We recently connected with Larry Motley Jr. and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Larry thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents raised me to understand no one owes you anything, and more often than not, it isn’t the person blessed with innate talent that wins, but the individual who deliberately works hard in a domain of excellence and never gives up. My folks were small business owners. I watched them struggle growing up, but also witnessed their determination to make it, especially when it got hard. Seeing them live the advice and values they taught me, left a lasting mark on who I am today, and how I approach problems. Running a small business has always been difficult, but the last two years have been some of the most challenging I have ever experienced. Those life lessons and values from my parents have given me the compass the and determination to continue going.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We are a full-service contracting firm professionally licensed both in Missouri and Kansas to perform home building, remodeling, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and septic services. We can design, size, install, repair and service any brand of heating and cooling equipment, plumbing and electrical systems and fixtures, as well as basic and advanced septic systems. Our passion is for high performance sustainable systems like ground-source heat pumps, insulated concrete form construction, European doors and windows, and heat pump water heaters. Our team leverages building science and best practices, coupled with knowledge across multiple trades to deliver better home solutions. We feel our organizations values, which are rooted in former military service of our ownership and employees, elevates our people’s performance and deliver superior client outcomes. For new construction projects, our advanced systems team can work directly with clients or integrate into an existing build team with an architect and engineer. For existing home repairs, or system and equipment replacements, we can contract with the homeowner or coordinate through an insurer. In any situation, our goal is to make it easy to do business with us and make the process seamless.
How’d you meet your business partner?
My business partner and I met while serving together in the United States Army. We met in 2004 on our first overseas deployment to Iraq. We discussed business and entrepreneurship over the coming years, and we both expressed an interest in doing something together. We got serious and really began discussing starting a business together during our third combat deployment in 2016. Upon our return, he finally made the decision to join me and the rest is history.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Our best source for new clients has been organic search results. Previously, we tried numerous lead generation sites, including all the popular ones advertised on television. We hired two separate firms to build and manage pay-per-click advertising campaigns, banners, and other search engine advertising, and even tried paid social media advertising.
Throughout our marketing and advertising journey, we learned some very hard and expensive lessons. First, there was not a single advertising service we paid for that delivered any ROI, in fact we lost money on every effort. Being data and analytic type people, we meticulously tracked our lead sources, the cost, and compared to actual sales. After tracking data on each effort, our analytics demonstrated, on average, we closed one sale for every 14 leads or clicks. With the average cost per lead at roughly $40, the total cost to acquire one sale, particularly for repair or maintenance work, almost always exceeded the cost of the work itself. This meant we lost money, sometimes hundreds of dollars per sale. Second, the quality of the leads through lead generators, and even paid search engine advertising, was very poor. This helped to explain to some degree, the low conversion rate found above. Many of the people clicking on ads, or using lead aggregators were not serious buyers, or were simply looking for the lowest bidder, not necessarily a good contractor, or best solution. Often, when we would attempt to contact the person, we could simply never reach them, or they would tell us they are not really looking to buy. Therefore, we found a mismatch in our target market and the market that uses those lead services.
Our research indicated, that to achieve sustainable organic search engine results, content is king, quickly followed by back links, and reviews. At the end of the day, we committed to producing relevant, original content in the form of free home education, showcasing our completed projects, and actively asking real clients for reviews. We published the content on our website at www.ushpg.com/knowledgcenter/, and found over time, the combination of content, projects, and reviews, have naturally, and steadily raised our organic search rankings and therefore results. This has been important for us because we are able to better capture our target market, specifically clients looking for durable long-term solutions to their problems. Most of the people looking for a long-term solution invest serious time learning and researching what they want to buy. Our content library makes us a solid fit. Although there is a real cost for the time we invest in developing content and documenting our projects, the results demonstrate we close one sale for every three organic leads we receive, and the cost is roughly one sixth the expense we were paying for lead generation services and paid advertising.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ushpg.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeperformancegroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HomePerformanceGroup/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/home-performance-group-llc/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/USHPG