10 Takeaways from the 2018 Dave Yoho HIP Summit

The Big Idea(s):

There was a ton to learn at the 2018 HIP Summit run by Dave Yoho and Associates. From marketing techniques to finding and training the best salespeople, best practices were everywhere. However, we were warned that the current economic climate will not last and that NOW, right now, is the time to get better in every aspect of our operations before leaner times return.

Last week, a couple hundred home improvement leaders gathered in Baltimore to hear two days of talks on a variety of subjects including best practices in marketing, becoming more efficient in sales, legal issues impacting the remodeling industry, and more. Here are a few takeaways in case you missed it!

1) A well-defined pricing formula is essential to profit generation.

Salespeople always want better leads and lower prices, but simply lowering prices is not the path to victory. Having a solid pricing formula ensures that your company is making an adequate profit (10%+ if you are a specialty replacement contractor and 5-8% if you are a full line remodeler) and tells you when your costs fall out of line with your expectations.

The Yoho team has a nice blog post on the subject that you can read here: https://www.daveyoho.com/common-home-improvement-error-improper-pricing-formulas/

2) Brand terms in Google Adwords

When you are generating leads through Google Adwords, you should be bidding on your own brand terms like “ABC Roofing,” or just your company name. These are very low-cost leads that could be snaked by a competitor bidding on your brand terms if you don’t.

3) Text messages get the job done.

Mark Highbaugh of Malimar Mobile Strategies gave us some great data on using text as a tool for conversion. He’s right, consumer behavior in a text is far more favorable and reliable than answering phone calls or returning emails. If you’re not using text right now for communicating with prospects, particularly early on in the relationship, you’re missing out. According to data Mark shared 45% of text messages are responded to within 90 seconds. How would you like THAT as a customer response time for Internet leads?

5) Right now the remodeling business is about as good as it’s ever going to get.

If you’re not making money right now, you have a major problem. Dave said that this was the best environment he has ever seen in his lifetime, and that sentiment was echoed by others. If you’re not pulling down big profits, you need to seriously look at your business and make some changes.

That said, the wave we are riding will soon crash into the shore and you need to be ready for it. NOW is the time to improve your systems and not rest on your heels.

6) You can make a TON of money from lead recovery (rehash)

The Yoho team shared a number of best practices around recovering unsold leads and made a great case that rehash leads are probably among the best leads you can get. The idea here is that on a rehash they know you’re going to ask them to buy, they know what the pricing is, they know what your company is about, and they let you back into their house! They wouldn’t do that if they weren’t REALLY interested.

So make the most of that experience by having a dedicated rehash specialist who follows up after a one-sit call. Mandate that they close leads >40%, and DO NOT let them drop prices. The goal should always be to sell for more than the original quote by adding products or value another way.

You may also need to remind your salespeople that leads are owned by the company, not the salesperson. When they pay for the lead, they can own it forever.

7) Grow your business with financing

If you’re not offering financing to your customers regularly, you probably should be. Frank Davis of Synchrony offered a great example:

If you take a $200 monthly cable bill and asked someone to pay for five years of it in advance, that would be an unaffordable $12,000 hit. No one would be buying cable. Offer them a 10% discount… and it’s really not that much more affordable. BUT, $200 a month is far better, and much more likely to sell! The same concept applies to remodeling financing.

Also, make sure you have a first and second look lender. 30% of US consumers are “near prime” meaning they can qualify for alternative financing when their risk is a little too high for a first look lender. That can help you close more deals.

8) If you’re doing outbound calling, you need a great call center manager who keeps on top of current rules.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what you need to know:

1. Only call between 8 AM and 9 PM.
2. Have an internal Do Not Call list for people who ask to be removed.
3. Have a written Do Not Call policy for your operation. It’s like a ‘get out of jail free’ card if your team makes a mistake.
4. Text messages are treated the same as calls. The law really does not distinguish.
5. Make sure you are observing the contact time limits for folks you are calling unless you have explicit (preferably recorded) permission to call for longer periods. 18 months is the limit for past customers.
6. Don’t use robocalls. Just don’t.

9) Personality profiling can save you a ton of grief in hiring throughout your organization, but especially for hiring salespeople.

The Yoho Team recommends using the DISC profile. Certain DISC patterns signal the possibility of an applicant’s compatibility with one job or another. A match in a DISC profile is not a guarantee of success as there is still an open question about whether someone will WANT to do the job and stick with it. But, the DISC can give you a signal about whether you’re going in the right direction.

10) Training and a standardized on-boarding are essential for developing high-quality salespeople.

A few of the best practices they shared are:

1. Training is best done by someone skilled in adult education
2. Get them making money fast; shoot for $2K in two weeks to show them early success.
3. Training has to be harder than the actual job.
4. Training without testing is worthless. Test frequently and cull the heard so you don’t waste time on people who will just drop later, or worse survive and burn through your leads.
5. You need a trainer’s guide with your whole process broken up into tiny sections of five minutes or less. Work with each section sequentially until they have it all and can do it effectively.
6. Videotape them with an iPad and have their classmates critique them. It’s a great way for the team to learn.
7. Don’t skip training the hard stuff like presenting price. That’s where a lot of the value is.

It was a whirlwind for a couple of days in Baltimore. I would strongly recommend that you make the time to come to next year’s HIP Summit if you have the opportunity. There’s a LOT of experience in that room you can learn from.