SoTellUs Time

Hosted by Trevor Howard: Business Marketing Expert

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Oct 2026

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SoTellUs Time is a podcast for business owners and entrepreneurs wanting to learn how to grow their business from the basics all the way to the advanced from the latest technics and technologies. Together the hosts of SoTellUs Time have over 40 years of marketing experience from start ups to $100,000,000 companies. They have started several successful 7 figure companies and advised thousands of companies in 19 countries generating hundreds of millions in revenue.

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November 3, 202620 min

AI Search Is Changing Everything: Why Your 5-Star Google Reviews Aren't Getting You Customers

⭐ Your business has a 4.9 or 5-star Google rating. So why are your competitors still getting more customers? The answer could be hiding in your Google reviews—and how AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini discover and recommend local businesses. In this episode of SoTellUs Time , we're exposing one of the biggest mistakes small business owners make with their online reputation: assuming a high star rating is enough to generate new customers. It's not just about HOW MANY stars you have anymore. It's about what your customers are saying, how recently they're saying it, and whether your business has the credibility and online visibility to stand out when potential customers are searching. A competitor with a 4.7-star rating and dozens of fresh, detailed reviews might be winning customers over your business with a 5.0 rating. Why? Because specific customer experiences often tell a more convincing story than a perfect score. And with AI-powered search changing how people discover businesses, building a strong online reputation is becoming even more important. 🔥 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE ✅ Why a 5-star Google rating doesn't automatically translate into more customers ✅ How Google reviews influence customer trust and local business decisions ✅ Why recent reviews can be more valuable than outdated 5-star ratings ✅ How ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI-powered search are changing local business discovery ✅ Why detailed customer reviews outperform generic comments like "Great service!" ✅ How to generate more Google reviews without relying on employees to remember ✅ How to turn customer feedback into powerful social proof that helps sell your services ✅ Why consistent online reputation management matters for small business growth ✅ How to make your business easier for customers and AI search systems to understand 🚨 THE BIG GOOGLE REVIEW MISTAKE Imagine two HVAC companies competing for the same customer. Company A has a 5.0-star Google rating, but its reviews are mostly two years old. Many simply say "Awesome!" or "Great company!" Company B has a 4.7-star rating, but customers regularly describe the exact services performed, how quickly technicians arrived, and why they would hire the company again. Which business gives a potential customer more confidence? The company with actual proof. A high rating gets attention. Detailed reviews help build trust and convince customers to call. 🤖 HOW AI SEARCH IS CHANGING LOCAL BUSINESS MARKETING More customers are using conversational search tools to research businesses. Instead of only typing "best plumber near me" into Google, they may ask ChatGPT or Gemini to recommend a reliable local plumber. AI-generated recommendations depend on the information available to each system, which can include business listings, websites, customer feedback, and other accessible sources. Not every AI system uses reviews the same way, and no review strategy guarantees an AI recommendation. But one thing is clear: accurate, current, detailed information makes your business easier to evaluate. That's why your online reputation strategy should go beyond collecting stars. 💰 HOW TO TURN GOOGLE REVIEWS INTO MORE SALES Your reviews should answer the questions potential customers already have. Was the company professional? Did they arrive on time? Did they solve the problem? Was the customer happy with the results? Would they recommend the business? When genuine customer reviews answer these questions, they become more than feedback. They become sales assets working for your business even when you're closed. 📈 BUILD A REVIEW SYSTEM THAT WORKS Don't leave review requests to chance. Create a repeatable process: Ask every customer for honest feedback after completing the job. Make leaving a review easy with a direct link, QR code, or text message. Encourage customers to describe their genuine experience in their own words. Track how many review requests are sent and how many reviews are received. Respond professionally to customer feedback. Keep your Google Business Profile and website accurate and updated. Consistency builds a stronger reputation over time. 🎯 YOUR 7-DAY BUSINESS CHALLENGE Open your Google Business Profile and look at your last 90 days of reviews. How many new reviews have you received? How many actually explain what your business did? Now challenge your team to request honest reviews after every completed job for seven days. Track your requests, measure your results, and see how much stronger your online reputation can become. Your goal isn't a perfect 5.0. Your goal is a reputation that helps win the next customer. 🚀 GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITH SOTELLUS Want to generate more customer reviews, build trust, and strengthen your online reputation? SoTellUs helps businesses collect and showcase authentic customer feedback, including video and written reviews. 🌐 Learn more: https://sotellus.com 🎙️ Subscribe to SoTellUs Time for practical business growth strategies, marketing tips, leadership advice, customer retention strategies, and actionable ideas for entrepreneurs. ▶️ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/sotellus 💬 QUESTION OF THE DAY: What's your current Google star rating, and how many new reviews have you received in the last 90 days? Tell us in the comments! 👍 LIKE this episode if you want more customers from your existing reputation. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly strategies to grow your business. 📤 SHARE this video with a business owner who thinks having 5 stars is enough! #GoogleReviews #LocalSEO #SmallBusinessMarketing #AISEO #SoTellUsTime

