MIKE CROW the mastermind

Mike Crow is a marketing and business expert who has built and managed multiple 7-figure businesses, including two 7-figure inspection firms.

For the past 20 years, he's coached thousands of other inspection business owners and has personally helped 100+ companies grow to $1,000,000+ in annual revenue. He has also helped multiple singleinspector operations earn 6-figure annual revenues (some surpassing $300,000).

Crow can teach any entrepreneur how to systematize and market their business to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Mike started like many of you — in another business that ran into what became known as home inspections. Mike and his father, Clay Crow, bought, fixed up and sold properties. In fact, Clay ran an organization that taught other folks how to do the same thing. Then buyers started requesting an expert look at the properties before finishing the sale to inform them of any potential repairs that might be necessary.

When Mike and Clay saw this, they fell in love with the idea and immediately became the experts that people could rely on to inspect their homes. This mainly happened due to the experience they had with their own properties that they bought, had to fix up and then take care of with renters. This happened in 1985.

A lifetime ago for most and before a lot of inspectors were even born.

As pioneers in the field — they had to create routines, standards and systems — including their own inspection report to give people the information they needed from the inspection.

Then licensing came into effect in Texas — the first state to have licensing. Clay and Mike became some of the first inspectors to be licensed.

The question then became important as the number of inspectors escalated in Texas because of the licensing “Why Do Your Home Inspection With Us?” Mike and Clay worked on this question every day.

The first and main answer came with a computerized report — on site… in 1988. Think about that for a second — they pulled up in a professional vehicle (completely lettered up for home inspections) and produced the computerized report right on site in 1988.

Even today less than 20% of inspectors deliver their reports on-site and no other multi-home inspection company delivered it computerized on-site at that time. These are what now are commonly called Unique Selling Points or USPs.

Crow then went on to grow that business to over a million dollars. In fact, one of the top three companies in North America. At this point, Mike sold the company to a national firm to expand his territory. It was the first ever Inspection company to be sold for over a million dollars. One of the reasons that it was so valuable was simply that Crow didn’t have to do any inspections himself. The company ran itself because of the way he built it. Mike then worked with the national firm for three years helping them grow several million dollar areas — even as Mike continued to grow his area.

Then, Mike resigned and worked to create a community that could help other inspectors also grow million-dollar companies. With his amazing wife, Susan, incredible daughter, Christa, and equally impressive son, Jonathan. They held the first ever conference named 3 Days of Secrets Revealed. At this conference was when Big Bang Marketing was introduced and has become the most successful marketing program ever for home inspectors, and still used by many including Mike’s current company.

As Mike started coaching many people questioned that what he did in the 80’s would still work today — so in true “Crow fashion,” Mike simply went and bought another inspection company and took that company from $300K to $600K to $1 million. Mike, Christa, and Jonathan created what is now called SPR or Systems, People, and Resources. With Mike as a consultant, Jonathan grew the home inspection company, TexInspec, to over $2 million.

Using what Crow called, “Big Bang Marketing” and “Mastermind Coaching” has helped more than 100 people build milliondollar companies — many now doing even 2, 3, 4 or 5 million plus dollars per year — thus fulfilling a goal set when he started. In the process, Mike became known as “The Father of Home Inspector Marketing“.

CROW LIKES TO SAY, “I BECAME AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS — IT ONLY TOOK ME 38 PLUS YEARS…LOL.” AS MANY NEWER INSPECTORS TALK ABOUT THE ECONOMY — COMPETITION AND OTHER CHALLENGES — CROW HAS ONE SIMPLE ANSWER. MARKET THROUGH IT…

Big Bang Marketing became that answer for thousands of inspectors and even during the pandemic Mike moved Big Bang Marketing online using Facebook Live. The basic secret of Big Bang Marketing is learning who your Mavens are (people that can refer your business — turns out there are over 15 plus Mavens for home inspectors) and then marketing to them — instead of straight to the client or consumer.

An example of this in the world might be how companies consistently market to and educate doctors so they can recommend the best options to their patients.

As Crow started helping others build their business it became clear that most inspection companies were doing everything — (dramatic pause) — well, unfortunately backwards. Either they didn’t have enough inspections and were starving — as they focused on creating a better inspection — instead of doing basic marketing. Or they drove themselves crazy as they grew the business and answered the phone and did marketing — hiring more inspectors as they grew — making their life more difficult. As Mike explains it with his now famous “Business Bullseye” you have to do this exactly in the opposite direction.

You start with marketing — then as you reach around 15 plus inspections per month you “MUST” hire at least a part-time marketer to keep the marketing running strong. Then around 25 inspections per month you “NEED” to hire a full time “Client Coordinator” (a name Mike and Christa created to identify the person answering the phone and helping people schedule their inspection). Then, as you reach 35+ inspections per month, you can look to bring on another inspector. You now have to build a system and start filling in the blanks to build a million-dollar company.

