September 23, 2025 • 26 mins
How quickly are you responding to potential customers? In today's instant-gratification marketplace, that question might determine whether your contracting business thrives or struggles. When a homeowner discovers a pest problem at midnight or needs an emergency HVAC repair, they're not waiting until your business hours—they want answers now.
Nick, a serial entrepreneur who has built three organizations to nine-figure revenues, drops a bombshell early in our conversation: "If you do not answer a lead within three seconds, the likelihood of converting that into a deal drops by 8x." This isn't just theory—it's backed by hard data showing that first responders consistently win more business.
The good news? Artificial intelligence offers contractors practical, affordable solutions to this challenge. Rather than replacing your team, AI tools can serve as a powerful buffer—answering after-hours calls, managing overflow during busy periods, and ensuring no inquiry goes unanswered. The technology has advanced dramatically, creating natural conversations that gather essential customer information and integrate seamlessly with your existing systems.
For contractors hesitant about implementing AI, Nick offers pragmatic advice: start by enhancing what you're already doing. Look at areas where leads commonly fall through the cracks—missed calls, delayed responses to web inquiries, limited communication channels—and apply AI solutions to strengthen these weak points. The goal isn't to completely overhaul your business but to optimize current operations with technology that works 24/7.
Perhaps most importantly, we discuss the changing expectations of today's consumers. When your website only offers a phone number, you're limiting accessibility to potential customers who might prefer texting, messaging, or online scheduling. By meeting customers where they are, with their preferred communication methods, you significantly expand your capacity to capture new business.
Ready to stop losing leads and start growing your contracting business? This episode provides the practical insights and actionable strategies you need to implement AI effectively, respond faster to inquiries, and ultimately convert more leads into paying customers.
If you enjoyed this chat From the Yellow Chair, consider joining our newsletter, "Let's Sip Some Lemonade," where you can receive exclusive interviews, our bank of helpful downloadables, and updates on upcoming content.
Please consider following and drop a review below if you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to check out our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.
From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com
Interested in being a guest on our show? Fill out this form!
We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Oh, what's up?
A lemon heads.
Welcome to a whole notherepisode of from the yellow chair
.
I am crystal and y'all today.
Listen, today I am talkingabout something that has so many
of you contractors riled up,and that is a little bit of AI.
But some ways that you canutilize AI to really drive your
(00:32):
business forward that are commonsense now that I've heard them.
Being instant when we areresponding to our needs from our
market is really going to be agame changer.
So stop what you're doing, putthose headphones in, get ready,
go in for your drive or your run, whatever you're going to do,
but let's sip some lemonadeY'all.
(00:56):
I am so excited.
This is a unique thing.
So Lemon Seed actually utilizesthis company for our own
processes that we have in placehere, and when I listened to
Nick and his team, I had torealize everyone needs to be
listening to this message behindwhy they do what they do.
And so, nick, welcome to theshow.
(01:16):
Tell everybody a little bitabout yourself and why they
should care about what you haveto say today.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, a little bit about me ina couple of minutes or less.
So I'm a serial entrepreneur.
I started my career cutting myteeth, helping companies raise
capital, sell their businessesin investment banking although
that's a dirty word sometimes.
Then I ended up transitioningto more of an operational role
where I built and scaled a bunchof fast-growing technology
(01:42):
companies before starting ahandful of my own.
So I've had experience over thepast 20-some-odd years building
three organizations to ninefigures in revenue.
So a lot of ups and downs inthat process.
My goal throughout all thoseevery single organization I've
been a part of, whether Istarted or whether I worked in
it has always been the growthfunction.
(02:03):
How do we help grow revenue?
And so that's the angle that Iapproach pretty much everything
with.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I love it and that's how we all should be approaching
our businesses, and whatactually started a good
conversation for Lemon Seed aswell.
So you know, let's jump in hereabout how I think what your
message is can really helpcontractors.
So, hey, leads are expensive,and one thing that I see is like
let me see can be yourquarterback, right, your digital
(02:29):
company could be yourquarterback, but, man, my wide
receivers and my linebackers arefumbling the ball when it comes
to taking care of the lead andgetting those leads booked, and
so this is such a time where I'mlike man, it is so expensive
for us to generate true newcustomer acquisition and leads
for the contractor on theinternal side of their business
(02:50):
to just fumble the ball.
So what do you think it meansfor the contractor when we can
start answering things, maybemore quickly and getting to them
with a better response?
What does that look like?
What have you seen happen there?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, happen there, yeah, so I want to say one thing
before I even jump into that,which is not only is advertising
expensive, the cost to acquirecustomers expensive, but the
value of the leads that you'rebringing in.
When you start looking at thecontract value, the repeat
business that are coming in,those are really expensive leads
from a revenue standpoint.
Right, forget the cost of thelead.
The actual revenue that it'sbringing in is incredibly,
(03:22):
incredibly valuable, especiallyif they stay with you.
We have pest control businesses.
They're like my clients staywith me for 10 years, 15 years,
yeah, yeah.
And so that you know that that50 bucks a month or a hundred
bucks a month that they'repaying is extremely valuable.
And so what we often see areorganizations in the trades
missing calls, calls ringing,folks hanging up.
Um, you know, we always seethese Facebook messages.
(03:42):
I'll get back to you soon.
Right, if you do not answer alead within three seconds, the
likelihood of you convertingthat into a deal drops by 8x.
Right, there is a real.
There are some really scarystats here.
If you are not, for this wholebusiness is predicated on first
to respond, first to close.
Right, if I see a cockroach inmy house or if I need a, if I
(04:04):
have a problem and I'm reachingout and the organization that
I'm not that I'm reaching out todoes not answer, I'm going to
call someone else until I get.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I have a problem.
What if your AC is not workingin July?
I'm going to keep looking.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Exactly, exactly.
So speed is incrediblyimportant and it shows up in the
stats, and we have a bunch ofcase studies to show it as well
shows up in the stats and wehave a bunch of case studies to
show it as well.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, and you know, right now, speed to lead, right,
speed to the lead, and peoplehave such negative connotations
about that a lot of times and wejust have to get past it.
Like there's no way tosugarcoat that, like, yes, we've
lived this life as contractorsof these lead aggregators just
wearing us out, getting down tobottom dollar tire kickers.
But really, at the end of theday, what really matters the
most is every opportunity is anopportunity.
