Jim Johnson explains how contractors get stuck in ruts like relying only on door-knocking or passive marketing. He says the way out is taking responsibility and trying new tactics: war-room sessions, neighborhood barbecues, networking groups, and training your sales team to generate their own leads.
Hi, I'm Jim Johnson, the head coach here at Contractor Coach Pro with this week's two minute drill. And this week we're going to talk about the rut. We tend to get into these. We walk around with blinders on, especially when we're in one situation. And so that's usually what gets us in a rut. And one of the things I've noticed in our industry is we tend to believe that there's only one way to generate business. And if you're a storm restoration type contractor, that tends to be door knocking. Like that's the only way that I can get leads, go out and knock doors, which door knocking is very valuable and should be done. But it's not the only thing. And if you're a traditional style contractor, you believe that the only way to generate business, do a bunch of marketing, have leads come in and sign those leads out to people and turn kind of turning people into lead babies. And so what we have to do is we have to say, hey, that's the problem. We are in this rut, that that's the only way that we can do things. What can I do differently to get us out of this rut? Get some excitement going. A lot of times people become complacent in those roles and in that rut. And if things aren't working out the way they need them to do, it's the fault of the system, it's not their fault. And so that's what we have to realize as salespeople in this industry. It's our fault if we feel like we ever get in a rut. And as managers, the same applies. And also as owners running your company, the same applies. If you feel like you're doing the same thing over and over again and you're not getting enough improvement, you are in a. And so what do you got to do to jump out of that rut? One thing you can do is to gather your team and say, hey, we're in a rut and what can we do to resolve this and have a little war room session on it of bringing some ideas to the table and hopefully getting you out of that rut, trying some new things. We really like this concept of all star marketing, also known as guerrilla marketing, where you try some different things to get people interested in you. Whether that's throwing a barbecue at one of your projects and inviting the neighborhood doing a watch our type card or a wow card where you invite everybody to watch one of your projects. It's a variety of different things. Creating a Networking group, having a insurance agent program. If you're in restoration, there's a lot of different things that you can do to generate more business that isn't just door knocking. And then on that traditional side of things, you know, if we're used to constantly bringing in leads through our marketing, that's great. But what happens when we don't have enough leads for all of our sales guys? Our sales guys need to learn how to self generate leads, how to build a network, how to build those relationships so that they're constantly getting business. And so what kind of programs can we create to get us out of that rut of hey, I'm just waiting for a lead and if I don't have leads, I am not going to be successful. So what can you do this week to get yourself out of a rut? Sit down, write down some ideas, flesh them out, put them into a program and attempt to do that program and give it your full effort to see if you get some benefit from it. So that's our two minute drill for this week. Hopefully you'll come back next week. We love doing these two minute drills. If you like what you're hearing and you want to see all the two minute drills, check out contractorcoachpro.com and join for free. It doesn't cost anything. You get access to all the two minute drills, our blogs, our live weekly huddle. So we do a training every single week online. Feel free to join us. If you like all that and you think, hey man, I want to get even more to be the best possible salesperson or manager or owner in this, go ahead and join our website and get access to all that other information about 220 hours worth of everything you can imagine training wise for our industry. So thanks for joining us for this week's two minute drill.
