Building Trust and Authority in Home Services
In the virtual Lemonade Stand, Crystal is flying solo to discuss the role of a community marketer in your business! We touch on creating an elevator pitch, leaving a lasting impression on your customers, and leveraging local connections to get your brand out there.
0:08 - Networking and Guerrilla Marketing Strategies
11:16 - Building Authority Through Strategic Partnership
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Speaker 1: 0:08
What's up, lemonheads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Crystal, and today I cannot wait to talk about stuff that goes back to my roots, of what I used to do I still love to talk about, still love to share about, but today I'm going to be talking about using networking and guerrilla style marketing to really grow your place and your company's brand in the market. As a home service company, I cannot wait to get into these juicy, fun little techniques. Let's dip some lemonade, all right? So a lot of you guys know, if you've been listening for very long my background is definitely from the trades, from the HVAC and plumbing industry. My family owns and operates a company here in rural East Texas. Again, if I sound like cornbread, it's because I am from the South very much, and so I thought I would talk about five things that I feel like contractors should really know to make the most of their business connections and the most of their time invested in their communities. How do you really turn that time into money? A couple of things that I see a lot of people say like how do I just go into a new market and start getting new leads? Well, one of the things that we deploy is a community marketer position. I've talked about it before and what that person does, and some of you are going to be like there's absolutely no way I can afford to do this, but I want to talk to you for a second. So I want you to listen and I want you to be open-minded about what a community marketer could do for your business. Okay, so, guys, we have so many great vendors in our space that this marketer doesn't even have to be someone with extreme digital knowledge and things like that. You really need to be looking for a brand ambassador to make the most of your community involvement, make the most of your employee engagement and retention, working with movers and shakers and really building a name for your company in the market. And these community marketers network marketers, marketing coordinators, whatever you want to call them they could take off of your plate so many things Communicating with the CSR teams, writing scripts, even checking in with your vendors, getting graphic design, being involved in the community. You know all of those things can be filtered through them, but once you have one of those, or if you are that person as the home, as the not the homeowner friends, but as the contractor, if you are your own brand ambassador.
Speaker 1: 2:37
I want to talk to you guys about a few things that we can do to really maximize that position. So the very first thing that I like to talk about is leveraging your elevator pitch. So let's use a couple of examples that I have. So I absolutely adore our local chambers of commerce that we have here. That's the easiest place to plug into and really get involved. Well, I will go to some of their events and you can tell the people that really have a polished approach, and I can also people that really that really have a polished approach, and I can also people that really do not have a polished approach, like they're new to what they're going to say. So when it's my turn, I can easily stand up and say hi, I'm Crystal Williams with Lemon Seed Marketing and we are your one-stop shop for all things branding and strategy for our home service contractors all over the nation, and we would love to work with you. We love to keep things zesty for your brand.
Speaker 1: 3:27
Right, I can rattle that off. You know why? Because I have to say it all the time and I also need to know it. I am the face of my company, so you really need to practice and actually document what do you say? Who are you? Why should people care about who you are? You know and think about it in a room full of people. You're there, even if you don't know a lot of people. When you get an opportunity to speak to people, you need to be able to say oh you know, my name is Crystal, this is what I do. If you can't articulate it, they for sure aren't going to pull it out of you, right? So you just need to be very intentional about what you're saying and how you're saying it, because all of a sudden, you are the verbal picture of what your company is. So if it's not you and you're not your brand ambassador and you hire someone, I would literally, before I released them, I would say hey, come back tomorrow with what is your elevator pitch. If you had to tell somebody today who you work for and what we do, what would that be? And really work on making sure that what's being put into the market is what you want people to know about your company, okay. So if you want them to know well, you know we've been in business since 1974 and we're celebrating 50 years this year then that needs to be in their elevator speech.
Speaker 1: 4:39
If you are adding another service so my plumbers, you're adding HVAC or electrical or whatever pest control, you're adding other services you need to have a conversation with the brand ambassador, network marketer, whatever you're calling them, to say what is the verbiage of how we're going to announce this. And it's important, guys, like words matter, presentation matters. I mean, if you go yeah, my name's Crystal and you know my pest control company, like, yeah, now we're doing mosquito treatment. Yeah, like it's a thing I don't know, we're going to try it out this year. Well, like, how excited are you to sign up for that? You know you're not. Or your brand ambassador goes out there and says, hi, and we're adding plumbing, and someone in the audience goes, oh, so y'all do reprops and trenchless, and she's going to be like or he is going to be like I don't know. So you've got to do some work to prepare that elevator pitch and I promise you right now, go take a video and ask five people in your company leaders, people that might be caught out and about what would they say if they said, hey, what do you do? And if you haven't intentionally set that, you will see the vast disparity that comes from it. So practice that, notate that, know what you're going to say and be intentional with it, and then if you're going to expect them to say the right thing, then you need to inspect that they are saying it by having touch points with them where they have to tell you what they're saying out in the public Okay. Also, preparing yourself to be out in public, okay.
