It’s time to talk about the nitty-gritty – how to sell more projects using events. First, let me reiterate that you’re not just showcasing a project, you’re establishing an emotional connection with your leads using your project as a tool. This is an important distinction because it means your goal during and after the event should be to set appointments with your guests for their remodeling, new home or home improvement work. And if all of this isn’t enough for you, keep in mind that word-of-mouth marketing is free for anyone that attends!

So in part II of this series about, “How to Sell More Projects Using Events”, we’re going to cover the following topics:

1. How to set up an event: We’ll talk about choosing the type of event best for your business, the best days and times to maximize attendance, how to promote it and how to handle RSVPs.
2. How to execute an event: How to best showcase your project or host a showroom event including what call-to-action to implement so you fill your calendar with lead appointments.
3. After event follow-up: What to do with leads that show and no-show (hint: this is the secret sauce of using events to sell more projects)

Tune in for the second episode of this two-part series on how to sell more projects using events. Watch the episode below!

Try Builder Lead Converter right now and see how we help builders & remodelers grow sales revenue & margins while navigating supply chain and labor market issues. The only thing you have to lose is high revenue and high-profit sales.

 

Transcript:

Rick: Today on conversations that convert, we’re talking about part two of our, are you missing sales series and how to use events to sell more jobs? Let’s get started.

Welcome to Conversations that Convert. Every week we’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation. Marketing and sales topics for remodelers, home improvement companies, and home builders. Conversations that Convert is brought to you by builder lead converter, your perfect sales assistant. And now here’s Rick and Daiana. 

Diana: Hi. Hello. How are you today? 

Rick: Hey everybody and hello Daiana. We are coming to you recorded today cuz we had a conflict for Thursday. So I’m sorry, we’re not live, but if you do have a question, comment and put it into the chat below and wherever you’re watching this video. And if we do get to it, we’ll make sure we give you credit here in a future episode. So Daiana, you and I are both kinds of a little bit below the weather here today, but we’re, we’re trying to be troopers right? And get through it.

Diana: Yes, we are. We are, we are actually you know, we are better and better in a good shape. 

Rick: Yeah. Better and better. I like you, I like your attitude. Yeah. All right, Daiana. So what, what are we talking about today?

Diana: We have today part two, to see, how to sell more projects using events. So, well, I’m curious about those events. How important are those for the industry? 

Rick: Well, you know, we talked about last week in part one, you know, why use them and the different types of using them. And there’s, there’s really, a couple of main reasons you want to use events, five specifically. So number one, you say top of mind, it’s an emotional appeal to your leads, cuz you get to show a finished product. You also have the five senses you’re able to sell used. So going into somebody’s home or talking to them over the phone or even on zoom call like this. You don’t get to use the five senses. So events evoke emotion because they get to use them. You create urgency with events because you can have limited offers and then it’s social proof, meaning that you get to show some of your best work. And so people believe that you can do the same thing for them. 

Diana: That’s beautiful. And, do you remember what else, what is, what was important in part one?

Rick: Well, I would say the types of events and we’re gonna get into that a little bit more today. There are really, we talked about four different types of events. So a construction tour where you’re able to show one of your projects under construction sort of show behind the scenes. We have a completed project. So whether that’s a spec home for sale, a model home for sale, or one of your customer’s completed projects such as a remodeling project or a, , completed home for them and then, finally a showroom. So you go into one of your vendor’s showroom and you’re able to show them vignettes and different ideas that can spark the imagination and creates some emotional appeal. The fourth type of event that you can do is Facebook live or YouTube live. Again, that’s really only you have, if you have to, if there’s no other way to do a live event for whatever reason, it’s worth doing the Facebook or YouTube live because you do get pretty good participation. People will watch the recording over and over again as well. 

Diana: Thanks for reminding me. Now, what’s important for today? So where do, we go from here? 

