ArcSite Field Notes: The 45-Minute Close with Alex Jolley of FRDM Turf

The 45 Minute Close

Field Notes — Episode 1

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Field Notes. This is a new series from ArcSite, where we sit down with pros who are doing real work, and we're going to share what they've learned. I'm Nicole Kelly. Today's episode is called the 45 Minute Close. So we're talking about same day quoting what it takes to walk onto a customer site, walk out with a signed job that day. It sounds simple, but if you're sitting on this webinar, you know it's absolutely not simple. But we have someone here who has really cracked this and cracked this at real scale. Okay, so before I introduce Alex, here's what we're going to be covering today. First off, why being first to quote wins. Why does speed matter? Then, the step by step flow that Alex and his team uses to close in 45 minutes. Third, while you cannot ignore the emotional side of selling and buying and then finally that operational setup, how do you make it all possible? So some housekeeping we're recording. The replay will be sent to you either later today or sometime tomorrow. And then on the right hand side of your panel, there should be something for a Q&A. Drop your questions in there. We'll try to work through as many as we can at the end. And if we don't get to it, I promise you we will answer your question one way or another. Okay. Before I introduce Alex, I want to ask you

[01:30]

guys a question. When you walk out of a customer's house, how often do you leave them with a viable bid? Now, there should be a poll that's up, and I'm going to give you a couple of minutes or a couple of seconds, I should say, to answer that. Now, be honest, you know, if if the answer is never or not often. Well, that's exactly why we're here today. If the answer is sometimes, great. You're about to see how someone else built a repeatable process at a much bigger scale. And if you answered always like, please let me know. Drop me a DM. I would love to have you on a future episode, because I think that that would be really awesome to tell your story too. Okay, so I'm going to close the poll now and I'm going to get to like the really fun part. I am super excited to introduce Alex Jolley. Alex, for folks who don't know you yet, give us the 30 second version. Who are you and what is FRDM Turf do? Yeah. So yeah. My name is Alex Jolley. I'm the co-founder and CRO of FRDM Turf. So we are a turf provider in, you know, a few states Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Northern California. And then we just opened up Seattle and Dallas. So we started back in late 2022. 2023 was our first year and just bootstrapped it, right. Like a lot of you, you know, bootstrapped it. I come from a very long career of direct sales or the annoying guy

[03:00]

who knocked on your door so and brought that expertise, learned artificial grass, learned some more hardscape. And we've just built up a fun little company. Yeah. And it's it's amazing. I just have to give some context here for the people who are listening. This was a side hustle in 2022, and you grew it to $14.2 million last year. That's insane. So people when Alex talks about what works using this 45 minute closed process, this is not theory. This is like how he did it. So let's get into it because I'm really excited to talk about this. But first let's talk about some numbers. So thinking about this like 45 minute close. Like we want to talk about the why. Like why does speed to quote actually matter. Like what does that say. So this slide shows two numbers that we pulled from ArcSite Pros that are running the same day quoting process right now. 3 to 5 quotes. That's how many bids the average homeowner decides from. And that decision, as you guys know, comes in days, not weeks. But the really crazy number is the one on the other side. 85% AOV lift is what FRDM Turf saw when they went from same day closing their average ticket too, did not drop. It went up. It went up from 10K to 18.5K. So Alex like this is just really awesome numbers. And so you know thinking about this

[04:30]

in this process like walk us back like what happened before ArcSite. Like what did the quote process actually look like? Yeah. No. So that's a great question. Looking back. So really our first year, like you said, like we did a little side hustle in 2022. In 2023 is when we truly, you know, burned the ships for lack of a better term and went all in on this. You know, both my partner and I, we quit our jobs just went in. We actually used a satellite software tool and we would measure on there. We'd send it over to a, you know, a just like a really basic. It was actually QuickBooks. And we would just do line item by line item. And it was a guesstimate. It was not an estimate. And we just hoped that we made money. Right. We got a little bit better, a little bit more clean. But the issue was is like our our turnaround on bids was typically 2 to 4 weeks. It's probably similar to a lot of people on this this call. In 2023 is obviously you know our margins were lower. We were starting out. We were just getting hustle, you know, like we're just beating people on price. But the biggest issue in the bottleneck is like we would go to the house and there was absolutely no way, absolutely no way to walk out there with a signed contract. I was used to that my whole entire career, and I wanted to prove that we could do that.

