1693: Topic Showcase: Standing Out

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Quick note before we get started, I want to invite you to a really cool conference that I'm going to be speaking at in May. It's called Fast Remodeler Live. It's organized by the folks over a qualified remodeler, and it's all about using technology in your remodeling business. It's going to cover everything from lead gen, lead conversion, sales, ERP, CRM, project management, and as they say, much, much more. Look, if you're not serious about your company's tech stack, you're behind the curve and you're going to get crushed. I spoke at this conference last year, and everybody I talked to raved about it.They loved it. This year, I'm going to be talking about digital marketing mistakes and how to overcome them. Check out the event at event. Dot fastremodelerlive.com. This year's conference is May 14 and 15.It's in Austin. Register now at event. Dot fastremodler live.com. This is a great and 15. It's in Austin. Register now at event. Dot fastremodler Live.com. This is a great conference. Come on down to Austin. Join me there.I'll see you at the conference.

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Welcome to the Level 10 contractor daily podcast with Rich Harsha PERSON.

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Your daily dose of insights, information, and inspiration to grow your remodeling or home

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services company to $10 million and beyond. Here's your host, Stu Gray PERSON.

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Today continues our series of topic showcases. We focus on a crucial topic by rounding up the greatest highlights and clips from Level 10 contractor's entire podcast run. That's nearly 1,700 episodes of fantastic treasures and marketing goal to curate from. The struggle with all marketing is getting noticed in a sea of advertising. On today's showcase, we resolve that particular problem and teach you the basics of standingout. We don't just mean grabbing attention with a bold headline, but fundamentally structuring your business so that how you are superior shines forth. If you aren't standing out from the pack, you'll never last. In our first clip, Rich PERSON trains a few window salespeople how to set their company apart, where superior shines forth. If you aren't standing out from the pack, you'll never last. In our first clip, Rich PERSON trains a few window salespeople how to set their company apart before they ever arrive at the prospect's door. Then in the next clip, we hear what it's likeif your company is just like everybody else. Rich PERSON likens it to shoe shopping in the mall, and trust me, you do not want to be on the back foot when it comes to showing up. Understanding who you are and why you're different is crucial to standing out in your marketplace. So in our next two clips, Rich defines the level 10 concept of identity to help you crystallize your marketing pitch. He doesn't just explain why having an identity in your advertising is tantamount to success, though. In the following clip, he'll outline exactly how to form your identity usingwhat he calls the five pillars. Lastly, though identity is the key to standing out, we still want to ensure our headlines are grabbing prospects by the shirt collar and screaming, look at me! So in our final clip on our showcase today, Rich PERSON explains the tactic of interrupting and engaging a buyer. Let's hop right in.

