Practice Gym
There are no perfect answers — state your assumptions and take a swing. The grader is here to help you level up, not to judge you.
Rep 1 — Competitive teardown
Section titled “Rep 1 — Competitive teardown”Pick one Phoenix competitor from the primer (Kelley Bros, Advanced Lock Service, Pop-A-Lock, FlyLock, or a cloud-access player like ButterflyMX). Look at their Google Business Profile, website, and social.
- What are 3 things they do well that we could learn from?
- What are 3 gaps or weaknesses Anderson could exploit in our messaging?
- In one sentence: how should we sound different from them?
A strong answer:
- Names a real, specific competitor and cites concrete observations (review count, what their homepage leads with, how their social reads) — not generic guesses.
- Gives 3 genuine strengths worth learning from, not strawmen.
- Finds 3 real gaps Anderson can exploit — ideally pointing at our open lane: commercial depth, local longevity (since 1966), full-stack (keys → restricted → safes → access control) vs. a lockout-and-go or purely-national player.
- The one-line differentiation creates real separation (a positioning idea), not a feature list.
- Avoids just trashing them — the point is finding the open lane.
Rep 2 — Brand-voice rewrite gym
Section titled “Rep 2 — Brand-voice rewrite gym”Rewrite each off-brand line in Anderson’s voice (confident expert, warm, specific over generic, value over price, commercial-first — see Brand Voice & Guidelines).
- “CALL NOW for the CHEAPEST locks in Phoenix!!! 🔥🔥”
- “We do locks and stuff for homes and businesses.”
- “Our team is passionate about delivering world-class synergy in the security space.”
A strong answer fixes the three usual sins:
- #1 — kills the price-led, desperate, emoji-spam tone; leads with expertise/longevity instead of “cheapest.”
- #2 — replaces vague “and stuff” with specific commercial services (key systems, access control, safes) and is commercial-first, not residential.
- #3 — cuts the buzzword soup (“synergy,” “world-class,” “space”) for a concrete, human claim.
- Across all three: sounds like a seasoned expert who’s warm and human, never desperate, never “call now,” never price-led. Specific beats generic every time.
Rep 3 — Customer journey map
Section titled “Rep 3 — Customer journey map”Trace a property manager through a real scenario: she discovers a master key has gone missing. Map her path from problem → booked job → review, and at each step name the funnel stage and the channel we’d reach her through.
A strong answer:
- Walks a believable sequence: notices problem → searches → compares → calls → job done → review request → later cross-sell.
- Names the funnel stage at each step (Consideration → Conversion → Service → Advocacy → Retention) and a plausible channel (Search/PPC, our GBP, phone via CallRail, on-site experience, Klaviyo review request).
- Shows the insight: one lost key touches multiple stages and channels, and the relationship loops back (the flywheel) rather than ending at the job.
Rep 4 — Review-response drills
Section titled “Rep 4 — Review-response drills”Responding to Google reviews across our three locations is a real weekly task. Write an on-brand reply to each:
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Anderson rekeyed our whole building same day. Lifesavers.”
- ⭐⭐⭐ “Good work but took two days to get scheduled.”
- ⭐ “Way overpriced. Found someone cheaper.”
A strong answer:
- 5★ — warm and specific, thanks them and reinforces what we do well (same-day, commercial); no fake humility.
- 3★ — owns the gap (scheduling lag isn’t our standard) without getting defensive; stays professional and forward-looking.
- 1★ — calm and confident on value-over-price (“we’re not the cheapest, and here’s why”); never argues, never grovels, leaves a door open to make it right.
- All three sound like the same confident expert. Bonus: notes the 1★ should be flagged to Garrett before posting.
Rep 5 — Metrics literacy
Section titled “Rep 5 — Metrics literacy”A pretend week of data. Don’t worry about precision — show the thinking.
| Source | Impressions | Clicks | Booked jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search (PPC) | 4,000 | 200 | 12 |
| 20,000 | 150 | 3 | |
| GBP (organic) | 6,000 | 300 | 18 |
- Which source has the best click-through rate?
- Which has the best click → booked conversion rate?
- If you had $500 more to spend, where would you lean, and what’s your one-line takeaway?
A strong answer:
- CTR: correctly computes clicks ÷ impressions — GBP and Search both ~5%, Facebook ~0.75% (far behind).
- Conversion: booked ÷ clicks — GBP and Search ~6%, Facebook ~2% (≈3× worse).
- Spend call: leans into the high-intent channels (Search + GBP) and treats Facebook as awareness, not a booking engine.
- Shows the real lesson: big reach ≠ results — Facebook’s 20k impressions produced 3 jobs. Ties everything back to booked jobs, not vanity metrics.
Rep 6 — Hook gym
Section titled “Rep 6 — Hook gym”Write 5 scroll-stopping opening lines for a social post about access control for property managers. First lines only — the part that makes someone stop. Then pick your favorite and say why.
A strong answer:
- Gives 5 genuinely different opening lines (not 5 versions of the same sentence).
- The best ones lead with the reader’s problem or a surprising fact — not “At Anderson Lock & Safe, we…”.
- They’re specific to a property manager’s world (lost master keys, fired-employee access, re-keying on every turnover) rather than generic “upgrade your security.”
- The pick + reasoning shows they understand why a hook works (vivid, specific, speaks to a felt pain or curiosity).
Rep 7 — Prompt-writing practice
Section titled “Rep 7 — Prompt-writing practice”Turn this vague request into a great, brand-loaded Claude prompt (see Using Claude in Your Role for the pattern):
“write something about safes”
A strong prompt has the five parts:
- Who you are — marketing assistant at Anderson, a commercial locksmith in Phoenix.
- The brand voice — confident expert, warm, specific, value-over-price, commercial-first; the never-dos.
- The specific task — what (a post about commercial safes), which channel, for whom.
- Format & length — e.g. ~3 sentences, give 3 options, then a LinkedIn version.
- A guardrail — “don’t invent specs/prices; leave a [blank] for real details” — straight back to verify, don’t trust.
A strong answer includes most of these and reads like something that would actually produce usable, on-brand output.