Understanding your average revenue per lead can help quantify the true value of each new prospect and keep your team motivated to close.

In this “Clip of the Week” from Cracking the Code, Weldon Long explains how to find your average revenue per lead and why it matters to your company’s bottom line.

Watch the clip below, and visit EGIA.org/Show to watch the full show.

Question: Should we offer a recommendations sheet when meeting with the customer?

Weldon Long; New York Times Bestselling Author:

I think what the questioner means here is to have some kind of sheet where you write three or four options out and present them to the customer. The answer in a word is yes! I think it’s really important to have multiple options and there’s a couple of different ways to do this.

I’ve seen people, very effectively, present three or four options and say, “Which of those make sense to you?” and “If price was no objection, which of these would you choose?” Let them choose the best solution. What I like to do is make a recommendation based on everything I’ve learned about that home owner. If I’ve spent one or two hours conducting a thorough investigation, I know the family now. I know the house, I know what their problems are, what they’re trying to accomplish, what’s important to them and what’s not important to them. So, I’m going to show them all three or four systems at the end. But I’ve always felt like it’s important to say, “You know Mr. homeowner, these are the four options but here’s the system I’m going to recommend. And I’m recommending this system based on you telling me A, B, C, and D.”

I’m going to recommend a system and it will be appropriate. I’m going to recommend something based on what I’ve learned about them. I’ll say something like:

“Mr. homeowner, I’m going to recommend the highest efficiency system because you said earlier that efficiency was really a key priority for you. I’m going to recommend that we go with our variable speed furnace because you mentioned that Bobby’s room is very uncomfortable and this will help circulate the air and keep it more comfortable. I’m also going to recommend we add a return air in Bobby’s room to help address that problem. Thirdly, I’m going to recommend adding this indoor air quality product because you mentioned that your wife has some issues with allergies.”

I’m going to make recommendations but they have to be legit. They have to be based on something my homeowner told me. Then I’m going to ask for the order. If they tell me, “holy cow that’s going to be $25,000 and I was thinking more around $15,000,” then I’ll say great, let’s look at some less expensive options. We can come down on efficiency, we can look at doing the duct work next year, and start crafting a package that works better for them. The key is to recommend a system based on what I’ve found out about them. If I’ve done my job properly, they’ve given me permission to recommend solutions to those things. They might not buy it. At the end of the day, they’re going to make that decision.

There was a study done by Carrier a couple of years back and the net result was that 60% of people take the recommendations that the contractors make. I think it’s important as an expert to make a recommendation. Some people would prefer to have the homeowner pick a system, I’m cool with that too. But the bottom line is we should have multiple options for our customers. We talked a couple weeks ago about compromise choices, people tend to choose something in the middle. If I only show one system, the compromise choice is nothing. If I show three systems, the compromise choice will probably be something in the middle.

So, definitely provide options. Leverage your expertise to make some recommendations. Either way, find something the homeowner is really comfortable with.

This is the weekly Ask the Experts free excerpt. To listen to all of this or past calls, or to see the schedule and register for future calls, click here.

What are you really losing when you fail to convert a lead? Understanding your average revenue per lead can help quantify the true value of each new prospect and keep your team motivated to close.

This week, Weldon Long provides a detailed explanation of how to find your average revenue lead and why it matters. Plus, our “Ask the Experts” panel discusses how much your marketing budget should be to remain competitive in the industry.

All that and more, on this week’s episode of Cracking the Code!

Taking notes on what your customer DOES NOT have can help you understand what promotions to create within your marketing portfolio.

In this “Clip of the Week” from Cracking the Code, expert Gary Elekes explains how to use your scheduled maintenance calls for profit-generating discovery.

Watch the clip below, and visit EGIA.org/Show to watch the full show.

Question: How should I as the owner deal with negative online reviews?

Gary Elekes; Founder, EPC Training:

The question of online reviews is all about making sure you have somebody else answering the question other than the owner. I think owners take the review process personally, especially a negative review. It’s an extension of our own egos. The most important thing is to have a professional do it – someone in your organization who is good at communication or pay a third-party organization to respond.

First of all, identify when negative reviews happen and then respond. The owner certainly has the opportunity to review whatever the response is but as a general rule, it’s best to have somebody that’s not directly tied to the brand respond to it. Collect the information from it, find out what happened, what the remediation is, and then post.

