From Cold Leads to Clients: Branding, Chatbots, and Retargeting Strategies with Jacques Skuteeki

Jacques Skuteeki (00:00)

20 times in a year. I may only open my emails for you maybe only five times out of 20. But it doesn’t matter. When you come in my inbox I see your subject line. I know it’s you. So what are you doing? You’re building your brand and you are being kept top of my mind. You’re top of mind now. So when I have an issue and I want to find an answer you’re my number one go-to person.

Dylan Silver (02:02)

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a business innovation strategist who splits time between New York and Las Vegas. Please welcome Jacques Skuteeki. Jacques, welcome to the show.

Jacques Skuteeki (02:20)

Well, thank you. Thanks for the invitation.

Dylan Silver (02:22)

It’s

great to have you here, Jacques. We were talking at length before the show here. We have a funny connection, which is you’re connected to Caldwell, New Jersey. I was born in that area, Livingston and grew up in Caldwell and West Caldwell, New Jersey, went to James Caldwell High School. It is a small world. ⁓ But aside from that, you know, what you’re involved in

is very much relevant today. We live in a hyper consumption society. People are spending so much time online and you’re involved in digital automation and in follow up and engagement. Walk me through how you got into this space.

Jacques Skuteeki (03:07)

Well, our theme is ⁓ because leads fall through the cracks, you need automation. And we created a proprietary template called 12-step cash flow. Why I got involved with digital marketing is very simple. ⁓ From my career in the pharmaceutical industry, import-export, and I guess for about 10 years in the trade and barter industry.

Everybody in that industry was complaining about excess capacity, excess inventory, like empty seats, not enough appointments in their book. And at the end of the day, when COVID happened, I sold my business. And I noticed that that was not the problem. The main problem was they did not have enough leads. They didn’t have leads. And then leads can come from anywhere. It can come from

it can come from paid ads. can come from your social media. can come from something they call now lead lead capture pages. And how I got involved with the concept is I said, okay, let me understand the sales cycle, the customer journey. And we figured out with my team that the customer journey has got three phases. Leads, strangers, prospect, friends, clients, family, leads, prospect and clients.

And what I noticed is that we have to stop selling and start engaging. Everybody loves to spend. Everybody loves buying. Nobody likes to get sold too. So our concept is capture the lead, make a prospect. Now you educate them. And when you educate them, you start building what they call touch points.

Dylan Silver (04:35)

Hmm.

Jacques Skuteeki (05:45)

Some other people say, you follow up on your new prospect, but those touch points create, build trust, like an understanding in what you do. And people buy because of the gut feeling, because of the connection they have with you. They don’t buy on price. Prices, you know, maybe sometimes it’s a 30 % in the decision process. Sometimes it’s 70%. It just depends, right? What you’re selling. But the connection is so important.

Dylan Silver (06:00)

Yeah.

Jacques Skuteeki (06:15)

And that’s what most of the people don’t do out there. They capture leads and they start sending benefits and benefits. No, you buy a solution when you have a pain, you have a pain point and you buy a solution. The only reason you’re buying a solution, and this is really important, is because you want to have a better future. So how does your future look like when you buy this service, this thing? How is your

Dylan Silver (06:37)

Yeah.

Jacques Skuteeki (06:44)

going to look like. And when you have that type of a conversation through education, then you shorten the sales cycle. And that’s how I got involved in this digital marketing thing. And now specifically with roofers, because I really understand what their problem is.

Dylan Silver (06:53)

You know.

You you talk about leads and being sold and people not wanting to be sold and engagement. You know, this is more important now than ever with the amount of consumption that people are. Everyone really is spending so much time, whether it’s tablet, phone, computer, you know, YouTube, you’re consuming media. And so in part of that, if you’re able to get useful information out to folks, that’s a touch point. It might not be.

me saying, hey, I’m a real estate agent. Do you want to sell your home today? And then me just hammering that and hammering that. But information about, you know, in my space, how to buy your first home or how to sell a property or how to, you know, form LLCs and maybe invest together. I’m curious in the roofing space, when I think about roofing, especially since I’m a Texas realtor, Texas licensed realtor, I think about kind of

storm chasing or disaster chasing and this type of thing. And that seems to be what’s kind of been the model. So is that still for the most part what people are relying on or are there other strategies that you advise folks where, hey, you don’t have to be chasing storms.