[06:00]

So yeah, that was kind of what we started with was that, you know. Three, 3 to 5, hour build out of okay, we're going to have pavers over here okay. What's my exact cost? Oh I need to go talk to my supplier. I need to go talk to, you know, negotiate with subcontractors, whatever it was. And it was just a mess. It was an absolute mess. Yeah, that sounds like it. And so thinking about, you know, that initial process, I have to imagine that there was a lot of, like, guesstimates, a lot of like napkin math or, you know, as we call it, the tailgate math. So that 85% contract value increase, like just thinking about that. How much of that do you attribute directly to being able to include more products in the quote and like be more comprehensive with like your margins versus just closing faster? That's a great question. So we do believe that there's two competing factors. I mean, so even this year we're we're trending to about $30 million this year. So that's you know, we're doing about $1 million a week during this springtime. And we attribute it to two things. Number one is technology and speed right. That we have a integrated price book and product catalog where we've already set the price. We already know exactly what our margins are. We've set our our gross margins. We know exactly, you know, every part of our financial model. And it's because of like the like ArcSite back end

[07:30]

that we could do that because before it was just like, hey, sales reps, try to figure this shit out. Sorry for my language. So but also it's the straight line process. We call it the straight line method of selling, where we have a duplicate process where I can bring sales reps in, I can teach them this process. This is exactly the process. You bring your personality, bring your little, you know, notes and crannies, but follow this process to an exact tee. Follow the bidding process. Follow the exactly how we draw on ArcSite, like everything down to a tee. And we'll get into that. But I would say, you know, 50/50 maybe on both of those is like the technology specifically that that product and price catalog, so that we could always have consistency on our bids. Right. We could we could feel safe as a company that we are going to make money if we went and did these, these 45 minute closes. Exactly. And you had mentioned that specific process. And this is this is actually the heart of the matter, right. So I really want to get specific on here. Yeah. So I'm flipping over like I'm, I'm I'm sorry I'm showing your secret sauce here. This slide breaks down the four stages of your close. So Alex, take us inside of this like I know each one of these builds on the next. So, like, let's start from the beginning. When a rep shows up, like, what does that look like? Yeah. Well, so yeah,

[09:00]

just to break down this 45 minute close again, this was a process to figure this is a trial and error process. Because in 2024 I just want to start with this real quick. And then I'm going to hop right into this. Number one is it was trial and error. I was like, we have to figure out there's no way that we can hit our revenue goals because I have massive, massive like goals, like over the next five years, I want to I want to be a $100 million company. Right. And there's no way if we are not able to close enough estimates. Right. And then obviously then you got to figure out how to get it on the ground. Right. But if I can't close enough revenue, then there's no way. So in 2024, I kept tweaking it, I kept figuring out. And that's when I truly just dove into ArcSite and building out like a a true product catalog. But it takes you doing the upfront work for this to actually work. Like you have to have your pricing down to a tee. You have to know all your prices, all you know, hey, this is our price per square foot here. This is, you know, everything with some, you know, 10% margin of error so that you can actually pull this off. So that's just I want to start with that again emphasize the price book and product catalog. So number one going into the straight line close the 45 minute close is people buy from people they like. Right. So I, I call it for my sells reps. I say you need to build deep rapport.

[10:30]

You need to you need to have their shoulders. Because when you go into a bid, they think you're some weird contractor that's going to try to scam them, right? You know, I just had an HVAC guy come over to my house and I was just like, I don't want him inside with my wife and my kid. Like, it was just weird. But then he was able to get my shoulders from right here. I don't know if people could see me, but from really tight to relaxed to relaxed. So what I tell my reps is because I have introverts that work for me, I have extroverts. I'm very much of an extrovert. You could see me on a Sham-Wow commercial, right? But you know, a lot of my reps are introverts and I say look for trophies. The second that you go to a client's house is people love to talk about themselves. That's how you build rapport. It's not talking about you. It's talking about them and being interested in them. So maybe it's an old, you know, grandma that like, has a ton of photos of, like, her army of grandkids. What am I going to do? I'm going to stop. I'm going to take a five minutes. I'm going to have her talk about our grandkids. I'm going to genuinely care. Right. Sales is a transfer of energy. And you know that energy is true. Like be genuinely interested in people's lives. It's actually fun. It makes it like your life a hell of a lot better too, right? If there's like a huge, you know, elk on the side, you know, a taxidermy elk on the. I'm going to talk to him. I don't I don't hunt, okay. But I'm going to I'm going to say some stuff about it. Right. I'm going to get them talking about it. And because people

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want to talk about themselves, they want to share their trophies. Right. So by that time, you know, once you build rapport, I always try to get down to a closing table, right? Because deals are not done standing like that's that's a really important. I actually had one of my sales reps. What I think this was in 2024, I taught him this process. And you know, I taught him, hey, you need to get to a closing table right away. When you're building report, get them to sit down with you, even if you're out in the yard, even if you're doing remodels in the basement, you've got to get them sitting down to do this pre frame that I'm going to talk about. But he told me he's like, you know I made $35,000 this this month right in commission. And it was just because I got to the closing table right. I changed it up where I sat down before I went out into the yard to to do my measurements and everything. So anyway, so once you get the report, you get to the closing table, you set down your iPad, you set down whatever. Right. For us, it's turf samples. Then what you do is the pre frame right. Like imagine a door frame right. Imagine. And what a pre frame to me is I'm setting the agenda I'm creating safety. So they know exactly what I'm going to do on step two three and four. Right. But I'm also going to set the stage that I'm going to try to close them same day. Right. It's very weird. But I've just always like