The second part of that question is, people ask if they should even respond to it. Responding to a comment often raises that comment to the top but as long as you have a legitimate response, it’s always appropriate to answer. Don’t allow a consumer who’s in a negative frame of mind to control the message, especially regarding your brand. Even though you might not have a great response, the idea is that you’re showing that you care about your customers and you care about your brand. It gives the customer the idea that you’re a customer-satisfaction-type company.

This is the weekly Ask the Experts free excerpt. To listen to all of this or past calls, or to see the schedule and register for future calls, click here.

Building enticing offers into your service agreements can help support strong customer relationships that drive business year-round.

This week, Weldon Long welcomes Gary Elekes to outline the ways you can use your service agreements as a marketing tool to reach customers that LOVE doing business with your company. Plus, our “Ask the Experts” panel explains how to overcome the challenge of “Getting 3 Bids” objection with a proactive sales approach.

All that and more, on this week’s episode of Cracking the Code!

Break even pricing or price for profit — which model should you chose when starting a service agreement pricing program?

In this “Clip of the Week” from Cracking the Code, expert Gary Elekes explains the considerations involved with selecting a pricing model that fits the needs of your company.

Watch the clip below, and visit EGIA.org/Show to watch the full show.

Question: What is the best way to compensate a salesperson that would also be managing and taking care of customer relations in our company?

Gary Elekes; Founder, EPC Training:

The very first concept is meritocracy. It should be merit-based. Customer relations is a broad term. I would classify that and detail it more, I would say create client experience principles. Have them written down and define them. Tell someone, including myself, Wally, and Drew if we’re all working in your company, what are those things? What are the client experience principles – what are the expectations? That’s a clarified piece of information for a comfort advisor or a selling tech or anybody in your company. Once we do those things, compensation can be in alignment.

Alignment is everything. People are going to do what you ask them to do. Almost everybody in today’s world shows up trying to figure out what it is that the owner or manager wants them to do. We’ve been wrestling with that for years, to just create the structure of what we’re trying to accomplish. But once it’s done, you’re a long way down the road. It’s a one-time investment.

If your company is on performance-based pay with your production crew, I’m a big advocate of gross profit dollars being the measurement for the pay plan for a salesperson, which is going to include customer follow up, a call to walk through, etc. It’s going to be a higher percentage than it would be if it was top-line sales but we want the comfort advisor or the selling tech to bring their gross profit dollars per hour, per day. We need that to be in alignment so when we pay them based on gross profit dollars, we’re essentially setting up an aligned compensation system with the production side, the selling side, and the company profitability side. So, it’s a three-legged stool.

If you’re not performance-based pay and the production teams are hourly, you’re probably going to get a little bit of pushback on that. It can still be done but it’s more sales process at the leadership level to convince the sales people that managing the customer experience after the fact is beneficial. I think you’re going to have to convince the sales person that it’s in their best interest to create referrals. It’s going to help their average ticket. Probably give them opportunities to speak at neighborhood events, things like that.

I think the main thing is that you create customer experience principles. You define those. You create compensation systems that are aligned and you set them up where it’s meritocracy – where people understand what it is you expect them to do and it is defined in a role description. For us, that’s going back at the end of the job, doing the walkthrough – it’s a second walkthrough. The production side did it to begin with, the comfort advisor then asks for the referral. There’s an opportunity to ask for the reviews electronically – there’s just a whole host of things we can go through that’s part of that process.

This is the weekly Ask the Experts free excerpt. To listen to all of this or past calls, or to see the schedule and register for future calls, click here.

Pricing your maintenance agreements too low is a surefire way to sink your home services business. But proper pricing isn’t rocket science, you just need the right approach!

This week, Weldon Long welcomes leading expert Gary Elekes to outline the key considerations you’ll need to assess when setting your service agreement pricing. Plus, our “Ask the Experts” panel explains how you can develop a service agreement company culture that continuously drives value.

All that and more, on this week’s episode of Cracking the Code!

If your service labor rates are priced too low, you’re not going to make money – it doesn’t matter how hard you work! In fact, the more business you win, the faster you will lose money.

In this “Clip of the Week” from Cracking the Code, expert Gary Elekes outlines the five key points to consider when setting your service labor rates.

Watch the clip below, and visit EGIA.org/Show to watch the full show.