By Tommy Mello, owner of A1 Garage Doors, a $100M+ home service business.
We were spoiled in the last three years. During Covid, home services were essential services and it was very easy to grow a business. But things are no longer the same…
I’ve observed that leads are drying up, people are cutting back on marketing and the economy is looking shaky. And everyone’s asking me: Will there be a recession or not? I don’t know, but let’s do a thought exercise:
Let’s just say that the economy goes into a recession and unemployment goes up. How do you keep growing your business? Here are a few things that I’d focus on:
1. You will need more leads.
Leads are the lifeblood of any business. The more leads you get, the more employees you can afford to have and the more revenue and profit you enjoy.
In an economic downturn, you will need a lot more leads to keep your business going. And that’s why I recommend you zero in your focus on them. But leads aren’t the only thing you should focus on…
2. You will need to get more out of your leads.
A lot of people come to me complaining that their marketing agency isn’t doing its job. But the reality is, how many leads you get won’t matter if your conversion rate is not good. It’s like pouring water into a leaky bucket—it will never fill.
So ask yourself these questions:
• Can I improve data integrity, so that I can trust my numbers?
• Can I increase my conversion rate? (What’s the weakest link in my funnel?)
• Can I reduce call abandonment and book more phone calls?
Speaking of calls, my mentor, recommends doing this:
3. You will need to empower your CSRs.
Train your customer service representatives (CSRs) so they can do outbound marketing, too. Typically, CSRs do inbound marketing—they answer phone calls from leads and customers. But with enough training, they can also follow up and help close deals.
An outbound CSR can take initiative and call to see if customers have a desire to go ahead, then do the work right away. Customers can get busy and they forget. Training your CSRs further is a way to stay in front of customers and help them make wise buying decisions.
Now, it’s not just CSRs that need your support. It’s every single employee in your business.
4. You will need to take care of your employees.
When Covid hit, I realized just how important great employees are—they are the foundation of my business, and they are the faces of the brand. If you’re not taking care of your people, they may leave and look for the next best thing, and you won’t be able to give your customers a great experience.
That’s why it’s important to invest as so much into training as you can and acknowledge your employees. They are your internal customers, and they are just as important as external customers.
Final reminder: Don’t quit on marketing.
If a recession does hit, the last thing you want to do is scale back on marketing. This is the time to overtake your competitors and own your market, since most other people are cutting costs.
