Job Fairs

Job Fairs

Jeff Hastings offers up the following suggestion.

Attending job fairs held by various organizations, from Monster.com to community groups, offers an opportunity to get in front of companies and learn about their drug testing policies.

This is an amazingly time-efficient way to:

1) Identify companies that are hiring
2) Qualify in terms of drug testers or not
3) Identify Drug Testing Decision Makers by getting a referral to them

Additionally, you can often gather other pertinent info like, who they use now, what type of testing they do, how much they are paying, etc.

Monster.com has a job fair coming up in November. here is a promo email text on this event:

Hilton Concord Hotel
1970 Diamond Blvd, Concord, CA 94520
Monday, November 3, 2008

Meet face-to-face with hundreds of talented and highly motivated job seekers from the San Francisco, San Jose and Walnut Creek area, all looking to connect with companies like yours.

This promo email was sent to potential exhibits. Check your local area for upcoming events.

When attending these job fairs as a guest vs. an exhibitor you need to be a bit discrete and not obnoxious when approaching decision makers.

Google Business Listings

Creating a Google Business Listing for each of your services is imperative. It is as important as listing your business in the Yellow Pages or a Telephone Directory. Not only does a Google Business Listing improve Organic Search results each listing includes a Google Map which increases your visibility. Google Business Listing allows Internet Savvy clients and uber-Internet users with smart phones to view information about your company right in the palm of their hand. Mobile surfing and Internet search is going to be increasingly important in the future.

When you are creating your Google Business Listing take your time and include all relevant information about your AccuDiagnostics Location and services. If you include photos or other images, give these images titles that are relevant to key words searches. Instead of using generic terms, use specific titles such as; AccuDiagnostics Lobby or AccuDiagnostics Drug Testing Facility.

Your listing is an opportunity to show and explain to future clients about your services. If a potential client is not interested in your ad, they simply move on. Whatever you are offering be sure to include this into a business listing. If you have a great facility, show it off in photos. If you have a promotional offer for free drug tests or take home tests for parents, create coupons for these offers. Customers only know what you tell them so tell them as much as you can!

For step by step instructions on how to place Google Business Listing, please go to the FranConnect Library/CAMPA Western Region/Google Ad Word Info/ Google Business Listing

From the Field

In recent discussions with Doug Kimball (Lancaster) and Jill Chioino (Martinez), they shared the following with me.

Jill: In the span of 3.5 hours, she made 11 sales calls on Tuesday of this week (her first day in the field). She landed one account for sure (background checks to start) and found two other possibilities - a staffing agency for drug tests and elder placement agency for background checks. Keep it up Jill. Don't allow operational issues drag you back into the operational black hole.

Doug: Doug signed up a new client. This was a HAVC company that is expanding. When I asked him the source of this client he said that he found this company while driving around calling on other prospects.

He also shared that he is doing Quest collections for an auto dealership. He made a sales call on the HR manager of the auto dealership and has an appointment to discuss moving from lab based testing to instant testing. His sales points were: quick turn around, background checks and a possible bundling of services for a more competitive price.

Field sales is all about numbers. The more sales calls that are made the more presentations can be booked which WILL result in more new clients. This is the eternal math of field sales.

To hear what happened on follow up calls by Jill and Doug paste the following links into your browser and listen to them outline how things are developing.

http://www.discoveraccu.com/audio/jc-1.wav

http:/www.discoveraccu.com/audio/kimball-1.wav


Congrats to Jill and Doug on their follow through and hard work in the field.

Final Proofs

Please review the final proofs of the 3-Post Card Mailing campaign by clicking on the link below.

Past into your brower:

www.discoveraccu.com/pc_mailing.pdf

The mailings begins on or before October 3rd. Each franchise location will have 2,000cards mailed in three separate mailing approximatley three weeks a part. The companies that will receive these cards are only those companies that are Select Company SIC codes (those companies that traditionally do drug testing - transportation, manufacturing, construction and staffing agencies).

