This Helped Us Increase Our Quotes Won By 32%

Andy
Here’s the thing, while most tradies have some system for getting through the daily grind, there’s one powerful tool many are missing that can completely transform their business. Imagine having something that not only builds a solid database of leads, but actually converts more of those quotes into profitable jobs and builds solid customer relationships along the way. 

Ange
Today, we’re diving into something that can do just that. It’ll help you stay top of mind with customers, turn those silent days into fully booked weeks, and bring in the high quality jobs you actually want. This isn’t just about getting more leads, it’s about winning more work and creating loyal customers who keep coming back. 

Andy
And if you’re a tradie, like a plumber, electrician, builder, landscaper, painter, roofer, or any other trade, then this is for you. Every single trade business that wants to stay ahead of the competition needs to be using this and I hear it constantly where people go on that rollercoaster ride of ups and downs where they have work one day and not work the next, this is going to completely revolutionize your business.

Ange
We’re talking about results that last. Implementing this strategy helped us increase our quotes one by 32 percent.

Andy
Whoa, yeah, that is huge. And it also helped keep 77  percent of our customers coming back with three times the average sale value. And you know what? That is amazing as well. 

Ange
The point is, this works. 

Andy
So if you’re done with the constant hustle and ready to implement a seamless pipeline of work, not to mention take control of your business growth, then stick with us, we’re about to reveal an absolute game changer. So let’s get into it.  

You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you who want to lead with confidence, make more profit and create a better lifestyle.

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband & wife team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun? 

Andy
Hell yeah! Today’s episode is brought to you by Kabooyaa. When you want help managing your marketing and sales to book more profitable jobs because, building trust and keeping your trade business top of mind with customers can be stressful. You need Kabooyaa, a Customer Relationship Management System or CRM. Built by tradies for tradies, providing you with 24/7 marketing and sales support. Kabooyaa never sleeps. Making you money on repeat. Kabooyaa, we got ya. Head to kabooyaa.com.au to learn more. That’s K A B double O Y  double A .com.au.  Okay, so before we get into today’s topic, let’s start by sharing some, Hell yeah! And it’s where we celebrate the wins of the week with some of our Lifestyle Tradie members.  Hell yeah!  These can be big or small, it doesn’t really matter, but I think it’s worth celebrating tradies who are taking steps towards building a business they can be extremely proud of. 

Ange
Couldn’t agree with you more, Andy. So, first up we have Ashley from a plumbing company in WA who wrote, we got our tender application done, it’s 200 pages, ready to submit next week. Now we have an asset for the business we can use over and over again. 

Andy
Yeah, that deserves a big hell yeah! Because we did a heap of training here at Lifestyle Tradie around the tender process. Ashley is one of those guys that jumps on these things fast and he’s already getting his tenders out and he’s on the right foot. 

Ange
Fantastic. So next up, we have a bit of a funny one actually from John in Queensland who wrote, We received a one star review and when we didn’t have any information on the customer, we replied asking them to contact us, which they did. And we figured out that they got us mixed up with another company and they felt so bad that they left us a five star review.  

Andy
Oh, that’s awesome. And that’s the best really, what a great story, but that just points out, it pays to try and contact the customer to understand why they were leaving such a bad review in the first place.

Ange
Yes. But there’s actually more from John on a personal note. He went on to write, I made the Australian polo cross squad for next year’s tests. I love this because we had John and his wife Emily on the podcast a while ago and they shared with us how they built their plumbing business around John’s polo cross athletic career and their love of horses, which is true freedom of running a lifestyle business.

Andy
Hell yeah! Yeah. Absolutely incredible. Hats off, John. You’re a superstar, mate. And I know how hard you’ve worked to get there, not just to be at the top of your game in Australia, but getting your business to that position that gives you the flexibility to be driving with a float and a horse around the country competing. A huge congratulations on that. 

Ange
Absolute powerhouse you too. Couldn’t have said it better myself. All right. So next up we have Bridget from Queensland who said, Team all finished up and we’re on our way to Noosa North Shore for a camping and fishing weekend. The fishing competition is coming up. Plus, we had three new five star Google reviews this week.

Andy
Yeah, another fabulous result. Well done, guys. And I am loving these. 

Ange
And another one from Natalie from WA who shared, I’m in month two of working for the business. I’m no longer just behind the scenes. And John is already on his first holiday. I’ve been looking after the business and booking in jobs for the first time ever. Normally when he’s away, I’m busy with my own job and work is lost through missed calls. But this time I’ve been able to book all calls apart from one emergency and filled up his week with work. I’ll be a plumber in no time.  