[13:30]

if you set your intentions right, you will get people to listen more, but you'll also like just anchor them to like, hey, we're going to make a decision yes or no today, right? Because nobody likes wasting their time. Time is more valuable than anything. So this pre frame is really important. So I build the door frame right. The first things first is we're going to go out into the yard. We're going to walk the yard get your you know dream yard right. Or hey we're going to talk about where you want the turf. Then we're going to come back and we're going to choose products, and we're going to design your product or your, your, your yard. Right, right. That's like the top of the door frame. Then the next side of the door frame is then we're going to talk about price. Right. And then I'm going to I'm going to make the close, which is like walking through the door. Right. Which is hey, so Mr. Customer, there is some things going on. I have some marketing, you know, a marketing discount going on right now. I already have people in your area that have signed up as well. So it helps me cut down costs for you. But also if you're willing to put a sign in your yard, if you're willing to shout us out on social media, if you're willing to give us a five star review. If we earned it, then we have a really good price. So I'm going to show you two prices, Mr. Customer, and I'm fine with you choosing me whenever, but the first price is going to be my retail price. The second price is, hey, we're going to go and we're going to do this today. Price okay. You get to choose like you never want to say, hey, you know, you got to give me a yes or no right now. No. Like, you just say, hey,

[15:00]

I'm going to show you two prices. I'm incentivized to get, you know, your business. So I'm going to give you a really good deal if we can move forward today. Right. And then I asked at the very end of that pre frame, I say is there any objections to that. And if they say no then I know that you know okay. It's good to move on to the next step. Right. So hopefully that was not too much of a monologue for that first step. But yeah yeah. No. And it's fascinating when you had talked about like the measurement and the, the the drawing with the customer and honestly like even if you're not in turf and you're watching this webinar, this is applicable across any kind of like home services where you're you're providing a service and you've got to get the customer on board with like what that vision looks like. So, you know, thinking about the measurement and the design when when you were talking earlier, we were we were hearing you say your reps actually co-design with the customer. And I think that that's a really important distinction. So tell me a little bit more about like how that process works and how that changes when you co-design rather than just pitching at somebody. Yes, I love that. And I will say this, Nicole, real quick, this works for any home improvement, right? It's a collaborative effort. If you're doing a home improvement, basement remodel, restoration, HVAC. I did home automation. I've done, you know, solar roofing, right. It works for across the board. Right. It’s this co-collaboration so that's actually going on

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in the next step to talk about that is like first things first is is on this co-collaboration is I want to get them out into the yard. Right. We're leaving the closing table. We're getting out into the yard. I want to walk around with them. I am a big believer that motion creates emotion, right? And everybody buys emotionally and backs it up logically. That's that's my big thing is people buy emotionally. They back it up logically. So I get them out in the yard walking around. I start having them talk and collaborate with me on anything, even if it's just they're pulling out their sod and putting in turf. Right? A lot of my customers are doing full yards, right? They want a pergola. They want, you know, outdoor kitchen from us all, all the above. But even if they're just doing a sod swap, I want to get them out and I want them talking and collaborating. So why do you not like that? Your yard. Is it yellow spots? Is it this? You know? What is your picture perfect yard. I want them talking. I want them telling me exactly what they're. You know what they want, right? And I'm doing that before I go into the measurements. So with that I'm getting them talking. I'm figuring out, okay, before I came over, when were you looking to have this done right, asking those type of questions. Once. I kind of have a really like, an idea of what they want. I'm actually going to send them back in the house to look and look at samples. A lot of you have things that you just don't want the customer like, you know, where you have to like, like for us, it's measuring.

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We want to have our measurements correct. And if we're talking to the customer and measuring, it's it's not really fun, right? It's really hard to double task. So you know, I don't know HVAC like you're checking out the system. You send them back and say, hey, I'll come get you in like 15 minutes. I do my measurements really quick. We use Moasure. We use like different things that collaborate with ArcSite. We get the measurements and then we actually go back in the house and we say, okay, I got my measurements, Mr. Customer, let's let's get into it. I set down my iPad and this is where we like almost do like a Lego. Like do it like a Lego blocks. Right. And this works for like so many different home improvements where you can you can pull up a product catalog like we have it on our website where you can choose the different types of pavers, different types of rocks, you know, whatever it is. And then we have that pre-built into ArcSite. So all the sales rep has to do is simply, you know, hey, this is part is the pavers and clicks it and the price everything already just like automatically goes in there so my sales rep can focus on selling. That’s really impactful because math in the reps head right? Yeah. The catalog is preloaded. And I just want to say you have 118 products in some markets. And so building that catalog that your reps trust protects your margin and be able to show the customer at the same time is super impactful. Go ahead.