It is important that each location source incoming calls from these cards when ANY incoming calls are received requesting information on drug testing. Call Source phone numbers are NOT being used because of the short duration of the campaign. Also, we want companies to keep your phone numbers and Call Source numbers are only temporary.

The cost of this campaign is being funded by the national advertising program (the post card design) and from ASAP and CAMPA funds.

Actual mailing dates will be sent to you when the proofs are finalized and the cards printed.

Martinez Now Open

Last week was the shake down week for the Jill and John's location in Martinez, CA. John Lipp, the Field Operations Director spent the last few days of the week in getting the final operational components ready. September 22nd was the offical first full operational day.

Upon my visit to their location, I was politely asked to submit to a drug test....which I passed.

Here are some pictures of their location.

The space is 670 sq ft, has two bathrooms, a reception area that will seat 8-10 people, a hair collection room, a two private offices (one for Jill and one for John) and a lab area. It is amazing what a well laid out space can accomodate in such as small footprint.

The address is:

AccuDiagnostics
3237 Alhambra Ave
Suite 3
Martinez, CA 94553
925-957-6870925-957-6872 - fax
925-202-8308 - Jill's Cell

We all wish Jill and John the best on their opening.

HR Professionals

Jeff and Carol Hastings attended the annual convention for SAHRA, The Sacramento Area Human Resources Association, on September 17th. They have joined the association and as members exhibited as a vendor at the convention. The following is a report on their experience.

There were about 30 exhibitors and ~200 HR attendees. The attendees are our target market. Most were HR managers from medium to large companies. Jeff and Carol collected business cards and learned about each contact’s drug testing practices and needs. This is a very efficient way to identify, qualify and profile target prospects.

The vendors also provided targets (staffing agencies) as well as “power partners” (employment law firms, HR consultants, and background screening companies).

The association has monthly educational lunches. Jeff is angling to speak at one.

Costs were:

Membership $125
Table at convention $400
Raffle prize $100
Total $625.

Result:
-19 Qualified prospects
-8 Qualified staffing agencies
-5 HR consulting firms
-2 Background check companies
-2 Employment law firms

There were no other drug testing firms exhibiting.

Collateral Material

As noted in a recent email from Tony Waters, there are collateral marketing pieces for specific vertical markets of Judicial, Private Investigators, Drug Courts and DSS.

These have posted on FranConnect. If they you would like to review these prior to ordering, go to the Library in FranConnect in the Sales and Marketing section.

If you would like to order any of these brochures, contact Tony Waters at twaters@accudiagnostics.com and provide him your address, phone number and email address and he will add this information to the brochures and send you ~200 of each brochure you order for use in your marketing and sales efforts. The price is $0.22 ea - $22.00 per 100. There are in full color/brochure stock paper. In most cases, orders can be shipped within 24-48 hours.

Drug Testing Policy Discussed

Attendees to the CAMPA Monthly Conference Call were able to listen to a in depth discussion on Drug Testing Policies from William Judge, an drug policy specialist and attorney, retained by AccuDiagnostics in Greenville.

Drug Testing Policy marketing and consulting was divided in three separate markets tiers of small business clients (2-25 employees), mid-level clients (26-250 employees) and large clients (+251 employees). It was suggested that in most cases template drug testing policy document can be used for the small business client after a detailed survey is completed. For mid-level businesses the involvement of Bill Judge is likely in most cases because there may need to be some customization of the drug testing policy. A completely customized drug testing policy is necessary for all large clientele, and in some cases mid-level clients, because of the complexity of their businesses, which may include union and government contracts, multi-locations and multi-state offices.

Consulting fees can be charged to these clients based on the level of complexity and implementation requirements. A 100% - 250% is easily justified over what Bill Judge or another attorney charges for the customization.

AccuDiagnostics has competitive advantage in providing consulting services for the development and installation of drug testing policies because of the expertise that is available to our system that is not generally available for our competition and certainly not from hospital, labs and clinics.

To review the survey and template drug testing policy go to FranConnect under CAMPA-Western Region/Drug Testing Policy.

