In this episode of Building Great Sales Team, we are joined by Joseph Connell, the CEO of Lavahot Marketing Agency and the host of the Lavahost Podcast.
Joseph has a proven track record of success, having worked with over 500 SMBs, managed millions of dollars in advertisement campaigns, and helped businesses scale by as much as 4 million in annual revenue.
In this episode, Joseph will explain why it's critical for businesses to be hyper-local before expanding, and he will also introduce his revolutionary marketing platform "Slingshot," local to mid-sized companies can now achieve growth and increased revenue like never before.
Connect With Joseph:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LavahotJoeConnell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephconnelljr/
Podcast: www.lavahotpodcast.com
Marketing Agency Website: https://golavahot.com/
Software: poweredbyslingshot.com
00:00:16:30 - 00:00:31:57
Speaker 1
Great experiences, build great leaders. Great leaders, build great teams. This is building great sales teams.
00:00:34:53 - 00:00:48:01
Speaker 2
All right, guys, welcome back to the podcast. Welcome back to building great sales teams. I'm excited about this one. I've got the CEO of Lava Hot Marketing Agency and the host of the Lava Hot podcast, Joseph Connell. Welcome to the show, brother.
00:00:48:39 - 00:01:00:09
Speaker 3
Hey, thank you. Thank you for having me. You know, it's always a pleasure when I get to be on the other side of an interview where, you know, it's very relaxing on this. And so.
00:01:00:11 - 00:01:20:33
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't have to have all the pressure to make sure the conversation is moving properly and that nobody's getting bored. Right. You know, but I will say like, as a host, so the, the idea is you're supposed to be talking like 30% of the time. Right. And so if you think about it in that aspect, the guest is doing most of the work, right?
00:01:21:05 - 00:01:33:30
Speaker 3
For sure. Yeah. I always say, you know, the the episodes that are the best for me are the hijack sit in, you know, runs with every question you ask them. So yeah, it's always exactly.
00:01:33:31 - 00:01:53:56
Speaker 2
It's good to sit back and relax and let them, let them drop the knowledge. All right, brother. So you are a marketing and sales expert. You've helped over 500 small businesses manage millions in ads, help help businesses scale to as much as 4 million. And I was just scrolling through your Facebook earlier, and you just place some ads for live golf.
00:01:55:01 - 00:02:19:04
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah. So it was just a unique spot. So I buy up advertising for, you know, a variety of home service companies specifically. And often I mean, that's a combination of like billboard TV ads, radio ads. Of course, the digital marketing is always a big part of that. And there was just like this unique spot where I was able to negotiate some really these are actually going to end up being some of it's like free ads.
00:02:19:05 - 00:02:44:22
Speaker 3
They were value ads for a much larger media spend, but we get certain placement for each one of the live golf tournaments throughout April and May. And then there's ones that continue on. It depends on how much longer I want to run the the full on marketing campaign. But we're also we're coming up with some creative that will, you know, make that ad that we already have made.
00:02:44:22 - 00:02:51:50
Speaker 3
We're going to try to repurpose an ad so that it's more like golf friendly, if you will. But yeah, I'm pretty excited about the spots, actually.
00:02:52:30 - 00:03:09:16
Speaker 2
Yeah, I would be too. I mean, you know, I'm now a golf expert now that I watched the Netflix documentary, So now I'm a golf fan all of a sudden. Yeah. I mean, up until now, my my best score was probably like a one on three or something like that. So.
00:03:09:32 - 00:03:09:55
Speaker 3
Yeah, not.
00:03:09:55 - 00:03:10:31
Speaker 2
Very good on that.
00:03:11:24 - 00:03:13:29
Speaker 3
Yeah, it sounds like me and you would be a good match up.
00:03:14:04 - 00:03:14:36
Speaker 2
Awesome.
00:03:14:36 - 00:03:15:45
Speaker 3
Awesome. Yeah.
00:03:15:57 - 00:03:20:04
Speaker 2
Okay, so marketing ourselves, which one did you get into first?
00:03:20:25 - 00:03:41:58
Speaker 3
Yeah. So I, I wanted to get into sales because of the book. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, if you're familiar with it in that book, you know, he talks about sales being one of those skill sets that you have to learn. So I was always looking for my Xerox because that's how Rich Dad got started. He started by selling for Xerox.
00:03:41:58 - 00:04:01:37
Speaker 3
And and I just knew that that was a skill set that I had to learn. I had to figure out how to handle sales. And at one point, I stumbled into the industry of marketing, and it was kind of the best of both worlds. I had no intentions of getting into marketing. I didn't go to school for it.
00:04:02:16 - 00:04:26:22
Speaker 3
I actually started out with a local yellow page company and I was even reluctant to do that because I had no experience at marketing and marketing became my Xerox. So it became that opportunity that, you know, really helped me perfect how to, you know, engage a customer or a prospect, how to deliver a message, how to propose a product.
00:04:26:51 - 00:04:54:57
Speaker 3
And, you know, through that, I perfected, you know, what I what I use as my sales process I've used for the last ten years where, you know, it's really helped on and but what I've learned over the last really five years and this is something that I learned from Grant Cardone is that marketing is senior to sales, that if you have your marketing dialed in that you know, and don't get me wrong sell, it's like air and water.
00:04:55:13 - 00:05:15:52
Speaker 3
You need air, right to live, you need water. And, you know, I realized that that marketing side, if you can really figure out how to dial that up and dial it in, that the sales will tend to take care of itself, especially with how things are today where, you know, this attraction marketing that kind of occurs through, you know, the variety of different platforms that are out there.
