May 13, 2025 • 24 mins
A sales funnel isn’t just a concept—it’s the key to turning leads into customers quickly and effectively. Learn how to structure a funnel that maximizes conversions, reduces friction, and accelerates revenue growth. From awareness to closing the deal, discover proven strategies that home service business owners can apply immediately to see real results. Join host Adam Sylvester with Jon Margalit of Happy Home Helpers and Rags to Riches University.
New to Jobber? Masters of Home Service listeners can claim an exclusive discount for Jobber at https://bit.ly/4d0KAEh
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The key to building a successfulfunnel is speed. It's all about speed.
Welcome to jobbers Masters of HomeService, a podcast for home service pros,
buy Home service pros.
We're in Las Vegas and today we'retalking about creating profitable sales
funnels. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.Today's guest is John Marlet.
(00:20):
He's the owner of Happy Home Helpersand he lives in Vegas. So John,
welcome to the studio.
Thanks so much for having me.
I'm fired up because I think whatwe're going to talk about today,
people can actually take what we givethem and then go implement it immediately
to actually see higher and better revenue.
Sweet. Well, that's exactlywhat I want. So take a minute,
tell our listeners whoyou are and what you do.
(00:42):
Yeah, so my name's John Marletand I have a house cleaning
business, residential housecleaning business here in Las Vegas,
and we also do home organizing.
And before that I used to be head ofsales for a voiceover IP s software
company. So I took everything thatI've learned in that experience.
(01:02):
We got acquired and after we got acquired,
I moved on and I decided I did notwant to work for anybody anymore.
And so when I thought about the simplestbusiness that I could put together
quickly without spending too much money,
I figured that I would offersomething that a lot of people need,
and I settled on house cleaning.
Cool. Awesome. Okay, so we'retalking about sales funnel,
(01:24):
something that you're very goodat, have a lot of experience with.
So give our listeners just a simpleexplanation of what a sales funnel is and
what it does.
Yeah,
a sales funnel is a visualand conceptual representation
of the journey that a buyertakes during the decision making
process, whether they're buying aproduct or in this case a service.
(01:45):
So from when they first encounter itand then they're interested in it,
the awareness that's created all the waythrough whether they want to buy it or
choose not to buy it.
Okay. And you've got your salesfunnel with you today, your.
I do. Here's the sales funnel.
I keep them in my pocket allthe time because I love funnels.
So if you're listening to thison audio and you're not watching,
(02:06):
I actually have a little expandable rubberfunnel that I keep in my pocket and I
brought it today. That's a greatinspiration. Yeah, I like it.
I actually don't reallycarry it on me all the time,
but I thought it was cool to bring it.
Definitely. Yeah.
So what are the key components ofa sales funnel to make it work.
Exactly? Yeah, so the keycomponents of a sales funnel,
first you have to breakdown the phases of it,
(02:27):
and then I'll explain exactlythe components and then how to put it in action.
So the first stage of thefunnel is the top of the funnel.
So if you are watching,
imagine a funnel that you use for cookingor a science project that you would
either put liquid into or somethinggranular like salt or sugar or something
like this.
So at the top of the funnel is whereyou create awareness for your service.
(02:49):
And that could come from a number ofways. That can come from an advertisement,
either a free advertisement or a paidadvertisement or something more organic,
like a social media post.
And then what you want to do is you wantto load the top of the funnel as much
as you can with prospectsor prospective customers.
And then you want to advance them downthe funnel and get them to make what I
(03:11):
call micro commitments downto all the way to a purchase.
And so after the awarenessphase at the top,
that's created through some type ofpromotion. Then comes the interest phase.
And so when somebody becomes afterthey become aware and then they become
interested,
what you want to do in that interestphase is serve them educational content.
(03:33):
You want to serve them with things thatanswer the most likely questions that
they might ask, and at that point,
answering their questions isgoing to alleviate some of the
objections that they mighthave of your service,
and then it'll takethem to the next phase,
and that's going to be the considerationstage. And so it goes from awareness,
(03:54):
interest to consideration. Nowduring the consideration phase,
this is the part whereyou want to show proof,
and a really good way to do thatis before and after pictures.
And then there's social proof what otherpeople say about their experience with
your business.
So as much proof as you can provideeither actual proof or social proof,
we'll get them to advancethe next phase of the funnel,
(04:17):
which is the decision-making phase.And at the decision making phase,
that's where you want to,
I think the best way is have adiscovery call with them over the phone.
I know you and I actually hada conversation about this,
and some service providers let people goon their website and just book directly
without speaking to somebody,
but I'm actually totally against thatbecause it doesn't give you the ability to
(04:41):
sell someone and differentiateyour value propositions.
If you let somebody come to your website,
chances are they're goingto scan your content,
but they're not going to read everyword. But if you get them on the phone,
you can easily then show thepersonality of your company.
You can establish why you'redifferent, and then you can explain,
(05:03):
or I should say,
confirm the value propositions to yourprice point and how they're aligned.
So we always try to get peopleon a proper discovery call,
and then that way we havethe chance to sell them.
And the next phase would be the purchasephase where somebody decides to either
go with you or go with someoneelse or not buy anything at all.
So this sales funnel,
(05:23):
does it happen over many days andweeks or could it happen in 10
minutes or both?
It can happen either way.
