May 14, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of Digital Marketing for Contractors, Janet and Caitlyn break down one of the most important systems in any home improvement business: the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. Whether you're still running your company from a whiteboard and a spreadsheet or already using a CRM, this episode is packed with practical insight on how the right system can transform your operations, marketing, and growth potential.
They cover:
- What a CRM actually does (and why it matters)
- Signs you're outgrowing your spreadsheet setup
- Their favorite CRMs for contractors (MarketSharp, Lead Perfection, AccuLynx, Jobber, ClientTether, and more)
- Real-world examples of how CRMs streamline follow-up, improve reporting, and automate marketing
- How to choose the right CRM based on your company's size and service type
The takeaway? If you want to grow, you need a CRM. It's not just software—it’s a business upgrade.
Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janet (00:01):
Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors.
This podcast is brought to youby Fat Cat Strategies, a
full-service digital marketingagency based in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
We specialize in helping homeimprovement contractors just
like you grow their businesses.
Today, you're listening to aseries called Build, Grow,
Dominate, marketing strategiesfor every stage of your home
(00:24):
improvement business.
Every Wednesday, we take a deepdive into the lessons that
we've learned from supportingsome amazing business owners in
the home improvement industry.
In part one, we'll cover theessentials from startup to your
first five million.
In part two, we're shiftinggears to focus on what it takes
to scale your business to asuccessful exit and or how to
(00:45):
dominate your market.
Now let's get into it.
Hello, I am Janet.
I am the founder here at FatCat Strategies.
And today I'm joined by one ofthe co-owners of the business
and really the heartbeat thatmakes Fat Cat work.
Who were we talking about?
We're talking about, hold on,let me do a drum roll.
The wonderful and talentedCaitlin Noble, my friend and
(01:07):
business partner.
Caitlin, tell us who you are,what you do.
Caitlyn (01:11):
Well, it's hard to top that intro.
But in case you didn't hear,I'm Caitlin.
I am the head of clientservices.
proud partner here at Fat CatStrategy.
He's been working with Janetfor eight years now, which has
been such an amazing journey.
Today is a topic that we arevery passionate about.
It is, to your point, it is aheartbeat behind our home
(01:35):
improvement clients.
Janet, what is it?
Janet (01:38):
What are we talking about?
We're talking about CRMs.
What is a CRM?
It's an acronym that stands forCustomer Relationship
Management.
It's software.
Yes.
It is the beating heart, or itshould be, the beating heart of
your business.
Caitlyn (01:54):
And please listen, because whether you have a CRM
solution in your business ornot, this episode is going to be
totally worth it for you.
If you're still usingspreadsheets, sticky notes,
have...
some sort of memory bank whereyou're managing leads and
customers, it's not going to getyou to the next level.
So the good news is we're goingto talk today about why CRMs
(02:19):
matter for contractors and whyyou should care.
So Janet, why don't you goahead and tell us a little bit
more about just what a CRM is.
Janet (02:30):
In the simplest way to put it, it's just software.
Caitlyn (02:32):
It is.
Janet (02:33):
These days, it's web-based.
Back in the day, it used to beinstalled on your computer.
But these days, it's all in abrowser.
It's software.
Caitlyn (02:42):
It's your brain.
And
Janet (02:44):
it is the software that you use to log...
Every single homeowner that hasever contacted your business,
every lead, every quote you'veever given, every estimate
you've ever given, and it's whatyour call center uses.
In the last episode, we talkedabout call centers.
It's what your call center usesto stay on track.
(03:05):
It's what your salespeople useto know who they're talking to.
It's the hub.
of all of the spokes on thewheel of
Caitlyn (03:16):
your business.
Of the customer journey.
Janet (03:18):
Yes.
So what does it do?
It centralizes your data.
That means no more phonenumbers written down on a piece
of paper.
It helps you improve customerservice.
That means you can know thefull history of of the
homeowners that contact yourbusiness, their preferences, the
questions that they asked, whenthey called you.
You can see those conversationsat a glance.
(03:39):
It helps you streamline yourcommunication.
That means emails in and out,calls in and out, quotes that
you've provided.
And it helps you manage yourleads, manage your entire sales
process.
And it gives you powerfulinsights into your entire
company.
What's working, what's notworking, your CRM is going to
(04:01):
give you the answers to thosequestions.
So bottom line, if you want tostop guessing and start growing,
you have to get a CRM in place.
Caitlyn (04:09):
You really do.
And the series is Build, Grow,Dominate.
But to build your business,you've got to have a CRM to grow
to eventually dominate.
I
Janet (04:22):
want to jump in because I've talked to so many
contractors that...
They've been successful kind ofas like a lone wolf with maybe
a couple of subs.
Yeah, we've
Caitlyn (04:31):
worked with them.
Janet (04:32):
And we've worked with them and we've helped them grow.
Side note, we've never oncehelped somebody grow that didn't
have a CRM.
Never once in 15 years have Iever seen significant growth of
a company that did not have aCRM in place.
But often what happens is iswe'll get a contractor contact
(04:54):
us the business is up andrunning they've they're
installing jobs they've gotgreat word of mouth they've got
um you know maybe even one salesrep probably a relative like a
family member exactly and a lotof the business is being run off
of a giant whiteboard in youroffice or wherever your shop is
(05:15):
and um you know, maybe an Excelspreadsheet and a spiral bound
notebook.
If that's where you are rightnow, that is totally fine.
But this episode is for youbecause we want to talk to you
about how you can move beyondthat
Caitlyn (05:31):
situation.
That's correct.
And I'll preface this also bysaying, We have no partnership,
no ties with the CRMs that weare going to mention.
These are just a few of ourfavorites.
Janet (05:43):
Yeah, we're not being paid for
Caitlyn (05:44):
any of this.
I don't know the technical.
Affiliate leaks.
We're not affiliates.
I will say the first one I amgoing to speak to, we are listed
on their website.
As a partner.
So I guess we don't get
Janet (05:58):
paid.
We
Caitlyn (05:58):
don't get paid.
I am just really proud andexcited about the CRM.
When we start to go through thesales process and we find out
that we have a client using theCRM, um, we get excited because
we know the opportunities thatare there and that CRM is market
sharp.
Um, it's built specifically forhome improvement contractors.
It's got marketing automationsalready baked in.
(06:22):
You can manage your leads.
Like I said, you can do emails.
campaigns it connects directlyto constant contact amazing
reporting in terms of salestracking great project
scheduling some of our biggestbest clients do use MarketSharp
and I think it's super easy inmy opinion as a marketer to use
(06:45):
and find data as well
Janet (06:47):
yeah and in our last episode we talked all about call
centers if you listened to thatepisode and in MarketSharp what
we've seen is you can set callcenter queues.
Speaker 01 (06:58):
Yeah, that's
Janet (06:58):
right.