(04:47):
It's just that an opportunityto win something.
Um.
And so, yes, you might runacross a few that you're like,
man, I rushed to take care ofthis customer.
It's not even a great fit forus.
I'm just a big fan of like getthe call booked, get out and run
the call and you can figure itout later, figure out the
specifics of it later.
But man, speed wins because ifyou're not first, you're not
(05:08):
even going to get an opportunityat that lead.
And so you know, fast responsereally turns inquiries, I think,
into real jobs with long-termengagement and good
relationships with those people.
So, even again, you know, youjust never know and everybody's
like, oh, these are tire kickerleads.
I get so sick of hearing thatLike I could talk about that for
days.
Like everyone, most people areprice conscious out of the gate.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I mean even your own.
I tell my contractors, even you, you yourself are price.
You don't just go to a cardealership and be like, yeah,
I'll take it at the first price.
Most of y'all are like, well,they're so expensive.
I'm like that's what they thinkof you.
You've got to build arelationship.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But even more of a reason to automate that process
right, so that you can, you know, remove yourself If you're.
If you're saying, hey, Iqualify a hundred leads a day,
I'm like that.
Maybe that's not the bestallocation of your time or your
team's time, right, no one is,no one is booking because you're
qualifying right.
So, being able to separate thereally high value human enabled
(06:06):
activity from things that arerepetitive in nature, that can
be outsourced to AI and make youmore efficient, more effective,
those are some of the thingsthat you should be evaluating.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, and as owners, we want more revenue, but we're
worried about the adminheadaches, right, so do I have
to have what all would thisentail?
And I know distance saw yourcompany.
Distance solves this issue, butyou're right.
Like so, many of these,contractors are looking at
things as like what is theworkflow for this type of speed
(06:38):
to lead?
So what have you seen?
Work is like just the theoverall customer journey when
you're using things that likethis.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So we have a few different playbooks that we've
seen run.
I'll start with voice.
I think voice is a reallyinteresting one.
A lot of our clients say hey,you know what?
We're pretty good at answeringthe phone, we don't miss that
many calls, and I say great.
But what happens when you do?
Well, instead of converting 60,70% of those jobs, I'm now
converting 10 percent, 5 percentof the calls that I've missed.
(07:10):
So why don't we have the AI actas a buffer?
When the phone rings threetimes and we know that we're
likely going to miss the call orit's going to go to voicemail,
let's have the AI intercept andhandle the call for you.
So you never have a voicemail,you never have a missed call.
So that's a really good usecase of basically enhancing your
human capability.
We also have clients that sayI'm not answering the phone at
night, and that's a huge missedopportunity.
You know if your airconditioning breaks?
(07:31):
To go back to your example,you're not waiting until
business hours to get in touchwith a organization.
Like you don't care about thecompany's hours, you care about
your hours and as businessowners, you need to be ready
when your customer's ready andso having the ability to answer
and respond to leads, even atone o'clock in the morning.
That gives you a competitiveadvantage and, quite frankly,
over time I think that's goingto be table stakes.
(07:52):
So if you're not doing thattoday, competitive advantage.
If you're not doing that in thefuture, you're going to be at a
disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Well, I remember I was just telling my kids this
story.
I was like used to there was aday where you would call your
friends and they were just nothome.
So you had to wait for them toget home.
Like, because my kids theydon't realize.
So they're 15 and 18.
They don't realize patience ofthings, because everything is
readily available to them.
They can call anyone at anytime from anywhere.
(08:21):
Well, even when I was growing upin the 80s and 90s, you know, I
remember like I would be likeleaving a voice message like
where are you at?
I'm waiting on you to call meback, and then I would be the
kid, the teenager that wouldn'tleave their room because
somebody was going to call meback, right, but now the
expectation is immediacy.
Yeah, the expectation is thatyour hours are my hours and no
longer.
I mean, I remember mygrandparents.
(08:42):
My grandmother ran a craftstore, before Hobby Lobby was a
thing.
She was running this craftstore and we worked in there and
she would always tell me likehey, when we close the shop at 6
pm, when we come back in themorning, the first thing you do
is check all of your messagesand but that's going to be our
busy time because everybody'scalling, and I remember like I
(09:03):
learned that.
Well, now I'm like it's reallynot the truth anymore as much
because, honestly, the morningtime I'm more dealing with
technicians than I am dealingwith actual customers, because
there's so many ways to get intouch with us, and so it's
definitely a change of timesthat most of us really have a
hard time coming around to that.
Who in the world expects us togive them an answer at one
(09:25):
o'clock?
Well, technically you do.
If you really think about itnow, if you want to order
something to wear next week, youcan go on Amazon any time of
the day and not order and get itshipped here.
So the whole point here is youcan fight instance, instantly
responding all you want to.
But really what's happening isyou're getting further and
further away from the new normof the customer journey, of them
(09:47):
needing services.
Exactly, and so yeah so, but butthese AI tools, you know, do
you worry?
Or at least I worry.
So let me put my worries outthere.
I worry about their ability tospeak naturally and to answer,
to answer things that, um um,impact the customer journey.
I'm going to beat up thecustomer journey here because,
(10:09):
as a brand though as a brandgirl, I can't help but make sure
, nick, that my experience withmy company is very authentic and
on brand.
So is there things thatcompanies like Distance do to
secure the content that it'sgoing to be in my voice, and
things like that?
How does that?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
work.
Well, let me actually tacklethat with three responses,
because I think you brought up areally good point here.
One is if you're using AI voice.
90% of our customers are usingAI voice as a backup system, so
they're not putting AI at thefront of house.
On the voice side specifically,right, ai voice is really a
tool that's used after hours orused as a contingency system
(10:49):
when someone tries to reach outfor you and you don't have the
time to pick up or you'reoverwhelmed, and that is a much
better experience than missing acall or going to voice mail
Well, and consumers understandthat better.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
They understand that more.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Well, the worst customer experience is you don't
get back to them, right?
Or they leave a voicemail.
They have no idea when you'regoing to call them back, if
you're going to call them back.
If you're going to call themback, they continue on their
merry way to look for a solutionprovider.
So that you know, as analternative, like, what are we
comparing ourselves to on thevoice side?
Well, we're comparing ourselvesto a missed call, we're
comparing ourselves to avoicemail, and those are
terrible outcomes, right, as abusiness owner, especially if
you look at it from a conversionstandpoint.
