I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of Specialty Metal Roofing.
Speaker:Welcome to Construction Disruption, the show that explores what's working,
Speaker:what's new and what's next in the construction and remodeling worlds.
Speaker:I'm excited about today's show, but first, let me welcome my co-host today, the
Speaker:illustrious, the inimitable Ryan Bell.
Speaker:How you doing, Ryan?
Speaker:Hey Todd.
Speaker:I'm doing well.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:I'm doing very well.
Speaker:I was thinking the other day though, um, about a, a girl that,
Speaker:uh, broke up with me, uh, once upon a time after we ran a marathon.
Speaker:Um, she broke up with me, but you know, we had a good run going there for a while.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Okay, that was not true at all.
Speaker:So just a reminder to our audience, we are once again in this episode
Speaker:doing our challenge words.
Speaker:That sounds scary, doesn't it?
Speaker:But that is where each of us, Ryan and I, and our guest are going to be trying
Speaker:to work some top secret, kill us if you find it outward into the conversation as.
Speaker:Seamlessly as possible.
Speaker:And at the end of the show, we will tell you whether we were able to
Speaker:work in our challenge words or not.
Speaker:Those challenge words were put up, uh, forth by one of
Speaker:the others here on the show.
Speaker:So, um, shall we go forward, Ryan?
Speaker:Yeah, let's dive.
Speaker:So things are changing incredibly rapidly right now in the world of home improvement
Speaker:marketing, and anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit long in the tooth and I've
Speaker:been around a lot of years, and things are changing faster now in terms of
Speaker:marketing and lead generation than I've.
Speaker:Ever seen them before?
Speaker:If you are in the industry, of course you know exactly what I'm talking about, and
Speaker:chances are you're trying to figure out what your company is going to do about it.
Speaker:Well, today our guest is someone who every day is helping contractors
Speaker:to generate more leads and to turn those leads into profitable sales.
Speaker:Woohoo.
Speaker:We like that With just a few easy steps.
Speaker:Today's guest is.
Speaker:Austin Rosenbaum of Demand iq.
Speaker:Austin's company is helping contractors across the country lead their industries
Speaker:by head on tackling the question that historically everyone hated
Speaker:to hear too early in the process.
Speaker:What is this home improvement going to cost me?
Speaker:Austin, it's a pleasure to have you here today.
Speaker:We're gonna talk about all kinds of fun stuff.
Speaker:Welcome to Construction Disruption.
Speaker:Hey Todd.
Speaker:And thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:Well, so I think it's interesting.
Speaker:I know that you have a bachelor's degree.
Speaker:Um, I've been creeping on you on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I know that you have a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
Speaker:You have an MBA.
Speaker:How did you find yourself to start a business that is helping home improvement
Speaker:contractors across the country?
Speaker:With that being your background?
Speaker:That's a good question.
Speaker:It takes me back a little bit.
Speaker:Uh, I was sitting in my stats class and I was learning about
Speaker:a little bit about marketing.
Speaker:We were looking at problems that were had to do with marketing, and I was
Speaker:thinking, I, I, I, I was working at a home improvement business and I
Speaker:was thinking to myself, boy, there's a lot of, um, kind of stats concepts
Speaker:here, especially around what was known as machine learning at that time.
Speaker:It's basically just predictive modeling.
Speaker:I thought, man, there's a lot of opportunities to probably use smarter
Speaker:techniques to drive lower cost of acquisition or lower cost leads and
Speaker:drive more volume if we could just be a little more targeted with our marketing.
Speaker:And, uh, that was the birth of an idea.
Speaker:I went into an entrepreneurial class and I was like, ah, I'm gonna work by
Speaker:myself on this class and I'm gonna, you know, spin up a little business here.
Speaker:And basically build a, a marketing agency that was supporting home
Speaker:improvement contractors and using predictive analytics to try to
Speaker:figure out who you should market to.
Speaker:And that was the, the beginning of this company.
Speaker:And it was, uh.
Speaker:Uh, you know, basically just taking things that I was seeing
Speaker:and learning about and seeing if there was problems I could solve.
Speaker:And I, there was things that would, I could get paid to do and that was great.
Speaker:I had right away had a business right out of my MBA school, uh, getting, you know,
Speaker:getting paid to work with home improvement companies to improve their marketing.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:And, and then how often is that, how great things happen when folks, uh, are working
Speaker:in something and they see a need and they say to you, whiz, I can help some others.
Speaker:Well, give us an overview, if you would, of what, uh, demand IQ does,
Speaker:what you're up to today, um, how the business has morphed, that type of thing.
Speaker:Well, just like anyone's business, if you've been around the block a
Speaker:little while, you, you change and you adjust and you make pivots and
Speaker:you grow with the market and listen to your customers a whole lot.
Speaker:And that's what we've done at Demand iq.
Speaker:And you know, we started off as a very like data driven, you know, business with
Speaker:marketing insights and all this stuff.
Speaker:And we realized that.
Speaker:In the process of helping contractors attract customers and turn those
Speaker:into, you know, projects that there was a customer experience flaw that,
Speaker:you know, looking at my, I was a millennial homeowner and I'm looking
Speaker:around at the process that the folks that I was working with were offering
Speaker:to their homeowners and going, hmm.