00:05:16:15 - 00:05:45:07
Speaker 3
You know, there's so many platforms that people just totally underutilized that just really help with that marketing side. And the craziest thing is they don't cost anything. You know, it doesn't cost money. I say, you know, these platforms, you know, if you look at like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, anything that involves video, these platforms are all free. It just cost that social awkwardness that most people are a little worried about.
00:05:45:07 - 00:05:56:36
Speaker 3
But but yeah, so I stumbled into marketing, but it was cool coincidence because it was my Xerox. It was, you know, my method of being able to learn and perfect sales. Yeah.
00:05:57:21 - 00:06:19:49
Speaker 2
So your statement that marketing your senior to sales, right. Those are fighting words now. Just kidding. No, I couldn't agree more. And here's why. Because we are not in the nineties and the two early 2000 anymore where it's all about the clothes. It's all about if I get you on the phone, you're going to get closed. If you open up that door, you're getting closed.
00:06:19:49 - 00:06:39:59
Speaker 2
You know, if I meet you in person, if I cross the threshold of your home, I'm going to close. You know, there's still companies that operate that way, don't get me wrong. And they do. Well, sure, But consumers over the past 20 years have gotten so much more educated and so much more privy to sales tactics in general.
00:06:40:17 - 00:07:04:31
Speaker 2
Right. Right. They they understand good cop, bad cop, you know what I mean? They understand things like building rapport, you know, I'm saying. Yeah. And so now I think what's shifted in and it's been utilized by the three platforms that you're talking about is, all right, how do I get it to where by the time I have a prospect come through the door, they're already sold, right?
00:07:04:39 - 00:07:25:26
Speaker 2
You know what I mean? Like you said, the attraction marketing, and that is a lot of what marketing is now. You know what I mean? Yes, you can. You can have the ads. You can have the I mean, but it is a wider scope, you know, because it Yeah, if it come to you through ads and they want to see what you're all about, Right.
00:07:25:53 - 00:07:38:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. And if you don't have that on your page, if your page is very aloof and you're not getting into the nitty gritty of your business and even sometimes like who you are as a person and your values, then your conversion rate is going to be as high. Would you agree with that?
00:07:38:33 - 00:08:07:13
Speaker 3
Totally agree. I totally agree. You know, I often say that, you know, when when I run campaigns, that I'll have more success with a business that has, you know, won a good reputation, that has the ability to service the customer properly and has a track record of doing so. Because, you know, if you take I would just say Google and we'll say $1,000 to a company that has been around a while, they have a great reputation.
00:08:07:13 - 00:08:40:10
Speaker 3
You take that same thousand dollars to a company that's just getting their their feet wet in in the marketplace. It can perform, but it's not going to perform the same because there's already they're already facing the fact that this other business has some sort of credibility in the marketplace. And the thing that I like about something like, you know, putting out videos on on Instagram or Facebook, Tik or any of these platforms really is it gives you an opportunity to share different insights about your business, building that credibility before you even walk in the door.
00:08:41:16 - 00:09:03:36
Speaker 3
You know, a lot of the process when you get into, you know, say, home services, you get into the house, you're already showing up with a certain level of authority to begin with. If you've made it to the House, once you have that, it's on you to make sure that you're asking educated questions to get to the problem, to remain in that that position of authority, if you will.
00:09:03:55 - 00:09:23:04
Speaker 3
But, you know, and you got to use that to your advantage. You know, when somebody has you come to their house or they come to your showroom, it's because their intentions are to buy it really comes down to you at that point. And it's you know, oftentimes people think that it comes down to price. Oftentimes, that's not the biggest factor.
00:09:23:36 - 00:09:30:25
Speaker 3
Oftentimes, it's their confidence in whether or not you'll be able to deliver on the product. And will that product actually fix their problem?
00:09:31:39 - 00:09:54:50
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, you know, the market is what it is right now in terms of how it was six months ago versus now. Right. So it's tightening up a little bit. Sure. But at the end of the day, you know, we're part of a flourishing market. People have money, know it, and 108 what it used to be. But but that household income for at least the customers that we're marketing to home services is pretty standard.
00:09:54:50 - 00:10:13:03
Speaker 2
Right. And so they're you know, again, customers are more educated. They're willing to spend, you know, $100 versus $80 if they have confidence, like you said, in the salesperson or in the company, that they're going to get the job done and they're going to it's going to be a quality job. They're not going to have issues with the warranty or anything like that.
00:10:13:05 - 00:10:32:24
Speaker 2
Right. And so I couldn't agree more with that. So when you got into marketing, obviously you didn't just wake up one day and start Love a hot marketing agency, right? What was that journey like from all right, now I'm maybe selling marketing or I'm executing on the marketing to your own agency.
00:10:33:03 - 00:10:53:49
Speaker 3
Yes. So, so, you know, as I mentioned, I started out in the yellow page industry and as you can imagine, that's not the most booming industry in 2023. But of course, this was ten, 11 years ago, and I happened to be in a market where Yellow Pages were actually still used rather frequently. It was kind of a retiree type of town.
00:10:53:49 - 00:11:20:47
Speaker 3
So older demographic. And, you know, and I will say this even now, there are still people that tend to use the Yellow Pages. It's just weird. It's that older demographic that usually have that disposable income anyway. But, you know, I started out with with a local company, and then within a year, I got recruited into a much larger company that now they've changed your name.
00:11:20:47 - 00:11:45:43
Speaker 3
They're a company called Thrive, which you know, does Yellow Pages, but they also do, you know, a software as well. And, you know, shortly after that I got recruited to work for USA Today. And, you know, so I was running campaigns for them. I was recruited ever as their digital marketing specialist, quickly became a manager for them. And I ever saw, you know, a sales force of my own.
