DWC Home | Magazine | Back Issues | June 2006 | Managing For Money

Make Your Phone Ring Now!
Here are 5 quick tips to rev up sales.

by Steven C. Bursten

A growing chorus of business owners across the nation tell us that customers’ dialing fingers are frozen, and their phones are quiet . . . too quiet. Is your telephone as lonesome as a cowboy in Kansas? It’s time to turn up the heat!

If your leads are as strong as they were last year, congratulations, your marketing is working. But, if you’re like many window coverings professionals, your leads are off from 10 to 30 percent for the first quarter of 2006. Is it slackening home sales or higher gas prices? We don’t know, but it is a fact of life in many areas.

FIVE BELL-RINGING IDEAS
If you want your phone to scream like an insane sister at a wedding party, here’s what to do. These tips are proven, going back many years to hard time cycles of the past.

• Bell-Ringer #1: Call your favorite customers: Triage your customer list for the last two years: Good, Better, Best. Call the Best ones until you run out of names.

Just tell them you’re thinking of them and want to be sure the product you sold them is working as it should. They will be surprised and will welcome you. You will feel better, and things will start to happen.

• Bell-Ringer #2: Yard signs: Print 50 yard signs. They’re cheap, about $3 to $5 each. Staple them to phone poles on busy street corners. Get the wire things to plant them in the grass (about a $1 each). Plant them in your lawn, friends’ lawns and customer’s lawns of course. Get your 50 yard signs out working for you, and listen for the calls to come in.

• Bell-Ringer #3: Realtor ‘For Sale’ signs: Make a simple promotional handout for people trying to sell their homes. Homes are not selling as fast as before and homeowners will welcome your help to speed things up. Offer to give them ideas how to “stage” their homes for buyer appeal. Just check “home staging” on Google for ideas what to do.

• Bell-Ringer #4: Flyers: Go to your local copy shop. Print 2,000 flyers; print your business and personal name at the top along with your phone number. Include a timely tip about new products, energy savings, or any other good idea about improving homes with window coverings. Offer a $50 Gift Certificate (not a discount) for new customers to introduce your services.

Get all 2,000 out within two weekends. Be sure you go to neighborhoods where you already have customers and you know homeowners need your service.

• Bell-Ringer #5: Meet people: On Saturday mornings visit subdivisions where you already have customers. Knock on doors and hand out brochures. Let people know you are in the neighborhood all the time and to call you for a no-cost appointment if you ever can be of service.

Do not attempt to set an immediate appointment, and do not enter their home to give advice. Tell the homeowner you are on the way to another appointment, and you will be glad to call her to set a time next week.

PERSONAL PROMOTION
If you put these five bell-ringers to work, your phone won’t feel like a wallflower any longer; it will have the loving attention it deserves. Then, your business will be on the way to setting a leadership example in your area.

Remember, you get out of it what you put into it. The advertised cost of a lead today is about $175. If you invest three hours of time promoting your business, you likely will have at least one appointment call you within 30 days. That means the time spent on personal promotion is worth about $60 an hour. If you are too busy to do it yourself, then hire someone with a winning smile to do it for you.
Today, personal promotion works and media don’t. It is that simple. If you would like more ideas, please request my bulletin on “Marketing Without Money.”

You can make your phone ring. Try it today!