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I know that you've got a lot of low-cost competition, national franchises, stuff like that, and these guys are out there. They've got their marketing budgets. They've got their whatever resources are afforded to them from their organizations. And what you're trying to do is you're trying to compete against them by being different. And what you think is happening and what you want to happen is that you're the red apple in the sea of green apples, all your competitors. That red apple hopefully is you. That's what you think. And, you know, that's what you're trying to accomplish.But here's the reality of what's probably happening. You just look like everybody else. And you might hear me say that and say, well, you don't know me. How could you possibly know that? And the answer is, I've been doing this for a long time. And I've looked at literally thousands of companies, including huge companies that are doing 40, 50, 80 million dollars a year. And they're marketing, they're advertising, their messaging, what they're saying to the people that are looking at doing business with them, it all looks about the same. And what we're going to try to do today is figure out how to take what you do that's differentand communicate it in a way that people can clearly and evidently easily see who you are, how you're different, why you're better, and what they can expect when they do business with you. Here's what I found consistently over time. Most marketing is full of platitudes. Plattitude, words or phrases that are drearily commonplace and predictable that lack power to evoke interest through overuse and repetition. But they're still stated as if they were original or significant, but they're just not.It's like Papa John's ORG pizza telling you that they've got better ingredients and better pizza. Do you really believe that? Or is it just a marketing saying? Do you really believe that BMW ORG is the actual ultimate driving experience or the driving machine? Or is it just marketing slogans?What we've got to do is break through the slogans and get to something that's got a little more meat on the bones. Platitudes are things like we've got the best service, the highest quality, the largest selection, we give free estimates. My favorite one, we've been in business since 1431 BC. I got news for you.Nobody cares. They don't care. Another favorite one is we're a small family-owned business. That might be important if you can find a way to translate it into something that people actually care about. But in most cases, people don't really care that much. So what do they care about?Well, we'll get into that as we go through this. Here's the result of the platitudes as you end up looking like all of your competitors. Your website looks about the same. You've got different colors. You're red and blue and they're orange and yellow or something, but you look about the same. Your home shows look the same. If you've got those, if you do print advertising, it looks about the same. Online advertising looks about the same. If you do TV and radio, it looks about the same. Direct mail looks about the same.And then you sit there and wonder why you're not getting more business, but it's real simple. You look and feel and sound and smell like just about everybody else. And it's hard to break through. But here's what's sad about that. You actually do things differently. You actually are better in ways that your competitors can't keep up with, but you're having trouble in most cases communicating that. Here's what I found. If you can get in front of the prospect in a sales environment, you're pretty darn good at selling. If you'vegot salespeople, they're pretty darn good at selling. They can tell your story. They can explain how you're different. But then we go look at all this stuff that's on your screen and it all looks like everybody else. So you're losing opportunities before you even get in the house to sell. And that's what we want to avoid here. So that's what we're going to talk about. Okay. So here's what I found. You can prove this by just doing a quick Google search. So I went and Googled, I live in Utah GPE. And I went and Googled window treatments, Utah,and this is what came up on the first page. These aren't the very first resources that came up. I think this is number like six and nine or something like that. And I'm going to show you what I found. The first thing I found was something called House of Draperian Blinds ORG, and I'm going to show it to you on the screen right now. And here's what I want you to do do I want you to imagine that you're a homeowner and you're looking for blinds and you'd Google search and you find this here's what I want you to ask yourself what about this company is different or better that makes you want to do business with them that makes youwant to request a free in-home estimate like it's asking you to do call them on their phone number like they're asking you to do. Call them on their phone number like they're asking you to do. What is it about this company that makes you feel like you want to do business with them instead of anyone else? And I'll scroll down and here's what we'll see. Window design available in Salt Lake County, Utah GPE. Now let's read what it says. And I want you to imagine your salesperson walking in. Maybe that salesperson is you. I want you to imagine walking inand saying what it says on this website. Decorate your home with our elegant window coverings, including many blinds and custom drapery from House of Drapery ORG. We are a window covering and blind retailer that services Utah GPE. Since inception, we have sought to provide our customers in the Utah area with, guess what? Say it, Steve PERSON, premium window coverings and blinds. No way. That is really hard to imagine that that's what you would be selling if that's what you sell. When youmove a new, a new home, your rooms might look a little empty. Even after you unpack a few of your essentials, your kitchen might lack personality. Your bedroom may need a colorful pick-me-up. As if we have to talk him into wanting blindss they're at a blind website for crying out loud they know that here's the question on their brain why should I call you instead of anybody else and before you say it price has very little to do with it it has a little bit to do with it but it has a lot more to do with a lot of other things that I'm going to show you here let me goto another website. This is another one. It's called House of Blinds ORG. We've got a mouse with blinds, three blind mice. That's cute. That's clever.I'm sure that's just raking in the customers somehow. Sorry, if House of Blinds ORG is on the webinar, I apologize. I'm not trying to throw you under the bus, but here's what we want to do. Why would I want to do business with you? Well, we've got store hours. I guess that's good.We've got cleaning shop and repairs. We've got natural shades and cellular shades and Roman NORP shades in all products. Let's go over here to About Us ORG. Maybe they'll give us some better information there. All right.About us. We have a beautiful picture. We've been in business since we're family owned and operated by original owners since 1431 BC in the same location. Okay, so I think you get the idea. Here's the problem with this. It's not that this is bad information. It's not that people read this and they say, well, you know, if that's all you've got to say, I hate you and I'm not going to do business with you. That is not the case.Here's the good news. Before we get too far into any of this, let me tell you what the good news is. All of your competitors, they suck at this too. All of them. So if you can just figure out how to out-compete them based on this concept that we're talking about today, you will be at a huge competitive advantage just by being a little better because everybody else isusing, what was the word? Do you remember? Plattitudes, okay? So let's hop back over to the presentation. We went through House of Blinds ORG. I showed you that one. Here's what most marketing sounds like. I'm looking at some of the faces on this screen, so I know you guys remember this. I talked to some of these millennials. They don't know this reference. But you remember watching Peanuts cartoons on TV? Remember when Charlie Brown would talk to his mother or talk to one of the teachers? Remember what sound the adults would make when they would talk? Steve PERSON, do you know?

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Let's hear it again. Louder.

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That's what your website sounds like. That's what your website sounds like. That's what your advertising sounds like. And here's what I think that signified with Charlie Brown's PERSON mother. I think it signified, not that what the parents were saying was particularly useless, It's just that to a kid, it all sounds about the same. And this is what we want to avoid. We want to avoid having everything that comes out of your face, whether it be on a website or whatever the case is, sounding like Charlie Brown's mother talking, okay?

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I'm going to tell you what the best solution for you is. When people have a problem with their roof, they go to Google ORG and they start looking.

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So the pay-per-click is critical.