So there's all kinds of coolsettings that you can configure
in your CRM, whether it'sMarketShop or something else,
where if you want one kind ofcall to be queued to one staff
person or if you sell multipleproducts you sell maybe siding
and windows and you want to setthem up as different cues you
(07:19):
know that's right it's your upto your imagination but market
sharp has all of those tools foryou in place um to help you
pull all that informationtogether so it makes sense for
your business
Speaker 01 (07:31):
and it also has a really nice um feature in terms
of um getting leads into yoursystem.
So I didn't really talk aboutthat, but we're generating
leads.
You've got a digital marketingagency or you're doing marketing
yourself.
You've now got a call center.
You've got a website.
So I know MarketSharp does makeit super simple with their own
forms as well as some prettyopen web hooks, which not trying
(07:55):
to get too in the weeds here,but MarketSharp does make it
simple to get leads into yourCRM for that speed to lead
process.
which we talked about in thelast episode.
Yeah, and
Janet (08:06):
that's for a call and a form.
Yes.
We've been able to connect ourcall tracking software,
WhatConverts, with MarketSharpso that that call is
automatically entered into theCRM.
Same thing with a form thatgets filled out.
Yes.
Speaker 01 (08:23):
Super, super easy to use.
Nice interface.
Totally recommend it.
Another one that I recommend,Tried and True, and...
Goes back to my roots when Ifirst started managing home
improvement contractors here atFat Cat.
We were logging into leadperfection.
Very powerful, really great forgrowing companies.
(08:47):
There's tons of customizations,especially for this industry.
Good lead tracking, like Isaid, really, really good
customer Reporting, theirsupport team is also really
nice.
If you can't figure out some ofthe reporting there, they also
have marketing automations.
I would say not as, I think,easy, like one button clicks
(09:11):
like MarketSharp, but they dohave settings that make it easy
to be able to connect withsomebody via email.
And then there's another reallynice scheduling tool within
Lead Perfection.
And I'm, again, not gonna lie,some of our also biggest clients
use Lead Perfection.
(09:31):
So it's fantastic for leadsegmenting, et cetera.
You can see ROI prettyseamlessly with the right, I
guess, integrations there.
And the reports configured.
Yeah, exactly.
Janet (09:47):
What's funny to me is like, and you know, we're an
agency.
We are obviously not on thestaff of a home improvement
company, but we've worked withsome really successful companies
and watched them grow.
And I mean, it's a questionthat I have that I don't have
the answer to.
So maybe somebody can providethe answer.
We've seen some companies loveMarketSharp and Stay.
(10:10):
Yep.
But we've also seen them leaveMarketSharp and go to Lead
Perfection.
And then we've seen them leaveLead Perfection and go to
MarketSharp.
Speaker 01 (10:18):
Yes.
Back and forth, back and forth,back and forth.
Janet (10:20):
Back and forth, back and forth.
So in our experience, those arethe two that I think we
encounter the most.
Speaker 01 (10:28):
Absolutely.
Another one.
So these are our three that we,I mean...
Those are the two that I thinkwe use the most day-to-day in
terms of pulling reports, makingsure the leads we're generating
for our clients are going intothose CRM systems.
The third most used isAcculinks.
Really based around roofing atthe beginning and for roofing
(10:52):
contractors, it is almostlike...
It's almost like a fun versionof both of those.
Janet (10:59):
In my opinion, like this is just my version.
I think AccuLynx has the bestinterface.
Interface, yes.
It's the most modern lookinguser interface that I've logged
Speaker 01 (11:09):
into.
Absolutely.
And I can safely say mobilefriendly.
I mean, I...
Janet (11:14):
And I don't think, I don't know if I can say that
about MarketSharp orLeadPerfection.
Speaker 01 (11:18):
LP, unless there's an app or something out there,
but Acculink's so easy to use onyour phone.
It looks like an actualcloud-based
Janet (11:26):
piece of software where, to be honest, like MarketSharp
and LeadPerfection can look
Speaker 01 (11:31):
a little dated.
But there's a lot of power
Janet (11:33):
behind
Speaker 01 (11:34):
them.
A lot of power.
Acculink's, I just, I thinkit's, again, good for a growing
company.
You can...
There are integrations withthat in terms of pushing leads
into that system as well.
I'm trying to think of otherthings that are important.
I think like for roofing, ithas some pretty niche aerial
(11:55):
measurement and estimating toolsthat you can add on, which is
nice.
Again, really nice reports.
We've played in all of them.
They're all gonna, of course,CRMs should have a reporting
tool.
That's a nice one.
And then...
And correct me if I'm wrong,but I think Acculinks versus the
(12:15):
other ones also has a way toprocess payments.
So just a few one-stop shop
Janet (12:23):
features.
In our experience, and Caitlin,you actually are logged into
these things more often than Iam.
Daily.
Acculinks does...
I think a really good job ofmanaging photos connected to
jobs.
Speaker 01 (12:38):
That's a good point.
And so does another one thatwe're going to talk about.
Yes.
So
Janet (12:42):
talk a
Speaker 01 (12:43):
little bit about why we care about photos.
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
So kind of segmenting.
Lead perfection, as far as Iknow, I think you can do like
some custom emails.
I don't think there's anywherewhere you can capture photos.
MarketSharp, you can captureproject photos in terms of, a
(13:03):
customer and or a lead, you cando the same for Acculinks.
So once you've got a prospect,so they convert from a lead to a
prospect and then a prospectonto a customer, you can capture
when you're out there, here'sthe door that's going to have to
be replaced.
Here's a picture of the sidingthat's bad.
Here's some
Janet (13:23):
rotten wood in the fascia or the soffit
Speaker 01 (13:26):
area.
Yes.
And, um, MarketSharp does havethat feature.
I would say it's easier to findand access those within
Acculinks.
And then as an agency, we'velogged in and we've downloaded
those photos once the project iscompleted to share before and
after pictures.
Yeah, to
Janet (13:43):
use in online marketing.
We use these pictures that arejust so easy for us to log in to
our clients' Acculinks account,find these really great job
site photos, and then...
Recycle them into marketing togenerate
Speaker 01 (13:58):
more business.
Absolutely.
Um, so those three, I mean,like I could definitely speak
the most to, um, and if youdon't use one of those and you
use another one, we're going tolike quickly, I've talked a lot,
but Janet's going to talk abouta couple of other, um, of our
favorites.
And
Janet (14:15):
yeah, there's, there's a handful of names that we tend to
hear a lot.
Um, within the home improvementindustry.
So if you're riding in your carand you're listening to this
and you're that owner that'sstill working out of a
spreadsheet and a spiral boundnotebook, check out MarketSharp,
check out Lead Perfection,especially if you're a roofing
contractor, check out AccuLynx,A-C-C-U-L-Y-N-X.
(14:39):
Some other CRMs that we haveseen our clients use, Client
Tether, Jobber, builder trend.
We've even seen some clientsuse Zoho, which is not specific
to the home improvementindustry.
All of these others that we'rementioning are You know, they
have their DNA in homeimprovement.