(11:20):
So that's part one.
Part two is the actual qualityof the voices have improved
dramatically.
I think a lot of people havethis misnomer that AI voice
sounds like you know, um or likeonline circa you know 1999.
And it does not.
It answers questions.
If you say your name is, is iscrystal, and then halfway
(11:41):
through the conversation you sayyour name is John, it's going
to say excuse me, is your nameJohn or crystal?
I need to clarify, right, causeit's.
It's going to take thatinformation and pipe it into
your CRM afterwards and so itwants to make sure that it's
getting the information right.
So it is a conversation.
Anyone who's used chat, gpt orsome of these AI tools
understands the efficacy ofthose conversations.
I will say on the chat sideit's orders of magnitude better
(12:02):
than a human.
I mean it's fast, it'sresponsive.
You can train it to be morebubbly, less bubbly.
Use emojis, don't use emojis.
You know there's quite a bitthat you can do there.
It's very it can very much beon brand, to kind of quote your-
.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well and I've seen that with some companies that we
work with and you know, forLemon Seed, for ourselves, but I
just know that's a common fearis like well, how do you read my
like if you're bookingappointments for me?
You know what, if this customer, you know, needs special
accommodations?
And my advice is always this donot build processes around the
(12:42):
outliers, so might there besomething that gets misconstrued
maybe, or are misaligned maybe.
So there is possibly going tobe a few little caveats that
slip through.
That's something unique, butyou can't not launch updated
software and complex, morecomplex things all because of
the fear of the one or two bigoutliers that might be out there
.
So that's my biggestencouragement to my contractors
(13:03):
right now is let's not buildprocesses around outliers.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Let's build processes around the overall
comprehensive data and theability to navigate and update
and pivot Like I don't know.
I just don't want peoplegetting caught in that you know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I totally agree, yep.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And then the trust factor.
You know, you and I talked alittle bit about the trust
factor already, but you knowsome owners really worry that it
feels so impersonal.
Um, and so does it learn?
Uh, over time, or do you?
How do you start off Well?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
yeah, it's uh, you know it's really from a.
From a conceptual standpoint, Ithink there you need to
approach this type of activitywith two lenses.
I'm both implementing atechnology that is doing a job,
that is doing work for me.
Therefore, I need to approachit from a labor standpoint.
I need to train it, I need toset it up properly, I need to
(13:56):
give it feedback.
You can't just plug a tool likethis in and expect it to be as
efficacious as a CSR.
You need to work with anorganization like Distance that
is going to put care andattention into setting it up
properly, into training itproperly, and then there is a
little bit of work involved toensure that you're giving
feedback right, you're trainingit, you're giving it guidance so
(14:17):
that it improves.
In the same way, if you weregoing to hire someone today to
do this job, you'd probablystart them off, you'd give them
some training, you'd probablylisten to a few of their calls,
give them some feedback.
A lot of those parallels existtoday with this tool.
The only difference is thistool it's a lot more efficient.
It works 24-7.
It doesn't take breaks, youknow, and it could take a
thousand calls at the same time.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It's not dramatic.
It's not all the things ExactlyWell, so okay.
So I think most of ourcontractors understand that this
is a cool tool speed to lead.
One of the things that I reallyloved about what you mentioned
earlier is that you have a lotof lessons from scaling these
different companies to ninefigures, which is a lot of
people's goals here, and they'reprobably thinking I'm
(14:59):
struggling to launch one to ninefigures, but you know, I just
thought we would ask, like, whatare lessons that you think
could translate over to myservice business owners, my
contractors, that maybe you didin scaling these different
businesses that they couldremember and they could take
with them?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah.
So there's a few things.
I think process is incrediblyimportant.
At the beginning, there's noprocess.
You're running around like achicken without a head just
trying to execute.
But creating a script, creatinga process, something that is
trainable and repeatable, isincredibly important.
And we actually see this quitea bit with folks who are using
(15:34):
the AI and, let's say, they dustout their old manual and say,
hey, these are the scripts I'mgoing to use for the AI.
And then we implement them andthey're like, hey, it shouldn't
say that that's in your script.
And they realize, oh, mygoodness, I haven't revisited my
scripts in a long time.
So I think making sure thatyou're putting a lot of energy
and focus into those playbooks Ithink is incredibly important.
Number two is hiring the rightpeople.
(15:55):
I think ultimately, whetherit's AI, whether it's human,
whether it's human plus AI, youknow, having the right tools and
the right people to giveyourself the opportunity to grow
and scale is incrediblyimportant.
I think those are the twofundamental building blocks that
you need in order to achieveescape velocity.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Well and I hate to say this because I really don't
want to utilize AI to replacepeople.
I want to use it to be more ofa resource and make people that
are in current roles be moreefficient and more efficient I
keep, I'm hung up on that wordbut more efficient, and so you
know.
I think that you also need tounderstand.
(16:37):
You know your labor needs, youneed to be able to project, you
need to know your numbers, youneed to know what it looks like.
So I mean, I have contractorsall the time who, like they
can't forecast for capacitybecause they can't forecast for
financials either.
So what?
You would have known that youthere's no way for you to hit
that financial goal based offyour average ticket If you would
(16:58):
have done the math to know youneed to hire two technicians.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, 100%, I, I, you know, part of part of what we
do with distance is, you know,part of it is AI, but the other
part of it is funnel building.
Right, how do we take somethingthat's coming top of funnel
leads, coming in from differentsources, and be much more
efficient at converting them allthroughout that customer
journey, all the way to thebottom?
And a lot of contractors don'treally have visibility into what
(17:22):
those levers are, right, whenam I getting traffic?
Where am I getting my referralsources from?
How confident am I that I'mgoing to hit those numbers
tomorrow?
What do I need to do to drivethose numbers up?
And so you know, I would saymost of the folks that we talk
to spend a lot of time thinkingabout the top side of the
equation and then less time andenergy is spent looking at the
(17:44):
middle and the bottom.
How efficient are we atconverting them across different
channels?
Right, facebook, if I'm doingFacebook ads, how efficient am I
at converting leads?
What's the cost to acquirethese leads?
How much revenue am I makingversus going door to door,
versus doing, you know, ppc adsversus my affiliate sources?
And really, when you start todrill down, um, you start to get
(18:05):
some really interestinginsights about what's moving the
needle and where you should beinvesting more money.
