Foundation Repair Business Grows Sales by 40% in One Year With They Ask, You Answer

Dalinghaus' Journey

Brad Dalinghaus had heard it all before. His team had worked with several agencies over the years, and every single one had prescribed the same solution: You need a new website.

But several expensive website redesigns failed to deliver results — as did the mediocre blog articles the agencies would write. On top of that, the Dalinghaus team was spending heavily on paid search ads.

Growth was steady, but modest.

It was clear that something had to change.

When Justin Sexton, manager of marketing, came across They Ask, You Answer, he knew it could be the future of Dalinghaus Construction. But he needed his whole team to buy-in.

“I was the first one to read the book,” says Justin, “and I immediately pushed it on to Brian, who’s one of our co-founders. He read it, then the whole entire company read it, and we realized this is the direction we want to start going in.”

The key, as they saw it, was customer education. The team would produce content to answer buyers’ questions, and they would do it openly and honestly.

They knew from other They Ask, You Answer case studies that building trust and educating customers would drive more business than any search ads they had run in the past — and the results would compound over time.

Responding to the needs of the marketplace

Brothers Brad and Brian Dalinghaus founded Dalinghaus Construction in Southern California in 2011. With a focus on high-quality work and great customer service, the business grew, largely by way of referrals. Starting off with just a handful of workers, the team expanded, soon reaching a dozen. Then 20.

Responding to the needs of the marketplace, the brothers chose to focus primarily on foundation repair and other concrete work — both for residential and commercial properties.

Today, the business serves customers in California and Arizona, with a team of almost 60. But the core business culture remains strong: Do great work and treat your customers well.

For this reason, They Ask, You Answer was a perfect fit. As a business framework, They Ask, You Answer asks businesses to obsess over their customers’ needs, answering any questions a prospect may have — even if that means they never end up buying from you.

“We want to provide value to homeowners, whether or not they’re going to be potential customers for us,” says Justin.

And it worked.

Organic traffic flocked to the Dalinghaus website, eager to find honest, unbiased answers to their most pressing questions. Many became leads and customers, but many more did not, and that was okay.

Every piece of content helped establish Dalinghaus as a trusted authority in the industry. If a site visitor was not ready to buy today, the helpful content would start to build a relationship so that when that person was ready to buy 12 months later, Dalinghaus was at top of mind.

Using content to shorten the sales cycle and bring in more revenue

As the organic traffic began to pour into the Dalinghaus site, the sales team was using similar content with prospects. Seasoned sales veterans knew what questions a prospect was likely to ask in any situation. The marketing and sales teams worked together to build a library of thorough, vetted answers to these customer questions that sales reps could give out ahead of a sales call or a site visit.

With major questions out of the way, prospects move more quickly through the sales process. 

With the whole team bought into this new process, the results were overwhelming. The sales team began closing more deals, and the business had to expand to meet those needs. At one point, their work schedule experienced a 16-week backlog — even with the extra crews they’d hired.

Reflecting on the impact of They Ask, You Answer has had on his business, Brian puts it all into perspective. “The year before, we did roughly $7.5 million in sales. Over the course of this year, the company grew by about $3 million, so we finished around $10.5 million.”

Taking control of sales and marketing

For years, Dalinghaus depended on outside agencies that made big promises but never fully delivered. Every “extra” — extra blog article, extra meeting — cost extra money.

Today, the company is in control of its own sales and marketing. They’ve developed the internal expertise to drive traffic, capture leads, and close sales. And they use HubSpot to track it all.

“HubSpot is giving us data that wasn't even imaginable [in the past],” says Justin. “Now that we have all this data, it’s allowing us as a company to make data-driven decisions on the business and how we want to move forward.”

The future is bright for Dalinghaus Construction. With top-to-bottom alignment with the They Ask, You Answer principles, the company is able to move confidently forward. Growth has taken off, but not because of any kind of gimmick or marketing magic. They’re building an ever-growing library of honest, trustworthy content that a wide audience is finding, reading, and appreciating.

Not every site visitor will turn into a customer, and that’s okay. But every visitor will leave with more information — and with a feeling of trust for the Dalinghaus brand. That’s how you build the foundation for sales today, tomorrow, and for years to come.