(Almost) ALL ABOUT

             Scott Wilson

                            of

            Scott Wilson Marketing

                   SWM

​

MY NAME IS SCOTT WILSON. i STARTED MY CAREER IN MARKETING WAY BACK IN 1983 AFTER INJURING MY BACK WHILE WORKING MY 7TH YEAR AS AN emt ON AN AMBULANCE AND IN THE HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM IN MY HOMETOWN IN (FAR)NORTHERN mINNESOTA. Instead of drawing S.S. or DISABILITY OR WHATEVER, I MOVED FROM MY HOMETOWN IN NORTHERN Minnesota (12 MILES FROM THE Canadian BORDER AS THE CROW FLIES) TO wHITE bEAR lAKE, A SUBURB OF THE tWIN cITIES WHERE, AFTER LOOKING IN THE PAPER I got a job in one of the biggest home improvement companies in the country (I didn't know it at the time). 

I answered an ad and they told me the job was calling people on the phone, and for that, they'd pay me! Coming from a small town in about the farthest North you can get in Minnesota, we'd never heard of telemarketing and I was amazed I COULD get paid to sit and call folk all day! I did quite well at it- I was more laid-back, down-home kind of thing on the phone (like the Motel 6 guy 'We'll leave the lights on for ya' I'd been told a few times) rather than most people on the phone who were fast-talking, high-pressure salesmen.

BEFORE THE FIRST HALF-YEAR, I'd BEGAN MOVING up THE LADDER into management, STARTING AS MY MANAGER'S ASSISTANT, WHILE STILL WORKING ON THE OHONE, TAKING TOP HONORS IN THE OFFICE, BY THEN EXPANDED INTO 6 OR 7 SEPARATE OFFICES COVERING ALL OF Minnesota, nORTH Dakota, THE EASTERN HALF OF Wisconsin, AS WELL AS EXPANDING INTO NEWER PRODUCTS SUCH AS SIDING, KITCHENS, AND SECURITY SYSTEMS.

wHILE WORKING AS ASSISTANT MANAGER, I WAS STILL WORKING ON THE PHONE AND CONSTANTLY FINISHED IN THE TOP 3 IN THE OFFICES OUT OF NEAR 100-NUMBER ONE EACH MONTH 9 OUT OF 12 TIMES A YEAR-AND WINNING CRUISES, TRIPS TO THE Caribbean, Mexico, AS WELL AS SOME OF THE BEST RESORT LOCATIONS IN THE sTATES.oVER THE YEARS I'd DEALT WITH MANY HEADHUNTERS-WORD GOT AROUND (PEOPLE WOULD LEAVE THE COMPANY ASSURED OF A JOB SOMEWHERE ELSE AS ALL OTHER COMPANIES LOOKED UP TO OURS AS ONE OF THE TOP COMPANIES FOR TRAINING THEIR EMPLOYEES TO BE SUCCESSFUL, KEEPING THEM AT THE TOP OF THE HOME IMPROVEMENT COMPANIES NATIONWIDE FOR YEARS).

I TURNED DOWN MOST OFFERS, BUT THERE WERE A FEW I COULD HELP TRYING, INCLUDING TAKING OVER A WATER-SOFTENING COMPANY WITH MY MANAGER WHO MADE E HIS ASSISTANT YEARS BEFORE, AND THERE WAS A SECURITY SYSTEM COMPANY STARTING FROM SCRATCH, RIGHT DOWN TO FURNISHING THE COMPLETELY EMPTY OFFICES.

IT WAS  A GREAT JOB! I EVEN HAD SOME OLD FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES FROM THE OTHER COMPANY QUIT AND FOLLOW ME ( i NEVER ONCE POACHED ANYONE, THEY FOLLOWED ME BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO WORK WITH ME AS A COLLEAGUE, AND UNDER ME AS A MANAGER. (i HAVE TO ADMIT, THAT MADE ME FEEL GOOD INSIDE, AND STILL DOES, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, AND SOLIDIFIED MY BELIEF THAT A MANAGER CAN TREAT HIS WORKERS FAIRLY AND EVEN AS FRIENDS, EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW IT'S BUSINESS AND HAD TO BE TREATED AS SUCH (DON'T MESS AROUND OR YOU'LL BE SHOWN THE DOOR, FRIENDS OR NO). fAIRNESS AND FAMILY.