Andy
Hell yeah, that is absolutely awesome guys. And I know that you’ve put a lot of steps in place for you to step away from your normal role and step into the business to work on the foundations of a business is going to set you and your family up for life. Well done. 

Ange
Absolutely. 

Andy
And that’s all the hell yeahs for the day, because you know what? We all think at times we’re alone and no one gets you. But guess what? We are here and we’re here to support you. You just need to take that step to surround yourself with people who understand you and who can help you get to where you want to go. 

Ange
Absolutely. Nothing better than that. 

Andy
So first let’s talk about how we can make sure valuable leads don’t slip through the cracks. A lot of tradies are great at getting quotes out there but without a proper follow up system, too many potential jobs fall off the radar. 

Ange
And that means you’re not winning jobs. 

Andy
Which means you aren’t making money. And that’s where having the right approach and the right tools can make a huge difference.

Ange
So the tool we’re talking about here is called a Customer Relationship Management System, or CRM for short. Now, I know CRM might sound like tech jargon, But in layman’s terms, it helps you keep track of all your interactions with both leads and customers so that no one gets forgotten or overlooked. 

Andy
It’s basically like having a sales and marketing machine in your back pocket.

Ange
Yeah, exactly. So when it comes to making sure you have a pipeline of potential customers at all times, This thing is a serious game changer. 

Andy
Well, imagine this for a moment, you’re a plumber and you’ve had contact with a potential customer to do their bathroom reno, but they have a long lead time, say a few months or even up to a year before they’re ready to go ahead with the official quote. And you have hundreds of these out there. How do you remember what to message to this customer? When to message this customer and who this customer even is. 

Ange
Well, you might jot down a number on a piece of paper or you save it in your phone only to lose it or forget about it completely. This type of system, and you know what? I use that term lightly, it is not sustainable long term. 

Andy
And then when you do get the chance to quote, you’d lack an effective follow up process. Let me tell you this, sending out a quote and then forgetting to even make a single call is not the best way to build a relationship. Customers need to feel valued and remembered and they appreciate prompt and polite follow ups.

Ange
So another issue we see with trade business owners is their lack of communication when a job is complete, encouraging customers to use your services again. 

Andy
And this is where many trade businesses miss out on repeat business. 

Ange
So particularly if you’re working in a service based business. You’ve probably been working with loads of customers over the years, and you’ve been building this incredible database that is highly valuable, but you do nothing with it.

Andy
Trust me, even if they loved you, they forget your company name, and the next time they need someone, guess what they do? They just go to Google and pick someone else. 

Ange
Yeah, ouch. 

Andy
It happened to us plenty of times before we realized there was a leak in the system and a name like Dr. Drip, we just thought everyone would remember us.

Ange
Yeah, right. So if you’re nodding your head right now thinking, yep, that’s me, or I’m doing some or all of that. Then, you know what? Don’t worry. We have a solution for you today to make your follow up system smoother than freshly installed pipes. 

Andy
Ooh, talking a bit of playing terms there, Ange. Absolutely, and it’s called a Customer Relationship Management System, or as Ange said earlier, a CRM for short. Now, maybe you’re thinking, what the heck is a CRM and why do I need this in my business?

Ange
Well, that’s a really good question. So let me start there. There are actually three pieces of technology that every trade business needs as the foundation of their business. One is a job management system, two is the financial platform, and three is the customer relationship management system.

Andy
We all know what a financial platform is, just think like a Xero. But what I think we need to clarify is, what is the difference between a CRM system and a job management system? Because when we talk about this stuff, many trade business owners say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I use AroFlo, I use ServiceM8, I use Simpro, I’m all good. But.  What we’re talking about is not that. 

Ange
Yes, and I think we do need to clarify this. So, a CRM is a software system that helps you manage all your interactions with current and potential customers. It’s basically your sales and marketing machine that never sleeps. 

Andy
This is separate from your job management system, as we said, the likes of AroFlo, ServiceM8, Fergus, BuildXact, Simpro, just to name a few. Because this is the technology to help operate your trade business like to manage your jobs, help dispatch work, write notes, collect money in the field. You know what I mean? It gives you the real time updates where all the team can use this system at the very same time. 

Ange
A CRM is like having a personal assistant that communicates to all your prospects and customers that never drops the ball. And it can all be set up and automated to work in the background while you’re doing other stuff. 