I think that it all dependson the awareness phase at the top. So for example,
if you're creating awarenessthrough a Google ad,
then you're getting somebody that hasintent to purchase something right away
and they have a need forsomething, an imminent need.
(05:46):
But if you've attracted somebody througha social media post or a social media
ad, chances are you've disruptedtheir scrolling pattern.
And they're not necessarily lookingfor, in this case, house cleaning,
but it doesn't mean that they don'tneed it or want it. So the lifecycle,
or I should say the buyer's journey willtake a longer period of time and you'll
(06:06):
have to nurture those leads longer andthen get them through the funnel over
serving them either email, more posts,
getting them introduced toa podcast that you produce,
any type of content, you're goingto have to nurture them longer.
Are those different sales funnels for asocial media post versus someone who's
looking for you actively?Are those different funnels?
(06:27):
No, they're going to bethe same type of funnel,
except that the speed at which somebodygoes through the components and the
phases of the funnel will be fasterif they have an imminent need.
But those that don't willjust take their time. Right.
They can move through thefunnel at their own speed.
Correct, correct. And the sales funnel,
I want to explain real quick howsomebody could build one and put it into
(06:50):
action, because a lot ofpeople talk about funnels,
but they don't really understandwhat it is, and it's really simple.
So if you don't mind, I'mjust going to break it down.
So at the top of the funnel,
the best thing to do is to create anad on Google. I think Google is king.
I'm all in on Google, soI go all in on Google ads,
not local service ads, but Google Ads.
(07:12):
And then I put these ads outthere with my best and most
valuable propositions I have for people.
And since I'm a service that does sameday and most of my competitors don't,
I tend to lead with that. My ad copy.
Same day service?
Correct.
Okay.
So I'll put my most valuable thing outthere. I'll get people into my funnel,
(07:33):
and then I take them whensomebody clicks on my ad,
I take them to a landing page, andat the top of that landing page,
you'll see three things immediately.
These are the three things you musthave. What is it? How does it benefit me,
and how do I get it? So what is itprofessional house cleaning service,
how does it benefit me?
(07:54):
Then you want to list the five orsix bullet points of basically the
answers or rebuttals to every objectionthat somebody might want to come up with
or to their pain. Exactly.
You want to answer all their problemsand position the bullet points
as your ultimate solutions to thoseproblems and those pain points.
And then how do I get it, which wouldbe call us now with a phone number,
(08:18):
a form that they would fill outand you would call them back.
And then from there, you have to be fast.
So the key to building asuccessful funnel is speed.
It's all about speed.
Speed is the number one actionyou can take with somebody new.
That's just discovering your businessto prove to them that you're attentive,
(08:39):
you're trustworthy, that you're reliable,
and that you care enough toget back to them immediately.
What does that look like? A phone callfrom your sales staff, an email, a text?
Yeah, it's actually allthree. It's all the above.
So we'll call themimmediately. We have a rule,
it's the one minute rule we call everybodythat inquires and fills out a form on
our website within one minute. Ifwe don't reach them immediately,
(09:01):
they're getting a text andthey're getting an email.
And if we create a client profile forthem on our CRM system, which is jobber,
we immediately have automationsthat send them our best content that
solves problems and proves to themwith our before and after pictures,
the quality of our work.
So it's through human interactionand automation that we make sure
(09:24):
that we're fast aslightning to get to them,
because when people are intheir consideration stage,
that's the best time toconvert them into a buyer.
So we want to make sure we getto them before someone else does.
And hopefully they become loyal toyou, but they're not loyal to you yet.
So they're keep calling.
Keep calling and calling untilthey get to somebody else.
Exactly.
So once they click and you call them,
(09:47):
are they out of the funnel at thatpoint or are they still in the funnel?
So that's a good point.
So the leads that get through certainphases of the funnel actually get directed
to different automations. So if youget to speak to someone on the phone,
they're not going to get triggered tothat content that goes in where you're in
the discovery mode. But if youdon't get to discover about them,
(10:08):
they're going to get content that isasking them questions so you can get the
information you need to give them anaccurate quote or recommend the right
solution.
And what's Discover exactly findingout why they called in the first place?
Well, discovery is about, it's a termthat goes back to a legal process, right?
There's discovery.
So usually one side willsend over information about
(10:30):
whatever proof that they have and tohold up their argument of the case.
Now, if you take thatsame discovery process,
but you apply it to the sales funnel,what happens is, is that you spend time,
and again, time is the key herebecause I want to preface this,
the most valuable thing you canget from somebody is their money.
(10:50):
But if they're not ready to give youtheir money and become a customer,
the next most valuable thing youcan get from them is their time.
And.
Every minute, every second they spendwith you is another minute or second,
they're not going to want to spend withsomebody else explaining everything over
again. So with this in mind,
we go through the discovery call andwe ask a series of questions that will
(11:10):
lead to the information we need to givethem a quote to gain leverage to know
what value propositions toshow them and prop up the most.
And then ultimately,
it solidifies our pitch so we knowwhat we're selling them and why.
Yeah. Okay.
So I want to make sure that I'm followingyou and our listeners are following
because I think this is really good.The sales funnel starts at any point.
(11:32):
They become interested in your product,
whether it's they see a Facebook ad orthey talk to their friend who recommends
you, whatever the case maybe, they're at the funnel,
then they enter the funnel. What kindof, obviously jobber is one of them,
but are you using other appsto facilitate all of this?
