Sales Techniques for repeat customers.

I know that a lot of people have a problem selling, heck I do, too. So here are a a couple of things that I have found really effective in getting the customers.
1. You need to let them know who you are. I usually go around and hand out fliers, explaining the services that I offer so that they know who I am. I don't even try to sell at this point. I do try to get the flier in the hand of the decision maker. Secretaries have a habit of "filing" them as more garbage.
2. About a week after the delivery is when the hardcore sales process starts. If you go longer, it seems like you don't care, and shorter feels like you are bugging them. So I return to the office, and ask for teh decision maker. I usually get this info at the first visit and mark it down. I make sure that I contact them at this point and talk to them about whatever service that I want to perform for them.
3. I get a business card, and of course proper business etiquette requires that I give them a card as well. I like cards taht stand out from the pack. So my cards are Mauve, and almost pink and are printed on high quality paper. It gives a lot more professional image in my opinion than the printed on the computer variety. Anyone can print those, and most fly by nighters, and some big companies such as Fleetwash only use them.
4. I make repeat trips, until I land the account, or they ask me not to come back.. Every week or two is usually sufficient. The secret is that you want to appear as teh guy that will be there when there is a problem. If they call you for an emergency service, Do all that you can to get there, because the chances are that the reason that they are calling you is that the other guy was too busy to do what they needed. It is an excellent way to get your foot in the door.

So This is my sales 101. Are there any hints or tricks that I might have missed that you use??

Scott

I like to make contact the first time with the decission maker, I do the card exchange and ask if they are not being served by a PROFESSIONAL pressure washer and if they are satisfied with the quality ofwork.

Most will say he does a fair or good job right there, if so it is an opening to make a sales pitch and I do so.

Other times they will simply say I am busy or can you come back, if the latter and you say sure ask what a good time would be for HIM/HER, not I will be by tomorrow.

Then I pretty much follow what Scott does, return weekly for a few weeks, then every other week down to monthly or till they say I am not interested.

Jon

Ive been leaving my card in there door jam or taped to it after normal working hours. I hate cold sale calls, if they respond to the card at least my foot is in the door so to speak!Funny thing is the manager normally opens the place so the card gets in his or her hand. And if they call I am assured #1 they have need of my service(maybe), or #2 There price shopping,or #3 They are dissatisfied with there current cleaner.# 4 they dont have a regular cleaner(not unusual in this area)and wonder what it would cost. Either way it gives me an oppertunity.Frankly I want to improve my cold call sales if for no other reason than to over come my shyness hey a little extra money would be nice too!

Green you think your shy about making cold calls then put yourself in my shoes, I am 65% or so deaf and I have a slight speach impediment.

I miss a lot said to me and I know many a time I miss the punch line to make the closing pitch.

As for cold calls if I were the manager and found a card stuck in the door I would trash it. If you walk in and talk with me I would be much more inclined to ask questions.

How many of you get flyers put on your windshields? I simply throw them on the ground and consider the company that is on them to be a litter bug.

Ditto to things left on my door at home, I would never call one of those companies.

That is my opinion and is not intended to say your not going to get results or doing anything wrong.

Not sure what your speciality is but whatever it is make a list of the businesses in the field, put them in order as to closeness to home and at 9 AM be at the first office making a short sales pitch, one thing I do is ask when was the last time you have had your business REALLY PROFESSIONALLY CLEANED? do not ask do you have it pressure washed (cleaned) assume he might be but professionally? nice way of saying whomever is doing it is not doing it right.

Ah smart thinking Jon, not so fast as that line was given to me by another pressure washer here and it WORKS.

9am it is come monday!!!! lol !!!!

Scotts idea's all seem good. I do some commercial work myself but as of yet I have never cold called anyone. The account I have and the other work I did they called me. Thats my attitude with Residential work also. They call me and then I go from there.

Down the road I plan on doing some cold calling because my commercial end will never get to the point It should be at doing it the residential way. THis is something I have to work on but for now I am pretty busy with Residential work.

It does seem to me to get big with commercial, Cold calling is a must.

Residential

Hi John T.
What is your approach to residential?

So far, I am just working off of little word of mouth and a few flyers. I have begun cold calling Realtors and selling home owners.

If I havent told you all before, let me repeat myself " I HATE COLD CALLS!!!!!" But I am hungry and the twenty I made today did give me a few leads, and one request to estimate cleaning so all wasnt lost inspite of my rough sales pitch, after a few REJECTIONS I got angry enough to say screw... it and actually started to enjoying myself and got into the swing of things! I recieved quite a lot of " Thats handeled at corprate level" type of answers. I got agressive and would reply"Great how do I contact them? Do you have a number I can get from you and a name?....Oh this is so nice of you thank you for going out of your way! Here let me leave my card jest in case,so if you see him maybe you can recommend me!!!" Now I will follow thru and call the corprate leads I recieved, love the oppertunity to practice my phone sales( Ok maybe not love) maybe some thing will come of it! Will let you know.

marketing techniques and results vary widely,i have tried most of the same techniques that others have listed here,once you play around a while you will learn who to contact and how without wasting your time with the people who cant help you.

without going into what works and what doesnt the key is in diversification do everything and everybody,taper off on what isnt working and emphasize on whats hot at the moment,then when you run into a dead end go back to the drawing board.

but then again i could be wrong,i dont claim to know it all just what has worked for me so far.

ps. i also agree strongly with following up regularly,i have leads i have been keeping in contact for 9 months now without any work,
but you can guarrantee the first time they have a problem,i will be there

GOOD THINKING TIM HAYS,

BUSINESS HAS BEEN SLOW FOR ME THIS YEAR SO I'VE STARTED MAILING OUT FLYERS THERE BLACK AND WHITE , I TELL WHAT I DO AND YEARS IN BUSINESS, THAT I HAVE INSURANCE AND I PUT 2 BUSSINESS CARDS IN WITH THE FLYER , I PUT IN A WHITE ENVELOPE , I USE MY STAMP FOR MY ADDRESS AND HAND RIGHT THE ADDRESS IAM SENDING IT TO SO IT LOOKS LIKE A BILL .

