Have the privilege of working with Ron and Doug Eisses from DR FOAM insulation in Barrie Ontario. Working on a complete online/offline marketing program for them including a new web presence and lead generation strategies.

They are great people with allot of integrity in business and based on my research so far, they have built an excellent reputation in their target area and I will make sure that grows.

They specialize in Commercial, Residential and Industrial insulation systems, featuring spray foam insulation.

You can contact them at 1-705-733-1163

I received an email today from LinkedIn that congratulated me for being in the top 1% of viewed profiles for 2012. I attended a Kevin Knebl’s seminar in the spring of last year and made a concerted effort to complete my LinkedIn profile and build my connections. My main goal was to contact anyone who had connected with me and ask them how I could help them be more successful. No cost. Just want to share my experience and wisdom and contribute. I guess it worked!

I am humbled by the amount of views my profile has received and will continue to participate actively in LinkedIn and grow my connections even more this year.

Feel free to contact me through this post if you would like some pointers or are interested in connecting with me.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

When I evaluate Businesses as a consultant and ‘drill down’ to the main challenges that Company is going through, there always seems to be one prominent issue that comes up…not enough revenue. Increasing your revenue, even by 10-15% can make a HUGE difference for your short and long term success.

So here are a few suggestions to help you:

• Get your business online- Did you know that a recent survey stated that approximately 45% of businesses don’t have a website or online presence?Over 78% of people today research online before making their buying decisions. Having a web presence will definitely increase your exposure and reach to new clients.


• Optimize the Website that you have- the same survey also revealed that only 18% of Companies that had a website were happy with the site and the results. I still tell people that you can have the best looking website in the world but if your potential clients can’t find it or don’t ‘take action’ when they are on your site, all you have is a fancy online business card.


• Increase Conversion Strategies- whether you are marketing online or offline, if you do not have a offer or ‘call to action’ in your advertising, you are wasting money and efforts. Do a test today for yourself and look at a few websites and offline ad’s and see if they actually ask you to do something…”buy our product today” “Sign up for our free report” “Call Us for Details” . You will be surprised. This small change could make a noticeable increase to your bottom line.


• Build a client list- think about how many times you have solicited people to buy your product and service and never gathered their name and email address. This strategy alone helped my previous Company have a huge newsletter following and allowed me to keep in touch with thousands of potential buyers and to be on their ‘radar’ when they were ready to buy.


• Your past clients are gold- make an effort to systematically reach out to your existing clients with sales offers and incentives. Did you know that successful Companies develop or partner with complimentary products and services to offer their existing clients to increase revenues?


• Be Creative- tough times mean you need to think ‘outside of the box’. Survey your existing client base and ask them is there is a product or service you could offer them to make their lives easier. Train your staff to be ‘Ambassadors’  of your brand and give them training on how to promote your Company and products. After all their jobs are dependant on your business success. Try a marketing and sales strategy that you haven’t done before. Do a press release every time you have a small success or introduce a new product or service. They only cost you your time to write and could give you National exposure.

I recently did a press release for a good friend Jonathan Zerkee, from Sonbuilt Custom Homes, announcing his new position as President of the Fraser Valley Chapter- Canadian Home Builders Association.

I sent out the release to all the local papers who picked it up as well as by National Home Building Site, BuzzBuzzHome.com

They emailed me within 10 minutes of receiving the information and requested a interview. I set it up with Jonathan and BuzzBuzz did a great article on their website, which you can read here.

A properly written and presented press release can get viral online and offline in a hurry. Let me know if I can assist you with your next news

Email Larry

So I get an email today from a past client who is a roofing Company. They approached us through a referral as their web presence was non-existent and they were getting no where with a famous online and offline directory ( I will let you guess who they might be…hint: same colour as a banana). Anyway, we agreed to build them a total new site with full optimization for search engine, video we produced and promoted on YouTube, as well as a verified Google Places listing.

