Free Marketing Ideas - Part V

Originally Posted 2.23.09

13. If You Are Drug Free, Promote It

Years ago, a contractor in Auburn, California told me he was randomly testing his employees for drugs. Being somewhat of a libertarian, I was horrified. He explained why and I was even more horrified.

One of his technicians developed a cocaine habit. The tech would case customers’ houses on service calls and return at night to rip them off. “Do you know what my liability would be?” asked the contractor.

“No.”

“Neither do I, and I never want to find out.”

Flash forward a few years. When I worked in franchising, one of our franchisees lost track of a truck. This was pre-GPS. No one knew the vehicle location. The plumber didn’t answer the radio.

The highway patrol found him. He was sitting in his service van on a freeway shoulder, slumped over, dead from a heroine overdose. Fortunately, the plumber hadn’t hurt anyone besides himself.

In Philadelphia this week, a plumber was arrested after getting videotaped stealing pipes from suburban fast food restaurants. He was selling the pipes as scrap to pay for drugs.

Unfortunately drugs are a problem. And people know it.

According to the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), over 8% of full time workers use illicit drugs. Among full time employees, the construction trades witnessed the second highest amount of illicit drug abuse (15%) of any occupation. Less than one third of companies use random drug testing.

Source

Drug test. Drug test to protect yourself. Drug test to protect your (clean) employees. Then, promote it.

Let your customers and potential employees know your company is drug free. Proclaim it on job applications and on your website.

It will attract the employees you want and dissuade those you do not from applying in the first place. It will also attract customers who want peace of mind about the individuals who are allowed inside their homes.


14. Insert A Business Card Into Every Returned DVD

When you rent a DVD, stick a business card into the box when returning it. The kid who opens the box to verify the DVD will probably toss it, but you never know. It’s only a business card!

Of course, it will be more effective if you have a coupon on the back of the business card for dollars off a service call.


15. Join A Leads Club

Leads clubs exist in every town. Some are affiliated with national organizations. Some are independent. Usually, the Chamber of Commerce knows about area leads clubs.

Leads clubs are focused networking groups. Non-competitive businesses meet for lunch or breakfast. The idea is to help each other with introductions and business opportunities.

Everyone in your club is a prospect. More important, everyone in your club is a community center of influence and source of quality referrals.

Leads clubs are different than service clubs. Service clubs exist to be of service to the community. The networking that occurs is a fringe benefit. In a leads club the networking is the purpose. As a result, the meetings tend to be focused and no-nonsense. Each member tries to help others gain business.

Contact your local chamber for more information on the leads clubs in your area.


16. Knock On Doors

Tom McCart was the first salesperson in the heating and air conditioning industry to sell $1 million of replacement products. He did it in a small, one season market, one system at a time, with many sales coming from leads generated by knocking on doors.

Knocking on doors? It sounds crazy. Yet, soon after Tom broke the million dollar ceiling, Pat McCormick sold $1 million worth of high efficiency air conditioners in mild Southern California. Pat generated ALL of his leads by knocking on doors.

Mention “knocking on doors” and the image of the pushy salesperson immediately comes to mind. And, a lot of door-to-door salespeople are pushy. The best are not. They don’t have to be pushy.

Think about Tom and Pat selling air conditioners. Air conditioners are replaced every 15 years on average (though they should be replaced a little more often than that). This means that 7% of the installed base of air conditioners needs replacement every year.

Knock on 15 doors and the odds suggest that one homeowner will own an air conditioner that needs replacement. Why hasn’t he replaced? It’s probably because he doesn’t know who to call and dreads the process of calling contractors, scheduling appointments, and listening to the pitch. He imagines the contractor salesperson to be dishonest and pushy.

So why will he buy from you? Because you are the opposite of the salesperson he fears. McCart used to knock on the door, smile, introduce himself, and declare that he was the neighborhood contractor and was letting people know that he had some special financing available for homeowners in the area. He just wanted to know if the homeowner had any interest.

Tom said the next part was key. “Shut up,” advised Tom.

Minneapolis contractor Gary Katz says that silence is the only pressure you ever need to apply. Tom McCart certainly used it to great effect.

Following the pregnant pause, the homeowner will do one of the following:

- He might dismiss you, declaring a lack of interest.

- He might ask for more information.

- He might invite you to take a look at his old air conditioner.