Yes. Okay. So for the emailcontent that we serve, depending,
we segment it out. So depending onwhere they get caught up in the funnel,
(11:55):
if they're not advancingto the next stage,
they're going to get an automation emailsequence that's going to drip to them
through the course of five days.They're going to get five emails.
But if they make contact or they takean action and click through on one of
those emails, then theautomation's no to stop.
So we're doing all the above,
and that's how we make surethat we're nurturing the leads.
(12:17):
So it starts at the awareness.After they become aware,
that's when they become interested,and when they become interested,
that's when you want to serve them theeducational content so they can better
understand if you're a good fitfor them. And then after that,
when they start to consider, that'swhen you show them the proof.
And then after the proof youwant to get on a discovery call.
(12:38):
Are you using Zapier to determine logicwhere they're going? Is that what you.
Correct? Yeah, to answer your question,
it's in integration withMailChimp to jobber.
And.
Then those are executedwith actions through Zapier.
So you take a client's information,
you enter it into jobber becauseyou're creating a client profile.
And then once you've set up the clientprofile based on the actions you take,
(13:02):
if you create a job, then you knowthat person's becoming a customer.
If you don't,
they're going to get a separate set ofcontent based on the no action taken.
Exactly right.
And so Zapier is delivering thestatus of where they are in the funnel
to MailChimp or to the automation textmessages that are actually built into
jobber because Jobber has automations too.
(13:25):
John, this has been great.
Let's take a minute to pause and talkabout what we like about Jobber so much.
So from a day-to-dayoperations standpoint,
what is the one thing that Jobber givesyou that's transformed your day-to-day
operations?
I think specifically it's the abilityto add someone's credit card and payment
information to the client profileprior to creating an invoice for them,
(13:48):
because while you're on the phone withthem and you're getting that initial set
of information that you need, justbasic things like email, phone number,
address,
if you can get them to make that microcommitment of putting their credit card
on file, that's one step closerto actually using it to pay.
So the fact that it has a feature whereyou could add a credit card to a client
profile without advancing it to aninvoice is a total game changer.
(14:10):
I love that. And the automaticinvoicing, take it one step further,
has been game changer for us too,
in terms of collecting hundredsof invoices every week. Exactly.
You need jobber two, you need to makeyour operations better, smoother,
and more effective and morecompelling for your client.
So if you don't have jobber,you need to get jobber today,
go to jobber.com/podcast deal.
New users can get an exclusivediscount and start using jobber today.
(14:32):
So John, a lot of people, they searchyour services and they book right away.
That's pretty straightforward. Butfor all the other people who don't,
what are some of the things thatcause friction that lead to people not
converting either right away orever? What are some things we can.
Avoid? Sure. Well, I think that thethings that you want to avoid, number one,
you never say the N word. No,
(14:53):
we never say that to anybodyat any phase of the funnel.
As soon as you say the N word, you'reshutting it down, and in their minds,
you're not a good fit for them anymore.You're not the solution for them.
So number one thing is avoid saying noto anything. That's our number one rule.
And then after that, it's reallyabout uncovering their pain point.
Let me give you a specific exampleso people can visualize this.
(15:15):
If somebody calls in, a commonrequest is for a move out clean,
so they need to get their place cleanbecause they're moving out. Now,
do they actually care ifthe place is clean? No,
they don't care becausethey're moving out,
but they have a problem and a painpoint, and we understand what that is.
Their problem is they want toget their security deposit back.
(15:37):
So our competitors will say, oh,you need a move out clean. Well,
here's your quote for us.We have a different set of questions to uncover that,
and so we can leverage it. So forexample, when somebody calls and says,
I need a clean, because theydon't know the terminology,
they don't know if it's called moveout clean, the first question we ask,
are you moving in or moving out? Andthen if they say, yes, we're moving out,
(16:02):
do you own the place or do you rentit? Because if they own the place,
chances are they're prepping it toshow it for a prospective buyer.
But if they're renting is because thelandlord is going to do a walkthrough to
make an assessment on whether or not theyget their security deposit back or how
much they get Immediately.When we uncover,
whether it's a renter or ahomeowner, if it's a renter,
(16:24):
then we talk to them about having thechecklist of their property management
company. I try to archive all theproperty management's checklists,
so I can say to them confidently,
I know exactly what they'regoing to be looking for.
And our move out clean includesevery specific thing on their list,
so you're going to have the best chance.
So when we sell these types ofcleans or during the discovery call,
(16:46):
we'll say things like, well, the goalis to get your security deposit back.
And then every time, that'scalled trial closing,
and that's the technical name ofit. I actually call it the Yes game.
So the objective of the Yes gameis to get as many yeses out of the
prospect as possible on the phone call.
So when you go and youask for the credit card,
(17:08):
they're already conditioned to sayyes. It starts right in the beginning,
and we'll ask them rhetorical questionsthat we know they're going to say yes
to. Even something simple,if they say their address,
if they're telling us their address,
we quickly type it into Google becauseeverybody knows Google will fill in the
rest of it. As you're typing,I'll cut them off and say, oh,
(17:30):
I know where that is. Is that 8 9 13 1 zip code? And they'll say Yes.
And then all of a sudden,I have my first yes,
and it makes them believe thatI'm familiar with their area.
