951. Estimating Secrets That Turn Quotes Into Contracts

Summary

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Fullerton Unfiltered – Episode 951: Estimating Secrets That Turn Quotes Into Contracts

Host: Brian Fullerton
Date: April 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the art and strategy behind turning estimate quotes into secured contracts, especially during the intense spring rush in the green industry. Brian Fullerton shares detailed, real-world examples and practical advice, focusing on relationship-building and communication tactics that move prospective clients from a “maybe” to a “yes”—insights valuable to both commercial and residential service providers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. State of the Business (00:18–04:30)

• High Season & Business Growth:

  • Brian opens with an enthusiastic update on business progress—spring cleanups, robust scheduling, and a surge of quote requests.
  • Notes the “spring rush” with high energy, increased leads via the website, and the need to refine quoting and pricing processes.

• Acknowledgment of Challenges:

  • The workload is overwhelming but exciting; everyone is tired but motivated.

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2. Estimates: More Than Just Numbers (04:30–10:14)

Transition to the main topic—a five-minute audio excerpt from Link Live, the private coaching group—demonstrating a sales interaction that highlights the key to turning quotes into contracts.

• Typical Approach—The “Drive By” Quote:

  • “Michael, here’s your quote. Very straightforward... this is a drive by, right? Like, this isn't like relationship building.” (05:23)

• Making it Personal:

  • Brian calls the client (Michael) personally instead of just sending an email. He humanizes the interaction by sharing a recent experience:

    “I was actually able to go down to John Deere corporate… kind of like a bucket-list thing for my personal career…” (05:54)

  • This connection fosters rapport:

    Michael: "Dude, that’s awesome... good for you." (06:24)

• Demonstrating Experience and Local Expertise:

  • Brian reassures Michael of his track record by mentioning clients in the area:

    “I actually do Continental next door… Laramie down the street… I’ve been in Wixom for 30 years. I know your building like the back of my hand.” (07:25)

• Offering Value Regardless of Outcome:

  • Gives away helpful data (property measurements) unsolicited:

    “I’m going to send that to you so you guys have it for your recordkeeping, for your site logs… apples to apples.” (08:44)

  • Memorable Quote:

    “Regardless of whether or not we earn the work, I just want to be of value to you.” (07:54)

• Transparency as a Trust Builder:

  • Willing to openly explain quote details, even his margins:

    “I’ll tell you what I make on your property. I’m more than happy to show you transparently anything that we’re doing with the quote, anytime, anyplace. Does that make sense?” (08:25)
    Michael: “Dude, that's incredible.” (08:31)

• Inviting Questions and Creating FOMO (Fear of Missing Out):

  • Encourages a prompt decision without pressure, while highlighting scheduling urgency:

    “If you guys do come to a decision by the end of the week, we can get you on the schedule by next week… But either which way, we’re super chill over here. Whatever you want to do is what we want to do.” (10:14)

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3. Deconstructing the Sales Approach (10:14–16:13)

• Emphasis on People, Not Just Numbers:

  • After sharing the call, Brian recaps the lesson:

    “We’re actually talking and dealing with other folks… not just bids and quotes and numbers and pipeline and sales and closing ratios.” (10:23)

• Key Power Questions:

  • Besides “What happened to the last guy?”—which most are getting good at—Brian recommends also asking:

    “What does your process look like for selecting a new company or new vendor?” (12:15)

• Learning from Losses:

  • Shares a real-time lesson from losing a bid—not because of price, but because the competitor made a personal impression:

    “The other group made an effort to come on in and they were able to make a great impression in person. And I was like, no shit.” (13:11)

  • Brian reflects he could have salvaged the deal by asking about the decision process and offering an in-person meeting.

