Just a quick note to apologise, but I haven’t had so much to say for a few months.
But, I fly to India tomorrow to take part in my third Cycle India charity bike ride. When I get back in early February I should be refreshed and have lots to discuss.
In the meantime, don’t forget to sponsor me at: http://www.justgiving.com/Matthew-Glover-2012.
Dave Blakeman from RPS Roofwright has recently written an excellent eBook for home improvement companies wishing to learn valuable tips for how to improve their marketing and lead generation strategies.
In Dave’s words:
The conservatory and window market has become extremely competitive, especially over the last couple of years. Getting your marketing right is therefore absolutely essential.
Marketing doesn’t have to mean spending thousands of pounds on costly media campaigns or employing a marketing team. Most of the strategies that we cover in this e-book you can do yourself. If you do this right, following some of the techniques described, it won’t cost a great deal until you start generating real results (at which point every pound spent should be bringing many more back in).
The first section of the book looks at your prospective customer; how to recognise who they are, what they need, their value to your company and how to turn them into a paying customer.
We will then look at how to acquire a customer. I recently emailed a number of our customers and asked them what their biggest marketing challenges in business were today. The resounding answer: lead generation. We will take a look at the different methods to consider, how to put them into action, and very importantly how to test whether the methods are working.
Dave is intending selling the book for £50, but as an introductory offer and to help his fundraising effort for Cycle India (where he will be joining me on the plane next Friday) he is willing to send a copy to anyone who donates £20 to his Just Giving page:
http://www.justgiving.com/Dave-Blakeman
There’s further information about this offer on the following page on the Roofwright website:
http://www.roofwright.com/about-rps/cycleindia2012
I highly recommend the book. There’s a lot of common sense, cost effective ways to improve your marketing strategy, whilst also supporting a small charity doing great work with under-privileged children in India.
So, all you need to do is donate £20 (or more) on the Just Giving page, then email your confirmation to dave.blakeman@rpssoftware.co.uk and he’ll email you the book.
Like most of the UK population I find politics, and particularly politicians, a real turn off.
I didn’t vote at the last general election as I didn’t feel any political party had policies that were any where near the type of policies I could vote for. As I’ve got older I guess I’ve developed a more left wing bias, but the Labour Party is far too right wing for me to vote for. And, the main problem I have with the three main political parties is none of them take environmental issues seriously.
I would struggle to vote for any parties in other countries also. Democratic Governments represent populations who mostly cannot understand the complexity of the climate change problem, so they are more likely to act in the best interests of business leaders.
George Monbiot recently nailed it for me when he asked why is it so easy to save the banks but so hard to save the biosphere?
Here’s a section from his article:
Nicholas Stern estimated that capping climate change would cost around 1% of global GDP, while sitting back and letting it hit us would cost between 5 and 20%. One per cent of GDP is, at the moment, $630bn. By March 2009, Bloomberg has revealed, the US Federal Reserve had committed $7.77 trillion to the banks. That is just one government’s contribution: yet it amounts to 12 times the annual global climate change bill. Add the bailouts in other countries, and it rises several more times.
This support was issued on demand: as soon as the banks said they wanted help, they got it. On just one day the Federal Reserve made $1.2tr available – more than the world has committed to tackling climate change in 20 years.
It is considered unaffordable to work towards creating a ‘green’ economy, even though we have to do so for the sake of future generations of humans and other species of this planet. It is unlikely that we will have reached a legally binding treaty by 2020, despite the US and other countries discussing climate change seriously since 1988.
Just look at some of the decisions the current coalition government has reached. It has cut the feed-in tariff from 43.3p per Kwh to 21p and gave 6 weeks notice. Friends of the Earth estimate that between 18,000 and 29,000 jobs will be lost in the UK solar industry and has been granted a judicial review at the High Court to look into this decision. Solar power is not the main answer to the UK cutting emissions, but cutting the rebate sends out a very powerful message that the Government does not take climate change seriously.
The Green Deal was heralded as the centre piece policy of the greenest Government ever, but the more I have researched the topic and how it will aid our industry (which has a role to play) it is clear that they’ve created a policy which is likely to be unworkable and ineffective.
George Osborne said in his autumn statement that he was “worried about the combined impact of … green policies … on some of our heavy, energy-intensive industries”. He continued: “We are not going to save the planet by shutting down our steel mills, aluminium smelters and paper manufacturers.” If we carried on “with endless social and environmental goals … businesses will fail, jobs will be lost, and our country will be poorer”.
I just can’t bear listening to people like George Osborne or David Cameron talking about anything. They’re liars and cheats. And I won’t be voting for them at the next elections either.
I mentioned a month or two that I’m looking for a top sales executive to work with me on a new business venture which will be launched in February 2012 to the industry.
I still haven’t filled this position. The person I have in mind would be:
I’m needing to take someone on by the New Year. The salary and package is to be discussed and dependent upon relevant experience and skill levels. The right person will be well rewarded.
If you’re interested please email me with your CV to matthewATconservatoryoutletDOTcoDOTuk
Thanks
A charity has recently purchased £23,000 worth of new uPVC windows to replace some drafty, rusty steel windows, but the local planning authority has stopped them being fitted.