00:11:46:10 - 00:12:14:22
Speaker 3
And our goal was grow the book of business digitally. And that's what we did. We just, you know, worked on my first mission in that and this is for any business owner that's listening, and it's the area that I always start with when I work with it, with a company trying to help them increase sales, I always look at the preexisting book of business because there's so much gold just sitting in that right there.
00:12:14:47 - 00:12:41:31
Speaker 3
You know, a great example, a pest control company that I that I work with on some of their sales stuff like that, you know, getting the phone to ring but then converting into a customer. We had we hired a position, this girl called through all the preexisting customers and inside of a week generated $20,000 worth of revenue for just, just the mosquito side of the business.
00:12:42:23 - 00:13:01:30
Speaker 3
And, you know, we're not talking huge chunks, but I mean, that's a nice chunk to be able to generate inside of a week for, you know, for one specific vertical. So, you know, that's a prime example of like there's money sitting there. The past customers are always the customers that will spend more. You know, it's kind of like that rule.
00:13:01:30 - 00:13:23:06
Speaker 3
If somebody buys with you, that second sale is going to be easier than the first. So I always try to try to look at that, you know, from, you know, having that position at USA Today. You know, I had my own sales team and then I eventually made a shift into the company into like a senior sales role.
00:13:24:10 - 00:13:51:16
Speaker 3
But at some point, I just I felt like it wasn't really fully what I wanted to be doing. I wanted to get more into like, what I'm doing now. You know, what a lot of how it was built on going in and doing marketing optimizations for businesses because it was something I kept running into. I would go into a business who was working with five, six, seven, eight different vendors, and every one of those vendors had a different version of what that business's message should be.
00:13:51:43 - 00:14:13:24
Speaker 3
You know, you know, this is what it should look like on Facebook or TV or radio or magazine. And I realized none of this is streamlined. You know, they're just taking the advice of every vendor when they come in. And it just was fragmented. It was a fragmented marketing plan. Yeah, Yeah. You look at something like McDonald's, their marketing plan is their marketing plan.
00:14:13:51 - 00:14:47:56
Speaker 3
You know, it's not fragmented based on each vendor. Like they're going to have their message. It's going to be the same message. It's going to be very consistent. I also saw that a lot of vendors would typically sell like these add on products. Usually it was like digital display ads on their website, which is fine. It's just again, every you know, when you add up the four or five companies that you have these dangerous flash ads on, it's a big piece of your budget that could be going to something that's significantly more fruitful, like Facebook ads or Google AdWords or, you know, write licenses.
00:14:48:00 - 00:15:08:06
Speaker 3
I mean, there's just so many other options. And when you're a local, a mid-sized company operating on thin margins and a smaller marketing budget, you know, you have to try to be as efficient as possible. So, you know, I found that it's like a space that I knew I could step in and immediately help businesses streamline their marketing.
00:15:08:43 - 00:15:28:03
Speaker 3
And then the second layer to that was helping with that. That second piece throughout my career or my goal was always get the phone to ring, get forms filled, or get people in your door. Yeah, once that occurs, it was typically on the business. Like once that phone rang and that person answered the phone, it was like, that's where that ad stopped.
00:15:29:09 - 00:15:54:39
Speaker 3
And I realized that I was really good at making the phone ring. But sometimes those business owners or their teams were not really good at converting that phone call into an actual lead. So that's where the second layer came in on that sales training side, making sure that, you know, that phone gets answered properly. We get that into a booked appointment and then how do we get that booked appointment to convert into an actual paying customer when we get out there?
00:15:54:54 - 00:15:59:25
Speaker 3
And then how do we offer these upsells that really start to grow the revenue?
00:16:00:54 - 00:16:20:54
Speaker 2
No, I love it and I love the model because, you know, that's a it's a natural thing for me. The idea that, you know, these small businesses have several different avenues that they're advertising through and they're not tracking the ROI on each one and they're not saying, Hey, this one gets us 3 to 1, you know, I'm saying versus this other one.
00:16:20:56 - 00:16:38:31
Speaker 2
It's just like, you know, maybe we get 50% on the first customer cost per acquisition, right? And so it's like, hey, we need to be putting all our money in this 3 to 1 over here, you know? Right. But they're not even looking at that. They're saying, oh, this is the way that we've done it, and this is who we've worked with and we have a relationship with them.
00:16:38:54 - 00:16:46:38
Speaker 2
Instead of looking at the numbers and then cross-referencing that with relationships. Right. So what about Lava Hot, though? Where did that come from? What the name.
00:16:46:57 - 00:17:10:55
Speaker 3
The actual name. Yeah. So I actually came up with the name. This was probably back it was back in 2018 and I really was just trying to come up with the name of a holding company and I was having lunch with a friend and I burned my mouth on miso soup and I was just like, Yeah, that was lava hot.
00:17:10:55 - 00:17:30:25
Speaker 3
And then it just it was just a weird name. But being in like that digital marketing space, it just, it kind of works for the type of industry that I'm in after I create it, My, my logo. About two years later, I saw a logo for a company called Hotjar, if you're familiar with that platform, same flame and everything.
00:17:30:25 - 00:17:46:48
Speaker 3
I was like, Man, that you know, and I got hit. Who ripped off who on that one? But, you know, the name was kind of close, but, you know, it just it was just a weird name that I happened to come up with. And it just kind of stuck with me and, you know, the name of the podcast.
