How far do you push?

[MBPH]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post so hi everyone. I own a heating company in South Yorkshire. I've normally just relied on contracting to companies like British Gas etc for my work. This was easy really as they sorted everything, I did the work got paid, simple! The trouble is you are held to ransom by these companies and the work can stop in a heartbeat and when that happens you are screwed with no clients of your own. So at the end of last year I decided to approach estate agents with a great offer on gas checks (by law you need one every 12 month) and great maintenance prices. In around 3 month I've attracted around 5 clients some bad some good, who combined have around 900 properties. I currently have a telemarketer on board who makes the follow up calls after I have emailed the agents. This is generally easy as my service applies to every single B2B we contact. Now the thing is since I've been targeting this sector I've lost count of the number of managers/owners who are keen and ask me to send relevant documents and they will start sending the work. But then nothing comes through. I then follow up and the usual response is that they've been busy and to send the docs again. Now this is the part I'm struggling with.If nothing comes through a second time. Do I ring again or will this just annoy the potential client? And how far do you actually go to get the deal. Also If anyone could provide me with advise on how to get more clients in this sector etc would be great. Thanks for reading. Michael.

 

[faradaykeynes]

Welcome to forum Michael, some potential clients take longer then usual to respond, its good idea to keep in touch and pursue them but dont leave a desperation feeling.

It is vital to do local networking as you are doing already, monthly news letter is good idea, perhaps ask all new potential customers to include them in newsletter, later on if they decide they can unsubscribe from it.

Have you own website and with basic SEO in few months time you should get regular leads

 

[simoncrabb]

Yes, push! Push, push, push, call them every day, visit their offices.

Be friendly, funny, get on their radar and stay on it.

 

[telemax]

who are keen and ask me to send relevant documents and they will start sending the work. But then nothing comes through. I then follow up and the usual response is that they've been busy and to send the docs again. Now this is the part I'm struggling with.If nothing comes through a second time.

Something like 80% of sales are made after 7 contacts or more, most people give up after the first or second contact thus losing out on sales, However, ringing their office every day is akin to stalking. It's best to use what I call 'polite persistence'.

Each time you ring, and they tell you that work is coming through, Tell them 'I 'll follow up in a week' . Then call them exactly when you said you would. I always say something like 'Hi xyz, its Xyz from Abc Ltd Just calling as promised because I'd love to have your business' or ' Just following up as promised to get the ball rolling on this'. Remember at the end of the sentence stop and let them do the talking, even if it takes 20 seconds of silence.

Note if you get the same response make another 'phone appointment' for next week. If anything else this demonstrates your reliability by calling dead on time. You need to keep at it though until the prospect says not to call again or gives you the go ahead.

A lot of this is about inertia ie using their current company, or simply forgetting about you because something else comes up. Bear in mind that you won't get everyone on board this way but 25-50% is realistic, but you need to be patient and persistent..

Jonathan

 

[beasty]

Does this

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post so hi everyone. I own a heating company in South Yorkshire. I've normally just relied on contracting to companies like British Gas etc for my work. This was easy really as they sorted everything, I did the work got paid, simple! The trouble is you are held to ransom by these companies and the work can stop in a heartbeat and when that happens you are screwed with no clients of your own. So at the end of last year I decided to approach estate agents with a great offer on gas checks (by law you need one every 12 month) and great maintenance prices. In around 3 month I've attracted around 5 clients some bad some good, who combined have around 900 properties. I currently have a telemarketer on board who makes the follow up calls after I have emailed the agents. This is generally easy as my service applies to every single B2B we contact. Now the thing is since I've been targeting this sector I've lost count of the number of managers/owners who are keen and ask me to send relevant documents and they will start sending the work. But then nothing comes through. I then follow up and the usual response is that they've been busy and to send the docs again. Now this is the part I'm struggling with.If nothing comes through a second time. Do I ring again or will this just annoy the potential client? And how far do you actually go to get the deal. Also If anyone could provide me with advise on how to get more clients in this sector etc would be great. Thanks for reading. Michael.

I have highlighted a section, because you are doing it wrong.

