Top Tier Strategies

The Automated Sales Funnel

How a contractor goes from a QR code to a paying member, with no sales call

A contractor can find us four ways, and all four send him to the same first page. That page is the Score. It asks him one question: what does a homeowner see when they look you up? He types his business name and sees his own record. Then we give him his directory listing free, offer him the Premium Profile for $99 a year, and show him the membership. He can do all of it on his phone without a sales call.

Four ways he finds us

All four send him to the same first page.

A

The supply house counter

A table tent by the register and a flyer he can take. He sees it while he's buying supplies.

In progress
B

Partners

Trade newsletters, contractor educators, podcasts and suppliers will send him to us. They'll get paid every month he stays a member. No partner has signed yet.

In progress
C

Ads

Facebook ads aimed at established contractors. The ads send him to the Score, not to the membership.

In progress
D

Vendors

A supply store, lumber yard or rental shop sets up its own profile with us. The vendor gets its own table tent and link, and every contractor who comes in through that link is credited to the vendor.

In progress

The six steps

From the first scan to a paying member.

1

The question on the counter piece

The tent, the flyer and the ads all ask him the same thing: "See what a homeowner sees when they look you up." He scans the QR code to find out.

In progress
2

The Score

He types his business name and sees his own record. Then he answers a few questions about the things we can't look up.

Questions drafted
3

The free listing

His business is already in our directory. He claims the listing for free and fills it in.

Built, not live yet
4

The Premium Profile

The next screen offers him more on his listing for $99 a year.

Built, not live yet
5

The membership pitch

A video and the membership page show him what the membership does about the rest of his Score.

Written, not filmed
6

Checkout

One plan, $295 a month. He pays and signs on the page, and his setup starts right away.

Running

Each step in detail

What each step does, what's built for it, and what's left. After the six steps, Step 7 covers his first week as a member.

1

Step 1: The question on the tent, the flyer and the ads

In progress

Every piece asks him the same question: what does a homeowner see when they look you up?

We ask it because a lot of contractors live on referrals, and a homeowner who gets his name from a friend looks him up before calling. Contractors say this themselves. One said, "your website right now is less of a lead generator and more of a credibility checkpoint." Another said, "referral clients still Google you before they call." So homeowners are checking him out online, and he may never have looked at what they see.

The question is only about his own business. In our research, contractors said they spot a vendor pitch as soon as it starts talking about their licenses and paperwork, so this question shows him his own record and stops there.

Built and working
  • Every scan records the store and which message he saw. After a few weeks we'll know which message works best, and we'll print more of that one.
  • A short web address on each piece for the contractor who won't scan. It's tracked the same way.
  • The code on the piece carries the credit for whoever brought him in, so no name has to be printed on it.
  • The sizes and folds for the tent, flyer and card, and a checker that measures the artwork before it goes to print.
  • A page where Dan can look at every proof before anything is ordered.
Still to do
  • The wording on the tent, the flyer and the ads.
  • New designs for the tent, the flyer and the pocket card.
  • Getting more stores. One store has said yes, and the chain has 40-plus stores in Texas and five other states.
  • Signing the first partners: the people whose newsletters and podcasts contractors already follow.
2

Step 2: The Score

Questions drafted, nothing built yet

He types his business name or phone number. Before he answers any questions, he sees his own record: his license and when it expires, his address the way the state has it, his rating and number of reviews, and whether he shows up when a homeowner searches his trade in his city.

This is the most important screen in the funnel. It shows him how he looks to a customer, using his own information.

Then he answers a few questions about things we can't look up: how fast he calls people back, how many bids he never followed up on, and whether his past customers hear from him again. A contractor with great reviews can still lose work in those three places, so the Score has something useful to tell him either way.

At the end he gets his results. His answers also tell us his trade, his service area and what's bothering him most.

Already built
  • Over 14,000 Texas contractor businesses on file, so if he works in Texas, his business is probably there when he types his name.
  • Nearly 100,000 state license numbers across seven license types, updated every day. His license, license type and expiration date come straight from the state's record.
  • The directory that homeowners will search, so what he sees is what they'll see.
Still to do
  • The lookup screen and what it shows him.
  • The questions, and how the Score is worked out.
  • The results screen that shows him where he's losing work.
  • A follow-up for the contractor who starts the Score and doesn't finish it.
3

Step 3: The free directory listing

Built, not live yet

Right after the Score, we give him his directory listing for free. His business is already in our directory. He finds it, proves it's his, and fills in what he wants homeowners to see. He keeps it whether he ever pays us or not.

Claiming the listing puts his trade, service area and phone number in our system before we offer him anything paid.

Built, not live yet
  • Over 14,000 Texas contractor businesses in the directory, on our test site.
  • Nearly 100,000 state license numbers on file, updated every day, so we can tell who is actually licensed.
  • The directory homeowners will search, by name, trade and city.
  • The claim: he proves the business is his with a code texted to the phone number on the listing.
  • What he fills in: his trades, his service area, his logo and his photos.
  • A review step on our side for claims made by email, so a person checks those before they go through.
Still to do
  • Putting the directory on the live site. It's built and tested on a branch. Going live means merging it, running the database changes, and pointing the daily license check at the live database.
4

Step 4: The Premium Profile, $99 a year

Built, not live yet

As soon as he claims his listing, the next screen offers him the Premium Profile: $99 a year, down from $249. He gets photos past the first four, video, a project gallery, his full description, every area he serves, his Google reviews on the page, and a dashboard showing how many homeowners viewed his listing and tapped his number.