• Tips for Handling Rejection:

  • Always reply graciously, and look for future opportunities (e.g., snow contracts):

    “Just because you don’t get this… look at it as an opportunity to maybe rebid and work some different conversations…” (15:32)

• Big Takeaway:

  • “Get really, really good at asking compelling questions and learning and understanding outcome and process.” (15:00)

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4. Memorable Quotes and Moments

• “Being a Real Person”:

  “Just being a real person… we’re the real person, real crew.” (06:34)

• On Contractor Choices:

  “I know it can be a little scary out there sometimes, picking a contractor, lawn and snow. I know how it works in corporate America. If you do something good, you get a plus one; if you do something bad, you’re going to get a minus 10. Usually you shut up.” (07:44)

• On Transparently Explaining Quotes:

  “I’m as honest to tell you that not only will I tell you what we quoted for your property, I’ll tell you what I make on your property.” (08:21)

• On Process vs. Outcome:

  “Process and outcome. Like process and outcome. I got that from Ken Demer with local roots.” (11:44)

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5. Actionable Tips & Practical Takeaways

• Follow Up Personally, Not Just via Email:
  Pick up the phone to humanize your brand and demonstrate care.

• Deliver Value, Even If You Don't Win the Bid:
  If you provide information or assistance freely, you’re more likely to be remembered for future work.

• Ask About Decision-Making Processes:
  Early in the conversation, directly ask how vendor selection works to avoid missing unseen steps or influencers.

• Always Seek Feedback After a Loss:
  Use feedback as a learning opportunity, not a setback.

• Stay Professional and Positive in All Interactions:
  Gracious responses plant seeds for future opportunities.

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6. Timestamps for Key Segments

• Spring business update, intro: 00:18–04:30
• Set up for estimate delivery advice: 04:30–05:23
• Email vs. personal touch & phone call: 05:23–06:34
• Building rapport and value: 06:34–08:44
• Transparency and trust-building: 08:21–09:30
• Scheduling and closing strategies: 09:31–10:14
• Recap and keys to winning contracts: 10:14–16:13
• Final mindset and ongoing opportunities: 15:32–16:13

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Conclusion

Brian Fullerton reinforces that relationship-building, transparency, and understanding both the process and outcome on the client side are critical to turning quotes into contracts. He demonstrates, with unfiltered clarity and tactical advice, that authentic, value-driven communication sets service businesses apart—whether you’re after the current contract or planting the seeds for future work.

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For deeper strategies and coaching, Brian recommends joining his Link Live group for ongoing education, real sales call breakdowns, and an unfiltered look at the day-to-day of running a service business.

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Transcript

[Brian Fullerton]

Foreign.

[Adam Fullerton]

You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on filter. Grow your business, grow your life.

[Brian Fullerton]

Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton. Hey, what's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. It is your host, Brian Fullerton here hanging with you guys and good morning. Well, tgif, thank God it's Friday. Thank God we're all here after the last couple of days of Lord knows what's going on on the planet. Right? It's, it's been an interesting week here. Geopolitics wise, recording this podcast today after, uh, the most ridiculousness of the world. Anyway, another podcast for another time. There's enough politicos out there that can, uh, you know, debrief on the last 48 hours that happened on, uh, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday here this week. Real time. What I will tell you, real time in what's going in our world. A lot of great growth, man. A lot of good stuff happening. Cleanups are getting done like left and right. We've got some pretty decent weather. We are chipping away through our schedule very, very well. Right on schedule, right on pace. Lot of quotes and bids coming from the, from the interwebs submission forms, new leads. We're going to talk about that a little bit here today. Uh, wanted to share an excerpt for five minutes. Not the whole thing, just five minutes about a discussion about relationship building with estimates and how we deliver our estimates. A lot of you guys know that we use the element platform. We send our estimates via that and then we also email them over to the client. But had a great question while we were on the live, a bunch of great little 510 minute segments on our link Live, which is our private Facebook group. It's 49amonth. There's 300 plus people. Part of that thing. It's freaking awesome. Like the conversations in there, the live streams in there, the special guests that we have in there, Nick Bortolo, wealth manager guy, he's going to be on the special big dog guest that we do once a month at the end of the month here, which is going to be super exciting. Like, it's, it's insane. It's such a good value. But we had like three or four on this hour and a half long call. It's normally a 60 minute, you know, jam session every week on Wednesday night, 9pm but we had like, we've been going for like an hour and 45 minutes the last couple of weeks in a row. Everybody's excited about life. We're tired, we're exhausted. It's spring rush. We're all like burning our eyeballs out doing estimates. But we had like four or five good, like micro conversations about bidding and estimating and sales and pro the process and just on Wednesdays. And I wanted to share a five minute question answer that somebody had had when we're delivering a quote and how we humanize ourselves, how we deliver that quote, how we do our best to ensure that we earn the work, et cetera, et cetera. So a little nuance clip that I want to share with you guys on today's show, but that's what we're doing real time. Like again, the spring rush is here. A lot of great stuff going on. The guys are doing good. Bids and quotes and estimates are coming in like crazy. We're winning work, we're losing bids. You know, that happens. You're gonna get one in three, you know, if you're, if you're good, maybe one in, you know, two, something like that. But you know what, like, the machine's working, the phone's ringing and, and that's all I need to know. Like I can dial in anything else, but as long as the branding and the marketing is working, then I can get everybody else to the front door and we can always refine our sales process from there with pricing and estimates. Right. What I would just want to do is spend a couple quick minutes for you guys, let you know, hey, the YouTube channel, like a lot of great content going out there lately. We're, you know, kicking things back up. It's the spring Rochers, always more stuff to film. Sometimes in summer when we're not twiddling our thumbs doing snow or salt, you can only watch so many salt vlogs, you know, hey, we're salting, you know, and what are you doing tomorrow? Hey, we're salting. It's like the equivalent of watching bowling. Like, hey, what are they going to do? Probably throw the ball down the lane and hit the pins. Hey, John, what do you think Michael's going to do over here as he's on turn? Probably roll the ball down the bowling alley lane and hit the 10 pins. What do you think his strategy is? Uh, hit the 10 pins, you know what I mean? So anyway, uh, bowling people catching strays today, which I'm sure is about a third of my audience, but God bless you, my whole team bowls except for me. So, uh, as you can imagine, the, the roast goes both ways. Brian's blowers is the actual team name and sponsored program there. That's a true story. Custom bowling balls are being made this summer for guys that are on the team. That's a whole nother story. For a whole other time. I'm like, yeah, I'll buy you a bowling ball. You got to get it branded, obviously. And that is happening. So more to come there. But I'll just say very, very excited about where everything's at. Very, very excited about the growth and very, very excited about what the team is doing. A little all over the place today. I, I just, I've had a long day of bids and estimates. We had an attentive webinar, like everything is going great, but man, like it's, it's also a semi exhausting, you know, spring load and rush. So if you guys are feeling that way, you're not the only one out there. So no big pitch on anything today. No big conversation. Anything today. I do want to spend just 5 minutes sharing this excerpt that I thought would be really helpful for you guys. Uh, we're going to interject that here right now. And then I want to come on back and just kind of talk about landing the plane on those bids and quotes here for you guys for just a couple of quick minutes. So if you guys are excited about learning a little bit more about the sales and estimating process and how to deliver these bids. By the way, this is a commercial, you know, delivery bid, you know, conversation. But you can take a lot of the same DNA and elements out of this proposal and make that massage it and work it for your residential clients as well. So that's where I'm at right now. Let's do this really quick. Let's kind of change it up, do something