Chapter 11 - You Make It Hard For People To Become Customers ( Total Business Turnaround Book )

Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today we are going to be reading chapter 11 from the Total Business Turnaround book. And it's all about one of the things that I think we forget so often. The times and this make it easy for people to give you money. Seems so simple. And I remember writing this chapter and saying, oh my goodness, it is so basic. But honestly, if you figure out the three step process we're going to talk about in this chapter, you'll absolutely crush it. And in this process, one of the things I talk a lot about is your website. And if you need a great website, I really recommend using our service. It's homeservicewebdesign.com if you're in green industry like lawn care, landscaping, check out lawncarewebdesign.com It's a subscription based, there's no contract, so you can cancel anytime. The reason we do that, because we just know we will get results for you. We know we will get leads for you and it'll be far cheaper than any other lead platform. Literally in three to six months you'll be getting leads coming in every single day. You, you don't have to pay tens of thousands of dollars up front to get the thing built. So I'd highly recommend it go to homeservicewebdesign.com or lawncarewebdesign.com it's gonna help with stage two, part two of this chapter, which is the storefront, making sure that people actually get into your quote unquote storefront, which is your website and making sure that's dialed in. So let's go ahead and jump into the chapter. Chapter 11. You make it hard for people to become customers. Why you don't have a million dollar business. Reason number 11, you make it hard for people to become customers. Montes from Ace Project was in the lawn care and junk removal business. The business was doing about $70,000 per year when I arrived for a turnaround. He had stalled out at that size for the past five years. On the side he had a project called Born to Win. This was his passion project. Montes was a former offender. At the age of 14, authorities caught him with a loaded automatic rifle. He'd been to jail. After he got out, he wanted to help other former offenders. He wanted to help them see their potential and adjust to life outside of prison. Born to Win included branded T shirts, a book and and music videos supporting this mission. His personal goal was to hire ex convicts at Ace Project. He was passionate about giving them a leg up. Somewhat Ironically, the company's uniforms were orange. Not sure if I endorse this color choice given the circumstances, but Montes was passionate about his cause. Ace Project stood for a child's environment.

I was pretty confused by all the different branding colors and names. Montes's ambition to help former offenders was admirable. I worried that it distracted from his larger responsibilities. While his business had gotten some attention in the local press. It wasn't making any money. Hoping ex convicts might make great news, but but it was not paying the bills. He had recently sold his commercial tools to pay his personal rent. He did it to make it buy during the off season. Ace Project has no website on their Google listing. They didn't have a verified address to show up on the map. They had no reviews. His Google listing had the name of his business misspelled on the side of his red truck. He he had a magnet approximately the size of an 8 and a half by 11 inch piece of paper. It said the name of his business in a different generic font. Duct tape held the side mirror in place on that truck and the bumper dragged on the road. I told him if he could get 30 Google reviews, I would build him a website for free. It would be through homeservicewebdesign.com I knew it would go a long way toward generating leads. I knew that getting the reviews would give him a huge increase in leads. Having those with a well designed website could double or triple his revenue. I also told him that he needed to shift his focus. Giving former offenders a second chance is great. Some customers would like to support this cause. But many others would rather not take the chance of hiring an ex felon on their property. It was clear from his financial statements that he needed to focus more on growing and making money. The mission of helping others would come later. With a successful business, Montes would be able to hire and help more people. If he built a million dollar business and then returned to the prisons to give speeches, they would listen more. Ace Project was the evidence he needed to gain credibility. It helps him reach the audience he was passionate about. Without that credibility. Born to Win was a distraction from Ace Project. All the music videos, T shirts and motivational books were a distraction. It distracted customers. They just wanted their lawn care and junk removal done. It was confusing. Was this a non profit supporting ex felons? Or was it a for profit business built to serve customers? The $1 million business would give him more time and resources to help his community. I gathered that he cared more about helping former offenders than he did his customers. He tried to sell customers on his mission to help convicts. But customers just wanted their problem solved. His mission should be to convince customers to cut their grass and remove their junk. Humans are selfish. We want to know what's in it for us. Customers don't care about the missions and causes you care about. They care about solving the problem they have. They care about having work done on their property. After Montes's business thrived and he made more money, he he could make a bigger impact on his non financial goals. Meanwhile, it had been over five years. Montes was still stuck trying to break past 100,000 in annual revenue. He had thought if he could create the business and offer the services and bought the equipment, customers would come. Why was he not getting more jobs? Montes mission was specific to him. He aimed to help ex convicts. But the belief holding him back is common. If I build it, they will come. If I do good work, customers will notice. My business will grow. Is that true? Good work is an important ingredient. It's not the whole recipe. There's a system for turning people from prospects into paying customers. Unfortunately, many small businesses make it hard for