(15:00):
Improve It 360, also calledi360, is a software that kind of
sits on top of Salesforce.
Yes.
And Service Titan.
Before we move on to the nextpart of this particular episode
about, you know, what you can dowith a CRM, I just wanted to
tell a short story about...
(15:20):
Jobber.
About Jobber.
Yeah.
So...
This is not from an agency'sperspective.
This is from my perspective asa homeowner.
So I got my house painted.
Like every homeowner, I didn'tknow a local painter, so I
Googled residential paintersnear me.
(15:41):
I probably clicked on a PPC ad.
And then I went to a website.
I made an assessment.
This looks like an establishedcompany.
It doesn't look like it's justtwo people with a truck.
You know, this is a realcompany that's got, you know,
multiple crews, multiple projectmanagers.
Reviews.
Yes, I absolutely looked atreviews, looked at their, you
(16:02):
know, photo gallery, et cetera.
Then I filled out a form.
Within minutes, somebody wascalling me.
And it's been a while since wefinished this painting project.
But I think it was either laterthat day or the next day.
An estimator was out at myhouse.
It was an exterior painting joband an interior painting job.
(16:22):
He walked around the house.
He took measurements.
He took pictures.
Very soon after that, maybe aday or two, I got an email with
the estimate.
And because, you know, We workwith contractors all the time.
I poked around to figure outlike, where did this estimate
come from and what system arethey using?
And I was able to figure outthat this painting company here
(16:44):
in Raleigh, North Carolina wasusing Jobber.
And so as the customer, I wasable to log in to Jobber.
I was able to track multipleestimates.
There was a separate estimatefor the interior work because we
asked them, you know, quoteseparately on interior versus
exterior.
I was able to give feedbacklike, no, we don't, you know, we
(17:07):
decided not to paint this roomor we decided not to do this.
So we went through a couple ofrounds of this estimate before
we approved it and before theystarted the project.
All of that happened throughJobber I didn't have to call
anybody.
I didn't have to talk toanybody.
It was electronic.
We approved the estimateelectronically.
(17:28):
We made the depositelectronically.
The job started, and then wewere updated throughout the job
through Jobber.
It was just a really goodexperience from a customer
Speaker 01 (17:39):
standpoint.
Were you on your phone or alaptop or a tablet?
Both.
Yeah, awesome.
That's great.
That's great news.
Janet (17:45):
So for those service companies, especially HVAC
contractors, pest management.
Yes.
painting.
I'm pretty sure it would workfor like baths and roofing and
siding.
I don't see why it wouldn't.
But for whatever reason, wedon't see those exterior
contractors and bath contractorsusing Jobber.
(18:07):
I don't know why not.
But as a customer hiring apainting contractor, it was a
seamless experience.
Speaker 01 (18:14):
So this actually might be a good transition to
why or why not some of those,you know, some of y'all
listening may not be usingJobber.
How did you feel like, sure, itwas, okay, seamless to receive
your invoice, seamless to watchthe progress of the job and to
pay the invoice.
Did you feel like there was anymarketing that was coming
(18:35):
through?
Like, this is the next portionof the episode is we're going to
talk about, like, why CRMs domake your marketing better.
Janet (18:43):
Yeah, I mean, they hit me for a review instantly.
Great.
And, you know, I mean, I'm kindof expanding the conversation
here.
Yeah.
Yes, Fat Cat is a marketingcompany.
We do quote-unquote, you know,air quote, capital M marketing
and marketing campaigns.
But I also believe that everyexperience that your customer
(19:06):
has interacting with yourcompany is part of your brand
and is also part of yourmarketing.
So if I have a goodexperience...
interacting with your CRM toapprove my estimate, to see job
photos, to maybe, you know, onthe fly say, Hey, can you guys
(19:26):
power wash this thing?
Or I want to add to the job.
Can you put an extra coat ofpaint on this one section of the
side of my house?
That's great.
You know, I did all thatthrough jobber and I actually
consider that it's not exactlymarketing, but it's such a great
experience.
It, it, it, complimentsmarketing
Speaker 01 (19:45):
okay well good yes good question though no no
that's a good point i mean andthat's what we love a lot about
these crms and the ones we umhave mentioned and uh the ones
that we didn't talk too muchabout i mean i know builder
trend does the same thingthere's a client portal which is
just as sexy as it can be ohyeah i mean
Janet (20:04):
for a while i was on the um local wake county hba
remodelers council
Caitlyn (20:09):
yeah
Janet (20:09):
and all of those really high-end custom remodeling guys
you know they're doing inthese...
beautiful 150,000 200,000kitchen remodels yeah all of
those guys that were doing theselonger term projects with lots
of subs they're having to pullpermits they're having to you
know get the electricalinspection and the plumbing
inspection and all that they'reall using builder trend and it
(20:32):
is also a beautiful experienceyeah for the customer to see
project photos and the progressof the job it's a really nice
experience for the contractor tomanage multiple subs manage
budgets, manage job costing.
So BuilderTrend, very, verystrong feature list.
(20:53):
Unless it's changed, my biggestbeef with BuilderTrend is there
isn't an open API.
Speaker 01 (20:58):
No, but they do have forms that you can put on a
website.
That they'll provide to youthat you can put on your
website, but Those forms do notconnect where you can find out
the source of those leads.
Boo.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we're not talking toomuch, but I don't want to, like,
leave these, like, high anddry.
Improve it 360, i360, andService Titan.
(21:20):
This portion of our podcast isreally targeted towards these
level one, like, you level ones.
Our level twos, threes are moreon I-360 and Service Titan
because of those capabilities interms of APIs and integrations
and reports, et cetera.
I would say if you're truly alevel one and you're listening
(21:43):
to this, try out LeadPerfection, Jobber, MarketSharp,
Acculinks.
Try those out.
And then once you graduate,we've seen a lot of our clients
graduate into i360 andServiceTitan.
Okay, so we've talked a lotabout these.
We've kind of already answeredthis.
(22:04):
But CRMs, how are they makingmarketing smarter, Janet?
Janet (22:09):
So I'm going to go back to what I said at the top of the
call, or the top of thepodcast, the call.
It's a call.
You know, when I talk tocontractors that they are still
running their business off of awhiteboard in the shop, and
they're their cell phone, maybea spreadsheet, and a
(22:30):
spiral-bound notebook.
What you're missing is theability to personalize
communication with leads thatweren't ready to buy over a long
period of time.
Speaker 02 (22:41):
Exactly.
So
Janet (22:41):
if a homeowner is thinking about doing an
addition, building a deck,remodeling their kitchen,
replacing their siding, butthey're not ready to do it,
let's say, I mean, right nowwe're recording this in the
spring, but let's say it's thefall, And they're like a planner
type.
They're type A, and they plansix months in advance.
(23:03):
It's the fall.
The holidays are coming up.
And it's on their to-do list toget a couple of quotes and
start their research process.
But they don't really plan onpulling the trigger until the
spring.
For what project?