Andy
Yeah, exactly. So let’s talk about what makes a good CRM system because there are a few out there on the market at the moment and it’s important you understand the benefits. So a good CRM system helps you with capturing leads and collecting data like name, email and phone numbers. It also nurtures the leads until they’re ready to take the next step with you. And also automating quote follow up. So quite a few of the things it does.

Ange
Yes. It’s also capable of managing five star reviews plus segmenting your customers and thinking about implementing specific tactics to generate repeat customers, basically tracking the entire customer journey. Plus you can tailor your communication to fit each person’s needs, which helps you build stronger relationships.

Andy
It’s pretty common to use a CRM system in most businesses across many industries, but for some reason it hasn’t been high on the priority list for a lot of trade businesses to make sure they implement this, which is really weird because there is so much value for any type of trade business.

Ange
Absolutely. For example, if you’re a project based business, you guys generally work with a customer with a really long lead time. You need to be able to capture their interest early and stay in contact for months before they’re ready to buy. It’s important you stay top of mind during this time so that they call you when the time is right.

Andy
And for a maintenance based business, you have a database where the likelihood of your customer using you again is high and the database itself can become a highly valuable asset. 

Ange
Well, the database is only highly valuable if you’ve been staying in contact and hence building a relationship just like we did with Dr Drip. Because when we sold the business, we were operating at 77 percent repeat business. And that is huge for a plumbing company.

Andy
And it’s highly valuable if you plan to sell.

Ange
Just like we did. 

Andy
Well, we didn’t plan to sell. The fact was the business was not for sale. But when you get asked three times to sell it. And I said to myself, I guess everything is for sale for the right price, then it is.  

Ange
Yeah. And ultimately the guy that bought the business was attracted to the fact that we had an active residential database. He knew he could make money right away from tapping into the relationship we had and the trust we’d built over 21 years.

Andy
All thanks to the fact that we had a basic CRM system that was set up to stay in contact with our database in multiple ways as set out in our marketing plan. And that’s only one way we’ve been using a CRM to benefit Dr. Drip over many years. 

Ange
Yeah, we’ve been working with a CRM and Dr. Drip for many years. The challenge was, you often needed multiple different products to do specific things, therefore paying separate subscription fees, and it got super expensive. 

Andy
But, All that is about to change because we’ve been working with one specific CRM system with our members at Lifestyle Tradie. And drum rolls please!  It’s called KABOOYAA  and that’s spelled K A B double O Y double A and we’ve been able to tailor it to help trade business owners because there’s nothing better than getting this right. 

Ange
Yeah. And our members have been using it with incredible results. Let me share what we’ve been doing with our members with their CRM in terms of lead capture and streamlining the flow of a job.

Andy
Yeah. This stuff is seriously next level. 

Ange
So for example, your CRM can provide one inbox so that all the communication from leads from various sources all come to one location. I’m talking about your website, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, basically any social media page, even your phone calls. This makes sure you never miss an opportunity ever again.

Andy
Then, because you’ve captured these contact details like an email, name and phone number, an automated email follow up sequence will go out, building trust while your potential customer is making decisions about what they really want. 

Ange
And the moment they’re ready, it could be weeks or months later, guess who’s top of mind?

Andy
You are.

Ange
Correct. No potential customer will ever slip through the cracks once the system is set up right. 

Andy
So imagine you’re at a job and you’re quoting for something and you can’t ask for the sale on the spot for whatever reason that may be. So how do you end up converting this quote into a paying customer? How do you actually win this job? 

Ange
By staying in touch through your CRM. 

Andy
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Your CRM comes in with all these automated follow ups. 

Ange
Yeah. So basically you set it up once and it runs in the background while you do other things in the business. 

Andy
This solves the whole issue of tradies trying to work out how the heck do you do follow up, quote, and repeat work when you’re either on the tools yourself or you’re working on other stuff. And guess what? We all know it. These things sometimes simply just fall through the cracks. 

Ange
Or while you’re actually just enjoying life. I want to read a Facebook comment from one of our Lifestyle Tradie members, actually, Tristan in Melbourne, because this is an absolute pillar. She wrote, I am loving the quote follow up. It has honestly freed up so much of my time. Today, I received a number of messages from customers regarding their quotes, and I was wondering why. I haven’t sent them anything. But Kabooyaa had, all while I was at the footy. How good is that? 

Andy
Yeah. And I remember she was saying she was at the footy smashing a pie and her phone’s going da ching, da ching, da ching. Oh, Tristan, I know making money like that while you’re out with the family, watching the footy, there is nothing better. 