And so a lot of what we do iswe help make all of those
different funnels much moreefficient, because at every
point in those customer journeysyou're getting a phone call,
you're getting an SMS, you'regetting a form filled out,
you're getting someone coming onyour website and do you have
the right mousetraps to connectwith those folks 24-7, right
(18:27):
mousetraps to connect with thosefolks 24-7, 365 to make the
most of that return oninvestment.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I love mousetraps.
I love that word because it'sso literal in my mind.
So you know we are busy peoplenow.
Again, this just goes back tohow different life is now than
most people grew up that arerunning businesses right now.
But you know, used to therewasn't all of this distraction
(18:52):
and all of these things.
Well now, like I have goodintentions of you coming out and
doing my tune up, but I forgotand I got distracted because my
kid called and you know he needsmoney and I need to go take him
to a practice and oh shoot, Iwas going to schedule that.
So you know, there's so muchpower in these reminders and
these automations that are justkeeping you top of mind with
homeowners and when we neglectto be intentional about that,
(19:22):
when we neglect that idea, whathappens is we get left behind
and then all it takes is onecompany that's coming in behind
you and doing the reminders andjust grabbing people in these
unique spots to change ourdirection of business.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I totally agree with you.
Let me paint a picture for you.
If the only call to action youhave on your website is a phone
number, what you're telling yourcustomer is that the only way
to get in touch with me is byyou calling this number.
So what happens to the personwho's on the road, got three
screaming kids in the back, doesnot have the time, capacity or
(19:54):
patience to jump on a phone call?
Well, if you were to have SMSas a call to action, if you were
to have live chat, if you wereto have different modalities to
connect with folks, you will getmore people connecting with you
.
It is very simple Create moreopportunities so you can meet
your customers where they are,where they want to be, and not
necessarily forcing them intoyour preferred method of
(20:16):
communication.
That just gives you moresurface area to capture and
convert leads.
You're probably you're probablymissing leads today.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
if that is the case, right, well, I mean contractors
will go 10 toes down, as I sayon.
You know we're not going to doonline scheduling and I'm like
listen, I work in an office, Ineed to be able to multitask, I
need to be able to go, but youknow what I can do.
I can book my hair appointment.
I can book my nail appointments.
I can book my kids or not mykids my kids don't go to the vet
.
My dogs go to the vet.
All my doctor's appointments.
(20:44):
I can book all of that onlinebecause it makes it easier to
navigate in a busy life.
And so there's have your phonenumbers for the people that want
to call.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I'm here for it.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But at the end of the day, like more and more people
want to see a calendar and seetheir options and you know
you're fighting an uphill battleright now like whereas you
could be just slowly but surelyrolling out new ways to work
with your company, we're soafraid to work with a client
Like they might use this 100%For work for work for sure.
(21:17):
So the other, the last littletopic that I thought we could
kind of cover here is, you know,and I'm going to jump back to
the AI side of things, you know,nick, like where do you think
and this is a surprise question,I really didn't give you this
as a prep question, so you'rewelcome but where do you think
that most contractors need to bethinking about this AI side of
(21:38):
life?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
How do we not get distracted by the noise?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, I mean, I've been to a lot of conferences and
, as you can imagine, thekeynote speaker whether it's me
or someone else is alwaystalking about AI and there is a
lot of noise.
I think everyone can agree atthis point that it's a very
powerful technology and I don'tthink we need another keynote to
come up there and say AI isimportant.
I think we all get that at thispoint.
I think you need to be veryconscious about why you want to
(22:07):
use this tool, and you can useit across the board for pretty
much everything, so it can getvery overwhelming.
But the easiest use case, theone that's going to add the most
value for you, is to do whatyou're already doing, but much
better.
You're already answering thephone.
How do we make that better?
How do we complement whatyou're already doing using this
(22:29):
technology?
First is saying, hey, you knowwhat I'm going to create a whole
new flow, a whole new process.
That's very laborious, that'svery hard.
There's a bunch of stuff thatyou can do that are very
advanced, but you got to startwith something that is not just
accessible, but something thatyou can get up and running,
that's going to add impact toyour business right away and
when you're touching the revenueline of the equation, that's
(22:51):
exactly what happens.
And so, for most contractors,where we see the biggest impact
is in misleads, and it's notjust on the voice side, it's you
know.
Whether you're advertising right, people will come to you and
say, hey, I need to spend moneyon my ads.
Whether it's, you know, googleLSAs, whether it's Facebook and
meta ads, and oftentimes we'lljust add, you know, more
(23:13):
efficacy on the existing processthat they already have.
For instance, if you click onan ad right now on Facebook and
you go from Facebook to alanding page and I got to read a
bunch of information, I got tofind a phone number, I got to
call.
A phone number rings two times,maybe I got to leave a
voicemail.
There's so many steps there forme to just get someone on the
line to answer some questions tosee if this might be a good fit
.
(23:39):
Now, what happens if you clickon an ad and, instead of doing
that whole song and dance, wejust started a DM right away, a
direct message in the Facebookpage.
Well, now the time to value iszero.
Out of a hundred clicks, you'restarting a hundred
conversations and you're goingto have more conversations,
you're going to qualify moreleads, and all that's on
autopilot, and then the humanscan take care of the followups,
et cetera.
But you are, you're letting thecomputer do the work of the
(24:02):
work to help make your lifebetter, help you drive more
revenue, help you drive moreleads, and I think that's the
mindset shift that needs tohappen with a lot of contractors
for them to start reallygetting a lot of value out of
these types of technologies.
And it's something that you canget up and running super, super
quickly.
So it's not this three know,three week process, one month
process.
No, I mean, for not a lot ofmoney and for not a lot of time,
you can get up, you can get upto speed pretty quickly and have
(24:25):
some impact.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I love.
I love what you said here aboutit's taking things that you're
already doing, so there's noneed to start adding all of
these complex things that youweren't doing.
Look at the things that you'recurrently doing and how can you
make them, like you said, faster, more efficient, you know, just
more innovative to gain newcustomers or to take care of
(24:48):
your existing customers.
Well, nick, is there any otheradvice that you would like to
give any of our listeners aboutwhat you've got going on, or
just business in general?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, well, what I will say is, if folks are
interested in learning moreabout distance, they can
certainly reach out.