Let's say it's a sidingreplacement.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a large dollar project.
They don't want the disruptionover the holidays.
(23:26):
Right.
but they do wanna start theirresearch.
If you have a CRM, you'recapturing all of that
information.
You are going ahead and settingup reminder activities.
You can pre-write emails, set atask for your call center
people, set a task for yoursales rep to follow up on a very
(23:49):
specific day and be able toeasily reference all of the
notes that you took when youwent out and helped them measure
their job, answer all theirquestions in October, and you're
having that conversation inMarch.
I challenge you to do that atthat level of detail out of a
spiral-bound notebook.
You're not going to be able todo it, and you're not going to
(24:11):
be able to do it.
You might be able to do it forone homeowner.
Can you do it for 100, 200,over an 18-month period?
That's what a CRM can do foryou.
Keep all of those little datapoints and then personalize that
follow-up over a long period oftime with the details that
you've captured along the way tohelp that homeowner on their
(24:34):
buying journey.
Caitlin's mentioned this, butautomated campaigns.
Talk to us about what you dowith drip campaigns.
Speaker 01 (24:41):
Yeah, I mean, you nailed it.
I mean, what Janet just said iswhat we do.
I mean, if we have...
not only segmented list byprevious customer, by demo no
sale, cancel prior to issue,we're pushing those contacts
into an email marketing platformwhere based off of their
(25:02):
segment and their buying journeywhere they may have ghosted you
or they canceled theirappointment or you guys demoed
and they decided to not sell andwe're hitting them with
marketing automations about whatchanged your mind or for a
previous customer are you readyfor your next project that type
of messaging and that would notbe possible without a CRM it
(25:23):
just wouldn't you were talkingthough Janet and I thought about
something that also makes CRMspowerful and it's holding your
marketing agencies accountableso the clients that we work the
best with they've got solidenough reporting where we can
(25:43):
see the leads that we'vegenerated
Janet (25:45):
versus leads from other sources like word of mouth
Speaker 01 (25:48):
correct versus leads from other sources we can see
how they've set how they've soldand we're able to take that
data And you, as a contractor,you're able to take that data
and go back to the marketingagency, your marketing manager,
whoever it may be, and say, itdoes not look like radio is
producing any sales.
Or it just doesn't look like mywebsite is producing any sales.
(26:11):
Your CRM can do that for you.
Janet (26:14):
Or even dialed in a little bit more granularly.
You know, when we talk aboutonline ads, right now it's,
april 2025
Speaker 01 (26:25):
sure
Janet (26:26):
um you know two of the biggest platforms are going to
be google and facebook we canget insights about leads that
came from google paid ads versusleads that came from facebook
paid ads and we can work withyou and your team to see do they
tend to turn into appointmentsat the same ratio do they tend
(26:50):
to sell You know, for all theappointments that you go on,
what's the closing ratio?
If you go on 10 appointments,how many are you going to sell
from a paid Google ad versus apaid Facebook ad?
We can also help you figureout, you know, average total
job.
That's right.
From, like, the dollar amountthat you got per job based on
(27:11):
the lead source.
There was one other thing Iwanted to kind of go back.
We were talking about automatedcampaigns, right?
And I just was rememberingsomething that we've started
doing recently with ClientTether.
So Client Tether is another CRMthat we haven't mentioned so
far, but we have found that ithas been pretty popular with
(27:35):
some of our handymen clients.
customers.
So these are businesses thatare doing all kinds of honeydew
odd jobs.
They're changing out lightfixtures, they're power washing
decks, they're hanging TVs,hanging TVs, swapping out
garbage disposals.
So what we've started doing,and it's only because there's a
CRM in place.
So these handyman jobs arelower ticket, lower ticket price
(28:00):
jobs, but unlike say a sidingcontractor like once you replace
somebody's siding with jameshardy siding it's unlikely
you're going to sell that samehomeowner more siding not for 20
30 years not unless they buyanother house yeah exactly so
your your opportunity for repeatcustomers is different
(28:20):
depending on what you're sellingexactly but in the handyman
world There's every opportunityfor repeat customers.
So what we've started to dowith our handyman clients, using
Client Tether, is we areslicing and dicing those
segments and we're hittingpeople with a text message
campaign.
Like, hey, it's spring.
Do you need power washing done?
(28:43):
It's spring and it's in thesouth.
There's pollen everywhere.
So we can also set up thosecampaigns through automations,
through the CRM, throughsegmenting in the CRM to hit
previous customers who've hiredclients you know, these guys for
one kind of handyman job, hitthem over a kind of a pre
(29:07):
preformed cadence, right?
Like, let's hit them everythree weeks.
And let's hit them every sixweeks.
Let's hit them every certainnumber of weeks with a different
message.
You know, hey, do you need ahandyman for a day?
Do you need a do you need alight fixture?
swapped out.
Do you need
Speaker 01 (29:24):
your outdoor lights installed for Christmas?
I mean, things like that.
Things like that.
Janet (29:28):
You actually mentioned something to me that I had never
heard of.
Caitlin apparently lives in afancier neighborhood than I do.
But there's a service in herneighborhood that offers
cleaning out people's trashcans.
Like your city can that youhave to roll to the street on
Thursday.
They're coming and cleaning outthose trash cans and then
(29:48):
they're sending you textmessages about it, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, hey.
I would bet my left foot thatthe only reason they're able to
do that is because they have aCRM in place.
Speaker 01 (29:57):
Oh, my God, yes.
They know what neighborhood Ilive in.
They know when the trash isgetting picked up.
They know when the trash can isavailable to be cleaned.
Janet (30:05):
And they know the last time you got it cleaned.
Speaker 01 (30:07):
You got it.
Well, all of that to be said,y'all, if you're not using a CRM
yet, this is your sign.
That you should.
Just start simple.
Just start if you haven't.
You're going to close moreleads.
You're going to run a tighteroperation.
You're going to market moreefficiently.
And you're going to buildlonger-lasting relationships.
(30:28):
So short and sweet, we couldhonestly talk forever about
CRMs.
Super important.
And it's not just a techupgrade.
It's a business upgrade.
Janet (30:41):
Ooh, you sound smart saying that.
It is a business upgrade.
You're upgrading your businessby implementing a CRM.
You are.
Janet?
What are we getting into nextweek?
So next week in this series, weare going to dive into a big
one.
How to find the right digitalmarketing agency for your home
improvement business for whereyour business is right now.
Because let's be honest, doinggreat work in the home is one
(31:05):
thing, but getting people to thehome in the first place, how do
you get that done?
That's where a marketingcompany comes in.
A company like ours, like FatCat Strategies, there are other
agencies out there.
Our job is to drive leads intoyour business and honestly into
your CRM.
Yeah,
Speaker 01 (31:25):
and you can use all of those other tools we've
talked about too.
Thank y'all for joining us foranother episode.
As always, we hope you gotvalue out of it.