Direct Mail Campaign Gearing Up

A direct mailing program targeting our key market segments is being finalized. Three separate postcards have been designed. These postcards will be mailed in three separate mailings of ~2,000 each in each franchise location to SIC codes of “select businesses” including employment agencies, manufacturing, construction and transportation companies. The mailings will be 3-4 weeks apart and will be processed automatically at our mailing house.

Please go to the following link to review the postcard and offer any final suggestions.

http://www.discoveraccu.com/postcard v1.pdf

The format and copy will be submitted on Friday, September 19, 2008 and mailed within 2-3 weeks.

Click Fraud

Click fraud is when a competitor systematically clicks on ads to generate pay per click expense. In order to preclude this type of fraud, Google analyzes what IP Addresses are searching key words, viewing and clicking on sponsored ads. If an IP address is observed visiting the same sponsored ads frequently by typing in key words, Google will flag your IP Address as having potential fraudulent or malicious intent and may turn off the sponsored ads to avoid competitor click through.

A Safe and Relevant Way to Preview Your Ads:

To preview your ads without adding to your impressions (helping our reports be as accurate as possible) or being flagged as an IP address with suspicious intent use Google’s Ad Preview Tool. This tool allows you to preview ads from within any target area using any keyword combination. Google will display ad results in real time without any restrictions.

Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool and type in Drug Testing (or any other key words) and (your location). A sponsored link should appear, if this key word is one that is currently active.

Now It Begins

Our Google AdWord campaign budget is designed to spend minimal amounts to learn what is working and not working and then to gradually increase the budget as our knowledge base increases. In order to increase the effectiveness of the AdWord campaign, we are focusing on our organic search. Each of these strategies will take time to become noticed and indexed by the Google algorithms. This will means there that the lead flow activity will increase over time.

Here is an email I received on one of the leads generated from the AdWord campaign.

W e got our first lead from the Landing Page. I will be visiting Produce Express tomorrow morning at 9:15AM. They have 60 employees, 45 of whom are truck drivers.

NOW we’re talking!

Jeff Hastings

More to come.

Google and Pharmacy-Related Content

Google has a list of keywords to flag in AdWord campaigns such as: Drug, Steroids, Meth, THC and others that they consider may relate to suspicion of illegal activities by the companies using these key words.

Because our AdWord campaign has so many keywords referring to the words Drug, Steroids and other Pharmacy related items, Google is required BY LAW to request a valid Pharmacy ID in order to allow your ads to be displayed. This procedure is to ensure that Google does not play a part in any fraudulent, questionable or illegal online drug sales.

Because of this policy most of our AdWord ads have been flagged for pharmacy related content. Google has a process that allows for exceptions to the drug related ruling. This process requires the submission of each key word or the display ads that have been flagged. A Google account representative reviews each request for exemption and after a review approves the ad if it meets the guidelines for the exemption.

So far, each of our key words and display ads have been reviewed and approved. However, this is a time consuming process and all of the key words and display ads have not been reviewed at this time. This means that some of the key words and display ads are not yet active because they are still waiting to be reviewed and approved.

Upcoming Webinars and Meetings

Please be sure to re-calendar the September CAMPA meeting for Wednesday, September 17th at 12:00 PM PDT. The login and call in information will be sent via email.

The Google AdWord campaign continues its testing phase. An update will be one of the topics of our CAMPA meeting along with Bill Judge to discuss drug free workplace policy development.

A webinar on Search Engine Optimization and what you can do to increase your organic search results is scheduled this Friday, September 12th at 12:00 pm. This webinar will last for 20-30 minutes and will focus on listing in web-based directories and other listing strategies that can be done from at your offices. Login and call in information will be sent via email.

New Website Deployed

If you have not checked out the new website, go to http://www.accudiagnostics.com/. The new website was launched on September 10th. Some sections of the website are still “under construction” and the text content and layout will be revised as the website site goes through the evolutionary and refinement process that new website development projects normally undergo. Expect to see continual changes over the next few months as the website is enhanced with new features and power.

