002: Are Your Lead Generation Services Worth It?

Narrator:
You're listening to the Roofing Business Partner Podcast.

Narrator:
This is the show where you'll learn the mind hacks, strategies, and process we use every day to turn everyday roofing companies into the dominating local authority with our Ultimate Roofer Marketing method. You'll also learn how we use Facebook ads to rapidly and affordably scale up business for roofing companies and generate leads on autopilot, putting you in touch with the right customers who pay the right price at the right time. Here's your host, Adam Sand. Now let's get after it.

Adam Sand:
A lead gen service is a waste of money? The short answer is maybe. The long answer is absolutely a resounding yes. Lead generation as a business is something you need to decide if you're doing this for the long-term or the short-term. If you need leads for the short-term, and I mean you are desperate for money, then lead generation is all you really have, isn't it? You need someone else to get you the leads because you don't know how to do it. Let's face it. If you're asking whether lead generation is worth it, it's because you either don't know how to generate quality leads at a reasonable price or you don't know how to generate leads at all, period. If you knew how to generate leads at a reasonable price, you would never want your customers to come from a source other than your very own website. Let's start by explaining what lead generation sites like HomeAdvisor and Trusted Pros and those random guys who say they're going to set up a site for you, let's explain what those are.

Adam Sand:
I think it's easiest if we take roofing out of it. Let's think about a brick and mortar department store selling home theater systems. Since I don't know any of you, I'm going to call you Rob. So Rob, you own an electronic store called Rob's TV Emporium. You have this ex-employee. Let's call him Steve. And Steve's a little jerk to deal with, but he knows a lot of people. Okay? One of these guys that will tell you his life story. He answers all the questions you didn't ask. And he doesn't notice when you look at your watch three times and you obviously need to go. One of those guys.

Adam Sand:
Now let's imagine there's a nice customer named Heather. She's a bubbly lady. She got her tax refund from the government and she has a $3,000 pile of cash burning a hole in her pocket. Now she's suddenly in the market for a home theater system. So she goes online. She tries to search for the best home entertainment system. All she finds is a bunch of overly techy blogs that use terminology she can't read. Then she's left with a bunch of store websites like Buddy's TV Store, Electronics Plus, your store, and Walmart. All are advertising that they're selling the home theater systems. She goes on about her day, but eventually goes on Facebook and writes a status. "Help, friends. I'm trying to decide between LG and Samsung for my new home theater system. Thoughts? #LOL." That's my best impersonation of Heather.

Adam Sand:
But now of course, who's on Facebook trolling around looking for attention? Steve. So Steve says to Heather, "Hey girl, I got a hookup for you, Rob's TV Emporium." That's your store. "All those electronics people are sharks. They'll rip you off. You have to be careful. I personally approve of Rob's store. And not only do I approve, I will bring you out to Rob's store myself and introduce you to. And I also got a few friends at some other stores too."

Adam Sand:
So of course, Heather loves the idea of a hookup and safety from the electronic store sales sharks. She didn't even know they were sharks. And now she suddenly feels like that she was silly that she was ever going to go into a store without a guy like Steve. So now Steve's a fricking hero. So fast-forward to Steve taking Heather down to your store. Steve shows up and lets Heather shop. Before she goes in, she finds and she reads a blog on negotiating with electronic salesman because she knows now that they're sharks. She heard somewhere that she's supposed to ask for at least 70% off. So she turns into a bigger pain in the butt than Steve is. Now, if this whole experience goes any way but perfect for Heather, she's immediately going to go back to Steve for help and Steve will refer her somewhere else now.

Adam Sand:
So imagine this. You paid $150 by e-transfer before they even came in because Steve was bringing her to your store. But Steve also got paid by three other stores on his way out with Heather. Now that is lead generation. To recap, because you are too lazy or uninformed or just don't know how to generate your own leads, you have to deal with Steve. So Heather went to Facebook to learn from friends because she couldn't find any reliable information online. What she could find was Steve. And because Steve knows how to get in front of customers when their curiosity or fears at an all-time high, Steve is a lead generator that is working to find leads for Rob, that's you, and only charges you quote unquote "when he finds them".

Adam Sand:
However, he built value in himself by letting Heather know that Rob and all his industry cohorts are a bunch of gluttonous douchebags and they don't have Heather's best interest at heart, but their own. Now that Steve owns Heather's trust, Steve gets to call you, Rob, and every other person in town selling televisions and charge them $150 for the privilege of dealing with the now-untrusting, hostile, and unloyal Heather, who is loyal to Steve and his shiny hero cape.