We help a lot of differentcontractors on the PCO side HVAC
, plumbing, electrical I meanjust every single category under
the sun help do exactly whatwe've just been talking about,
which is capture more leads,book more jobs using chat voice
and a bunch of other really cooltools in the ASI.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, I love that.
I love that so much.
And listen, guys, I just wantto tell you I met.
We met at a pest control show,didn't we?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
We did yeah, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Lupita those of you that know, lupita and I were at
a pest control show and shecomes over here and she goes
I've met this guy that you mustmeet, you're going to love him.
And so she.
Finally, she brings you by thebooth and I was like, oh, I do
love this, mainly just becauseit solved a problem for Lemon
Seed of speed to lead.
That was not overly complex, sopretty easy to integrate.
(25:49):
Now, listen, we all have tospend some time, but pretty easy
to integrate and things likethat.
So but, nick, thank you forjoining me today for our
listeners.
Again, you can learn more aboutdistance at distanceso Is that
right?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
That's right, yep.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, distanceso, and as always, we'll put it in the
show notes and when we'resharing this podcast out on our
socials, so don't forget tosubscribe to.
From the yellow chair, leave us.
Oh, what's up?
A lemon heads.
Welcome to a whole notherepisode of from the yellow chair
.
I am crystal and y'all today.
Listen, today I am talkingabout something that has so many
of you contractors riled up,and that is a little bit of AI.
But some ways that you canutilize AI to really drive your
(00:32):
business forward that are commonsense now that I've heard them.
Being instant when we areresponding to our needs from our
market is really going to be agame changer.
So stop what you're doing, putthose headphones in, get ready,
go in for your drive or your run, whatever you're going to do,
but let's sip some lemonadeY'all.
(00:56):
I am so excited.
This is a unique thing.
So Lemon Seed actually utilizesthis company for our own
processes that we have in placehere, and when I listened to
Nick and his team, I had torealize everyone needs to be
listening to this message behindwhy they do what they do.
And so, nick, welcome to theshow.
(01:16):
Tell everybody a little bitabout yourself and why they
should care about what you haveto say today.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, a little bit about me ina couple of minutes or less.
So I'm a serial entrepreneur.
I started my career cutting myteeth, helping companies raise
capital, sell their businessesin investment banking although
that's a dirty word sometimes.
Then I ended up transitioningto more of an operational role
where I built and scaled a bunchof fast-growing technology
(01:42):
companies before starting ahandful of my own.
So I've had experience over thepast 20-some-odd years building
three organizations to ninefigures in revenue.
So a lot of ups and downs inthat process.
My goal throughout all thoseevery single organization I've
been a part of, whether Istarted or whether I worked in
it has always been the growthfunction.
(02:03):
How do we help grow revenue?
And so that's the angle that Iapproach pretty much everything
with.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I love it and that's how we all should be approaching
our businesses, and whatactually started a good
conversation for Lemon Seed aswell.
So you know, let's jump in hereabout how I think what your
message is can really helpcontractors.
So, hey, leads are expensive,and one thing that I see is like
let me see can be yourquarterback, right, your digital
(02:29):
company could be yourquarterback, but, man, my wide
receivers and my linebackers arefumbling the ball when it comes
to taking care of the lead andgetting those leads booked, and
so this is such a time where I'mlike man, it is so expensive
for us to generate true newcustomer acquisition and leads
for the contractor on theinternal side of their business
(02:50):
to just fumble the ball.
So what do you think it meansfor the contractor when we can
start answering things, maybemore quickly and getting to them
with a better response?
What does that look like?
What have you seen happen there?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, happen there, yeah, so I want to say one thing
before I even jump into that,which is not only is advertising
expensive, the cost to acquirecustomers expensive, but the
value of the leads that you'rebringing in.
When you start looking at thecontract value, the repeat
business that are coming in,those are really expensive leads
from a revenue standpoint.
Right, forget the cost of thelead.
The actual revenue that it'sbringing in is incredibly,
(03:22):
incredibly valuable, especiallyif they stay with you.
We have pest control businesses.
They're like my clients staywith me for 10 years, 15 years,
yeah, yeah.
And so that you know that that50 bucks a month or a hundred
bucks a month that they'repaying is extremely valuable.
And so what we often see areorganizations in the trades
missing calls, calls ringing,folks hanging up.
Um, you know, we always seethese Facebook messages.
(03:42):
I'll get back to you soon.
Right, if you do not answer alead within three seconds, the
likelihood of you convertingthat into a deal drops by 8x.
Right, there is a real.
There are some really scarystats here.
If you are not, for this wholebusiness is predicated on first
to respond, first to close.
Right, if I see a cockroach inmy house or if I need a, if I
(04:04):
have a problem and I'm reachingout and the organization that
I'm not that I'm reaching out todoes not answer, I'm going to
call someone else until I get.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I have a problem.
What if your AC is not workingin July?
I'm going to keep looking.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Exactly, exactly.
So speed is incrediblyimportant and it shows up in the
stats, and we have a bunch ofcase studies to show it as well
shows up in the stats and wehave a bunch of case studies to
show it as well.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, and you know, right now, speed to lead, right,
speed to the lead, and peoplehave such negative connotations
about that a lot of times and wejust have to get past it.
Like there's no way tosugarcoat that, like, yes, we've
lived this life as contractorsof these lead aggregators just
wearing us out, getting down tobottom dollar tire kickers.
But really, at the end of theday, what really matters the
most is every opportunity is anopportunity.
(04:47):
It's just that an opportunityto win something.
Um.
And so, yes, you might runacross a few that you're like,
man, I rushed to take care ofthis customer.
It's not even a great fit forus.
I'm just a big fan of like getthe call booked, get out and run
the call and you can figure itout later, figure out the
specifics of it later.
But man, speed wins because ifyou're not first, you're not
(05:08):
even going to get an opportunityat that lead.
And so you know, fast responsereally turns inquiries, I think,
into real jobs with long-termengagement and good
relationships with those people.
So, even again, you know, youjust never know and everybody's
like, oh, these are tire kickerleads.
I get so sick of hearing thatLike I could talk about that for
days.
Like everyone, most people areprice conscious out of the gate.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I mean even your own.
I tell my contractors, even you, you yourself are price.
You don't just go to a cardealership and be like, yeah,
I'll take it at the first price.
Most of y'all are like, well,they're so expensive.
I'm like that's what they thinkof you.
You've got to build arelationship.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But even more of a reason to automate that process
right, so that you can, you know, remove yourself If you're.