Rick: Yeah. So in part two, we’re going to talk about setting up an event and then executing that event and so in order to set up an event, the first question we have to do is we have to choose a type of event. By far hands down the absolute best type of event to show is a completed project. So either a completed home completed remodeling project or ironically, sometimes it’s even better to show one of your clients, completed projects. And so it’s curious, you know, I’m almost like why is that? And, you know, after doing these for so many years, I finally figured out that the reason is that this is a one-and-only shot that you have to see it. Because once the event is done, the client is moving back in or maybe it’s a remodeling project and you know, you get one look, look inside their home and that’s it. You’re never going to get in there again. So that goes back to that creating urgency and why we do events. So that’s, you know, number one, type of project. So you wanna choose an event. The first thing you wanna look at is what you have in the pipeline. That’s gonna be completed, where you can get permission from your clients and you can showcase your best work by showing what you have done for your clients. And then it goes down from there, construction tours, showroom tours, YouTube live, and all that. Again, not as powerful, but you maybe don’t have the right completed project to show each and every week. So you then fill in with those types of tours and do a construction tour once in a while. I think I don’t know if I said every week, every month. Do a construction tour once in a while, do a showroom tour once in a while, and even do something YouTube live, you know, where you can just do get keep, stay, stay top of mind.

Diana: Now that you’re bringing that to the table. So how often it’s, it’s good to organize those, those types of events. 

Rick: Yeah. So how often should you do them? We’re in a seasonal business. You can do more than one a month when you’re in prime-time selling season when you get, so let’s just say February, March, or April. I think those are the four months that you buy for sure, have at least one event. But if you have two good projects to show, just try to space them out about two weeks apart. Otherwise, you can burn out your, your database a little bit and then, you know, maybe July, December, you know, you, you pull back a little bit, maybe you don’t do an event there. You know, a lot of it obviously it comes down to your construction schedule and what you have to show and when, but the best time to show stuff is gonna be in that spring selling season. 

Diana: And, I’m curious when you organize an event who’s important to be there from the company aside from the organizations? Do you invite all the employees or some specialists or how it’s important to approach that part?

Rick: Yeah. Good question. So it really depends on when you have the event and how you have the event. So we’ll walk through a couple of those right now. As far as a date and time to host an event, the best date and time to host one is typically a Saturday or a Sunday.

Diana: Mm-hmm

Rick: And I would say you could start as early as like 10 or 11 even noon. And then the event length should be probably somewhere between two to three hours. It really depends on what you’re, what you’re showing. So I would say if you have a two to three-hour event, ideally, you’re gonna have two people there. Because if you have one salesperson or maybe two salespeople, if you get in a conversation with somebody and somebody else comes in, you have another person to take to, take that up. So ideally too, but you can do them by yourself. You could do events that really just depend on really how you handle the RSVPs, which we’ll talk about here, in a little bit. 

Diana: And how do we adapt to the pandemic? So if we meet online or face to face, how it’s best to approach what we are living?

Rick: You know, sometimes you just have to test. 

Diana: Right.

Rick: Because everybody’s a little bit different. Some people are like, I’m done with it. Other people are like, you know, I’m never gonna stop wearing a mask in my, in my life. And so you just have to do a test and find out if you have a certain amount of people that, that comes out but the one thing I will say about events under promotion here is that what’s even more important than just having people show up to the event is actually that you are getting a promotion. So we, oh, so we do a, a campaign schedule. So we’ll take about a full week. We’ll do a heavy promotion to drive people to a certain date and time and we primarily use email and text messaging for that promotion. You certainly should be calling your best leads and prospects as well. Just reminding them if they wanna join the event. And the other thing that you can do if you are a remodeler and you’re working a neighborhood, is that you do like a radius drop for a, an invite. So just go in and do door hangers, or maybe stick it in somebody’s newspaper box on, on the mailbox, and invite say 50 or a hundred people around where you’ve done that project. And that’s really, really powerful cuz those people have seen your signs and they’ve seen the dumpsters and your trucks for, you know, sometimes months, working on your neighbor’s home. And so they’re curious too, and you, you know, that’s your next, your next buyer is oftentimes, it’s like, you have a built-in trust factor because you already worked on one of their neighbors’ homes

Diana: That’s very powerful indeed. 

Rick: Or so you asked about RSVPs and so this is, it really depends again, too. So I’ll go back to the best type of event is a finished product. So, again, that’s a remodeling project or say a finished home. When I do RSVPs for those, I will do them individually. So let’s just say I have a three-hour block of time. I’m gonna show that event. I am going to block out say 20 to maybe 45 minutes for every single RSVP. So I have 20 to 45 minutes, one-on-one to go through and tour that particular home, be able to ask questions, and most importantly, get appointments, for the event. Now, if you’re gonna do a showroom event or a construction tour where there’s more of an educational component to it, then you wanna do things in a group setting. And this goes back to your question Daiana, about COVID, you know, some people, I really worry about that and they won’t come out in a group setting but they will come out if they know they’re the only ones in the home. So that’s something you just have to test and you might find that your clients are fine in a group setting. And some of them are like, you know, just love the idea of being the only ones there. They feel better about that. So just kind of have to meet, your prospects and your leads where they’re at. 