If he dismisses you, thank him for his time. Hand him a business card and give him permission to call you when he decides it’s time to replace.

Pat McCormick said knocking or doors will eventually result in a sale. It’s a numbers game. Pat would divide the commission by the number of doors he knocked on until he made a sale to come up with an average value of each door. On each rejection, he reminded himself of the value of that door.

If the homeowner asks for information, give it to him. If he asks for you to look at his air conditioner, do it. Chances are good that this is a homeowner who lacks a relationship with a contractor and knows it’s time to replace. You’re in the right place at the right time.

All marketing requires an investment of money or time. Knocking on doors costs nothing, but does take time. If you lack leads, knocking on doors beats the heck out of sitting around the shop. Give it a try.

© 2009 Matt Michel

Repair Work Booms

Originally Posted 2.23.09

One group that’s thrives in a tough economy is shoe cobblers. Jim McFarland in Lakeland, Florida says, “I haven't seen shoes like this in 25 years.”

People are repairing shoes, plumbing, furnaces, air conditioners, pools, etc. Ain’t service great!

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Free Marketing Ideas - Part IV

Originally Published 2.11.09

9. Load Up On Testimonials.

Testimonials are powerful. Expert testimonials are even stronger. They reassure uncertain consumers who lack the technical ability to judge the quality of your work.

For most companies the problem isn’t getting testimonials, it’s *capturing* them. After a service call, a grateful homeowner complements your plumber or technician. There’s the testimonial. Too bad it’s lost.

At a home show, your customer stops by your booth and tells you how wonderful your company is. It’s great to hear, but unless you capture it, it’s lost.

Now, a new product from Dan and Dave Squires makes it easy to capture testimonials. The product is called Voice Q. Essentially, Voice Q is a telephone comment line that digitizes the comments and instantly emails you a wav file with the customer’s message.

Ironically, the Squires brothers developed Voice Q as a means of improving field efficiency, not increasing testimonials. Dan saw it as a way to eliminate wait time when technicians call in to debrief after a service call. The techs didn’t like waiting on hold while the call taker or dispatcher was on another line. The call takers didn’t like having to drop everything to debrief a technician.

Each tech has a separate line, which is identified by the tech’s phone number and the date and time stamp. Separate lines cost a little more, but search and sort makes it worth the cost. An additional line is available for parts orders.

Voice Q helps improve field efficiency. The office staff will love it. Yet, it works even better as a testimonial catcher.

With Voice Q, the technician can ask the homeowner who gives the complement to call the message line and repeat the message. In fact, he can whip out his mobile phone, dial the message line and ask the homeowner to repeat the message on the spot. In all likelihood the message will be even better if the technician is standing there while the homeowner gushes.

The catch, of course, is the field service personnel. They must be given an incentive to collect the testimonials. Plus, the need to collect them should be reinforced every week until it becomes a habit.

Dave used Voice Q recently to capture testimonials during a trade show from his contractor customers. Click here to hear how clear these sound, despite being recorded in a busy show with background noise.

Get expert testimonials by asking your peers in other towns to provide expert testimony about your quality and craftsmanship.

Take the customer and peer testimonials and transcribe them or place them on your website for people to click and listen. Even better, incorporate them into your on hold message so that prospects hear your customers rave about you (if they must be placed on hold).

Voice Q isn’t free, but it is affordable. It only costs $3/month for a line ($5 for separate debrief and parts lines). Check it out at http://voice-q.com/.

Help me test it by calling the new Service Roundtable and Comanche Marketing comment line at 810.320.3118. Leave me a message about the Service Roundtable, Comanche Marketing, your best clean joke, whatever.

You don’t need Voice Q to collect testimonials. It just makes things easier. When you learn from your field service people that a customer paid a complement, you can call or email the customer and ask if he or she wouldn’t mind repeating it in an email you can quote.

At a home show, you can hand the complementary customer a business card and ask the customer to send you a quick email with the same message. Some will and you lose nothing by trying.

Expert testimonials are easier. Simply email your peers in different markets. Start by offering each peer a testimonial of your own. Be sure to tell everyone you contact that it’s okay to say no.


10. Give Creative Titles

Let’s say you are starting a new career. You just got your first job. You can’t wait to tell your mother.

“Hey Mom, I just got a job!”

“Why that’s wonderful. I can’t wait to tell the ladies in the bridge club. What’s you title? I know it will take a few weeks before you’re named vice president, but I’m sure you’re important.”

