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Have you ever heard someone say – “People love to buy, but they hate to be sold to?”

I beg to differ.  That statement is unequivocally false. People love to buy AND they love to be sold to. 

The key, however, is that they need to have a quality sales experience.  They will love to be sold to!

What Constitutes A Great Sales Experience

As an example, think about buying a car. 

When you go to buy a new BMW or Mercedes Benz, the salespeople offer you unlimited Starbucks and snacks in their plush offices.  You get to hang out in a decked-out designer lounge while they prepare the cars that you want to test drive.  Typically, you’ll get to take a nice long test drive to check out all of the niceties of the car.  Then, after you purchase the car, you get cool little extras in the mail for the next few months.  Sometimes, they even invite you to special track events where you get to drive souped-up cars.

Now, let’s contrast that to purchasing a new Honda.  First, you enter a bare-bones sales floor where you take a number.  Once it’s your turn, you get to take a 10-minute test drive where the salesman glosses over the features.  When you return to the dealership, you get ushered into a drab cubicle and have the contract put in front of you.

Both cars will get you from A to B, but which sales experience would you rather have?  I think that most people would agree that they would rather have the BMW/Mercedes experience.

Selling Is A Process

The easiest way to get a client is for them to know, like and trust you.  You can start this process even before someone contacts you for a quote.

As mentioned in Step 1 of this series, create a set of videos that answer common questions that you hear all of the time from clients.  You can also make videos that address common objections that you hear from people that don’t hire you.

Then, run these videos on Facebook to your target audience.  They’ll get to know, like and trust you before they even contact you for a quote.

Why?

Because you have provided value to them and shown your expertise in the area without sounding salesy.  These videos are the first step of your sales pitch (and don’t take much time from you at all).  You want people to see you over and over again.  This way, you become cemented in their mind as the go-to business in the area for painting.

BONUS TIP: Testimonial videos are a great way to establish trust with potential clients and showcase the work that you did without having to toot your own horn!

Now, when someone contacts you for a quote after seeing your videos, you’ve already gotten the hard part out of the way.  They know, like and trust you from your videos…and people buy from people that they like.  It becomes a much easier sale for you to close on.

“Selling” Is A Dirty Word

“Sales” or “Selling” seems to have gotten a bad rap lately.  You think of sleazy used car salesmen or worse.  It just has a very negative connotation.

However, you must remember that you are HELPING PEOPLE when you sell them a quality paint job. 

Maybe you are helping them paint their kitchen cabinets and get a higher asking price when they sell their house.  Maybe you are painting the exterior of their home and helping them get it weather-proofed for winter.  Maybe you are helping a family have an amazing holiday in their newly painted living room.

Whatever the case, you are helping people achieve positive goals.  They are better off than they were before!  Keep this in mind the next time you go to close a deal.  You should find yourself in a completely different mindset, which will help your close rate.

Increase Your Closing Percentage

Create a quality sales experience that starts even before someone contacts your company.  By using the tips above, you should see your closing rate more than double. 

Let’s Return To Our Example Company With Double The Close Rate For Our Painting Business [h2]

Remember, ABC Painting started with $40,000 monthly gross revenue.  Then, we implemented a follow-up system, which will increase the leads by about 60%.  This took the gross monthly revenue to $64,000 with a close rate of 20%.

Next, we doubled our leads from 80 to 160 per month using the tactics in Step 2 of this series.  This resulted in 32 new clients and a monthly gross income of $128,000. 

Now, if we can double the close rate from 20% to 40%, we will have 64 clients per month with a monthly gross income of $256,000!  This is more than 6X the starting monthly revenue and we have 2 more steps to go!

Stay tuned for next week (Step 4) where we will talk about adding a special upsell that will score you some high-ticket clients right away!

Are you looking to grow your painting company but aren’t sure where to start?

It’s difficult to know what steps to take or where to invest your time and money.  However, we have created a proven roadmap for you to follow that will help you 10X your painting business.

Step 1 – Implement A Follow-Up System So Your Potential Clients See You Over and Over

Did you know that at any given time, only 3% of your market is ready to buy from you? 

This means that 97% of the people that see your advertising are going to need a little more time.  In fact, your average customer is exposed to about 10,000 marketing messages every day.

What are the chances that your marketing message is going to be the one that stands out among the 10,000 that your client is seeing (especially if they had never heard of you before)?