Diana: So very personalized and the flexible services customers. 

Rick: Absolutely. And again, testing is what it’s all about. You just test, test, test, you know what again, I’m telling you what I have found best which is finished products or projects of customers’ homes. So not for sale where we promote them one-on-one over a three-hour period on a Saturday or Sunday that to me has always yielded the best results but it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try to do something during the week. I have seen really good events where the only time to do it was let’s say a Thursday and you did like a four to six or a four to seven. I’ve even seen done on Tuesday and, and Wednesday as well. I’ve seen Fridays, so you, you shoot for Saturday or Sunday but if that doesn’t work out for whatever reason, go for a weekday, just get in front of these leads and, you know, watch the magic happen.

Diana: Amazing. Great. 

Rick: So let’s talk a little bit about executing the event. So we got into setting up the event but are now also executing the event. So the tour, as I said, the best event is the finished home or remodeling project. If you’re doing a remodeling project, ideally you’re gonna have before photos. So whether you have those in a binder and you know, you wanna obviously place people in a certain space within the home. You pull up the binder and you say, okay, this is what they started with. Now you’re. You do that for a couple of reasons. Number one is because people are typically amazed by the transformation. But number two is you’re trying to show your leads that, that what you started with was similar to what they currently have. That’s really important because that comes down to believability. Cuz if they see that you transformed this kitchen into this incredible masterpiece that they see in front of them they wanna know, did you start with something similar to what I have? And if they see that. Immediately, they’re excited and they get, they wanna take the next step with you because they’re like, wow, this is incredible. This is exactly what we’re after. And you, they pretty much were the same type of kitchen that we had. So a tour you always start with. Now, the education component. Again, this is where you’re gonna bring people together more. And the really. I’d say the lazy man’s way of doing this is that you go into a showroom or you go to your construction site and you have one of your vendors provide the primary point of education. So let’s use an example of a showroom for a kitchen. So we have countertops, appliances, kitchen cabinets something like that. So you have these vignettes set up in the showroom. Let the salesperson or the, your account rep for that particular vendor run the event and do the education and answer the questions. And then you just chime in and you talk about, oh yeah, this is the type of cabinet we did or appliances we did for this particular project. And we use these countertops for this one. So you’re more secondary at that point but you’re not the primary one that has to go in and put together a formal dog and pony show. You don’t have to have a slide deck and you don’t have to have an agenda. Those things it’s pretty much, Hey, when you have critical mass there at the event, you might provide some food and beverages, and then you’re gonna have a real sort of impromptu educational event based on what’s there. So if you’re doing a construction tour and I’m gonna do something before the drywall goes up, I might have my insulator there. I might have my electrician or my plumber, or I could have my low voltage person there, you know, talk about home automation. So they provide the education. And of course, you’re gonna chime in as well, but you don’t have to be the one doing everything.

Diana: All right. So what’s the call to action?

Rick: So the call to action or an offer, this is really important because when someone comes to the event, you’re using the event to heighten their emotions, to use their five senses, to make them wanna take the next step. So events are a great way to reactivate a database. Somebody that’s gone cold on you. They come back out, they get to see a finished product. They’re excited because they want this new home, or they want this type of remodeling project. And now. You have to give them an offer. You know you gotta ask them to do something. So you’re always gonna ask for an appointment. That’s number one. And the appointment is to sit down with you one-on-one, whether you maybe you’re going to do a site visit to their home or sit down in your office, come to the model home if you have one, but you’re gonna do some sort of a, a, a, an appointment. And the other thing is, is an offer I’ve done this is where you give someone a limited time free or discounted offer. Okay, and this should always relate to your sales process. So if you have designed as part of your sales process, give them something discounted for them to move into design and these things don’t automatically have to cost you money. A lot of times it’s just perceived value. So we used to do something where we would give away a free fireplace. I used to do events way, way back in the day. So we give away a free fireplace. Well, we just built it into the price. So we weren’t given anything away. It was not affecting our margins but we gave them a fireplace with the caveat that they had to go into a contract by a certain date and certain time. And then they could get that free fireplace. So that created urgency for people. So think about that free or discounted offer as it relates to your, to your sales process. 

