New unigue business opportunity?

[Dan Dig]

I have a new area of work i'd like to adverise that nobody else does in my area that involves driveways. How would I get this idea to the public and show them a new system to improve existing driveways?

 

[Wighthosting]

Hi Dan

I take it this is a new startup, and you want to offer this up on it's own, rather than add this to an existing, say landscaping business.

To do this with as little outlay as possible, you could try the following.

Build yourself a free website with someone like Yahoo's Geocities. Make it as informative as possible, The URL to your site will be 50 miles long, so go to a site like shorturl.com and make a new one that will redirect to your site. Although they're not brilliant, you could stick a counter at the bottom of the page, it will give some indication of how much traffic you're receiving. Don't start the counter at zero, instead pick your own starting number.
Next stick classified ads in your local paper.

This is actually the hard bit. You are now dealing within the realms of "Fuzzy Logic". It's said that ads have to be seen at least 7 times before they are acted upon. Remember all you are doing in your ad is trying to persuade them to visit your site where full details are held, so you don't have to go into depth.

Don't block book ads because you're looking for the best combination of words in your copy that gives the most hits to your site. This will mean changing the copy about. There's no point repeating the same ad over and over if it's not pulling.

Is this any help?

 

[MarqueMyWords]

1. Go door to door. Ok, so a lot of people don't like cold calls and it may be slightly dispiriting at first but if your idea really is that unqiue and that much of an improvement then if you do one driveway on a street you'll soon get the next door neighbours wanting it too! (you don't have to knock, could just be a leaflet at first.)

2. PR. Again, this unique idea of yours could prove to be a good angle in a local newspaper story. Especially if you couple it with tackling people's wariness over 'driveway jobs.'

3. Do the work you mention on your own driveway (obvious I know, you may not have a driveway but could there be a better advert?)

There are loads of other ways but they onvolve knowing a bit more about your idea.

Hope that helps

 

[Kay]

I would suggest that if you want people to take your business seriously, then don't build a free website. A domain and hosting doesn't need to cost much. Anyway, Yahoo! is closing down Geocities and isn't accepting any new members.

 

[Wighthosting]

Ok so forget Geocities. You could do the same though with a blog from Blogger.com. You can strip the templates to look like a web page.
Yes hosting is cheap, I know I sell it, the idea of the free bit is not to be lumbered with a domain name and hosting you won't use if the scheme doesn't come to fruition.

Door to door used to be good, but it's time consuming, in my area of the world it's frowned upon by the Neighbourhood Watch lot, who are quick to phone the law.

 

[MH1]

Door to door used to be good, but it's time consuming

All marketing methods have their drawbacks, the real question is how effective they are, few methods beat door to door for actual business.

In my area recently, I have had more door knockers in the last three weeks than the last five years, I guess many companies are struggling for business and are going back to proven methods.

I would also suggest door to door, public shows, markets etc, even hold a draw, first prize a free driveway, other prizes with various discounts etc.

 

[Wighthosting]

In my area recently, I have had more door knockers in the last three weeks than the last five years, I guess many companies are struggling for business and are going back to proven methods.

You're talking about companies like double glazing firms that have some sort of local branding clout. If this was window or carpet cleaning door to door would be great, but something as expensive and apparently unique as this driveway face lift, I don't think would work in the short term, not when all the guy wants to do is chuck the idea out there to see if he gets a bite.

 

[MH1]

We will have to disagree, I worked the doors for more years than I like to remember, and driveways was one of the products I sold, highest ticket sale was £25k, but that was over ten years ago.

I've never not done well on the doors with any product I was selling, it's the way it was always done in the past for many products and services, remember the man from the pru?

 

[Wighthosting]

Yes but the man from the Pru, the double glazing and conservatories salesman all had the credibility of a known company behind them.

No matter how good your pitch and your brochures maybe, if you're straight off the street, trying to sell big ticket items you will fail more than succeed if you haven't got a respected company behind you, whether it be a national household name or well known local business. Too many people have been ripped off for them not to be skeptical. This is why tele-sales took off.

 

[MH1]

trying to sell big ticket items you will fail more than succeed if you haven't got a respected company behind you, whether it be a national household name or well known local business. Too many people have been ripped off for them not to be skeptical.

Of course more people will refuse than buy, that's all part and parcel of any business, even Tescos have more people shopping elsewhere than in their stores.

You are looking at the whole process the wrong way round, rather than thinking that most will refuse your offer, you need to concentrate on the few that will. If the OP for instance sells a driveway at £5k after 1 weeks door knocking, but makes £2k profit, is that a good weeks work?

 

[eventdomain]

Leaflet dropping is like any direct mail-shots - most of it gets binned as standard. You won't believe the amount of take-away menus, mini-cabs cards, and other flyers I get, and its all either shredded or binned!

Flyers are like Door to door salespeople, they get told where to go! I don't think this is effective anymore, even with a big name company. Must be another way to do this - why copy something that fails....