00:17:46:48 - 00:18:00:55
Speaker 3
So I never really intended to call it the Lava Hop podcast, but I was just in a position where I was like, You know what? I'm going to get this podcast launched. I don't want to I don't want to invest too much time into that part of it. I like my logo. I'm just running with that. And yeah, you know, we'll see where it ends up.
00:18:00:55 - 00:18:20:49
Speaker 2
So yeah, and it makes it easier. And then you can cover a myriad of issues and topics and all that kind of stuff because it's a catch all type name, right? But it works really well for marketing. I love it. Yeah. So what would you say? Do you have a niche right now or are you kind of all over the place?
00:18:20:49 - 00:18:23:22
Speaker 3
You mean in terms of my focus for the business.
00:18:23:42 - 00:18:30:52
Speaker 2
I know you said that, you know, you mainly do home services, right? Is there a certain type of home service like AC, roofing? So, you.
00:18:31:15 - 00:18:50:16
Speaker 3
Know, so, you know, I've worked with over 45 different industries and before I got into marketing, before my marketing days, I was a manager for 84 Lumber, if you're familiar with that, or they were they're kind of like Home Depot. But for contractors.
00:18:50:16 - 00:18:50:43
Speaker 2
Oh, okay.
00:18:51:25 - 00:19:16:06
Speaker 3
So it's where the contractors go to buy all their building materials, their windows, doors, trim, so on and so forth. So and I got into that job when I was 19, and by the time I was 21, I was managing a store, which is, you know, a fun experience of its own because you had a sales staff. I had people that ran the trucks, the forklifts, you know, people that ran the counter, people clean, and all of them were older than me.
00:19:16:06 - 00:19:56:11
Speaker 3
I was literally the youngest person in the building. So, you know, that's a fun experience. But I, I grew this admiration for local to midsize companies. And when I became manager was right at the end of 2007, beginning of 2008. And it was right when the housing market started to crash. And what created this like love and admiration for local to midsize companies, specifically the the home service guys is there was one contractor that that stands out in my mind still to this day was a company called Rock Zilla out of the out of the Virginia market.
00:19:56:40 - 00:20:14:34
Speaker 3
And this guy, he got left holding the bag, right. He did a job for a general contractor and they left you know, they they stuck with the material. He had to pay his bill for for the materials that he bought from us. But he also had to pay his guys. And he didn't get paid anything on the job.
00:20:14:34 - 00:20:32:13
Speaker 3
He didn't get paid for the installation, meaning you pay for the materials and all of it's already in. So it's not like you can go back to this house and get it back from that that that Jesse that really screwed him over. And that story kind of has been imprinted in my mind that these guys need help. Right?
00:20:32:29 - 00:20:53:51
Speaker 3
They they have families that they're trying to provide for. They have crews that they're trying to that they're trying to provide for. They have a community that they're trying to service. And at the same time, you know, they want to make a living. They want to be a part of the community. They also want to fund the school fundraisers and, you know, give their donations to the church.
00:20:53:51 - 00:21:13:21
Speaker 3
And I just I saw that that every one of these guys, you know, they're all these hardworking individuals that really want to go out there. They want to try to build a company and put food on the table for them and their family and everybody around them. And then for them, they so easily get, you know, screwed over by this.
00:21:13:30 - 00:21:40:01
Speaker 3
The general contractor that screwed up, It was just like this big national builder. So for them, it was just like, Oh, sorry, pal. And you know, since then, you know, it just hasn't gone anywhere. And I think maybe that's where I'm so rooted in liking that, you know, working with the home service companies, whether it's roofing gutters, insulation, pest control, HBC, all, they're all typically trying to find customers the same way.
00:21:40:01 - 00:22:04:26
Speaker 3
And there are certain things that are tried and true that will work universally for all of them. And, you know, for for me, it's, you know, I don't really have like a specific vertical within home services. There's not really one that I would turn away. But yeah, I mean, really it's just that local midsize guy, you know, that's what we're built on.
00:22:04:26 - 00:22:26:25
Speaker 3
That's what, you know, we have a software that we recently launched called Slingshot and you know, the name Slingshot I came up with because of the story of David and Goliath. Obviously, David did not have a slingshot, but he did have a sling. And I felt like it's the weapon that the little guy can use to go up against their Goliath.
00:22:27:12 - 00:23:02:31
Speaker 3
You know? And if you think of that, if you think of, you know, your local septic company, they're going up against Roto-Rooter and they're huge marketing. But in certain markets, you're going up to these major regional players that have these huge marketing budgets, huge marketing teams, and you're just trying to get your piece of your neighborhood right. And, you know, so I you know, I put this platform together as a marketing vehicle to be able to take 14 of the most common platforms that people use to run their business, to market their business, put it in the one platform and, you know, just try to streamline that process at a price point that any local
00:23:02:31 - 00:23:04:38
Speaker 3
mid-size company can afford to us.
00:23:04:55 - 00:23:12:32
Speaker 2
So it's a marketing platform that you can place ads through, manage your marketing reports and stuff like that, or how does it work exactly?
00:23:12:50 - 00:23:34:53
Speaker 3
Yeah, Yeah. So, you know, I always say that starts with the foundation of your web presence, which is, you know, your website. You can also do funnels the landing pages through it, your social media set up making sure that that's all taken care of, claiming your listings online so that your your Google Yahoo being y peacock super pages dot com the whole whole gamut of different search engines that are out there.
00:23:36:27 - 00:24:05:13
Speaker 3
Also a way to be able to boost your reviews just it's an important aspect of it. Yeah claiming your your Google my business page but then there's this whole other back end to it which is like your CRM, your ability to do email marketing, drip campaigns like all these things that should be a part of the business. And oftentimes I see that like I've worked with some home service companies where, you know, would be a septic company where everything's done on your pad.
