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Showing posts from 2016

New Sketch it Countertop App!!! BETA RELEASE.

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Website visitors are now able to sketch the kitchen measurements and email them from the website. the spark system captures and reports on the details in real time. This is a great way for customers to communicate the specifics of the job to the local professional right through the website. try it for your self.. http://granitemakeover.com/apps/sketchit/ Customer lands on the sketch it app Customer sketches countertop and measurements customer downloads the drawing to local computer Emails the sketch to the email address provided. Local fabricator reviews the drawing and is able to respond to the customer. requires: Sketch it Application account Spark access to receive and mange countertop sketchit customers FireUps® is the granite and natural stone installers source for instant exposure to local and national markets with strategically Targeted Online Marketing Campaigns and proven Web exposure. FireUps provides local online marketing services for the smal

Planning ahead - managing the retail countertop customer

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“Planning ahead” Fact: Less retail customers are in market around the holidays for kitchen remodeling activities. The best way to manage your business during this time is to be prepared. By changing your position in market with us we can keep your saws moving. Adjust your budget and strategy during this time can keep your business in the black. Also being ready for when the retail market bounces back in january Push harder with more budget - more budget means more exposure and more opportunity to sell to those that are still in market Increase perceived value – better deals - add incentives to sweeten the deal an increase sales - Attempt to maintain margin but know that good times are right around the corner. “stay the course” on budget and offers all stay the same. - depending on your positioning you will see a drop in opportunities if you change nothing. re posititioning for the holidays can help you manage this affect. Or simply prepare for the slow do

Planning ahead - managing the retail countertop customer

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“Planning ahead” Fact: Less retail customers are in market around the holidays for kitchen remodeling activities. The best way to manage your business during this time is to be prepared. By changing your position in market with us we can keep your saws moving. Adjust your budget and strategy during this time can keep your business in the black. Also being ready for when the retail market bounces back in january Push harder with more budget – more budget means more exposure and more opportunity to sell to those that are still in market Increase perceived value – better deals -           add incentives to sweeten the deal an increase sales - Attempt to maintain margin but know that good times are right around the corner. We can “stay the course” on budget and offers all stay the same. - depending on your positioning you will see a drop in opportunities if you change nothing. re posititioning for the holidays can help you manage this affect. Or simply prep

5 Proven Methods to Accelerate Sales before Year End.

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5 Proven Methods to Accelerate Sales before Year End.   During the holidays the retail customers expendable income points more towards holiday spending and travel expenses. They also are in the home and kitchen more and tend not to disturb this space. This shrinks the market and the available audience to market too. The best ways to combat this is with increased perceived value, budget, and efficiency in the sales process. 1. Work only on Qualified Opportunities – most sales executives work on unqualified sales opportunities because they do not have enough qualified sales opportunities.. Field new leads but focus on customers that are engaged, that are moving through the sales process faster. Ensure that these customers have more of your attention. 2. Accelerate Your Sales Process with Your Website – a buyer-driven website should guide every prospect through the buying process, educate and create preference for your solution and services. We already do this for you. N

Combat Slowing Retail Sales during the holidays and this election year

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Every year the retail customer is distracted from kitchen remodeling with black Friday spending, the holiday season activities' and travel. When this happens the market for custom countertops shrinks from the retail perspective.. Less customer interest drives up competition and increases costs associated to acquiring new customers. We are also being hit a little early with this election year and the consumer unrest that seems to accompany election years. We have the strategies to help you keep the saws moving and the cash flowing. How we combat seasonal slowdowns and election year uneasiness and increase opportunities for sales: - Increase the perceived value (change the offer to be more enticing to increase leads and closing ratio from available customers) - Increase the budget to increase your exposure (Current target market we are exposed to 30% of what is available)                 - Increase target areas (you do this after we reach near 100% of the current t

Important Notice - STATUS Update.

On Tuesday afternoon 2pm EST we started to see some performance hits to one of our web servers. We consulted with our IT team and are implementing a new firewall to protect the webserver from DOS "Denial of Service" attacks. A DOS attack is designed to disable a server from function properly. The issue is currently being address with minimal down time. FireUps® is the granite and natural stone installers source for instant exposure to local and national markets with strategically Targeted Online Marketing Campaigns and proven Web exposure. FireUps provides local online marketing services for the small to medium sized granite surface installers with a focus on the proven results that will increase your bottom line. Our teams expertise in direct to consumer marketing is second to none, and we want to share how we can help ensure your business is found by the pro-active customer who is searching for counter tops made from granite, stone, marble or other stone surfaces. Just

Quartz countertops are making a move - or are they

So one way that I gauge my research is on consumer search trends. This is a way that we can see what customers are looking for and buying or reasearching nationally. The link below shows us Granite vs quartz vs silestone vs concrete as far as search volume on google. I see an increase in quartz countertops Searches in the past 2 years. Granite search volume has remain steady for the past 7 years. In early 2000 silestone made a big branding push that you can see did not have the staying power. It looks like consumers moved to granite very quickly since 2007. I think the reason that quartz countertops are starting to see more search volume is that the market is becoming flooded with imitation quartz countertops at very inexpensive prices. These materials do not have the same properties of the leading US brands and the consumer is really paying the price because they don't know how to tell the difference. check out this link for countertop search trends Granite vs quartz

Fireups Launching Marketing Automation in the Spark Lead Management platform

We are in the testing phase of our marketing automation platform. Some leads are not created equal. We are adding the option to automate response to your leads. You simply create a standard response to an internet lead and the system does the rest. Drive the customer through the business process that works best for you! Example: Web lead hits the system for an instant estimate The system sends the customer the estimate details. Setup Automated emails Build an email that is sent out 24 hours later inviting them to call you. Send out the current offers email 3 days later - Don't miss these specials Send out the instant discount 6 days later offering free sealing with purchase. Automate the current specials email to go out every 30 days. With this kind of correspondence automated for you if the customer sis ready to buy and the email was valid they will see your call to action. The customer may opt out at any time and this action will dead the lead in the system for y

Online Estimating tool

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Click the Link Below to use the estimating tool. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dk0hp4b6nzJxJ5FHheBJGX8TGhe0GFmHeGs2KKHzKks/edit?usp=sharing Once it is open you can make a copy of it and use it for your next job. This Estimating sheet is designed to help you quickly estimate any job and will calculate square footage for you based on the measurement that you enter. This tool is designed for the average kitchen. Most larger jobs will need to modify this format but I was trying to keep it on one page. Then you can link to the file from the spark lead management system. Set the permissions on the estimate file. or Create a folder with your teams access permissions and add the estimate to that folder Grab the Share link and add it to the notes field in spark. FireUps® is the granite and natural stone installers source for instant exposure to local and national markets with strategically Targeted Online Marketing Campaigns and proven Web exposure. FireUps provid