Good, Better, Best…customers have a number of ways in determining which products they want to purchase. Normally however, they balance the cost of the project with the perceived value they get from the product. One way to widen the target zone for the acceptance of your proposal is providing options for the customer.

An easy way to do this is offer them a “Good, Better and Best” solution:

Good is your basic offering – customers who are looking for a cost effective, short-term solution will purchase this option. It may be simply cleaning and sealing the project with a colored sealer to keep any further damage from happening to the concrete. It is your lowest cost solution and the one that provides the basics of getting the job done.

Better is your mid range offering – Many customers who don’t want the cheapest solution but also don’t want to spend the money on the best solution will buy a middle of the road product like this one. This may be a simple design and easy to apply product line. It provides the customer with more benefits than the colored sealer application and a better product overall. Your price for this option would be the middle of the three options.

Best is your top of the line offering – many customers are looking for the best option because they feel they get the best solution. Make this the option with the most benefits, best warranty and best overall solution for the customer’s needs. Crack repair, overall design that truly enhances the area, commercial grade sealer for maximum durability are all ways you can provide the customer the best solution for their money.

Owning a business means making multiple decisions daily. Focus on what you want to get accomplished each day and week is one of the fundamentals in creating a successful business. The challenge comes in staying focused on what is important and not being led astray by putting out fires that are not as important but have become critical. Here are three tips in helping with keeping your focus.

1. Know your goals. If you don’t know where your destination lies, any road will take you there is the old adage; this is also true in making your daily decisions. If you know driving revenue is the top priority in accomplishing your goals, the phone call from a prospective client becomes the most important call of the day. If you lose site of this, putting out fires on the job site and calls from employees with mundane questions override this priority.
2. Work on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking has become too much of a norm, but research shows the tasks you do in conjunction with each other end up with lower quality outputs. Talking on the phone with a prospective client while trying to trowel out a skim coat ends up with a client who feels they aren’t a priority and a skim coat that probably could have looked better if the focus had been there.
3. Do one thing that promotes your goal each day. As a business owner, the last thing you want to feel at the end of the day is that you wasted too much time (or the entire day). Focusing on your goals and breaking your goals down into daily and weekly activities needed for their achievements is a great way to do this. If your goal for the month is $40,000 in revenue, you’re looking for $10,000 weekly or approximately two average jobs. To achieve this goal, you can place advertising that will get the phones ringing, follow up with a client who said they may need your services in the future a few weeks ago, or any one of a number of things that bring you a little bit or a lot closer to achieving this goal. At the end of the day, you’ll feel better about your time management and you’ll also have a more successful business in the long run.

The results from your advertising and referrals provide the life blood of your business. Following up on these inquiries doesn’t have to be hard, but there are a few fundamentals to keep in mind:

• Contact the lead as soon as possible.
• Contact the lead in different ways (phone call, email, text).  Different people like communicating in different ways so don’t leave a resource at your disposal unused.
• Refer to the reason you’re contacting the lead when speaking with the prospect or when leaving a message, email or text.  (I’m responding to your inquiry through Facebook regarding having the Concrete Technology System installed).
• Continue trying to contact the lead until you get a final answer from the customer, either a firm no or an appointment to come see the job site and provide an estimate.
• Don’t try to sell the product over the phone, email or text.  Your goal in following up on a lead is to set an appointment where you can examine the job site and determine the best solution for the customer. Only then can you provide a realistic estimate.
• Set a firm time to meet with the prospect at their home.  Make sure anyone who will be involved with the final decision will be available for the meeting.  Be on time and prepared for the meeting once it comes around.
• A “Drip Marketing” campaign can increase appointments set as well as number of sales made.  A drip marketing campaign is simply a way of methodically putting a message and your company’s name in front of the prospect on a regular basis.  These type campaigns have proven to increase the number of sales made from the current lead flow by 15% to 20%.

First Stages of Growth

One of the more common questions I receive as I work with new Dealers is “where do I get my first employees?”  This growth normally comes in two stages, stage one, if needed, is getting the first person to help you in your installations. 

One of the advantages of the CTi Dealership model is it is not labor intensive.  There are Dealers who apply the product by themselves and operate very successfully as a sole proprietorship.  The installation process is much easier when you have someone to help you however.

Finding the first helper can come from different sources:

1) A partner in the business
2) Some Dealers will pay folks who work jobs such as Firefighter, Emergency Technician (ambulance), and similar.  These folks normally have a schedule with their other job that has them work 2-3 days in a row and then have two days off.  This schedule fits well with a CTi Dealership since most residential projects take 2 days to complete.
3) Temporary labor companies also offer the ability to hire someone just when you need them; you can find these type companies by performing a Google search for “Construction labor staffing agencies”.  I like to refer to this as an on the job interview for the folks who are working with you.  When you find a person who works well on the projects, you can ask for them specifically from the agency.  Should they work out consistently, you can then ask to hire them full time; some agencies will charge a fee to hire their workers, but it normally is more cost effective than other forms of finding employees.
4) Job boards, Craigslist, etc. are available as well to help in finding a full time or part time employee.  If you are hiring someone, remember your ability to consistently pay them is many times just as important as how much you pay them.  Make sure your marketing and sales efforts are securing projects consistently so you can keep this person in the hours they need to have a mutually beneficial relationship.

Stage 2 happens when your business has grown to the point where you need someone heading up the installation crew full time or pursuing new sales inquiries full time.  The best way to handle this stage is to first determine which job function you enjoy most (or are best at) . 

If you like being on the job sites and working with the products, you can hire a person to speak with customers and pay them a commission (normally 10%) of the sale price of any jobs they sell.

If speaking with customers is something you enjoy, start by grooming your initial helper to become the lead installer on the job site.  Many times this transition is simply a matter of finding an additional helper for your new crew leader as you begin to pursue new inquiries full time.

Concrete Technology Inc. prides itself on having some of the most talented, best trained Dealers in the industry. We provide these Dealers with ongoing training in many different formats.

Online training via our Dealer support site, the phone app we provide our Dealers has many different ways to improve their application prowess, our initial Dealer training is available for free to existing Dealers as their companies grow and they want to send additional employees to get better trained and lastly, we provide advanced training on products and applications that make our Dealers more competitive in the field and better able to satisfy the needs of home and business owners across the country.

One of the biggest selling points you provide the homeowner as a CTi Dealer is the product’s ease of maintenance. Compared to concrete or other products such as tile, brick, etc. the CTi product is very easy to maintain.

Easy maintenance does mean some basic maintenance however. Some common questions we receive from homeowners are listed below:

How do I remove oil or grease if it falls on the CTi product? Oil and grease spots can be removed using a mild dish detergent along with water.

How do I get rid of stubborn mineral or rust deposits on the CTi product? Rust or mineral deposits can be removed using a light muriatic acid (like the type used in swimming pools) and water. Bleach can also be used to clean these type deposits.

Vinegar can be used for some stubborn stains on the CTi product as well. Periodic cleaning of the product with a hose and brush will prevent excessive dirt build up as well.

Stem walls, retaining walls and other walls made of concrete can use the CTi treatment. You can turn plain old gray concrete into something spectacular and save money compared to installing the industry standard products.

We at Concrete Technology Inc. wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2021!