Speaker 1: 6:07
So for those of you that are a little old school like me, I love a tangible business card. I feel like I have a collection. I'm a little Hansel and Gretel like picking up breadcrumbs every time I'm at events. I want all these business cards of people that are there. But now there's the digital business cards. Rightple is one, I know there's some other ones, but digital business cards that is just a qr code on your phone where people can scan it and they automatically have links to all of your social, to your email, to your work phone numbers, all the things that you want them to have, and it saves in their phone and it can send you their contact information, right, wow, I want everybody to go. Oh, ah, fancy, but you have to be prepared with that and you also have to be a little bit more forceful of hey, my name is Crystal, I work for Lemon Seed Marketing.
Speaker 1: 6:53
I saw that you said you do roofing. We work with roofing companies. Yeah, here's my card. You can't be like, oh, would you like my card? Do you like me? Can we be friends? That's not going to be a good personality style, right? You have to be a lot more savvy, and that comes with practice and exposure. And so do you have business cards of some sort to hand out? So you get in a conversation where people go yeah, I heard you say you work for a heating, air conditioning company. You know, I've really been needing to call somebody because my upstairs it stays hot all the time. I don't really know and I'm gonna say, oh well, and our company, we have a maintenance plan that we actually come out twice a year and check out your systems.
Speaker 1: 7:38
We could have probably already caught this for you. Um, why don't I give you a little bit of information, like, go to our website and there's all of our information and here's a little coupon code to give you the first month free. Just make sure you told them that you met me here at this event. So now I've created all of this synergy where, guess what, they know a guy and I just saved them $20, right, like they're cool. Right, they know somebody. That is what this is about, right? So you want to have any sort of handout flyer brochure. I know it feels old school and antiquated, but sometimes just leaving with something in their hand is really cool.
Speaker 1: 8:15
The other thing I say that you can't skimp on, that is important to have on your person or at least with you. If you're going to a networking breakfast or lunch and you can stick three or four caps in your truck, or you can grab a handful of really cool pens or phone chargers or something and they're just in your purse, in your backpack, in your truck or whatever, hand those out when someone really engages with you about your company. Be like hey, a minute, you wear ball caps, let me go grab you one. Yeah, man, I get these out, these are great. We'd love for your you know, to have your support of wearing that. Um, or yeah, like you know what, we have these really great pins. Listen, everybody loves these pins. Here's your pin. Friends, all of us like free stuff, okay, and it's that memorable touch point.
Speaker 1: 9:03
They probably talked to 10 other people at that networking event, but you introduced yourself, you gave them your contact information and now you send them home with a little goodie right. Those are powerful things for leveraging just literally your presence and what you say about your company. So that was my first thing. I just really felt like that one would be really impactful. Because if you are a mess when you go out in public, you don't have business cards, you don't know what you're saying, you're coming in late to events, you sit with yourself or people that you already know, those are really good ways to be unsuccessful and not find any ROI in investing in your chamber of commerce or local events. So it's really important that you find some focus on the importance of being agile in those rooms. So when you arrive at a new event, you've got to like kind of swallow your pride and just like bust in the room. You know, maybe not loud and super loud, but you know, go sit at a table Like you might know five people over there at that other table, but hopefully those five people are already using your company. Like you're there for work, bro, like you're there to get to meet some new people and do some new things. So I really want to encourage you on the actual doing side of things is you know, be prepared, set yourself up for success.
Speaker 1: 10:18
All right, let's jump into number two. Number two is utilizing social media to create authentic connections. So let me tell you why most of you are like oh, I don't do social media for a reason. I don't want to be on social media for a reason. Ok, so right now, if you think about industry in the home service industry, the influencers you know why a lot of them are influencers? Because they put outrageous stuff on social media or they, like, are always have this little bit of a drama thing going on. Okay, those people draw attention or they're super helpful, right, they're always providing really good, wholesome content, right, it's the people that just kind of float in and out in there. You kind of get left out, right. So what I like to encourage you to do is create your own social media platform where you can talk about what you do. Okay, so here's a new like. I'm loving this vibe.
Speaker 1: 11:16
Right now, I have a contractor here in East Texas it's more Southeast Texas, but all of their comfort advisors created a Facebook profile called a comfort specialist at you know, xyz company, and it's their picture in their uniform by their van and they're always posting on there about things that they're doing. Like this was my latest customer. Well, it is building them as a person. But let me tell you, people do business with people that they like, know and love. Ok. So, getting to know your sales guy on a personal level, it becomes their guy. So that's a really unique thing to do. Try to maintain that they're not running side businesses out of there. But listen, we can't live our life in the outliers. It's all about focusing on the majority of the time. They're going to do it, right.
