by Sonnhalter | Jan 9, 2018 | Tradesmen Insights, Uncategorized
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
Source: Viega LLC
A decade ago, you couldn’t change the channel without finding a new motorcycle build show. Five years ago, it was extreme eating challenges and local legendary greasy spoons.
And today it seems like you can’t touch the remote without seeing a show about tiny houses. It seems millennials are rejecting “more is more” McMansions and opting for small, portable and innovative living spaces that reflect their personality.
Believe it or not, this could be the best thing that ever happened to the Skills Gap. (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Dec 22, 2017 | Uncategorized
The Sonnhalter team will be taking some time off over the holidays. We hope that you enjoy this holiday season and time with your family and friends!
We’ll see you in the New Year!
by Sonnhalter | Dec 19, 2017 | Marketing Trends, Tradesmen Insights
Guest post from Lisa Murton Beets, Research Director, Content Marketing Institute
Are you delivering valuable, relevant, consistent content to your audience? If not, prepare to be ignored. There is just too much information available today, and only so much time in a day for your target audience to consume it. This is especially true for tradesmen, who spend most of their time in the field.
That said, you should be delivering valuable content consistently (hopefully, to a subscribed audience via vehicles such as email newsletters), so when your prospect does need a product or service, your company is top of mind.
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines content marketing as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Dec 13, 2017 | Tradesmen Insights
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
LinkedIn gets a bad rap. Some describe it as “Facebook for Job Hunters” or worse. And part of that problem is real. Since its purchase by Microsoft, the platform has struggled with its identity and purpose. Is it a Professional Social meeting place? A job-hunter’s paradise? A tally of how “connected” you are?
Yes, No, Maybe and… All Of The Above
The simple truth is that like any other tool, it’s exactly what you use it for. And with some different thinking, it can probably be a whole lot more than you’re using it for: (more…)
by Sonnhalter | Dec 12, 2017 | Tradesmen Insights, Uncategorized
Today we have a guest post from Russ Hill, Founder of Ultimate Lead Systems.
I recently lunched with some long-time friends and sales and marketing professionals. The topic turned to the importance of Customer Service in the face of the plethora of CRM and Marketing Automation software available today. The conversation raised more questions than it answered.
We agreed on the following definitions for the purpose of the discussion:
Customer Service – The interaction with a customer or prospect that traditionally revolves around resolving a problem and producing a positive outcome. This could be in person or via phone or email.
CRM – It’s not software but a strategic process designed to cultivate and enhance the relationship with customers. The goal is to maximize retention rates and capitalize on the life-time value of the customer.
Something else we agreed upon was that companies seem to be racing to dramatically reduce their costs of engaging customers. Those costs are typically associated with people on payroll, and management too often views automated systems as a means of delivering customer engagement AND customer service at reduced cost. We also agreed that Customer Service is all about NOW and all other engagements are about future opportunities.
We’ve all experienced agonizingly long waits in Customer Service phone queues that assure us our “call is important” only to get transferred to a voicemail box that is full and not taking messages. Programs like Hubspot, Marketo, Eloqua and Exact Target can help deliver content that may be of value to customers they already know. What about new customer and prospects? Websites without phone numbers that force the customer to do all of the work to find solutions to their own needs do not make it easy for customers to buy or remain customers. How many take their business elsewhere because Customer Service is self-serve or non-existent…and the vendor neither knows nor cares?
Dimensional Research found that Customer Service was the #1 factor impacting vendor trust, and:
- 62% of B2B customers purchase more after a good Customer Service experience.
- 66% of B2B customers stopped buying after a BAD Customer Service experience.
- 88% of B2B customers were influenced by online customer service reviews when making purchasing decisions.
Customer Service clearly can be the difference between winning, keeping and losing business, and that can mean significant lifetime value won or lost. As for me, we experienced business service from AT&T that has been nothing but a nightmare. I’ll spare you the details, but we will never do business with them again. Does AT&T care? They don’t appear to.We have other vendors who do stellar jobs that we couldn’t live without. I’ll bet you do too.
In the end, we were all able to agree that people have relationships with people, that customers have “experiences” with companies, and that people do business with people they know, like and trust. It begged the question, do your customers have a relationship with you, or just have an “experience” with your company? It makes a difference.
This post originally appeared on the Ultimate Lead blog and is reposted with permission.
by Sonnhalter | Dec 5, 2017 | Tradesmen Insights, Uncategorized
By Chris Ilcin, Account Superintendent, Sonnhalter
The mainstream media continues to wake up to the skills gap in the trades, as this recent report from CBS Sunday Morning proves. The report was spurred by the lack of skilled tradespeople specifically surrounding hurricane clean up, however it continued to shed light on the issue. A large part of increased recognition is the result of two people featured in the piece: Norm Abram of This Old House and Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs.
Both, as individuals and as part of their shows, these two have been “fighting the good fight” on the skills gap. Fighting against media bias, educational neglect and pop culture stereotypes of the trades.
Make sure to check out the last part of the video though, as the progress Lehigh Career & Technical Institute has made acts as an inspiring end to the continuing story.
Want to get involved? Keep reading.