Adam Sand:
So how do you think companies like HomeAdvisor or Trusted Pros get your customers to go to them? Simple. They position themselves as heroes like Steve before the customer even knows they needed rescuing. Check out this testimonial front and center on Homeadvisor's main page. Quote unquote, "HomeAdvisor is a secure way to find contractors. It allows me to feel more comfortable bringing someone into my home. Monica M., Jenkintown, Pennsylvania."

Adam Sand:
It's no different than any other industry. The car industry is the worst. Your opinion of car dealers to this day still is that they're a bunch of crooks, right? There's more transparency in the vehicle dealership industry than anywhere else. In 30 seconds on Google, you can find out exactly what a dealer paid to the manufacturer for the vehicle. You can find all the invoices, the rebates, the interest rate incentives. Whatever you want, you can find it for free. You can shop 250 dealerships at home in your underwear. The car dealers know it and know they can easily get busted telling a lie, so they can't try to make $10,000 profit on a car anymore. Yet customers still fear walking into car dealerships.

Adam Sand:
Lead generation services love this. Car dealerships everywhere are paying anywhere from 150 to $600 just for a customer lead with a lot of information. They do back flips because for $300, they get a lead with a name, a phone number, an email, an address, the occupation, the employer, monthly income, time at job. All they need to do is ask for the Social Security number and they can submit the loan for an application. But what they always forget is the customer came in through an ad like this. Quote, unquote, "People are reading this one simple article to beat the dealer at their own game, saving them thousands," or quote unquote, "This father and son learned this one tip and the car dealer didn't know what hit him."
Adam Sand:
There's no magic recipe. In fact, the article is full of very basic tips. Have a budget in mind, do your online research, get approved upfront and go in with cash. At that point, it leads to a credit app. This lead comes in, they do a credit app, and they gather all this information, and then they go and sell it to one dealership or several dealerships, and they sell it for hundreds of dollars. So they position themselves as heroes to the consumer to protect them from the evil, untrustworthy car dealership.

Adam Sand:
But what's really interesting is that they're ultimately in bed with the car dealership. That's their customer. So the funny part is the car dealerships are glad that these guys exist and they try to buy exclusivity to their leads. And the lead generator's cost to get the lead has to be less than what they're selling it to the dealer for. So why in God's name are dealers still paying for these guys to stay in business? Because they're too lazy, scared, or shortsighted to figure out how to do it themselves. Lord knows they have the money, right?

Adam Sand:
I apologize for the rant, but long story short, they know how to generate leads and sell them to you. This is simply making them the middleman and a small partner in your business with zero risk of losing the sale, no problems with estimating properly or improperly. They don't have to worry about a fatality on the job site and they don't have to work outside in the hot, the freezing cold, steep roofs, heavy bundles, and nail guns shooting nails through their hands. Zero investment in the trade, no equipment needed. They take something off the top just for them knowing how to do something that you could do yourself, but you just don't know how to do it.

Adam Sand:
Going back to the start, if you need to use lead generation, have a plan to only use them for a short period of time. Think of this as a client database generation strategy. I've been there and I have six tips to help you maximize this period for your business journey. I promise if you keep listening to this podcast, together we can move past this state and dump the Steves of the world forever.

Adam Sand:
So one, remember, you paid for a lead, not a customer. Rocky Balboa didn't get a world title. He got a world title shot. All the most of us need in life is an opportunity, but you got to do something with it. When you hire a new roofer, you can only pre-qualify and train so much. But eventually you got to give the guy a jersey and see what he's made of. The good clients aren't just price-shopping. They're looking for a professional, and shame on you for not being there beforehand.

Adam Sand:
Two, follow up immediately. When someone sends a request on your website, you generally have little time, 30 minutes, 2 hours. It's not the end of the world, but when you're getting a lead gen site to send you a contact, these customers are now coming to the marketplace for contractors. The first way to earn instant credibility in those customers' eyes is to have the fastest response time. Call first, email second, text third, every time.

Adam Sand:
Today, everyone has ADD. Five minutes is five hours. Set up Google Alerts on your cell phone. Send the lead notifications to your wife or your eight-year-old son because God knows he's on his iPad all the time. Stop what you're doing. Turn the music off on the roof. Stop nailing and grab the phone. If you need someone else to generate leads for you, then when they give you one, you got to make sure that you're the one who wants it the most.