different today. We'll hear from today's show sponsors announcements and then let's hear from this audio clip from Link Live and we'll come on back and talk a little bit more about it. Hang tight, folks. Now is the time to get registered for equip Expo 2026. You can use promo code Brian to save half off your Registration. Come join 30,000 industry peers as we descend onto Louisville, Kentucky for the super bowl of green industry trade shows and expos. There's over a million square feet of exhibit space on the inside where you can see all of your favorite brands and all the equipment that they have to offer. And also 40 acres of outdoor demo where you can test your before you invest and you can try before you buy. There's education, there's community, and there's Training all available for you at no extra cost. Come check it all out. And we hope to see you guys there again. Save 50% with promo code, Brian, and register today. And we look forward to seeing you guys in Louisville October 20th through the 23rd this fall. I sent a quote to a guy. I'll come back to this one. I sent a quote to this. This guy and I were playing phot. He wanted to talk. Were you able to put that quote together? I said, hey, I emailed you. You missed my last one. It was. What do we. What do you want? I apologize. Can you send everything besides the mulch? I'll have something for you tomorrow. Michael, here's. So this is a generic email, right? Michael, here's your quote. Very straightforward. You guys can see, like all my quotes kind of are starting to look the same. Good morning. So this is just a generic email. Like he should see this and go, okay, Almost automated. Or somebody from the office sent this. Cool. But I'm like, this is a drive by, right? Like, this isn't. This isn't like relationship building. So I called him, I said, hey, Michael. I go, hey, is Michael there? He goes, actually, this is Michael. Hey, Michael. Brian. Nice to meet you. We're the ones playing phone tag with each other yesterday. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hey, just be honest with you, like was out of town. I was actually had a really unique career opportunity. One in a million chance. I was actually able to go down John Deere corporate, kind of like a bucket list thing for my personal career in development. Like, it was really, really cool. I do apologize not being able to take your call yesterday, but I want to make sure I give you a quick phone call back. Yeah, two quick seconds to connect. Yeah. He goes, dude, that's awesome. He goes, oh, John Deere. He was like, holy shit, that's awesome. I go, yeah. I said, honestly, like, they've never really had like turf guys down there. I said, I do a little bit of stuff with social media. Totally relevant with what I do for the actual business, with taking care of service. Like for a building like yours. It was a really cool opportunity. He goes, man, like John Deere. He goes, that's awesome. He goes, good for you. I said, yeah, thanks. So just being a real person. Being a real person, I was like, dude, I got to go to John Deere. Who would I want to go to John Deere? Any red blooded male would be like, yeah, I'll go to John Deere. Hey, so really quick, I got that quote. I sent it over to you earlier today. I didn't want to just do a drive by. I want to let you know, like, hey, we're a real person, real crew. And while I'm here, I just wanted to make sure that you got it. Yeah, I did actually see it come through my email. Okay, cool. Hey, just so you know, if you have any questions, we're always here for you. You know, again, we've been doing this for 20 years in the area. I actually do Continental next door. I do Laramie down the street. I do like 26 sites up and down from Beck and West. I've been in Wixom for 30 years. I know you're building like the back of my hand. And we're always here for you. And again, lawn or snow, anything you need, we're always here for you. If you don't mind me asking, whatever happened to the last guy? And how are you guys doing over there? You? Yeah, like, honestly, we. We took over this building a year ago. We finished up with the contractor. We don't know if we're getting a good deal or not, so we just want to get a couple quotes. Hey, Michael. Awesome. Like, that's really cool. You guys are smart way to shop. If I was you, that's what I would have done. Hey, one thing I just want to tell you, regardless of whether or not we earn the work, I just want to let you know, like, I want to be of value to you. I know it can be a little scary out there sometimes, picking a contractor, lawn and snow. I know how it works in corporate America. If you do something good, you get a plus one. If you do something bad, you're going to get a minus 10. Usually you shut up. THEY CHUCKLE oh, yeah. Hey, so, like, I know it's scary, but I just want to be of an assistance to you. So if you get a couple quotes in and you're shopping around like you should, and my weekly MO price is 60 bucks, the other guy's 55. But then you get a guy for 22 and another guy for 110, and it's confusing because it would be for me if I was in your boots. I just want to let you know you can call me and I'm more than happy to help you explain not only what, what's going on with the quotes, but I'll tell you, Michael, like, I'm as honest to tell you that not only will I tell you what we quoted for your property, I'll tell you what I make on your property. I'm more than happy to show you Transparently, anything that we're doing with the quote, anytime, any place. Does that make sense? Yeah. Dude, that's. That's incredible. Yeah. By the way, one thing I didn't send yet was the takeoff, the measurements. I'm going to send that to you so you guys have it for your, for your recordkeeping, for your site logs in case you do need to get a different contractor. That way you have measurements and you can compare quotes in the future, apples to apples. Again, that's my gift to you. But other than that, you know, like I said, Michael, I don't want to sound too, too excited here, but transparently, like, we're on the grow big time. We. We do a lot of business in Wixom. Hopefully you've seen our reviews on Google. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Adam Fullerton]