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I'm a little concerned that I'm hearing you say I'm doing pay-per-click. It's not working well. That's not necessarily a comment on Thrive PRODUCT. It could be a comment on Thrive PRODUCT, but it also might not be. Part of the problem that I see is, well, and you'll see this when you get my book, but I'll just kind of give you the preview of it right now, okay?Marketing is all about storytelling. It's about making sure people understand who you are, how you're different, why you're better, and what they can expect when they do business with you. And when I go to your website right now, it's basically, hey, we're a roofing company.

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There we are.

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We're a roofing company. And, yeah, you know, we're a pretty good roofing company. But, I mean, most companies would say that they're a pretty good company.

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There's not really any depth to the story.

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There's a concept you'll see in the book. I call it identity. Identity is using power, precision, and passion to communicate who you are, how you're different, why you're better, what people can expect when they're doing business with you. So what happens when you don't have a website that is good at capturing your story is people come to your website, perhaps, from pay-per-click and they look at it. Well, here, I'll give you an example.Think of it this way. I know that malls are kind of old-school. Not everybody goes to the mall, but imagine that you're going to the mall to look for a pair of shoes, okay? Because let's say that you have recently got into running and you want to get some running shoes. Go with me on the example here. It doesn't matter if you're run or not, okay?Ready?

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Okay, so you get to the mall. Here's the question. What shoe store do you want to get some running shoes. Go with me on the example here. It doesn't matter if you run or not, okay? Ready? Okay, so you get to the mall.

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Here's the question. What shoe store do you go to first? The first one is there. That you run in? Correct. That is the correct answer.Whichever one happens to be closest to the door that you happen to go into at the mall and there's multiple doors.

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So you go in, you look around, you see there's all these shoes.

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They're around the perimeter of the store. In the middle, it's usually closed. You take a close look, maybe try a few pairs on, and then you think to yourself, well, maybe there's a better, you know, better shoes that I like better at a different store, or maybe the ones that I found here that I like, maybe I can find them at a better price at a different store, so you walk out and you go wander through the multi ORG, find the next store.

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And when you go to that store, they've got approximately the same shoes all around the perimeter. They've got approximately the same clothes in the middle,

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approximately the same brands and styles, approximately the same prices. And then you walk out to the third one, and by the time you get to the third one that has essentially the same shoes and the same prices and the same styles and the same brands, you draw a conclusion that says, well, they're all about the same. True or false? True.Okay, so then here's the question. Where do you buy the shoes? The last place you ended up. You'll either buy them at the last place you ended up because you happened to be there, or maybe in the first store because you were a little more fresh and eager. You tried some on and maybe you feel a little bit of responsibility to the guy that helped you outto maybe go back and buy them for them. But you don't really care.

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And this is what happens when people go to Google ORG and they see this site pops up and they go and they look at it and like, oh, it looks like a pretty good company.

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But I wonder if there's any that are better.

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And they go, they hit the back button and then they click on another one. Then they hit the back button. They click on another one. But unlike the mall where you've got to walk all through the thing on Google ORG, you've got to hit the back button. You can go look at three, four, five, eight, ten, whatever it is. And after a while, here's what they figure out. Now these guys are all about the same. Maybe there are a few that visually, obviously, kind of suck. But for the most part, they're all about the same. So, who are they going to buy from? And the answer is, wherever they happen to be when they drew the conclusion that everybody's about the thing. So two things in this story.Thing number one, you've got to show up to at least be in the evaluation tool, right? And number two, you've got to do something to stand out so that they don't draw the conclusion that, oh, these are just like everybody else. Those are the two things you've got to do. You've got to show up, You've got to stand out.