Speaker:I don't know if that's how I wanna shop.
Speaker:I don't know if that, that's a parallel to the experience that I'm getting when
Speaker:I go on Amazon or if I get insurance from, you know, Geico or, uh, get a, a
Speaker:mortgage from Rocket Mortgage or, you know, the list goes on of all these
Speaker:kind of progressive experiences that.
Speaker:Depart quite a lot from the experience that you get when filling out a form on
Speaker:a home improvement contractor website, getting, you know, a million phone
Speaker:calls, maybe if you're filling out one on one of those lead aggregator sites,
Speaker:and then having to sit down with two or three different contractors and
Speaker:taking up lots of time in your schedule.
Speaker:When, you know, the world around us is giving us information at the speed
Speaker:that it is, it just, it feels outdated.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And I, I, I think there was a point maybe a couple years into our
Speaker:marketing agency that we said, boy, uh.
Speaker:There's gotta be a better way and there's gotta be some
Speaker:op, there's opportunity here.
Speaker:And so we started building tools to work with our customers to help
Speaker:them drive better, lower cost leads and, and more leads through this
Speaker:more modernized shopping experience where I could get a price instantly.
Speaker:I think, uh, we proved that out with a couple of companies and then I went and
Speaker:partnered with a, a friend from grad school and we raised a, a good chunk of
Speaker:change to go and get after a software product to transform that business
Speaker:from a services business and agency.
Speaker:Into a scalable product.
Speaker:And, you know, where we sit today is we serve, you know, hundreds of contractors
Speaker:of a variety of different types.
Speaker:Roofing, you know, exteriors, even some of the, some stuff inside
Speaker:the home with the ability to provide an instant online estimate.
Speaker:And what that is, is not necessarily, you know, giving the final quote,
Speaker:but actually just helping that homeowner arrive at a budget.
Speaker:Just giving them a basic sense of what could this project cost so that
Speaker:you can qualify the right people into your process and not waste time
Speaker:with people who otherwise probably are just gonna kick your tires.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Well, I'm curious.
Speaker:Uh, you know, I mean this whole idea of pricing transparency was something
Speaker:that our industry was just horrible at.
Speaker:Um, and, and we avoided it like the plague for.
Speaker:Or so many years as you went out and started talking to contractors about this?
Speaker:Um, any interesting reactions or did people immediately buy into it or, you
Speaker:know, how, what's that progress been like?
Speaker:That's a, that's a great question too, I think.
Speaker:Uh, so we started this, this, uh.
Speaker:This initiative in 2019, long time ago.
Speaker:In, in relative terms, right.
Speaker:In relative terms to technology and to this concept, I think we were probably
Speaker:the first to do this for home improvement.
Speaker:Um, and at that time, you know, I really had to just show them the data on the
Speaker:cost per lead, because otherwise it was quite an uphill battle with, with
Speaker:the idea of price transparency that.
Speaker:That they could, moving the quote from the kitchen table sit to the top of the
Speaker:funnel was a, was a big, it's a big ask.
Speaker:And um, I just had to show them the data.
Speaker:And luckily at that time I was, um, you know, actually helping drive the leads.
Speaker:Like we were the ones that were generating them with the contractor.
Speaker:For the contractor.
Speaker:And so we had a little bit more leverage at that time of, you know, just.
Speaker:This is in, we were kind of in control of the budget.
Speaker:Like we were, we were actually managing the budget for the contractor.
Speaker:And if this made sense to lower your cost per lead, then they would
Speaker:follow that kind of instruction.
Speaker:So, uh, you know, once we brought that to a number of contractors and
Speaker:was able to communicate that this was something that was advantageous
Speaker:and that was, uh, you know, something that could actually help grow your
Speaker:business, I think more got on board, but.
Speaker:That's definitely not, hasn't, there's always been, uh, lots of education
Speaker:required around this topic because as you know, as I mentioned, it's, it's a
Speaker:big shift and, uh, I think only in the last two years and really in the last
Speaker:12 months, uh, we've seen a lot more contractors get excited about this.
Speaker:And it seems like it's really catching on and it's not just in roofing.
Speaker:Um, but it's really across all, all disciplines of home
Speaker:improvement and home services.
Speaker:We certainly have seen that shift.
Speaker:Be pretty cataclysmic.
Speaker:I mean, it's happening pretty quickly.
Speaker:No doubt about it.
Speaker:And I, you know, I think it's invigorating to see that kind of change happening
Speaker:in an industry that really has been, eh, pretty stodgy and slow to change.
Speaker:Well, let's talk a little bit about consumers, about homeowners.
Speaker:So I know that we, at Isaiah Industries kind of feel like COVID became.
Speaker:The tipping point, if you will, when consumers finally started to want to
Speaker:buy home improvement services in ways similar to what Amazon had taught them,
Speaker:that they would be able to buy everything else, um, would you agree with that,
Speaker:that that sort of became a tipping point?
Speaker:And if so, can you reflect a little bit on, you know, what those changed
Speaker:consumer expectations and wants, um, meant to the home improvement industry?