October 13, 202620 min

Why Customers Ghost Your Estimates (And How to Close More Sales)

You sent the estimate. The customer seemed interested. Then… NOTHING. No response. No callback. No sale. If customers keep ghosting your quotes, your estimate follow-up process could be costing your business thousands in lost revenue. In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy Howard reveal why customers don't respond to estimates, how to follow up on quotes without sounding desperate, and how to close more sales without spending another dollar on advertising. The problem isn't always your price. It might be your follow-up. Think about how much work goes into generating a single estimate. You pay for advertising, answer the phone, schedule an appointment, drive to the customer's location, perform a walkthrough, calculate pricing, and prepare a professional quote. Then you hit SEND. And wait. Meanwhile, your competitor is calling that same customer, answering questions, building trust, and asking for the sale. You did the work. They got the business. In this episode, you'll discover: ✅ Why customers ghost estimates and stop responding to quotes ✅ How to follow up on an estimate without being pushy ✅ Why same-day callbacks can help you win more jobs ✅ A simple 7-day sales follow-up sequence ✅ What to say when a customer tells you they're "thinking about it" ✅ How to track your estimate-to-sale conversion rate ✅ Why small businesses lose sales to larger competitors ✅ How to recover lost estimates and turn old quotes into revenue 1. Why Your Estimates Aren't Closing When customers say they need to think about your estimate, they may be comparing several companies. If the only difference they see is price, you've already lost control of the conversation. Learn how consistent follow-up helps you demonstrate value, answer objections, and give customers a reason to choose your business. 2. The Same-Day Follow-Up Strategy Stop waiting three days to check in. When you send a quote, make a personal phone call that same day. Try this simple script: "Hey, it's Mike. I just sent your estimate over and wanted to walk you through it real quick. Do you have any questions I can answer before you make your decision?" The goal isn't to pressure the customer. It's to make the buying decision easier. 3. The 7-Day Estimate Follow-Up System Most businesses don't have a follow-up strategy. They have good intentions. Here's a simple system you can implement immediately: DAY 0: Send the estimate and make a personal phone call. DAY 1: Send a friendly text summarizing the quote and offering to answer questions. DAY 3: Call again to address concerns and discuss next steps. DAY 7: Send a final follow-up asking whether the customer wants to move forward or close out the estimate. Respect customer preferences and opt-outs. The goal is helpful, professional communication. Assign one person to own this process so no estimate falls through the cracks. 4. Measure Your Lost Sales Opportunities Want to know how much revenue your business could be leaving behind? Look at the last 30 days of estimates. How many quotes did you send? How many customers received a follow-up call? How many estimates became paying jobs? Compare the closing rate of estimates that received follow-up with those that didn't. You may discover that improving your sales process is more valuable than generating additional leads. 5. How Small Businesses Can Beat Bigger Competitors Large companies often have dedicated sales teams, automated follow-up systems, and established processes. But small businesses have an advantage: personal relationships. You can call customers directly, answer their questions, build genuine trust, and make them feel valued. You don't need to outspend your competition. You need to out-follow-up them. THIS WEEK'S BUSINESS CHALLENGE Open your estimate management system TODAY. Find every estimate older than 48 hours that hasn't received a follow-up. Call those customers. Then write a simple same-day callback script, assign someone to manage follow-ups, and track the results for seven days. Stop letting estimates die in your customers' inboxes. ABOUT SOTELLUS TIME SoTellUs Time is a business growth podcast hosted by Trevor and Troy Howard, entrepreneurs and the founders of SoTellUs. We share practical strategies to help small business owners generate more leads, improve sales conversion, build customer trust, increase revenue, and compete against larger companies. Whether you own an HVAC company, plumbing business, roofing company, electrical company, landscaping business, cleaning company, or another local service business, these strategies can help you build a stronger, more profitable company. GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITH SOTELLUS Your business needs more than leads. It needs a system that helps turn opportunities into customers. Discover tools for customer communication, automated follow-up, online reviews, reputation management, and business growth. 🌐 Explore SoTellUs: https://sotellus.com 🎙️ Watch more SoTellUs Time episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@sotellus 🔔 Subscribe for practical small business marketing, sales, leadership, and growth strategies. QUESTION FOR BUSINESS OWNERS: How many estimates are sitting in your system right now waiting for a follow-up? Drop your answer in the comments. We'd love to hear what follow-up strategies are working for your business. 👍 LIKE this episode if you're ready to close more estimates. 💬 COMMENT with your biggest sales follow-up challenge. 📤 SHARE this with a business owner who sends great quotes but struggles to close them. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for more strategies to grow your business. #SalesFollowUp #SmallBusinessGrowth #CloseMoreSales

