The Automatic Follow-Up System
An “Automatic Follow-up System” is one of the top three most critically important components of any marketing system for Pool Builders. As you’ve probably experienced, most homeowners will spend MONTHS if not YEARS thinking about and dreaming about a pool, LONG before they actually sit down with a builder and sign a contract.
That means that for every person out there who is ready to buy a pool today, there are thousands if not MILLIONS of others who are “still just thinking about it.” If you want to pick up a larger share of the pool buying market, then you’ll need to work on that HUGE other 99% that’s “not ready to buy today.” Get YOUR name and company info in front of them NOW, so that when they’re finally ready to buy, they automatically think of YOU first.
That’s EXACTLY what our Automatic Follow-up System does: It captures the attention and contact information of that disproportionately huge number of people who are interested but not ready to buy today. Then it sends an ongoing stream of helpful “touches” to gently persuade them in YOUR favor. (click for more info on why every pool builder needs an automatic a follow-up system.)
Automatic Follow-up System SET UP: $997
Setting up your automated follow-up system includes all of the following:
- It gives you rights to use our highly enticing 28-page digital report “10 Steps to the Perfect Pool.”
- Includes customization of the report with your logo and contact information in the footer.
- Includes installation of the entire digital report on your website.
- We will also create multiple marketing tools and reports for you, all branded with your logo and contact info. This includes:
- A 4-page “15 Questions to Ask Any Pool Builder” report
- A 1-page “10 Reasons Homeowners Love < your company>” Handout
- A customized “Pool Builder Comparison Checklist“
- A branded reprint of the “Creating the Zero-Maintenance Swimming Pool” article.
- We will create a minimum of 10 customized follow-up emails.
- We will create a minimum of 5 customized follow-up postcards.
- We will create multiple automated “Contact Us” web forms that will:
- Capture the prospect’s contact information in our world-renowned Infusionsoft CRM system.
- “Tag” the prospect according to what product(s) and/or services they’re interested in.
- Instantly send an appropriate “auto reply” message to the prospect, letting them know that you’ll get back with them right away.
- Instantly send YOU an e-mail, giving you all their contact info, and telling you exactly what they’re looking for.
- Automatically launch the e-mail and/or postcard “automatic follow-up” sequences.
- Import your existing contacts into our Infusionsoft database.
- Initiate the follow-up campaigns for all existing prospects. (This will instantly and automatically reach out and touch all of your “old/cold” leads, to start persuading them in your favor. This step alone will often nudge people who are “on the fence”and/or may have forgotten about you, and will often result in more new pool sales.)
It typically takes us three to four weeks to implement this automated follow-up system for a new client. NOTE: To avoid “over saturating” a market, we offer this program to only a limited number of pool builders in any particular geographic area. Please contact MYM Austin at 18–PROFITS UP (877-634-8787) to find out if this service is still available in your market.
Automatic Follow-up System ONGOING: $97/mo. +$1/postcard
Monthly management of the Hopper system involves all of the following:
- 24/7 data capture and notification of all leads that come through the website.
- Automatic processing of all e-mails and postcards in the follow-up campaigns.
- Monthly “New Leads” report spreadsheet, showing you ALL of your prospects in the system, with the newest ones at the top.
- Quarterly “Lead Sources” report, showing you where all your leads are coming from..
- Additional “broadcast” e-mails, on request.
- Additional “ad hoc” reports on request.
All automated e-mails are included at no extra charge in the $97/month. We charge an additional $1.00 for each postcard we print and mail on your behalf.
Are You Ready to Automate Your Follow-Up?
Call 877-634-8787
Or e-mail info@PoolBuilderMarketing.com.
My Best Friend’s Big Pool Buying Mistake (almost)…
This isn’t just another friend. Bill and I have been best friends since our seventh grade math class. He tends to be “thoughtful” with his decisions; I’m a little more of a “life of the party” kind of guy. Between the two of us, we seem to balance each other out quite nicely. I appreciate his friendship, so I was honored the day that he called ME to bail him out of jail. And I think he appreciates the fact that I’ve chosen him to be the “Best Man” at ALL of my weddings. (I joke that he’ll be Best Man at all my FUTURE weddings too. My wife doesn’t think that’s very funny, which is probably why I need a Best Man so often.)
Bottom line – Bill and I always try to help each other out. So I was pleased back in 2009, when he called me and said “Abbott – Kathy and I have decided to buy a pool. In fact, we’ve already picked the builder. I just wanted to run it by you before we ink the deal, since you’re in the pool industry and all.”
(I thought “Hey, all right! I get to help my buddy with an important decision. And maybe this will be one of those rare occasions where I know more about something than he does.”)
“Great! Who did you choose?”