[19:30]

I just wanted to interrupt. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah with that, its collaboration with that like so you know we want to be able to, you know, have them feel some of the turf samples and be like, okay, this wild grass, you are going to absolutely love this. Like let's get this in okay. Let's look at the edging type. Oh do you guys want concrete curbing. Do you want paver edging. Metal edging. Right. So we go through the whole entire thing and build it out. The reason behind this again customers buy logically and buy emotionally back it up logically is I want them to like feel it. I want them to daydream with me. Right? I want them to feel an emotion and trigger an emotion. And this works for anything I hadn't. Like I said, the HVAC guy came over to my house and there were some issues with my HVAC, right? I'm paying a large sum of money to get this fixed, but he was able to like, almost paint a picture. When we were we were talking about what the issues were. Right. So this this works for even if you're not a design like per se, like, you know, landscape design, it can be for basement whatever, right? Roofing to fence. Like you could get collaborative. Yeah. And it's good for upsells too. You at this time. You can say, hey, you know, let's put some window tint on your, your window so it doesn't burn the turf. Right. For, for roofing you can upsell solar. You can upsell like, you know, the. What is that. I don't even know, like the stuff

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that goes in the attic that keeps your house cooler. That's the time when you are designing and you are bringing those up right? Now at that point, then we move on to the next thing, which is the price, right? This is like what everybody is scared of, right? And this is why I would say I don't know what the poll says, but I would say majority of home improvement companies are not growing because they are not showing price right away. Right? They are so like they're almost like even if they do have a way to show price, they're almost like, hey, I want to be outside of the house before they see it, so I don't have to be there, you know? Exactly. You know, I want I don't want to be there for the sticker shock. That bleeds into the financing irst close to I mean, obviously, like, that's a whole part of the process is giving them a price that's they see it's accurate. You're pulling it up right in front of them. There is no like hesitation or hey, how much are they padding that you're planning at that price right in front of them. And then you've got that financing first close part which is the next step. So leading to that. Yes, yes. So once we get into price the cool part with ArcSite is the price is just automatically like it builds ultimate trust with the customer because I put all the products in and then I just like simply take my iPad, turn it their way and the price is right there. How much trust does that build? Even if you like, are doing like,

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hey, we start high and we start working our way down with discounts. Like you can start high with your product catalog and make sure that you have like the discounts built in, right? Yeah, but the cool part is instantly, instantly because that builds trust, right? Is you are turning the iPad and they're seeing the MSRP, the retail price. Right. And that's the price reveal is I always want to bring up that price. Before I bring up the price, though, there's one question that I want everybody to to remember is, you know, during the design phase, I built rapport in the company I've built, you know, value in me as the sales rep. I've built value in the products. I am going to ask the question because they probably have some lurking questions. I'm going to ask, is there any other questions that would prevent you from moving forward today other than price? Right. Is there any other questions or concerns that would prevent you from moving forward today other than price? Right. That's an anchor question. It's going to tell them, like if they say no there isn't, then it's just, hey, we're going to get down to price, we're going to negotiate. We're going to get you, you know, a good finance rate, whatever. Right. So anyway, so I show them the price at that point I want them to sit and I want at this point it talks about your body language. You got to stay confident. You got to stay, you know composed. You can't like start over talking and over explaining. Right. She's like, hey, this is what our price usually is. I am by far the most expensive in my markets because I pay my,

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you know, my laborers. Well, I pay, you know, I want to have like a really good quality product because I know reviews matter and that will play into obviously this close as well. So anyways, so when I show the price, I always, always, always show finance. And this is how I bring up finance because nobody wants to finance deals. Nobody wants like it's it makes you sound like you don't have the money. Right. And for me, it's not about that. It's about safety. Right? So this is how I pitch finance. And this will work like my my biggest flex is when I, I sold this guy a $16,000 turf job. And you know, I had him zero down finance. And I asked him what's your income? And he said $676,000. I was like, well, why couldn't you pay cash? He's like, well, it's safety, right? It's safety between me and you. So what? What? I explain it now after, you know, having that guy explain this to me, I said, hey, Mr. Customer, I know that you probably can afford this with cash, but we are always going to do our zero down, you know, zero interest, you know, 12 months finance or, you know, a couple other plans that we can look at. Reason behind it is you need to be safe, that I'm not going to be walking away with 50%. And you know, you don't have any control at that point. And I also need to be safe when I give you a five star experience that you're going to pay me. So we're going to put $1 billion bank in between us, and it's going to keep both of us

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safe. It's almost like an escrow, right? That's how I explain it. And it makes sense to everybody. I'm like, hey, let's keep both of us safe. Let's let's just make sure that they're in between us so that you get the best experience possible. But also, I'm safe that I'm going to get paid as the contractor. Does that sound fair enough? Right. That’s genius, Alex. And also, just so you guys know, in case if you don't ArcSite we work with partners that also will help you provide financing if you don't have it already. 100% Sunlight Financial. That trust, and that safety, Alex. That's genius. And and you lead with the monthly payment. So like what's that about? Yeah. So so actually you guys integrated just very recently with Sunlight Financial. So we actually show I think, you know, I think my VP of Sales is having our sales reps show three different finance options and then really pitching finance. Right. But so I pitched that finance then you know they have that really high price. But then I always have just one price drop in there where I can just say hey. Well if you do this that and the other, then we do have a big price drop. I anchor them of like, hey, will you keep a sign up in your front yard? Yes. Are you flexible with the start date? Can we get moving on your project today? Yes. Okay, then here's the $5,000 off. Here's the $2,000 off. Right. Whatever it is. And then we just talk financing after that is like, hey Mr. Customer, we have this 15 year, $11.99 option,