If you found this helpful,please share it with a fellow
contractor who is ready to levelup.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and we will get
you more real talk strategiescoming very soon coming every
(31:47):
Wednesday for the foreseeablefuture.
And please, please, please.
We would love a review as well.
So thank you guys.
We will talk to y'all in aweek.
Thank you.
Speaker 00 (31:56):
Digital marketing for contractors is created by
fat cat strategies.
For more information, visitfatcatstrategies.com.
Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors.
This podcast is brought to youby Fat Cat Strategies, a
full-service digital marketingagency based in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
We specialize in helping homeimprovement contractors just
like you grow their businesses.
Today, you're listening to aseries called Build, Grow,
Dominate, marketing strategiesfor every stage of your home
(00:24):
improvement business.
Every Wednesday, we take a deepdive into the lessons that
we've learned from supportingsome amazing business owners in
the home improvement industry.
In part one, we'll cover theessentials from startup to your
first five million.
In part two, we're shiftinggears to focus on what it takes
to scale your business to asuccessful exit and or how to
(00:45):
dominate your market.
Now let's get into it.
Hello, I am Janet.
I am the founder here at FatCat Strategies.
And today I'm joined by one ofthe co-owners of the business
and really the heartbeat thatmakes Fat Cat work.
Who were we talking about?
We're talking about, hold on,let me do a drum roll.
The wonderful and talentedCaitlin Noble, my friend and
(01:07):
business partner.
Caitlin, tell us who you are,what you do.
Caitlyn (01:11):
Well, it's hard to top that intro.
But in case you didn't hear,I'm Caitlin.
I am the head of clientservices.
proud partner here at Fat CatStrategy.
He's been working with Janetfor eight years now, which has
been such an amazing journey.
Today is a topic that we arevery passionate about.
It is, to your point, it is aheartbeat behind our home
(01:35):
improvement clients.
Janet, what is it?
Janet (01:38):
What are we talking about?
We're talking about CRMs.
What is a CRM?
It's an acronym that stands forCustomer Relationship
Management.
It's software.
Yes.
It is the beating heart, or itshould be, the beating heart of
your business.
Caitlyn (01:54):
And please listen, because whether you have a CRM
solution in your business ornot, this episode is going to be
totally worth it for you.
If you're still usingspreadsheets, sticky notes,
have...
some sort of memory bank whereyou're managing leads and
customers, it's not going to getyou to the next level.
So the good news is we're goingto talk today about why CRMs
(02:19):
matter for contractors and whyyou should care.
So Janet, why don't you goahead and tell us a little bit
more about just what a CRM is.
Janet (02:30):
In the simplest way to put it, it's just software.
Caitlyn (02:32):
It is.
Janet (02:33):
These days, it's web-based.
Back in the day, it used to beinstalled on your computer.
But these days, it's all in abrowser.
It's software.
Caitlyn (02:42):
It's your brain.
And
Janet (02:44):
it is the software that you use to log...
Every single homeowner that hasever contacted your business,
every lead, every quote you'veever given, every estimate
you've ever given, and it's whatyour call center uses.
In the last episode, we talkedabout call centers.
It's what your call center usesto stay on track.
(03:05):
It's what your salespeople useto know who they're talking to.
It's the hub.
of all of the spokes on thewheel of
Caitlyn (03:16):
your business.
Of the customer journey.
Janet (03:18):
Yes.
So what does it do?
It centralizes your data.
That means no more phonenumbers written down on a piece
of paper.
It helps you improve customerservice.
That means you can know thefull history of of the
homeowners that contact yourbusiness, their preferences, the
questions that they asked, whenthey called you.
You can see those conversationsat a glance.
(03:39):
It helps you streamline yourcommunication.
That means emails in and out,calls in and out, quotes that
you've provided.
And it helps you manage yourleads, manage your entire sales
process.
And it gives you powerfulinsights into your entire
company.
What's working, what's notworking, your CRM is going to
(04:01):
give you the answers to thosequestions.
So bottom line, if you want tostop guessing and start growing,
you have to get a CRM in place.
Caitlyn (04:09):
You really do.
And the series is Build, Grow,Dominate.
But to build your business,you've got to have a CRM to grow
to eventually dominate.
I
Janet (04:22):
want to jump in because I've talked to so many
contractors that...
They've been successful kind ofas like a lone wolf with maybe
a couple of subs.
Yeah, we've
Caitlyn (04:31):
worked with them.
Janet (04:32):
And we've worked with them and we've helped them grow.
Side note, we've never oncehelped somebody grow that didn't
have a CRM.
Never once in 15 years have Iever seen significant growth of
a company that did not have aCRM in place.
But often what happens is iswe'll get a contractor contact
(04:54):
us the business is up andrunning they've they're
installing jobs they've gotgreat word of mouth they've got
um you know maybe even one salesrep probably a relative like a
family member exactly and a lotof the business is being run off
of a giant whiteboard in youroffice or wherever your shop is
(05:15):
and um you know, maybe an Excelspreadsheet and a spiral bound
notebook.
If that's where you are rightnow, that is totally fine.
But this episode is for youbecause we want to talk to you
about how you can move beyondthat
Caitlyn (05:31):
situation.
That's correct.
And I'll preface this also bysaying, We have no partnership,
no ties with the CRMs that weare going to mention.
These are just a few of ourfavorites.
Janet (05:43):
Yeah, we're not being paid for
Caitlyn (05:44):
any of this.
I don't know the technical.
Affiliate leaks.
We're not affiliates.
I will say the first one I amgoing to speak to, we are listed
on their website.
As a partner.
So I guess we don't get
Janet (05:58):
paid.
We
Caitlyn (05:58):
don't get paid.
I am just really proud andexcited about the CRM.
When we start to go through thesales process and we find out
that we have a client using theCRM, um, we get excited because
we know the opportunities thatare there and that CRM is market
sharp.
Um, it's built specifically forhome improvement contractors.
It's got marketing automationsalready baked in.
(06:22):
You can manage your leads.
Like I said, you can do emails.
campaigns it connects directlyto constant contact amazing
reporting in terms of salestracking great project
scheduling some of our biggestbest clients do use MarketSharp
and I think it's super easy inmy opinion as a marketer to use
(06:45):
and find data as well
Janet (06:47):
yeah and in our last episode we talked all about call
centers if you listened to thatepisode and in MarketSharp what
we've seen is you can set callcenter queues.
Speaker 01 (06:58):
Yeah, that's
Janet (06:58):
right.
So there's all kinds of coolsettings that you can configure
in your CRM, whether it'sMarketShop or something else,
where if you want one kind ofcall to be queued to one staff
person or if you sell multipleproducts you sell maybe siding
and windows and you want to setthem up as different cues you
(07:19):
know that's right it's your upto your imagination but market
sharp has all of those tools foryou in place um to help you
pull all that informationtogether so it makes sense for
your business
Speaker 01 (07:31):
and it also has a really nice um feature in terms
of um getting leads into yoursystem.