Cool.

[Brian Fullerton]

Well, hey, again, I. I just want to do a quick phone call. Two minutes here. I know you got a busy day to get back to. That's it. If you got any questions, let me know. Hopefully we can hear back from you be by the end of the week. Would that be fair or can. If I don't hear back from you by then? You want me to touch base with you just to see where we're at in the quote? Oh, no, no, no. We'll have a decision done by the end of the week. Fantastic. If you guys do come to a decision by the end of the week, we can get you on the schedule by next week. We're going to be mowing by the end of the month. You guys are in a perfect spot. No emergencies. But we are getting a little bit of urgency. But either which way, we're super chill over here. Whatever you want to do is what we want to do. All right, guys, well, jumping back on in here, hopefully you enjoyed that quick phone call slash conversation, slash email discussion. When we're going through the sales and estimating process, I think the biggest thing that we have to remember that we're trying to work with people right on the other end of these phone calls. And it's not just bids and quotes and numbers and estimates and pipeline and sales and closing ratios. Right. It's we're actually talking and dealing with other folks on the other end. One other quick note I wanted to share here, which was just a very insightful little conversation that we had yesterday, was what happens if you don't get the quote from the person? You don't get the bid, you don't get the approval, you don't get the work. And they said no, the, the higher up went with somebody else. That was another quick little five minute clip I could have pulled from the link live. The the biggest thing that I can share with you guys is we're kind of sharing one or two estimating and bidding tips here on today's show is process and outcome. Like process and outcome. I got that from Ken Demer with local roots. I know I've talked about this before. What I if you have ever had a quote go up the chain and you don't and you didn't know that, it's likely because we didn't ask them, hey, what's the process of you guys selecting a new vendor? Right. We have these power statements out there when a new quote comes in and we say, hey, look what happened to the last guy. And almost all of us are getting pretty good at that. But another question to ask outside of that is, hey, what does your process look like for selecting a new company or selecting a new vendor? Or what way would you want us to prepare this quote that can best ensure that we earn the work? Like those kind of compelling questions or power statements are the things that you learn at the leanscaper type events and conferences. Little plug for them. And those are the things that we need to learn, study, make, master, and make part of our repertoire so we can earn new work. And those are two really, really good ones. Yes. Like, hey, what happened to the last guy is good, but what is your process for selecting a new vendor? Well, I accept the quotes and receive all the quotes and then I pass up the chain to. To Donald. Donald's the VP of whatever and he's the one that makes the decision. Really? Hey, I would to work with us, you know, here's what we do. Uh, we would love to come on in and just get a chance to meet each other. Uh, we don't want to just do a drive by. We'd love to build a relationship. Uh, I would love to also get a chance not only to meet yourself, but also meet Don. Right. And I want to get the guy who's actually making a decision. Right? And actually Real Time lost two quotes just this week. Now, one was low bid. Whole nother conversation for a whole nother time. That's all I needed to know. But the other one, uh, who was that guy that picked low bid? Was that guy's boss. So I could have salvaged that possibly. But they went with low bid. They wanted to go with low bid. And another one just came through this morning, Real Time. I told Link members that I would follow up with this Real Time Today. Lost another one this morning. Exact same conversation. I don't think it was low bid, but we lost it. I said, hey, we're always trying to get better with our sales process. Would you mind sharing any feedback just so we can learn a little bit more. I'd love to hear maybe where we can improve. And the guy said, well, honestly your price was very competitive, very in line with the other guys, but they made an effort to come on in and they were able to make a great impression in person. And I was like, no shit. And that's because I did a drive by and if I would've said, hey, what's your outcome or process or what's your, what's your process selecting a new vendor. He's like, yeah, like we can take your quote and if you guys wanna come on in, that's awesome. Or we can say, hey, would you mind if we like delivered this, you know, via email? But you know, if I'm happen to be in town, can I stop in? Oh yeah, yeah, we'd actually love that. Like my owner or the boss loves meeting folks or would prefer that you actually come in in person. Right. So it's just these nuanced listening tips. I know this episode's a little, little choppy in some way, shape or form. I'm just trying to give you guys some tips of the day on a Friday. Keep it light over here, but get really, really good at asking compelling questions and learning and understanding outcome and process. Right? Like what, what, what's the outcome that we're looking for? What's the process that you guys go through? What's our process by the way, look like? And that might be able to help you guys salvage or earn a couple more bids and quotes and estimates and hopefully earn some new work this year. One thing that I replied back on that email with a guy that said that the other effort, the other group made the effort to come on in. I said hey, super apologize like that about that. That, that's great to hear that you found a great vendor. I do apologize. In our experience, we've noticed that a lot of office drop ins are, are usually, usually unwelcomed just because you guys are extremely busy running your business and also post Covid, you know, a lot of folks don't really prefer the office drop ins, et cetera, et cetera. I said, nonetheless, if it would be okay for us to revisit this conversation for Snow, I think we'll provide some very competitive pricing, as you've seen, and also some Fantastic service as well that we hope to let you guys experience as we might be able to bid snow later this summer. Uh, that's all I got for you. You know, Matt, God bless you, and we look forward to catching up with you here later this summer. Right. So just because you don't get this, by the way, don't take it personal. You know, look at it as an opportunity to maybe rebid and work some different conversations going into summer for maybe some upselling on some landscaping work outside of what the other company is or isn't doing, or, of course, trying to get your snow contracts ready, you know, in July, August, September.

