Jim Raposa

Joined April 24, 2020

Articles 29

Promoting a Grand Opening

By Jim Raposa
When you’re expanding, moving or opening a new location, the to-do list is long, but make sure to consider the promotion and marketing of your new or added store. Scott Clark of Spa & Sauna Company of Reno has traveled this road three times and is moving his original store to a higher-traffic location. “The…

Lights, Camera…SELL!

By Jim Raposa
In the last issue, Brett Lloyd Abbott, marketing strategist and president of MYM Austin in Austin, Texas, and Mike Logan, owner of Logan Pools in Brentwood, California, both named introduction videos as an important tool before visiting a client in their home. In-home selling can feel like hand-to-hand combat for many salespeople. It needn’t be,…

The Coming Tide

By Jim Raposa
2017 was an extraordinarily active year for hurricanes and flooding in America. Texas-based risk insurance specialist Jeannette Blanton-Monnat of Blanton Insurance focuses on coverage for the construction trade. “Everybody lives and works in a flood plain,” Blanton-Monnat says. “The difference is how likely a flood will impact where your home or business is located. That’s…

In-Home Selling Techniques

By Jim Raposa
Making sales presentations in the home of potential customers is a different environment compared to the customer coming to your store. At their home, you’re on their turf. You’re probably also one of many salespeople the homeowner has lined up to make a pitch. This is wrought with minefields, unless you know how to set…

Let the Contract Talk

By Jim Raposa
If you’re running your pool service company without a service agreement between you and your customers, you’re flirting with danger and loss of revenue and growth. “Service agreements are the foundation stone for profitable growth,” says Tom Grandy of Grandy & Associates, which works to teach contractors how to run profitable businesses. “It’s what ties…

Simple Solution for Testing Commercial Water

By Jim Raposa
The genius of the DPD Pro dip-and-read test strip for public pools and spas from Hach, is in its simplicity. Hach has made the complexity of water testing so easy, it’s no wonder the interest level from end users, health professionals and public pool maintenance professionals has skyrocketed since DPD Pro was released earlier this…

Service-Department Checkup

By Jim Raposa
When a major storm bears down on the open sea, cargo ships can be vulnerable to major damage, sinking and possible fatalities. In such a dangerous scenario, the captain must put the safety of his vessel and crew above all else, even if that means cargo is jettisoned. On land, businesses go through similar struggles…

Six Rules of Successful Email Marketing

By Jim Raposa
If there were a way to turn $1 into $38, would you do it? Bet you would! In its 2015 National Client E-mail Report, the Direct Marketing Association reported an average $38 return for every dollar spent on email marketing. That sounds great — but there are rules of engagement to put the email marketing…

The Dorian Group

By Jim Raposa
Along with his family and crew, Miguel Mercado has carefully developed the Dorian Construction Group into the pre-eminent outdoor living design construction company in El Paso, Texas. Primarily, the company handles pool construction, pool refurbishment and transformation, outdoor kitchens, fire pits and ponds. “I started out more than 25 years ago as an aquarium hobbyist,”…

Reality Marketing

By Jim Raposa
Miguel Angel Mercado, owner of Ocean Gallery USA in El Paso, Texas, is equal parts entrepreneur, marketer and P.T. Barnum. Barnum knew how to create attention for his business endeavors and utilize what he called “printer’s ink” (the press) to his advantage. Mercado has assembled that puzzle by merging reality television with brokered (paid) TV…

Deeply Rooted

By Jim Raposa
Morehead Pools in Shreveport, Louisiana, is a family business — with a crazy family tree. It was founded in 1960 by Hall Morehead and developed a winning reputation — until the early 1970s when Hall Morehead and the business had accrued significant debt. Margaret Moore, Morehead’s operations manager and bookkeeper, saw an opportunity to save the…

All Eyes On You

By Jim Raposa
Truck wraps, logo uniforms…pool companies have used these and other means to brand and promote their businesses for years. Here, a group of success-minded retailers offers six tested concepts that keep them visible and produce revenue. No. 6: Direct Marketing Brooke Rossi, retail general manager at Wilmington, Illinois-based DesRochers Backyard Pools & Spa stores, makes…