What do you guys think to these new paper lids from McDonald's
that fall to bits after about five minutes of drinking your coffee?
Absolute pants aren't they?
I want to talk to you guys about video marketing today.
And the reason for that is I've just drove past a trades person
near my home in Coventry
who was coming out of a property with his pen and pad
like his clipboard and pad.
And it just got me thinking about how different my sales processes
now today compared to how it was like five, six years ago,
or probably not even that long ago, four years ago,
where typically I would be on the tools grafting
and at least three times per week,
I would go out in the evenings after I've been on the tools all day
and I would be driving around looking at people's jobs.
So they'd phone me up and say, you know, can you give us a quote
plastering my bedroom or my home or my lounge or my kitchen or, you know,
whatever the job might be.
My process for handling those inquiries that came in
would involve me driving around, typically rushing around
because I'd be or always be running late
or always be covered in crap.
And it's an old school way in 2025.
It's an old school way of.
Converting leads or attempting to convert leads.
So the lead comes in.
And in our mind, the only way that we can convert that leading
and win that sale is if we drive out,
which sometimes can involve 25 minute drive.
You know, longer.
Sometimes these jobs can be outside your city.
So it involves you partying with your time, your fuel.
The wear on your van, etc.
Spending some time with the customer, running through everything
and then driving back home.
Sometimes we'll give them a price on the spot.
It's a smaller job.
Or if we've been in the game a long time, we might be able to give them a price on the spot,
which I wouldn't recommend, by the way.
And typically we'll come back home and we'll we'll text them a quote or we'll email them a quote.
Sometimes we'll type up a quote, which takes even longer.
And again, this is something I did guys for years and years in my own
blustering business here in Coventry.
And the reason that I'm talking about this today is because
this is a complete and total waste of our time as tradesmen.
We might win like one out of three visits that we do.
If we're lucky, if we go in cheap, then we might win more if we go in cheap.
And the reason that I feel this is a total waste of time and was for me
is because the people that phone you up to inquire,
they're not at the stage where they're ready to buy off you and they're ready to purchase off you.
And they're ready to book you in and make that commitment.
They're not at that stage in the customer journey.
The stage that they're at is that they're just making inquiries to local tradespeople.
Now, it's important as local trades lads that we are professional,
honest and we can advise them and give them a price, of course.
And I'm not suggesting that we not do that.
I'm not even suggesting that we charge for quotes.
But what I'm suggesting to you today
is to use what I call social proof sales training.
Social proof sales is something that we look at inside the coaching program,
which is a coaching group that I've designed for tradespeople and self-employed plusters
to help them to get their time back in their business.
So they're not driving around like fools looking at all these jobs
and then getting ghosted by the customer or not winning any of the jobs,
which can then build up resentment, frustration, anger, sometimes hostility towards the customers.
And also it knocks our confidence.
We think, what's wrong with me? I'm not winning any work.
What's the matter?
And then we'll end up lowballing quotes thinking, oh, it's because I'm too expensive.
So I know I'll go in cheaper and I'll win more jobs.
Guys, it's a very, very poor strategy and it's going to keep us on low profit margins.
Which means that we're going to have to work longer, harder, working through our weekends.
We're not going to be able to store up any money for wintertime and times where we're off
at Christmas and on holiday.
We're not going to have enough profit there to store any money to do that
because we're lowballing these quotes all the time.
So what's the answer to it then?
Again, it's called social proof sales.
And what it involves is you leveraging technology.
Right here now, I've made this video for you just using my smartphone.
And that's exactly what you're going to do in your business
when you're selling and communicating with new clients, existing clients,
potential clients, using the power of video marketing,
right, to not only showcase what you can do in your business,
give your customers a walkthrough and a demonstration of some of the products
and services that you install in people's homes.
Right, but also we're going to use the power of video marketing and technology
to get your customers to send you information, photos and videos of their project.
Now, some trades lads are doing this and they've been doing it for years.
Other people are still on the fence and reluctant to start exploring
some of the ways that we can sell and communicate via video.
But I can tell you right now that by me implementing this strategy,
as completely revolutionized, the way that I handle new inquiries that come into my business.
And I'm going to tell you now quickly what happens when a new inquiry comes into my business.
Okay. They find me online, they fill out my customer vetting form.
On that vetting form, it includes a file upload option, a WhatsApp option,
where they can send me a walkthrough video of the job or a photo.
Okay, that's submitted. And if I get that information and I feel that my business
is a good match for this customer, it's in my local area.
They've told me what their budget is and that matches in with what my expectations are
and what I'm prepared to work for. If it all matches and I'm getting green lights everywhere,
only then I'll respond to follow up on that inquiry. I won't get a telephone call come in
asking me to go and price a job or and I'll just jump in the van and drive straight round there
without even vetting the customer or discussing anything or knowing anything about normal,
their budget or when they need it done. I'm not going to do any of that anymore
for these reasons that I've highlighted on this video. But another reason is
when we answer the phone like that, we can be pulled into a 10-minute, 15-minute phone conversation.
Sometimes it can be a 20-minute phone conversation. And at this point, this inquiry
is not committed to you. It's just an inquiry. And we haven't got the time in the day as tradesmen,
self-employed tradesmen that are typically on the tools. We haven't got the time in the day
to be spending 10, 15, 20 minutes on the phone talking about the customer's uncle's brother's
sister's pet dog that's sick and had to go to the vets. They got a huge vet bill. And you're being
pulled into this conversation that has nothing to do with you, your business, your services.
And the customer is just rambling on and on and on. And if you're a tradesperson,
you can probably completely understand what I'm saying. Now, don't get this mixed up with customer
service and thinking, well, we need to provide a good service and be professional and friendly on
the phone. Yes, you do. Only when the customer has gone through the vetting process and you've
identified that this customer is respecting your time frames, respecting your costs.