Speaker 1: 12:04
So also on social media, the other thing that you can do is literally social media things with your company. So go behind the scenes, be like hey guys, it's Crystal. I'm the owner and founder of Lemon Seed Marketing and today I'm going to walk around and check and see what my team is doing. Let's go, take a look. We're over here in the social media area. Look at these content creators, right?
Speaker 1: 12:25
So if I'm a contractor like, hey guys, this is Crystal with McWilliams and Sun Heating, cooling and Plumbing here in Longview, texas, guys, I am outside right now in our warehouse. Look at these guys getting ready to tackle the day. It is a hot summer day, we are already on the road, we are already in attics and we are coming to take care of you guys. We can't wait to be there. Remember, if you haven't booked your service, we are a fully staffed team. We always have time. We do our very best to do same day service.
Speaker 1: 12:57
Click the link in our caption here or visit us online at trustmcwilliamscom to book online. You don't even have to talk to us anymore, right? So you see how, all of a sudden, I've created this like three minute behind the scenes, where people are like oh my gosh, I love Crystal and I love her company. Right, guys? That is golden, right? Also, if you are good and you know that your neighbor friend, the person that goes to church with you, they're in Boy Scouts with you, whatever can attest to your customer as being a customer for you, get a video testimonial Again.
Speaker 1: 13:29
Hey, guys, it's Crystal with McWilliams and Sun Heating, cooling and Plumbing. And I am here with my best friend, nora Love Nora. She's here to tell you a little bit, you know, about her experience when she purchased a tankless water heater. Or, hey, this is my neighbor Jim. Or this is another Lufkinite, so-and-so right, just giving it that personal touch where you're in the video and they're in the video. Getting people to do that is great. Before and afters like hey, hey, it's Crystal, I'm out here again today. We are about to replace this old ugly thing, this outside condenser, with a brand new, shiny Armada series unit. Armada is our private label here at McWilliams. You see, like guys, you just opened up all this opportunity, right? Also get a part of those community groups, you personally.
Speaker 1: 14:18
And when people are saying where's the cheapest place for me to get service for my air conditioner, you know, don't go answer those right, hide from those. But you can serve as a purpose. You can serve a purpose of providing quality content and answers and solutions. So when people are like, oh, I just got home today and it's 78 degrees in my house, or 88, 108 degrees in my house, you can immediately say to them hey guys, crystal Williams, owner of Lemon Seed Marketing here, what about this? What if you did this? Or here's something to go check. You start providing free content. Well, now you are becoming the authority in the space without asking for the business. But they're going to be like hey, crystal, I know you said to turn my unit on to fan only so it'll defrost. It didn't work. Oh man, you know what? Go ahead and call the office and get a call book and they'll come out there for you and remind them to give you that discount coupon that's on our website. Boom, boom. Now you've got a customer all because you were just being active on social media Hosting live Q&As when it is like a heat wave, or, guys, if you've got like a big problem with a big freeze, comes through, be the company that goes live on social media to talk about what you can do to protect your pipes.
Speaker 1: 15:38
What can you do to keep your electric bill low when it's going to be a heat wave next week, right? What can I do when there was a hailstorm and you're a roofing company, you're a swimming pool company and now is not the time to buy, right? So what can you do? And having those things always going. But be authentic and it's about you, the person, people getting to know you so you can build the authority.
Speaker 1: 16:01
All right, let's jump into number three, and one of my favorites is forming strategic partnerships. I don't want you to get crazy with this. This is more about creating intentional friendships, as I say. So, for example, all of us need to know all of the real estate agents in our market. There's no reason not to know them. There's no reason not to go share the houses they have for sale. Take them your caps, cuts, shirts, whatever you've got, and just staying in front of them all the time. Offer them discounts on evaluations. Offer them to give your maintenance plan as a gift to new homeowners. Work those relationships. Be authentic but be intentional.
Speaker 1: 16:46
Right, those of you that dabble a little bit in multifamily homes or commercial, you know you could be working on property managers and things like that. So, driving by and saying, hey, I got you a little Starbucks gift card today. I know you're managing this property. If there's ever anything that we can do for you, we'd love to visit. Right. Also, people that do similar services, right. So right now, one of my really good friends owns a roofing company and my sister and brother in law are working at the space control. So when I can make those connections, we refer each other Right, because we know we're going to take care of each other's companies and clients.
