter, their comparisons are usually not accurate. You can win more jobs by instigating an “apples to oranges” comparison instead.

By differentiating your business and services from the others, you can become the orange. When you become the orange you separate yourself, you stand out as different. And the key is to make sure those differences add value to what you offer your customers. So, how exactly do you do that?

The best way to differentiate is to position yourself as a specialist or an expert advisor. This can be achieved by treating the selling environment as a consultation and treating your estimate as a recommendation. Recommendations from a specialist appear more valid than those from someone less knowledgeable, right?

Another way to make yourself different is to find ways to add more value to what you offer. What simple “extras” (that cost you very little) can you include in your service at no additional charge? The key is to choose something that would have a high perceived value to your customers but in actuality costs you very little.

So, now that you’re the orange, how do you make sure your customers are aware of and come to appreciate how you’re different from your competitors? I recommend creating a Contractor Comparison Checklist to give to your customers/prospects that will overwhelmingly and clearly show that you are the best choice in the areas of quality, professionalism, and value.

Forget about playing fair and competing on a level playing field. Rather, make it impossible for your competitors to keep up with you.

Van Clark can help you secure your position as the expert of choice in the minds of your customers. When you’re ready to take your business to the next level be sure to visit www.PainterSuccess.com for more resources.

What's your competitive advantage?

2008-06-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

If you’ve found the painting contracting business to be extremely competitive, you’re not alone...

Many contractors feel it’s impossible to obtain high profit margins because a bunch of low priced competitors will come behind them and undercut their bid, everytime. And this is usually true if you don’t have the right strategies and marketing tools working for you.

But most are surprised to find out how easy it really is to get as many customers as you want, while charging prices higher than competitors, by using strong direct response marketing to pre-sell customers on wanting to hire you and only you. This all starts with a unique competitive advantage.

What is your competitive advantage?

If you don’t know, or don’t have one, you’re among the majority of painting contracting businesses who struggle against stiff competition. Having a marketable competitive advantage helps to differentiate you (in the mind of consumers) from your many competitors.

If you do have a competitive advantage but aren’t using it in all your marketing and advertising, it’s the same as not having one at all.

When determining your unique competitive advantage, consider how you can add extra value, offer better service, get jobs done faster or offer something of value to your customers for free.

Also ask yourself these three questions to better qualify your choice:

1. Will my ideal customers see this as an advantage to them?

2. Is my competitive advantage different from my competitor’s?

3. Will my customers truly benefit from this advantage?

When you can honestly answer yes to all three of these questions, you have a winning competitive advantage.

Once you’ve found your winning advantage, make it the focal point of all your marketing and advertising. Plaster it on the sides of all your company vehicles... print it on your business card and brochures... make sure your employees can recite it in their sleep... be relentless in its use... be so proud of it you're willing to tell it to everyone you know.

This could very well be one of the single best investments you’ll make in your business, since a compelling competitive advantage can help elevate your business far above your closest competitor.

“…investments in competitive advantages are frequently the wisest investments a business can make.” – Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing

If you found this article helpful, vote for this blog by clicking the button below.