THAT JOB BUILDING THE SECURITY SYSTEM COMPANY WAS GREAT! IT WAS, AT LEAST, UNTIL FIRST THE SALES OFFICE GOT A NEW MANAGER (WHICH IT DIDN'T NEED) A 'NICE GUY' ( HE WAS VERY GOOD AT BEING LIKABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY) BUT ACTUALLY WAS A TYPICAL, CLIMB-OVER-ANYONE-BUT-MAKE-IT-LOOK-LIKE-THEIR-FAULT KIND OF GUY. wITHIN DAYS HE NOT ONLY WAS RUNNING THE SALES OFFICE BUT THE ADVERTISING DIVISION, AS WELL, MAKING ME HIS BOSS, AS WELL AS Wilbur's- THE ORIGINAL SALES MANAGER AND DAMN GOOD TOO! hE DID HIS HIRING INTERVIEWS AS A DOUBLE INTERVIEW, HAVING TWO SEPARATE PEOPLE INTERVIEW THE PERSON, THEN COMPARING NOTES ON THEM. I'd NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE BUT AS MANAGER OF THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT HE WANTED ME AS THE SECOND INTERVIEWER- IT SOUNDED LIKE A GOOD WAY TO INTERVIEW AND I WAS MORE THAN WILLING TO GIVE IT A SHOT. tHEN HE TOLD ME WE WOULD BE RUNNING THE INTERVIEWS AS A DOG-AND-PONY SHOW-HIS WORDS TO ME AND THE FIRST TIME I'd HEARD THAT PHRASE. I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE MEANT AT FIRST, STILL SLIGHTLY THE NAIVE NORTHENER THAT I WAS, EVEN THOUGH AFTER A FEW YEARS IN THE cITIES I WAS QUICKLY DEVELOPING A SUSPICIOUS AND CYNICAL NATURE I TRIED TO STAY AWAY FROM, IT DIDN'T TAKE ME LONG TO REALIZE, THOUGH,  WHAT HE MEANT-i MAY NOT HAVE BEEN PRIVVY TO ALL THE 'SALES AND MANAGEMENT' TECHNIQUES USED, ESPECIALLY THE LESS-THAN-FAIR, SHALL WE SAY, THINGS LIKE A DOG-AND-PONY SHOW. I DID MY BEST TO GIVE MY HONEST IMPRESSIONS BUT FOUND THEY DIDN'MATTER AS HE JUST HIRED EVERYONE,  ON A COMMISSION-ONLY BASE PAY. tHE FIRST MONTH THEY ALSO GOT A SALARY AS THEY LEARNED THE ROPES, AND THEY WERE ALSO GIVEN A SPECIAL 'fRIENDS AND fAMILY' REFERRAL DISCOUNT TO USE AS A SALES TOOL. HAVING THE NEW SALESPEOPLE RUN THROUGH EVERYONE THEY KNEW IN THAT FIRST MONTH, SELLING THEM THE PRE-ENTRY SECURITY SYSTEMS WE HAD, (WHICH WERE DAMN GOOD SYSTEMS, AND BEFORE THIS GUY CAME, THEY WERE SELLING GREAT BECAUSE THE HEAD SALESMAN OUR BOSS HIRED WAS GOOD AND HONEST AND TRAINED THE PEOPLE, AS WELL GIVING THEM A DRAW AGAINST COMMISSION TO KEEP THEM GOING TIL THE SALES CAME IN. bUT OUR BOSS, BERT, THE OWNER OF THE COMPANY, AND A GOOD AND DECENT MAN, WAS NEARLY RETIRED. HE WAS ORIGINALLY ONE OF THE DESIGNERS OF THE PACEMAKER! AND BOUGHT THIS COMPANY FRANCHISE AS A RETIREMENT BUSINESS, SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR HIM AS HE GOT READY FOR A FULL RETIREMENT. tHE THING IS THOUGH, HE WAS NEVER IN SALES, AND FELL FOR THE SLICK TALK AND SALES PROJECTIONS THIS NEW HEAD OF SALES AND ADVERTISING GAVE HIM, GIVING HIM THE POWER TO DO WHAT HE WANTED WITH BOTH SALES AND ADVERTISING DIVISIONS.) 

ANYWAY, AFTER tHE NEW FELLA, WE'LL CALL HIM BILL, SINCE THAT WAS HIS NAME, TALKED HIS WAY TO BEING THE BOSS OF BOTH SALES AND TELEMARKETING (THOUGH I WOULDN'T LET HIM HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH RUNNING MY OFFICE AND PEOPLE) AND INSTITUTED HIS DOG-AND-PONY SHOW BEFORE HIRING ALL THAT SHOWED UP, USING UP THEIR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES UNTIL THAT SOURCE DRIED UP AND THEY HAD TO MAKE COMMISSION-ONLY ON THE STREET WITH NO TRAINING AND LITTLE OR NO EXPERIENCE, WOULD EITHER QUIT OR, HAVING ROUGH TIMES THE FIRST FEW WEEKS, GETTING FIRED. WE STILL HAD A SALESFORCE THAT WAS HIRED AND TRAINED BY WILBUR BEFORE BILL STARTED, BUT BILL'S METHOD DID BRING IN MANY SALES (WHILE BURNING THROUGH ALL THE NEW SALESPEOPLE) AND I DIDN'T AGREE WITH THAT KIND OF QUICK PROFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF NEW EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES DEPENDENT ON THEIR LIVELIHOOD, SO I LEFT, AFTER FIRST OUTLINING TO BERT WHAT WAS ACTUALLY GOING ON (BILL MADE SURE BERT ONLY SAW THE PROFITS, NOT HOW THEY WERE MADE ON THE BACKS OF HONEST SALESFOLK LOOKING TO JOIN OUR 'FAMILY'.  