Tony has been hard at work on this project for a number of months and appreciates your patience. Also, the email server is being updated and deployed.

Key to Meaningful Metrics

A number of years ago I decided to put a small amount of money away every two weeks. The amount was not much but over a period of years these small amounts grew into serious money. This money that has continued to grow over the years and now it is very meaningful. Yet, when I began systematically putting this money away, it was not noticeably missed and I want not even aware of not having those few dollars.

Systematic collection of statistics does not require a lot on a daily basis but over time these metric are more precious than gold. They are in fact your ticket to the pot at the end of the rainbow. However, small business entrepreneurs in general do not practice this is simple but critical function of data accumulation and measurement.

Now asked yourself, “In the last month, have I accumulated daily sales statistics? If so, are they in a reportable format? “

If the answer is “No”, you are putting your business in jeopardy. Without the ability to measure activity you cannot improve your selling process. Even more critical is that it becomes difficult to understand your successes and failures in the selling process.

Robert is going to be creating a dashboard of sales metrics. In order to keep this process simple, you will need to log on a daily basis (weekly will not do) the number of cold calls on the phone and in person, the number of follow up calls, the number of presentation and the number of new clients obtained and the projected revenue per client (best guess estimate). This data needs to be sent to Robert at the end of the week.

These stats will be accumulated and posted on a Regional Dashboard. From these metrics we will be able to begin to benchmark the type of selling activity that is taking place and begin to create standards that are needed to obtain a new client. From this data we can begin to measure activity which in turn will enable sales to be managed and improved.

I will be giving you each a call to discuss this tactic in the next week.

Sharpen Your Saw

The blog posting of “You Are What We Eat” is a way to ask in a humorous manner “where are you spending your time?” As important as this question is, there is another important question to answer, “Over the long term what is your time producing.”

One of the most powerful, yet underutilized tools, in sales and marketing is tracking. By that I mean some form of measuring the success and failure of selling initiatives. In our world this practice begins and ends with measuring the number of sales calls, call backs, presentations and sales that are made. Successful selling is always driven by a systematic approach to tracking key indicators in the sales process.

Before we can begin any discussion about measuring sales indicators we have to talk a bit about setting sales targets and goals. If you are going to start tracking “what matters” you have to know “what matters”. In our business “what matters” is very basic. The number of sales alls is one thing that matters – yet we are not keeping track of this key stat as much as we should. Robert has asked for this data and it has not been forth coming.

Why?

Everyone is busy. I understand that. I do not doubt that everyone is working hard. However, hard work does no insure success. Working smart is “what matters.”

You probably have heard about the guy who while walking in the forest stopped and watched a lumberjack sawing on a big redwood tree. He watched with great interest for a half an hour as the lumberjack worked tirelessly away while sweat pours off of his body but there is hard any visible progress on falling the tree. Finally the observer suggests to the lumberjack that he might want to sharpen his saw. The lumberjack replies, “Sharpen my saw? Can’t you see I am too busy to sharpen my saw? I have this tree to cut down.”

Too often we are too busy sawing our own tree down to sharpen our saws.

Not measuring and analyzing the metrics in the sales process is the same thing as not sharpening our saws. This fatal error can lead to another type of Black Hole: The Sales Black Hole – mindless sales activity with no significant results.

Next up - the key to meaningful metrics.

We Are What We Eat

In my last blog posting I talked about reasons for sales activity being below our potential.

We Are What We Eat. That is what my mother always told me. This concept was recalled recently when I saw this cartoon.

After a two year visit to the United States, Michelangelo's David is returning to Italy ......




His Proud Sponsors were:



Not only did I get a chuckle out this cartoon but it got me thinking about how we become (professionally) what we spend our time doing.

Again, I return to my pet topic of “the Black Hole”. The Black Hole can be operations – being pulled into the office to work on operationally oriented issues. Are they important? Absolutely! Can these issues be resolved in other ways? Most likely.