00:24:05:13 - 00:24:22:01
Speaker 3
It's like in a notebook somewhere. They have, you know, like these Rolodexes of of past customers. And, you know, some of these guys, you know, they've been operating that way forever. And I guess it works. But there's a way to be able to streamline that and, you know, build it in to a system.
00:24:23:20 - 00:24:41:29
Speaker 2
No, I love it. I mean, it it sounds like a beast of a system to if it's able to do all of that. So I would love to check that out and look at that for my clients as well. That'd be amazing for sure. Okay, so just say I'm a pest control company. Mm hmm. And, you know, I've had a good month.
00:24:41:29 - 00:24:56:51
Speaker 2
I've got five grand from a marketing budget for the next month. Are you attacking one thing that you really like right now? Are you trying to spread that out? And let's say I have the basics covered, like all the pages you talked about. I have that covered. Now it's like, okay, what can I spend it on to get a return?
00:24:58:17 - 00:25:24:57
Speaker 3
Hmm. So, I mean, you know, it'd be kind of the first thing that I try to look at is how well are you covered on the DirecTV media, meaning where people are directed to go the moment they're ready to buy. So how how well are you dominating? Google for me has always been the first thing because, you know, there's this whole category of customers a lot of the businesses that I've worked with over my years, they'll say something like, Well, everybody knows me.
00:25:24:57 - 00:25:46:55
Speaker 3
You know, I've been around for ten years or I've been around for 15 years, which is it's always a funny statement, but I always say, Yeah, but what about that? You know, that I call it they need it. MARTIN You know, they're new to the area. You know, it's an infrequent purchase. It's an emergency. They were dissatisfied side with your competitor, transient or, you know, it's just somebody who they've never had to make this type of purchase before.
00:25:46:55 - 00:26:07:21
Speaker 3
You know, maybe they just bought their house. They've never had to, you know, do a new roof or replace a window. So these are all people that are part of that need category. And what I try to look at is how well are we representing for those people? Because not everybody that's going to go to Google is going to search for, you know, John's pest control.
00:26:07:31 - 00:26:24:54
Speaker 3
They're going to go and look for termite control. They're going to look for if those searches are happening and they do happen inside your market, it means that you're not known by everybody who's doing that search in your market. Otherwise, they would just search for you by name. And I'm sure that happens. So I always look at that like, how well are we dominating locally?
00:26:24:54 - 00:26:48:34
Speaker 3
I'm a big fan of let's dominate hyper locally, provide it. You're in a market that is a good market dominate hyper locally that's you know organically meaning you're coming up in the map section and in you know your common search queries and then are you dominating in the ad section because I'm a big fan of the ad section and in select markets and I'm sure it's kind of rolled out pretty much everywhere.
00:26:48:43 - 00:27:08:02
Speaker 3
It's the local services ads. So that Google Guarantee spot that you see when you do a search for most categories nowadays, you know, if you're not place there, figure out how to get placed there right away. And, you know, feel free to reach out to me and our team will help you get that squared away because it's one area that so many people overlook.
00:27:08:20 - 00:27:17:31
Speaker 3
And it's just crazy to me because it's it's better positioning and it's paid per call rather than pay per click. So.
00:27:17:31 - 00:27:46:24
Speaker 2
So right now, do you you know, let's just say some of our people reach out, our listeners reach out to you to handle some of their marketing stuff like that. What is your kind of sales process from there? So I do I have a few clients as well as listeners that are agencies, right? And so they're, you know, it's it's funny, they can get the phone to ring, they can get the web forms on the site and everything, but that sales process kind of eludes them Sometimes.
00:27:46:24 - 00:27:46:42
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:27:47:11 - 00:28:16:08
Speaker 3
Yeah. So, you know, throughout my entire career and it when I look at other vendors and things like that and now that I'm on the side of the table where I actually interview the vendors, what I've noticed is that my approach was not very typical in the marketing space. So I'll say when I first meet with a client, yeah, I've never throughout my career walked in with like, Hey, this is what we should do.
00:28:16:08 - 00:28:46:49
Speaker 3
I never had like programs pre-built and said, Hey, you should buy this program or Google or Facebook or whatever it was. I always walked in with a notepad with a certain set of questions on it. So my process is very simple. I want to understand, you know, your current state versus your desired state. Like revenue wise, the number of jobs that are coming in, what type of jobs are coming in, you know, whether that's, you know, we'll use home services just to make it easier if you're an HDFC guy.
00:28:47:09 - 00:29:07:58
Speaker 3
Well, part of your business is new install versus service, home repair. Yeah. You know, and are you in a position where you could handle four or five more new installs per week? Because if you are, I know that that's a significantly higher customer that comes in and you can also get the service on the back end and you can usually get them into some sort of home maintenance plan.
00:29:09:14 - 00:29:35:45
Speaker 3
So I always try to look at that like, where are the areas that we can really start to grow revenue? I also try to look at what current marketing do you have in place now and how do you track the effectiveness of it? So it really comes down to that needs of our trying to really understand the current state of the business, that the desired state, you know, where it is that they are and where it is that they're trying to get to.
00:29:36:12 - 00:29:55:08
Speaker 3
And I have seen throughout my career that oftentimes business owners haven't even done the math to figure out where they could have scaled over the next year. You know, when you sit down and start asking those questions, okay, well, how many service technicians do you have? How many trucks, how many jobs can they do? How many are they doing per week now?
00:29:55:08 - 00:30:17:54
Speaker 3
How many could they do when you start doing that math for them? Sometimes that gap of where they are to where they could be with their current staffing is hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in revenue that they could do if they were won. Thinking of it that way, if they were trying to think, how do I attract those specific customers?