[Adam Fullerton]

Right.

[Brian Fullerton]

So that's what I'm gonna leave you guys today. Great conversation. A lot of little tips and nuances here. I'm telling you what, no pitch on this. I'm just telling you. Like, dude, Link Live is awesome. Like, it's 49 bucks a month. There's a lot of great people offering a lot of great things. I just happen to think that ours is pretty dang good itself. And you get access to all these replays from day one, and we've got about two and a half, what is it, two years now, at least, of replays. 52 weeks straight, plus or minus, you know, let's say, let's call it 49 weekly lives that are awesome. And you get access to all probably 80 to 100 recordings from day one. So if you think the podcast is good, wait until you get into more intimate discussions on link where there is absolutely no filter. And half the time I'm sharing my screen showing exactly how we're doing something or building something. All right, so maybe consider that. We'll leave links in the description down below if you want to check out link. No pitch, no plug. Just trying to share something that I think is really awesome and making a big difference in a lot of people's lives. And we just want to invite you guys to check it out. All right, that's all I got, guys. Happy Friday to all of you. We look forward to catching up with all of you guys here on Monday, and God bless. Have a safe weekend. And we look forward to catching up with you guys here on the next one.

If your business is stuck below that $500,000 mark, let's just say it straight. The problem, it might be you. Not because you're failing, but because everything runs through you. You're answering the call, solving problems, checking crews, putting out fires, and by the end of the day, the. There's nothing left for growth. That's exactly why LaunchPreneur Academy built the SOP bundle. Inside, you'll get more than 50 field training SOPs, a full office training system, and 30 plus business documents and resources to help you build a team that will actually run without you. Train Faster, Delegate Better, Scale smarter.

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[Podcast Producer]

thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast with Bryan Fullerton. We hope you enjoyed this production. If so, please consider leaving us a five star review for the show. While the techniques and ideas presented here are designed to help you grow a more successful and profitable business, no one can guarantee these results for you. We want to emphasize that entrepreneurship is not easy and the ideas presented here are just the opinions of Brian Fullerton and his respective guests. No one can guarantee success for you. That being said, we hope the ideas presented here help you and motivate you to go on out there and crush it with your own business.

[Brian Fullerton]

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and

[Podcast Producer]

we hope to see you on the next

[Brian Fullerton]

this has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.

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[Adam Fullerton]

Bull Podcast featuring Brian and Adam Fullerton.