Typically, your potential clients need to see and hear from you multiple times in order to make an informed buying decision.  This is why you must FOLLOW UP.  In fact, a 2011 study from Google found that a buyer needs 7 hours of interaction across 11 touch points in 4 locations.

Let’s break that down quickly.  You (or your marketing) needs to interact (or be in front of) your potential client 11 times.  These interactions can be snail mail, videos, ads, phone calls, emails or anything that gets you in front of them.

Then, these 11 interactions need to be across 4 locations.  This means that you can’t just always call or email.  You need to expand the number of places that people see you.  You need to be “everywhere” your clients may be.  So, adding to phone or email, text, Facebook Ads, YouTube, the Google Display Network, LinkedIn etc.  To accomplish this task correctly, think about where your clients commonly are.

Finally, these touches need to result in about 7 hours of interaction.  In other words, you want a prospect to spend about 7 hours thinking about you.  This is when it helps to have video.  For a house painting business, customer testimonials are great ads to use.  It allows other people to “toot your horn”, so you don’t have to.

Another great interaction piece is a downloadable pdf that contains information about your company, examples of your past work, testimonials and more.  You can make this available on your website or social media.

How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Set Up A 3×3 Contact Matrix

First things first – automation is your friend.  Don’t shy away from technology because it seems complicated.  In the long run, it will be worth it.

So, what is the first thing to set up?

Start using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, like GoHighLevel, CorkCRM or Keap.  It will more than pay for itself in the long run.

In your CRM, you will want to set up what we call a 3×3 contact matrix.  You want a potential client that requested a quote to receive a call, text and email from you.  If they don’t respond, do it again 3 days later.  If they don’t respond, do it 5 days later.  This automatically gives you 9 interactions on 3 different channels.

A common fear that we hear from painters is “What if they get annoyed or tell us it’s too much?”

They won’t.  Remember, they originally contacted you.  The more information that you give them that allows them to make a good decision when choosing a house painter will be appreciated.

Another common question that we get is “What should I say in these emails, texts and calls?”

• CALLS: The calls can just be follow ups to the original contact for quote, which most painting businesses are used to doing.  
• TEXTS: The texts should be quick messages asking them for a reply, so you get them engaged.  This is also a great time to offer an exclusive discount that they can only get by replying.  Keep these short, sweet and to the point.
• EMAILS: The emails are where you can shine and really highlight your company.  Send them more information about what it’s like working with your company.  Have a testimonial video?  This is a perfect opportunity to share it with them. Do you offer something completely unique in your area, like a guarantee or a special technique?  Share it here.

People buy with emotions and justify it with logic.  Use these 9 points of contact to get them emotionally invested.  Then, provide the facts so they can justify their decision.

How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Play The Follow Game

Have you ever looked at a toaster on Amazon and suddenly, that toaster is everywhere?  You need to apply the same principles to your painting business.

The way to accomplish this is through the use of the Facebook pixel and the Google cookie.

Install these on your website (don’t forget to mention them in your terms and conditions) and they will start tracking your website visitors.  You can now show people ads on Facebook that have been on certain pages of your website.  You can use the Google cookie in a similar way.

Another way to interact with people multiple times based on their past browsing behavior is making use of Video Ads.  Create a set of 3 videos where you answer questions that people commonly have when hiring house painters.  Use the questions that you get from potential clients all the time.  These videos do not have to be formal or cost a ton of money.  A video shot on site with an iPhone will work for this.

Use these 3 videos to advertise to a broad audience.  You want to use them to weed out people.  Then, advertise your services in a follow up specifically to people that have watched at least 25% of one of your videos.  

Why 25% of a video?  

Because no one is going to watch a video on commonly asked questions about house painting unless they are in the market for house painting.  This is a great way to narrow down your audience.

You can apply this tactic on YouTube and Facebook.  

How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Advertise on Multiple Platforms

To be “everywhere”, you need to advertise on multiple platforms.  

Google Ads are a great resource that lets you advertise on Google, YouTube, Gmail and the Google Display Network (GDN).  The GDN allows your ads to show up on websites that Google leases space on.  You can decide what type of website “lease” you want to rent from Google.  So, as a painting business, Home Improvement sites or Home Decorating sites may be good places to start.

Facebook Ads are another great place to target specific audiences with all types of advertising.  Videos perform better than static ads, so start filming!