I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A BOUT 5 WEEKS , I SEND THEM OUT ON FIRDAY, SO THEY GET THEM ON MONDAY, I KNOW THIS IS WORKING , IVE HAD TWO CALLS ON THESE FLYER SAYING THERE GOING TO PUT ME ON FILE SO IF THEY NEED ME OR A BID THEY WILL CALL AND OTHER THAT HAVENT CALLED ARE KEEPING MY CARDS (ESP).

I AM SENDING THE FLYERS TO GENERAL CONTRACTORS THERE ABOUT 900 IN THE DALLAS FORT WORTH AREA!

IAM ONLY SENDING OUT 20 FLYERS PER WEEK! FOR UNDER $10.00 PER WEEK. IAM NOT LOOKING FOR A LAND SLIDE!
I AM GOING TO DO THIS EVERY WEEK FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS OR SO.

I DID THIS ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO AND I WISH I WOULD NEVER STOPED, BUT I ONLY SENT OUT 300 MAYBE 400 FLYERS , BUT I GOT 2 CUSTMERS FROM THOSE FLYERS AND A FEW OTHER JOBS,
BUT THE 2 I DID GET , I STILL DO WORK FOR THEM !

A REGULAR COUSTMER IS A LITTLE GOLD MINE, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THEY WILL CALL!

I DO MY FLYER OFF THE COMPUTER , I KEEP IT VERY SIMPLE AND TO THE POINT NO BULL #%&* !

Marv,
My approach to Residential is pretty much advertising in teh local papers. I advertise in 6 zones which= 6 local papers for an average of about $100/week to do this. My add goes out to about 150,000 homes per week this way so my phone rings alot.

To me its the better way to go so my name can go to many more people instead of going door to door, and people that want my potential service they call me instead of the other way around.

This works for me but there are alot of other ways to advertise your business. Try to find out what works best in your area.

Good Luck.

mello44, would you share that Flyer with us?

YES RON I WILL FAX IT TO YOU , BUT ITS A LITTLE LAME, NOT FANCY AT ALL!

MEL RENFRO

ME TOO

I would like to see it also. I posted first reply for that type thing.

I don't have a fax, but e mail is aquaforce@charter.net

I have kinda lame, kinda goofy flyer I have started using in nearby sub divisions. I would appreciate something tried over time.

Thanks.

HEY ANYBODY...I WILL SHOW YOU MINE IF YOU SHOW YOURS. ( FLYERS) I WILL MAIL AS MINE IS IN COLOR. DAN COSGROVE

Dan will do it.. Dan start a post in forms sections and you will get all the flyer your heart desires. i have recieved dozens.

My 101 is similar to Scotts,

I use goldmine and record all stops made. The inf. goes into a database where we then after handing out note pad pens & business cards they get a mailer.

Getting the right inf. is extremely important. You don’t want to waist time talking to the wrong person.

I also o not pressure anyone on the first visit, you usually can run into people that will just buy. No need to use any high pressure just have the awareness that they want the service. On the second visit your trying to pin them down. (Unlike bigboy I leave my gun in the car) where not ready for that kind of pressure yet!!!!


When using goldmine you can track the customer for activity. if your contacting enough people you will not remember everyone. If you can remember everyone you did not see enough people. Selling is a numbers game. we would all like to believe we live in Arkansas but most of us don’t. I’m in a metropolitan area that is number 6 in the country as far as size. Maybe number 2 for growth? Over 10,000 locations.

My customer based is about 11,000…. Getting to all is simply impossible in my lifetime. We mail fax and run ads everywhere we can. Name recognition is important in sales.

My biggest 101 tip,, be consistent with what ever you do. Keep doing it. it sometimes takes time.

Dan

Dan I tried to send you a colored one that I have on here but your email is blocked.

Ron Musgraves said:

My 101 is similar to Scotts,

I use goldmine and record all stops made. The inf. goes into a database where we then after handing out note pad pens & business cards they get a mailer.

Getting the right inf. is extremely important. You don’t want to waist time talking to the wrong person.

I also o not pressure anyone on the first visit, you usually can run into people that will just buy. No need to use any high pressure just have the awareness that they want the service. On the second visit your trying to pin them down. (Unlike bigboy I leave my gun in the car) where not ready for that kind of pressure yet!!!!


When using goldmine you can track the customer for activity. if your contacting enough people you will not remember everyone. If you can remember everyone you did not see enough people. Selling is a numbers game. we would all like to believe we live in Arkansas but most of us don’t. I’m in a metropolitan area that is number 6 in the country as far as size. Maybe number 2 for growth? Over 10,000 locations.

My customer based is about 11,000…. Getting to all is simply impossible in my lifetime. We mail fax and run ads everywhere we can. Name recognition is important in sales.

My biggest 101 tip,, be consistent with what ever you do. Keep doing it. it sometimes takes time.

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THats and OLDie, Looks Like Scott Found Several million