[Brian Fullerton]

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This is the Branded Bull Podcast, a show dedicated to helping take your business to the next level with winning marketing and branding tips and strategies built for today's competitive world. Ready for your business to make its mark and start stand out from the competition. Let's get into it.

[Adam Fullerton]

Welcome back to another episode of the Branded Bull Podcast. I'm your host on this week's episode. My name is Adam Fullerton and thank you guys for tuning in to the podcast that is built for green industry businesses who want to stand out, get found and win more work. Today we're going to be talking about call tracking and long story short, if your phone is ringing, that's a good thing. But here's the real question. Do you actually know why it's ringing or where those people are calling from? Most lawn care and landscaping businesses think they do right? They'll say, yeah, it's from Google or it's probably from my website. But in reality most of the time you're probably guessing. And that's why I want to talk to you today about again, call tracking and what it is why it matters and how it can completely change the way you approach your marketing for your green industry business. So let's start, let's start in, dive in. I can't even, can't even think properly, guys. My bad. But let's start with the problem first and foremost, right? Most companies in the green industry are doing at least a few things to market their business and that's a good thing. Maybe you've got your website, maybe you've got your Google Ads, maybe you've got some yard signs outs, maybe, maybe it's referrals. The list goes on and on. The phone rings, that's awesome. Which is great. But when you stop and ask, where did that lead actually come from? It's usually not as clear as you might think. Was it Google, Was it your website? Was it a referral? Was it a yard sign? Was it ads? Who knows? And without that clarity, you can start making decisions based on assumptions. I guess you, I should say you start making decisions, decisions based on that assumption. We want to clarify that with this episode and clean that up. And long story short, again, you might think your ads are working, so you spend more, you might think your website isn't doing much, so you ignore it. But the reality is you could be completely wrong if you don't have insights and data to work off of. And that's again where call tracking comes into play. So let's answer the question. What is call tracking at its core is very, very simple. You assign different phone numbers to different marketing channels. So instead of having one phone number everywhere, you might have one number on your website, you might have a completely different number on your Google Ads, you might have a completely different number on your yard signs, maybe even one on your social media. Right? The list goes on and on and on. Different phone numbers for different parts or are different marketing tactics that you, you're using, then when someone actually calls you, you know where they are actually calling from. That's it, that's it. That's. It's that simple. It doesn't change how your business operates. It doesn't change the marketing you're actually doing right off the bat at least it just gives you visibility into what's already happening and what might be working. So let's give you a real life example. Let's say your company's spending about thousand dollars a month on Google Ads that, you know, you assume that's where most of your leads are coming from. So naturally you think let's increase the, and certainly there's metrics there to Tell you, especially if you're working with us with our PPC services or paid search services. Yes, there's a AdWords account where you can see all the different metrics from impressions to clicks and things like that. But the whole point is you want more visibility, you want more data. Data always provides you with better choices. The ability to make better choices, I should say. So the thing is, once you set up call tracking, you might realize something very interesting. Maybe only 10% of your calls are actually coming from your Google Ads. Maybe the majority, let's say 60 or 70%, are coming from organic search, which means people are finding you through Google and through your website, not necessarily your ads. And another chunk might be coming from your lawn signs, whatever that marketing tool might be. So instead of pouring more money into your ads or more money into another marketing channel, you could potentially say to yourself, hey, shift our focus, obviously improve your website, invest into SEO, ask for more reviews. Those are all great things. But then you might realize, hey, you're getting better results without having to increase your budget elsewhere. Right? That's the power of call tracking, let's just say, to hopefully make sense of this, let's just say the majority of your calls are actually coming from your lawn signs and you're tracking that call number. Right? You're using call tracking to say, how many people are calling from my lawn signs? And maybe you put out 50 lawn signs, whatever that number might be. And again, if 60, 70, 80% of your calls are coming from your lawn signs, you might say, hey, my lawn signs are crushing it. So I don't necessarily need to put more money into ads or into other sources or mediums. Maybe I just need to double down on my lawn size to put more lawn signs out. Right? Pretty straightforward. Now there are a few tools