Does your company have a slow season? Would you like to know how to stay booked solid through every season?
Here are the top 3 strategies that worked very well for our company, Burnett 1-800-PAINTING, that kept us booked with work and annihilated the so called “slow season”.
1. Staying top of mind to our customers
We spend so much money and effort looking for new customers when we already have a list, many times a very long list, of customers who already know, like, and trust us and would be more than happy to refer work to us.
But like all of us, they get busy and forget about us.
The first great way to stay top of mind with them is to make sure you connect with them on Facebook or LinkedIn. You should be friends and friendly with them. Business is all about relationships and —well, so is life!
Email is an easy second way to stay top of mind with them. You can use a simple system like Gmail or sign up for a more formatted email program that will automatically send and can be customized to look like your website like: Mail Chimp, iContact, or Constant Contact.
Send them G.I.E. emails: Gratitude, Inspiration, or Entertainment. No sales, no coupons, no blogs (only those who signed up to hear from you should receive blogs. Emails should be G.I.E.)
The third way is to send them a card in the mail, every 4 months.
When was the last time you received a card in the mail from a service company you used AND it was nothing to do with sales or coupons or discounts, but actually made you smile and want to put it on your end table to display in the living room? THIS is the type of card that means a lot to customers (everyone, really) and how you can make a great connection with your customer base.
Again send them a card that is of G.I.E. Gratitude, Inspiration, or Entertainment. (They like the entertaining ones the best.) Find a funny holiday of the day or week or month coming up, and get creative!
Now, this might sound like a pretty big undertaking. If you know me, I like to streamline all processes as much as possible. So to do this, we use Send Out Cards.
You have to sign up under someone, so check around your local networking groups. If you cannot find a distributor, you are welcome to sign up under ours here: Send Out Cards
2. The Real A.B.C. of Sales
Is NOT “always be closing,” but always be connecting!
I’m not calling you, trying to close you. I’m connecting with you by giving you value first. Same for your company. When your cusomter is ready or might need your service, who will they call, but the one who has already given them value for free and been helpful because that is the kind of person they are.
A couple ways you can Always Be Connecting is local networking. I shared it in my last post and I’ll list them again here.
The Top 3 Networking group for us are BNI, Chamber of Commerce, and Rotary. They each serve different purposes and are an great way to connect and stay top of mind to your community to help you stay busy through the winter.
When networking, make sure you read Bob Burg’s books: Endless Referrals and also Givers Gain.
—> The key is to always be looking for ways to give value and serve. If that is your focus, you will be well taken care of.
And The Third Strategy For Staying Busy This Winter Is …
3. Internet Leads Through Blogging.
While this was not our hottest lead source straight away, with work, we went from 25% to 52% close ratio on quality internet leads. Here is how to get them without paying for SEO services.
Start by writing a 300-500 word blog post each week.
These can be short stories about current projects that you are working on. How about a before and after photo with explanations? They could also be a short post about how to properly prep and paint. Typically, once they see everything that goes into preparation for painting, they will see that it’s best just to hire a pro and call you.
Take Ron Ramsden of Ramsdan 1-800-PAINTING, for example. He just started blogging on Jan 30th. In fact, he didn’t even have a website 6 months ago.
But since Jan 30th’s first blog post, he has written a post every week and is now ranked on the first page of Google for niche city: “Interior Painting Methuen MA” & “Exterior Painting Methuen MA”.
As Ron continues to blog weekly, he will soon own the top key word for his town and you can, too.
If you don’t have a website yet, here is a free video show you how to get started on your own by obtaining your domain name.
Quick Recap for 3 Strategies You Must Do NOW to Stay Busy This Winter
- Stay TOP OF MIND to your customer base.
- ABC – Always Be Connecting.
- Blog weekly.
And there you have it. Now, please, join me in supporting dairy and coffee farmers around the world and #KeepItCaffeinated.
PS – If you don’t have your own website yet, make sure you check out our free video showing you how to get started here: FREE VIDEO