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Let's go to the definition of identity so that you can review this quickly, and then we're going to go through a quick three-step process. So words, phrases, and images, articulated with power, precision, and passion, instantly, definitively communicate who you are, how you're different and better, what customers can expect them doing business with you. So we're going to go through the three steps.Then I'm going to show you a few more examples and then we'll wrap it on up here. So first of all, how to create a powerful identity. Step number one, simply you've got to look at what makes your company tick. And here's some questions to get you started. What do you already do that customers like? What do you take particular pride in?What makes you better and different than most of your competitors? What do you really, really good at? What do you really want written on your tombstone? We're not trying to kill you off, but a tombstone is a place, by definition, has very little room, so you have to write something that's tremendously profound. What would we write about your company if we were trying to, you know, summarize it in a very short amount of time? What do you absolutely unwilling to fudge on? Okay, this is where we start. And as we go through the identity consultation with our clients, it takes about an hour and a half to really go through it and beat it out of youbecause you're so used to communicating in platitudes that we have to really ask a ton of questions. It's like one of those movies where they take the hot spotlight and they put it on the guy in the interrogation room at the police station, and they start asking them all these questions. That's kind of what we do, except for there's no lights and it's done via telephone and, you know, we're polite about it.But we do have to beat that information out of you sometimes. So that's step one. What makes you tick? Step number two, build a case. Build a case. Imagine you were being put on trial and you had to prove that you were blank.Now, here's what goes in the blank. Whatever your shower head is, whatever you want to point at, imagine Holiday Inn Express ORG was being put on trial and they had to prove that they had the best shower head. Could they do it? Imagine that Don Isaacson PERSON, a revived remodel was remodeling was being put on trial and he had to prove that he was the persnickety remodeler. Could he do it? What evidence could you produce to prove it?What stories can you tell to back it up? Can you provide witnesses? You have to be as specific as possible, no platices. I mean, think about a court case. You can't walk into a court case and say, well, your honor, I know that the witnesses put me at the scene of the crime,but, you know, I wasn't there. I was somewhere else. Well, where were you? I was some other place. Well, where? I was at a friend's house.Well, whose house? That was a friend. You can't be general. You've got to be extraordinarily specific. So that's what we want to do is we want to find out what makes you tick. That's the shower head that we point at.And then we want to build a case to prove it. Then we want to communicate with power, precision, and passion. Okay? And this is really, really key. Okay? When you speak with power, people believe you're powerful. When you speak with power, people, and passion. Okay, and this is really, really key, okay? When you speak with power, people believe you're powerful.When you speak with power, people are drawn to you. When you speak with power, your character and your competency are not questioned. When you speak with power, you stand out from the crowd. You know, when I do live seminars, I show that example with Don Isaacson PERSON, the remodeler. And I'll show that ad that says, I could honestly care less if you have a list of three remodels who are cheaper than me.And the response is visceral and palpable. People sort of cringe, and then they laugh, a nervous laughter. And they say, wow, that guy really ran that ad. And I say, yeah, because that's really how he feels. And when he says, if it comes between profit and perfection, I'll choose perfection every single time. It's so powerful that people can feel it. And we've got to communicate.When you communicate like that, you stand out from the crowd because you know what? Nobody else is talking like that.

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One thing that you said, you were just saying for yourself that you did it, this is what it costs to do it right. Yeah. And that's my line that I give contractors when they need to raise their prices. Well, what do I do if there's somebody out there bidding? And they said, well, how come he can do it for that? Well, you don't talk about the other guy. He say, I haven't got any idea. But I've been doing this for X number of years. And this is what I have to charge to do it right and take care of you if there are any problems. That's the end of theanswers. Just what you said.

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Well, then, so here. You've got to charge what it takes to do it. So here's the real problem,

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though, that people run into. It's like, okay, we're going to raise our prices. We're going to

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increase the caliber of the service that we're delivering. Got it. That's all good. But then they run into this problem. How do I get people to want? How do I market this on the front end? How do I get people to want? How do I market this on the front end? And this is where what we do, like since 1994, since we started, the guiding principle behind what we do is something called identity. Identity is communicating with power, precision, and passion, who you are, how you're different,why you're better, what people can expect when they do business with you. It's telling your story. It's building a case like you would for a jury. So if you've got these super high prices and you're relying on your salesperson in the home to be your first line of defense to be able to sell at that higher price, you're really hamstringing yourself. You've got to soften the ground to use a war analogy or a planting analogy or somekind of analogy. I don't know what it is. You've got to soften the ground ahead of time. Advertisements that are talking to people about, here's how we're different, here's how we're better. Here's what we do that sets us apart. Here's what you need to know that you probably don't know because you don't ever buy, you know, new windows or whatever it is they're selling. And helping people understand. They come to the website. Now the website's going to educate you on who we are, how we're different, why we're better. Tell our story. Use, again, power, precision, and passion.Okay, so I'll give you an example of this. One of my clients, I've been working with these guys for about eight years, Jericho FAC home improvements, got together with them, kitchen a bath remodeler, their high end, they're way more expensive than their competitors, and they said, look, we're hiring you because we want to tell our story better. I said, great, tell me what it is that you do this different and better.And through that conversation, multiple things come up. So I'm just narrowly focusing on one. They said, well, we use higher quality products. So, okay, what do you mean? Well, like the actual stuff that we're using in the kitchen and bathroom remodels, they're higher quality. Okay, so take that concept and put it into, let's just say a radio advertisement because we're on a podcast and it's audio. So here's what most people will do. Hey, call Jericho FAC home improvements. We use the highest quality materials. We use the highest quality fixtures, the highest qualityyou know, tub, tile, installers. Everything's highest quality. So call us. Those are called platitudes. They don't work. They don't move the needle. People expect that you're going to say that. So I dig a little deeper and I say, okay, give me an example of something that you guys do that's higher quality. Like, how does that manifest? And there was multiple examples, but here's one that sticks out. They said, well, the faucets that we use are higher quality.Okay, well, tell me about that. Well, they're mowing faucets. Okay, so what? Well, they're higher quality. Okay, like, what do you mean higher quality? And the guy started getting pissed, right?Because he's like frustrated that I'm not just accepting this answer. And he goes, here, let me go grab one. And he pulls out and he goes, this is made in America GPE. It's all metal. It's heavy as blank. And it's awesome.And he says, here, feel it. So I grab it. And I'm like, yeah, this, you know, just feels quality. And he says, here, feel it. So I grab it and I'm like, yeah, this, you know, just feels quality. And I go, so what other people use? And he goes and he grabs one. He goes, they're using this. It's cheap. It's plastic. This one weighs 10 pounds. This one weighs a pound and a half. And the light bulb goes on over my head. So now you go, you write a radio commercial, it goes something like this. Hey, when it comes to remodeling your kitchen, everybody wants to know how much does it cost?But what you should be asking is how much does it weigh? At Jericho FAC, we only use the highest quality materials. For example, we use American NORP-made, all-metal moan faucets. They're going to last a lifetime. They look fantastic, and they weigh 10 pounds each. Our competitors use cheap, imported plasticfaucets. They wear out. They don't look good. They weigh about a pound and a half. What would you rather have in your kitchen? A faucet that weighs 10 pounds or one that weighs a pound and a half?