I'd HAD OTHER JOB OFFERS, AND TOOK ONE WITH A SALESMAN I'D WORKED WITH IN THE PAST, WHO'D STARTED HIS OWN HOME IMPROVEMENT COMPANY AND NEEDED HELP GETTING HIS ADVERTISING DIVISION OFF THE GROUND (AND AGAIN I HAD SOME OF MY WORKERS FOLLOW ME THERE, WITHOUT ANY PROMPTING FROM ME). 

EVENTUALLY, THOUGH, I WAS OFFERED MORE INCENTIVE TO RETURN TO THE FIRST COMPANY I'D WORKED FOR, AFTER movING on to other businesses, setting up advertising and telemarketing offices and running them from the ground up, INCLUDING setTING-up and usING auto-diallers back when they first came out.

eventually, I came back to that company aFTER THEY TOLD ME THAT THE HEAD OFFICE HAD CREATED a new position nation-wide, for me and a few others WITH THE SAME EXPERIENCE AS me (sorry, not blowing my horn, I hate that, but that's what it was) as training manager- where I  did all the hiring, training, retraining including daily meetings, personal follow-up training of ALL employees (from 7 divisions, on average near 100 employees) including firing when needed. 

dURING THIS SAME TIME, my brother, who I also hired and trained TO WORK ON THE PHONE A FEW YEARS BEFORE, had gone on to become a builder himself instead, working for a deck contractor. after he'd been doing that for a while, he decided to branch out on his own, and came to me to see if I wanted to work with him, part-time at first, finding him the jobs he needed. It sounded good and I went to part-time at the company I was working at and my brother and I began working together. Although we started with decks, it wasn't long before we eventually branched off into all types of remodeling, including pergolas, patios and all types of outdoor living areas, basement finishing, home bars, and entertainment areas, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, home offices, fix-n-flips, even building homes from the ground up. 

I started working from home part-time until we got his business off the ground, in the mid-'90s, when I could finally quit the office work entirely so I could work at home permanently.  While still keeping my brother busy with his building and remodeling, keeping his crews (he had 2-4 permanent crews but could add up to 5, even 6 crews when needed) working. AT THE SAME TIME, HAVING THE EXTRA TIME EVEN THOUGH I WAS KEEPING SO MANY BUILDERS WORKING FOR MY BROTHER FULL-TIME, I was also able to form other contacts with builders I'd known from previous jobs, and WHEN I COULD I BEGAN GETTING THEM JOBS, keepING them working as well. As they were all in different areas from my brother, and each other, SO no one WAS competing with each other.

AND that was how SWM, Scott Wilson Marketing, was 'born'.

sINCE THAT TIME I've marketed for all types of businesses besides building and remodeling, and, in the last 15-20 years, I've eventually moved on from just direct-marketing INCLUDING TELEMARKETING, OR 'COLD-CALLING' AS I HAD DONE SINCE 1983, which was slowly dying, PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE NEW LAWS ENACTED BY STATES AND FEDERAL COURTS DUE TO UNSCRUPULOUS BUSINESSES EMPLOYING AND USING AUTODIALLERS TO SWAMP FOLK AND THEN HAVING HIGH-PRESSURE SALESMEN HARASS THE FOLK, AS WELL AS the advent of NEW TECHNOLOGY INCLUDING cALLER id DISPLAYS ALLOWING FOLK TO IGNORE NUMBERS THEY DIDN'T KNOW OR RECOGNIZE, AND MOST ESPECIALLY, cell phones.

iT DIDN'T TAKE LONG BEFORE NO ONE USED THEIR HOME PHONES, KEEPING THEM HOOKED UP ONLY BECAUSE THEY HAD HOME SERVICE THAT CAME ALONG WITH THEIR INTERNET SERVICE. KNOWING NO ONE THEY KNEW WOULD CALL ON THEM, USNG THEIR CELLS INSTEAD, NEVER ANSWERED THEIR HOME PHONES, LETTING THEIR VOICEMAILS TAKE THE CALLS INSTEAD. fROM THE BEGINNING OF THE MILLENNIUM, THE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND IT WASN'T LONG BEFORE no one answered house phones anymore, if they even still had them. the world was changing quickly after THE FORMIDABLE Y2K never hit! also, most PEOPLE never answerED calls THEY DIDN'T KNOW, SO MANY CALLS NOW COMING IN WERE ACTUALLY SOME KIND OF SCAM OR ANOTHER. I could keep my direct marketing up because I followed the new state and national laws put in place but MY calls were fast becoming nothing but VOICEMAILS, EVEN FOLK I HAD SPOKEN TO OVER THE YEARS AND WHO HAD ASKED ME TO CALL THEM BACK. 

but as that OLD door SLOWLY squeaked closed, many other new doors were not just starting to open, but were actually being 'built', as newer ways to market came into place, thanks to the ever-increasing use and importance of the 'interweb'. 