You puff up your chest, stick out your chin, and proudly proclaim, “I’m a ‘Helper.’”

What a proud day for your mother!

Titles are cheap. At different points in your life, they matter to people or to customers. Let people have creative titles if it will help them feel better about themselves or better represent themselves.

Instead of “Helper,” call the kid an “Assistant Installation Technician.” Give him a title he can brag about with mom and more important, with his girlfriend. And give him a business card. Give him a real business card with his name and title, not a blank line for the kid to write his name in.

At Turbo, I had an intern working with me during the summer. I ordered business cards for him and gave him the title of “Student Engineer.” There was no obvious reason for him to have business cards. He didn’t meet with customers and was unlikely to run into any. His main use of the business cards was to hand them to girls in bars.

You probably think giving him business cards was a waste. Maybe it was. Yet, the business cards were cheap and the title was free. A couple of years after he graduated, he returned to Turbo as a full-fledged mechanical engineer. Did the good feelings and identification he felt with the company while a “Student Engineer” have anything to do with the return? Absolutely. And the cards and title reinforced both.

When I worked at Decision Analyst I used to joke, “What do you call a salesperson at Decision Analyst?” “Vice President.”

In truth it wasn’t a joke, it was a business strategy. While I did my share of true research, business analysis, and consulting at Decision Analyst, I was fundamentally a high level salesperson. Before I could perform an engagement, I had to win one. I had to sell. Since I called on corporate CEOs and Vice Presidents, I had an easier time when I was a Vice President.

Taking it the other direction, the late Tom McCart gave himself the title of “Assistant Buyer” when he was selling for Ron Smith at Modern Air. It was an ice breaker. Tom would hand prospects a card at the start of a sales call. When a confused prospect commented on the title Tom would answer, “Well, I’m here to help you buy the best comfort system for your home.”

Do you have an employee who wants a more prestigious title? What about a more creative one? Will a title help your employee feel better about his job? Will it help him sell more? Don’t be stingy with the free stuff. Make your better salespeople vice presidents if that will help them sell more.


11. Have Employees Park Their Trucks At The End Of Their Driveways, Perpendicular To Traffic

This runs counter to conventional wisdom. Park your vehicle in the driveway of the customer’s home so the billboard is perpendicular to traffic and to every other home up and down the street.

Do you see any billboards placed parallel to the highway? Of course not. They are all perpendicular. If you decaled the truck for the advertising impact, turn it perpendicular to traffic, not parallel.

I hear the gasping now. You say the homeowner will be mad. Okay. Get permission.

“Mrs. Homeowner, I parked on your driveway to get the truck out of the way of traffic. I don’t want it obstructing a driver’s view if a kid is riding her bike down the street. Is it okay where it is, or should I move it to the street.

The homeowner will either say it’s okay where it is, giving you permission, or say she prefers it in the street, which means you move it. What’s the problem?

But what about oil leaks, you say. Personally, I’m not happy about oil leaks in front of my house. Once, a couple of plumbers showed up at my house driving the Exxon Valdez installation truck. It was big as a supertanker and left an oil slick everywhere it went. The only reason I didn’t complain after they left and I saw the oil slick was fear that they might return.

If you vehicle leaks oil, there’s a simple solution. GET IT FIXED! Even if you’re too afraid to try parking on the customer’s driveway and asking permission, GET THE OIL LEAK FIXED!

Service trucks are the primary advertising medium for most contractors. Park so more people can see them.


12. Hit The Service Club Rubber Chicken Circuit

Local service clubs (i.e., Rotary, Lion’s, Kiwanis, and Optimists) feature weekly speakers. These clubs are always on the lookout for speakers who can address relevant issues affecting the community and club members. That’s you.

When you speak to a service club, you speak to a room full of community leaders. These are connected people whom others turn to for advice and recommendations. If there’s any group you want to influence, it’s a group of influencers. If there’s any group you want to connect with, it’s a group of connected people.

Search the Internet to find the clubs in your area and contact the club president. Tell the president that you’re trying to spread the word in the community about electrical fires, refrigerant phase outs, ways to save water, practical solar technologies, and so on. Describe the topic and offer to speak on it when the club has an opening.

You will get approximately 15 minutes. Don’t use all of it. Be sure to leave time for questions and answers.

