Marketers Are Busy But Not Productive

I have worked with many restoration and roofing business owners over the past dozen years and more often than not, they tell me they expect their marketer to visit at least 20 (or more) clients every day!

These owners are insisting on a “Stop-Drop and Roll” strategy. Their motivation for this kind of demand is usually – they more you visit the better your chances.

We know today (and for the past 5-10 years) that Relationships are what get you clients and referrals. It’s NOT about the number of visits. – it’s about quality clients.

In most markets there are about 300 insurance agents (or more in the bigger cities) and only about 10% of them will Ever send you any work. Since we have proven this over and over, it makes far more sense to qualify the clients and decide what ones will never send you work, and which ones either will or probably will.

Ranking the prospect  “A,” “B,” or “C” is actually easier that you might think. When they tell you they “always have their policyholder call the “800” number or they never get involved in the claims process” – they are likely a “C” prospect. “C” stands for crap, and you will almost never convert them to an “A” or even a “B”!

We have only mentioned insurance agents so far – so add in plumbers (a typical territory will have about 200) and then add in non-competition carpet cleaners, fire sprinkler companies, industrial hygienists, and even rodent control companies and you could easily have 100 prospects on a list. No restoration company can call on that many in a month and further – most will never refer a job to you!

Owners that insist on their marketer visiting 20 or more prospects a day is putting quantity over quality. It’s about building quality RELATIONSHIPS not about the number of visits.

I just learned this week that a business owner I know very well always made his marketers turn in a daily report showing they visited 25 prospects every day. Sadly, almost no relationships were created or developed, and now today he is out of business. He had no work, nor referrals, no jobs, and his marketer had no client relationships.

At the risk of being repetitive, Busy doesn’t automatically translate into Productive. As owners, you must have very productive marketers, no different than any other employee. You don’t tolerate a production worker slacking on the job, failing to achieve their designated task. Don’t accept it from a marketer either! They must bring in a lot of work, regularly. Each fulltime marketing rep costs you about $100,000 a year (with all the expenses associated with the position). They need to be generating about a million $$ per year in a measurable business.

It is all  about quality, and the quicker you get professional training for your marketer – the faster they will produce a $million dollars of revenue. And if you think that’s pie-in-the-sky, I have one marketer pricing $4 million a year, another generating $2 million a year and consistently. Yes, it’s no secret that commercial work generates bigger dollars – faster, but you still need that core everyday business!

Author:  Dick Wagner, National Sales Coach, Consultant, Trainer, and Speaker

AskDickWagner, LLC

Nationally recognized restoration marketing & sales consultant

Specializing in exclusive territory CREST Network programs