Eventually the site was completed and all we needed was updated text, pictures and the ‘pin #’ from Google which is sent to the clients address. Well, almost 2 years later, no information, no pictures, no communication, no pin # (requested 3 times just in case they threw them out) and one nasty rant email from the Owner saying the site was horrible and didn’t work. Now I will personally take responsibility for giving up after awhile and not pursuing a completion to the website, but I will have you know the video still ranks on page 1 of Google for roofing search, the page rank of the site is doing great and I get copies of the leads the site generates every week in spite of not having great content.

So where am I going with this? The email today was to let me know they have decided to go back to the old directory Company and use one of their template websites. Yes, you heard me correctly, they are going back to what cost them a fortune every month and gave them little results. This whole investment of their own website that is ranking and producing leads is now going to be a distant memory.

Ok, so hear is what I have learned and hopefully you will be helped by this…
Businesses revert to a path of least resistance. When they are forced to do something outside of their comfort zone ( get a website, provide pictures, write blog posts, etc.) they will almost always default to a old system that said they would take care of it for them. Hey, if I was a roofer, I would go with someone who said just give me the money and I will look after all of this for you and you just sell all the great leads I am going to get you. They forgot about the last time they heard that it didn’t work.

Creatures of habit. I truly hope it does work for them this time and something in the world of internet marketing has changed that I am not aware of yet. Otherwise, some web development Company will be getting a call in a year or 2.

To Business and life lessons,

Larry J Clark

Had the privilege today to finally meet Bob Deeks from RDC Fine Homes from Whistler. We have been trying to set up a meeting for some time now and today it all came together.

Bob is a well established and award winning custom builder in Whistler and in Squamish BC. I really enjoyed talking ‘shop’ about the state of the building industry in general and how to market your Home Company in a very competitive market.

I know I confirmed a few points with Bob, that he was already considering, to gain more reach online and I hope I helped him with some new ideas to pursue. It is always a pleasure to share my experience and wisdom with other business owners and help them grow.

I look forward to my next coffee meeting with Bob and feel free to call Bob at 604-932-3618 if you want to learn more about building in Whistler BC.

Regards,

Larry

I recently posted on a group I subscribe to on LinkedIn and was asked what I meant by the words ‘pre-framing’ to have better success at closing a sale. This was one of the first, and most valuable tools I learned in new home sales and now I am going to share this technique with you.

I am not a ‘salesy’ guy and never have been. I don’t believe for a minute that you have to do a hard close on anyone. As mentioned, I learned from my first Sales Manager Moe, (great guy) , the fundamentals of getting a interested client to a completed sale. Pre-framing is basically telling or advising a interested client what we are going to do next. For example, on your first meeting you may advise the person or couple that the next steps will be that we will review your plan ideas and provide you with a preliminary quote. Then I will usually tell them what I need them to do…like come back with some ideas on how they would like the house to look on the outside, bring in some magazine pictures that they like, that kind of thing. The key here is it gets them involved in the process and they have ‘homework’ to do when we get back together.

The main purpose of pre-framing is to get to a successful close. To do this, make sure you have answered all their questions or concerns about you and your product and service and then state ” Here is what will happen in our next meeting. We will review all of your pricing and options and I will have a an agreement drafted and we can move forward with getting your new home started. We will require a deposit of $x dollars at signing of the agreement. Which bank will you using for your deposit? “ I hope you are getting the idea.

I have have eliminated numerous sleepless nights using this system as I already know if someone is going to move forward or not. “What if they object or want to think about it? “ Way ahead of you. This is your opportunity to find out where the resistance is and re-explain to the prospects how you can eliminate their concerns with your Company and product.

Here is another quote I use when I give training to sales people about objections.“Give people all the information they need to make a educated decision and more than likely, you will be able to ask for the sale and better yet, get it!”

Remember that people make sales decisions based on emotion not on logic. They use logic to justify their emotional decision.

I trust this has helped and feel free to email me if you would like some help.

Next post will be focused on how not to devalue your product and service.

