I’ve always believed that one of the best practices in leading a company is to view your role as you would if this was your first day. It is as if you were just hired by the board (or yourself) this week to lead and change the business. You are taking over the existing operation and are charged (and excited to be so) with making changes and driving new growth. With that, in mind, I am making the following announcement.
This morning, I had to fire a long-time employee; it was hard; he had been around 20 years and, for the most part, done an excellent job. But it was time. There needed to be more passion in his work. I took it well. Yes, this morning I fired… me.
It was my small business’s great luck to find someone to run the show who has a solid background in building a valuable business and will have that new passion so crucial to a business… me!
Today, as the new Boss, I view everything we do as a company based on the value it delivers to the customer, community, and employee. Today, I am building a new marketing plan and encouraging co-workers to act like owners. I am even building new compensation plans to reward anyone working with us in the same manner an owner might be compensated. I am asking every employee (4) to review everything we do and find ways to improve it.
I have brought in new talent to drive the critical components of our services. I will contact every customer to tell them how committed we are to their success. It’s just a start, but as the new leader of this small business, I understand that every business is vital to the people and communities it touches.
I wish our former leader (me) success in whatever he does in the future, and I welcome the new Boss. (Me). I am confident he will grow the business over the next decade with integrity and a genuine commitment to the values the partners passionately believe in.
Do yourself, your clients, and your employees a favor. Fire yourself and start anew this year.
And are wondering why things seem slow? Well, they are. Look at this Google Trends report for Basement Finishing (From the Denver Colorad area).
That’s the basic number rating of serches from 2004 to the present. Reasons? So many. The volume of new home production is way down, and most basements are finished in the first year or so of ownership, and the interest rates—double whammy.
So what to do? Call us. 720 254 1234. This is going to take a major shift in your business plan.
Years ago I was a very big thoroughbred horse racing fan. I was lucky enough to live within a mile of our state’s only track. One day while listening to a horse racing television program I overheard the reporter interviewing a gentleman by the name of Barry Fey, who just won another National Handicapping Tournament. You may know the name Barry Fey, he was a major rock concert promoter in the 60s all the way through the early 2000s. The thing that was amazing was Barry as far as handicapping went, is he seemed to win all the tournaments. This, of course, intrigued me, but Barry would never say exactly what he did to win. In this particular interview, the reporter asked him, Barry do you have a secret to handicapping? Oddly enough he answered. He said one thing, I look for unique speed.
So as someone who handicapped horse racing almost every weekend, I started to look diligently for whatever unique speed meant. After a few months, I was beginning to think Barry was just throwing us all off course. But then it happened. I was looking at all the past performances of a 6-furlong race that was coming up in a few hours. And there it was. It seems like all the horses in this race had all been running more than a mile which is more than a furlong longer than six furlongs. Well, there was one horse who in each of his last five races have been well in the lead at 6 furlongs, and then dropped off to lose the race finishing in 2nd through 5th position. Aaha, that’s unique speed. But what if the other horses run just as fast to the six Furlong mark? This race was six furlongs, so I checked all the other horses and not one of them was close to the 6 furlongs speed and position of the horse I was looking at. Yes, indeed that was unique speed. So… with a note of thanks to Barry I placed my win bet on a horse that went off about 8 to 1 and did well as he did win being far in the lead at 6 for Longs.
Later on the same card, I found another horse to have unique speed. This one was actually quite obvious it had won its last three races all going away and no other horse in the field seem to be able to get close to its speed. It was so obvious that is basically an odds-on favorite. But that was fine I wasn’t looking for the highest odds I was looking for The Unique speed and a winner. And the horse did win. Unique speed
So what’s all this unique speed have to do with your business or your career?
After thinking through all this it occurred to me that a business that has some sort of uniqueness, as in unique speed, is the business that prospects will usually choose.
Thinking of my own company, I know that when I’m in a race so to speak with four or five other companies for someone’s business; the thing that consistently sets us apart and the reason we usually win the business is the fact that we have a very detailed process that is completely transparent on what we do when we are producing an SEO program. There are 10 different spreadsheets a client can look through at any time to see what we’re doing. We also have a very strong communication policy where there are conference calls with a client explaining what each spreadsheet is for and what its intention is. We also have a very strong track record with success.