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Yeah. It's just called storytelling. Right. Yeah, it's amazing. And I think it's so true that that's

Speaker 21443.46s - 1472.82s

the much better ad. And it makes, it piques my interests and it makes me like care about something that I previously didn't really think about in such specificity. But I thought about, yeah, I want something high quality. I think for a lot of contractors especially, they kind of have this thought that what they know everyone else knows. A lot of experts get into that where they kind of have this head trash that like whatever I know is kind of table stakes for everybody else. And I've got to think of something that's above and beyond. But the reality is a lot of our

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customers don't even know like the details of like the materials we use and how it's different and why it matters and the impact to the process and all this stuff. What was the, was it Schlitz ORG beer, Martin, the example that we talked about long What was the, was it Schlitz beer, Martin, the example that we talked about long, long ago, how they had the advertisement. It's Claude Hopkins PERSON. Yeah, Claude Hopkins.

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Yeah, yeah.

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No, but we were talking about still artois,

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reassuringly expensive.

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Oh, yeah,

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that's,

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if that's one,

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right?

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Yeah, you go, this is like 1905. Yeah, he created,

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like how they filled here. Yeah. Yeah.

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Good year.

Speaker 01507.22s - 1518.44s

Colgate. I mean, yeah. And the coolest, freshest beer in that every company in the United States GPE was using the same machinery and processes. He created him. Yeah, father of marketing.

Speaker 71519.92s - 1530.08s

That was the great line in that book. He goes through this tour with the Schlitz ORG people. They show him all these amazing things. And he goes, wow, we got to tell this story. And they look at him like he's an idiot. It's like, what are you talking about?That's just how you brew beer.

Speaker 21531.18s - 1552.4s

Everybody does it that way. And he says, yeah, but nobody knows that. Preemptive marketing. I use one enterprise rental cars. I ask people all the time, what's their thing? We'll pick you up. I don't know ifthat's that big a deal now. But everybody could say that. Yeah. But not now. What's hurt's going to say,

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yeah, we'll pick you up too, right? Preemptive. Anyway. Yeah. Well, but here's more in the contractor

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space, just to build on that concept. Not everybody does it the right way. In fact, the quantity of competitors that

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does it, quote unquote, the level 10 way is probably in the 10% range, you know, truly quality

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companies. Now, there's going to be a second tier from, you know, that's probably 20 or 30% that's good.

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They're not ripping people off, but there's only about 10% that really, truly do it the right way.

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And so when those companies start telling their story, it becomes very powerful.

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Yeah.

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Well, I think it ties into SEO at a certain level, too, because if you don't have an identity, and we'll kind of dive into that a little bit, but even if I do go and visit your website and I've actually found you, but then I don't really feel like you have an identity and that you're really different than anybody. I've kind of lost that person a little bit, haven't you as a contractor?

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Yeah, well, you know, default to price.

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I mean, I always say you've got to give them a reason other than price to buy from you,

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which I, which you're developing in depth.

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But I have a guy that I had him ratcheting up his prices, and we have a whole strategy that we're using.

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And he wound up emailing the guy the bid, right? We went out, looked at it, emailed the guy the bid, and the guy said, you're twice as high as the next guy. What should I do? I said, well, we're a little late for that because it's just what you got to. There was no identity, no personality, no belief that, hey, this guy really is different because he just got an email. Email has a numberin it. Compare two numbers, take the low one. Yeah, you've got to take the time to build the case.

