Episode #37 - Sales and Marketing for Skilled Trades
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David Wilton: Thank you for joining us on The Money Clip business clips. This is a series for business owners, from Scotiabank. I am David Wilton, Director of Small Business Banking at Scotiabank, with a second in a series which focuses on business issues that affect small businesses in the skilled trades industry. Our topic for today is sales and marketing for skilled trades. Again, I am joined by Joel Scopelleti, a partner and operator of Carick Home Improvements. Welcome to The Money Clip podcast series for business, Joel.
Joel Scopelleti: Thank you, David.
David Wilton: You bring many years of experience as a partner and an operator of Carick Home Improvements, which I understand is a family-owned home renovation and remodeling business. It’s been around since 1975, congratulations!
Joel Scopelleti: Thank you, David.
David Wilton: Today we are talking about the role of sales and marketing in the trades industry. Joel, where does sales and marketing fit into your business plan?
Joel Scopelleti: Well, sales and marketing is paramount. If you don’t have sales, then you don’t have any work. And if you don’t market, you won’t have sales. So I think that’s where it all has to start, is sales and marketing.
David Wilton: Yes. The reality is no customers, no business.
Joel Scopelleti: Exactly. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you don’t have customers, there’s no work and that’s very important.
David Wilton: When it comes to sales and marketing, are there any best practices that you worked out for you and your business?
Joel Scopelleti: Yes, that’s a great question. I think the most important thing is to get your mind clear. And to get clear, I’ve learned that it’s important to start off with a vision, a mission and a value. And, basically, have a statement that you work with yourself and whoever else is involved in the business and you write that together and then you live, breathe and eat that.
David Wilton: So that becomes your starting point.
Joel Scopelleti: That becomes your starting point. That gives you your focus, that’s where you are able to build the culture of your business. And everything from there falls back to your vision, mission and value.
David Wilton: So, what is one of your key values that you’ve established for your business?
Joel Scopelleti: One of the key values that we have is that we want to have a client for life. We want to do a job for a customer and we want to turn that customer into a client and the value is by being ethical and making sure that the client’s best interest is at hand. I believe that if you take care of your customers, your customers will turn into clients and your clients will take care of you.
David Wilton: I can see how that would be really important to a customer. How do you translate that, though, into a marketing strategy?
Joel Scopelleti: First of all, when it comes to marketing, there are many aspects. I think, you know, I read a long time ago – marketing starts with answering your phone. So, everything you do, say and act is a by-product of marketing. So, you’ll have to think of marketing on a broad perspective.
David Wilton: You’ve talked about the phone. What other avenues do you use in your marketing strategy?
Joel Scopelleti: The most important thing, like I was saying, is to create clients – being able to turn customers into clients. And by being able to nurture and look after their best interests and really, by having passion, having integrity, that will come natural. So, I think the number one focus is making sure that every customer turns into a client and then, once you are able to create clients, then you are able to nurture and develop referrals.
David Wilton: So, tell me a little more – the difference between a customer and a client.
Joel Scopelleti: Well, a customer is someone who calls you and you do a job for. That’s a customer. A client is somebody you do a repeat business with. He is no longer a customer, he is now a client, so it’s somebody who keeps calling you over and over again and they look at you as... you’re their plumber or you’re their electrician.
David Wilton: I see. So, you’ve identified two things in your marketing strategy – the first point in contact when you get a call, you want that to be a very positive experience. And then, secondly, instead of thinking about them just as a customer and one-job only, you are developing a relationship, which will allow you to hold them as a client for a lifetime.
Joel Scopelleti: Exactly. And I am able to get a client for a lifetime and then, hopefully, from there, they will be able to refer me to future friends and then – just building from there. The beautiful thing about that is that: a) it doesn't cost much money so you don't need a lot of money to have that strategy and b) you are going to be dealing with people that you like, you're not going to be wasting your time with so-called tire-kickers because you are going to have real, qualified leads. And I find that one of the most important things in business is to under-promise and over-deliver – that's the key, that's one of the keys at least, of having a very good relationship with a client. For example, if I know a job is going to take five days, I will tell my client it's going to take seven days. If I finish in six days, I'm a star, they are happy, they're excited, I've done the work on time. On the other hand, if I say to the people, it's going to take five days and the delay comes and it takes six days, well now, all of a sudden, I'm a bad guy because I didn't stick to my timeline. So you're able to control that upfront. So you've got to be careful what you promise people, because when you promise something, you have to deliver - if you want to have a thrilled client.
David Wilton: : So, if they have that strong relationship, positive experience, referrals are critical for you too.