Jacques Skuteeki (08:17)

You mean as a business owner, as a roofer? Well, they, ⁓ okay, so the customer journey is the sales cycle in the mind of a roofer. They have all different sales cycles, right? Some of them, their customer journey is only networking with the chamber. Other ones, what they do is they buy a lot of ads, right? Other ones, they spend their days on social media, posting like crazy. So the way they capture leads,

Dylan Silver (08:20)

Yeah.

Jacques Skuteeki (08:47)

is very different, right? From one roofing company to the other roofing company. Now, depending on how they go out there and they’re on Thumbtack and there’s all kinds of websites that are really crummy, they’re being paid per lead. Let’s say there’s a storm, right? And now what happens is people are looking for a roofer. They go to these paid, they go to these free websites called, like for example, Thumbtack.

Dylan Silver (09:06)

Yeah.

Jacques Skuteeki (09:15)

but the roofer’s gotta pay 50 or $100 for a freaking lead. When he or she gets that lead, that lead was also sold to three or four other roofers. Now you’re in a bidding contest. Who’s gonna have the lowest price? Because there’s no bond. There’s no bond between the homeowner that has a problem in the roofer. And that’s not good, and roofers don’t like that anymore. So of course, if you brand yourself as a roofer,

Dylan Silver (09:33)

Right.

Jacques Skuteeki (09:42)

with your postings or with your advertising as a specialist for storms, people will start recognizing you or they’ll start tagging you that that is your expertise. But it really depends because when there’s a fire and your home burnt down or there’s something happens in Florida, mean, everybody wants that thing repaired tomorrow morning.

Dylan Silver (10:01)

Yeah.

Right.

Jacques Skuteeki (10:10)

It’s very complicated unless they have really good sales skills. It’s complicated because you have to have the right skills. If you do, it’s easy to convert a lead into your customer as a roofer.

Dylan Silver (10:57)

I want to ask you about follow up in this space, in the roofing space. I’m a little bit fish out of water because I’m not in roofing, but I have familiarity with it being in a real estate guy, especially in Texas where you you get lots of hail, there’s storms, there’s tornadoes, right? But follow up in the roofing space, I can imagine it is more time sensitive, right? Because hey, someone’s got to make a quick decision. Maybe their roof is damaged.

in many cases they have lots of different options. What does follow up look like or does follow up begin really even before they make that first point of contact like when they’re putting their content out to the public.

Jacques Skuteeki (11:39)

This question applies also to real estate agents. Real estate agents have the same problem. ⁓ A very small word called branding means a lot. When you are in a market and you brand yourself, don’t want you to…

There’s no questions to be asked on why only one out of 10 real estate agent is making money because nine out of 10 don’t know how to market themselves. They don’t know how to market themselves. They don’t know how to brand themselves. They don’t know how to be recognized in that market as the best. Same thing with the roofer. So what the roofer needs to do is ⁓ what’s very powerful and inexpensive is a chatbot on your website.

Dylan Silver (12:18)

you

Jacques Skuteeki (12:31)

Ours is called Chanel. She doesn’t eat, she doesn’t drink, she’s available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and she’s witty. She creates engagement. So that’s one tool. Another tool people use is Google Business Profile. If you really have a good GBP, which is free by the way, by Google, it’s the optimized website on your phone, Google Business Profile can bring you in a lot of leads.

Dylan Silver (12:31)

Hmm.

Thank

Jacques Skuteeki (12:59)

and it doesn’t cost $20,000 like a good website. So there are tricks out there. are marketing tools and social media is another conversation. I’m not going there today. The social media says, hey, I’m alive, I exist. No one’s gonna read your 17 posts. Trust me, they don’t have the time. So there are marketing tools that are out there that are very powerful, very cost efficient that allows you to be recognized.

and how you invite somebody in a conversation to create engagement is by education. You say, hey, would you like to find out more how you can fill out an insurance claim for your roofing problem? Would you like to find out a little bit more about how to prepare your house when you wanna sell it in six months or two years, right? Now you’re creating a connection.