Speaker:Yeah, well I certainly, the way that contractors were marketing
Speaker:was, at least that was a, the most foundational change was.
Speaker:Contractors went from, I mean, I don't, A lot of roofers and other
Speaker:trades were like knocking on doors.
Speaker:And when they couldn't do that, they needed to go into the digital domain.
Speaker:And if they wanted to go into the digital side, they needed to be smart about it.
Speaker:They needed to be different than all the other noise that
Speaker:was available on the platform.
Speaker:And so using an instinct quote was actually a way to differentiate
Speaker:your business and to not stand out from all the noise.
Speaker:Um, now obviously there's a, there's a consumer aspect in the
Speaker:dimension here that that's driven by.
Speaker:Changing consumer expectations and a more, um, marketing dominated funnel is the word
Speaker:that I I used during COVID was consumers were spending more time shopping on
Speaker:their own because that was what you did.
Speaker:Like you remember back in those days you were just kind of bored on your couch and
Speaker:doing research and spending more time.
Speaker:Learning, uh, because you had time and because you certainly weren't gonna
Speaker:invite that person out to your home until you really know for sure that that was
Speaker:something that you were gonna invest in.
Speaker:And so, um, yeah, I think consumers certainly were driven by, you know, the,
Speaker:the experiences that they were having around them and, and during COVID they
Speaker:were spending just more time researching.
Speaker:And I think that's, that's rubbed off on them.
Speaker:And, you know, kind of now that's the standard is that you're gonna go online.
Speaker:Uh, for the majority of us homeowners at this point, like especially new home
Speaker:buyers, I think what's interesting is there's homeowners and then there's
Speaker:new home buyers, and now millennials are mostly new home buyers, and so.
Speaker:Those new home buyers are, you know, making upgrades
Speaker:and retrofits to their home.
Speaker:And so I, I think one of the important things is just separating,
Speaker:like generationally, like the difference in shopping behavior,
Speaker:but certainly COVID drove everybody.
Speaker:But millennials have this propensity to to shop on their own and certainly Gen Z
Speaker:even more than, uh, those, those younger home, uh, than those older homeowners.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Well, so as you know, these changes have happened in terms
Speaker:of consumer expectations.
Speaker:How have Google and the various AI agents, how have they responded to that?
Speaker:Man.
Speaker:Uh, Google's really put on some, some brass knuckles with this concept.
Speaker:Uh, they've, you know, they're kinda laying down the law saying, Hey, this,
Speaker:this price transparency is something that contractors really need to, you know.
Speaker:Start using because they realize that the experience that homeowners have with
Speaker:going and gathering quotes is laborists.
Speaker:That there's a lot involved in that.
Speaker:It's keeping homeowners from starting their process.
Speaker:Uh, they want people to have a great experience with using
Speaker:Google, and if homeowners are, you know, finding themselves.
Speaker:Giving up in their middle of their process because they don't wanna sit down.
Speaker:That means that there's less people spending mo, less contractors
Speaker:spending more money on Google, less people, uh, getting the
Speaker:results that they're looking for.
Speaker:And so what they've done is they've introduced this new filter at the
Speaker:very, very top of Google search.
Speaker:It's the very first thing you see when you type in roofing company
Speaker:near me, or, uh, windows Company near me, siding company near me.
Speaker:Any sort of.
Speaker:Local search phrase, maybe it's like Roofing company, Denver, any local
Speaker:phrase, this button pops up at the top of search and it works just like
Speaker:the concept of top rated or open.
Speaker:Now, if you've used that for restaurants, so if you've, if you're a restaurant
Speaker:person, you know that when you click on top rated, it's only going to show
Speaker:businesses that are top rated or open Now.
Speaker:So the same concept, it's, there's only three options at the top of Google search.
Speaker:Now it's online estimates, top rated and open now.
Speaker:So if you click on that online estimates button, just like what happens with
Speaker:open now and top rated, it's gonna only show contractors that are.
Speaker:Showing online pricing, and this is a big change, right?
Speaker:There's, there's a lot of, uh, you know, there's steps that you'll need to take.
Speaker:It's not terribly difficult, but this is a new paradigm where Google is, you
Speaker:know, kind of saying that this is what they expect homeowners to get when
Speaker:they search for home improvements.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I'll often hear people say that, you know,
Speaker:oh, Google's doing this to me.
Speaker:But really Google's responding to what the consumer expectation is, and I think
Speaker:it's important for people to remember that well, um, you know, not to scare anybody.
Speaker:Well, frankly, I think we do need to scare a few people.
Speaker:What are the risks for contractors who just keep trying
Speaker:to do things the same old way?
Speaker:Maybe they say, oh, it's okay, I'll just ignore the digital stuff
Speaker:and double down on home shows or newspaper advertising or something.
Speaker:Uh, what do you see as the real risks there?
Speaker:I mean, I, I certainly see, uh, Google as being a top performing lead source, right?
Speaker:Like the deep funnel nature of people who are shopping on
Speaker:Google is, uh, is hard to ignore.
Speaker:Like if someone's searching for roofing provider near me or
Speaker:get a, you know, getting a, a price quote for, for a new roof.
Speaker:Like, those are very, very deep funnel ready to buy people.