Diana: Amazing ideas. Thanks for sharing. 

Rick: Yeah, absolutely. And last but not, but not least, we get into a sort of what happens after the event. So you have your plan for the event, you host the event and then there’s after the event. So there are really two things that you need to be thinking of. You know, number one is the people that attended is you want to get a thank you out to them. Ideally, you would do it as a handwritten thank you. But worst case scenario, you do maybe say a text message or an email. But you wanna thank them for coming and in that thank you, you want to give them a link to a survey. So you wanna ask them again, did they get all the information they were looking for? Was there anything else that they were hoping to find out that they didn’t have? So that’s sort of your last chance to try to re-engage those folks that maybe didn’t con convert to an appointment for you but nonetheless came to the event. And then finally you gotta deal with no-shows. So these are people that sign up and then they don’t show. And I’ll give you an interesting tidbit. One thing that when we change to go into specific time slots on specific dates, meaning that if you have a really cool project to sell, you can do two days. You don’t have to limit yourself to one. So let’s just say you do two-four-hour slots and you’re gonna break each slot into 30 minutes. So essentially you can set up 16 individual appointments. And once we did that, and that was ironic, it was due to just technology being available but it worked out perfectly for COVID. Our no-show rate went way up. Excuse me, way down. Our show rate went up, our No Show went down and we would usually have like a 50% No Show rate. So if we book 10 people five would show five would not. But now when we do specific slots and we’re able to use this, the reminder campaign using text messaging and, and things, and allow people to put the event on their calendar, we’ve seen that show rate go from 50% to probably 80 or 90%. It’s very rare that we get No Shows, anymore. So, when you do have a No Show, you’re simply gonna reach out to them and you’re simply gonna ask them if they wanna schedule an appointment, maybe you have the ability to still get in and show someone on one on one appointment but they raised their hand and it didn’t show. And most people will respond to you when you said, Hey, I’m sorry, I missed you. You know, would you, let’s get together and I can get you the information you’re after. So no-shows are actually good for getting appointments because they feel like they missed something.

Diana: Right.

Rick: So that’s it. That’s what we have for events Daiana and I just, anybody that’s watching this, at the recording, all I could say is that you are missing out, you are missing out and I’ve seen every builder that has started to use events on a consistent basis has dramatically improved their sales and not only improved their sales but improved their margins too, because you just over and over again, you get to show your work, whereas your competitors are not doing that. And so if somebody’s a long-term lead where they’re taking their own sweet time going through the research process and they come to three or four-year events, you’re gonna sell ’em absolutely. You’re gonna sell ’em and you’re gonna sell bigger projects and they’re gonna be more profitable projects.

Diana: And if I want to start now, how can I? What’s my first step?

Rick: Hey, you wanna see how the technology works? How do we host these events? Cuz we do everything for our clients. They simply tell us this is the type of event they want and this is the date they wanna have. And here are the people they wanna invite. So you can start by just taking our 30-day lead booking challenge and you know, start selling an extra one or three jobs every month without even doing events. And then you add events on top of this and you start adding things like our, our scope booking and budget wizard. And you’re gonna see that your company can, can flourish by having your perfect sales assistant do, this work for you. So start it today. You could try it for free and again, just find out how many leads we can book. How many appointments we can create? And in sales, you can make in that 30-day period. 

Diana: Amazing. And thank you for your generosity. 

Rick: You, you absolutely, you’re so, you’re so welcome. So what are we talking about next week Daina? 

Diana: We’ll talk about the referrals and we will share with you a guide on how to make referrals that will really work for your business. So,

Rick: Absolutely.

Diana: That’s a secret there. So, 

Rick: Yep. 

Diana: We will share that with you. 

Rick: Absolutely. That’s where it’s at. You know, we look at organic traffic first and this is a way to convert more of your organic traffic referrals. Is the next step you take before you start getting into spending money, on ads? So until next time, my brothers and sisters in Christ made the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. The love of God and the fellowship of the holy spirit. Be with you all. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.

Diana: Thank you. Bye-bye bye.