Dylan Silver (13:36)

you

you

Jacques Skuteeki (13:55)

So when I put my name and my email and my phone number in your system, in your landing page, in your email capture page, it’s a mini website, right? Now you’re sending me information. Wow, I read it. It’s short, sweet, K-I-S-S. I keep it short, sweet, and stupid. Now you’re educating me. Now you created a touch point. Two weeks later, you send me something else. And when you do that, for example,

Dylan Silver (14:18)

Right. ⁓

Jacques Skuteeki (14:24)

20 times in a year. I may only open my emails for you maybe only five times out of 20. But it doesn’t matter. When you come in my inbox I see your subject line. I know it’s you. So what are you doing? You’re building your brand and you are being kept top of my mind. You’re top of mind now. So when I have an issue and I want to find an answer you’re my number one go-to person.

You’re my number one roofer. You are my number one real estate agent. And it’s very simple. It’s 100 % automated. It’s extremely cost effective. Not much money to be spent to have automation. In automation, that’s what automation does. It allows you to be top of mind. People remember you. And also you engage with them. So now they’ve

Dylan Silver (15:56)

Yeah.

Jacques Skuteeki (16:03)

Now you’re building like trust and understanding in what you have to offer.

Dylan Silver (16:07)

You mentioned the subject line in the email and how they might not even open. I’m thinking as we’re talking about my own email inbox and how I haven’t opened so many of them, but that when I did want to go buy flowers recently, I remembered the subject line of the email that had flowers in it and I went to that business. I didn’t even open that email. I just remembered the subject line. So a lot of people who may be listening may be thinking, well, yeah, but who’s going to read the email?

And to your point Jacques, it doesn’t even matter. You’re in their inbox. They’re gonna remember the subject.

Jacques Skuteeki (16:42)

Yeah, and when you invite, you’re not selling anything. If you sell and when you send emails, if you are selling, you’re not gonna be opened. But if you’re giving free information, if you’re educating, you’re just saying, hey, you wanna find out more about, know, roofers say, they got a roof, it’s only good every 20 years. Hell, yes, but don’t forget that when you are a roofer, you can educate them. What is…

What type of maintenance do you have to do on a roof every year, every five years? That’s free. And make an offer to them if they connect you with somebody else, you’re gonna give them a Starbucks card or they’re gonna get a 50 % discount on the next inspection. Or they’re gonna clean the gutters for free or whatever, you know what I mean? So when you make it very clear that there’s something in it for them, like where I’m living in a house here,

I have this dude on the other side of the street that’s got a dad that’s going to die very soon, right? So he’s looking for a real estate agent, but he’s got to get the roof of his dad’s house repaired before he sells daddy’s house. So that’s a prime example of getting a referral by someone that doesn’t need a roofing job, doesn’t need a real estate agent, right? But we’ll take that decision down the road when daddy dies. So that’s what I mean about

Dylan Silver (17:50)

Yeah.

Jacques Skuteeki (18:06)

A cold call email marketing campaign, or we call it a retargeting campaign, is you keep yourself top of mind whether you’re a realtor or a roofer, or a HVAC person. It don’t matter. It works.

Dylan Silver (18:21)

It works. I’m speaking from experience recently here. There’s so many different angles that we could continue to have this discussion with when it relates to real estate, when it relates to the trades, when it relates to people who may be doing consulting or have offers or who may be in-person events and even offer stacking with some of these things. When you talk about roofing, you also think about I’m in Texas.

You know solar panel maintenance and how people need to be up on the roof to do both of these you could tie these two things together But we are coming up on on time here Jacques Where can folks go if maybe they are? Interested in some of these automations that you’re speaking about how can folks get in contact with you?

Jacques Skuteeki (19:05)

It’s very simple. It’s jacques360.com. My personal website, all this stuff is there. And that’s how we build our business is by cold call email marketing. That’s how we build our business. Why? Because needs fall through the cracks.

Dylan Silver (19:28)

Jacques, thank

They fall through. Jacques, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Jacques Skuteeki (19:36)

Thank you so much for your invitation.