00:30:18:12 - 00:30:41:40
Speaker 3
Because a very common thing that I've seen throughout my career is somebody saying, you know, we're busy and right now, and don't get me wrong, look, I know since 2020 up to now, like it's been a crazy for contractors. Everybody's had money sway has been crazy. And I get that. You know, you've probably have had a lot of customers reaching out to you, but are they the right customers?
00:30:42:00 - 00:31:12:19
Speaker 3
That's the thing I always try to focus on. Is it the ideal customer? Is it the customer that wants a new system versus, you know, a $400 repair? You know, so I always try to identify like if the phone rang every single day for a certain type of customer, what would it be and how do we get every one of them to think of you when that time comes, when it's time to buy, how do we either get them to connect with you or how do we get them to think of you?
00:31:12:19 - 00:31:35:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's funny. I had a consulting client the other day and we're looking at doing a rough share deal to where I come into the company and basically consult with them and try and get them to a million. Right now they're around 700,000 and literally I have 300,000 in their current capacity right now. Right. And so, you know, we're very aligned in that sense.
00:31:35:06 - 00:31:56:43
Speaker 2
And then that's so that's the first question I asked him, Who is your favorite customer? Like, who are the customers you love dealing with and saying? And then the next question was, who is the most profitable customer? Yeah, you know, I'm saying if we want to grow this thing 300,000, it's like you said earlier, it's funny because it was the age of our company and that was the first thing they realized, like, Hey, we need new installs, but our techs don't like new installs.
00:31:57:05 - 00:31:59:18
Speaker 2
All right, well, we need new techs. You know.
00:32:00:07 - 00:32:23:14
Speaker 3
Right. Well, I mean, and there's other things that you can look at. Why do they not like new installs? You know, maybe if there's like a nice incentive for them to do that install, maybe if it's like a reduction based on install. So some back end things you can work out there. But but what my instinct was yours as well, like it sounds like they're not the right fit that.
00:32:23:58 - 00:32:48:37
Speaker 2
Well what it is is I guess in the HVAC industry, the the entry level tech is does the new installs right there and install it before they become a certified tech. And so that's kind of like beneath an experienced tech, I guess you could say. And so the way we structured are the way that I told them that I would structure it if we did the deal was I would create an opportunity structure within their company because right now all they have is the experience techs.
00:32:49:08 - 00:33:12:30
Speaker 2
It's like you need some of those grunt guys that are coming in and learning the business, you know, the Apprentice type guys to evolve into the installer helper and the installer so you can kind to fill that gap. You know, the the work you guys don't want to do. You have have happier experienced techs for the, the harder jobs and then you'll have those medium range techs for the the installers and when you're installs go through the roof.
00:33:12:30 - 00:33:29:40
Speaker 2
Yeah. You incentivize the experienced techs to do those installs too just like you said. Right. Yeah. 100%. Okay. So what's next for. For your business now, what are you guys looking to get into? Are you, are you kind of enjoying a certain space or expansion in general?
00:33:30:14 - 00:33:53:07
Speaker 3
Yeah. So, you know, right now a great deal of my focus has been on Slingshot getting that, you know, prepped for the rollout, which, you know, everything's in line for it, like the software is up and operational and all that jazz. You know, we've been working on putting together some promotions. But my goal there, you know, my my long term goal is I want to have 10,000 businesses that I'm helping that are set up on that platform.
00:33:53:07 - 00:34:10:58
Speaker 3
And, you know, we're trying to think creatively because obviously I can't I can't handle and manage 10,000 customers on my own. So, you know, that's where the team team comes in to be able to fulfill it and all that jazz. And, you know, we'll obviously grow into a position where we have 10,000. The first upfront goal was 1000 customers put on there.
00:34:10:58 - 00:34:39:56
Speaker 3
10,000 is the bigger goal. And, you know, my my thoughts were to try to build it out in this like a community, you know, where there's information that we're able to dump. And you know, we have like this online community where we're able to share like different things that you can do within your marketing, you know, outside of Slingshot would be, you know, for for lava hot we do you know for for those listening we do an initial marketing evaluation where we'll take a look at your marketing.
00:34:39:57 - 00:34:59:11
Speaker 3
We'll try to understand how that budget is structured and where you might be able to trim some of the fat that there's been companies that I've gone into with very limited marketing budgets, and I'll say limited as in, you know, this one company that had a $75,000 marketing budget, you know, that's everything. They're doing. And this was a home service guy.
00:34:59:40 - 00:35:21:32
Speaker 3
And just by restructuring thing and negotiating some of the contracts that they had in place, we were able to with that same budget, they were able to pay me to to restructure it. And we ended up with about $20,000 in additional advertising value that we were able to extract from these vendors by just getting them to to tweak it.
00:35:21:59 - 00:35:47:06
Speaker 3
I guess that's maybe a little bit of the advantage of having worked on the other side is that I've understood, you know, where how to look for incentives and how to look for ways of being able to cut out the pieces that you don't within preexisting marketing. And in using that money, really optimizing the marketing program to put it into things that will be more fruitful that drive more conversions.
00:35:47:27 - 00:36:11:25
Speaker 2
So that makes a lot of sense. I'm excited about the software because I know, you know, there's levels to business, right? Let's say you have a home service company, right? And you know, they typically they typically multiply really well when it comes to selling because you have a customer base, you're in, especially if you're installing, you're not subbing, you're installing yourself, you manage the entire customer process.