Ange
Yeah, totally. So I saw another message that I want to share just recently from one of our members. This was from Justine from New South Wales. So let me read you this one. Within five minutes of implementing the new system, we won our first job through it for $10, 000. After being in business for over 20 years, it’s helped me find a whole new passion and excitement for the future. 

Andy
Yeah, that’s nice. Within five minutes, you set it all up. She got it. You’ve got to love this. And there’s so much money I talk about. The gold that’s buried in the hills that most trade businesses just aren’t tapping into. This is where Kabooyaa taps into that gold and makes sure this work is coming through the door. 

Ange
Pretty amazing, right? So remember that could include a reminder email even to you to say you need to inject like a human element and maybe make a call. The point is once you design it out and it’s really easy to do. Then it simply repeats the process over and over again. 

Andy
Another thing we’ve been able to do with the CRM is segment customers. Like you might want to communicate only with customers just to say who has smoke alarms installed. Then that makes it super simple to cut the database this way before sending any emails. And by doing this segmentation, you can tailor all of your messaging. 

Ange
Absolutely. So another thing that’s doing really well is the CRM being able to capture Google reviews and testimonials from Facebook, for example. 

Andy
This is huge.  

Ange
So, meeting trade businesses can stop paying these exorbitant costs billed by these subscription companies.

Andy
Yeah. There’s so many subscription companies out there now charging an absolute packet. And now it’s all in one and it’s been saving our members a bucket load of cash. And the thing is, it does start to piss me off. I think people have been taking advantage of this, but we all know, don’t we, that getting reviews and testimonials are so important for your trade business. Most customers are using these, these days before they make a decision. 

Ange
Well, let’s be a little bit fair about this. In the defense of the companies, I think it was because there weren’t many who had the technology to do it maybe once upon a time.

Andy
That’s true. They’ve stepped into the market and hit hard.

Ange
You know how when new technology comes out, it’s often super expensive, but then as time goes on, technology advances and it becomes more affordable. And that’s what I reckon is happening now. 

Andy
Yeah, the market’s shifting, thank goodness. So original CRMs could just send out emails to keep your leads or your database warm and encourage a little bit of repeat business, but these days, the beauty of what’s happening is Kabooyaa. You can send text messages, you can send voice drops, you name it, you can do it. And it’s all from the same CRM system. 

Ange
Yeah. So as an example, you can organize to have your CRM send out a text in December to wish your customers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with a reminder that they are your priority and that you’re available for them if they have any last minute jobs.

Andy
Or maybe you can send a message out to them early in the next year to make sure that your January isn’t slow and you can build up that work to make sure you have a jam packed month. 

Ange
Absolutely. 

Andy
And you know, in a maintenance style business, retention marketing is so valuable. And you need people to be coming back time and time again. It is an absolute must. And as I said earlier, Dr. Drip was at 77 percent repeat customers. That’s mom and dad residential market. That is absolutely huge. Um, and we had it at that point when we sold and we basically increased our average dollar sale three times working with these customers. Absolutely huge. And that’s where the money is, everyone make sure you get on this. 

Ange
All right. So we’ve talked about some of the benefits of a CRM system and how it can solve common sales and marketing challenges. Now let’s get into the practical steps of implementing a CRM into your business. So let me ask you this, Andy, when is the best time to implement a CRM system? Would you say it’s a startup or scale up or sell up phase? 

Andy
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think the first thing I want to say about this, is that CRM isn’t just for big business. It’s for small and medium sized businesses as well. It’s for anyone that wants to grow with good customers and take the hassle out of running a business and keeping in touch with the customers. Which should be anyone starting from a one man show up.

Ange
Yeah, totally. And the sooner you do it, the better. 

Andy
But I also want to touch on how every business is unique. So you need to figure out what specific features you need for your business within getting a CRM. 

Ange
Yeah. Good sentences. So you may want the capability to schedule months worth of posts to social, say, or maybe you want better lead tracking. Or automated follow ups to convert more quotes, that’s super important. Maybe you want to be able to segment your customers so you can communicate that way. Or maybe manage Google reviews, something that is user friendly and easy to learn and drive. So think about your biggest pain points in sales and marketing and what you wish that you could improve.

Andy
And I know a lot of people are also using a seamless debt collection process as well, which has been going very well for them. But Let’s get real, Ange. Sometimes tradies just don’t know what they don’t know. 