If you're saying, hey, Iqualify a hundred leads a day,
I'm like that.
Maybe that's not the bestallocation of your time or your
team's time, right, no one is,no one is booking because you're
qualifying right.
So, being able to separate thereally high value human enabled
(06:06):
activity from things that arerepetitive in nature, that can
be outsourced to AI and make youmore efficient, more effective,
those are some of the thingsthat you should be evaluating.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, and as owners, we want more revenue, but we're
worried about the adminheadaches, right, so do I have
to have what all would thisentail?
And I know distance saw yourcompany.
Distance solves this issue, butyou're right.
Like so, many of these,contractors are looking at
things as like what is theworkflow for this type of speed
(06:38):
to lead?
So what have you seen?
Work is like just the theoverall customer journey when
you're using things that likethis.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So we have a few different playbooks that we've
seen run.
I'll start with voice.
I think voice is a reallyinteresting one.
A lot of our clients say hey,you know what?
We're pretty good at answeringthe phone, we don't miss that
many calls, and I say great.
But what happens when you do?
Well, instead of converting 60,70% of those jobs, I'm now
converting 10 percent, 5 percentof the calls that I've missed.
(07:10):
So why don't we have the AI actas a buffer?
When the phone rings threetimes and we know that we're
likely going to miss the call orit's going to go to voicemail,
let's have the AI intercept andhandle the call for you.
So you never have a voicemail,you never have a missed call.
So that's a really good usecase of basically enhancing your
human capability.
We also have clients that sayI'm not answering the phone at
night, and that's a huge missedopportunity.
You know if your airconditioning breaks?
(07:31):
To go back to your example,you're not waiting until
business hours to get in touchwith a organization.
Like you don't care about thecompany's hours, you care about
your hours and as businessowners, you need to be ready
when your customer's ready andso having the ability to answer
and respond to leads, even atone o'clock in the morning.
That gives you a competitiveadvantage and, quite frankly,
over time I think that's goingto be table stakes.
(07:52):
So if you're not doing thattoday, competitive advantage.
If you're not doing that in thefuture, you're going to be at a
disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Well, I remember I was just telling my kids this
story.
I was like used to there was aday where you would call your
friends and they were just nothome.
So you had to wait for them toget home.
Like, because my kids theydon't realize.
So they're 15 and 18.
They don't realize patience ofthings, because everything is
readily available to them.
They can call anyone at anytime from anywhere.
(08:21):
Well, even when I was growing upin the 80s and 90s, you know, I
remember like I would be likeleaving a voice message like
where are you at?
I'm waiting on you to call meback, and then I would be the
kid, the teenager that wouldn'tleave their room because
somebody was going to call meback, right, but now the
expectation is immediacy.
Yeah, the expectation is thatyour hours are my hours and no
longer.
I mean, I remember mygrandparents.
(08:42):
My grandmother ran a craftstore, before Hobby Lobby was a
thing.
She was running this craftstore and we worked in there and
she would always tell me likehey, when we close the shop at 6
pm, when we come back in themorning, the first thing you do
is check all of your messagesand but that's going to be our
busy time because everybody'scalling, and I remember like I
(09:03):
learned that.
Well, now I'm like it's reallynot the truth anymore as much
because, honestly, the morningtime I'm more dealing with
technicians than I am dealingwith actual customers, because
there's so many ways to get intouch with us, and so it's
definitely a change of timesthat most of us really have a
hard time coming around to that.
Who in the world expects us togive them an answer at one
(09:25):
o'clock?
Well, technically you do.
If you really think about itnow, if you want to order
something to wear next week, youcan go on Amazon any time of
the day and not order and get itshipped here.
So the whole point here is youcan fight instance, instantly
responding all you want to.
But really what's happening isyou're getting further and
further away from the new normof the customer journey, of them
(09:47):
needing services.
Exactly, and so yeah so, but butthese AI tools, you know, do
you worry?
Or at least I worry.
So let me put my worries outthere.
I worry about their ability tospeak naturally and to answer,
to answer things that, um um,impact the customer journey.
I'm going to beat up thecustomer journey here because,
(10:09):
as a brand though as a brandgirl, I can't help but make sure
, nick, that my experience withmy company is very authentic and
on brand.
So is there things thatcompanies like Distance do to
secure the content that it'sgoing to be in my voice, and
things like that?
How does that?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
work.
Well, let me actually tacklethat with three responses,
because I think you brought up areally good point here.
One is if you're using AI voice.
90% of our customers are usingAI voice as a backup system, so
they're not putting AI at thefront of house.
On the voice side specifically,right, ai voice is really a
tool that's used after hours orused as a contingency system
(10:49):
when someone tries to reach outfor you and you don't have the
time to pick up or you'reoverwhelmed, and that is a much
better experience than missing acall or going to voice mail
Well, and consumers understandthat better.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
They understand that more.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Well, the worst customer experience is you don't
get back to them, right?
Or they leave a voicemail.
They have no idea when you'regoing to call them back, if
you're going to call them back.
If you're going to call themback, they continue on their
merry way to look for a solutionprovider.
So that you know, as analternative, like, what are we
comparing ourselves to on thevoice side?
Well, we're comparing ourselvesto a missed call, we're
comparing ourselves to avoicemail, and those are
terrible outcomes, right, as abusiness owner, especially if
you look at it from a conversionstandpoint.
(11:20):
So that's part one.
Part two is the actual qualityof the voices have improved
dramatically.
I think a lot of people havethis misnomer that AI voice
sounds like you know, um or likeonline circa you know 1999.
And it does not.
It answers questions.
If you say your name is, is iscrystal, and then halfway
(11:41):
through the conversation you sayyour name is John, it's going
to say excuse me, is your nameJohn or crystal?
I need to clarify, right, causeit's.
It's going to take thatinformation and pipe it into
your CRM afterwards and so itwants to make sure that it's
getting the information right.
So it is a conversation.
Anyone who's used chat, gpt orsome of these AI tools
understands the efficacy ofthose conversations.
I will say on the chat sideit's orders of magnitude better
(12:02):
than a human.
I mean it's fast, it'sresponsive.
You can train it to be morebubbly, less bubbly.
Use emojis, don't use emojis.
You know there's quite a bitthat you can do there.
It's very it can very much beon brand, to kind of quote your-
.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well and I've seen that with some companies that we
work with and you know, forLemon Seed, for ourselves, but I
just know that's a common fearis like well, how do you read my
like if you're bookingappointments for me?