Depending upon the type of work you do, LinkedIn advertising could help you reach certain professionals.

How To Implement A Great Customer Follow-Up System – Let’s Look At An Example

To really illustrate how powerful just this one step is, let’s look at an example painting business, ABC Painting.

Let’s say that ABC Painting gets 50 leads per month, their close rate is 20% and the average painting project in their area is $4000.  This means that they will get 10 clients and the company will gross $40,000 per month.

If you implement the follow up systems discussed above, you will increase your leads by about 60%.

To use the numbers above, this means that instead of 50 leads, ABC Painting will now have 80 leads per month.  They will close on 20% of them, which is 16 clients and the company will now gross $64,000.

See, the CRM really will pay for itself…

Stay tuned for next week when we discuss how to double your leads!

Do you find it challenging to come up with new content to post online for your painting business? You may even think that it’s not worth it, because who would see it? In a survey conducted by Facebook, 81% of people said that they use Instagram to learn about products and business services. We’re here to tell you that your content definitely won’t go unnoticed.

Today, you would be surprised at how many people seeking painting services turn to social media to check out different painting companies.  58% of consumers visit a brand’s social media pages before visiting their website. Sure, people can take others’ recommendations on a painting company. But if you can show these potential clients your work first hand, you’ll be able to win them over without hesitation!

Your target audience wants to see original content that is valuable and actionable. Whether the content that you are putting out is in the form of a blog, video, or infographic, it has to be digestible for your audience.

In this article, we are going to cover the top 3 types of content that your clients REALLY care about. We also suggest some content ideas that will grab your audience’s attention!

Video Content

Video content allows you to capture the attention of your viewers within seconds. 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. Post your video to YouTube, then break it up into shorter video clips to be used on your social channels. This way, you can get many pieces of content from one single video!

Here are a few video content ideas for your painting business:

“Oddly satisfying” videos

Oddly enough, people love to watch other people paint! This content can be seen as “oddly satisfying” to users. If your audience is like most of us, it’s very easy to fall down a rabbit hole watching these satisfying videos!

Testimonials

People that are looking to hire you love to hear directly from others that have had work done by your business. What better way to showcase your work and a five-star testimonial all in one?

Day In The Life Video

Everyone loves to see a little behind the scenes, am I right? This is a great way to show customers what they can expect when they hire you for a project! 

Blog Content

Blog articles are a fantastic way to provide long-form content to those searching for information.

FUN FACT: Any blog topic can be turned into a video! These videos can then be turned into informational social media posts. NOW we’re talking about getting the most out of your content!

Here are a few ideas for blogging that your audience will definitely want to read:

Paint recommendations

As we all know, there are many different kinds of paint out there. For some people, choosing the correct paint for their project can be a daunting decision to make. Between chelpbrand, finish AND color, a little assistance and good word from a pro can go a long way! 

Frequently asked questions

Everyone is going to have questions. There are tools available such as SEMrush that can provide you with FAQ’s surrounding any given topic. This tool will also tell you how many times those questions are searched per month. Use this information to your advantage and write about the topics that you know people are searching for.

Why you should hire a professional

Many people don’t realize what they are getting themselves into when it comes to tackling projects around the house.  How many times have you had to complete a project that has already been started? Give your reasoning as to why it is more time and cost effective to hire a professional from the start!

Social Content

Social content can be displayed many ways, especially depending upon the platform you are using. Whether you are posting to your Facebook feed or Instagram stories, keeping your audience engaged and interested is your number one goal.

Here are a few ideas that you can use to create content for your social channels:

Before and after

These photos are always a hit! Who doesn’t love to see a great transformation? You have the opportunity to lay out the quality of your work right in front of a potential client’s eyes.

Helpful information + tips and tricks

Providing helpful tips and tricks shows that you aren’t just about making a sale. You can provide information about handyman services done by painters and tips on how to know when your home needs a fresh coat of paint. You can also give tips on different painting techniques. Who knows, you just may end up with a sale after all!

Images of your team

A great way to humanize your business is by showing pictures of your crew hard at work. People love to have an idea of who will be working on their project and this way, they are able to put a name to a face. Plus, if they see quality work before their eyes, they’ll be sold!

If you aren’t sure where to begin with posting content on social media, don’t panic! Give IFTS a call at 412-715-6266 and we can discuss a social strategy that will work for you.