people to become customers. Montes did good work, but he made it hard for prospects to become customers. His marketing and branding had so many confusing elements. Here's a question to consider. Do you have a professional business or a side gig? Here are some hallmarks of a side Only accept cash. You look like a creeper in a beat up van. You aren't licensed or insured. Equipment is mediocre and ineffective. If this describes you, there are steps you can take to fix it. The first question to ask yourself is do you make it drop dead easy for people to find you, recognize you and pay you? In other words, are you making it easy for people to become customers? My original plan for this chapter was to talk about branding and marketing. Lots of fancy to do lists and better practices would likely make me look smart. But I want you to earn more money to do that. I decided that a simpler approach would help most readers of this book. That said, if the advice provided in this chapter seems too basic, my thoughts are that it means one of two things. You have built a $1 million business or you have no business at all and are reading this as a literary critic. If you are reading this book for its literary value, it will probably disappoint you. If you are reading it because you want to increase your revenues and profits, it will serve you well. The average homeowner will not become a customer if you do not make it easy for them to find you. Treat your trucks and ads like your signage. Signs get attention. Signs help you find the storefront. Treat your website like the storefront. Your website should be able to turn that attention into into leads. What do you do when you are looking for a store? Usually you'll drive slowly, scanning the area for signs. Once you find your Target store, you turn into the parking lot. Once again, you are looking for the storefront that matches the sign. Where am I trying to go? Once you find the correct storefront, you park your car and go inside. Then you transact with the business. It's a three step process. Find, recognize, buy. You find the business from the signs. You recognize the business from the storefront. You buy from the business at the register. While your service business may not have a storefront, the sales process is the same. Greasing the gears of this three step process will make it easy for prospects to become customers. The signage represents the find stage. Make it easy for customers to find you. When someone is driving around town, can they see your truck or uniform? When they do see you, does your signage make the next step clear? Most customers won't walk right up to you and ask about your services. Most people that see your trucks and employees will never talk to them. There should be an easily discerned action they can take. Go to your website, call your phone number, text you or scan a QR code the sign needs to tell them where to go. Another way to help customers find you is through advertisements. This could be online, through social media, Google or print marketing. Door hangers, postcards. These are all just signs that point people to your website. In a modern age, the storefront of your service business is your website. The storefront represents the recognize stage of the sales process. Make it easy for customers to recognize you after they have found you. At this point, the customer is now pulling into the parking lot. They found your website. It's important that your website allows customers to recognize your brand. The signs should match up with the website. The branding and logos should be identical. Otherwise customers will find your site and wonder if they're at the right place. That is why I always tell businesses to put their branding on their website. Images and videos. Stock images won't help customers recognize you. They saw the signs that pointed them to the store. Use pictures that that show off your brand. Have them feature your trucks, your uniforms, your local area. Otherwise the person pursuing your site may wonder if they are in the right place. Ace Project had no cohesion of their brand. The truck, uniforms and online presence lacked a unified brand image. They differed in colors, logos and branding. Your website should load fast. The design should be mobile friendly. It should also clearly illustrate what you do and what your service area is. The first thing customers will likely be asking themselves is do they service my area? Make that clear using headers, page titles and banners. The banners should call out their country, city or town names. Remember that most customers come to your website looking to request a quote. Make that as easy for them as possible. Put your contact information above the fold. It should be visible without scrolling. There are many tactics to make your storefront appealing. The basic goal is always the make it as easy as possible for customers to get in and buy. Make it easy for them to give you money. But let's take a moment to look at other ways to make your website more recognizable to customers. You can also use social media to boost your brand recognition. I recommend using platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to engage. Don't use them to give hard sales pitches. It's a great chance to provide a behind the scenes look at your crew. You can also use social media to show that you are a local business. Show your presence on local iconic streets or around town landmarks. Customer video testimonials are also great social media content. They provide social proof for the quality of your services. They also give potential leads the chance to see that they are in your target market. Before and after pictures make for great content as well, but it is a good idea to use it for branding purposes. If your logos or trucks aren't in the photos, pictures of the jobs you do won't do much to boost consumer recognition. If your competition could also post the content, it does not help our goal. We want to get customers to recognize our brand. It's important to be honest and accurate online. Many business owners feel tempted to exaggerate the size of your business. This sets false expectations that will disappoint customers. Make sure your advertising reflects the size of your business. Small businesses have an advantage. They can customize the service with personal attention to customers. The big guys can't do that. If