Speaker:So if you, if you wanted to put your budget in TV or radio or print.
Speaker:Man, let's think about what that type of person is that you're hitting.
Speaker:One, you certainly can't get as targeted.
Speaker:'cause these are, these are, you're just going and saying, Hey, random person.
Speaker:You know, Hey, are you open to buying a new roof?
Speaker:Uh, you know, that's a lot of wasted budget.
Speaker:So I, I think the only time that it makes sense to go into, uh, tv, radio, print
Speaker:is when, I mean, print seems like they're getting some different results, but the
Speaker:TV and radio, that stuff is for when you.
Speaker:Are already maximizing your Google and your meta when you can't
Speaker:spend any more on your market.
Speaker:We're talking, you know, you're spending tens or hundreds of thousands
Speaker:of dollars a month already into those deep funnel channels like Google
Speaker:and Meta to then say, I gotta go get more people in the top of the funnel
Speaker:and try to bring those people down.
Speaker:So I, um, you know, I would just say you're leaving money
Speaker:on the table if you're not maximizing, uh, Google right now.
Speaker:Makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:Well, talking about the modern consumer, the changed consumer, if you will.
Speaker:Um, what are, what are their expectations, you know, before they even talk to a
Speaker:home improvement salesperson, um, what are the things that they are trying
Speaker:to learn and, you know, what are their expectations when they first invite
Speaker:someone to come, Hey, talk to me.
Speaker:I think that the biggest, like I said about the concept of budget, right?
Speaker:Uh, you know, what is the budget that I need to, to start my project?
Speaker:You know, what, what are the different budget levels?
Speaker:Like what, um, like do you have, are there tiers to this?
Speaker:Is it.
Speaker:Uh, what's a, what's a metal roof cost compared to an asphalt shingle roof?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, so I think that people are just trying to understand like, do I have, is
Speaker:this a project I can even start today?
Speaker:Or is this something I'm gonna have to save up for?
Speaker:And so that's the very first foundational level.
Speaker:But then beyond that, they're wanting to know more details about.
Speaker:The products and services that you offer, right?
Speaker:Like what does a metal roof system, you know, what is the difference?
Speaker:It's a, oh, it's a lifetime roof.
Speaker:You know, it's like this is something that's an investment in your home.
Speaker:And so communicating that value proposition is something that
Speaker:we've done within our software.
Speaker:I think to a deeper degree than any other instant quote platform out there.
Speaker:We've created a very rich experience that allows you to showcase.
Speaker:Your products and really explain and articulate the value of those products
Speaker:because it's not just about price, right?
Speaker:I'm a price tool salesman that's telling you that it's not just about price.
Speaker:And that's something that's very important reflected in our product.
Speaker:Um, and so they wanna know a little bit more.
Speaker:They're gonna do their research.
Speaker:Like you, you know that, uh, when you go on Amazon, you're looking at a number
Speaker:of different attributes on that Amazon.
Speaker:Product card, you're looking at reviews, you're looking at those, uh,
Speaker:FAQs and descriptions of the product.
Speaker:Um, you're looking at the photos.
Speaker:Those are all things that you know, are reflected inside of Demand iq.
Speaker:And we make it easy for a contractor to set that up and showcase products.
Speaker:Of course, Isaiah is already in there, but, you know, uh, any, even windows
Speaker:and, and, um, you know, different types of other products that you
Speaker:could be retailing can be configured and showcased inside of our tool.
Speaker:Can you share with us maybe, uh, some case study information on a contractor you've
Speaker:worked with and you know, how this changed their business or changed the trajectory?
Speaker:Of their business.
Speaker:I think that, and there's a, there's a metal roof provider in the Great
Speaker:Lakes region that, um, uses our tool very strongly on, um, meta ads.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:They're really, really big.
Speaker:And, um, using our tool to differentiate their ads, as I, as I mentioned earlier
Speaker:in this conversation, that like, there's a lot of noise out there with
Speaker:advertising and if you can provide something of value to your homeowner
Speaker:to call it a, a better carrot, right?
Speaker:Just for lack of better words, dangling a better carrot, you
Speaker:can get more, more results.
Speaker:And so they're using.
Speaker:Our product to be able to drive lower cost leads.
Speaker:I think we've cut their cost per lead in half, maybe from $70
Speaker:down to sub $50 or sub $40 even.
Speaker:Um, and they're, they're spending about $2,000 a week on meta ads,
Speaker:and they're seeing between 70 and a hundred thousand dollars in sales.
Speaker:And that's, they're using it as like an, an engine, a conversion
Speaker:engine for leads and to get quality appointments to set their ads apart.
Speaker:You know, there's, there's really like two different use cases for our product.
Speaker:There's the, I want to go get more leads on one of these paid ad channels, and
Speaker:then there's the, I want to kind of harvest more leads from my website, like
Speaker:people that are already coming to me.
Speaker:I wanna harvest more of those, you know, just as an analogy, I wanna squeeze more
Speaker:lemon lemonade out of my lemons, right?
Speaker:So you already, if you're a business that's been around for a number of
Speaker:years, you know, if you have reviews, you've got people coming to your website.
