“Can you do better?” he bargained. A customer from New York, looking to get his entire condo repainted.

I promptly replied, “I sure can. Add 20%.”

“Add 20%? That’s not better!” he coughed.

“I thought you meant for me. I’m the one in business.”

He took a pause, then cracked an ever so slight smile, and said, “Ok, when can you start?”

 

Discounting is bad business. It’s a race to the bottom.

It tells your prospect that they were right and you were overcharging them. Worse yet, it’s lazy.

 

And one of the laziest sales strategies you can do is play the “mark it up just to discount it down” game.

To make matters worse, advertising your discount on marketing materials and ads, only attracts “C” & “D” customers.

 

You know, the ones who pick apart your work, are never happy, or are downright unreasonable. You can read about how to classify your customers here.

 

I’ll show you what to do instead of giving discounts AND how to avoid those wanting or expecting a discount, but first…

 

Where do they come from? How are you attracting these leads?

 

Public Enemy Lead Source #1 are paid lead sources.

Paid lead sources are a racket. Think this through. They hound you promising leads. You finally give into their onslaught of calls and agree to pay them.

They start to send you leads and now you find yourself driving to every lead because, heaven forbid,  you pass on one because you know beyond a reasonable doubt that they are not a good fit. (Hint: you should be passing on bad leads!)

You worrry they will give you a 1 star rating and curse you up and down the internet. I get it. I’d be worried too. It’s not your fault, or at least it wasn’t. I’ll show you why in just a moment.

 

Now that you’re driving to leads that you know are a waste of time, to make matters worse, you paid for this lead, and they just bumped you off the 1st page of google thanks to your financial contribution to their SEO campaign get you leads!

 

All paid lead services are a racket.

Yes I’m drawing a line in the sand and yes I’m aware that they may all kick me off of their Christmas card list. I’m okay with that. Using a paid lead service is a downward spiral. The more you use them, the more you think you need them.

 

Because you’re busy being busy… and broke. Or cashflow is always tight.

 

Here’s how you solve this…

Take, Bill Carlson of Brush & Roll Painting out of Omaha, for example:

Did you catch that?

He quit the racket cold turkey, and saved $4,000 a month, every month.

 

Just imagine. You just added an extra $4,000 profit in your pocket.

What would that look like? How would that feel?  What’s the first thing you would do with an extra $4,000 in your pocket every month?

Now this is important. Make sure you have a recovery plan in place before you quit the racket cold turkey.

 

I’ll share how in just a moment, but first did you see how his leads did not drop off? Or that he doubled his February sales from this year vs last year from $34,000 to $73,000!

 

I’ll show you one of the ways he did it, but first you might be wondering, “That was last year, how’s he doing now?” That’s a great question, because he just posted a follow up inside the members only DYB Community:

 

 

Past (ie: repeat) customers sales for ALL of 2016 = $76,827

Past customers sales for ALL of 2017 = $165,108

Past customer sales for just the 1st qtr of 2018 = $91,784

 

If that continues for the rest of the year without continuing to increase he’s projected to be awarded $367,136 for past customer sales. (ie: repeat clients)

 

That’s a 378% increase from 2016 to 2018!

 

 

“But Steve, you always say sales are for show and profits are for dough!” And you are absolutely correct.

 

Bill has given me permission to share with you his 1st qtr net profit but know that he only shares this to encourage you to also quit paying for leads, and stop giving discounts, so that you, too, can be profitable, have time for your family, and make an impact in your community.

He’s at a 24% NP for the first quarter and projected to hit $1.2M, praise the Lord!

 

Let me tell you how you too can greatly increase your repeat customers, so that you don’t have to pay for leads, without giving discounts.

 

Let me ask you a question: what is one of the best lead sources? Yes, you nailed it, past customers.

 

One way is to send a card to all of your past customers. A beautiful Hallmark like card in an envelope, and there is a very easy way to automate this process and I’ll tell you how, but first,

The secret sauce…

They must be ABA’s (ads that look like Anything But Advertising). You don’t send discounts or offers. That’s what everybody else does.