When he told me, I thought “Oh crap! Out of 100 pool builders in Austin, that’s the LAST one I would choose!” (I won’t tell you the name of the company, but you can probably guess for yourself in a moment.)
I choked back my instinctive response, swallowed hard, and said “How did you happen to choose that builder?” And he told me the words that will ring in my ears forever:
“We talked to several builders last year, and then decided to wait. This guy was the only one who followed up with us. So we figured he must really want our business.”
And you know what? My buddy Bill was absolutely correct. This builder really DID want his business. I felt Bill was about to make a horrible pool-buying decision, but I certainly couldn’t fault his logic. After all, when they decided to postpone the project, the other pool builders blew them off. But this one particular pool builder made a point of checking back with them every few months. so that when they were finally ready to buy, they naturally thought of him.
Now here’s the real irony. This particular pool builder is famous for three things:
- Inconsistent quality / frequent complaints.
- An outstanding follow-up system.
- The largest pool builder in the world.
Stop and think about that for a second. How can you be famous for quality problems, and still be the largest in the world? The answer is in bullet #2. They have an outstanding follow-up system. While other builders are trying to find and sell to new prospects, these guys consistently reach out and touch the past prospects, “Until They Buy, Or Until They Die.”
Now let me chastise you for a minute. Do you see what YOU (figuratively speaking) did to my friend Bill? Because YOU didn’t follow up with him, you almost let him make a very bad decision.
I think that’s a crime!
Let me put this bluntly: If you’re not following up with your “hot,” “warm,” and “cool prospects” on a regular basis, then you’re giving away business to your competitors. And let me assure you – it has nothing to do with how “good” or “bad” your competitor’s quality is. (As evidenced in the true life example above.) It has everything to do with the quality of their follow-up.
If you haven’t got an automated follow-up system in place right now, then it’s time to change. You can invest six months or more to create your own system if you want to (like “the big guy” who almost got my buddy). Or you could just grab my “turnkey” follow-up system that’s ready right now to “plug and play” for your company TODAY.
There are a LOT of good people out there (like my friend Bill) who are at risk of making big pool buying mistakes. PLEASE do your part to make sure that never happens again.
To your success,
Brett
PS – The story has a happy ending. Without ever bad mouthing anyone, I encouraged Bill to do a little looking around, and ask a few key questions. He quickly narrowed his list to a few, then one high-quality builder, and wound up with a beautiful $95,000 freeform beauty in his backyard. And his wife loves him for it. Which is perhaps a lesson I should pay a little more attention to….
Here’s another reason
why “Automatic Follow-up” is
so incredibly important for pool builders…
An increasingly popular question I’m hearing lately is “How are things going in the rest of the country?” And the answer I’m hearing is pretty much the same: “I’ve never worked so hard in my life.”
What we’re seeing is that the business is still out there, but there’s less of it, and it’s a whole lot harder to get.
It’s kind of like what happens when there are too many lions and not enough antelope. All the lions get hungrier, and a year from now, there won’t be quite as many lions around.
I suppose if you have to choose between being “a hungry lion” and “a lion that isn’t around anymore,” you’ll probably choose “hungry.” So now the key is to control “how hungry?” It’s time to be a smarter, faster, and less-hungry lion.
Way back in 2006, when we were all fat, dumb and happy, my team and I embarked on a marketing test of pool builders in the Austin area. I asked a homeowner / associate in Southern California to call twenty Austin pool builders, and tell them they were moving to Austin to build a house. Texas is hot, so naturally they wanted a pool built with the house. (Very common here.)
The results were shocking at first, but soon confirmed to be commonplace throughout the country.
Nobody follows up!
A big fat juicy antelope was moving to Texas with at least half a million dollars in equity. But the lions weren’t hungry, so they didn’t bother with follow-up.
Nowadays, builders are paying a lot more attention to follow-up. But not all follow-up is the same. “Pestering phone calls” might be considered a start, but you could do better. (A LOT better.) I recommend something more along the lines of a series of informative e-mails, letters and postcards, to occur automatically and in parallel to any occasional phone calls that your sales rep might squeeze in.
Your prospects are much more receptive to this type of info. The cost is insignificant compared to the value. (At a buck a postcard, you’re talking less than $10 per highly-qualified prospect.) And if the pieces are well-written, they will steadily build a case that helps the prospects understand why they’d be a fool to do business with any pool builder other than you.
What this means is that while all the builders continue to fight over the diminishing number of antelope, more and more of the prospects are gently and continually persuaded to do business with you.
And that makes you the smarter, faster, less-hungry lion.
Would you like to feed your lion?
Let’s discuss it.
Call 877-634-8787
Or e-mail info@PoolBuilderMarketing.com.
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