Joel Scopelleti: Referrals are critical. Because referrals are, again, a way where it's a cost-effective way to build your business and you're not wasting time running around on all these different leads, that – maybe it's a flyer or a Yellow Pages-lead – but the quality, you want quality leads, you don't want quantity. Another way to market – we talked about it before, is getting involved in the community, where that is a way that is free and you're getting your name out there and you're giving back. When you give back, life has a way to give back also.
David Wilton: : And it reflects well on you personally and on your business.
Joel Scopelleti: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, doing work - people want to work with people they like and trust. The three things that everybody wants is – they want to find a contractor that they can trust, that does quality work, and does that work on time. That's one, two and three. And I think that if you can keep that in front of you and keep that in your mind, that will propel you to be focused and to be successful.
David Wilton: : Tell me a little bit about some of the things that cost money and what you think are the best for you - and I know everybody is a little different, but… - signs, advertising in local media… How do you deal with those things?
Joel Scopelleti: I think the most important form of advertising is job signs.
David Wilton: : Yes.
Joel Scopelleti: When you are on the job and you are able to put a job sign on the people's home, now you are having exposure. And more importantly, people want to work with people who know their area, who know their community. So when they see your job sign, it creates a warm feeling for people that, hey, my neighbour has hired him, well, I will give him a chance. So, job signs are very important, very cost-effective. Truck signs – very, very important, very cost effective. And, I believe, targeted marketing is also important. For example, if you have a job in a particular neighbourhood, you have a job sign there, you have a truck sign and then you write a letter telling all the neighbours that you're working in the area. And then I believe that you need to have like a three-part series, don't just send one direct mail campaign out and then give up, you have to be committed. I think after time, people will get familiar and they will give you an opportunity. So a targeted direct marketing plan in specific areas is a way that I would spend my money to make sure that I'm able to become that neighbourhood's contractor.
David Wilton: : That's a great tip. It allows you to focus on opportunities. I want to ask you something about an issue that we are seeing, as bankers, across the country right now. The reality is, the economic circumstances of different communities change over time and there's also the seasonal aspect of the industry that you are in. When you are looking at marketing, do you spend more money when times are slow or do you spend more money when times are good – how do you deal with that?
Joel Scopelleti: When you don't have business, you don't have money to market and when you do have business, you don't have time to market. So, that is a challenge that I think a lot of small business owners have to go through. Now, what we do, what we've learned, is: in the downtime around December, just December-January, that's when we take the opportunity to come up with a marketing plan. And not only a marketing plan, we break it down, a marketing plan per month – what are we going to do each month, from January right to December? So we are able to have that plan and be able to execute that plan and it's not a lot of work and not a lot of time… because it's already laid-out. OK, this month, we are going to a home show, this month we're sending out direct mail, this month we're doing some community event. So you have a sort of month marketing plan and dollars allocated to each month of what you are going to spend. For example, January is a very slow time, February is also kind of a slow time – so you know that when March and April come, you want to be busy, but you can't start marketing when you want to be busy because it takes time, it takes time to get these calls, to get these sales. So you have to have at least one or two months advance for your next busy season. So you have to think ahead and, I think planning and being able to sit down and go through the marketing plan. I also will say, I wouldn't spend too much money on things I can't measure, because if you can't measure it, you don't know if it's successful.
David Wilton: : Interesting. Those are great advice – the idea of having a plan you can work though so that you know predictably what you are going to do. Does Internet advertising or presence build into that plan for you?
Joel Scopelleti: Yes, absolutely – more and more, as the Internet gets more and more developed and the high speed is more and more accessible. I think that the Internet is a wonderful way to market. I'll explain why I think it's so great. If you can design a website that looks professional and it's got a real good feel to it, people don't know if you are a one-man show or you are a corporation. You are able to have a level playing field. And today, people are on the Internet a lot and they are looking for all different types of resources so being able to invest in a good, quality website is one of the best marketing investments that you can make today, because it's a one-time expense – once you do it, it's done and you are able to compete with everybody because nobody knows how big or small you are. You can be working out of your basement and have a wonderful website and people might think you are the biggest guy in town.
David Wilton: : I know that Carick Home Improvements has a great website.
Joel Scopelleti: Thank you.
David Wilton: : Joel, it's been great speaking with you today. Thanks for joining me. That wraps up our second podcast on our Skilled Trades series. I hope you've gained some valuable information about marketing and sales and I hope they'll help your business. Join us for the third and final podcast in our series – managing your business and its finances. I'm David Wilton for The Money Clip with business clips from Scotiabank. Thanks for joining us.
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