Ask a Pro

Q:

What inspired you to incorporate video into your proposals and how does it work?

Arizona native MIKE RICKER is the owner of Crash of Rhinos Painting based in Phoenix, AZ. A Search and Rescue Mission pilot with the Civil Air Patrol, Ricker also loves to fly-fish, but fully acknowledges he isn’t very good.

Crash of Rhinos Painting

What’s with the name? A group of rhinos is known as a ‘crash.’ They run together at full speed, despite not knowing what lies ahead. We move with the same determination. CrashofRhinosPainting.com

A: To be honest, I had been thinking about incorporating video for a while but simply wasn’t getting around to it. When COVID got real last March, I took the opportunity to act and haven’t looked back.

What I’ve found over the years is that homeowners tend to have a general distrust of contractors. I’m always looking for ways to break that down or overcome it, including not taking deposits for jobs. And I wasn’t a fan of the traditional sales process with the 2-day, 10-day and 28-day follow-up asking for the job. It just felt pushy to me. I was looking for ways to build a rapport and relationship that gave the customer confidence that our transaction would be a good one. Plus, I think it’s really hard to communicate complex ideas quickly and efficiently in writing.

So when COVID hit and we were no longer going out in the field, I decided to implement a video-based sales approach and see if I could overcome that obstacle and establish the desired relationship. Due to all the variables COVID introduced, it’s hard to tell how this approach alone has impacted close rates, but I do know it’s a huge time-saver for me.

We use the video app BombBomb and HubSpot for our CRM. The whole process begins when a proposal is ready and I push out the first email video with a link to the proposal. The video is basically just me at my desk thanking the customer for the opportunity to bid and explaining what’s included in the proposal. That email triggers a drip campaign. From that point, 10 videos are queued up to go to the customer. None of them are about asking for the job. They’re really focused on educating the customer and building trust. They cover things like ‘What questions should I ask my contractor?,’ ‘What’s pressure washing, and does my house need it?,’ ‘Should I give a contractor a down payment for my residential painting project?’ and so on. Each video runs about 60–90 seconds and the email includes a link to the customer’s proposal, a ‘yes, I’d like to move forward’ button, an ‘I have more questions’ button that lets them schedule a call, as well as a ‘I’ve decided to go another direction’ link that lets them unsubscribe.

Timing for the videos works this way: the first goes out two days after the proposal. The next three are spaced three days apart, and the remaining ones five days apart; so roughly 5–6 weeks. Most jobs—60%— close within the first two weeks, 30% close in the next two weeks, and the remaining 10% close somewhere between 1 and 18 months later. Whenever they close, they get pulled from the drip campaign and receive an onboarding video email where I explain the next steps and timing of getting started. Again, none of the videos to this point are customized.

The day the project begins, we send a Pre-Production Report video two hours after work starts. This provides a nice touchpoint with the customer, but is also a bit of a CYA video. We document the condition of the property, note any preexisting damage onsite, etc. After that, the project manager provides daily video updates. He might acknowledge a conversation with the customer, note what we’ll be working on next, and include images of work in progress.

When the job closes, I send a personalized video thanking the customer for the work and asking for a review. Thirty-five percent of customers go on to write a review. I’m really happy with the process and customers respond really well.

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