The best way to get this done is to do it on the phone there and then, email the docs, have them fill them in and work down, reinforce the sale and strike when it is hot. A good process takes from the introduction through to close and confirming the order.

It sounds like, your telesales, rings up has a chat EVERYONE is no doubt happy for an email (This by the way means in most cases not interested and is a nice easy way to allow them to end the call)

You have a list of 1000, you want them all to say YES or NO.... the ones that are time wasting you need to find out and what you DO NOT need to do is make 6 follow up calls to find out they are not going with it but had not the guts to say! Instead, you should be setting up your process so that you do not have this.

Qualifying them
Do they have time
Do they have authority
Are they at a computer

Excellent
This means you know that that person can do a deal with you in the next 25minutes or 15 if they are efficient..!

Not got 15 mins? Schedule a call and talk them down it.

Move on..

This will mean you rTsales will not waste time trying to get through over and over

5 DEALS in 3 months? one per 18 days? Does that seem like something a two level sales approach should be doing?

I assume your TSALES is VERY part time?

 

[MBPH]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Yes the telesales has been part time at the mo. I started off with one guy who was a time waster and currently been using someone 2hr a day for about a month. I've toyed with the idea of booking somewhere to take potential clients to wine and fine a little! Do you think this would be a good idea, as at the mo I'm finding in busisness people are always up for a little persuasion

 

[telemax]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Yes the telesales has been part time at the mo. I started off with one guy who was a time waster and currently been using someone 2hr a day for about a month. I've toyed with the idea of booking somewhere to take potential clients to wine and fine a little! Do you think this would be a good idea, as at the mo I'm finding in busisness people are always up for a little persuasion

I think that's a bad idea, it just comes across as bribery at the beginning. Besides you will get a lot taking advantage with no intention of using your services.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

I'm just trying to get my head around this and trying to do the maths.

I don't understand - have you secured the 900 boiler services/CP12's? If so, that's a great achievement in 3 months! You've now got an average 4 a day working 5 days a week and having 7 weeks a year off. At this rate, you'll need to stop taking on more work or employ engineers (assuming you're a one man band).

 

[MBPH]

Well it's potential off around 900, but in reality will probably be less, as all 5 use other contractors as well. Also you need to get then organised to send the checks work etc

 

[MBPH]

Sorry, Iphone predictive text. There is potentially 900 checks. But they all use other contractors as well, so if I get all 900 I will probably never know. The other thing I've been considering is maybe tieing them into a conract? But how would I know I was getting all the work? And would they commit to using my services if that meant signing a contract?

 

[Textlocal]

Hi Michael, have you considered using SMS messaging to keep in contact with the managers that you are approaching, and also as a feature of your service that you could offer to their customers?

You could take mobile phone details on contact with managers for an easy method of keeping in touch with them and as a gentle reminder of the service that you offer, and then, if they wish to use your service for their customers, you can offer SMS notifications to help make any transactions as simple as possible.

Mobile messaging is by far the most effective marketing method. If you'd like some further info, please let me know and I can organise a free trial and free message 'credits' to get you started.

Good luck
Thanks, Jemma

 

[Homer J Simpson]

I like the text idea, but more for texting the tenants to remind them that a service is due and to call to arrange a convenient day & time to carry out the service.

It would be cheaper that writing to them all, quicker than calling them all (but maybe not as effective).

You could try tying them into a contract by offering a discount. So 50x services a year at £xx.xx a 10% reduction if they give you 100x services a year. You make 10% less, but are twice as busy!

To ensure they gave you the full 100 you could carry out the first 50 at full rate and the next 50 at 20% reduction (10% from the first 50 & 10% for the next 50), then all services over the 100 back to the agreed 10%.

Just my 2p worth. Good luck with it though, sounds like it could be a winner.

Do you offer a 24hr call out service too as they'll probably be keen to have this too.

 

[MBPH]

I like the text idea, but more for texting the tenants to remind them that a service is due and to call to arrange a convenient day & time to carry out the service.

It would be cheaper that writing to them all, quicker than calling them all (but maybe not as effective).