You know, they're looking for a tradesperson they can trust and that's reliable. They're not just
price shopping. These basic vetting requirements, once you've ticked the boxes and gone, okay,
yes, this is a looks like a decent job that's come in, then you can start to invest and add value to
that customer instead of just burning away your value and your time to any Tom Dick and Harry that
gets in touch in your business, guys. Again, it's called social proof sales. And the reason it's called
that is because alongside your video content that you're going to create and send out to customers,
you're also going to backlink that to your customer reviews, because what's more important
than sending out a video showing what you can do is what your customers say about you and your business.
So there's two pieces of the puzzle here, guys. It's not just make some fancy videos and hope for
the best. You need to back up what you're showing and what you're saying with evidence that you are
a trusted brand. Your customers are giving you five star reviews and are thrilled with your
cluster work or whatever work that you do. You've got the skills there.
You've got the communication there. You've got the credibility there and that's going to be
reflected in your customer reviews. And that's why it's important that when we knock out these
videos that they're also linked to your social proof. So there's a little bit to it. And again,
we're using video content guys to showcase what we can do to market ourselves, but also
when an inquiry comes in, we can use our video content that we've created to send them examples
of the kind of jobs that they're looking to have done. We can say, Mrs Smith,
we've actually done a project like that last week. Let me send you a video and you can see
and what's involved. And you can see the type of finish that we can produce and the cleanliness.
If this is something you're interested in, let me know and I'll send over
an official quote with our booking details. Alongside that, you also send a booking deposit
invoice. So when they do decide that they want to go ahead and book with you and they want to
schedule in your time and take one of your slots in your calendar in the year,
we're not just going to go, yeah, I'll book you in, no problem. And unlock them into your
diary. First, we're going to take a booking deposit. So you know, in your mind, they ain't
backing out of this, they're not going to cancel the night before, say, don't need you now.
And they've paid you a substantial amount of money upfront to lock in that slot into your
works calendar and into your diary. This is how you prevent last minute cancellations,
people not paying you, non-payers, late-payers, pest takers, tire kickers. And again, I don't want
to portray our lovely customers to be horrible people because we all know that most customers
are salt of the earth. They're looking for a quality reliable tradesman or tradesperson they
can trust to have in their home. And they just want to know that you can be trusted and do a great
job. And if they know that and they've got the certainty and confidence in you and your business,
they'll happily pay you 30% upfront, 40% upfront, 50% upfront. And that's going to do two things
for you. It's going to ramp up your cash flow. So you're not chasing the deadline all the time.
Thinking, I can only get paid when I finish the job. Now you get paid when you sell the job and
book the job in. So your cash flow is going to rapidly increase 50% down on booking, 50%
when you complete the job. Next one comes in, 50% booked in, 50% when you complete. So you've
doubled the speed of your cash flow. You're not waiting around for money anymore.
You don't need a line of credit anymore. Why do you need a line of credit? You've got all this
cash pouring in all the time. You don't need a line of credit anymore. Bin it off.
This is how you get ahead as a tradesperson, guys, by building a solid, reliable, trusted brand
that people look at and they go, wow, 78, five star reviews. Wow.
Look at all this video content is created, educational, informational videos. Look at all
these blog articles is created. Look at all this value this guy's created in the local area.
You become an authority and a trusted local business that people want. You become in demand.
The customer now joins your waitlist. I can do it, Mrs. Smith, but it's going to be,
it's going to have to be in March. Like we're absolutely ramparts. We're fully booked.
Is that lead time going to be okay? Yeah, it should be okay. I can wait. And guess what?
They will wait for you if you can demonstrate and prove that you are the leading go-to business
in that area. You're not just scratching around for scraps with the other trades lads. You've stood
out. You've made yourself stand out and Google will reward businesses that do this organically.
It's not bollocks. It's not pay the money down and you get pushed to the top of the
rankings. It's done by hard work and it's done organically. So if Google can see
that you're getting five star reviews constantly, consistently, Google can see that you're updating
your GBP with short video clips, images, and backlinks to your new services and products.
They can see that your customers keep leaving these fantastic reviews. Guess what Google's
going to do for free? It's going to rate you as top rated in the local area. This business is top rated
and this is free. This is all free. Just turn off. So listen, I hope this video has been helpful
today and inspired you a little bit to start using your smartphone to create videos that's free.
An alternative way of selling. So you haven't got to keep driving around looking at all these
dead-end jobs that you're never going to win. If it sounds good, check out trialtalk.co.uk,
the website's below. You might be in with a chance of winning one of these free beanies
as well. I've just ordered a load more of these trial talk beanies. For the lads inside the
coaching group at the moment, I'm giving some of these away to the guys in the coaching group.
If that sounds interesting to you and you are interested in not only getting your hands on
one of these bad boys, but also we do competitions. We've got massive discounts on training programs
as well. For example, corksol, which is a new amazing cork product that we apply to the wall
and plaster over the top, or you can apply it to the outside. Go check that out. It's really
amazing product. We've got training days with the pro render hub with Joel Cook, discounted at 20%
off. We've got 50% discounts on socket beads, spotlight beads. We've got 30% discount with
Raphina Tools. We've got a 25% discount with Plaster as one-stop shops. Guys, listen, it's
not just a coaching program and a training program to help you in your business and to help you start
leveraging some of this technology, but it's also massively discounted for trades lads on tools and
training. If it sounds good to you, go check out trialtalk.co.uk. Join us in the coaching group
and start learning some brand new skills for your business in 2025. Hope it's been helpful. Have a
good day. See you on the next one.