October 6, 202622 min

Private Equity Is Coming for Your Business

Private equity isn't coming for your market someday. It's already here. Across HVAC, plumbing, dental, veterinary, medspa, and other local service industries, private equity groups are buying established businesses, rolling them together, and entering markets with massive marketing budgets, centralized call centers, professional sales systems, and access to capital most independent owners simply can't match. So how does a local business compete? You don't try to outspend them. In this episode of SoTellUs Time, we break down how independent businesses can compete with private equity rollups, national brands, franchises, and heavily funded competitors—and why some of your biggest advantages are things they can't buy overnight. The rollup may have more money. That doesn't mean they have to win your market. 🔥 SPEED BEATS SPEND Private equity-backed companies can buy attention. You can beat them by being faster. Who answers the phone first? Who books the job on the first call? Who follows up immediately? Who can get someone to the customer today or tomorrow? A company can spend thousands generating a lead and still lose that customer because someone else answered first. Ask yourself: How many jobs did you lose last month to a company that wasn't necessarily better—but was simply faster? Speed-to-lead isn't just a marketing metric. It's an operating system. 🔥 TRUST IS THE MOAT THEY CAN'T BUY FAST A rollup can buy your competitor. They can buy trucks, billboards, Google Ads, software, employees, and call centers. What they can't instantly buy is years of trust in your community. They can't manufacture hundreds of recent five-star reviews from customers who actually know your team. They can't instantly recreate relationships with families who have used your company for years. That local reputation matters. Ask for reviews before leaving the job. Respond to negative reviews quickly. Make customer experience and reputation part of your weekly scorecard. Advertising creates awareness. Operations create belief. 🔥 COMPETE WHERE BIG COMPANIES ARE WEAK Don't try to beat the biggest company in town by becoming a smaller version of them. Fight where you have the advantage. Answer the phone. Book quickly. Show up when you say you will. Communicate with customers. Know their names. Empower your team to solve problems. Treat the customer like a neighbor instead of a ticket number. The bigger a company becomes, the harder those things can be to execute consistently. That's your opportunity. 🔥 BUILD YOUR ANTI-ROLLUP SCOREBOARD Start tracking four numbers: • Live answer rate • Speed-to-book • Review velocity • Repeat and referral business If those numbers are strong, your competitor's massive advertising budget becomes a lot less intimidating. Here's the question every local business owner should ask: "If the biggest company in our market doubled their advertising budget tomorrow, why would a customer still choose us?" If your answer is vague, you're not competing. You're hoping. Build the answer into your operations—not another ad campaign. The goal isn't to become a louder Goliath. The goal is to become the local operator they can't buy, can't out-trust, and can't out-speed. 🎯 THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE Pick ONE number: Live answer rate. Speed-to-book. Reviews requested per completed job. Measure it for seven days. Bring that number to your next team meeting and identify one change that can improve it before the rollup spends another dollar in your zip code. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT SOTELLUS TIME SoTellUs Time gives business owners practical strategies to grow revenue, improve marketing, generate more reviews, increase customer retention, build stronger teams, and create better business systems. Subscribe for more real-world business growth strategies every week. 👉 https://youtube.com/sotellus ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 00:00 The Rollup Is Coming for Your Zip Code 01:00 Why You Can't Outspend Private Equity 03:00 Speed Beats Spend 05:00 Trust Is the Moat They Can't Buy 07:00 Compete Where Big Companies Are Weak 09:00 Build Your Anti-Rollup Scoreboard 10:00 This Week's Challenge #PrivateEquity #SmallBusiness #BusinessGrowth #LocalBusiness #HomeServices #BusinessStrategy #Entrepreneurship #Marketing #ReputationManagement #SoTellUsTime