I began website building, email campaigns, postings of ads in various places on the web, building e-brochures, and more. And just recently, I've become more and more involved with making marketing videos. iN FACT, RIGHT NOW I'M opening a whole new division to 'the Worlds of SWM' called 'SWM Custom Videos'-WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW- which includes a YouTube channel, fACEBOOK PAGE, and much more. tHIS SECTION ON 'tHE wORLDS OF swm' THAT YOU FIND YOURSELF ON IS BEING REMODELED AND UPDATED TO EXCLUSIVELY TAKE CARE OF THESE CUSTOM MARKETING, AND OTHER, NON-MARKETING KINDS OF VIDEOS (i RECENTLY HAD A CUSTOMER WHO WANTED TO HAVE A MUSICAL SLIDESHOW VIDEO OF HER FAMILY, CONCENTRATING ON HER IMMEDIATE FAMILY ORBITING AROUND HER PARENTS, ANOTHER NON-MARKETING VIDEO I RECENTLY DID WAS AGAIN A FAMILY VIDEO, A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY SURPRISE FOR A MAN'S FATHER, SHOWING HIS LATE BROTHER WHO LOST HIS LIFE IN WWII, BEING SHOT DOWN OVER Germany).  

nOT ONLY WILL THIS SECTION BE FEATURING MY MARKETING VIDEOS AND SUCH, BUT WILL BE advertising thE SERVICE worldwide. And that's the nice thing about SWM- even though SWM Builders and Remodelers, my brother's company, are based in Highlands Ranch, CO, sCOTT wILSON mARKETING ITSELF can AND DOES market in any state in the country as well as 33 other countries worldwide. So no mATTER WHERE YOU ARE, AND NO MATTER WHAT YOU WANT, swm, Scott Wilson mARKETING, CAN GET THE JOB DONE FOR YOU! gET HOLD OF ME TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION OR PRICES ON WHATEVER JOB OR PROJECT YOU MAY WANT TO MARKET. wE'LL WORK SOMETHING OUT TO GET YOUR NAME OUT TO YOUR TARGET MARKET, OR whomever YOU ARE AIMING THE VIDEO FOR. AFTER 37-PLUS YEARS IN THE BUSINESS, I HAVE THE EXPERIENCE AND TALENT TO MAKE A VIDEO FOR YOU AND WHATEVER PRODUCT OR SERVICE YOU HAVE, THEN MARKET, SELL IT FOR YOU.

I WOULD LOVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH YOU!  wHETHER A BUSINESS OR JOB YOU WANT to be MARKETED OR A PERSONAL VIDEO FOR YOU, SUCH AS FAMILY SCRAPBOOKS, FAMILY LANDMARKS, AND EVENTS WEDDINGS, ANNIVERSARIES, BIRTHDAYS, GRADUATIONS, (WHATEVER YOU MAY THINK OF), WE CAN TALK IT OVER AND WORK OUT A VIDEO TO YOUR NEEDS AND WANTS. aND BECAUSE I DON'T EMPLOY A CREW OF PEOPLE FOR THE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE MARKETING VIDEO, I CAN GIVE YOU PRICES FAR MORE IN LINE WITH YOU'RE BUDGET THAN MOST THE BIGGER MARKETING COMPANIES. cHECK OUT THE WEBSITE, AND THE LINKS TO MY yOUtUBE CHANNEL AND SOME OF THE VIDEOS AND OTHER WORK I've DONE. bE SURE TO INCLUDE IN YOUR VISIT A TRIP TO MY 'swm bUILDERS AND rEMODELERS' wEBSITE TO GET A GENERAL IDEA OF WHAT I CAN DO, THEN REALIZE WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT ONLY EMPLOYS A FRACTION OF WHAT I CAN MAKE AVAILABLE TO YOU, INCLUDING NARRATIVES TO YOUR CONTENT OR STORY.

 

I work as an independent contractor, and SWM is a sole proprietorship and holds sole responsibility for SWM (Scott Wilson Marketing).  What that means for those of you who get a headache keeping up with the new local, state and national laws being created regulating marketing, I take that headache on for you and leave you without worry, only profits. Enjoy your visit, and if you have any questions, or are interested in more information on what SWM can do for you please contact me. Thank you.