you are a larger business, you can show the benefits of being dependable, professional and experienced. These come with size. The third and final step is the buy stage of the sales process. Make it easy for customers to recognize your storefront after they found you. And once they enter your storefront, make it easy to buy from you. The cash register represents this. At a physical store, this register would usually be easy to find. You would not hide it in the back. It is usually right up front. Mind blowing thought. If you make it easy for people to buy from you, more people will buy from you. This may seem too simple, but I often see business owners making it hard to receive payments. The customer is literally trying to give you money. The reason we got into business is to collect money. Think about what your customer is there for. They don't want to peruse your website, read FAQs or even submit an escrow request form. They want their grass cut or their house painted. They want their carpet clean or their driveway washed. They have a problem and they want a solution. With that in mind. Focus on eliminating friction and allow them to give you money to solve their problem. They come to your site wishing they could give you money. Grant their wish. Make it easy for them to transact money for the solution you offer. Remember their goal is not the website, call form, proposal or agreement. It is all just friction between them and solving their problem. I want to make it easy for them to give me money so I can solve their problem and as fast as possible At Augusta Lawn Care we have instant pricing on our website. The customer receives three pictures of houses, small, medium and large. Which one looks like your property? They can click one of them and immediately receive pricing information. The customer can accept the price and terms within a couple clicks. If they call instead of going to the website, we can sell services to them over the phone. We will use Google Earth to view the property and measure it. You do not need to have an in person meeting. This may lead to less accurate quotes. The estimator is not able to see the property in person, but this is more than made up for in speed of getting the quote completed. The worst that can happen is you have to adjust the prices. The customer gives you wrong information or Google Earth does not show the full scope of the property. These issues could cause this for us. This happens less than 1% of the time. A quick closing process makes it easier to grow and reach capacity. From there you can raise your prices thereby improving profitability. Make it easy for customers to buy from you. Accept credit card payments. Accept ach store payment information on file to enable autopay. Stop being the guy who asked for cash in an envelope underneath the front doormat. If customers can't find you, recognize you or buy from you, good luck building a million dollar business. Ace Project was able to double its business in six months. It did this by adding a website and getting over 30 Google reviews. By the way, Montez got those Google reviews over one weekend. He texted all his customers a review link. They responded fast. He doubled his business by making himself more visible online. When I showed up at the turnaround for Ace Project, Montes was making it difficult for people to find him. Ace Project told me nothing about lawn care or junk removal. He didn't have truck decals. He hadn't advertised in years. His uniforms showed boys born to win, a completely different brand. He had no website, no social media presence, nothing recognizable. He also made it hard for customers to buy from him. Customers had to call in for a quote. He had no instant pricing. He did not accept credit cards. Without these changes, he will continue to fight an uphill battle to grow the business. It's much harder to build a million dollar business when you only accept one payment method. If you only work some hours instead of all hours. If your estimates take days to receive instead of being immediately accessible, if you make people work to become customers, you will get less customers. I know these things sound basic, but you can't argue with the irrefutable basics. Yet many service businesses still don't execute on them. The magic bullet never comes. Making it easy for people to become customers will get you closer to building a million dollar business. Here's my checklist for turnarounds. I use it if the entrepreneur is making it hard for prospects to become a customer. To get customers, we need to make it easy for people to find, recognize and buy from us. For leads to find, you get company trucks with decals or paint. They should have contact information that points to your website. Next, you want your advertising to reflect your branding colors and logo themes. You also want to be visible online. Having at least 30 Google reviews will improve your status on the search engine. The more the better. Next, we need the customer to recognize us. Here's the checklist for that. Does the name of your business tell people what you do? If not, it may confuse potential leads. Mike's Pool Care tells the customer exactly what I do. A name like mycocare sounds cool but doesn't clearly convey my service. It fails to immediately inform customers what I offer. Make sure you have matching uniforms so the customers are not confused when you show up at their house. Make sure your website reflects your other branding efforts. This includes truck and uniform design. I started Lawn Care Web Design and Home Service Web design to help business owners. They need to make great websites. The sites should show their branding and attract customers all day, every day. 247365 have a place on your website to highlight testimonials and reviews. Have social media content that highlights your brand, trucks, uniforms and employees finally, make it as easy as possible to convert leads into sales. Make it easy for people to buy from you. Develop ways to transact on the phone or through your website with no need for in person meetings. This will save you admin and sales costs, but it will also make it easier for people to give you money. Follow these checklist items Customers will find, recognize and buy from you more often if customers can find, recognize, and buy from you more often, you will be closer to building a million dollar business.