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You can't assume that anybody knows anything. Website's a great opportunity to build your case. You can put all, you put as much information on there as you want. And as long as you organize it properly on the site, people can, you know, it's like an accordion, right? You want, you know, pull it wide. You can go in there and look at as much as you want.If you're not that interested or you don't have much time, you can, you know, squeeze it down to just a little bit. It gives people the option to educate themselves at whatever pace and quantity they want.

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You're trying to develop that identity. I kind of read up on some of your literature, and you discuss these five pillars of identity and this trust pyramid. What is that? Okay.

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So the trust pyramid, first of all, it's actually a triangle, but it sounds cool and it called a pyramid.

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So think of a pyramid that has five layers.

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The bottom layer is the thickest, obviously.

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And as you go up progressively, they're smaller.

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So the smallest, excuse me, the largest section of the trust pyramid at the bottom is going

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to be identity points.

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Okay, these are going to be the things that we determine your identity is going to be based on.

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And I'll talk about those in just a minute when we get to the five pillars of identity. And then right above that, the next section up is going to be called stories, examples, and illustrations. Okay, so what we want to do is find the points. And then we want to tell the story that illustrates them. Above that, we've got things like evidence, social proof, and thenpersonal experience. We're not going to go into those right now in this conversation. But the foundation of the trust pyramid, developing trust, is first identifying the identity points and then second, finding the stories to tell. So what are the five pillars of identity? The most obvious one is going to be your products. And this will be like a window company that says, hey, we've got this window that has this unbelievable heat coefficient, you know, whatever feature about our window. And that's good.And there's a lot of things that we can say there. And the reason I say it's the most obvious is because a lot of companies will try to talk about why their products are different and better, particularly the window guys. They seem to be all about, and the gutter protection guys, right? No, ours is better. There's sucks, right?But then there's more. There's also the workmanship. And the workmanship, the things that make you different and better in workmanship are almost certainly going to be specific and unique to your company. And then the third thing is going to be what I call bedside manner, how you treat people, how you deal with people.The next one's going to be core values. This is something that almost never gets talked about in advertising. And then the fifth one is going to be the culture and community things that the company does. So those are the five. By way of review, the product itself,workmanship, bedside manner, core values, and then culture and community. So what we want to do is within each of those five, we want to find identity points.So for instance, if it's, let's take bedside manner. Maybe a company says, well, we don't have high pressure sales.Okay, great. That's something we can talk about. We don't require a deposit. Now, the listener might hear that and say, well, what do you mean you don't require a deposit? We need a deposit.Well, great. Guess what? I can out-compete you on that point because I've got a client that does not require a deposit. But here's the key. The key is you have to take it from the first level of the pyramid, which is identifying the point,and you have to find the story and tell the story. So can I give you an example?

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Yes, I'm looking for one.

Speaker 71875.18s - 2001.36s

I'll give you an example right now. I'll give you a couple of examples. So I've got a client right now called Hutcherson Construction ORG. They do exterior remodeling in Kalamazoo, Michigan GPE. Primary thing that they do is decks. So I got to talking to Nick PERSON, he's the owner, and he says, we don't require a deposit to use the same example as I was talking about earlier. And I said,okay, so what happens if somebody does require a deposit? Why is that bad? Obviously, they have to come out of pocket. He says, well, it puts the homeowner at risk because these other contractors do something that we call him, Nick PERSON, internally, colloquially, they call it deposit hopping. So they take a deposit and then they use it to spend on the materials for the previous job that they sold. And it's almost like a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, right? Yeah, right.Okay, so how do we communicate that? And I've got it on my screen here. So when you see me looking away, I'm looking at my other screen. This is an ad that we wrote for the radio. Okay. Specifically.And here's what it says. Are you thinking about a new deck or roof or siding? Then you need to know about deposit hopping. This is Nick from Hutchinson Construction ORG. And here's how it says. Are you thinking about a new deck or roof or siding, then you need to know about deposit hopping. This is Nick from Hutchinson Construction ORG, and here's how it works. Most contractors require a 50% deposit when you sign the contract up front on the spot, which they use to pay for labor and materials for other jobs that they're already working on. When it comes time tostart your project later, they'll try to collect another big deposit from somebody else to pay for the labor and materials on your job. It's called deposit hopping and it puts you at risk because they're flying by the seat of their financial pants. At Hutcherson ORG, we never ask for deposit. You never pay anything until the first day of the job after the materials have been delivered to your property and the crew is on site ready to start. And then it has contact information and a little bit of an offer. So here's what we're doing is we're taking the time to explain what this is and tell the storyso that the listener who they don't know about this, how would they know about this? Right. And when they hear this, they go, oh, that makes sense.

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It's also educational, right?