September 15, 202615 min

Your Are Leaving Money Behind: The Field Service Sales System That Grows Revenue

Your technicians may be doing great work, making customers happy, and completing jobs on time — while still leaving thousands of dollars in revenue behind. In this episode of SoTellUs Time , Trevor and Troy break down one of the biggest missed opportunities in home service businesses: the moment right after the job is finished. When trust is at its highest, your technicians have a natural opportunity to recommend the next logical service — a maintenance plan, filter replacement, second-unit inspection, preventative service, upgrade, or other relevant add-on. The problem is most technicians don't see themselves as salespeople. They don't want to sound pushy, they're already thinking about the next job, and many have never been given a simple way to make the offer. The solution is simple: one offer, one sentence, one relevant next step. You'll learn how to: • Help technicians make recommendations without sounding salesy • Create a simple one-sentence next-service script • Build the offer into your normal job-completion checklist • Track attach rate and uncover missed revenue • Recognize technicians for making the offer, not just closing the sale • Run a simple 7-day challenge to build the habit across your team The goal isn't to turn every technician into a salesperson. It's to stop walking away from revenue your business has already earned the right to ask for. This week's challenge: Review your last 20 completed jobs and find out how many ended with a next-service offer. Then choose one service, write one simple sentence, and have every technician use it for the next seven days. If you own or manage an HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pool service, roofing, pest control, landscaping, restoration, or other home service business, this episode will help you increase average ticket size, grow recurring revenue, and get more value from every customer visit.

September 1, 202617 min

Your Best Employee Might Be Creating Chaos | Stop Rewarding Firefighters

Is your "best employee" constantly saving the day—or helping create the problems they keep solving? In many businesses the people who get the most praise rescue angry customers, cover missed shifts, fix broken systems, stay late, and pull projects back from the edge. But when leaders reward only heroic reactions, they can create a workplace where crisis management gets noticed and prevention gets ignored. In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy Howard explain why the most valuable employee may not be the person who puts out the biggest fires. It may be the person whose systems, training, documentation, and foresight prevent those fires from starting. 🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: ✅ Why leaders notice crisis response more than prevention ✅ How rewarding "firefighters" creates a reactive culture ✅ How an employee can become both firefighter and arsonist ✅ Why repeated emergencies are usually broken processes ✅ How knowledge hoarding makes someone look indispensable ✅ How training, documentation, checklists, and automation prevent mistakes ✅ Why longer hours do not always equal greater impact ✅ How to reward employees who improve operations ✅ Why great employees build systems that work without them 🚨 A RECURRING FIRE ISN'T AN EMERGENCY If the same customer complaint, missed deadline, staffing problem, equipment failure, or operational mistake happens every month, your team does not have a series of emergencies. Your business has a broken process. Solving the immediate problem protects today. Eliminating the root cause protects the future. After the next crisis, ask: • Why did this happen? • Has it happened before? • What would prevent it? • Is this a people, process, training, or clarity problem? • Can we create a checklist, procedure, automation, or system? • Who owns the permanent fix? Don't just extinguish the fire. Remove the source. 🏆 REDEFINE A HIGH PERFORMER Most leaders notice who handled the most problems, stayed the latest, or stepped in when everything went wrong. Strong leaders also ask: • Who reduced recurring errors? • Who improved and documented a process? • Who trained another employee? • Who caught a problem before a customer felt it? • Who made the department calmer and more predictable? • Who created systems that no longer depend on one person? An employee who can leave for two weeks while everything continues working may be more valuable than the employee whose absence makes everything collapse. Great leadership builds capable people, repeatable systems, and clear accountability. 💡 START REWARDING PREVENTION A crisis is visible. Prevention often looks like nothing happened: an order is checked before shipping, a customer is contacted before becoming upset, equipment is maintained before breaking, or an employee is trained before needing help. Celebrate employees who prevent problems, share knowledge, improve processes, and create permanent solutions—not only the people who save the day. 📌 THIS WEEK'S BUSINESS CHALLENGE At your next team meeting, ask: "What's one recurring fire we could permanently eliminate this month?" Choose one problem. Identify the root cause. Assign one owner. Build the checklist, training, documentation, automation, or process change needed to prevent it. Then measure whether the fire disappears. Identify your firefighter: Who constantly saves the day? Thank them, then ask why they have to save it so often. Identify your fire preventer: Who catches problems early, documents processes, trains people, and makes the business more predictable? Recognize that person publicly. The goal is not to build a company filled with better firefighters. The goal is to build a company with fewer fires. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Stop Rewarding the Firefighters 01:00 Why Leaders Love Crisis Solvers 03:00 Is the Firefighter Also the Arsonist? 05:00 Start Rewarding Prevention 07:00 Measure Employee Impact Differently 09:00 This Week's Leadership Challenge 🎙️ ABOUT SOTELLUS TIME SoTellUs Time helps business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders improve business growth, leadership, employee management, processes, company culture, customer experience, marketing, sales, AI, automation, and operational systems. 📺 Subscribe for weekly business growth and leadership strategies: https://www.youtube.com/@sotellus 🌐 Learn how SoTellUs helps businesses generate more reviews, respond to leads faster, automate customer communication, improve reputation, and turn missed opportunities into customers: https://www.sotellus.com 👍 Like this video 💬 Comment: What recurring fire will your team eliminate this month? 🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications 📤 Share this episode with a business owner or manager tired of running a reactive company #BusinessLeadership #ProcessImprovement #EmployeeManagement #BusinessSystems #LeadershipDevelopment #CompanyCulture #OperationalExcellence #HighPerformanceTeams #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #SoTellUsTime #SoTellUs