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no prepayment penalty. Right. It's the same as cash. No, you know, bank fees, dealer fees, anything like that. And it's 150 bucks a month or we have this 12 month, no interest, no payments that, you know, you can just not pay anything for 12 months. So which one works better for you. Right. And then you kind of give them an option close. Right? I like that 12 month, no interest, no payments. Sweet. It takes me 30s to see if you qualify it. Just go get your driver's license real quick. I put my head down and just wait. Right. So that's it's a very quick synopsis. Sorry. I'm a talker. Nicole. So. So yeah, maybe it's not a 45 minute close with me. Maybe it's an hour 30. Right. So. With your reps. It's a 45 minute close. Yeah, yeah. With my reps it is so but yeah that's that's pretty much it. You know start high with the price. Have it built in your catalog. Always finance first explain the escrow explain safety right. And then option close with the finance options. Right option closed with like hey which one works best for you. And then once they say this one does. Okay sweet. Just go get your driver's license real quick and we'll go from there. Yeah. That's that's amazing. Okay. So we we went through the how which is fascinating. You dropped so many good details in here that really can be expanded.

[28:30]

But there's one thing that you mentioned that I want to go back to. And that's the emotional sale. You said it yourself. People buy emotionally and justify logically and I, I love this next slide. This is so impactful to show what an emotional sale looks like. You told us I got a text at 3 a.m. from a customer who said, I just can't stop thinking about the design, we have to do it. That is absolutely an emotional sale. Nobody wakes up at 3 a.m.. Thinking about something that's like, we got to do this without having some emotion involved. And so like, give me a little bit of insight. And how do you build that with a customer? Obviously from the visual proposal that you create and you co-create with them and thinking about like everywhere that like home services touches it, it impacts somebody's home, which is a very emotional place. Yes, yes. So a couple things with this is yeah, people buy emotionally back it up logically. The design phase is huge. It's massive, especially if you have multiple products. Your basement remodel for us, we actually on most of our bids like number one is ArcSite has really amazing freedom on the proposal tool. So you can build in like I can build in like, hey, this is how many five star reviews we have in Utah. We have different contract. We have our Colorado contract. It has like a whole proposal of like, hey, this is how many gallons of water you're going to save, right?

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This is, you know, all the different like specs of the turf. This is your warranties, right? We can get really extensive on that. So if they do not close on that first time around and you're like, hey, okay, so you have three days to make a decision or whatever, then they have something to like, look at to justify them into it. But also the emotional side of it, like that design. So the second part of that is we actually take Google Earth images and we screenshot those. We use the collaboration tool on ArcSite when we go out and measure the yard so that we can just like have their house right there. Right? So it's literally their house on the bid. Right? And it works for us in landscaping. Maybe it, you know, is a little bit different. But then we have I actually have my back end ops guy who has created, you know, custom, you know, product packages like pickleball courts that actually look like pickleball courts, like all of our products have different color schemas, everything like that, so that when we put it on paper, it actually looks like a real true backyard. Like in ArcSite, you can actually make it like where like grass looks like grass. It's not just like a green color. Like you can make it look like grass. So it just it creates a very, very much, a very much a a realism to it and a connection to it where it doesn't give them enough, where they're like it gives them enough that they're still dreaming. Right? They can still

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they can picture it in their brain. It's still that 2D, right. And so once you leave that with them and you've they've created it with you, right? Emotionally, they've created it with you there. They're anchored on that, on that design. Right. Especially when you have multiple bidders like you co collaborated with that. That's that's like it was you and them working together. You were the assistant buyer. Almost right. You weren't the salesman. You were the assistant buyer. So the other part I just want to touch on this like 30s is there's three things throughout designing. Like when you're in the house, there's three things that you have to build emotionally. And then you can have all the logical cases like, hey, you know, ours is like it's a 5 to 7 year payback period with turf versus sod, right? You know, it's a good investment, not just a fun no maintenance, all that stuff. But but there's three things that you need to build and I call it the three tens. The three emotional tens, right, is that you need to build an emotional value on you. Right? They need to be sold on you as the salesperson in their house or the estimator in their house, their contractor, the owner in their house is they need to be at least a seven out of ten on you. And, you know, that's maybe showing a little picture of your wife and kids or connecting with them on something like with the report. Right. And just showing your expertise. Right? Knowing your stuff. Right. Knowing archetype before