Speaker 72004.58s - 2088.94s

Educational, most definitely. Okay, so I also talked to, so let's go back to the five pillars of identity, the products themselves, the workmanship, bedside manner, core values, and then culture and community. So I'll give you one more example. Then we can move on. Okay.This is the same company. And this is a radio spot called employees who love their jobs. And you kind of hear that and you're like, okay, who cares? Well, it turns out that the customer cares if you communicate it and tell the story properly. So here's how this ad goes. Do you think it matters if the guy who's out there building your deck cares about his job? This is Nick at Hutcherson Construction ORG. I'm here to tell you it matters a lot.Most debt companies hire the cheapest subcontractors they can find, give them no training, offer no benefits, and then fire them the second they don't have enough work to keep them busy. They can barely pay their bills. They hate their jobs. And that's the guy out there building your deck. At Hutcherson ORG, our installers are the lifeblood of our company. They're actual W-2 employees who we pay well and give full benefits. We keep them busy all year long and they love their jobs.It costs a bit more to treat people right, but just wait until you see your gorgeous new deck built with love by employees who love their jobs. Like, I'm almost choked up just reading the ad. Like, wow, this is.

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Well, also the consumer, like, you would think, like, yeah, they want to work with someone because they sound trustworthy, you know?

Speaker 72098.96s - 2120s

And we've taken it full circle. It's not just, hey, most companies, workers hate their job. Our guys love their jobs. Well, how does that benefit me? Well, they're going to work harder to do a better job because they actually love their job.You think it's going to manifest itself in the quality of the product? And they've never thought about that because why would they? How would they know that?

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So when we start running these ads like this, so now a guy's driving down the highway and he

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hears this ad, you know, deposit hopping. And here's another ad the next day. You know, the employees love their job. And after a couple of days, a couple of weeks, a couple of months, it starts to sink in. And they start to draw a conclusion that says, man, that sounds like the kind of company I'd like to do business with.Yeah.

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Boom.

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Let's take a quick pause here.

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If you didn't know, one click contractor is a sales software platform that was designed by contractors for contractors. They manage your entire sales workflow from measurement to creating the estimate to closing the job. All vital information related to each job always stays together. It allows you to focus on revenue generating activities.Included with this is remote measurements, fast estimates, visual design, virtual presentation, document e-sign, and easy financing. And it's all in one. Increase your closing ratios, save time, and impress your customers. You need to go to one-clickcontractor.com for a free demo. Let's get back to the podcast.