The new double glazed windows are meant for some 17th century Coventry Almhouses in Droitwich.
The Coventry Charity, which runs 43 almhouses, bought the windows to improve heating efficiency and ‘matched’ them to the style of building, with the plan to fit them before winter.
Even though the windows are to be fitted into an extension built in 1934, and the existing windows are not the originals, Wychavon District Council advised that the charity needed listed building consent, because the extension was attached to a 1688 building.
The case went before the district council’s planning committee and was refused, on the conservation officer’s advice, even though the Droitwich Civic Society and parish council raised no objections.
The conservation officer wrote that the new windows “would be harmful to the special interest of the listed building” to the dismay of the charity and its residents.
As the charity’s tenants pay a relatively small rent, and are mostly elderly, the charity was keen to make these energy efficient improvements with a limited budget. The case is now going to appeal.
Madness!
The original article can be found here.
One of my colleagues sent through the link to this scene from the film Glengarry Glen Ross, where Alec Baldwin drops in on a group of sales people to announce that the corporate office has sent him down to ‘motivate’ them. All but two of them will be fired within the week.
It is clear to me that there are plenty of lazy sales staff working at window companies up and down the land who could do with a kick up the ass. My colleague on an email to me stated:
The Glen Garry video is a hard nosed thing and really meant to sort the wheat from the chaff of salesmen who are always moaning that the leads are no good etc etc. I don’t like all the references to money etc but I think it puts people into that serious frame of mind and makes them think twice about not asking for the order and just sending quotes….
I’m not entirely sure. Clearly the clip is an exaggeration. I would guess that if Sir Alex Ferguson managed a sales team he’d use a fair amount of shouting and kicking boots around, but back it up with the private arm around the shoulder to give gentle encouragement.
I met with one of our industry’s best sales training experts recently and he suggested that the standard of selling in our industry has declined over the last ten years. What do you think?
The home improvement window, door and conservatory market is worth £3.7 billion according to the latest Palmer Report. That is a very significant market. Most industries of this size enjoy their own annual showcase, an event at which everyone in the industry meets to see new products and services, to discuss and debate new trends and regulations and to exchange ideas and of course, business cards.
We believe that our industry deserves – needs! – its own show too and so do many others within the glazing industry, at all levels.
That view is based upon months of discussions and comments and now we want to find out what the whole industry thinks. We want you – installers, fabricators, suppliers, everyone working in the glazing business – to tell us what you think, to give us your ideas so we can decide how we should move forward with our project, to stage a major event for the UK window, door and conservatory industry that will be worthy of this vibrant, dynamic and exciting market.
We need your help. Please spend a few minutes completing this survey so we can gauge what you and others in the industry would want from a national event. Your time will not be wasted.
In anticipation, we offer our thanks but as an added token of our appreciation all address-completed forms will be entered into a draw to win an iPad2.
Go ahead – Tell us what you think!
I found this comment on Kunstler’s blog and decided to share as it brings the US budget deficit figures down to a more manageable and understandable level:
Here is why S&P downgraded the US credit rating.
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
Now let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385
Assuming the budget deficits of the UK and European countries’ finances are at a similar level, it’s difficult to imagine how the politicians can come up with a workable long term solution.
If you’ve got a spare hour or so, then the following lecture by Dr Albert Bartlett of the University of Colorado is well worth a watch:
He gives a simple, and fully comprehensive lecture on the most important issues facing humans today and demonstrates that “the greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”
In other words, we do not see the consequences of steady growth. For example, 5% growth has a doubling time of 14 years.
If you consider how domestic gas prices have been increasing over the last few years, and then consider how this steady growth might pan out over the coming decades you’ll be surprised at how it looks. From 2004 to 2010 gas prices increased by 12.9%:
From recent news items it appears that gas prices have increased by more than 12.9% this year, but let’s stick with 12.9% and see how the coming years might pan out:
It may seem a bit far fetched to think that heating your home might cost over £20K in 29 years time, and I’m sure people will point out that gas prices can go down as well as up.
But, we’re running out of natural gas fast, and we’re importing more and more each year from overseas. There’s a simple demand and supply calculation at work here. Surely, if domestic gas prices have been increasing at 12.9% per year, then there is a strong message here that the UK’s housing stock needs urgently upgrading to provide better insulation and save energy.
The GGF energy saving calculator only allows for a maximum inflation rate of 10% as an option. Surely, there should be the option to calculate the future financial savings of fitting energy saving windows and doors, by comparing with more relevant recent gas price history. I would say, that 15% should be an option for consumers to consider.
I’m not sure how the Golden Rule will be calculated in the Green Deal, but again let’s hope that the powers that be are not too conservative with their inflationary predictions.
I believe that as an industry we need to put more effort into explaining to consumers how energy bills are likely to increase dramatically over the coming years, and how insulating their homes is way of future-proofing them from these increases.
And, if the gas supply stops altogether, then triple glazing particularly will be seen as a very good investment when we’re firing up our wood burning stoves.