Speaker:There are are businesses that are using our tool to, to just increase
Speaker:the overall level of results that you're getting from your website.
Speaker:Sometimes on the order of two to three times more leads
Speaker:from just using our product.
Speaker:Just adding it to your site and just giving them that better option for
Speaker:getting started in their process.
Speaker:If I can lower the barrier to getting started, I can get more
Speaker:people started and get more results.
Speaker:It's just about developing less friction in the process and providing
Speaker:a better ex, a better value.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Like again, that carrot analogy, if I, the carrot, I get more bites, right?
Speaker:So that's, that's how folks use it, is either as like a, a conversion engine
Speaker:for their paid social and paid ads or.
Speaker:More of a, an extraction tool for getting better results from their website.
Speaker:So those are really the two main use cases.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Well, tell us a little bit about what it looks like when
Speaker:you on onboard a new client.
Speaker:I mean, you know, what does that process look like when someone says, Hey, Austin,
Speaker:your team, I want to get this started.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:What's that process look like for them?
Speaker:Number one is gonna be we're, we're gonna make sure you have a website, right?
Speaker:So let's talk about who's a good fit for this, right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So people that have websites that are getting leads from their
Speaker:site today would say, let's.
Speaker:Work with a marketing agency, so maybe you've got one, or maybe
Speaker:you've got an internal team member.
Speaker:We add the tool to the website.
Speaker:Of course, it's programmed with existing materials, so things
Speaker:like Isaiah are already in there.
Speaker:You just need to set up your price points for those materials, and then
Speaker:we can embed or add this product to your website with a, basically just
Speaker:copying and pasting it onto your site.
Speaker:And then, um, it lives on your site, whether it's a banner or whether
Speaker:you actually put it onto the page or maybe add some photos around it, or an
Speaker:explainer, however you wanna showcase it.
Speaker:It's, it's a way for a homeowner to just enter their address
Speaker:and get back that online quote.
Speaker:Now.
Speaker:We talked a little bit earlier about how Google is changing the
Speaker:rules here and, and keeping up with them is, you know, an ever, an ever
Speaker:changing task that like, you know, you have to play against their rules.
Speaker:And so the way it works to, to actually rank for that online estimates filter to
Speaker:start showing up on page one of Google.
Speaker:Under online estimates, there are really three steps.
Speaker:So the first step is.
Speaker:Inside your Google business profile, you need to turn on a, a new
Speaker:attribute called online estimates.
Speaker:It's very simple.
Speaker:It's just you click on a button and it turns it on.
Speaker:Um, you need to have a online estimate tool configured, which
Speaker:is, we just talked about that.
Speaker:How to configure it is just very simple.
Speaker:It's just add your products pricing and add it to the site.
Speaker:We also can integrate with your CRM.
Speaker:So if you're, you know, using like Job Nimbus or Cullins or
Speaker:ServiceTitan or anything like that, we can get the leads to you.
Speaker:And then the last step is actually creating a, a
Speaker:dedicated page on your website.
Speaker:That speaks to online estimates.
Speaker:So that means that you've got a, a title that says Online Roofing
Speaker:Estimate or online siding estimate.
Speaker:And then I, I ideally also like your local city name too.
Speaker:And then, um, once you have those, that is gonna increase the likelihood that
Speaker:you're gonna show up on Google when someone clicks on that button right under
Speaker:the search bar for online estimates.
Speaker:I would encourage any listener to go and Google their local market today.
Speaker:See whether there are companies serving online estimates.
Speaker:I would guess, or I would, I would venture to believe that most markets
Speaker:do not have a lot of competition today, and that you have an opportunity, as any
Speaker:listener here has an opportunity to go and start doing this, to have a potential
Speaker:page one ranking on Google for an that otherwise might have been very difficult.
Speaker:To, to get, because you're able to set something like this up with a, you
Speaker:know, a low, low monthly subscription, cost a little bit of marketing juice,
Speaker:and, you know, certainly be able to enjoy the fruit of, uh, more leads
Speaker:from Google, as I mentioned, very deep funnel, deep funnel, ready to buy
Speaker:type people coming from that channel.
Speaker:Well, good stuff.
Speaker:Well, I'm kind of curious, you know, you have your finger on
Speaker:the pulse of all of this stuff.
Speaker:I mean, as you look into your crystal ball.
Speaker:Um, anything you see dramatic as far as further changes over
Speaker:the next five years or so?
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:So why, you know, there's, there's the customer experience justification
Speaker:of like, people go, Google's doing this because it's a better experience.
Speaker:That's one part.
Speaker:That's part A. Part B of why they're doing this is because they feel like
Speaker:they wanna enable their AI agents that will shop on behalf of homeowners to go
Speaker:to your site and get results for them.
Speaker:So they're, instead of homeowners going to your site, what in the future?
Speaker:I'm gonna just queue up an agent.
Speaker:I'll say, you know, to my phone, Hey, I need, I, I've got a leak in my roof.
Speaker:Or, you know, my, my roof's getting old, uh, you know,
Speaker:Alexa or Siri, or you know what?
Speaker:Chat, GBT, whatever.
Speaker:Whoever I'm using, can you go and get me three quotes and then it will go?