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like we have a lot of reps start out and you know they don't take my archetype training serious. And then they go into a house and they look kind of like they're slower. Like know what you're doing before, right? The next one is the product. Right. You have to get them emotionally tied to the product, whether it's like bell guard pavers for us, it's the in-ground trampoline, whatever it is like, I want them to picture it like picture their kids on it. And the last one is the company, right. For us, it's, you know, we do a lot of like high end homes for really cheap so we can get really good marketing so we can show people like, hey, look at these high end homes. We do these home shows, we do a lot of commercial projects, like the whole zoo in Utah, and we have a video with, you know, all this stuff with the like just a bunch of social credibility about the company, but also five star reviews, like, my business partner is meticulous on our on our back end of getting five star reviews and showing that. So those are the three emotional like tens that you need to get certainty in, right? Yeah. And if you can build that those emotions in those three sectors, typically they're going to move forward with you. Okay, cool. That's really good information. And a lot of times sometimes business business owners are just moving so fast they don't think about that emotional side. So awesome that you like dug into it. Yeah. You're sitting here and you're probably watching like, yes, this 45 minute close is awesome. I want it, but you got to

[34:30]

go back to your business and there's prerequisites that you need to have in order to make this work. So the operational setup really helps make all of this run. And so Alex, I know that you you've put this into practice when you're looking at these three different things that it takes to like run this way. What do you think is like most important I put them in order of like priority for me. But what's your priority order? Yeah. So out of these three, like operationally, number one is you hit it right on the head is pricing that your reps don't have to remember. We have a fixed margin on everything we pay top line revenue on on all of our projects so they know, hey, I'm getting a percentage of the contract. You know, there's a little bit of like gross margin split that a little bit of variable pay based on like, you know, their skill set and everything. But number one is like if your reps have to remember pricing, especially if you have multiple prices, like you have multiple products, you are always going to lose, you're always going to have like, you know, a two week turnarounds, one week turnaround for a bid, three day turn around for a bid. And that to me is losing because somebody got their numbers in first. Right. It's the you know, for me it's always like, hey the first two that customer, the first to build that emotional value. Like they don't want to go through that process. Like, you know, for me,

[36:00]

I've chose the first HVAC guy. Right? I don't want to go meet with like three other guys. Serious. Like just the first guy who gave me the numbers. I said, you know, hey, this seems right. Asked a couple people, boom, let's let's sign the contract. So. But pricing that your reps don't have to remember, right? I love the back end of that. That changed our company like that literally went from we went from $2.1 million to $6.7 million the following year just because of having a price book. And then we could add more products to our contracts, right? We could add more contract value. Native tooling. Yes. So Apple Pencil and the well for me, Apple Pencil, there's I don't know what the Android version of that is. Right. But that is huge. That is massive because that mobile native tooling is like you can literally draw it with the customer right then and there. You can screenshot, you can, you know, put a collaborator or calibration of the the measurements in there. If you're doing landscaping, it's it's massive. It's massive. I would say that. And the finance baked in are probably tied for two. But the financing is key right. It's so much easier to get $150 a month payment

[37:30]

than it is to get a $10,000 deposit. It's so much easier. Like think about that. Like, oh, I can sell 150 bucks a month. Way easier than talking this person to go get a cashier's check where they have a ton of time to think about it, right? It's like, no, let's get them. Let's get them that monthly payment. No prepayment penalty. Let's move forward. That's awesome. So I'd say those are tied for two. Okay. Fair enough. And you mentioned a little bit before. And I just want to circle back because it's about ArcSite. You mentioned that your account team at ArcSite basically dropped everything to get you and your team trained at the beginning. So for contractors who are skeptical, software companies won't support me, what would you say to them? Yeah, it's pretty fun. It's actually been pretty fun to watch ArcSite grow too. You know, I don't know when the company started, I should, but Alex, I think he's like the VP of sales over there. Alex, he's he's still there? Yep. Okay, I love Alex. I think he's freaking awesome. So he was actually. Oh yeah. He was my original sales rep that I worked with. And he just like it felt like more of, like a small vibe, but it felt like they actually had their stuff figured out. Well, ArcSite had their stuff figured out because I've worked. I mean, we have to work with a ton of software companies, and they're either too big where they're not willing to adapt and change and evolve for you, or they're too small

[39:00]

that they don't have their their coding figured out. They don't have their software figured out. They're still like just trying to get more customers to like, give them like, answers of what they need to fix. Right. It was it was fun because ArcSite had that small vibe of like, hey, we're going to take care of you. But also the big enterprise feeling that they could handle the capacity right, of what we were going to bring them. So it was it was really cool at the beginning. I asked them, because I am a difficult customer, I am very, very difficult. Like if you ask any of my vendors, they probably don't like me because I'm pretty intense on pricing on all this stuff. We love you Alex. That's great. But I told him, no, you have to have somebody, you know, come and train my team. I'm not going to do it like, you guys got to be here. You guys got to back me up. So Patrick, they're like, was so awesome at the beginning, you know, would get on with all my reps, listen to their like, little like, what about this? What about that. Right. And then the last one is they continue to work with me specifically and my team. Like if we need to add more seats, if we need this change or that change or like, hey, how do we like I mean, we just we signed up for Service Titan as our CRM and we needed some custom like, well, not custom, but just like some work done on ArcSite’s side. I didn't have to worry it like ArcSite just took care of it. Like just