So when it’s down to the final two furlongs and there are still several competitors in a race they can look at our communication process, complete transparency, attention to detail and proven results. That’s our unique speed, that’s what wins the race almost every time.
I have a client whose unique speed, in my opinion, is simply expertise. They’re a major remodeler and having been on numerous sales appointments with both them and others, I can tell you that you’d feel like a fool if you bought from anybody but them. They just have an amazing background and knowledge of how to get things done. Their expertise and walking through your project is enough to give them the unique-speed and win many jobs and that is why have a very high closing percentage.
So what are the things that might be your unique speed?
It can be so many things or it can be a combination of things.
Even your mission statement,
your transparency and how you do things,
how, when, and why you communicate,
it can be a guarantee you offer, or can just be the
network that you’re part of. It’s certainly not unknown of, for a prospect to buy your service because of the people you know or the people you serve.
It could be things as intangible of future benefits or just the results you’ve recently achieved.
Whatever it is you need to find it and you need to clearly define it. Most businesses have a tendency to believe their service is the best, and that’s good, but the truth is many businesses are very similar. When the house painter shows up at my door he better have some sort of unique speed because I know there’s a hundred more right behind them. You have to view yourself as the underdog and developed unique speed.
Take the time to identify your businesses unique speed. Then high light it to your community and prospects. You’ll find your self in the winners circle far often as well as attract more quality prospects consistently.
Things are changing! The 2018 version of the way the Internet is used is significantly different than just a few years ago and continues to evolve. How fast can things change? For some of us, an Internet without Google is still a very clear memory. Things change fast, and you need to adjust as they do.
Today 70% + of all traffic is going through three websites (and their owned properties) those being, Google (YouTube), Facebook (Instagram), and Amazon and this trend is increasing every year, with no signs of slowing down. Think of that, 3 out of 4 users are on one of those three sites at any time. The other user is on one of the other millions of sites that exist.
This is Important! >>>>>
Add to that the new proposed changes to the “Net Neutrality” regulations that could go into effect in 2018, which may allow ISP’s to offer discounts to users who for example only want access to the big three, and its time for a new approach to Internet promotion, marketing, and visibility.
Although SEO continues to be a viable option for those sites that already have decent Google rankings or presence, new sites are becoming much more difficult to push into the first few spots for searches. Google also has done a good job of showing the paid ads first both in the Maps results and the organic listings. A huge change from a few years ago. Great organic listings simply are not as valuable as they were once, because they have been pushed down the page, and therefore are not seen nearly as much. (For popular keyword searches)
So whats the solution?
Google: Use a small and highly targeted pay per click program. Ad words have a pretty bad reputation for results, but with an intelligent approach with an experienced manager, you can see a good return on investment. (we have excellent references).
Also, uploading and promotion of Youtube videos are part of the Facebook and Google strategy. YouTube has a completely different system for ranking videos as opposed to Googles search engine, so to get a video viewed it’s important to understand YouTube SEO
Facebook: Facebook has become a pay for play service, for the most part for businesses. In its favor, it has excellent demographic targeting and is less expensive than Ad Words. The challenge is having new and interesting posts to promote and having a clear understanding of your target audience. It takes about 30 to 60 minutes to research, develop, write, post and promote a post after you have your campaign set up.
SEO: Local SEO has become a niche Geo and topic game. You can see good results if you focus intently on defined geographic areas, and narrow services or products. Its called Hyperlocal SEO, and it still works.
Here’s what we are suggesting as the basic program to keep you visible and allow new prospects to find you on this new Internet. For around $1300 a month you can have the Google, and Facebook marketing covered, and see a good return on investment using:
1.) Google Pay per click. We design your ads, and campaigns and then manage and improve them monthly. Our strategy is to start very narrow and grow as you see success.
2.) A Monthly Interview on the 24-7 home show site. This is hosted on Youtube with a link to the site as well as On the 24-7 home show site. You can also use the interviews on your site at no charge. We advertise the interview on Facebook.