Speaker 1: 17:22
So, again, an important strategic piece of doing this is when you are in new rooms and in new groups of people. How do you identify? When people introduce themselves? It's like, how is this person going to fit into my life? Are they just a friend, a networking friend that I know? Does their business help my business or does my business help their business? Are they a potential client in general? What do they bring to the table and what do I bring to their table? Those are the strategic things. But you know what? You could split the cost of a postcard to go out to everybody, where half of the postcard is about pest control treatment, the other half is about your side, like we've partnered together. So call spot on for pest control or call, you know, yellow Bear Air for heating and air conditioning. You co-brand, split the cost of a of a direct mailer. So there's some cool things you can do. But again, this is how you get a steady stream of referrals, but with intentional personal relationships and engagement.
Speaker 1: 18:21
So then we're going to go to number four, um, which is attending, like, local events in general. So one of them is like of course you guys need to be going to industry shows the best you can, so you should be going to. If you've got a manufacturer, go to their show. If you've got a vendor partner that puts on a small show go. But the important thing is coming back with two or three things that you can automatically implement. And if you've not ever been going to shows, you go to them. So you got a couple of problems. There's those of you that never go, so when you do actually end up somewhere, you're overwhelmed with the amount of information. There are some of you that have gone to every show for so long now that there's hardly anything new. So maybe you need to take a step back from as many shows and only go to one or two shows this year just to give yourself some clarity and some time. But also, like at your in your community, you need to be attending community events.
Speaker 1: 19:18
So identify what nonprofits really mean something to you and support their fundraisers Right. Be at ribbon cuttings and things like that that are through your chamber or when the government does those small business conferences. Be a part of those things, because that is how you meet people. That's how you really can make these relationships. And again, guys, I talked to you about what the relationship looks like. It's shaking hands, kissing babies, high fives, celebrating other people and then just slowly saying, hey, I'd love for us to connect. Buy them a cup of coffee, taking them for a quick breakfast, maybe even a quick lunch, but being present inside of your community, people will start to say, oh my gosh, I see this guy at lots of our events and he's great to work with.
Speaker 1: 20:03
Ok, so really make sure that you're participating and being active in those things, because you will be surprised what you learn from other organizations and other industries. So you might be like, hey, you know, my friend runs a coffee shop, but look how they do their time clock right. Or my friend runs a marketing agency. I've never thought about this right. And these are things that you learn because you put yourself out there right. And then, once you do make those contacts with people and you get their phone numbers, their digital business cards, their tangible business cards, send an email or a text that says it was so good to meet you today. Here's my contact information. Again, it was so great to talk to you. I hope this gets better. I hope you continue to do great with this right. Those are important pieces of how you can have a lot of ROI off of your work. I personally think it takes a lot of work to push some of these things quickly. So I'm going to say that I think it takes about at least three to six months to start seeing things kind of come to fruition. So don't give up. Be very intentional, be consistent.
Speaker 1: 21:15
And then number five, last but for sure, not least your job is to protect your brand at all costs. Meaning what do my vans look like when they're driving down the road? How do my technicians smell? Look, how do they talk. So if you've got an install crew that's in an attic dropping F-bombs and cuss words and making fun of the homeowner, yeah, that's not a good look, right? So you've got to protect the brand. If you've got vans driving around where there's everything stuffed in the dash and papers are everywhere and Gatorade bottles are falling out when they open the doors, that's not it. That's not what you want people to see, right?
Speaker 1: 21:52
Also, making sure that when you talk about your company in public, it's all the positive sides, right? Not why I can't get nobody to do nothing, right? Nope, that's who. Who's going to walk away and be like I can't wait to work with him, the guy that had to fire three people this week. Protect your brand, protect who you are, and then I hate to, this is going to step on some of your toes. You aren't going to like it. If you are acting a fool on social media or you're acting a fool in public, people are going to associate that your company has that same level of expectation. So if you're super political on social media, they're gonna assume that your business is, so is super political. If you are ranting and raving about people's lifestyle choices, people are going to feel uncomfortable with your company. So I just encourage you like there are consequences that come along with the responsibility and the things of owning a company so really protect your brand at all costs at all costs, guys. So by applying just a few of these techniques, I really feel like your investment of your time and energy and guerrilla style marketing will really make a difference in how you grow and the way that you grow.
Speaker 1: 23:02
So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I do want to tell you that I am going to have a juice session and a couple of other webinars and things coming up about these same style of things soon. If you don't know what Juiced is, visit us online at lemonseedmarketingcom to see all of our details about Juiced, which is our monthly webinar that you can do, whether you are on plan with Lemon Seed or not and be watching for some webinars and things coming soon. So thank you for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. If you enjoyed it. Guys, you know what I could really use Some podcast reviews. Share it when we post it on social media and follow us. Thanks for sipping some lemonade with me on this summer day. We will see you next time.