You could try tying them into a contract by offering a discount. So 50x services a year at £xx.xx a 10% reduction if they give you 100x services a year. You make 10% less, but are twice as busy!

To ensure they gave you the full 100 you could carry out the first 50 at full rate and the next 50 at 20% reduction (10% from the first 50 & 10% for the next 50), then all services over the 100 back to the agreed 10%.

Just my 2p worth. Good luck with it though, sounds like it could be a winner.

Do you offer a 24hr call out service too as they'll probably be keen to have this too.

Thanks for the post. After spending years in the trade I truly believe this is a good way of growing my business in a very crowded competitive market. place. Although they already use tradesman, I'm finding the vast majority are unreliable and or expensive. I first make a proposal to so the gas certs at a competitive rate then while I've got my foot in the door I aim for the repair side of thing as well. I'm considering employing a full time telemarketer/salesperson. What sort of rates should I expect to pay for a decent worker? We're in the Sheffield area.

Michael

 

[DexSmart]

Hello there ! I think you can always go for different ways of contracts or ways to get your clients. It's a so competitive now days that you need to improve move then adapt. I think each client, or potential client has its own way to get attracted by a product!

 

[Textlocal]

Hi Michael, in reference to your earlier point, if you'd like a call about how I can help you with text messaging - with a free trial thrown in to see whether it meets your needs, let me know.

Thanks
Jemma

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Thanks for the post. After spending years in the trade I truly believe this is a good way of growing my business in a very crowded competitive market. place. Although they already use tradesman, I'm finding the vast majority are unreliable and or expensive. I first make a proposal to so the gas certs at a competitive rate then while I've got my foot in the door I aim for the repair side of thing as well. I'm considering employing a full time telemarketer/salesperson. What sort of rates should I expect to pay for a decent worker? We're in the Sheffield area.

Michael

Sorry, no idea about rates. But I would say that if you can secure the work so that you are 100% sure you can more than cover the costs, I'd make sure you recruit carefully as your reputation (and future contracts will depend on it) and pay a little over the going rate to try to ensure you can both recruit and retain a good plumber.

You could always just sub it out at a little less than you're getting and due to volume you should still do okay from it. However, a subbie is unlikely to be as bothered about your customers as a member of staff (hopefully) would.

 

[sands67]

It's a really inciteful post. My quick response - 5. We follow up enquiries (and log them) 5 times before we right them off. I saw a quote that i use in a presentation i give ( i think it was the institute of marketing) that said "only 2% of business is done on the first contact, 80% is done between the 6th and 12th contact)

 

[MBE1]

Personally I would recommend rather than a salesman you get your telesales simply to make an appointment to call around yourself, no-one will know your business better than yourself, and you can make instant decisive decisions.

As for the number of contacts, everyone will have their own ideas on this, but many deals can be done on the first visit, if sold correctly.

If I was calling on a client and wanted to start trading with them, I used to ask them to test myself out, to give the worst most awful job they had, anything to get a first deal as long as it was profitable. Normally this led onto much better long term deals, over coming inertia is important, each client has different reasons for buying, be it service, price, speed, response times etc. Finding what they want is half the battle, maybe they have awkward properties out of the way no one else will cover etc.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

It's a really inciteful post. My quick response - 5. We follow up enquiries (and log them) 5 times before we right them off. I saw a quote that i use in a presentation i give ( i think it was the institute of marketing) that said "only 2% of business is done on the first contact, 80% is done between the 6th and 12th contact)

Depends on your line of work.

I win about 1 in 3 of the jobs I go for, of those around 90% sign up there and then, the remaining 10% are left with the info and come back to me.

 

[Billmccallum]

If you make contact and they are showing a positive response you should be booking an appointment to visit them, ask for a list of properties and when the safety checks are due and book them all in in your diary, sending an invoice when each is completed.

By showing them that you can reduce their burden of ensuring checks are done and by delivering a personal service, they would be more likely to sign on the dotted line immediately.

when working with agents, its best to invoice each address separately so they can allocate to the correct landlord.