So I didn't really talk aboutthat, but we're generating
leads.
You've got a digital marketingagency or you're doing marketing
yourself.
You've now got a call center.
You've got a website.
So I know MarketSharp does makeit super simple with their own
forms as well as some prettyopen web hooks, which not trying
(07:55):
to get too in the weeds here,but MarketSharp does make it
simple to get leads into yourCRM for that speed to lead
process.
which we talked about in thelast episode.
Yeah, and
Janet (08:06):
that's for a call and a form.
Yes.
We've been able to connect ourcall tracking software,
WhatConverts, with MarketSharpso that that call is
automatically entered into theCRM.
Same thing with a form thatgets filled out.
Yes.
Speaker 01 (08:23):
Super, super easy to use.
Nice interface.
Totally recommend it.
Another one that I recommend,Tried and True, and...
Goes back to my roots when Ifirst started managing home
improvement contractors here atFat Cat.
We were logging into leadperfection.
Very powerful, really great forgrowing companies.
(08:47):
There's tons of customizations,especially for this industry.
Good lead tracking, like Isaid, really, really good
customer Reporting, theirsupport team is also really
nice.
If you can't figure out some ofthe reporting there, they also
have marketing automations.
I would say not as, I think,easy, like one button clicks
(09:11):
like MarketSharp, but they dohave settings that make it easy
to be able to connect withsomebody via email.
And then there's another reallynice scheduling tool within
Lead Perfection.
And I'm, again, not gonna lie,some of our also biggest clients
use Lead Perfection.
(09:31):
So it's fantastic for leadsegmenting, et cetera.
You can see ROI prettyseamlessly with the right, I
guess, integrations there.
And the reports configured.
Yeah, exactly.
Janet (09:47):
What's funny to me is like, and you know, we're an
agency.
We are obviously not on thestaff of a home improvement
company, but we've worked withsome really successful companies
and watched them grow.
And I mean, it's a questionthat I have that I don't have
the answer to.
So maybe somebody can providethe answer.
We've seen some companies loveMarketSharp and Stay.
(10:10):
Yep.
But we've also seen them leaveMarketSharp and go to Lead
Perfection.
And then we've seen them leaveLead Perfection and go to
MarketSharp.
Speaker 01 (10:18):
Yes.
Back and forth, back and forth,back and forth.
Janet (10:20):
Back and forth, back and forth.
So in our experience, those arethe two that I think we
encounter the most.
Speaker 01 (10:28):
Absolutely.
Another one.
So these are our three that we,I mean...
Those are the two that I thinkwe use the most day-to-day in
terms of pulling reports, makingsure the leads we're generating
for our clients are going intothose CRM systems.
The third most used isAcculinks.
Really based around roofing atthe beginning and for roofing
(10:52):
contractors, it is almostlike...
It's almost like a fun versionof both of those.
Janet (10:59):
In my opinion, like this is just my version.
I think AccuLynx has the bestinterface.
Interface, yes.
It's the most modern lookinguser interface that I've logged
Speaker 01 (11:09):
into.
Absolutely.
And I can safely say mobilefriendly.
I mean, I...
Janet (11:14):
And I don't think, I don't know if I can say that
about MarketSharp orLeadPerfection.
Speaker 01 (11:18):
LP, unless there's an app or something out there,
but Acculink's so easy to use onyour phone.
It looks like an actualcloud-based
Janet (11:26):
piece of software where, to be honest, like MarketSharp
and LeadPerfection can look
Speaker 01 (11:31):
a little dated.
But there's a lot of power
Janet (11:33):
behind
Speaker 01 (11:34):
them.
A lot of power.
Acculink's, I just, I thinkit's, again, good for a growing
company.
You can...
There are integrations withthat in terms of pushing leads
into that system as well.
I'm trying to think of otherthings that are important.
I think like for roofing, ithas some pretty niche aerial
(11:55):
measurement and estimating toolsthat you can add on, which is
nice.
Again, really nice reports.
We've played in all of them.
They're all gonna, of course,CRMs should have a reporting
tool.
That's a nice one.
And then...
And correct me if I'm wrong,but I think Acculinks versus the
(12:15):
other ones also has a way toprocess payments.
So just a few one-stop shop
Janet (12:23):
features.
In our experience, and Caitlin,you actually are logged into
these things more often than Iam.
Daily.
Acculinks does...
I think a really good job ofmanaging photos connected to
jobs.
Speaker 01 (12:38):
That's a good point.
And so does another one thatwe're going to talk about.
Yes.
So
Janet (12:42):
talk a
Speaker 01 (12:43):
little bit about why we care about photos.
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
So kind of segmenting.
Lead perfection, as far as Iknow, I think you can do like
some custom emails.
I don't think there's anywherewhere you can capture photos.
MarketSharp, you can captureproject photos in terms of, a
(13:03):
customer and or a lead, you cando the same for Acculinks.
So once you've got a prospect,so they convert from a lead to a
prospect and then a prospectonto a customer, you can capture
when you're out there, here'sthe door that's going to have to
be replaced.
Here's a picture of the sidingthat's bad.
Here's some
Janet (13:23):
rotten wood in the fascia or the soffit
Speaker 01 (13:26):
area.
Yes.
And, um, MarketSharp does havethat feature.
I would say it's easier to findand access those within
Acculinks.
And then as an agency, we'velogged in and we've downloaded
those photos once the project iscompleted to share before and
after pictures.
Yeah, to
Janet (13:43):
use in online marketing.
We use these pictures that arejust so easy for us to log in to
our clients' Acculinks account,find these really great job
site photos, and then...
Recycle them into marketing togenerate
Speaker 01 (13:58):
more business.
Absolutely.
Um, so those three, I mean,like I could definitely speak
the most to, um, and if youdon't use one of those and you
use another one, we're going tolike quickly, I've talked a lot,
but Janet's going to talk abouta couple of other, um, of our
favorites.
And
Janet (14:15):
yeah, there's, there's a handful of names that we tend to
hear a lot.
Um, within the home improvementindustry.
So if you're riding in your carand you're listening to this
and you're that owner that'sstill working out of a
spreadsheet and a spiral boundnotebook, check out MarketSharp,
check out Lead Perfection,especially if you're a roofing
contractor, check out AccuLynx,A-C-C-U-L-Y-N-X.
(14:39):
Some other CRMs that we haveseen our clients use, Client
Tether, Jobber, builder trend.
We've even seen some clientsuse Zoho, which is not specific
to the home improvementindustry.
All of these others that we'rementioning are You know, they
have their DNA in homeimprovement.
(15:00):
Improve It 360, also calledi360, is a software that kind of
sits on top of Salesforce.
Yes.
And Service Titan.
Before we move on to the nextpart of this particular episode
about, you know, what you can dowith a CRM, I just wanted to
tell a short story about...
(15:20):
Jobber.
About Jobber.
Yeah.
So...
This is not from an agency'sperspective.
This is from my perspective asa homeowner.
