Or…Why We’re Not The Brisket Guy
Shakespeare had his Juliet say to Romeo:
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
(Which helps explain why we didn’t name our company The Brisket Guy.)
We incorporated in 2011 and began selling, renting and buying yard ramps. When sales in 2012 were five times those of 2011, we knew the business model carried excellent potential and continued working aggressively to grow the infrastructure.
Still, the name of the business wasn’t settled. Up through most of 2013, the company answered the phone as YardRampRental.com, which was our original domain name.
While our marketing and search engine optimization efforts delivered results, they did not reflect what was happening in our daily interactions with prospects and clients.
During a monthly marketing meeting, founder and president Jeff Mann shared with the team how referral callers often said things like:
- “My boss gave me your number, told me you’re a yard ramp guy.”
- “I got your name from a ramp manufacturer. They say for renting, you are the guy for yard ramps.”
- “Hey! I hear you’re the yard ramp guy.”
Eureka: The Yard Ramp Guy! A few clicks and $12.00 to GoDaddy later, The Yard Ramp Guy became the new brand and YardRampGuy.com became the only site devoted exclusively to the selling, renting and buying of new and used yard ramps from coast-to-coast. The impact on leads was immediate. Sales for 2013 grew 12%. Our first $1 million year followed in 2014!
We know that our central goal of maintaining excellent customer service will always be more important than branding. Still: we also know that words are quite important and help to keep things, as Shakespeare would say, smelling like a rose.