While this is an informational talk and not a sales pitch, it’s inherently promotional. When more people learn about your business, more business opportunities will come your way.

© 2009 Matt Michel

New Products/New Marketings

Originally Published 2.11.09

Even the best companies suffer from customer attrition. In good times or bad, everyone who did business with you last year, will not do business with you this year.

Some customers move. Some die. Some switch to a competitor (the jerks!). Some skip annual maintenance and only call when something is broken or needs replacement. No one gets their business.

Unless your repeat customers increase their spending enough to overcome the losses from natural attrition, you’ll have to replace part of last year’s customer base just to stay even. But how?

One of the oldest marketing planning tools is the new products and services/new markets grid. Start by estimating how much business you can expect from your existing products and services and from your existing markets without making changes. Is it enough? Can you gain more business from the market by taking share from competitors? Can you take enough share to grow?

If not, consider new products/services, new markets, or both. A service company with a solid, strong customer base might add new products and services to its portfolio and offer them to existing customers. Some examples…

A pool builder who previously ignored service and maintenance opportunities, adds them.

An HVAC contractor adds electrical service.

A plumbing contractor adds in-ground sprinkler system installation and maintenance.

An electrical contractor offers security system monitoring.

The advantage of adding new products and services to your existing customer base is the customers already know and trust you.

What if your customer base is relatively new, small, or is in decline? Consider new markets for existing products and services. Some examples…

A service company opens a satellite operation in the next town, using a local number that’s answered in the main office to keep overhead low.

An electrical contractor who focuses on residential new construction moves into the residential service market.

And of course, companies can begin offering new products and services both within existing markets and to new markets. Most service companies are small enough that adding a market and/or adding new products and services is sufficient to ensure growth, if the opportunities are pursued.

© 2009 Matt Michel

Free Marketing Ideas - Part III

Originally Published 1.07.09

6. Develop An Electronic Sales Presentation

In many ways selling is teaching. Part of the sales professional’s role is to help prospects understand the different options available to them and how these might meet their needs.

Good salespeople try to uncover the needs and desires of a prospect. But sometimes this can prove difficult since prospects may not be able to articulate what they want or even know what they want. When you teach a prospect about a product or service, you open up new possibilities for consideration.

For example, you probably have a number of products you cannot live without today, but that you could not envision yesterday. Could you survive without an MP3 player or iPod? No? How about your LCD or plasma TV? Your Wii? GPS? Your mobile phone? Bluetooth? Broadband Internet access?

It doesn’t have to be high tech. My wife bought me a handheld lime juicer. Before I saw it I never knew I needed one and now I can’t live without it.

You might be wondering what the heck a handheld lime juicer is. It consists of a pair of hinged cups with handles. One cup fits inside the other to squeeze half of a lemon or lime. I can see it clearly in my mind, but I bet you can’t.

This is the problem. Some concepts are simply hard to convey with words. I could probably give a detailed explanation of the juicer that would give you a better idea what I’m talking about, but you would tune out long before I could do it. It’s far better, clearer, and faster to show you a picture.

Click here to see a picture of a juicer.

If it’s difficult to grasp the concept of a juicer without the picture, imagine how difficult it is for your prospects to understand what you are describing.

According to Prentice Hall eTeach, 65% of the population consists of visual learners. Two out of three people need to see things. If it’s an unfamiliar concept, it’s worse.

What do you think happens when your verbal description is inadequate? Some prospects will ask for clarification. Most will politely nod and wait for you to finish, but won’t buy.

It’s hard for consumers to envision an air conditioning zoning system, a tankless water heater, a solar pool heater, and any one of a million mundane products if they’ve never seen one. Pictures are worth a thousand words and showing prospects pictures of before and after kitchen remodels, installed power vents, pool fountains, the effectiveness of air cleaners on microscopic particles and dust, and so on helps them consider possibilities they had not imagined. And once imagined, some prospects will decide they must have them. Your sales increase.

It should seem obvious that you can increase your effectiveness by incorporating visual aids into your sales presentations. Use literature, photographs, and samples (the easiest way). Or, use electronic presentation software (the most flexible).

Despite their flexibility, a lot of sales managers and sales trainers frown on electronic presentations. They are afraid that the salesperson will use the presentation like a crutch, that it will take away from the sale, and that it will turn off and bore customers.