So I got my house painted.
Like every homeowner, I didn'tknow a local painter, so I
Googled residential paintersnear me.
(15:41):
I probably clicked on a PPC ad.
And then I went to a website.
I made an assessment.
This looks like an establishedcompany.
It doesn't look like it's justtwo people with a truck.
You know, this is a realcompany that's got, you know,
multiple crews, multiple projectmanagers.
Reviews.
Yes, I absolutely looked atreviews, looked at their, you
(16:02):
know, photo gallery, et cetera.
Then I filled out a form.
Within minutes, somebody wascalling me.
And it's been a while since wefinished this painting project.
But I think it was either laterthat day or the next day.
An estimator was out at myhouse.
It was an exterior painting joband an interior painting job.
(16:22):
He walked around the house.
He took measurements.
He took pictures.
Very soon after that, maybe aday or two, I got an email with
the estimate.
And because, you know, We workwith contractors all the time.
I poked around to figure outlike, where did this estimate
come from and what system arethey using?
And I was able to figure outthat this painting company here
(16:44):
in Raleigh, North Carolina wasusing Jobber.
And so as the customer, I wasable to log in to Jobber.
I was able to track multipleestimates.
There was a separate estimatefor the interior work because we
asked them, you know, quoteseparately on interior versus
exterior.
I was able to give feedbacklike, no, we don't, you know, we
(17:07):
decided not to paint this roomor we decided not to do this.
So we went through a couple ofrounds of this estimate before
we approved it and before theystarted the project.
All of that happened throughJobber I didn't have to call
anybody.
I didn't have to talk toanybody.
It was electronic.
We approved the estimateelectronically.
(17:28):
We made the depositelectronically.
The job started, and then wewere updated throughout the job
through Jobber.
It was just a really goodexperience from a customer
Speaker 01 (17:39):
standpoint.
Were you on your phone or alaptop or a tablet?
Both.
Yeah, awesome.
That's great.
That's great news.
Janet (17:45):
So for those service companies, especially HVAC
contractors, pest management.
Yes.
painting.
I'm pretty sure it would workfor like baths and roofing and
siding.
I don't see why it wouldn't.
But for whatever reason, wedon't see those exterior
contractors and bath contractorsusing Jobber.
(18:07):
I don't know why not.
But as a customer hiring apainting contractor, it was a
seamless experience.
Speaker 01 (18:14):
So this actually might be a good transition to
why or why not some of those,you know, some of y'all
listening may not be usingJobber.
How did you feel like, sure, itwas, okay, seamless to receive
your invoice, seamless to watchthe progress of the job and to
pay the invoice.
Did you feel like there was anymarketing that was coming
(18:35):
through?
Like, this is the next portionof the episode is we're going to
talk about, like, why CRMs domake your marketing better.
Janet (18:43):
Yeah, I mean, they hit me for a review instantly.
Great.
And, you know, I mean, I'm kindof expanding the conversation
here.
Yeah.
Yes, Fat Cat is a marketingcompany.
We do quote-unquote, you know,air quote, capital M marketing
and marketing campaigns.
But I also believe that everyexperience that your customer
(19:06):
has interacting with yourcompany is part of your brand
and is also part of yourmarketing.
So if I have a goodexperience...
interacting with your CRM toapprove my estimate, to see job
photos, to maybe, you know, onthe fly say, Hey, can you guys
(19:26):
power wash this thing?
Or I want to add to the job.
Can you put an extra coat ofpaint on this one section of the
side of my house?
That's great.
You know, I did all thatthrough jobber and I actually
consider that it's not exactlymarketing, but it's such a great
experience.
It, it, it, complimentsmarketing
Speaker 01 (19:45):
okay well good yes good question though no no
that's a good point i mean andthat's what we love a lot about
these crms and the ones we umhave mentioned and uh the ones
that we didn't talk too muchabout i mean i know builder
trend does the same thingthere's a client portal which is
just as sexy as it can be ohyeah i mean
Janet (20:04):
for a while i was on the um local wake county hba
remodelers council
Caitlyn (20:09):
yeah
Janet (20:09):
and all of those really high-end custom remodeling guys
you know they're doing inthese...
beautiful 150,000 200,000kitchen remodels yeah all of
those guys that were doing theselonger term projects with lots
of subs they're having to pullpermits they're having to you
know get the electricalinspection and the plumbing
inspection and all that they'reall using builder trend and it
(20:32):
is also a beautiful experienceyeah for the customer to see
project photos and the progressof the job it's a really nice
experience for the contractor tomanage multiple subs manage
budgets, manage job costing.
So BuilderTrend, very, verystrong feature list.
(20:53):
Unless it's changed, my biggestbeef with BuilderTrend is there
isn't an open API.
Speaker 01 (20:58):
No, but they do have forms that you can put on a
website.
That they'll provide to youthat you can put on your
website, but Those forms do notconnect where you can find out
the source of those leads.
Boo.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we're not talking toomuch, but I don't want to, like,
leave these, like, high anddry.
Improve it 360, i360, andService Titan.
(21:20):
This portion of our podcast isreally targeted towards these
level one, like, you level ones.
Our level twos, threes are moreon I-360 and Service Titan
because of those capabilities interms of APIs and integrations
and reports, et cetera.
I would say if you're truly alevel one and you're listening
(21:43):
to this, try out LeadPerfection, Jobber, MarketSharp,
Acculinks.
Try those out.
And then once you graduate,we've seen a lot of our clients
graduate into i360 andServiceTitan.
Okay, so we've talked a lotabout these.
We've kind of already answeredthis.
(22:04):
But CRMs, how are they makingmarketing smarter, Janet?
Janet (22:09):
So I'm going to go back to what I said at the top of the
call, or the top of thepodcast, the call.
It's a call.
You know, when I talk tocontractors that they are still
running their business off of awhiteboard in the shop, and
they're their cell phone, maybea spreadsheet, and a
(22:30):
spiral-bound notebook.
What you're missing is theability to personalize
communication with leads thatweren't ready to buy over a long
period of time.
Speaker 02 (22:41):
Exactly.
So
Janet (22:41):
if a homeowner is thinking about doing an
addition, building a deck,remodeling their kitchen,
replacing their siding, butthey're not ready to do it,
let's say, I mean, right nowwe're recording this in the
spring, but let's say it's thefall, And they're like a planner
type.
They're type A, and they plansix months in advance.
(23:03):
It's the fall.
The holidays are coming up.
And it's on their to-do list toget a couple of quotes and
start their research process.
But they don't really plan onpulling the trigger until the
spring.
For what project?
Let's say it's a sidingreplacement.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a large dollar project.
They don't want the disruptionover the holidays.
(23:26):
Right.
but they do wanna start theirresearch.
If you have a CRM, you'recapturing all of that
information.
You are going ahead and settingup reminder activities.