Think about it. When you go to your mailbox and pull your mail out, what’s the first thing you usually do? You pick out all of the “junk mail’ and toss it into the trash or recycle bin. You want to land on their fridge attached by a magnet, not tossed into the trash. Like at Mrs. Edie Q. on Purple Martin Dr., in Punta Gorda, FL…

She was a repeat customer and had called me back after painting for her five years previously. So I asked her, “Mrs. Edie, it’s been 5 years since we painted for you; how did you remember us?”

With a smile, she explained, “How could I forget you with all of those wonderful cards you have sent to me over the years. In fact, I still have the last one you sent me with the beautiful fall picture on the front of it.” – while pointing to her fridge.

 

Here’s what ABA cards are: they are relationship building communications of Gratitude, Inspiration, or Entertainment (G.I.E.)

They already know, like, and trust you. They know your prices and quality experience with your team.

Send the note of Gratitude/Inspiration/Entertainment with a beautiful picture on the front, AND IN AN ENVELOPE as from a friend, (because guess what? You do have a relationship.) like:

Hello (Mrs. Customer)

Just a card to say thank you for being a customer and to wish you a wonderful week!

Sincerely,
Your Name

Phone Number

 

That’s it.

Unusual, right?

That’s why it’s so powerful!

 

Here’s another example, and then I’ll show you how we automate it with a Hallmark quality card for about $1.50 each in the envelope postage included. Here’s one of my favorite examples of an entertaining card that Jeff Sommers of ESP Painting out of Portland sent.

 

Jeff sent a “Happy National Procrastination Day Card” 7 days late!

Funny, right!

 

We have a whole list of fun national holidays and G.I.E. reasons to send cards in the DYB Cafe.

The system we use to automate this process, is Send Out Cards.

You upload your customer database, buy some credits, select a beautiful or funny card, write your message, and hit send.

In a few days you should start to receive phone calls and emails, “thank you for your card”, and you’ll be requested for estimates.

 

Much easier than driving all over God’s green earth chasing every bad lead that those rackets sent to you.

 

One last thing, make sure you pre-qualify every lead that comes in to save yours time and their’s. 

 

I have 7 questions that I use and they work for me very well.  You can read about them here.

 

But if you are absolutely fed up with dumping your hard earned money into these rackets, that come and go, (remember Service Magic? Yes, Angie’s List is on her way out, too.)…then

 

here’s the DYB System laid out in a poster size infographic flowchart that Bill Carlson mentioned earlier for $100 here. Or you can download the PDF version for FREE here.

Bottom line — what are you doing to increase profits and get your time back so that you don’t have to pay for leads and offer discounts? Is it something new and interesting? If you’re tired of putting all the work into driving to the estimate, meeting the homeowners, taking notes, writing up the scope of work, then compiling it all into a nice proposal only to lose it to a cheaper bid, I’d love to show you a different approach. Learning more ways to stay top of mind generating you tons of repeat customs and high value referrals I have a whole site of courses in the, DYB Cafe, where you’ll see how to learn fast — even if you’re already busy. There’s no need to stick to that old routine: doing the same old things everybody else is doing (competing on price). We can show you how to change your life just like Bill Carlson did, and many others today, so tomorrow looks even better. The confidence to be successful — have time for your family — and make an impact in your community — is the ultimate gift.

 

Join DYB now

 

You’ve Got This!

Steve Burnett

Founder of Burnett Painting

Pres. of DYB Coach

P.S. If you even think you might be interested, do me a favor. Take 3 minutes to check out the info page and decide if it’s right for you. If not, no prob. At least you made the decision instead of missing out by default. (And as always, you’re protected by my 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee. I kept the price very low and made trying all of the course risk-free because I want to share this course with as many people as I can.) Start cash-flowing without discounting or paying for leads — Join DYB now.