And then from there, we just keep gettingas many yeses as we can until the end.
I love that. So it'speeling out the onion.
There's always a reason behind thereason, oh, wow, I want my house clean,
(17:53):
but why? Well, we're having a ceremonyfor my dad who passed away last year.
It's one year anniversary.That's important to know.
But an amateur will justsay, great, it's $200.
And one of the,
I'll give you two really great nuggetshere that anybody can apply to any home
service funnel. The first oneis called the assumptive close.
So when you're doing the discovery call,
(18:13):
because every phase of the funnelis designed to get to that discovery
call, and during the discovery call,
the assumptive close is the premisethat you are assuming that they
want what you're selling.
So instead of asking somebody ifthey want to get their house cleaned,
you ask them when they wantto get their house cleaned,
(18:33):
and you only give two options. So they'renot on information overload, right?
So they don't come back to you andsay, I got to check my calendar.
I got to think about it. Sotowards the end, I'm asking them,
do you want Tuesday or Wednesday anddo you want morning or afternoon?
Things like that. I'm not asking themif they want to do business with us.
I'm asking 'em when theywant to do business with us.
(18:54):
John, what kind ofcontent can we be using?
We talked about this a little bit already,
but I want to rehash it for our listeners.
What kind of content is importantfor the nurturing process?
It's a great question, andthis is really easy. So first,
you want to think of the most commonquestions that people ask you,
and then in the content, you wantthe answers to those questions.
(19:15):
But if you're not sureand you need more clues,
you can simply type it into Google andGoogle will give you two clues. One,
it'll autofill in therest of that question.
So if you type in half the question,
Google will tell you and it'll dropdown what the most popular questions are
with that sort of theme or lineof questioning. But even better,
(19:35):
once you hit enter on that search,
if you scroll down about a quarter wayof the page on Google search results,
it'll say, people also askand it'll show you that box.
That's the gold. If you look atthose and analyze those questions,
and Google's giving you that insight,
all your content should be theanswers to those questions.
(19:56):
I love that hack.
One time I use chat EBT to comeup with the 52 biggest pain
points people have withtheir gutter system,
and some of them are a little cheesyand off, but most of 'em are spot on.
And so then I started to make blog postsand social posts for each one of those
and release once a week.That's another way of doing it,
which I like that way a little more.
(20:18):
Well, because the thing is that ifyou're not making data-driven decisions,
then you're just guessing and Google,
everything they do is algorithmicand predicated on data.
And if you listen to your customers,you'll find out pretty quickly. I mean,
even if you start your business today,if you listen intently to your customers,
you'll hear what mattersto them very quickly.
(20:38):
Absolutely. And really,
I think the key is getting people to makemicro commitments and spending as much
time on the discovery call and as muchtime consuming your content that you're
serving them, and you could serveit to them a number of ways.
You could have a YouTube channelthat you email them about,
so you can have a trigger thatemails a welcome email and then says,
(21:01):
check out our YouTube channel to seethe most awesome transformations from a
mess you wouldn't believe to somethingthat looks so clean and shiny,
and then all of a sudden they get caughtup. Transformations are very powerful.
So if you're thinking aboutwhat content to serve,
if you're in the lawn business, thecleaning business, the handyman business,
you could show thatblank wall and then boom,
(21:24):
you could show it with that TV hangingthere with the redone fireplace,
and that's everything.
If you look at a and e and these differentchannels that have these real estate
shows, the Property Brothersand all these things,
what do people wait for atthe end? The transformation.
So when you're designingyour content in your ideas,
think about how you could give peoplea visual transformation because then
(21:46):
they're going to start to think,how can that happen in my home?
John, this is great.
I'm going to try to boil our conversationdown to three actionable items here.
Number one is you want to get asmany yeses in the process as you can,
and you also want to go for when, notif so, when do you want us to come?
Not if do you want us to come?
Number two is show transformations,have these big reveals,
(22:08):
make sure your clients can see what it'slike before and then after that really
sells. Number three isspeed is the winner.
People need to have fastresponse time. Exactly.
And when it comes to speed,
I think everybody's familiar with thatold biblical story, David versus Goliath,
right? And if you're juststarting a home service business,
(22:30):
or even if you're two, three years in,
you're still fighting some of these reallylarge companies that have been around
a long time. So when youthink about David and Goliath,
I think it's the perfect analogybecause everybody can gain confidence by
doing one thing that their competitorsdon't do and some of them can't do,
especially the bigger ones. If you'rea small company just starting out,
(22:53):
you have that speed andnimbleness. The big companies,
they have a lot of red tape.
They have to get approval from differentdepartments where you can move as fast
as you want.
John, this would be great. How do.
People find out more about you andwhat you do? You're trying to shake my,
how do they find you? Yeah, soagain, my name's John Margo.
If you go to john margo.com,
J-O-N-M-A-R-G-A-L-I t.com,
(23:16):
you can find me.
I'm running Rags to Riches Universitywhere I teach people how to start and grow
cleaning business, and that'salso rags to riches you.com.
Great. Well, thanks for beinghere. I really appreciate it,
and I think that you'rehaving a really big impact.
You have a great business in Vegas. You'reteaching people how to do this stuff,
so keep it up. It reallymakes a big difference.
I'm so appreciative of being on hereand helping people is the way I get the
(23:39):
most fulfillment of.