You can pre-write emails, set atask for your call center
people, set a task for yoursales rep to follow up on a very
(23:49):
specific day and be able toeasily reference all of the
notes that you took when youwent out and helped them measure
their job, answer all theirquestions in October, and you're
having that conversation inMarch.
I challenge you to do that atthat level of detail out of a
spiral-bound notebook.
You're not going to be able todo it, and you're not going to
(24:11):
be able to do it.
You might be able to do it forone homeowner.
Can you do it for 100, 200,over an 18-month period?
That's what a CRM can do foryou.
Keep all of those little datapoints and then personalize that
follow-up over a long period oftime with the details that
you've captured along the way tohelp that homeowner on their
(24:34):
buying journey.
Caitlin's mentioned this, butautomated campaigns.
Talk to us about what you dowith drip campaigns.
Speaker 01 (24:41):
Yeah, I mean, you nailed it.
I mean, what Janet just said iswhat we do.
I mean, if we have...
not only segmented list byprevious customer, by demo no
sale, cancel prior to issue,we're pushing those contacts
into an email marketing platformwhere based off of their
(25:02):
segment and their buying journeywhere they may have ghosted you
or they canceled theirappointment or you guys demoed
and they decided to not sell andwe're hitting them with
marketing automations about whatchanged your mind or for a
previous customer are you readyfor your next project that type
of messaging and that would notbe possible without a CRM it
(25:23):
just wouldn't you were talkingthough Janet and I thought about
something that also makes CRMspowerful and it's holding your
marketing agencies accountableso the clients that we work the
best with they've got solidenough reporting where we can
(25:43):
see the leads that we'vegenerated
Janet (25:45):
versus leads from other sources like word of mouth
Speaker 01 (25:48):
correct versus leads from other sources we can see
how they've set how they've soldand we're able to take that
data And you, as a contractor,you're able to take that data
and go back to the marketingagency, your marketing manager,
whoever it may be, and say, itdoes not look like radio is
producing any sales.
Or it just doesn't look like mywebsite is producing any sales.
(26:11):
Your CRM can do that for you.
Janet (26:14):
Or even dialed in a little bit more granularly.
You know, when we talk aboutonline ads, right now it's,
april 2025
Speaker 01 (26:25):
sure
Janet (26:26):
um you know two of the biggest platforms are going to
be google and facebook we canget insights about leads that
came from google paid ads versusleads that came from facebook
paid ads and we can work withyou and your team to see do they
tend to turn into appointmentsat the same ratio do they tend
(26:50):
to sell You know, for all theappointments that you go on,
what's the closing ratio?
If you go on 10 appointments,how many are you going to sell
from a paid Google ad versus apaid Facebook ad?
We can also help you figureout, you know, average total
job.
That's right.
From, like, the dollar amountthat you got per job based on
(27:11):
the lead source.
There was one other thing Iwanted to kind of go back.
We were talking about automatedcampaigns, right?
And I just was rememberingsomething that we've started
doing recently with ClientTether.
So Client Tether is another CRMthat we haven't mentioned so
far, but we have found that ithas been pretty popular with
(27:35):
some of our handymen clients.
customers.
So these are businesses thatare doing all kinds of honeydew
odd jobs.
They're changing out lightfixtures, they're power washing
decks, they're hanging TVs,hanging TVs, swapping out
garbage disposals.
So what we've started doing,and it's only because there's a
CRM in place.
So these handyman jobs arelower ticket, lower ticket price
(28:00):
jobs, but unlike say a sidingcontractor like once you replace
somebody's siding with jameshardy siding it's unlikely
you're going to sell that samehomeowner more siding not for 20
30 years not unless they buyanother house yeah exactly so
your your opportunity for repeatcustomers is different
(28:20):
depending on what you're sellingexactly but in the handyman
world There's every opportunityfor repeat customers.
So what we've started to dowith our handyman clients, using
Client Tether, is we areslicing and dicing those
segments and we're hittingpeople with a text message
campaign.
Like, hey, it's spring.
Do you need power washing done?
(28:43):
It's spring and it's in thesouth.
There's pollen everywhere.
So we can also set up thosecampaigns through automations,
through the CRM, throughsegmenting in the CRM to hit
previous customers who've hiredclients you know, these guys for
one kind of handyman job, hitthem over a kind of a pre
(29:07):
preformed cadence, right?
Like, let's hit them everythree weeks.
And let's hit them every sixweeks.
Let's hit them every certainnumber of weeks with a different
message.
You know, hey, do you need ahandyman for a day?
Do you need a do you need alight fixture?
swapped out.
Do you need
Speaker 01 (29:24):
your outdoor lights installed for Christmas?
I mean, things like that.
Things like that.
Janet (29:28):
You actually mentioned something to me that I had never
heard of.
Caitlin apparently lives in afancier neighborhood than I do.
But there's a service in herneighborhood that offers
cleaning out people's trashcans.
Like your city can that youhave to roll to the street on
Thursday.
They're coming and cleaning outthose trash cans and then
(29:48):
they're sending you textmessages about it, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, hey.
I would bet my left foot thatthe only reason they're able to
do that is because they have aCRM in place.
Speaker 01 (29:57):
Oh, my God, yes.
They know what neighborhood Ilive in.
They know when the trash isgetting picked up.
They know when the trash can isavailable to be cleaned.
Janet (30:05):
And they know the last time you got it cleaned.
Speaker 01 (30:07):
You got it.
Well, all of that to be said,y'all, if you're not using a CRM
yet, this is your sign.
That you should.
Just start simple.
Just start if you haven't.
You're going to close moreleads.
You're going to run a tighteroperation.
You're going to market moreefficiently.
And you're going to buildlonger-lasting relationships.
(30:28):
So short and sweet, we couldhonestly talk forever about
CRMs.
Super important.
And it's not just a techupgrade.
It's a business upgrade.
Janet (30:41):
Ooh, you sound smart saying that.
It is a business upgrade.
You're upgrading your businessby implementing a CRM.
You are.
Janet?
What are we getting into nextweek?
So next week in this series, weare going to dive into a big
one.
How to find the right digitalmarketing agency for your home
improvement business for whereyour business is right now.
Because let's be honest, doinggreat work in the home is one
(31:05):
thing, but getting people to thehome in the first place, how do
you get that done?
That's where a marketingcompany comes in.
A company like ours, like FatCat Strategies, there are other
agencies out there.
Our job is to drive leads intoyour business and honestly into
your CRM.
Yeah,
Speaker 01 (31:25):
and you can use all of those other tools we've
talked about too.
Thank y'all for joining us foranother episode.
As always, we hope you gotvalue out of it.
If you found this helpful,please share it with a fellow
contractor who is ready to levelup.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and we will get
you more real talk strategiescoming very soon coming every
(31:47):
Wednesday for the foreseeablefuture.
And please, please, please.
We would love a review as well.
So thank you guys.
We will talk to y'all in aweek.
Thank you.
Speaker 00 (31:56):
Digital marketing for contractors is created by
fat cat strategies.
For more information, visitfatcatstrategies.com.
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