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Eieio
November 30th, 2009, 11:04 PM
Remodeling Online Article
Tim Nagle

An Education in Marketing


One of the most basic, yet often neglected, goals of marketing is to educate existing and potential customers. Today’s marketing requires you to share your expertise with lots of content, education, and trust-building. The standard tri-fold brochure just doesn’t cut it anymore. Smart marketers think in terms of information products rather than marketing collateral. Education over selling rules the day.

The most practical approach for a small business is to create flexible and personal marketing kits. These multiple-page documents, often housed in a pocket of a custom file folder, allow you to share the story of your business.

A typical marketing kit might include the following information:

An outline of your core differences: Use one page to outline 3 or 4 key ways that your remodeling business is unique. Make sure these are important value benefits and not sales mumbo jumbo.

An explanation of your products/services: Tell your potential client what it is you have to offer and what sets you apart from your competition. What do your products give your clients?

Success stories: Profile successful customer engagements and, if you can, share specific results. This is a way to get your customer engaged.

FAQs: Lists questions that your clients might ask or questions they should ask, with brief answers for each question. Processes and checklists: Include your process maps and checklists. These highlight your professionalism and can be a valuable marketing document.

Your company story: Everyone loves a good story and everybody has one. Share your personal story and explain why you do what you do, to help you develop a stronger connection with prospects.

Testimonials: Let your customers sing your praises and let your prospects see this third-party validation.
Articles: If you’ve published articles or received some great press, include copies of these in your kit.



Read the Full article here at Remodeling online: http://www.remodeling.hw.net/blogs/postdetails.aspx?BlogId=timnagle&PostId=90623

uwing
December 1st, 2009, 08:58 AM
Good thought,
Do you think you can overload a prospect with info? What do you think. It just something I thought while reading

RCP
December 3rd, 2009, 10:46 PM
bumpity bump

naptownCr
December 3rd, 2009, 11:14 PM
Good thought,
Do you think you can overload a prospect with info? What do you think. It just something I thought while reading

I know I have been guilty of this.

I will give waytoo much engineering info which supports my cause but there are a lot of times where I think this backfires

RemodelQA
December 14th, 2009, 04:53 AM
Over the past couple of months I have had similar experiences. I have hardwood flooring dealership. I sell BR-111, Mirage, Mullican, and others. However, I have found that being over descriptive can lead the prospect to change their mind all together. While I believe I am looking out for their best interest I have lost some bids to companies like Lumber Liquidators and SimplyFloors.

I think one of the hardest things to do in this industry is a value driven sale. Especially in today's economy where most people are penny pinching. They see hardwood flooring as hardwood flooring. I see it is a quality issue. I lose to price, but what can I do. Do I feel relieved knowing I wouldn't want to deal with the mess later on, or do I feel frustrated that I lost another sale to an inferior product.

It's hard to compete against Lowes and Home Depot. They buy in such bulk and who knows how truly educated their sales people are. Problem is they use me for the education and buy it somewhere else.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this issue?

nEighter
December 21st, 2009, 02:37 PM
were you guys getting your folders printed.. and can we please see them :) ??