Speaker:It'll go find three relevant roofing companies or three relevant providers.
Speaker:It'll go to their website and then it'll come back and it'll
Speaker:say, Hey, they actually have three different roof system options.
Speaker:They've got this Isaiah, this other one, and you know a few others.
Speaker:Which one do you want to quote for?
Speaker:And then it'll say, I can go and get you that quote and actually
Speaker:retrieve it and bring it back to you.
Speaker:So that.
Speaker:Google feels like they're doing a complete job or that chat, GBT feels
Speaker:like it's doing a full end-to-end job for that homeowner of gathering
Speaker:some basic pricing details.
Speaker:And that's what Google wants is, is to feel like they're getting
Speaker:outcomes for homeowners and not just getting them a provider, but
Speaker:actually getting them the information that homeowner is really seeking.
Speaker:And as we started the show with everybody is just after.
Speaker:Gosh, how much roughly is this going to cost?
Speaker:And so that's what Google really wants to get.
Speaker:Its AI bots to be able to provide, and this is a stepping stone, uh, for AI
Speaker:to actually start using your website to gather that information for homeowners.
Speaker:And in the meantime, before we have tons of bots doing this stuff,
Speaker:which inevitably I think will happen by the end of this year.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:It's for homeowners.
Speaker:It's to improve your homeowner satisfaction and improve
Speaker:your customer experience.
Speaker:Improve the trust that you're offering to your, your experience, and be able
Speaker:to really ensure that you're building a relationship early and getting people
Speaker:that otherwise maybe would've left to your website and gone someplace else if
Speaker:you didn't offer this type of experience.
Speaker:Quick question here.
Speaker:What are your thoughts on kind of the difference between like a pricing table
Speaker:that like we're used to seeing, if you maybe go to like a, a website where
Speaker:you're gonna subscribe to something and they have different pricing tiers
Speaker:with a price versus a tool that's more like a calculator where you, the user
Speaker:needs to select or, or give some input.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:certainly see the benefit into the input side of it that you can, the more
Speaker:invested somebody is in kind of giving information one step at a time, the
Speaker:more likely they are to input their, uh, you know, share their inf information
Speaker:with you and become a lead instead of just seeing a. A price on there.
Speaker:How, how do both of those play with ai?
Speaker:Is ai do you think AI will eventually be able to go fill those
Speaker:forms out or click the buttons, um, and go through that process?
Speaker:Or where, where's that headed, I guess?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well that is, so I think there's a couple questions there, but yes,
Speaker:AI is going to be able to, and can, you know, pretty much already go to
Speaker:these tools and use them for you.
Speaker:Now it's a little clunky and I think on both sides, on the agent
Speaker:builder side, so on the Google or chat BC side, it's a little clunky.
Speaker:And then on our side, like we're improving to make them more agent ready, right?
Speaker:So I think.
Speaker:Uh, both of those will improve and yes, that will definitely happen.
Speaker:Um, the, on the other side, the comparison of like a table lookup
Speaker:versus a personalized experience.
Speaker:I think what you're sacrificing with a table is that lead capture
Speaker:experience, like you're mentioning.
Speaker:Um, that opportunity to really wow someone with a full report that's
Speaker:personalized for them and deliver them, like I mentioned, some of that
Speaker:content that's collateral to your.
Speaker:Estimate to your price point, which is your reviews and your video about who
Speaker:you are and what makes you different, and justifying those price points.
Speaker:Those are all things that you can do inside of our software that a table
Speaker:by itself would either require someone who likes to read a lot, which we know
Speaker:homeowners kind of glance at things.
Speaker:They're not getting deep, but if we just give them this focused experience
Speaker:where they just enter their address.
Speaker:Get a ballpark price and then learn about you, they can then
Speaker:schedule an appointment right away with all of that context in hand.
Speaker:So I would say it's just another level, uh, it's another level,
Speaker:uh, better at converting.
Speaker:And I think, you know, the, our, the name of our game is just how
Speaker:do we get you more conversions?
Speaker:And that seems to be the way that homeowners want to shop
Speaker:with their, you know, I goldfish length attention span, right?
Speaker:Like they, they want quick.
Speaker:Fast, easy.
Speaker:And uh, giving them a really quick way to do that is, is great.
Speaker:Now you might ask like, you know, okay, so where is this going with chat, GBT
Speaker:and um, what about these AI overviews and, and is, uh, how do I show up there?
Speaker:And is this pricing gonna be there inside of ai?
Speaker:Well, what's interesting is that we're actually seeing our customers
Speaker:instant estimate pages being deep, like linked inside of the AI summaries.
Speaker:So we're seeing.
Speaker:Your brand showing up in the AI summary with a link to click on it to then go to
Speaker:your page, so it will, if someone says.
Speaker:Roofing company, and I think Los Angeles was the last place
Speaker:I checked this in Los Angeles.
Speaker:It was actually giving me companies in this, in the AI summary that
Speaker:had a page on their site where I could go and do this experience.
Speaker:And I think that that's one level better than if you ever used chat
Speaker:GPT at the beginning and or Gemini at the beginning, it would just say
Speaker:a roof in Denver or in LA or whatever was like usually around this cost.