Anything I do. Well, thanksto you two for listening.
I hope you heard something today thatwill help you build a successful and
profitable sales funnel. I'myour host, Adam Sylvester.
You can find me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients deserveyour very best, so go give it to 'em.
The key to building a successfulfunnel is speed. It's all about speed.
Welcome to jobbers Masters of HomeService, a podcast for home service pros,
buy Home service pros.
We're in Las Vegas and today we'retalking about creating profitable sales
funnels. I'm your host, Adam Sylvester.Today's guest is John Marlet.
(00:20):
He's the owner of Happy Home Helpersand he lives in Vegas. So John,
welcome to the studio.
Thanks so much for having me.
I'm fired up because I think whatwe're going to talk about today,
people can actually take what we givethem and then go implement it immediately
to actually see higher and better revenue.
Sweet. Well, that's exactlywhat I want. So take a minute,
tell our listeners whoyou are and what you do.
(00:42):
Yeah, so my name's John Marletand I have a house cleaning
business, residential housecleaning business here in Las Vegas,
and we also do home organizing.
And before that I used to be head ofsales for a voiceover IP s software
company. So I took everything thatI've learned in that experience.
(01:02):
We got acquired and after we got acquired,
I moved on and I decided I did notwant to work for anybody anymore.
And so when I thought about the simplestbusiness that I could put together
quickly without spending too much money,
I figured that I would offersomething that a lot of people need,
and I settled on house cleaning.
Cool. Awesome. Okay, so we'retalking about sales funnel,
(01:24):
something that you're very goodat, have a lot of experience with.
So give our listeners just a simpleexplanation of what a sales funnel is and
what it does.
Yeah,
a sales funnel is a visualand conceptual representation
of the journey that a buyertakes during the decision making
process, whether they're buying aproduct or in this case a service.
(01:45):
So from when they first encounter itand then they're interested in it,
the awareness that's created all the waythrough whether they want to buy it or
choose not to buy it.
Okay. And you've got your salesfunnel with you today, your.
I do. Here's the sales funnel.
I keep them in my pocket allthe time because I love funnels.
So if you're listening to thison audio and you're not watching,
(02:06):
I actually have a little expandable rubberfunnel that I keep in my pocket and I
brought it today. That's a greatinspiration. Yeah, I like it.
I actually don't reallycarry it on me all the time,
but I thought it was cool to bring it.
Definitely. Yeah.
So what are the key components ofa sales funnel to make it work.
Exactly? Yeah, so the keycomponents of a sales funnel,
first you have to breakdown the phases of it,
(02:27):
and then I'll explain exactlythe components and then how to put it in action.
So the first stage of thefunnel is the top of the funnel.
So if you are watching,
imagine a funnel that you use for cookingor a science project that you would
either put liquid into or somethinggranular like salt or sugar or something
like this.
So at the top of the funnel is whereyou create awareness for your service.
(02:49):
And that could come from a number ofways. That can come from an advertisement,
either a free advertisement or a paidadvertisement or something more organic,
like a social media post.
And then what you want to do is you wantto load the top of the funnel as much
as you can with prospectsor prospective customers.
And then you want to advance them downthe funnel and get them to make what I
(03:11):
call micro commitments downto all the way to a purchase.
And so after the awarenessphase at the top,
that's created through some type ofpromotion. Then comes the interest phase.
And so when somebody becomes afterthey become aware and then they become
interested,
what you want to do in that interestphase is serve them educational content.
(03:33):
You want to serve them with things thatanswer the most likely questions that
they might ask, and at that point,
answering their questions isgoing to alleviate some of the
objections that they mighthave of your service,
and then it'll takethem to the next phase,
and that's going to be the considerationstage. And so it goes from awareness,
(03:54):
interest to consideration. Nowduring the consideration phase,
this is the part whereyou want to show proof,
and a really good way to do thatis before and after pictures.
And then there's social proof what otherpeople say about their experience with
your business.
So as much proof as you can provideeither actual proof or social proof,
we'll get them to advancethe next phase of the funnel,
(04:17):
which is the decision-making phase.And at the decision making phase,
that's where you want to,
I think the best way is have adiscovery call with them over the phone.
I know you and I actually hada conversation about this,
and some service providers let people goon their website and just book directly
without speaking to somebody,
but I'm actually totally against thatbecause it doesn't give you the ability to
(04:41):
sell someone and differentiateyour value propositions.
If you let somebody come to your website,
chances are they're goingto scan your content,
but they're not going to read everyword. But if you get them on the phone,
you can easily then show thepersonality of your company.
You can establish why you'redifferent, and then you can explain,
(05:03):
or I should say,
confirm the value propositions to yourprice point and how they're aligned.
So we always try to get peopleon a proper discovery call,
and then that way we havethe chance to sell them.
And the next phase would be the purchasephase where somebody decides to either
go with you or go with someoneelse or not buy anything at all.
So this sales funnel,
(05:23):
does it happen over many days andweeks or could it happen in 10
minutes or both?
It can happen either way.
I think that it all dependson the awareness phase at the top. So for example,
if you're creating awarenessthrough a Google ad,
then you're getting somebody that hasintent to purchase something right away
and they have a need forsomething, an imminent need.
(05:46):
But if you've attracted somebody througha social media post or a social media
ad, chances are you've disruptedtheir scrolling pattern.