Frankly, that’s old school thinking. A good salesperson uses technology as a tool. As a tool, it doesn’t turn off customers or get in the way of the dialogue. It enhances the presentation. Proficiency comes with practice and once someone is proficient with a laptop, its use is no more awkward than a tape rule.

A laptop offers a wealth of visual aids. With sound it can also be an auditory aid. For example, sound is logarithmic like an earthquake Richter Scale. An increase of 0.3 bels doubles the sound level. It’s one thing to say it. It’s quite another to play the sound of one fan, followed by the sound of another 0.3 bels higher. Don’t you think a prospect is more likely to pay a premium for a quieter product after the sound difference has been demonstrated?

If you already have a laptop, it costs nothing to build an electronic sales presentation. If you need a laptop, I’ve got good news. Asus has an ultra portable laptop for less than $400. It’s limited in its memory, hard drive capacity, and display size, but good enough to help convey basic ideas. It comes with Open Office, which is a free open source counter to Microsoft Office.

Read Cnet’s review of the Asus.

I think the best solution for salespeople is one of the tablet laptops. Unfortunately, these are among the most expensive laptops. I had one of the early ones for a few weeks. The functionality was great, but the laptop left something to be desired. I bet the bugs have been worked out now.

For field service personnel who find themselves in sales situations or simply must give explanations to customers, a laptop may not be practical. Yet, the need for visual aids remains. In fact, it may be more important since service personnel are not usually as glib as salespeople.

The answer for service personnel is to use literature and pictures. Rather than ask a homeowner to climb into an attic to look at a rusted drain pan or try to explain it, take a digital picture and show it to the homeowner. Pocket digital cameras are priced so that anyone can own one. A camera should be an essential part of a plumber or technician’s toolbox. Like other personal tools, the employee should be obligated to supply a digital camera.

If your personnel lack a camera, buy cameras for them. Let them pay for the cameras over time through a payroll deduction.

Remember, without visual aids, two thirds of your prospects and customers have trouble following your explanation.


7. Enter Every Contest

Hobaica Refrigeration is the Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s National Residential Contractor of the Year. I asked Paul Hobaica how they won it.

“We entered,” he said.

Now, there was a lot more to it than that. First, Hobaica is an outstanding company. It took years of sweat and toil to build up the company.

Still there’s a lot of truth to Paul’s statement. Before a contest can be won, it must be entered.

While some contests and awards have lots of entrants, I wonder about others. I suspect that few companies enter many competitions, though no one on the outside knows and people are still impressed when you win.

Win an award and stand out for life. In 9th grade I won a Columbia Journalism Award. I don’t know what the award was and didn’t know I entered it (a teacher entered me), but from that day forward, for the rest of my life I will legitimately be “an award winning writer.” Cool, huh?

Once you win an award, your company is hereafter and forever more, “an award winning company.” It becomes part of your marketing. It’s a point of differentiation. It represents third party reassurance to prospects. It makes you a more attractive employer.

Of course, it all starts with the entry form. Well, it all starts with the search for entry forms. Talk to the people with your local Chamber of Commerce. Call the business editor of your local paper. Contact trade press editors. Search the Internet to find possible contests. Then enter them.

What do you have to lose? Who knows? You might find yourself an award winner!


8. Get Newcomers Lists From Town Hall

Did you ever wonder how the Welcome Wagon finds new homeowners to welcome? I discovered that the list is provided by the city, for free!

Newcomers lists are typically available each month. Some towns will mail them. Others require you to stop by city hall.

I’ve had contractors tell me they’re too busy to pick up newcomers lists and have too many communities in their service territory. Good for them.

I hope you’re too busy too. If you’re not, and if you’re looking for business, newcomers lists represent lists of new homeowners who typically lack loyalty or allegiance to any of your competitors. They’re good prospects.

If you have too many communities in your service territory, it’s probably an indication that your territory is too large. But you say you can’t afford to turn away any calls.

Okay, don’t. But don’t market to the entire world. Focus your marketing to the immediate vicinity of your shop, starting with newcomers.

What do you market to newcomers? Send them a gift certificate with your company. Add them to your newsletter mailing list. Offer a free inspection. Start the dialogue so that the new homeowners start to think of you as “their” plumber/air conditioning company/pool company/carpet cleaner/fill-in-the-blank service and repair company.

That’s it for now. More next time.

© 2009 Matt Michel