Speaker:Now it's saying.
Speaker:Here's a provider for this type of experience and
Speaker:here's their dedicated page.
Speaker:And I think you'll start to see advertisements and things start to show up
Speaker:there where you can actually strategically place your instant estimating experience
Speaker:when someone is, is doing that as well.
Speaker:So I think, you know, there'll be an opportunity to actually.
Speaker:You know, ad A, have advertisements to ensure you're showing up in those things.
Speaker:But even in the kind of organic AI SEO side, it's these
Speaker:pages are starting to rank.
Speaker:I'll tell you, it is indeed a brave, bold.
Speaker:New world out there and we're fortunate as an industry to
Speaker:have you guiding us into it.
Speaker:Austin, thank you.
Speaker:Um, been a real pleasure to have you here on the show today.
Speaker:Is there anything we haven't covered yet that you wanted to, uh, be
Speaker:sure to share with our audience and we'll get your contact information
Speaker:here in just a tiny bit also.
Speaker:I mean, number one is just, uh, we're always trying to share
Speaker:updates about these changes.
Speaker:Like, it, it really is changing fast.
Speaker:And the data that, you know, I shared with you today is, is, you
Speaker:know, has been shaped over in the last two, three months, right?
Speaker:Like every, every month there's more information.
Speaker:And I think one of the things that.
Speaker:I will just say is like, we, we can very much be your guide, uh,
Speaker:without you needing to think about a lot of this stuff in your business.
Speaker:Like we're making optimizations to the software to constantly stay
Speaker:ahead of these things without you needing to stay on top of them.
Speaker:So we do work with agencies that are a little bit more in tune with
Speaker:these changes, as you would imagine.
Speaker:But ultimately our job is to abstract that.
Speaker:Stuff away from, from your business so that you can focus on what you are
Speaker:great at, which is providing a great customer experience and installing
Speaker:great projects into the home.
Speaker:And so, um, you know, we talked a lot about a lot of complicated things that
Speaker:are obviously ever changing, but like, our goal is to make this simple for you,
Speaker:to make this easy, to make it painless, to make your brand, uh, represented
Speaker:in the way that you'd want it to be.
Speaker:And, uh, stay ahead of those changes.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Well, this really has been a very valuable time together.
Speaker:Now, before we close out though, I'm gonna ask if you're willing to participate.
Speaker:Eight in our rapid fire questions.
Speaker:So these are five questions.
Speaker:Some are serious, some may be silly.
Speaker:Um, all you have to do is give a response, are you up to the
Speaker:challenge of rapid fire Austin?
Speaker:Let's do.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:Ryan, you wanna ask the first question?
Speaker:Sure, I would love to.
Speaker:Question number one, what school teacher do you have the best memories of?
Speaker:This is hilarious.
Speaker:I was just talking about a school teacher this morning with my, uh, with my team.
Speaker:I actually have the good fortune of, of, uh.
Speaker:Having a team member that I grew up with in our company.
Speaker:Uh, so we were just reminiscing on our computer class this morning, uh,
Speaker:and her name was Ms. Uh, so we're just talking about this an hour ago.
Speaker:That is wild.
Speaker:Good stuff.
Speaker:That's.
Speaker:Okay, next question.
Speaker:If you had to eat a crayon, what color of crayon would you choose to eat?
Speaker:Oh gosh.
Speaker:Uh, let's go with, uh, let's go with blue.
Speaker:Any particular reason?
Speaker:Just sounds good.
Speaker:Maybe it'll hope that I taste like a blueberry going
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:I hear there's a bunch of poison blueberries out there right now.
Speaker:Do you see that on the news?
Speaker:They're
Speaker:saying like, you could die from eating these things.
Speaker:it's like the highest level FDA warning, I believe.
Speaker:Well, by the way, before we go to the next question, I did not do shout out
Speaker:to, to miss whole Schlog, um, because, uh, she impacted lives so good.
Speaker:Yeah, she did.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Question number three.
Speaker:What is a piece of advice you were once given that you often think about?
Speaker:I think just like leave the world in a better place than you found it.
Speaker:And, you know, do good, do good by people.
Speaker:Like do right by people.
Speaker:And uh, you know, I think if you, if you live by those words and,
Speaker:you know, create, uh, not take, uh, that's something that I kind of always
Speaker:live by and, uh, you know, try to.
Speaker:The golden rule, treat people the way you'd like to be treated and is, is
Speaker:always, is always important to just do, do, do right by people and you
Speaker:know, be a good person out there.
Speaker:Very cool.
Speaker:Great answer.
Speaker:Oh golly.
Speaker:Is it me again?
Speaker:I guess it is.
Speaker:Um, oh.
Speaker:Do you have any hidden talent that most people would not know about?
Speaker:I don't know if I do, but my, I would say like the, my fun factor
Speaker:hidden talent is actually my.
Speaker:My cat plays fetch and she can do like about like 12 different tricks, like
Speaker:jump through a hoop and fetch and sit and all kinds of different things.
Speaker:And so I don't know if it's a talent of mine necessarily, but it's a talent of
Speaker:my cat that, uh, has lots of talents.