Black Holes are administrative sales and marketing tasks. Are these important? Again, absolutely! Can these types of activities be managed differently? Most likely.

Black Holes are also ineffective sales and marketing activities. Splashing in the water is often mistaken for swimming. Sales activity that is simply about being in the field and working is not necessarily effective selling that will result in winning business. These types of Black Holes are the most deceptive of all Black Holes because they give the illusion of the doing the right things but in reality are just the opposite.

Are you already in or slowly being dragged into a Black Hole? If you have major responsibility for generating sales, ask yourself what percentage of your time was actually devoted to sales related activities vs. administration, operations and miscellaneous activities?

Can this situation be remedied? Absolutely? How? Check out my next blog posting to learn about how to get and stay out of the Black Hole.

LabCorp Conference Call

You have been invited to attend an online meeting at eBLVD.com to discuss the LabCorp relationship. This call is in response to issues raised by franchisees in the region regarding billing and payment issues, referral business and how we need to proceed to make LabCorp a partner in providing testing services to their non-core client base, which just happens to be our core client base.

Do not miss this call.

Please call if you have questions. 864.607.0254

Meeting Details:

Name: LabCorp Conference Call


Scheduled: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 9:00 AM(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Duration: 30 mins


Presenter: Tony Watersmailto:Waterstwaters@accudiagnostics.com 866.642.8378

Agenda: Building a partnership between LabCorp and AccuDiagnostics.

To attend this meeting: Click the "Attend Meeting" button

Follow the instructions provided on the web page


Call 712-580-7705 and enter Access Code: 316840

I have forwarded you an email from Tony, if you have not received a personal invitation, on the above information.

See you on the conference call.

One Hundred and Counting

At 4:24 pm today, I received an email from Carol Hastings in Sacramento letting me know that they did 47 tests (collections and drug tests) today and 101 for the shorten Labor Day week.

The business came from a wide spectrum of clients including:

1. A local casino that is hiring. The Sacramento AccuDiagnostics location was selected to handle collections for the casino after their hiring manager made a surprise visit to take a drug test. This eventually resulted in AccuDiagnostics getting approved to do their collections.

2. Two different nursing home clients.

3. Two different staffing agencies clients.

4. Sacramento Fire, Police and Bomb Squad had a firemen come in for a DOT random drug test and a breathalyzer test.

In discussing this spurt of activity with Carol, I shared with her that I have seen this phenomenon happen numerous times. After months and months, and sometimes a year, of hard work magical things begin to happen - the tree begins to bear fruit.

The key is consistent, repeatable, at times tedious, and sustainable hard work. There is really no secret to this business. It is all about one client at a time, time after time, and before you know the slow dripping turns into a steady stream of business that eventually will become a flood of business.

Congratulations – Jeff and Carol.

Oh, by the way as all of this was going on Carol got a call informing her that Jeff was selected as the business person of the week by the Asian Chamber of Commerce. Way to go Jeff !!!!

Be sure to check the blog next week for a discussion on the quantity and quality of sales activity not being where it should be?

Basis Laws

Ted Williams, one of baseball’s greatest hitters, once said, “Show me 10 great hitters, and I’ll show you 10 different styles.” Selling is one area of the business world that can be done differently by everyone. True there are some basic principles involved in being successful in sales but each person that is involved in selling has their own style.

As I look around our region, the concepts of different styles is evident. Jeff Hastings has a different style than Bill Baumgartner who is different than Mike Mix or Doug Kimball. Jill Chionio has a unique style all her own. The point is we do not have to be the same or have identical styles. However, there are some key factors that are important in successful selling and without these components it is extremely rare that a person can be successful in building their business. What are some of these elements?

One of the basic laws in physics is Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I have a philosophy that I have evolved over the years which I call Storm’s Basic Law of Sales. This law states that the velocity of sales is directly proportionate to the input of qualified leads divided by the number of sales presentations. In other words, new business is irrevocably tied to the number sales presentations (loosely defined as any type of meeting, networking event or cold calls) made on a daily basis.

