If you are looking to hire a salesperson (estimator) for your home improvement business, may I suggest that you strongly consider this prerequisite: Make sure the prospective estimator has some experience with social media and is not afraid to do a little bit of social media work when he/she comes to work for you. Read More
It is time for another update of popular cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) programs that have continued to be popular for the contracting market. There are literally hundreds of options out there. I will list them in no particular order except the first 5 or 6 I’ve had more experience in testing or using. If you are a contractor (home improvement business) and would like to add your favorite CRM to the list, please do so in the comment section. Read More
If you use Google Apps for Work, chances are you do not use the Google Contact feature much. It was old, ugly and not real intuitive. This week, Google did a major redesign to Google Contacts. It is a big step forward to make me actually use it more myself! 
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Most of my painting clients settled on Pipeline Deals CRM several years back. It is a simple CRM that just works. This short post is mainly for those already using Pipeline Deals or for a few of you looking for an easy to use cloud CRM.
When you login to Pipeline Deals you will go to the home screen which is a dashboard. The dashboard had a lot of different items to update you on such as upcoming agenda items, task, sales update and so forth. To be honest, the dashboard was not something I used much or had users telling me they found much value. Read More
I was just telling my wife yesterday that I wish the month of July would standstill for a little while longer. Now that it is August means that school starts in just a few weeks for many of our kids. August is also the month when many Americans make a last minute ditch for vacation and put home improvement on the backburner.
So how can painters, builders and other home improvement trades use their time wisely in the month of August? You got it: Start the fall and winter marketing planning now. Read More
Dear LinkedIn Connection,
I received your request to connect with me here on LinkedIn. I normally review each request before approving the connection. My first few years on LinkedIn, I thought it was best practice to connect with as many people as possible. It seemed as though the aggressive LinkedIn users were doing the same thing. Why not follow “best practices”, eh? Perhaps that was an okay technique early on. It at least made my profile look more impressive! Read More
I continue to get asked this question, “Is it worth it to pass out door hangers while we are working in a neighborhood?”
After looking at a number of customer reports I gathered from their CRM programs, here is my conclusion. Read More
This is a question I get frequently from my clients. The honest answer is that not every business needs to be active on every social profile. So how do you know where to invest your time and valuable marketing dollars?
To begin, I’d like to define a social media channel.
According to Whatis.com, social media can be defined as any “online communications channel dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.” Read More
Increasing your online reviews, especially on Google Maps, can help consumers find you easier online? It is best practice to not just rely on Google reviews, but it also does not hurt to continue to increase the number of reviews you have on Google. I normally suggest contractors focus on Google, Yelp and Houzz. Facebook can also be a good idea if you want to add a 4th source. Read More
Most of the work I do since I started my company has been working with service contractors nationwide. So when it comes to knowing the local contractors: who to call when I need service on my home, I do not always know who to call. I will rely on the Internet and pray I can find a good company I can trust. Read More
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