And they're not necessarily lookingfor, in this case, house cleaning,
but it doesn't mean that they don'tneed it or want it. So the lifecycle,
or I should say the buyer's journey willtake a longer period of time and you'll
(06:06):
have to nurture those leads longer andthen get them through the funnel over
serving them either email, more posts,
getting them introduced toa podcast that you produce,
any type of content, you're goingto have to nurture them longer.
Are those different sales funnels for asocial media post versus someone who's
looking for you actively?Are those different funnels?
(06:27):
No, they're going to bethe same type of funnel,
except that the speed at which somebodygoes through the components and the
phases of the funnel will be fasterif they have an imminent need.
But those that don't willjust take their time. Right.
They can move through thefunnel at their own speed.
Correct, correct. And the sales funnel,
I want to explain real quick howsomebody could build one and put it into
(06:50):
action, because a lot ofpeople talk about funnels,
but they don't really understandwhat it is, and it's really simple.
So if you don't mind, I'mjust going to break it down.
So at the top of the funnel,
the best thing to do is to create anad on Google. I think Google is king.
I'm all in on Google, soI go all in on Google ads,
not local service ads, but Google Ads.
(07:12):
And then I put these ads outthere with my best and most
valuable propositions I have for people.
And since I'm a service that does sameday and most of my competitors don't,
I tend to lead with that. My ad copy.
Same day service?
Correct.
Okay.
So I'll put my most valuable thing outthere. I'll get people into my funnel,
(07:33):
and then I take them whensomebody clicks on my ad,
I take them to a landing page, andat the top of that landing page,
you'll see three things immediately.
These are the three things you musthave. What is it? How does it benefit me,
and how do I get it? So what is itprofessional house cleaning service,
how does it benefit me?
(07:54):
Then you want to list the five orsix bullet points of basically the
answers or rebuttals to every objectionthat somebody might want to come up with
or to their pain. Exactly.
You want to answer all their problemsand position the bullet points
as your ultimate solutions to thoseproblems and those pain points.
And then how do I get it, which wouldbe call us now with a phone number,
(08:18):
a form that they would fill outand you would call them back.
And then from there, you have to be fast.
So the key to building asuccessful funnel is speed.
It's all about speed.
Speed is the number one actionyou can take with somebody new.
That's just discovering your businessto prove to them that you're attentive,
(08:39):
you're trustworthy, that you're reliable,
and that you care enough toget back to them immediately.
What does that look like? A phone callfrom your sales staff, an email, a text?
Yeah, it's actually allthree. It's all the above.
So we'll call themimmediately. We have a rule,
it's the one minute rule we call everybodythat inquires and fills out a form on
our website within one minute. Ifwe don't reach them immediately,
(09:01):
they're getting a text andthey're getting an email.
And if we create a client profile forthem on our CRM system, which is jobber,
we immediately have automationsthat send them our best content that
solves problems and proves to themwith our before and after pictures,
the quality of our work.
So it's through human interactionand automation that we make sure
(09:24):
that we're fast aslightning to get to them,
because when people are intheir consideration stage,
that's the best time toconvert them into a buyer.
So we want to make sure we getto them before someone else does.
And hopefully they become loyal toyou, but they're not loyal to you yet.
So they're keep calling.
Keep calling and calling untilthey get to somebody else.
Exactly.
So once they click and you call them,
(09:47):
are they out of the funnel at thatpoint or are they still in the funnel?
So that's a good point.
So the leads that get through certainphases of the funnel actually get directed
to different automations. So if youget to speak to someone on the phone,
they're not going to get triggered tothat content that goes in where you're in
the discovery mode. But if youdon't get to discover about them,
(10:08):
they're going to get content that isasking them questions so you can get the
information you need to give them anaccurate quote or recommend the right
solution.
And what's Discover exactly findingout why they called in the first place?
Well, discovery is about, it's a termthat goes back to a legal process, right?
There's discovery.
So usually one side willsend over information about
(10:30):
whatever proof that they have and tohold up their argument of the case.
Now, if you take thatsame discovery process,
but you apply it to the sales funnel,what happens is, is that you spend time,
and again, time is the key herebecause I want to preface this,
the most valuable thing you canget from somebody is their money.
(10:50):
But if they're not ready to give youtheir money and become a customer,
the next most valuable thing youcan get from them is their time.
And.
Every minute, every second they spendwith you is another minute or second,
they're not going to want to spend withsomebody else explaining everything over
again. So with this in mind,
we go through the discovery call andwe ask a series of questions that will
(11:10):
lead to the information we need to givethem a quote to gain leverage to know
what value propositions toshow them and prop up the most.
And then ultimately,
it solidifies our pitch so we knowwhat we're selling them and why.
Yeah. Okay.
So I want to make sure that I'm followingyou and our listeners are following
because I think this is really good.The sales funnel starts at any point.
(11:32):
They become interested in your product,
whether it's they see a Facebook ad orthey talk to their friend who recommends
you, whatever the case maybe, they're at the funnel,
then they enter the funnel. What kindof, obviously jobber is one of them,
but are you using other appsto facilitate all of this?
Yes. Okay. So for the emailcontent that we serve, depending,
we segment it out. So depending onwhere they get caught up in the funnel,
(11:55):
if they're not advancingto the next stage,
they're going to get an automation emailsequence that's going to drip to them
through the course of five days.They're going to get five emails.