August 25, 202624 min

Are You Solving the Wrong Business Problem? How to Find the Root Cause

Are you solving the right problem in your business, or are you wasting time and money fixing symptoms while the real problem keeps growing? One of the most expensive mistakes a business owner can make is solving the wrong problem. When sales decline, we chase more leads. When employees struggle, we replace people. When projects fall behind, we hire more staff. When we feel overwhelmed, we work longer hours. But what if those are only symptoms? In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy explain how to identify the root cause of a business problem before throwing more money, people, or technology at it. If revenue is down, the obvious solution might be more marketing. However, the real issue could be slow lead response times, unanswered calls, poor follow-up, missed appointments, a lower close rate, customer churn, or a slow quoting process. More advertising will not repair a broken sales process. It will only send more opportunities through it. The same principle applies to employee performance. If different employees repeatedly struggle in the same position, the cause could be poor onboarding, unclear expectations, inadequate training, weak accountability, or a broken process. Changing employees will not fix a broken system. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: How to separate symptoms from root causes Why business owners diagnose problems incorrectly How asking "why" reveals deeper issues Why evidence should guide business decisions How to identify people, process, and clarity problems Why adding resources can make a problem worse How to test a solution before making an expensive change HOW TO FIND THE ROOT CAUSE: DEFINE THE SYMPTOM Avoid vague statements such as "sales are bad." Define exactly what is happening and how it is being measured. KEEP ASKING WHY Why is revenue down? Fewer deals are closing. Why are fewer deals closing? Prospects are missing appointments. Why are they missing appointments? They are not receiving enough communication and follow-up. The apparent sales problem may actually be an appointment follow-up problem. LOOK FOR EVIDENCE Review your numbers, response times, conversion rates, call recordings, CRM activity, and customer feedback. Ask: "What evidence proves this is the actual cause?" If you cannot answer that question, you probably are not ready to prescribe a solution. PEOPLE, PROCESS, OR CLARITY? A people problem means someone has the expectations, tools, and training needed but still fails to perform. A process problem means capable people struggle because the system makes success difficult. A clarity problem means employees do not know what is expected, who is responsible, or how success is measured. Before replacing an employee, ask whether you have created an environment where a good person can consistently succeed. YOUR BUSINESS HOMEWORK: Choose one recurring frustration and ask: What specifically is happening? Why is it happening? What evidence supports that conclusion? Is it a people, process, or clarity problem? What is the smallest change that could fix the root cause? Great business owners are not only great problem solvers. They are great problem diagnosers. CHAPTERS: 00:00 The Problem Behind the Problem 01:00 Why Business Owners Fix Symptoms 02:30 Symptoms vs. Root Causes 04:00 Ask Why Before How 06:30 Stop Throwing Resources at Problems 08:00 People, Process, or Clarity? 09:00 Business Homework and Final Takeaway Subscribe to SoTellUs Time: https://youtube.com/sotellus What recurring problem are you ready to diagnose differently? Tell us in the comments and share this episode with another business owner. #BusinessGrowth #BusinessLeadership #ProblemSolving #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness

August 18, 202635 min

How to Increase Revenue From Existing Customers Before Year-End

What if the fastest way to increase revenue before year-end isn't generating more leads—but maximizing the customers, prospects, and relationships already inside your database? Many business owners immediately turn to advertising when they need more sales. They increase their marketing budget, launch another campaign, or start chasing new prospects. But acquiring a new customer usually requires more time, money, and effort than creating additional value for someone who already knows and trusts your business. In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy Howard reveal four practical customer-retention and revenue-growth strategies that can help you generate more business before the end of the year: ✅ Upselling and cross-selling existing customers ✅ Creating a consistent referral system ✅ Following up through email and text campaigns ✅ Reactivating past customers and lost opportunities Your customer database should be more than a list of people you once served. It should be a valuable business asset that helps you create repeat purchases, increase customer lifetime value, generate referrals, and recover opportunities that might otherwise be forgotten. Whether you own a home-service company, childcare center, salon, medical practice, local business, or professional-service company, these strategies can help you uncover revenue that may already be sitting inside your business. 1. Upsell and Cross-Sell Existing Customers Effective upselling isn't about pressuring customers to purchase something they don't need. It's about identifying additional problems your company can genuinely solve. An HVAC customer may benefit from a maintenance plan, duct cleaning, indoor air-quality products, a system tune-up, or a smart thermostat. A plumbing customer may need water filtration, leak detection, drain maintenance, or water-heater service. Childcare centers can introduce families to enrichment programs, school-break camps, sibling enrollment, additional days of care, and before- or after-school programs. Ask yourself: What valuable products or services are your existing customers not buying simply because they don't know you offer them? 2. Build a Customer Referral System Happy customers often know other people who need exactly what your company provides—but referrals rarely become predictable when you simply wait for them. The best time to request a referral is immediately after your business creates a positive experience. That might be after completing a repair, receiving a compliment, solving a difficult problem, or helping a customer achieve an important result. Your team should know exactly when to ask, what to say, and how to make the introduction easy. You can also support the process with automated email campaigns, text messages, referral incentives, and customer-review requests. Don't assume satisfied customers know you want referrals. Create a system and ask. 3. Follow Up With Your Customer Database How many customers purchased from your company once and then barely heard from you again? Consistent customer follow-up keeps your business relevant and gives people a reason to return. Your campaigns can include: • Seasonal maintenance reminders • Recommended repairs that were never completed • Membership or maintenance-plan promotions • Holiday and school-break programs • Enrollment availability • Upcoming events or services • Referral opportunities • Early enrollment or year-end offers A simple campaign can follow this structure: Problem → Reminder → Solution → Call to Action The goal isn't to overwhelm customers with promotions. It's to communicate helpful, timely information that makes taking the next step easy. 4. Reactivate Past Customers and Lost Leads Some of your fastest revenue opportunities may be people who requested an estimate but never purchased, toured your facility but didn't enroll, postponed recommended work, or haven't used your company recently. These aren't completely cold leads. They already know your business. Their circumstances may have changed. They may have been busy, lacked the budget, forgotten to follow up, or simply needed more time. A short reactivation message can restart the conversation and recover opportunities you thought were lost. Before spending more money finding strangers, reconnect with the people who have already interacted with your business. The Year-End Revenue Challenge Choose one strategy and launch it this week: Introduce an additional service to existing customers. Start consistently asking satisfied customers for referrals. Send a useful email or text follow-up campaign. Reactivate dormant customers and lost opportunities. New customers create growth—but existing relationships can often create growth faster. Instead of only asking, "How can we generate more leads?" start asking: "How can we create more value—and more revenue—from the relationships we've already earned?" Subscribe to SoTellUs Time for practical business-growth, leadership, marketing, customer-experience, automation, and sales strategies designed for business owners: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@sotellus Share this episode with a business owner who may be overlooking the revenue already sitting inside their customer database. #BusinessGrowth #CustomerRetention #IncreaseRevenue #SalesStrategy #SmallBusinessMarketing #CustomerReactivation #ReferralMarketing #SoTellUsTime