00:36:11:41 - 00:36:24:19
Speaker 2
The multiples are pretty nice at 3 to 5, right? The software companies are a whole different animal because once you get a user in a software company, I mean, those users typically use software for 2 to 3 years. You know? Right.
00:36:24:39 - 00:36:48:01
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, the goal of it is that my goal for everybody that gets set up on Slingshot is for it to become such an easy part of their business that it's stick, it sticks with them, that there's never a reason to try to switch because they will be priced at a point that, you know, is significantly worth the value.
00:36:48:10 - 00:37:23:48
Speaker 3
My goal was always overdeliver on the value of the software's because we're taking what traditionally would be about 30 $600 worth of software. If you bought a model car that's, you know, your website builder over here, a social media planner, you know, your CRM, your email, like MailChimp, we're taking all these platforms and putting in one collectively. If you bought them all separately and then you had to manage the, the username and passwords for all these different different platforms, it's about 30 $600 worth of different, you know, a variety of different platforms we put in the program.
00:37:23:49 - 00:37:41:58
Speaker 3
And depending on which tier you're on and you're there 197 a month to 97 or are 497. Yeah. So I mean, we have different price points based on like how aggressive you want, like how much email marketing and all that jazz you want built into it and what level of service you want from us, because it's kind of set up where we can do.
00:37:42:51 - 00:37:54:36
Speaker 3
It's all kind of done with you, but there is a tier where it's kind of done, done a little bit more for you in certain aspects, right? So yeah, So I have to say that.
00:37:55:12 - 00:37:56:25
Speaker 2
They help you act that stuff.
00:37:57:01 - 00:38:27:50
Speaker 3
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, so the way that we built this is it really should just become a part of your business. You know, your schedule gets managed through your calendar, gets, gets managed through it, you're in your emails, you're sending out like everything just built into one platform just to streamline everything. And that's our hopes is that that we overdeliver so much on the value that there's never a reason to leave or to try to switch to a different software because it's all together.
00:38:28:33 - 00:38:44:54
Speaker 2
No, I love it. I mean, that's what Homeservices needs, right? Because typically these guys are coming from being in AC tech, they're coming from being a roofing company. You know what I mean? They're coming from being in construction or labor or whatever the case is. And so they need that all in one.
00:38:45:23 - 00:38:46:42
Speaker 3
You know? Absolutely right.
00:38:47:11 - 00:39:04:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. We can get into like this specifics of each, you know, vertical and everything and how deep you can go into it. But they don't need that. They need to be able to provide the customers with good service. At the same time, having a strong marketing plan and a software like that could really just dial things in for them.
00:39:04:01 - 00:39:04:35
Speaker 2
Make it easy.
00:39:05:02 - 00:39:35:31
Speaker 3
Yeah, Yeah. You know, to your point, you know, you take like a tree service company, right? You know, most tree service companies, they're kind of starting, you know, it's one guy in a truck, right? And what tends to happen in in a lot of those type of home based home service companies is when the phone rings, if they're not there to answer it, you know, that customer just got missed and it's hard to run run certain ad camp.
00:39:35:31 - 00:39:54:23
Speaker 3
Yeah, that's exactly right. Especially in those emergency situations somebody calls because a tree just fell on their house. They're not waiting for you to get back. They're calling whoever you know, whoever's available. But, you know, at least within, you know, within their system, we set it up so that like, there could be like an automatic responder that goes out.
00:39:54:23 - 00:40:29:33
Speaker 3
Somebody calls, they're going to get text right away that says, hey, sorry, we just missed your call. We'll call you right back. Yeah. Even just something that's subtle, like at least shows that there's like some level of communication because oftentimes and this is for sales in general, the main part is being in that communication, you know, having that communication with the customer, whether it's on the front end on them initially looking for the service during the conversation, making sure you're in good communication and then in the follow up or after the sale, having that communication, it's it's the most important aspect of the sale is that communication.
00:40:29:45 - 00:40:50:42
Speaker 2
So that's where the, you know, utilizing base for a small call center can become huge, especially if that's something that, you know, you guys provide long term or I mean, I know there's a ton of companies out there that do it, but it's different to do it as a marketing add on or a software add on because that that's not where you need to make the money.
00:40:50:42 - 00:41:13:57
Speaker 2
Where you need to make the money is the software, right? And so that call center can be built for home service companies and they could take 17 different home service companies calls and have their schedules in front of them and say, Hey, sorry, a tree just fell on your house, or they're messaging that right tree down your house will be able to be there in 2 hours when the text schedule opens up or when the tree cutter schedule opens up.
00:41:13:57 - 00:41:30:07
Speaker 2
You know, to me, at least now they have a time and they know it's getting handled. You know, they just got to wait a couple hours, whatever the case is. Absolutely. And that's just kind of where my brain goes with that. I. All right, brother. So that's what's next for your business as far as the software and everything goes?
00:41:30:07 - 00:41:42:46
Speaker 2
You know, one of the questions I always like to ask at the end of the call and it kind of pivots the direction we've been talking about. So we've been digging out on business in general, right? Yeah, But you know, what does lazy mean to you and what legacy do you want to leave behind?
00:41:44:04 - 00:41:46:13
Speaker 3
Oh, you know.
00:41:47:15 - 00:41:52:39
Speaker 2
Normally I warm you up a little bit, you know? Hey, tell me about your family. You know that. Yeah.
00:41:52:58 - 00:41:54:30
Speaker 3
But, yeah, you know.
00:41:54:30 - 00:41:56:09
Speaker 2
Let it get away from us on the business side.