What I am observing in our region is that there is nowhere near the level of sales activity (new sales presentations as defined above) taking place that there should be. While I believe there is sales activity taking place I am fairly confident that there is not enough to achieve the potential sales curve that is possible.

What are the main factors in the quantity of sales activity not being where it should be?

Check out my next blog posting for the answer.

How to Handle Sales Tax

A question was recently raised about how to handle sales tax and what items we sell are taxable. The following is an outline of the issues related to sales tax and how sales tax related transactions should be handled.

Q: Are drug testing kits sold to clients taxable?

A: Retail sales of tangible personal property in California are generally subject to sales tax. Examples of tangible personal property include such items as furniture, giftware, toys, antiques, clothing, and in an AccuDiagnostics location, supplies, kits, equipment, etc. In addition, some service and labor costs are subject to sales tax if they result in the creation of tangible personal property.

In some instances, retailers must pay use tax, rather than sales tax, to the Board. The most common example of a purchase subject to the use tax is a purchase of an item for use in California from an out-of-state retailer. Out-of-state retailers who are engaged in business in this state are required to collect the use tax, whenever applicable, from the consumer at the time of making the sale.

The tax rate for sales and use taxes is the same.

Some sales and purchases are exempt from sales and use tax. Examples of exempt sales include, but not limited to, sales of certain food products for human consumption, sales to the U.S. Government, and sales of prescription medicine.

Q: If we sell kits or other supplies and accessories to a client, how should we handle sales tax?

A: Obtain the sales tax rate for your county and multiply this percentage amount x the items subject to sales tax and collect this amount from your client. The taxes collected from the sale of taxable items are NOT subject royalties or advertising fees.

Q: After I collect the taxes what do I do with them?

A: The money you collect for sales tax is NOT yours but is held in trust for the State of CA or NV. Our outsourced accountants will prepare and file a sales tax return with the State Board of Equalization at which time you remit the funds held in trust to the State.

Q: Do I need a sales tax permit?

A: Yes. Please contact the State Board of Equalization and file an application for a sales tax permit.

For future reference, this posting has been posted in the Q & A section under Operations in FranConnect.

D-Day - Tuesday, September 2nd

Amber, Your Google AdWord Specialist (GAWS), is ready for the official launch of oure Google AdWord campaign on Tuesday, September 2nd. Martinez, CA will launch upon official opening.

Here are some additional facts about the CAMPA AdWord program.

1. Each account has approximately 1275 keywords (and growing, not counting negative key words) that are set to prompt approximately 132 different display ads.

2. Each of your 1275 keywords are broken into different ad groups based on your services and are specifically designed to quickly show your potential customers that you actually offer the specific service they are seeking.

Example:

If your potential customer searches the term “urine drug testing”, only an ad that is within your “drug testing” ad group will be displayed.

Below is an example display ad that would be prompted by the search term “urine testing” (using Martinez as an example). This process takes place because the search term “urine testing” is a keyword within your “drug testing” ad group.

Onsite Drug Testing
Same day drug, alcohol and
background screens. Martinez, CA.
Local-Drug-Test.com/MartinezCA

Also, be aware that there are limits to the amount of text in every ad, and the display URL Local-Drug-Test.com/MartinezCA is only for display purposes, and will still direct your traffic to your individual landing pages.

3. Our GAWS has also combined important keywords with ads that describe more than one service in addition to very specific service ads.

For example Drug, Alcohol & Background screening will be one of the leading text displays. Potential visitors will know that you are an all-in-one service provider. Other ads will be prompted by your level of service and also by the customers you wish to attract such as “Same Day Drug Testing” and “Pre-Employment Screening”.

4. Since your services are location specific, the campaign is focused on getting the most local attention it can and guiding those seeking online services or products to the services each location provides. To accomplish our GAWS has placed the location city name strategically within every ad. This communicates that each location provides services out of a physical lab location.

The ad budget is set at low levels initially and then growing slowly as statistics are accumulated. There will be additional information posted frequently on the CAMPA Today blog.