 

[Wighthosting]

You are looking at the whole process the wrong way round, rather than thinking that most will refuse your offer, you need to concentrate on the few that will. If the OP for instance sells a driveway at £5k after 1 weeks door knocking, but makes £2k profit, is that a good weeks work?

I'm not completely disputing how door to door is beneficial, but how I interpreted the original post, was that Dan wanted to throw out a few feelers to see if it would be maybe a long term goer, he also sounds, I'm presuming here, like he has no experience in marketing, in which case having doors slammed in your face is harder to take than not receiving phone calls or hits to a website, which easier to fix for a newbie, if that is what he is.

 

[MH1]

Must be another way to do this - why copy something that fails....

Makes you wonder why all those big international utility companies, SKY, Virgin etc choose door to door as their primary sales route in the UK, considering it is so unsuccessful?

Or maybe people in general have the wrong idea about door to door sales, it's success rates and return on investment compared to other methods?

 

[Wighthosting]

Makes you wonder why all those big international utility companies, SKY, Virgin etc choose door to door as their primary sales route in the UK, considering it is so unsuccessful?

They make a success of it because they are branded household names.
Like it or not when they come to your door you know what sort of service, product etc you are going to get. The market has been saturated with their advertising message for years. But like all ads the brain tunes out when you see them for any length of time. In with the door to door and voila it's a fresh marketing campaign, even if your touting the same sells literature that has been seen hundreds or thousands of times before, the enviroment has changed, you are now being read the gospel from the ad instead of just reading it.
But for that to work successfully you have to be branded.

Using the Sky and Virgin example, they flood the nation with door to door sells and know if they only make 1 or 2% they're in profit. Each have several products or services that attract repeat business, so jam today and for the months to follow.

Years ago I ran a window cleaning round. I bashed on doors and managed to get 70 customers in a week by doing so. I was offering a service that cost less than a tenner, I could of been the worst window cleaner in the world, they didn't know me from Adam, but knew they had nothing to lose.
If the job isn't done to their satisfaction they simply don't pay, and they're maybe left with smeared windows.
Maybe it's different in other parts of the country, but here all the publicity on bogus callers and cowboy builders has really hit home.

 

[MarqueMyWords]

Gosh, opened a can of worms here.

My theory is you could do far more wrong than knokcing on people's doors, yes people will say no, but there'll be more brand exposure in your local area from door knocks and leaflets at this stage than a free website build, low down in the google rankings, that I wouldn't trust. However, I'm no internet expert and Wighthosting has suggested a very cheap method of getting onto the internet so it may be beneficial (just not as beneficial as door to door.)

I'm not saying you waddle up the driveway tutting at the current state, knock on the door and shout 'want yer driveway done love!?' No, I'm thinking much more of a subtle approach (or as subtle as door to door can be.)

If you are unsure about how exactly the public will respond to this idea, get out there with a pen and paper and ask people to stop and answer some questions - in exchange for entry into a competition or something. Ask if you can leave some quesitonnaires at a local car dealership entitled 'what are you parking on?' or similar (kick back for dealership would also be welcomed!)

 

[Wighthosting]

Getting back to the original post. All the guy wants to do, or so it seems is test the water as cheap as possible. To go door to door with this you are going to need some good quality printed material and be a half decent salesperson.

If Dan had either of these he wouldn't be posting on here for help.

 

[adam]

You have had some duff info so far. Mine might be not much better as I don't know your area or product but how much does it cost you to do?

There may be some local charity events where you could give a free makeover as a prize. Not devaluing it now as it was a charity win so once you have one with your advertising board out the front while the work is going on you can appeal to the neighbours or even get a testimonial from the winner.

 

[MH1]

They make a success of it because they are branded household names.
Like it or not when they come to your door you know what sort of service, product etc you are going to get. The market has been saturated with their advertising message for years.

As I mentioned before, we will have too differ. I remember the first couple of years of door to door sales throughout the UK for a Gas company most people has never heard of, since each new tranche was released in stages, their own area was literally the last area released.

I also remember calling with a sales force for cable companies, selling mobiles door to door for my own unknown company and so on, many never became household names, people buy if the offer is good and they like you, a well known name doesn't hurt, but it's far from essential.

Being small local company can be a huge sales point in many markets, such as driveways. I agree with MarqueMyWords, it is an effective method, and you do not need leaflets etc, a clipboard, order pad, and a pricelist and brochure is all I have ever carried. These can be run off for a couple of £ to test the market, simply add a few hours of your time door knocking and you get a good idea of peoples reactions too your business proposition.

 

[MarqueMyWords]

'There may be some local charity events where you could give a free makeover as a prize. Not devaluing it now as it was a charity win so once you have one with your advertising board out the front while the work is going on you can appeal to the neighbours or even get a testimonial from the winner.'



Sounds like a cracking idea!

 

[adam]

Sounds like a cracking idea!

You are welcome. Please click the "Thanks" button next to my post