Organizing Home Show Leads
by John Glickman

With the advent of the spring season, it’s time to get ready for the Home & Garden
Shows in your area. One good Home Show can result in enough leads to carry
your business right into summer. However, unless you come up with a system
to qualify all those leads, you could wind up spending more time appointment hopping
than money-making. So, how do you weed out the lookers from the buyers? Here's one alternative....

Rather than use a legal pad at your show booth for prospects’ names and numbers,
create a Prospect Information Form. It should be a simple form that either you or
the consumer fills out while visiting your booth. Besides the obvious Name, Address
and Phone information, equip your Prospect Information Form with questions that will really help you qualify them.

For instance...
1. Area to be reconditioned?
Approximate size:

2. Is your garage a one, two or three car
garage?

3. Do you consider your driveway to be
long (4 car lengths or more), or short (3
car lengths or less)?

4. What is the condition of the existing
concrete?
A. Good to some light cracking ?
B. Several large cracks?
C. Very poor condition?

5. On a scale of one to ten (ten the highest),
how high a priority is your concrete
refinishing project?

6. Besides CTi, what other alternatives
have you considered for the project?

7. Is someone at home during the day incase
we have a cancellation and can get to
you sooner?

8. When would you like us to contact you
for an on-site appointment?
A. Immediately
B. 2 - 4 weeks
C. 2 - 4 months
In terms of qualifying your prospects, questions 6, 7 & 8 are the important ones.
You might argue that question 5 is as important, but the answer to question 8 is
the true answer to question 5. By using two questions aimed at the same objective, you can get very precise with your qualifying. Once you've got your Prospect Information Form looking the way you want it, run on down to Kwikie-Print and have them make up some pads for you. By now you should get the picture. Remember, with potentially hundreds of Home Show leads you've got to be able to qualify them. No reason to
waste your time following up with folks who aren’t serious about their prospective CTi work. By creating your own Prospect Information Form you will both look more professional and be able to follow up in the most profitable manner.

Investing Wisely
by Brad Hieneman

There aren’t too many CTi Dealers who have all the money and resources they could possibly wish for. Especially in these times, it’s critical to look at how your resources are being used to insure that any investment in your business yields a maximum return.

In determining whether an investment is worthwhile, you first need to determine if it is offering the potential of doing one of two things, 1) Does it increase the amount of profitable sales within your business or 2) Does it increase the margin your business is working on. Let’s look at some examples of resource use that does one of these two things.

* Advertising: This is an obvious one, but it also can be a resource drain if not reviewed consistently. CTi Dealers need to ask the question “where did you hear about us” to any person calling his Dealership. If he is not asking this question, it’s impossible to determine if the advertising is increasing the amount of profitable sales in his Dealership. Once you have this information, track the potential customer through your system. Did they end up buying? What did they buy? Did their sale lead to other referrals? Have they called for further work? Questions like these can help you determine whether an advertising vehicle is providing profitable customers.
* Training: This is one of the keys to increasing the margin your Dealership enjoys. The two main expenses in any CTi application are materials and labor. With ongoing training of your employees (or yourself), not only will you become faster at the installations, but you will also find ways to use less material by cutting out waste. Training also can be getting better at sales, if you become better at persuading the customer, not only will you close more sales, but you will also be able to ask for more on each sale you make. Training can also be in better understanding the operations of your business by learning more about finance and accounting. The list can go on and on.
* Motivation: This investment is sometimes overlooked, especially when times are lean or if you get too busy. Offering bonuses for time on the job or meeting material usage goals to your employees will increase margin and pay for the bonus money in savings. It will also motivate your employees and keep them around longer, thus generating better production and quality on your job sites. This all leads to higher sales and better profitability. Don’t overlook motivating yourself, I’ve seen many times where a reward of a trip, a truck or a boat can cause a CTi Dealer to “find a new gear” in their day to day operations.
* Using an accountant or bookkeeper: This is one of the best ways of increasing margins within your business. The waste of resources is a typical side effect to business growth. A bookkeeper can offer you the ability to organize your expenses and examine them more effectively to identify areas that are bleeding money. Many small business owners use accounting packages such as “Quick Books” and think they are doing everything they can to organize the money in their business. A saying I like is “Just because you own Word on your computer, doesn’t mean you’re an author.” Accountants can take the input you create in Quick Books and give you meaningful insight in how to make your business better.

Remember that you need to invest in your business in order to keep it healthy. Keep your investments sound and your level of success is up to you.