00:41:57:18 - 00:42:18:18
Speaker 3
Yeah. You know, I guess, you know, for me, I think legacy to me means what you're known for long after you're gone, you know? And the legacy that I'd like to leave is, you know, that I was able to help as many people as I could while I had a chance to be able to help as many people as I could.
00:42:18:45 - 00:42:41:43
Speaker 3
And, you know, when I look at, you know, the mission of of Slingshot, you know, of being able to try to initially, you know, obviously the goal will eventually move. You hit 10,000 businesses were helping the goal post is always going it move but yeah you know I look at something like that if I can support 10,000 businesses, that's 10,000, you know, businesses that I was able to maybe help grow and help scale.
00:42:42:46 - 00:43:07:28
Speaker 3
You know, I was able to help their their their family, their local community. You know, if I can help 10,000 businesses thrive, that's a lot of people that get touched in that. Right. You know, so you know, it's for me as a as a father and a husband, it's something that, like my family has been built around like I've built this business around my family, which is kind of unique.
00:43:08:11 - 00:43:28:42
Speaker 3
And it's something that I learned from Grant Cardone. Like, I just see how if you're familiar with him, I just see him and Elena are and I see how him and his kids are like his kids are like always around them. And when I set up my office, like I want my family to be like, entwined into it, you know, it's why, you know, my wife, she schedules the podcast that I go on or the episodes that morning.
00:43:28:42 - 00:43:42:36
Speaker 3
She does a lot of the back end stuff for me. You know, my kids will I certain parts of my office set up where, you know, they get to come here and you know, they can hang out. And I've set up like a little movie theater for them. And, you know, I just I like to have them around.
00:43:42:36 - 00:43:59:15
Speaker 3
I want to have them around so that they can start to learn. You know what? I want the culture of the business to be so they can become a part of that culture where eventually, you know, I want to grow them into certain parts. Obviously, if my daughter wants to be a detective, which is a real thing, so she wants to be a detective.
00:43:59:31 - 00:44:14:47
Speaker 3
So like, I don't want to crush that dream, but she's also, you know, a proud dad moment. She's a straight-A student, hard worker, all that like very, you know, very driven, focused, kind of. I kind of want to steal her into into the business is, you know, the goal.
00:44:14:47 - 00:44:28:40
Speaker 2
But but she sees you do it every day. Yeah. You're setting the example for her. Yeah. You know it she gets to see the because like you said, you're intertwined with your family and your business. And I think that's massive and that's the way it should be done. So much for that.
00:44:28:58 - 00:44:57:12
Speaker 3
Yeah. So, you know, I think, you know, for my family legacy, like I want to build something that for them that they would have. But I've built the mission of what I've been trying to do into them at the same time, if that makes any sort of yes, it's like absolutely. So on the personal side, on the you know, on the the other side of it, the bigger legacy of it would be, you know, how do I help as many business owners as I can?
00:44:57:12 - 00:45:15:59
Speaker 3
Because at the end of day, you say business, business owner or as a business it's people. Now how do I help as many people as possible? How do I help them create more work for their for their team, their technicians, their, you know, their waitstaff, whatever it is? How do I do? I make this thing so that it can impact as many people as possible.
00:45:16:39 - 00:45:20:47
Speaker 2
I mean, who gets to wake up every day and do that? You know? Right. So how blessed are we?
00:45:21:19 - 00:45:21:34
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:45:22:22 - 00:45:35:20
Speaker 2
All right, brother. Well, I appreciate you coming the podcast. I can't wait to jump on yours and talk about all things sales and building sales teams and all that good stuff. But I definitely want to thank you for sharing that with us today. And I appreciate you coming on the show.
00:45:36:00 - 00:46:04:39
Speaker 3
Absolutely. Yeah. You know, one thing just kind of like a last little plug, You know, if anybody out there is, you know, want if they want to check out my show, I've made everything easy. Slava how podcasts account. If you're curious about how we can help on the marketing side and and all that jazz, it's got a lot of dot.com and for the software for Slingshot, I would encourage you to head on over to powered by slingshot dot com.
00:46:05:11 - 00:46:06:25
Speaker 3
Nice and yeah.
00:46:06:25 - 00:46:16:46
Speaker 2
We'll we'll include all those links in the show notes as well for anybody that's on their phone or driving or whatever soon to get to a stop to sticky notes there and you can go right to those sites.
00:46:17:13 - 00:46:38:42
Speaker 3
Very cool. Yeah and I you know, I'm looking forward to having you on because we didn't dive a ton into sales, but it's a topic that I can I can passionately talk about all day long. So we'll dedicate that 30 to 45 minutes to just hammer sales and, you know, we'll try to try to pair these out hopefully she as you book soon.
00:46:39:46 - 00:46:42:41
Speaker 2
Yeah I think I think I'm in a couple of weeks or something like that but yeah.
00:46:43:51 - 00:46:47:54
Speaker 3
Cool cool awesome. Well hey thank you for thank you for having me on the show.
00:46:48:27 - 00:46:49:57
Speaker 2
Absolutely. Joseph, let's get building.
00:46:50:22 - 00:46:58:04
Speaker 3
Yes, sir.
00:46:58:04 - 00:47:21:50
Speaker 1
Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Building Great Sales Teams podcast. I really do appreciate it. As you know, we believe that great leaders build great teams. How do you become a great leader? You learn from the great. Join us at the Million Dollar Mastermind put on by Ryan Stallman in Frisco, Texas, and learn everything that you need to learn to be that great leader.
00:47:22:19 - 00:47:42:27
Speaker 1
The link will be in the description below. As always, we ask that you like, share and subscribe wherever you consume podcasts so you can stay up to date with the building Great Sales Teams Podcast. Let's get building.