To your success,

Larry

Business tip of the day…let me tell you how you can profit from giving free advice

When I was a kid, I liked to watch the old horror films from the 50’s and 60’s. (not so much anymore)
I remember one called “Them” which featured atomic mutated ants that terrorized everyone. There were a few scenes when the ants would actually get a hold of some unsuspecting victim and drain all there ‘life juices’ out of them and leave them laying on the ground, all pale and wrinkled like a bad prune.

Sometimes in business I feel the same way!

I actually enjoy giving people free advice whenever I am asked. The problem is you rarely see any benefit from it and some people enjoy taking advantage of your time and wisdom (and usually do nothing with it). I have been blessed throughout the years in having mentors give me free advice, sometimes without asking, and I try and pass that onto others. Now I have a NEW philosophy of how I am going to do it and make it profitable…ready?

Tip #1…ask for a referral. Tell the person you would love to help them with advice but they need to provide you with someone in their sphere of influence that they will introduce to you that they feel you can help.

Tip #2…ask for a testimonial. Same as above except you want a testimonial from that person of how the advice has helped them. Easily done on LinkedIn, in writing for you to use on your blog or even a mention on Twitter or Facebook.

Tip #3…limit the time for each person. Tell them you would love to help them but limit it to a 15-30 minute time frame and don’t forget about Tip 1 and 2 when you are done.

Tip #4…this one I will be implementing with certain clients/contacts immediately. “If I provide you with advice or a strategy that increases your lead base, conversion and sales, let’s agree to a percentage of your new sales as a consulting fee back to me” . Should be a ‘no brainer’ as you are adding more profit than they had before.

I trust these Tip’s will pick you up, re-hydrate you and encourage you to share your success and knowledge with others.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

P.S. Feel free to request a connection on LinkedIn

I have had the privilege of working with some great clients lately and I always try and explain to them at our initial meeting, what can be done with their websites and positioning online, and what cannot be controlled. ( ie I don’t own Google so I cannot tell Google what to do) I also discuss with them that the goal is getting new traffic to their websites and having these new visitors ‘convert’ or actually take action once on the site. This develops new leads and potential business. Notice I said ‘potential business”...we will discuss this later.

Reality is that clients have diverse businesses and different ‘niche’ products and services. If you know what you are doing in web development and SEO, it is not difficult to attain first page search results in Google and the other search engines. I also use diversified techniques outside of just the website in order to get my clients found online. Video works extremely well as well as blogs, portal sites and social media placements.

Here is the dilemma…even though your traffic to your website increases, your web presence is improved ( I have one client with 3 top 10 positions on the first page of Google for the same search term) , if your product or service is not known or does not have a large buying market, you will not convert very much. The market right now is not the same as it was 3 or so years ago. What people bought or invested in then may have half as many buying now. It is imperative that you have a great web presence to capture the leads that are out there as competition is fierce. (Over 75% of people search online for services and products vs. using the phone book or other hard copy advertising) On a side note… If your business does not have a website or your website doesn’t generate traffic or leads, you need to get going now or get left behind.

OK, so I have been rambling a bit so I will laser focus for you and wrap up. You need good, qualified traffic to your website that actually does something when they visit. Visitors should buy something, sign up for your newsletter, ‘like’ you on Facebook, contact you. For this to happen you need to be on the first page of the search engines so you will even been considered. You also need great , strategic placements on your website called conversion or ‘call to action’. Not having these will only give you bragging rights for visitors to your website but little or no business.

Now the last point…remember I said potential business in the opening paragraph? I meant ‘potential’ if you as a business owner do not follow up on the leads or worse yet, you suck at sales and treat new leads as a ‘inconvenience’ you will starve and go out of business. My goal is always to get new eyeballs to clients site and entice them to take action or convert. What you do with them after that is your reality. As a business consultant, I have been blessed with wisdom that I have gleaned by having successful businesses online and learning the hard way how to treat new leads. This gives me an advantage as I can teach my clients how to deals with new contacts. My point…understand the reality of online marketing and get help with converting new clients to customers. It is an investment that will pay dividends.

Thanks for reading and I will discuss in my next post,  how to increase your business by up to 30%, just through your existing customers.

To your business success,

Larry J Clark