Fire & Security directors! Beware of expensive mistakes!
Neither the marketing guy who cold called you. Nor the one you met through your networking breakfast will have the skills and experience to sell more fire protection and security systems.
How do I know?
Because we regularly meet colleagues from your industry who are repenting their first marketing investment.
They hired the smooth talking, shark-tooth necklace-wearing consultant who promised to publish 100 tweets and some blog posts every month.
Or they listened to the promises of an old-school marketer who said sending out some leaflets would be all you needed.
Take a deep breath and consider these two things:
- What exactly have they promised to do for you?
- And is it what you actually need to achieve your goals for the next five years?
The danger of choosing the wrong digital marketing agency
Those two bullet point questions remind me of the Fire & Security company who asked me how they could achieve their exit strategy of selling the company.
They wanted to build up the company so they could sell it and retire. Sounds like a good plan.
But, then they saw another agency.
And, the next time I spoke to them, their exit strategy goal had been completely FORGOTTEN!
This time they told me they didn’t need a website that would generate enough new leads and customers to make it an attractive purchase for venture capitalists.
No, they wanted me to quote them for a website that would allow their employees to log in and view the staff handbook.
Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s important… but it’s not going to help them sell their business so they can retire comfortably!
As mentioned here, the #1 DANGER to your ongoing success is choosing the wrong freelancer or digital marketing company to work with you. They may use bright, shiny things to distract you from YOUR agenda and promote their own skillset…
- An agency that specialises in web development will want you to expand your website so it does more coding.
- A graphic design specialist will focus on a rebrand so they can redo your logo and colour scheme.
- A traditional marketing company will want you to invest in leaflets or email.
BUT HOW DOES THEIR SOLUTION AFFECT YOUR LIFE AND GOALS?
An exit strategy requires a business that is growing so YOU can sell it. A staff handbook means it is easier for YOUR STAFF to find their employment documents. Which is not nearly as attractive to people who want to buy a going concern.
ELIMINATE the agency who want to promote their own agenda.
QUALIFY the agency that will help you get what you want!
I’ve got 4 minutes to see if I qualify to double my sales…
Questions to ask a digital marketing agency
1. Is the agency walking the walk?
It never fails to amaze me why some digital marketing agencies sell the service but don’t actually use it to generate leads for themselves.
Check their website. Is the agency actually doing digital marketing with regular blogging and social media?
Have they achieved successful results for other Fire & Security companies?
And find out how they learned to run ads? On their own £ or by spending other people’s money?
Perry Marshall, author of the world’s best selling book on Google Ads and our business coach, says his #1 tip for any business owner looking to hire:
- a Google Ads manager;
- a Facebook ads manager; or
- any kind of advertising agency
is to say ‘I want you to prove to me that you learned this on your own dime’
You see, there are two worlds – compulsory and voluntary
Some marketers go to university because it is compulsory. It is a follow on to the compulsory school that they had to go to.
And then there is the voluntary world – this is the people who want to learn. Who pay their own money to attend seminars with the best experts in the fields that they want to be expert in.
There is a funny way of spending your own money that learns ya!
That’s how Lollipop started out. I would be up until 2am watching webinars from experts in the US on how to do the various elements of digital marketing. And then start implementing them for Lollipop, whilst Jon was putting things into practice for his martial arts school in Birmingham.
Because that’s how you learn. It hurts when you get it wrong! And that continued exposure makes you much more cautious and careful with other people’s money!
All that pain bore fruit – our first retainer client was in Fire & Security. They had a website that didn’t generate any leads. A few weeks after their new Lollipop website went live, they had an order for £20k. And it only got better from there.
Six years later, the owner sold the business to a venture capitalist and retired. But the website just kept on giving to the new owners. By then, we were working with three other Fire & Security companies. And we were seeing patterns for success.
2. Is the agency testing, measuring and reporting?
Show me the data! Can they prove that what they do works?
Will they be reporting regularly to you so you can see it working for your business? Not charts with squiggly lines referring to high level numbers that have no bearing on actual traffic, leads and customers.
Lollipop were once asked to audit the Google Ads account of a very large company. It was being managed by a very expensive West End agency. None of the directors could understand the reports they were receiving.
We showed them how vast amounts of money were being spent and where savings could be made. We knew this because of our own experience.
We did this because we cared. It made us feel sick to see how much money was being wasted.
3. Proof of the pudding
Do they have recommendations confirming that what they will be doing for you actually works? Not just a testimonial that says “They were great!” You need to know what they were great at and whether it resulted in a positive return on investment for that business.
…you told me things about our business I did not know and I keep learning. I genuinely believe you would get as much satisfaction from us doing well as we would…
Carl Meason, Fenix Monitoring
How to do Marketing for a Fire & Security company
Hiring an agency to handle all your marketing can solve the problems of lack of time, technology skills or strategy. Your new team will also be able to introduce you to software and creative solutions that you might never have considered otherwise.
Introducing Lollipop’s Black Belt Sales Framework
It’s the 9-step process Lollipop have precision-honed over the last decade of working in the F&S industry
Black Belt Sales Framework for Fire & Security Professionals
The same methods we’ve used to bring in millions of pounds worth of work for Fire & Security clients since 2010
The exact same framework we used to pass leads worth £3 million to a Security Guard company in London. Earlier this year.
The same streamlined process that built sales pipelines worth millions for a Fire & Security installation company in Essex. Work ranging from £1,000 domestic CCTV installs to a million pound contract for a school in Essex.
Can Lollipop help your Fire & Security business to get more leads and sales?
There is an easier way to get
The Right Message in front of
The Right Person at
The Right Time
Click the link to answer a few questions so we can see how best Lollipop can help. And then book your call.