out there that make this really easy to implement because you got to kind of know what you're doing at least a little bit to make sure you're setting yourself up for success. And one of the most popular tools is called call rail. That's C A L L R A I L. It is an industry leader and it tracks calls. You can obviously track form submissions, where those leads are coming from. And it's a great option for most of you guys listening, kind of those small to mid size companies. Another option is called tracking metrics, which is a bit more advanced. It definitely integrates with CRMs automation tools, but it's typically better for larger companies who want a little bit more control. And then there's Google Ads, call tracking as well. Which is directly built. Built directly into Google Ads, I should say. And that one specifically tracks calls from your ads, which is obviously very helpful, but it's very limited. It doesn't give you really the full picture across all of your marketing. So it has some limitations. So why does this all matter? I know kind of all over with this one, but just trying to explain why this all matters. Why does call tracking matter for your business and for your marketing? First, it helps you make better decisions, right? Instead of guessing where your calls are coming from, you actually know what's driving business. Second, it improves your return on investment. Obviously, you can cut back on what's not working and double down on what is working if you understand where the calls are coming from. And third, it just gives you better context for every lead. So when the phone rings, you know this person came from Google Ads, or this person found us through your website, this person was calling from your. Your yard sign. And lastly, it just gives you clarity on how to grow, right? Because at the end of the day, growth isn't necessarily about doing more. It's about doing more of what actually works. And to understand what actually works, you have to track metrics, you have to track data. Now, that said, there's a few common mistakes we see all the time. And the biggest one is using the same phone number everywhere. As mentioned previously, that makes it impossible to track the calls and track where people are coming from. Another one is not tracking missed calls. And if you're missing calls during the day, most companies are, that's lost revenue you're not even aware of, right? Also, not listening to call recordings, that's huge. You can actually hear what people are asking for, what they care about, what your. You know, where your sales process might be falling short. And finally, relying only on tools like Google Analytics. Google Analytics is great, but doesn't tell you who you actually or who actually picked up the phone and called you. Google Analytics is great for metrics, to track campaigns and clicks and various things. But when it comes to the phone ringing, you really need to use call tracking. So if you're thinking this sounds great, but where do I start? Here's a simple approach. Step one, guys, go use a tool like CallRail or just go to Google. You can find some competitors. Of course, Step two is replace your phone number in a couple key places. Your website, your Google Ads, lawn signs. Again, wherever you're running marketing, wherever you have your phone number listed, your Google business profile, etc. Turn it on, let it run for 30 days, and then check the analytics after that. That alone will give you more insight than you've probably ever had into your marketing and especially what's causing your phone to ring. So that said, I'm going to leave you guys with this. If your phone is ringing again, that is a great sign. But if you don't know why it's ringing and where it's linking, where it's ringing from, or where that person is coming from, or where your customers are coming from, then you're leaving gross up to chance. So call tracking gives you clarity, definitely gives you confidence, and it definitely helps you make smarter decisions with your time and your marketing budget. So instead of guessing where the where the calls are coming from, start tracking it. It's that simple. Because when you understand what's working, that's again, when real growth starts to happen. That said, that's what I got for you guys on this week's episode. All about call tracking. How important it is, how easy it is to set up and use, and of course how it can give you great, great, great, great insight into where people are calling from and what might be working better than others in terms of your marketing tactics. So that's it. Thank you again as always, if you like what you hear, consider subscribing wherever you're listening to or listening from, whatever platform you're on, however you would say that. And then also consider leaving that five star review if you find this valuable. Guys, appreciate you guys tuning in and letting us know how much this is this podcast means to you. We appreciate that every Tuesday, new episodes and that's what I've got. So thank you as always and catch you guys on the next episode. Take care.

[Brian Fullerton]

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Branded Bull Podcast. The podcast dedicated to giving you expert advice and actionable ideas so that your business can make its mark and stand out from the competition like what you heard in today's show. Visit brandedbull.com to see how we can help you achieve your marketing and branding goals. Also, please consider leaving a five star review. And again, thanks for listening.