3.) Individual FaceBook posting on your facebook page. We post and promote interesting and promotional pieces on Facebook. You’ll reach 1000’s of potential customers monthly through their Facebook feed.
4.) (Optional) Hyperlocal SEO. Define the most important areas to market into for your service(cities), clearly, define the service you want to sell and we write the plan, which includes new Hyperlocal SEO content to your site, backlinks to those pages and promotion of those pages to get them well ranked on Google.
Google my business is also a must for local companies. We set it up, and optimize it for you.
We know every business is different and will customize an Internet marketing program specific to you.
You know who understands the strengths and weaknesses of your product as well as anyone? You guessed it, your sales reps.
During my sales tune ups and consulting it is most commonly my interviews with the sales people that dig up the best ideas in selling more. So why don’t they tell you? Well, have you asked? Or have they mentioned a few ideas that you have ignored?
Schedule a sit-down lunch or coffee with each sales rep and ask them, what can we change or do to sell more? When prospects don’t buy, what are their reasons?
When they buy from the competition, what is it they liked better? If you owned this business what changes would you make to close more of the people we see? Are the leads you are getting good quality? Are there certain lead sources that are better than others?
How is your compensation? What would you change about your compensation?
You are going to be AMAZED how much information you can get, and if you put your ego asides (if needed) and find ways to implement some of the ideas, your sales will improve.
Sales people love to be listened to. There is also a real value in letting an “outside” person have these conversations. That’s part of what I do during a full sales tune up. Having run sales groups of up to 650 people, I can discern rapidly when a sales rep is being honest, or just making excuses. (Yep, they’ll do that).
Call me for a free consultation of how we can get your sales up fast!
MIke 303 808 1734
Since 2015 Google has been reporting a continue climb in the use of the term “near me” in search queries.
The old style local SEO focused on large metropolitan areas for good reason, people were not conditioned yet to use near me, or their suburbs or areas location in the search term. As an example, if you are a painter located in a suburb of Denver, your SEO may have focused on the term Denver Painter because that’s was the most searched term even for people in the suburbs.
A Lot, and I mean A lot has changed in the last few years to make this strategy a bit of an anachronism. I won’t go through the multitude of changes Google has made to provide more accurate local information for searches, but I will say it has significantly change how search queries are displayed and how prospects find your web site.
This is essential to understand if you are a service type business whose customer base is further reaching than the community you are located in. An example might be that same house painter I mentioned above. That company needs customers from 3-4 cities within the Metro area. Google’s current algorithm works against this business because of its strong bias towards primary listing businesses for these searches in the city they’re based in.
What a Hyper-local program does is extend that companies reach through a local SEO program that focuses on the contiguous city’s next to the businesses home city. In doing so a company can double or Triple their leads from the extended areas.
(All of this is contingent upon that business already having a good Google local Maps ranking to start with. If is doesn’t that’s the first step in the process.)
Hyper-local SEO example
Here’s an example of one of our clients current Internet rankings using a hyper-local approach.
Notice in the report that they are in the 1st,2nd. or 3rd position in maps for two major search terms. This extends their reach over 400%. this clients will do well over 2 million dollars i new sales a year from the Internet.
We specialize in Hyper-local Internet marketing. Having worked with hundreds of local companies we understand that lead generation needs to work within your business plan, and that a shotgun approach can do more harm than good. Call us today to get a free assessment on your current lead generation and Internet reach, and discuss what the potential is by using a HYper-local approach.
Call us today for a free assessment of what Hyper-local SEO can do to create new prospects for your business. 720-254-1234
Interested in how your company’s’ Sales and Marketing stacks up? This mini quiz will give you a quick view of how you compare in some areas to other company’s, as well as you give you some idea’s on how to improve.
When finished feel free to call us to set up a free 30 minute consultation on the results, and how to improve your closing percentages, lead generation and sales fast. Call 303 808 1734, or email me at mike.bayes@gmail.com
Average completion time 1 minute.
Interested in a full Sales and Marketing tune up that's guaranteed to increase your sales and lead generation quality? Read about it here . $500 off if you sign up before January 1 2017. See details on link.