But if they make contact or they takean action and click through on one of
those emails, then theautomation's no to stop.
So we're doing all the above,
and that's how we make surethat we're nurturing the leads.
(12:17):
So it starts at the awareness.After they become aware,
that's when they become interested,and when they become interested,
that's when you want to serve them theeducational content so they can better
understand if you're a good fitfor them. And then after that,
when they start to consider, that'swhen you show them the proof.
And then after the proof youwant to get on a discovery call.
(12:38):
Are you using Zapier to determine logicwhere they're going? Is that what you.
Correct? Yeah, to answer your question,
it's in integration withMailChimp to jobber.
And.
Then those are executedwith actions through Zapier.
So you take a client's information,
you enter it into jobber becauseyou're creating a client profile.
And then once you've set up the clientprofile based on the actions you take,
(13:02):
if you create a job, then you knowthat person's becoming a customer.
If you don't,
they're going to get a separate set ofcontent based on the no action taken.
Exactly right.
And so Zapier is delivering thestatus of where they are in the funnel
to MailChimp or to the automation textmessages that are actually built into
jobber because Jobber has automations too.
(13:25):
John, this has been great.
Let's take a minute to pause and talkabout what we like about Jobber so much.
So from a day-to-dayoperations standpoint,
what is the one thing that Jobber givesyou that's transformed your day-to-day
operations?
I think specifically it's the abilityto add someone's credit card and payment
information to the client profileprior to creating an invoice for them,
(13:48):
because while you're on the phone withthem and you're getting that initial set
of information that you need, justbasic things like email, phone number,
address,
if you can get them to make that microcommitment of putting their credit card
on file, that's one step closerto actually using it to pay.
So the fact that it has a feature whereyou could add a credit card to a client
profile without advancing it to aninvoice is a total game changer.
(14:10):
I love that. And the automaticinvoicing, take it one step further,
has been game changer for us too,
in terms of collecting hundredsof invoices every week. Exactly.
You need jobber two, you need to makeyour operations better, smoother,
and more effective and morecompelling for your client.
So if you don't have jobber,you need to get jobber today,
go to jobber.com/podcast deal.
New users can get an exclusivediscount and start using jobber today.
(14:32):
So John, a lot of people, they searchyour services and they book right away.
That's pretty straightforward. Butfor all the other people who don't,
what are some of the things thatcause friction that lead to people not
converting either right away orever? What are some things we can.
Avoid? Sure. Well, I think that thethings that you want to avoid, number one,
you never say the N word. No,
(14:53):
we never say that to anybodyat any phase of the funnel.
As soon as you say the N word, you'reshutting it down, and in their minds,
you're not a good fit for them anymore.You're not the solution for them.
So number one thing is avoid saying noto anything. That's our number one rule.
And then after that, it's reallyabout uncovering their pain point.
Let me give you a specific exampleso people can visualize this.
(15:15):
If somebody calls in, a commonrequest is for a move out clean,
so they need to get their place cleanbecause they're moving out. Now,
do they actually care ifthe place is clean? No,
they don't care becausethey're moving out,
but they have a problem and a painpoint, and we understand what that is.
Their problem is they want toget their security deposit back.
(15:37):
So our competitors will say, oh,you need a move out clean. Well,
here's your quote for us.We have a different set of questions to uncover that,
and so we can leverage it. So forexample, when somebody calls and says,
I need a clean, because theydon't know the terminology,
they don't know if it's called moveout clean, the first question we ask,
are you moving in or moving out? Andthen if they say, yes, we're moving out,
(16:02):
do you own the place or do you rentit? Because if they own the place,
chances are they're prepping it toshow it for a prospective buyer.
But if they're renting is because thelandlord is going to do a walkthrough to
make an assessment on whether or not theyget their security deposit back or how
much they get Immediately.When we uncover,
whether it's a renter or ahomeowner, if it's a renter,
(16:24):
then we talk to them about having thechecklist of their property management
company. I try to archive all theproperty management's checklists,
so I can say to them confidently,
I know exactly what they'regoing to be looking for.
And our move out clean includesevery specific thing on their list,
so you're going to have the best chance.
So when we sell these types ofcleans or during the discovery call,
(16:46):
we'll say things like, well, the goalis to get your security deposit back.
And then every time, that'scalled trial closing,
and that's the technical name ofit. I actually call it the Yes game.
So the objective of the Yes gameis to get as many yeses out of the
prospect as possible on the phone call.
So when you go and youask for the credit card,
(17:08):
they're already conditioned to sayyes. It starts right in the beginning,
and we'll ask them rhetorical questionsthat we know they're going to say yes
to. Even something simple,if they say their address,
if they're telling us their address,
we quickly type it into Google becauseeverybody knows Google will fill in the
rest of it. As you're typing,I'll cut them off and say, oh,
(17:30):
I know where that is. Is that 8 9 13 1 zip code? And they'll say Yes.
And then all of a sudden,I have my first yes,
and it makes them believe thatI'm familiar with their area.
And then from there, we just keep gettingas many yeses as we can until the end.
I love that. So it'speeling out the onion.
There's always a reason behind thereason, oh, wow, I want my house clean,
(17:53):
but why? Well, we're having a ceremonyfor my dad who passed away last year.