August 11, 202625 min

The 90-Day Business Sprint: How to Finish the Year Strong

Can 90 days of focused execution accomplish more than a full year of scattered effort? Yes—when you choose the right business priorities, turn them into measurable goals, and take consistent action every week. Late in the year, many business owners mentally check out or panic and try to complete every unfinished goal. Both approaches destroy focus. In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy Howard show you how to build a practical 90-day business sprint and finish the year strong. You'll learn how to identify the priorities that matter most, set measurable goals for sales, operations, and leadership, and create a weekly scorecard that keeps everyone accountable. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: ✅ How to create a focused 90-day business plan ✅ Why you should review your business before setting new goals ✅ How to identify your company's biggest constraint or opportunity ✅ How to set measurable sales, revenue, and enrollment goals ✅ How to break 90-day goals into monthly milestones ✅ Which numbers belong on a weekly business scorecard ✅ How a "Not Now" list protects your most important priorities STEP 1: REVIEW BEFORE YOU PLAN Before setting goals, take an honest look at where your business stands today. Ask what is working, what is not working, where you are behind, which problem keeps appearing, and what would make the greatest difference if you solved it in 90 days. A home service company may have plenty of leads but a declining close rate. Improving speed-to-lead, follow-up, or closing performance may create a larger return than generating more leads. Set goals based on what the business needs most—not simply what you would like to improve. STEP 2: CHOOSE GOALS IN THREE AREAS SALES Choose a specific revenue, enrollment, or growth result. Replace "increase sales" with a measurable target such as "increase monthly revenue from $150,000 to $175,000." Then identify the activities that drive that result: leads, appointments, referrals, follow-up attempts, response time, close rate, and enrollments. The goal tells you where you are going. The activity metrics tell you whether you are on track. OPERATIONS Ask: "What operational improvement would make this business easier to run?" Your priority could be reducing callbacks, improving scheduling, implementing a CRM, documenting procedures, or building a better onboarding system. Make the goal measurable: "Implement our 10 most important procedures within 90 days." LEADERSHIP Ask: "What needs to change in me or my leadership team for the business to improve?" You may need to delegate more, develop a second-in-command, begin weekly one-on-one meetings, or improve accountability. Make the result specific by defining what a manager will independently own within 90 days. STEP 3: TURN GOALS INTO WEEKLY ACTIONS Use this structure: 90-Day Goal → Monthly Milestones → Weekly Actions Define what must happen by Day 30, Day 60, and Day 90. Then decide exactly what your team must accomplish this week. Build a weekly scorecard with five to seven numbers tied directly to your goals, such as leads, appointments, close rate, revenue, enrollment, employee turnover, and operational project completion. Review the scorecard every week. Do not wait until Day 90 to discover that you are off track. STEP 4: CREATE A "NOT NOW" LIST Every new idea competes with your current priorities. When a new opportunity appears, ask: "Is this more important than one of our current 90-day goals?" If not, capture it on your "Not Now" list and revisit it after the sprint. Focus is not only deciding what matters—it is deciding what you are willing to ignore temporarily. YOUR 90-DAY BUSINESS CHALLENGE Take 30 minutes this week to choose one measurable sales result, one operational improvement, one leadership capability, the scorecard numbers that define success, and the ideas you are intentionally postponing. Assign an owner to each priority and review progress every week. You do not need a perfect finish to the year—you need a purposeful one. Ninety days of focused execution can accomplish more than an entire year of scattered effort. Pick the priorities that matter, put numbers behind them, and start your sprint. CHAPTERS: 00:00 The Year Isn't Over Yet 01:00 Review Before You Plan 02:30 Choose Your Three Most Important Goals 03:00 Set a Measurable Sales Goal 04:30 Improve Business Operations 05:30 Create a Leadership Goal 06:30 Turn Goals Into Weekly Actions 08:30 Build Your "Not Now" List 09:30 The 90-Day Sprint Challenge Subscribe to SoTellUs Time for practical business growth, leadership, sales, marketing, and productivity strategies: https://youtube.com/sotellus #90DaySprint #BusinessGrowth #GoalSetting #BusinessStrategy #Leadership #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #BusinessPlanning #Productivity #FinishStrong #SoTellUsTime

August 4, 202623 min

Finish Strong: How to Make the Second Half of the Year Your Best Yet

Want to finish the year strong, grow your business, and make the second half of the year your most successful yet? In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy share a practical midyear business strategy to help entrepreneurs regain focus, eliminate distractions, improve execution, and achieve their most important goals before December. Most business owners begin the year with ambitious goals, detailed plans, and plenty of motivation. Then reality takes over. Employee problems, customer demands, unexpected challenges, emails, meetings, and daily fires gradually pull your attention away from the priorities that were supposed to grow your business. Before you know it, the year is halfway over—and many of those important goals haven't moved. But the year is not lost. You don't necessarily need another complicated business strategy, expensive software platform, new marketing campaign, or AI tool. You may simply need to identify what's working, eliminate what isn't, and consistently execute the few priorities that will make the biggest difference. In this episode, you'll learn how to: ✅ Conduct an honest midyear business review ✅ Identify what is actually generating revenue ✅ Evaluate your marketing using real numbers ✅ Recognize the employees and systems producing results ✅ Find where your company is wasting time and money ✅ Stop chasing every new business idea ✅ Choose the three outcomes that matter most ✅ Turn large annual goals into weekly priorities ✅ Build accountability into your leadership routine ✅ Make small corrections before they become major problems ✅ Create momentum during the second half of the year ✅ Finish stronger than you started One of the greatest strengths entrepreneurs possess is the ability to recognize new opportunities. Unfortunately, that can also become one of their greatest weaknesses. There will always be another marketing strategy, AI platform, software system, business opportunity, or promising idea competing for your attention. The problem isn't that these ideas are necessarily bad. The problem is abandoning proven priorities every time something new appears. Think about your business like digging for water. If you dig ten holes that are each three feet deep, you may never reach water. But if you concentrate your effort and dig one hole thirty feet deep, you dramatically increase your chances of finding it. Business success works the same way. The second half of the year shouldn't be about launching ten more initiatives. It should be about identifying the few things that will create the greatest impact and executing them consistently. Those priorities might include: • Improving speed-to-lead • Increasing customer retention • Creating employee accountability • Generating more customer referrals • Making consistent sales calls • Improving online reviews • Increasing monthly recurring revenue • Reducing unnecessary expenses • Hiring and training a key employee • Improving profit margins If everything is important, nothing is truly important. Choose your "Top Three"—the three measurable outcomes that would make you look back on December 31 and feel proud of what your company accomplished. Then ask yourself every day: "Did what I worked on today move one of these priorities forward?" You can be extremely busy without making meaningful progress. Focus creates momentum. Momentum builds confidence. Confidence produces better execution—and consistent execution creates results. Your Finish Strong Challenge Block out one uninterrupted hour this week and conduct a midyear business review. Write down: Three things that are working well Three things your business needs to stop doing Three priorities that will have the greatest impact before year-end Share those priorities with your leadership team, business partner, or accountability partner. Review them every Monday, evaluate the results every Friday, and continue making small adjustments throughout the remainder of the year. A strong finish doesn't happen accidentally. It happens through honest evaluation, simplified priorities, weekly accountability, and focused execution. The first half of the year may explain where your business is today—but it does not determine where you will finish. That decision begins now. Chapters 00:00 Finish Strong: Your Year Isn't Over 01:00 Pause Before You Push 03:00 Review the Numbers, Not Your Feelings 05:00 Stop Chasing Every New Idea 07:30 Identify the Priorities That Matter 08:30 Simplify Your Focus With the Top Three 11:00 Build Weekly Accountability 12:30 Your Finish Strong Challenge 13:30 Conduct Your Midyear Business Review 🎙️ Subscribe to SoTellUs Time for practical strategies covering business growth, leadership, marketing, customer experience, AI, automation, sales, and entrepreneurship: https://youtube.com/sotellus Learn how SoTellUs helps businesses generate reviews, improve customer communication, automate follow-up, and grow: https://sotellus.com If this episode helped you, subscribe, leave a comment, and share it with another business owner who needs to regain focus and finish the year strong. What are the three priorities that would make this year a success for your business? Tell us in the comments. #BusinessGrowth #FinishStrong #BusinessStrategy #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGoals

July 28, 202620 min

AI for Small Business: What to Automate—and What Must Stay Human

AI is transforming small businesses—but using more automation doesn't always create a better customer experience. In this episode of SoTellUs Time, Trevor and Troy Howard explain how small-business owners can use artificial intelligence to save time, respond to leads faster, improve customer service, and grow without sacrificing trust or the human touch. Customers now expect immediate answers. If you miss a phone call, delay responding to a lead, or forget to follow up on an estimate, that customer may choose the first competitor who responds. AI can help prevent that—but only when it's used in the right places. You'll discover which repetitive business tasks should be automated, which customer interactions still require a real person, and how to avoid the frustrating automation that makes customers feel ignored or trapped. In this episode, you'll learn: ✅ Why AI is no longer optional for small businesses ✅ How competitors are using AI to respond faster ✅ Which repetitive tasks your business should automate ✅ How AI receptionists can help prevent missed opportunities ✅ Why speed-to-lead matters more than ever ✅ How to automate appointment scheduling and reminders ✅ How missed-call text-back can recover lost leads ✅ Ways AI can improve customer follow-up ✅ How to automate review requests and responses ✅ Which emotional or complicated conversations must stay human ✅ Why excessive automation can damage customer trust ✅ How to give customers an easy path to a real person ✅ The best way to introduce AI without overwhelming your team ✅ How to begin automating your business one process at a time The goal of AI isn't to eliminate people. It's to eliminate repetitive work so your team has more time to solve problems, build relationships, and provide an exceptional customer experience. Start by asking three questions: What does my team do repeatedly? What regularly gets forgotten? Where are we losing time, leads, or customers? Choose one process that takes too much time, frequently falls through the cracks, or causes your business to lose opportunities. Automate that process, measure the results, and improve it before moving to the next one. The companies that win won't necessarily be the ones using the most AI. They'll be the businesses that know exactly where automation improves the experience—and where customers still need empathy, creativity, judgment, and genuine human connection. AI probably won't replace your business—but a competitor who knows how to use it might. 🚀 Discover how SoTellUs can help your business generate more reviews, respond to leads faster, automate customer communication, and turn missed opportunities into new customers: https://sotellus.com 🎙️ Subscribe to SoTellUs Time for practical advice on small-business growth, leadership, marketing, automation, customer experience, reputation management, and building a company that can succeed without everything depending on the owner: https://youtube.com/sotellus If this episode helped you, please: 👍 Like the video 💬 Comment with the first task you plan to automate 🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications 📤 Share this episode with another business owner What is one repetitive task inside your business that AI could take off your team's plate this week? #AIForSmallBusiness #SmallBusinessAutomation #BusinessGrowth