You know what, if this customer, you know, needs special
accommodations?
And my advice is always this donot build processes around the
(12:42):
outliers, so might there besomething that gets misconstrued
maybe, or are misaligned maybe.
So there is possibly going tobe a few little caveats that
slip through.
That's something unique, butyou can't not launch updated
software and complex, morecomplex things all because of
the fear of the one or two bigoutliers that might be out there
.
So that's my biggestencouragement to my contractors
(13:03):
right now is let's not buildprocesses around outliers.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Let's build processes around the overall
comprehensive data and theability to navigate and update
and pivot Like I don't know.
I just don't want peoplegetting caught in that you know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I totally agree, yep.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And then the trust factor.
You know, you and I talked alittle bit about the trust
factor already, but you knowsome owners really worry that it
feels so impersonal.
Um, and so does it learn?
Uh, over time, or do you?
How do you start off Well?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
yeah, it's uh, you know it's really from a.
From a conceptual standpoint, Ithink there you need to
approach this type of activitywith two lenses.
I'm both implementing atechnology that is doing a job,
that is doing work for me.
Therefore, I need to approachit from a labor standpoint.
I need to train it, I need toset it up properly, I need to
(13:56):
give it feedback.
You can't just plug a tool likethis in and expect it to be as
efficacious as a CSR.
You need to work with anorganization like Distance that
is going to put care andattention into setting it up
properly, into training itproperly, and then there is a
little bit of work involved toensure that you're giving
feedback right, you're trainingit, you're giving it guidance so
(14:17):
that it improves.
In the same way, if you weregoing to hire someone today to
do this job, you'd probablystart them off, you'd give them
some training, you'd probablylisten to a few of their calls,
give them some feedback.
A lot of those parallels existtoday with this tool.
The only difference is thistool it's a lot more efficient.
It works 24-7.
It doesn't take breaks, youknow, and it could take a
thousand calls at the same time.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It's not dramatic.
It's not all the things ExactlyWell, so okay.
So I think most of ourcontractors understand that this
is a cool tool speed to lead.
One of the things that I reallyloved about what you mentioned
earlier is that you have a lotof lessons from scaling these
different companies to ninefigures, which is a lot of
people's goals here, and they'reprobably thinking I'm
(14:59):
struggling to launch one to ninefigures, but you know, I just
thought we would ask, like, whatare lessons that you think
could translate over to myservice business owners, my
contractors, that maybe you didin scaling these different
businesses that they couldremember and they could take
with them?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah.
So there's a few things.
I think process is incrediblyimportant.
At the beginning, there's noprocess.
You're running around like achicken without a head just
trying to execute.
But creating a script, creatinga process, something that is
trainable and repeatable, isincredibly important.
And we actually see this quitea bit with folks who are using
(15:34):
the AI and, let's say, they dustout their old manual and say,
hey, these are the scripts I'mgoing to use for the AI.
And then we implement them andthey're like, hey, it shouldn't
say that that's in your script.
And they realize, oh, mygoodness, I haven't revisited my
scripts in a long time.
So I think making sure thatyou're putting a lot of energy
and focus into those playbooks Ithink is incredibly important.
Number two is hiring the rightpeople.
(15:55):
I think ultimately, whetherit's AI, whether it's human,
whether it's human plus AI, youknow, having the right tools and
the right people to giveyourself the opportunity to grow
and scale is incrediblyimportant.
I think those are the twofundamental building blocks that
you need in order to achieveescape velocity.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Well and I hate to say this because I really don't
want to utilize AI to replacepeople.
I want to use it to be more ofa resource and make people that
are in current roles be moreefficient and more efficient I
keep, I'm hung up on that wordbut more efficient, and so you
know.
I think that you also need tounderstand.
(16:37):
You know your labor needs, youneed to be able to project, you
need to know your numbers, youneed to know what it looks like.
So I mean, I have contractorsall the time who, like they
can't forecast for capacitybecause they can't forecast for
financials either.
So what?
You would have known that youthere's no way for you to hit
that financial goal based offyour average ticket If you would
(16:58):
have done the math to know youneed to hire two technicians.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, 100%, I, I, you know, part of part of what we
do with distance is, you know,part of it is AI, but the other
part of it is funnel building.
Right, how do we take somethingthat's coming top of funnel
leads, coming in from differentsources, and be much more
efficient at converting them allthroughout that customer
journey, all the way to thebottom?
And a lot of contractors don'treally have visibility into what
(17:22):
those levers are, right, whenam I getting traffic?
Where am I getting my referralsources from?
How confident am I that I'mgoing to hit those numbers
tomorrow?
What do I need to do to drivethose numbers up?
And so you know, I would saymost of the folks that we talk
to spend a lot of time thinkingabout the top side of the
equation and then less time andenergy is spent looking at the
(17:44):
middle and the bottom.
How efficient are we atconverting them across different
channels?
Right, facebook, if I'm doingFacebook ads, how efficient am I
at converting leads?
What's the cost to acquirethese leads?
How much revenue am I makingversus going door to door,
versus doing, you know, ppc adsversus my affiliate sources?
And really, when you start todrill down, um, you start to get
(18:05):
some really interestinginsights about what's moving the
needle and where you should beinvesting more money.
And so a lot of what we do iswe help make all of those
different funnels much moreefficient, because at every
point in those customer journeysyou're getting a phone call,
you're getting an SMS, you'regetting a form filled out,
you're getting someone coming onyour website and do you have
the right mousetraps to connectwith those folks 24-7, right
(18:27):
mousetraps to connect with thosefolks 24-7, 365 to make the
most of that return oninvestment.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
I love mousetraps.
I love that word because it'sso literal in my mind.
So you know we are busy peoplenow.
Again, this just goes back tohow different life is now than
most people grew up that arerunning businesses right now.
But you know, used to therewasn't all of this distraction
(18:52):
and all of these things.
Well now, like I have goodintentions of you coming out and
doing my tune up, but I forgotand I got distracted because my
kid called and you know he needsmoney and I need to go take him
to a practice and oh shoot, Iwas going to schedule that.
So you know, there's so muchpower in these reminders and
these automations that are justkeeping you top of mind with
homeowners and when we neglectto be intentional about that,
(19:22):
when we neglect that idea, whathappens is we get left behind
and then all it takes is onecompany that's coming in behind
you and doing the reminders andjust grabbing people in these
unique spots to change ourdirection of business.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I totally agree with you.