The Premium Profile is a directory product. It's separate from the membership. If he says no, he goes back to his free listing and keeps it. If he buys, the next screen shows him the membership.

Built, not live yet
  • The offer screen right after the claim, with his listing attached to the checkout.
  • The page that shows the $249 regular price.
  • The page he comes back to after he pays, which finds his listing.
  • A button for our team to turn Premium on or off by hand.
Running today
  • The two Premium checkouts in GoHighLevel. They're public, but nothing sends him to them yet.
Still to do
  • The GoHighLevel step that turns Premium on as soon as he pays. Until then, our team will turn it on by hand with that button.
  • New wording on the two checkouts.
  • Going live at the same time as the free listing.
5

Step 5: The membership video and page

Written, not filmed yet

By now his listing is taken care of, but the rest of his Score still shows problems. So this is where we show him what the membership does about them: his own website, content posted every week, follow-up, review requests, and a text that goes out when he misses a call.

Dan explains it on camera: who we are, what went wrong for us as contractors, what the membership is, and what he gets.

Written and ready
  • Four video scripts: the opportunity, what changes for him, what being a member is like, and the founding offer.
  • Dan's straight-to-camera script.
  • A shot list for a walkthrough of a real member's account.
  • 51 benefits and 172 selling lines, written from contractors' own words.
  • The live membership page, and the Founding 300 offer, which is capped at 300 members.
  • Answers to what he'll ask about leads: the homeowner picks one contractor, and a person confirms the job is real before he's billed.
Still to do
  • One filming day with Dan. Everything above is waiting on that day.
  • Filming the walkthrough on a real member's live account.
  • Rebuilding the membership page so he can join right there, with the guarantee at the top and his questions answered on the page.
6

Step 6: Checkout

Live, and taking payments

One plan: $295 a month, or paid for the year. He pays and signs the agreement on the page. Contractors have been buying through it since July.

Running today
  • The one-plan membership page, with products, prices and billing set up for monthly or yearly.
  • The membership agreement, signed on screen and filed automatically.
  • The 60-day money-back guarantee and month-to-month terms.
  • The Founding 300 count.
Still to do
  • Moving the guarantee to the top of the checkout page.
  • Written answers for a contractor who has a question and no one to ask.
  • A follow-up for the contractor who gets to checkout and doesn't finish.
7

Step 7: His first week as a member

Built, and delivered to a real member

Our roadmap says a new member has to get something real in his first seven days. So in his first week he gets his Cornerstone: a finished marketing piece built from his own jobs and his own customers. We've already delivered one to a real member.

Running today
  • A welcome email and text as soon as he pays.
  • His logo and brand pulled in and applied automatically.
  • His own website, with an editor he signs into with one click.
  • Photo uploads, his own blog, and his own page.
  • His Cornerstone, which he reviews and approves on his own private link.
  • Training, the walkthrough, and mentoring.
  • His own numbers: who visited his pages and who contacted him.

Vendors

How a vendor signs up to send us contractors. Vendor profiles will be on pro.ttscontractors.com, the contractor site. Homeowners won't see them.

1

Create a profile

The vendor goes to pro.ttscontractors.com and clicks "Create your profile." Contractors claim a listing, but vendors create one.

In progress
2

Fill it in

Store name, what it sells, the area it covers, the deal it gives our members, its logo and photos. It's the same kind of form a contractor fills in for his Premium Profile.

In progress
3

The profile goes live

A public vendor page on pro.ttscontractors.com. Vendors get a profile page only, not their own website.

In progress
4

A GoHighLevel account

We create it as soon as the profile is finished. We've already set one up this way for our demo contractor.

In progress
5

The tracking page

A page inside that account with the vendor's link, QR code, a table tent to print, and the contractors it has sent us.

In progress

What we can reuse for vendors

Most of the parts already exist for contractors

A vendor's contractors scan a QR code and land on the same first page as everyone else. The code inside the vendor's QR credits each scan to that vendor. In the draft offer, the vendor pays nothing to join, and every month we pay the vendor a share of what we collect from the contractors it sent us.

Already built
  • The link system that decides where each scan lands, so we never have to reprint a tent when the page behind it changes.
  • The table tent sizes and the checker that measures the artwork before it goes to print.
  • Creating a GoHighLevel account automatically. We've done it once, for our demo contractor.
  • The contractor referrals page inside GoHighLevel, which already shows a link, a code, and the clicks on it.
Written so far
  • A draft of the vendor offer.
  • The vendor plan, in the funnel checklist.
Waiting on Dan
  • The vendor's share. The draft offer leaves the percent blank.
  • What else goes in a vendor's GoHighLevel account besides the tracking page. The draft offer also gives vendors the membership, with a Cornerstone and weekly content.

Why we're building it this way

The reason for a funnel with no salesperson in it.

We give him something first, and he can join without a sales call

The supply house puts us in front of working contractors every day, for the cost of a table tent and flyers at about 25 cents each. Partners send contractors who already trust them. Vendors will send the contractors who buy from them, and ads bring in the rest. All four send him to the same first page, the one that asks what a homeowner sees when they look him up.

After that, the steps are built to run without a salesperson. We haven't watched a contractor go all the way through on his own yet. Each new store costs us the printing. It doesn't need another salesperson.

Already working

Over 14,000 businesses are in the directory on our test site. Checkout has taken real payments since July. A member's first-week Cornerstone has been built and delivered. Every scan reports which store and which message it came from.

Next up

The Score, new counter designs, the rebuilt membership page, and one filming day with Dan to record the scripts that are already written.

Where it goes next

The same chain has 40-plus stores in Texas and five more states. Partners, vendors and ads all send contractors to the same first page.