Adam Sand:
Three, in-person quotes convert the highest. More on this in a later episode, but your process should always be to offer an in-person quote and right away. If you don't have the ability to stop shingling and go do the quote right away, then as soon as you're done that roof, go do the estimate that night. People always like to see that the guy quoting the roof is actually the guy doing the roof too. So don't stress about showing up grubby. The companies with canvassers and salesmen cannot close anywhere near as high as you should be able to.

Adam Sand:
Four, focus on the lifetime value of a client. Most roofers complain that roof repairs are the bulk of what they receive on lead generation sites. Remember, most of the time, you are paying money out of pocket to advertise so that the phone might ring, so that you might get the opportunity to install a new roof. Our repair call needs to be viewed as a future client paying you money to test drive your service and craftsmanship today. You can build that relationship for the long-term and then they will call you in the future to do the reroof for the roof replacement.

Adam Sand:
Five, use the 80-20 rule. Try to find places where 80% of the results are coming from 20% of your efforts. HomeAdvisor makes this easy. You can go through all your old leads and you can take note of which ones you closed and which ones you didn't. When we experiment with lead generation, we found out that 80% of our leads were in one category, but only closed at 10%. The rest of the leads were in other categories that were closing at 50%. So out of 100 leads, that's 80 estimates to close 10% of that business. That's only eight jobs. Or there was 20 estimates that closed to 50%, and that was 10 jobs. A quarter of the work for 25% more business. It's a no-brainer.

Adam Sand:
Six, follow-up like a crazy ex-girlfriend. Customer journeys are an important part of our business. When customers go shopping for an iPhone case or what movie to pick at the theater, the investment level and risk level is pretty low. So the journey from discovery to taking action is minutes or seconds. Now, when it comes time to pay for a new roof, that 6,000 to $50,000 bill can come as a bit of a surprise, or at least a long-neglected expense. This means that there might be a need to save up the money. Plus, they'll be more invested in making the right decision. For most people, the safe bet is to not make a decision, to get that paralysis from analysis. So you need to be there in their ear. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Answer their questions and let them know how badly you need their business.

Adam Sand:
Now, if you follow these six steps, you should close more deals, make more money, and get more calls back, and you'll get more referrals. You can start to buy yourself the time and the ability to generate cash flow needed to generate your own leads. If you want to learn how to do that, continue listening to this podcast every week. I'll be teaching you how to automate your own sales funnels and generate cash flow on demand with simple tips and strategies that are easy to follow.

Adam Sand:
The best part about generating your own leads is that you're building your own real estate. The concept is that lead generators, whether it's a place like HomeAdvisor or Angie's List, or you pay some guy 3% of profit to set up a website that sends you leads and he's optimizing it and generating the leads, no matter what way you go about it, you have to keep in mind that what you're doing is you're paying rent. Someone else built the building. They built the building, monetized that real estate by selling you leads. And at any given point in time, they can up their commission, up their price. They can dictate the terms to you because they have the real estate.

Adam Sand:
Or you can build your own real estate. And then you dictate the terms and you control the entire user experience, the customer journey from start to finish. And you will find if you do that, the customers you are suddenly doing estimates for become dream customers. That is the number one response that I get from clients that I do their marketing, is that not only are they getting a good price per lead and that they're getting consistent lead flow, but that the customers are a dream to work with. And that's the ultimate goal is that you don't want to just generate more leads and make more money. You want to make it easier and you want to deal with people who appreciate the integrity and the craftsmanship that you've taken years to build and develop in yourself. So thanks for listening. We'll talk to you again next week.

Narrator:
Free stuff is the reason you listen to the end, and this week's episode is no exception. Head to roofingbusinesspartner.com and check out this week's show notes to get your freebie bonus. Also, until February 2nd, get our Roofer Facebook Ad Apprenticeship Program for only $127. This 18-day program includes over 80 minutes of video instruction, done-for-you resources, two guidebooks, a forum to ask Adam all your questions along the way. This should remove any excuse or doubt that you can have your own ads running and generating roofing leads in less than 18 days. Adam spent thousands of dollars to learn this stuff, and to give it away for only $127 is the kind of craziness that only happens during a new podcast launch. So go check out the show notes and we'll be here again next week, flapping our gums and making you money.