Let me paint a picture for you.
If the only call to action youhave on your website is a phone
number, what you're telling yourcustomer is that the only way
to get in touch with me is byyou calling this number.
So what happens to the personwho's on the road, got three
screaming kids in the back, doesnot have the time, capacity or
(19:54):
patience to jump on a phone call?
Well, if you were to have SMSas a call to action, if you were
to have live chat, if you wereto have different modalities to
connect with folks, you will getmore people connecting with you
.
It is very simple Create moreopportunities so you can meet
your customers where they are,where they want to be, and not
necessarily forcing them intoyour preferred method of
(20:16):
communication.
That just gives you moresurface area to capture and
convert leads.
You're probably you're probablymissing leads today.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
if that is the case, right, well, I mean contractors
will go 10 toes down, as I sayon.
You know we're not going to doonline scheduling and I'm like
listen, I work in an office, Ineed to be able to multitask, I
need to be able to go, but youknow what I can do.
I can book my hair appointment.
I can book my nail appointments.
I can book my kids or not mykids my kids don't go to the vet
.
My dogs go to the vet.
All my doctor's appointments.
(20:44):
I can book all of that onlinebecause it makes it easier to
navigate in a busy life.
And so there's have your phonenumbers for the people that want
to call.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I'm here for it.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But at the end of the day, like more and more people
want to see a calendar and seetheir options and you know
you're fighting an uphill battleright now like whereas you
could be just slowly but surelyrolling out new ways to work
with your company, we're soafraid to work with a client
Like they might use this 100%For work for work for sure.
(21:17):
So the other, the last littletopic that I thought we could
kind of cover here is, you know,and I'm going to jump back to
the AI side of things, you know,nick, like where do you think
and this is a surprise question,I really didn't give you this
as a prep question, so you'rewelcome but where do you think
that most contractors need to bethinking about this AI side of
(21:38):
life?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
How do we not get distracted by the noise?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, I mean, I've been to a lot of conferences and
, as you can imagine, thekeynote speaker whether it's me
or someone else is alwaystalking about AI and there is a
lot of noise.
I think everyone can agree atthis point that it's a very
powerful technology and I don'tthink we need another keynote to
come up there and say AI isimportant.
I think we all get that at thispoint.
I think you need to be veryconscious about why you want to
(22:07):
use this tool, and you can useit across the board for pretty
much everything, so it can getvery overwhelming.
But the easiest use case, theone that's going to add the most
value for you, is to do whatyou're already doing, but much
better.
You're already answering thephone.
How do we make that better?
How do we complement whatyou're already doing using this
(22:29):
technology?
First is saying, hey, you knowwhat I'm going to create a whole
new flow, a whole new process.
That's very laborious, that'svery hard.
There's a bunch of stuff thatyou can do that are very
advanced, but you got to startwith something that is not just
accessible, but something thatyou can get up and running,
that's going to add impact toyour business right away and
when you're touching the revenueline of the equation, that's
(22:51):
exactly what happens.
And so, for most contractors,where we see the biggest impact
is in misleads, and it's notjust on the voice side, it's you
know.
Whether you're advertising right, people will come to you and
say, hey, I need to spend moneyon my ads.
Whether it's, you know, googleLSAs, whether it's Facebook and
meta ads, and oftentimes we'lljust add, you know, more
(23:13):
efficacy on the existing processthat they already have.
For instance, if you click onan ad right now on Facebook and
you go from Facebook to alanding page and I got to read a
bunch of information, I got tofind a phone number, I got to
call.
A phone number rings two times,maybe I got to leave a
voicemail.
There's so many steps there forme to just get someone on the
line to answer some questions tosee if this might be a good fit
.
(23:39):
Now, what happens if you clickon an ad and, instead of doing
that whole song and dance, wejust started a DM right away, a
direct message in the Facebookpage.
Well, now the time to value iszero.
Out of a hundred clicks, you'restarting a hundred
conversations and you're goingto have more conversations,
you're going to qualify moreleads, and all that's on
autopilot, and then the humanscan take care of the followups,
et cetera.
But you are, you're letting thecomputer do the work of the
(24:02):
work to help make your lifebetter, help you drive more
revenue, help you drive moreleads, and I think that's the
mindset shift that needs tohappen with a lot of contractors
for them to start reallygetting a lot of value out of
these types of technologies.
And it's something that you canget up and running super, super
quickly.
So it's not this three know,three week process, one month
process.
No, I mean, for not a lot ofmoney and for not a lot of time,
you can get up, you can get upto speed pretty quickly and have
(24:25):
some impact.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I love.
I love what you said here aboutit's taking things that you're
already doing, so there's noneed to start adding all of
these complex things that youweren't doing.
Look at the things that you'recurrently doing and how can you
make them, like you said, faster, more efficient, you know, just
more innovative to gain newcustomers or to take care of
(24:48):
your existing customers.
Well, nick, is there any otheradvice that you would like to
give any of our listeners aboutwhat you've got going on, or
just business in general?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, well, what I will say is, if folks are
interested in learning moreabout distance, they can
certainly reach out.
We help a lot of differentcontractors on the PCO side HVAC
, plumbing, electrical I meanjust every single category under
the sun help do exactly whatwe've just been talking about,
which is capture more leads,book more jobs using chat voice
and a bunch of other really cooltools in the ASI.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, I love that.
I love that so much.
And listen, guys, I just wantto tell you I met.
We met at a pest control show,didn't we?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
We did yeah, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Lupita those of you that know, lupita and I were at
a pest control show and shecomes over here and she goes
I've met this guy that you mustmeet, you're going to love him.
And so she.
Finally, she brings you by thebooth and I was like, oh, I do
love this, mainly just becauseit solved a problem for Lemon
Seed of speed to lead.
That was not overly complex, sopretty easy to integrate.
(25:49):
Now, listen, we all have tospend some time, but pretty easy
to integrate and things likethat.
So but, nick, thank you forjoining me today for our
listeners.
Again, you can learn more aboutdistance at distanceso Is that
right?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
That's right, yep.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, distanceso, and as always, we'll put it in the
show notes and when we'resharing this podcast out on our
socials, so don't forget tosubscribe to.
From the yellow chair, leave us.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.