[40:30]

absolutely took care of it. Made sure that we were taking care of on that, on that integration and where I didn't have to worry. So awesome. And sorry I had to give a plug for us, right. But I was really curious, like what that looks like, because a lot of people, when they're thinking about signing up with software company, they're like, oh, how hard is this going to be? So thank you for that. Yeah. Well can I throw this in? I'm not selling ArcSite when I say that too. That's like the honest truth. I hate most software companies. Like, I'm just going to be straight. Like, I freaking hate most software companies because they overpromise and underdeliver. ArcSite’s been awesome. So they really have. Well thank you. Yeah. And you had mentioned at the very beginning that you were expanding into new markets. And I just want to I just want to touch on this because I think it's insane. You are expanding into new markets in days, not months, not weeks in days. And this quote that you said earlier really is impactful because I think it's a little counterintuitive, right? Most people think about scaling and they think about addition more products, more like services that they offer. And you said absolutely the exact opposite. So just help me unpack this a little bit for people who are thinking, hey, I really like this process. I really like the idea of growing my business, and then you're growing it from the process of elimination. Yep. Yeah. So two books I'm going to plug two books

[42:00]

that everybody on this call, anybody who listens this needs to like if you're a business owner you have to listen to these books I listen, I don't read, I have too much ADHD. So it's The Science of Scaling is number one. And then 10x is Easier than 2x We as business owners do so much 2x activities like 2x return activities, we should eliminate those or automate them, delegate them and only focus on the big picture the 10x right. It's like how do I do $30 million from $15 million, right? That was my big thing is like, okay, how do I do that? Right. And I needed to eliminate a lot of things we eliminated. So it was funny. Like back in 2024, I was very ambitious. I tried to I actually tried to go to some of these markets, but I had too much crap going on. I like I had, I was like, oh, well, on this bit, they want this, right? And the second that I decided when we go to a new market, all we're going to offer is turf edging and rocks. Right? I'm not going to offer anything else. And if somebody comes and says, well, do you do this? Do you do pavers? No we don't. Right. And that's like because I'm trying to find those simple jobs to get scale first. So I eliminate most of my products when I go to a new marketplace instead of like, you know, bring my whole like. So it's almost a phased approach. It's like phase one, two and three. The other thing is like, stop doing the minutia

[43:30]

if you can find something to delegate. If somebody can do something 70% as well as you, you should delegate that, because your job as a business owner is to build the vision and focus on the 10x activities. That's that's amazing. And that's such a unique way of looking at it. Sometimes when you're just heads down and you're really trying to like, be that player coach, to take that step back and say, hey, like, I want to scale and I got to delegate. I've got to eliminate some things to get me to where I want to go. And so thank you for sharing that. Now, I know it sounds overwhelming and, you know, we want to make this actionable. So there are three things you can do this week that don't require you to overhaul your whole business. And so out of these three, Alex, is there one that you suggest that people would do first? I would say two and three. I'm really bad at like tracking things. So that's probably why I don't say one, because I just I want to get to the next thing. Right. I have my data guys to figure out the data part. And I just say, send me the numbers. Right. But the pick one product line and lock it's pricing, especially if you're using ArcSite, that you better be doing that like 100% stop. Like the mental fatigue is so real in business and mental fatigue, even for your sales reps or for you if you're going and doing

[45:00]

your bids, is so so it's it's it takes away from, you know, attracting more customers. So take like that automation that ArcSite that gives you you pay for it right. And build it in. Right. It's so easy to lock that in. So you know exactly that. You're always making money on these projects. Make sure you know your margins. Make sure you know your break evens. Like, hey roughly, we're going to be 10% in between this number, right? $5 a square foot, whatever it is. And then just send it like try to follow that process, try to say, hey, we're going to get to a decision today. I'm fine with a no, but I'm not fine with a think about it. Right? Like, even if you want to be bold like that or you want to be like me, where I'm like, hey, I'm going to show you two prices. I think it's worth moving forward because this price could be way better, right? But yeah, just try it. Like that was like my biggest thing is, is businesses scale based on how quickly they're willing to fail, right? Like, failure is not a bad thing. If you embarrass yourself. It's not a bad thing. Like, you know, what's a bad thing is if you are so, like, stuck in your ego that you're not willing to just like, like get rejected, like, or, you know, send it and be wrong and then like, have to go back, like there's so many things that I've had to go back on. Right. So I would say those two, two and three. Yeah. Just send it with the same day close attempt. But make sure that you proper preparation prevents