Six inspectors plus two client coordinators plus a full-time marketing person. The B stands for a backup call center. Mike explains that he has the proof to back it up over 100 times — it is that simple.

This is just one of the formulas that Mike created and uses to help others build a successful business.

Mike says, “One of the most fulfilling things I do now is share these formulas with people.” He does this through public speaking across North America, webinars, websites, and his podcast - The Home Inspector Marketing Podcast. You can see some of the most popular formulas at CoachBlueprint.com/Formulas.

Marketing is just where you need to begin. As Mike explains, the ‘Business Bullseye’ targets each part of your business and you need to learn what the KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are for your business.

Most inspectors don’t even think about these or worse they don’t treat their business like a business— they treat it like a job and don’t even realize it. For instance, Mike can stump most inspectors with just three to five questions about their business when it comes to some of the Key Performance Indicators.

For example: What is your average inspection fee (hint: not a range)? What is your kill ratio when scheduling? How many new mavens used your inspection service last month? How many new mavens are now part of your marketing list? Do you know when and how much to raise prices?

CROW EXPLAINS, “YOU START WITH MARKETING, BUILD THE SYSTEMS TO ANSWER THE PHONES, AND CONTINUE TO PERFECT YOUR INSPECTION. SYSTEMS, PEOPLE AND RESOURCES. YOU NEED TO CREATE YOUR SYSTEMS FIRST, THEN YOU NEED TO HIRE PEOPLE TO RUN THE SYSTEMS, AND YOU NEED TO PUT THE RESOURCES BEHIND THEM TO SUPPORT BOTH THE SYSTEMS AND PEOPLE.”

Mike uses his extensive experience from doing over 10,000 inspections personally — doing thousands of presentations to mavens and training hundreds of people in his companies, plus thousands of others that he has coached to explain that most people either forget history or haven’t been around long enough to know true history.

Just as an example, there are people out there that tell you visiting real estate offices is a poor way to market because agents aren’t in the offices anymore.

Mike laughs and then has kind of a smirk when he says “I love my competition…”

“You see,” Crow continues, “I have been around since the 80’s and 90’s and did a lot of the marketing that I am teaching people today.” Here is the big secret about agents not being in the offices. “Are you ready? “They were never in the offices — at least not the ones that could refer clients.”

Mike goes on to explain that top producing agents are in the field showing homes — or on the phone looking for listings. They aren’t sitting in the office — they don’t sell real estate sitting in the office. However, they come by their office on a regular basis and pick up mail and most attend office meetings to show up and share “What makes you different and why they want to refer you — and only you.”

Mike shared a couple of more simple secrets. Your business needs to support what he calls the five F’s… family, faith, financial, fitness, and fun.

To truly understand this though you need to realize that you are really working two jobs in the beginning — not just one. As his Dad likes to say “Son, I only expect you to work half-days — what you do with the other twelve hours a day is up to you.”

You need to work on being a great inspector, of course, but you also need to schedule time for family, marketing, and building “stackable” systems during scheduled “focus time”. Build a business that supports you and then you get to live the life most people only dream of.

It must be true because Mike and his amazing wife, Susan have become world travelers and will soon have literally set foot on every continent — including Antarctica.

Susan, his amazing wife now runs a full blown 501(c)(3), which is fully supported by Mike’s businesses and an incredible number of donations from people all across the world. Visit SewManyBlessings.com.

Crow finishes up by sharing some of the most astounding educational topics that he recommends you use when doing office presentations to Mavens. For starters often you only get five minutes the first time you visit an office. This must get their attention and be helpful, so they want you to come back in the future. Also, you need to make sure you aren’t a one trick pony (or have only one presentation in your bag).

So, Mike shared some of the topics that his Marketing Coaches use when speaking at offices. 10 Ways to Get 10 Referrals per Month… Guaranteed; Nine Marketing Secrets of Top Producing Agents; Six Steps on How to Recession Proof Your Business; Facebook Live Secrets (this was a winner during the Pandemic); And so many more.

Mike told us this short story as he thought about it and laughed. He was walking through a trade show and a young man introduced Mike to the team and said this is Mike Crow he is an OG… now Mike admitted I know a lot but didn’t know what that meant and had to ask. When the young man explained that means Original Gangster, he thought about it and said I can wear that title…

When you are willing to do what others aren’t for a couple of years you get to do what others just dream about the rest of your life. Find an OG to help you understand the way to get this done and not get shut down. Find someone that not only has done it, but find someone that is still doing it day in and day out. The other thing that Crow is often heard to say is, “Be successful… and be around those that are successful because the more money you make, the more people you can help.”

For more information on how Mike helps home inspection business owners grow their businesses, please visit MikeCrowReturns.com.