Ange
Yeah, that’s a fair sentence. So, how about we say start with the basics and just take it step by step. This is why we have training and support to implement this kind of thing inside our Lifestyle Tradie membership. 

Andy
Yeah, and Kabooyaa has built a huge online training area specific to trade business owners to get you up and running very, very quickly. 

Ange
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s awesome. Now, it’s fair to say that most tradies aren’t going to be using every feature right away. Just begin with the basics till you get the hang of it. Maybe set up automated follow ups on quotes first, because every tradie wants to win more work. 

Andy
Get comfortable with that function first, then gradually start exploring other features along the way, like lead capture, batch, sending of text messages, using it to find work. The thing I want to touch on here is that this is a missing piece of the pie that most people haven’t done well in their business in the past. And with AI coming through the door, it’s an absolute must to start implementing this stuff now. 

Ange
Well, talking quotes specifically, because every single business in the trade industry touches this, right? We teach something called SPEAR emails and texts that work really well through your CRM. This is a marketing tactic to convert those dead quotes into jobs and they always get great results. Don’t they Andy? 

Andy
Yeah. They’ve been absolutely huge for us. And you know, tradies, we tend, there’s a lot of us out there that we’ll send a quote out. We’d never ever really chase it anymore. And we think the quote is dead, but we got our members to do this and it was really interesting. We had some amazing results. So Will from Perth did it on his database and he got a 75 thousand dollars quote. 

Ange
Wow. 

Andy
That he thought was well and truly dead in the water across the line. And Matt from Melbourne also won a $45,000 job that he thought the customer no way was ever gonna go ahead with. It was like six months past when he first sent the quote and they sent a message back within 10 minutes saying, yes, we’re ready to go now. 

Ange
Talk about a game changer of a strategy, right?

Andy
I also wanna point out here is, Kabooyaa is game changing, but you don’t need to be a Lifestyle Tradie member to use it. But we’ve set it up with our members in mind, and it’s seriously going to change the trade industry. That is K A B double O Y double A, go and check it out.

Ange
If this is something you want to learn more about, as well as other strategies to build and scale your trade business, then this is the time to reach out to us for a free game plan call. We’ve actually opened up Andy’s calendar again to help you if you’re struggling in your trade business.

Andy
Yeah, this is to help you get clarity on what to do next in your business to make more profit and gain back your time. So you’re not feeling such a slave in your business and looking at your business sometimes to get, this is a shit show. 

Ange
You said so eloquently. But you know what, true nonetheless. So, to reserve one of those spots, you can go to our website lifestyletradie.com.au or there’ll be a link in the show notes. 

Andy
It’s Tradie Dilemma time and this is our Q&A segment where you let us know what you’re having trouble with in your business and we give you our best advice.

Ange
Okay, so today we have a question from Michael in Victoria and he writes, Hey, Andy and Ange. I run a small maintenance plumbing business and I’ve been thinking about using email campaigns to keep in touch with my existing customers. But honestly, I’m not sure what to send or even how often. Any tips on making email marketing work without annoying my customers?

Andy
Yeah, it’s interesting. A lot of people always struggle with doing it because they don’t want to annoy the customers. Marketing is about putting your front foot forward. Do you have some pictures of jobs that you’ve done? Do you? Are there any new products out there? Have you got any special deals coming on? Even talking to make it a bit more personal about you and your family and what you’ve been up to. These types of things, testimonials, getting social proof. If you can start with doing it that way, mate, it seems a lot easier. Nowadays with chatGPT, you can bang out a lot of stuff really quickly. You do need to proofread it to make it sound like yourself, but if you do this, I tell you it may only be once a month. You don’t have to do it too often. But you can also bring out offers in certain times of year. You know, you might be, there might be fires around your area that could be floods. Whatever it could be, whatever time of year it is or Christmas time, you can put certain benefits in there too. And we always found that we get an open rate of around 30 to 35%,  which was great. And the difference, the headline is very important, but that definitely brought in more work as well. So if you do it constantly, It gets better and people see your name, even if they don’t read the email, your name comes up and they see your name time and time again, which is imperative for when someone needs your trade. The first thing that comes into their mind is your business name. 

Ange
Couldn’t have responded any better myself. 

Andy
Okay. Well, thanks Michael for sending in your dilemma. We really appreciate that. If anyone else has any dilemmas out there in your business, just reach out to us. We’re more than happy to help.

Ange
All right. That’s it from us crew. See you next time.

Andy
Subscribe to The Tradie Show, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.  Rate and write us a review or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.