More than ever, many owners and managers look at a weekly report from a marketer and assume that if they have visited 15-20 prospects and clients each day that week, they are killing it. Sadly,  those numbers are usually misleading at best, and often fail to tell what’s really going on. There are very important metrics that you should consider when evaluating that report. Remember – it’s all about relationships that get referrals!

NOT ABOUT QUANTITY

If you are focused on quantity of visits and connections by your marketer with clients, it’s like being stuck in the sand, but revving the engine and spinning your wheels. You aren’t going anywhere.  There are marketers that call on the same 250 insurance agents every month, doing the same ole same ole. The apparent strategy is “one day, if I keep visiting enough, dropping of donuts regularly, they’ll send us a job.” Reality check: It’s time to lose about 65-70% of those agents.

BE SMART

The smartest marketers concentrate on the “A’s” first, then the “B’s” and finally eliminate the “C’s” from their route.  One marketer I talked with this week said she was calling on the same agents for 3 years and yet only had two of them refer jobs (claims) to her!  It’s time to qualify and delete many of those agents!

QUALIFY THEM

Every marketer should be evaluating, investigating, and interviewing each prospect to determine if they have the means, interest, or the willingness to refer a job to you. Many of them will never (80-90%) refer a job to you. They may simply: refuse to be involved with claims, not interested in directing their policyholder to a good vendor or are following the rules from their corporate office. Regardless, you are not going to get work from them. Stop calling on them. Quit wasting your time, their time, and your company marketing funds.

Statistics have proven over a ten-year period that only about 10% of potential insurance agents or plumbers (maximum) in your market will ever send you work. Get good at asking the right questions to determine if you should remove them from your visit list. Failing to be blunt and direct will get you a “maybe” which is worthless.

APPLIES TO ALL PROSPECTS

One of the key responsibilities is to be effective and productive. Having said that, every prospect a marketer approaches should be qualified as soon as is possible after meeting them. This qualifying process may take two or three visits, phone calls, and emails, but it’s certainly necessary. Otherwise, you just end up with too many prospects on your list, no valid way to determine if they are credible, and you burn yourself out trying to keep all those prospects moving down the funnel!

As a marketer, you are doing yourself, your prospect, and your employer a terrible disservice if you don’t take the time with each prospect to evaluate and qualify them. Establishing a ranking of “A”  “B”  or “C” is crucial to making the best use of everyone’s time and money. (“A” for Awesome, “B” for Basic (and Boring), “C” for Crap) Or some other designation you feel comfortable with!

 As of 2022, a new survey by Yale University has found… when marketing to your typical disaster restoration prospects:

12 percent of clients make up 85 percent of sales = A

42 percent of clients make up 19 percent of sales = B

46 percent of clients make up 1 percent of sales = C

Properly qualifying your prospects and eliminating those that will never send you a referral is critical to not wasting your marketers valuable time!

SOLUTION?

Teach your marketers how to make the absolute best, most efficient, and effective use of their valuable and limited marketing time.

Follow First Choice Drying Equipment on LinkedIn to learn more
about the equipment repairs and equipment we offer.
Call Beth at (719) 240-4930 or Wade at (719) 240-4929 for for estimates.

Beth Hinton, Owner —

In the 1980s, my family enjoyed running a thriving housekeeping and cleaning business with clients in Vail, Colorado. As the company grew, we signed very lucrative contracts with the Charter at Beaver Creek, The Hyatt Regency in Beaver Creek, The Vail Racquet Club, and the Vail Spa.

We quickly learned that hospitality clients needed carpet, upholstery, and drapery cleaning. My brother, Scott, purchased a carpet cleaning van and started a carpet cleaning business to meet the needs of each customer. It was a great way to grow the business with a minimum investment.

Water extraction and structural drying were often two issues that came with carpet cleaning. Extracting water and doing structural drying led to Scott’s buying a Restorx franchise. The new business could market residential and commercial fire, water, storm, and mold damage restoration services. After the earthquake in 1994, Scott successfully acquired a contract with the Northridge Mall in California, completing a million-dollar-plus drying project. With the remarkable success of that contract, after the Northridge Mall project was completed, Scott sold the carpet cleaning business and the Restorx franchise.

In December 1994, my mother and brother, Stan, purchased Restorx. We kept the business local with a service area in the Rocky Mountains for a short time. Later, we expanded nationally to “chase” storms and provided large loss commercial service. In 1996, we changed the company name to USA Drying for national jobs.

As a family-owned business, everyone had to do every job function to operate the business and provide services for our clients. My jobs included doing all the billing, having my CDL, driving the trucks, setting up job schedules, managing job projects, making sales, and taking on marketing responsibilities. Traveling to North Carolina, Florida, South Dakota, Ohio, Minnesota, Seattle, and numerous other states, we provided support and services for large commercial water damage jobs. In 1998, Belfor Property Restoration company bought USA Drying.

After the Belfor purchase of USA Drying, Wade and I owned an HVAC company. While running the HVAC business, we started a carpet cleaning and restoration company. In June 2004, our family packed up and moved from Leadville to Penrose, Colorado, and jointly purchased an indoor arena with a bar and restaurant. After six short months, we realized we were a little out of our league and decided to leave the entertainment business to be back in the restoration industry. This led to our decision to start First Choice Equipment Sales and Service.

We started out selling and distributing new equipment to small and medium-sized businesses, and Wes Williams placed the first order for air movers for CJB Restoration in Canada. Our business was up and running and still going strong today. When we started the USA Drying, there was a handful of Cat teams. Now, numerous companies are chasing large commercial loss jobs.

At First Choice Equipment Sales and Services, we have built strong partnerships with our manufacturers, Phoenix Restoration, XPower, CEP Power Distribution, LEX Products, and Air Force Filter. The restoration industry is very popular, and selling equipment to restoration companies has advantages. For example, when we realized how much equipment was broken in the industry, we expanded our services, adding repairs as a client benefit. First Choice is different from competitors because we will travel to the affected areas and work with restoration companies to keep their equipment up and running — especially on high-profile jobs. Our company values are excellent service at any hour, which means we will travel anywhere necessary for our client’s needs — even if this means responding nationwide when needed. First Choice is the go-to company to call for restoration equipment after high-profile natural disasters.

Follow First Choice Equipment Sales and Service by visiting our LinkedIn Business Profile. Learn more about the products we sell and service for national restoration companies at the website.