It's one year anniversary.That's important to know.
But an amateur will justsay, great, it's $200.
And one of the,
I'll give you two really great nuggetshere that anybody can apply to any home
service funnel. The first oneis called the assumptive close.
So when you're doing the discovery call,
(18:13):
because every phase of the funnelis designed to get to that discovery
call, and during the discovery call,
the assumptive close is the premisethat you are assuming that they
want what you're selling.
So instead of asking somebody ifthey want to get their house cleaned,
you ask them when they wantto get their house cleaned,
(18:33):
and you only give two options. So they'renot on information overload, right?
So they don't come back to you andsay, I got to check my calendar.
I got to think about it. Sotowards the end, I'm asking them,
do you want Tuesday or Wednesday anddo you want morning or afternoon?
Things like that. I'm not asking themif they want to do business with us.
I'm asking 'em when theywant to do business with us.
(18:54):
John, what kind ofcontent can we be using?
We talked about this a little bit already,
but I want to rehash it for our listeners.
What kind of content is importantfor the nurturing process?
It's a great question, andthis is really easy. So first,
you want to think of the most commonquestions that people ask you,
and then in the content, you wantthe answers to those questions.
(19:15):
But if you're not sureand you need more clues,
you can simply type it into Google andGoogle will give you two clues. One,
it'll autofill in therest of that question.
So if you type in half the question,
Google will tell you and it'll dropdown what the most popular questions are
with that sort of theme or lineof questioning. But even better,
(19:35):
once you hit enter on that search,
if you scroll down about a quarter wayof the page on Google search results,
it'll say, people also askand it'll show you that box.
That's the gold. If you look atthose and analyze those questions,
and Google's giving you that insight,
all your content should be theanswers to those questions.
(19:56):
I love that hack.
One time I use chat EBT to comeup with the 52 biggest pain
points people have withtheir gutter system,
and some of them are a little cheesyand off, but most of 'em are spot on.
And so then I started to make blog postsand social posts for each one of those
and release once a week.That's another way of doing it,
which I like that way a little more.
(20:18):
Well, because the thing is that ifyou're not making data-driven decisions,
then you're just guessing and Google,
everything they do is algorithmicand predicated on data.
And if you listen to your customers,you'll find out pretty quickly. I mean,
even if you start your business today,if you listen intently to your customers,
you'll hear what mattersto them very quickly.
(20:38):
Absolutely. And really,
I think the key is getting people to makemicro commitments and spending as much
time on the discovery call and as muchtime consuming your content that you're
serving them, and you could serveit to them a number of ways.
You could have a YouTube channelthat you email them about,
so you can have a trigger thatemails a welcome email and then says,
(21:01):
check out our YouTube channel to seethe most awesome transformations from a
mess you wouldn't believe to somethingthat looks so clean and shiny,
and then all of a sudden they get caughtup. Transformations are very powerful.
So if you're thinking aboutwhat content to serve,
if you're in the lawn business, thecleaning business, the handyman business,
you could show thatblank wall and then boom,
(21:24):
you could show it with that TV hangingthere with the redone fireplace,
and that's everything.
If you look at a and e and these differentchannels that have these real estate
shows, the Property Brothersand all these things,
what do people wait for atthe end? The transformation.
So when you're designingyour content in your ideas,
think about how you could give peoplea visual transformation because then
(21:46):
they're going to start to think,how can that happen in my home?
John, this is great.
I'm going to try to boil our conversationdown to three actionable items here.
Number one is you want to get asmany yeses in the process as you can,
and you also want to go for when, notif so, when do you want us to come?
Not if do you want us to come?
Number two is show transformations,have these big reveals,
(22:08):
make sure your clients can see what it'slike before and then after that really
sells. Number three isspeed is the winner.
People need to have fastresponse time. Exactly.
And when it comes to speed,
I think everybody's familiar with thatold biblical story, David versus Goliath,
right? And if you're juststarting a home service business,
(22:30):
or even if you're two, three years in,
you're still fighting some of these reallylarge companies that have been around
a long time. So when youthink about David and Goliath,
I think it's the perfect analogybecause everybody can gain confidence by
doing one thing that their competitorsdon't do and some of them can't do,
especially the bigger ones. If you'rea small company just starting out,
(22:53):
you have that speed andnimbleness. The big companies,
they have a lot of red tape.
They have to get approval from differentdepartments where you can move as fast
as you want.
John, this would be great. How do.
People find out more about you andwhat you do? You're trying to shake my,
how do they find you? Yeah, soagain, my name's John Margo.
If you go to john margo.com,
J-O-N-M-A-R-G-A-L-I t.com,
(23:16):
you can find me.
I'm running Rags to Riches Universitywhere I teach people how to start and grow
cleaning business, and that'salso rags to riches you.com.
Great. Well, thanks for beinghere. I really appreciate it,
and I think that you'rehaving a really big impact.
You have a great business in Vegas. You'reteaching people how to do this stuff,
so keep it up. It reallymakes a big difference.
I'm so appreciative of being on hereand helping people is the way I get the
(23:39):
most fulfillment of.
Anything I do. Well, thanksto you two for listening.
I hope you heard something today thatwill help you build a successful and
profitable sales funnel. I'myour host, Adam Sylvester.
You can find me@adamsylvester.com.
Your team and your clients deserveyour very best, so go give it to 'em.
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