[46:30]

poor performance. Have your products and your product catalog locked. That's great advice. And if you're really interested and like anything that resonated with you today, you can take the next step. First of all, we'll have an in-home close checklist that will be sending to you probably next week. For people who have attended this webinar, also the ArcSite Workflow demo. If you're not a customer of ArcSite, what are you waiting for? Call us up. We would love to walk you through the demo. If you're a current customer of ArcSite, and you're not doing all of the great things that Alex is doing honestly, like call your your customer success rep, figure out how you can add in elements to really get you to where you can do the 45 minute close. And if you're as fascinated by Alex's story as I am because I think it's an amazing story. The full story is on our website at www.arcsite.com Alex, thank you so much. I am so, so grateful that you walked through the steps with us. We've got barely enough time to get some Q&A. Rest assured, if we don't take your questions now, we will absolutely reach out to you. I have to put my reading glasses on to be able to read your questions, so give me a second. So it says that. Oh, and Nate put a shout out here. If anybody's interested in using ArcSite

[48:00]

for payments and financing, Nate Wurth is the person who will get you hooked up. He's he. If you want to send them an email it nate@arcsite.com and he can get you a demo booked. I know Alex talked a lot about the financing tools and Nate can get you set up. So one quick question that we have in here. And I think we've got enough time for contractors who can't do same day because of complex scopes or permit requirements. What's your advice? That's great. So there is some situations and circumstances where the bid is too complex, right? Schedule a turnaround visit. Schedule a turnaround visit. So do not show pricing until you're ready to close. Do not show pricing until you're ready to close. But do not just email the bid right, especially if you're using ArcSite. There's a design aptitude tour. Even if you want to explain every line item, you have to be in person, right? You have to be at a closing table. You got to be sitting down a phone call like you can get away with it. You just won't have as high of a closed percentage. But if you like, have a two touch close, right? That's fine. Don't show pricing on. Don't even like hey, I, I'm not even going to give you a crazy number because it just it might be way off. Let me get the numbers together and then we're going to schedule a turnaround visit next week. And we're going to sit down and we're going to really,

[49:30]

you know, work through these, make sure all decision makers are there. Right. That's that's the anchor for that second, that second meeting okay. So yeah that's what I say. Yeah. Awesome. Great great response, too. And we have a question that says do you have issues with scaling when using an uploaded Google Earth image of the customer's residence? Do you have any issues with that when you use that? Yeah, sometimes. So we so Google Earth is free if you want to use a free tool. There is also another tool Meermap that a lot of you know, I, I have a lot of data on too. It's based on usage, but they have a little bit more like accurate measurements. Number one for calibration I make all my reps still like double check measurements in person, right? Okay, this concrete slab is ten feet. Then I can make sure that I, you know, calibrate it correctly on ArcSite ten feet. Right. But Meermap is really accurate. And they upload satellite imagery quicker. It's just expensive. You know it's another cost. So if you can get away with Google Earth, like get away with it. But if you're out in the rural areas, like you might have to invest in your map. Fair enough, fair enough. Well, I know we're we're getting really close on time. So I just wanted to be able to wrap up here. Alex, first of all, thank you so much. Oh, actually, we have one more question that came through really quick. We've got like two more minutes left.

[51:00]

We are in the rain gutter business and the average job is 3 to 4K. We've never offered financing as we assume the customers we’re after will have the cash to cover. What are your thoughts? And I know you talked a lot about like using financing to build trust. So I know you've got some thoughts on this. Yes. So finance. It's still like a $2,000 50% down payment. That's way harder to sell than yours would be like $25 bucks a month, $40 bucks a month, whatever, or a no pay for 12 months. You can say, hey, we have a promo going on right now, no interest, no payments for 12 months so that we can get this rock and rolling I already have a couple people signed up in your neighborhood. I can give you a huge discount if you can move forward today. I know that you got to figure out money, so I'm going to give you 12 months to figure out money. Like, let's just put that bank in between us, right? Always. Like, I don't care if like I used to do home automation, they are about 5000 bucks. We do some permanent lighting during the winter because landscape slows down. That's about 5000 bucks. Finance, finance. Finance. Always always finance. So yeah. Try it. I would be interested to hear you should DM me on what what it's like it's Alex_Jolley Jolley J-O-L-L-E-Y on Instagram. I would be interested to hear if it's successful or not. I think it will be. I think it will be too And I'm plugging Nate once again. nate@arcsite.com if you're interested in any of the payments or financing options that we offer,

[52:30]

well, we are actually a little over time. Alex, I know it's your busy season. I am so grateful that you took the time to, like, sit down and talk with us. Give us, give us the secret sauce that is making FRDM Turf We really do appreciate having you here. And you know what? I might have to bring you back on for another episode of Field Notes at some point, but maybe not during your busy season. Let's do it. I love it. All right. Well, thanks everyone for joining us and we will definitely see you next month. Thanks so much, y'all. Bye. Thanks.

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