Business development is a term that generally is viewed as a “sales” function. At My One Call we view it as the opportunity to develop a business in any of the three main areas a business must preform in, those being.
Operations
Finance
Sales
An area overlooked by many companies is the development of new branded service offerings. As an example one of our clients who is a general contractor identified a unique and undeserved market. In Denver, there are 10 areas of the city zoned for ADU’s, which stands for Accessory Dwelling units, or in other words, a separate residence built on your home lot, or above the garage or in a basement, that serves as a second residence. It can be rented out for additional income.
ADU floor plan
The Denver areas rents have sky rocketed making these Garage apartments, or carriage house, or basement apartments very attractive to rent. Yet no one in Denver has been specializing in these, perhaps because residential construction is so hot right now.
So our client L & D Construction is building a division that includes construction, Real Estate, Finance and marketing to both educate and sell to homeowners in Denver.
As they become the “voice” of the ADU community, they may build a brand that is far ahead of any other business. That’s smart business development!
You can read a little about ADU’s as Garage Apartments, basement apartments or carriage house on their blog.
Recently, Mike Bayes was interviewed by the Reach Connect Uplift Women show about the biggest issues businesses have with their Local SEO. Although these tips are not all inclusive, they are very important to your website’s rankings. Listen to this 13-minute video to hear about the main Local SEO basics.
Recently we have been hearing a lot from webmasters about recommending citation services for their clients. This interview may convince you to be a little more careful going down that path.
The 5 most important factors that can hurt your site’s ranking are.
@ Inconsistent NPA across the web (Name address and phone number of your company)
@ Use the right meta tags on every page.
@ Don’t use third party tracking numbers
@ Not using your address on your site
@ Not listing in the BIG local directories. (Google My Business, Yelp and others)
And here is a video with Matt Cutts from Google on the most common SEO mistakes. This isn’t specific to Local SEO but applies across the board.
@ Make your site crawlable
@ Include the right words on the page.
@ Put your business hours on the site
@ Compelling content and marketing (not link building)
@ Title and descriptions of the most important pages
@ Not using Web Master researches.
Between these two videos, you will have a great start on having a “visible” website in the search engine results.
Call us for a free 30-minute review of your site! 720-254-1234. We are a Denver area-based Local SEO services company.
It’s pretty common knowledge that a good review from your customer is going to have a positive effect on your web visibility. Clearly those map listings that, in addition to the standard information also show a star rating, are more than likely to get a better click through rate. Note the screen shot below. Which two reviews are going to catch your eye? But there’s more to the power and value of a review than just click through rates.
Semantic SEO is playing a larger and larger role in how your site will be ranked and who will view it (depending on Googles perception of the searchers intent.
How that might affect your sites visibility is in the words the reviewer uses in the review. It would seem to be common sense, but when asking for a review, you may want to help your customers with some of the words they could use.
If I was a dentist, and I wanted a certain type of dentistry to stand out, I would ask for the reviewer to mention “Orthodontics“. I don’t think you need to ask them to use the word…. but you could suggest they mention the procedure they had.
When you request a review or encourage your clients to write one, it’s very helpful to them if you give some ideas on what they might want to say….
For our clients we suggest they send out a request, with full step by step instructions on the process of getting to the review page, and then give a few ideas to get them started.
Things like… what was the project we worked on for you?
What city are you in?
Were you happy with the?
– Service
– Scheduling
– Office staff
-Customer service
– value delivered.
By helping in this way you should see a better response, and a better result in web visibility because semantically your reviews are matching the services you want to be highlighted.
And it doesn’t hurt to take a look at your company description on your Google My Business listing, and make sure it reflects your business goals as well. Again, if you are a Dentist (And we don’t do web visibility for Dentists) and you want to do more Orthodontics, well then you may want to use that word as well as the phrases that relate to it in your description, and mentioned in reviews.
And, I guess it goes without saying, ask the type of customers you want more of to provide reviews. <<<<< Smart.
I want to caution you to never write a fake review or have one written. Following Googles guidelines is important, as well as any other platform you want to see reviews of your business on.