Speaker:That's impressive.
Speaker:I've never heard of a cat being able to do anything like that, so.
Speaker:I don't know what it was.
Speaker:I honestly, she, she grew up with a dog and she just got like a lot
Speaker:of dog tendencies, but then she just really likes to do tricks.
Speaker:Like she's really fast at learning like words, like she just knows a lot
Speaker:of just words and she does them, and I think, we'll, yeah, we spend like
Speaker:maybe a couple weeks like teaching her something and then she just can do it.
Speaker:It's pretty impressive.
Speaker:Very.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Final This one's a little more serious.
Speaker:Um, when the gavel strikes.
Speaker:The end of your days, what would you most like to be remembered for?
Speaker:I think that this sort of comes back to the what, question number one or
Speaker:two there, which was just like, create.
Speaker:Created, created something that made a big impact in, in people's lives.
Speaker:And, um, something bigger than, bigger than me by hopefully a lot.
Speaker:Um, you know, I always look at, you know, a lot of the influential people
Speaker:in this world have created things that have really improved lives.
Speaker:And I, I think if, if I've improved people's lives materially, then I
Speaker:feel like that's what would make me, uh, most happy and most, most,
Speaker:uh, most content with this life.
Speaker:Love.
Speaker:Thank you very much for participating in Rapid Fire.
Speaker:Those were all great answers.
Speaker:Well, Austin, I, I love what you're doing.
Speaker:I'm thrilled by the success that you're bringing to contractors and,
Speaker:uh, really helping, uh, lead our industry through, uh, some pretty
Speaker:major change in advancement right now.
Speaker:So, very cool stuff.
Speaker:Um, if folks wanna connect with you or learn more about Demand iq, uh, give us
Speaker:some of the best ways for them to do that.
Speaker:We'll put this information in the show notes as well.
Speaker:Yeah, go on over to demand iq.com or demand iq.com.
Speaker:Either one will get us to our website.
Speaker:Um, you can certainly reach out to me probably LinkedIn is just like
Speaker:a, a great way for anyone who's on LinkedIn to just look me up.
Speaker:Austin Rosenbaum always connecting and messaging with people there.
Speaker:I sometimes feel like that's just as good as texting these days
Speaker:it's just message me on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I'm always quite responsive there.
Speaker:You can also email me, austin r@demandiq.com.
Speaker:Um, those are all great ways to reach out, but you know, if you want to take
Speaker:a look at what we have, see whether instant quotes is something that can
Speaker:help you out, uh, we can certainly, um, take a look at your site and tell
Speaker:you whether, whether or not this would be something that would benefit you.
Speaker:So I think that's just equally important, is that.
Speaker:We, we do wanna make sure that this is something, if you were to do an instant
Speaker:quote, that it's a good fit for you.
Speaker:So we're happy to give you some feedback on whether or not that
Speaker:would impact your business based on the people coming to your site.
Speaker:Well, good stuff, and we certainly encourage all of our
Speaker:listeners to check it out and, uh.
Speaker:No doubt that what you guys are doing would be of benefit to, uh,
Speaker:pretty much everyone out there.
Speaker:So good stuff.
Speaker:Hey, congratulations guys.
Speaker:We all got in our challenge words.
Speaker:Uh, Ryan, your challenge word was
Speaker:Threw
Speaker:cool.
Speaker:You got it in there, Austin.
Speaker:Yours was.
Speaker:Brass knuckles.
Speaker:Hopefully Google doesn't get too mad at me for saying that they put on
Speaker:their brass knuckles on that one.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:May, may, maybe.
Speaker:We'll, uh, we won't get an M rating for that.
Speaker:We're always trying to get an m rating, but nah, that won't do it.
Speaker:Good job though.
Speaker:Um, mine.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I cheated.
Speaker:My word was invigorate.
Speaker:I think I used invigorating.
Speaker:So, uh, I get a couple of, of demerit points for that, but, uh, good job guys.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Well, thank you again for being on the show, Austin.
Speaker:It's been a real pleasure.
Speaker:Thanks for having me.
Speaker:I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you guys for a bit here.
Speaker:It's, it's always fun to riff on this stuff and certainly appreciate, you know,
Speaker:the, the opportunity to just share what we're doing and there's so much, there's
Speaker:so much to talk about with, with digital marketing and appreciate the opportunity
Speaker:to come on here and talk about it.
Speaker:Well, thank you very much and we'll probably do this a year
Speaker:from now and see what's got shaken and, uh, going on then as well.
Speaker:Um, so thank you again and thank you to our audience for tuning in.
Speaker:Uh, please watch for future episodes of Construction Disruption.
Speaker:We're always blessed with great guests.
Speaker:Don't forget to leave a review, please.
Speaker:On Apple Podcast goes a thumbs up, whatever.
Speaker:Until the next time we're together though, keep on disrupting, keep on challenging
Speaker:those around you in the world, uh, to better ways of doing things and don't.
Speaker:Don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter.
Speaker:Um, powerful ways to change the world just by having a positive impact.
Speaker:So God bless and take care.
Speaker:This is Isaiah Industry signing off until the next episode
Speaker:of Construction Disruption.