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The solution overcoming this platitude problem is called the marketing equation. It's the cornerstone of the M.YM ORG philosophy and the key to overcoming the curse of knowledge and communicating powerfully. That's assuming, of course, that you've innovated your business and have a worthwhile business model. The marketing equation is a formula for saying it well. And it consists of four major components. Interrupt, engage, educate, and offer.The key to getting past platitudes lies in the first two components, interrupt and engage. We'll talk about educate and offer a little bit later on in this program, but let's start with the first component of the marketing equation, interrupt. To effectively interrupt a prospect, or in other words, to break through the clutter, you first have to understand how John Smith or your prospect's brain works and how it filters information and make decisions.There are three major concepts that I need to teach you, alpha mode, beta mode, and reticular activating system. Alpha mode is the brain's hypnotic state of running patterns that allows you to habitually perform tasks without any conscious thought. You do it all the time. Have you ever driven to work before, and when you got there you realized that you hadn'tactually consciously seen anything along the way? That's alpha mode. On a conscious level, you can talk on the cell phone, listen to the radio, shave, put on makeup, whatever it is you do. But meanwhile, your brain can drive you to work with no conscious thought. It's repetitive.It's habitual. In marketing terms, when people are reading the paper or listening to the radio or surfing the internet, they're not looking for ads. In most cases, the brain doesn't even notice them. And if it does see the ads, this is where platitudes absolutely kill you. The brain fully expects to see platitudes, so when it detects them, it just ignores them and moves on. Your prospect's brain doesn't care how much money you spent on the ad. It just ignores your ad. The flip side of alpha mode then is beta mode. This is the brain state of alertness and active engagement. It's like when you drive to work in a heavy thunderstorm and your hands are firmly gripped at 10 and 2 o'clock and your pupils are as big as dimes. You're sensitive to everything.You're in beta mode when you're watching a movie and the music is building up to a crescendo. In anticipation of something scary happening. In terms of marketing, obviously, this is where you want to get people when it comes to your ad. You want them to pay attention. Or in other words, you want to break through the clutter and get them to see the ad.So how can you accomplish this? Getting people from alpha sleep mode into beta alert mode? It's called the reticular activating system, and it's where the rubber hits the road. Have you ever noticed that when you buy a new car, you suddenly start to notice that it seems like everybodyand his brother drives the same, make, model, and color that you just bought? Or have you ever heard a new word for the first time in your life and then all of a sudden you hear it over and over again? This happened to me one time when I was conducting interviews to fill a position in Minnesota GPE. The interviews were being held in a business suite at a hotel, and one of the candidates walked in before I had a chance to grab his resume, and he introduced himself as Yosef PERSON.He had a thick Eastern European NORP accent, so I thought maybe I just misheard him and I asked for clarification. I'm sorry, did you say your name was Joseph? He explained that it was not Joseph, but rather Yosef PERSON spelled with a why. Okay, whatever, no big deal. But then after the interview was over, I went into the lobby of the hotel to wait for the next candidate, sat down and grabbed a copy of the USA Today ORG. The main article on the front page was about two Israeli NORP youth who had been killed in a car bombing.The first one's name was, yeah, that's right, Yosef PERSON with a Y. Wow, that was weird. I'd never heard that name in my life, and then all of a sudden, here it was twice in less than an hour. How's that even possible? The answer has to do with a part of the brain called the reticular activating system,or reticular activator for short. It's the part of the brain that switches you from alpha sleep mode into beta alert mode. It acts as a sort of radar system that's always on the lookout 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when you're asleep, for things that fall into any of these three categories. Things that are familiar, things that are unusual, or things that are problematic. Whenever the reticular activator detects any of these kinds of things on a subconscious level, it sends a message to the conscious side of the brain that says, hey, wake up.There's something you need to pay attention to here. Whatever those things are, whatever those familiar, unusual, or problematic things are, we call those activators. When I heard the name Yosef for the first time, it was unusual to me. It interrupted me simply because it wasn't time, it was unusual to me. It interrupted me simply because it wasn't what my brain was expecting to hear. Then it was familiar to me,so on a subconscious level, my brain easily picked it out of the newspaper as if it had been flashing in neon. I'm sure you've had a similar experience before. Once the brain is activated, once it's broken out of Alpha Sleep and into Beta Alert mode, it immediately and subconsciously searches for additional clarifying information. Or in other words, once interrupted, the brain decides if it should become engaged. The brain wants to know, hey, what's this all about? Do I need to do anything about this? The brain wants to know, how is this relevant and important to me? Should Iallocate any conscious attention to this? So it searches for additional clarifying information. If the brain determines that the activator is indeed important and relevant, then that activator is what we call a hot button. Think of it this way. A hot button is simply an escalated activator, one that's also important and relevant.If the brain does not deem the activator to be also important and relevant, then the brain immediately switches back to alpha mode, not paying attention, and we call that a false beta. It was interrupted, but because it wasn't important and relevant, not engaged. Like when you hear someone shout your name in a crowded room and you turn around only to realize that they're actually calling out somebody who else, apparently, has your same first name, interrupted by the activator, your name, but not engaged because it turns out it wasn't importantand relevant to you. Again, we call that a false beta. Let's be very clear here for a minute. An activator is something that snaps a person from alpha mode to beta mode, and it's based on something that's familiar, unusual, or problematic. But an activator can only also be classified as a hot button if and only if it's based on something that's important and relevant.That's when the person becomes engaged. Realize all of this happens instantaneously on a subconscious level. No thinking is involved. Here's a good question for you. Do you think it's possible to have your ad jump off the page or out of the radio or off the computer screen or out of the mailboxas obvious as if it were flashing in neon? The answer is absolutely if you know how to talk in terms of hot buttons. One good way to successfully interrupt your target market is to identify what problems, frustrations, and annoyances your prospects have, and then address those in your marketing. Find out where their pain is. Identify that pain.Describe situations and scenarios that exemplify that pain, and then put that stuff in your marketing in the form of headlines and subheadlines, and then let the prospect's reticular activator take over from there. The results are inevitable. Their pain, for all practical purposes, are the hot buttons. See, we're tapping into problems they already have.We're not trying to manufacture these problems. We're merely poking at them so their reticular activator notices them and brings them up on the active radar screen. This is, in essence, a reticular activator double whammy, because you're hitting their problematic button at the same time that you're hitting their familiar button. After all, everybody's familiar with whatever it is that's painful and problematic to them, right?

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That wraps up the showcase for today. Rich utilizes the scratch-out writing test to determine

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if your marketing truly stands out, and you should do. Look at your latest postcard or checkmailer.

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If you could scratch off your company name and penciling your competitor and everything else about the ad stands true, then your marketing is a big fat failure. It's time to take what you learn today, revamp your strategy, and start shining like the star that you are. Here's what we have coming up in the next several days. You know we're a daily podcast, right? Sundays, Rich PERSON jumps into spiritual or personal development topics, and then Monday and every day of the week,it's more Level 10 marketing advice for contractors just like you. We'll talk to you soon.

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Thanks for listening.

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Listen again tomorrow to the Level 10 Contractor Daily Podcast.