Strategic Endorsements (a.k.a. JVs)
I heard a great story about a guy that provides duct cleaning in an area where his competitors don’t. Rather then try to get all the business he
instead leveraged off of his competitors’ customers by offering to outsource his duct cleaning service to those competitors. They in turn
offered this service to their clients as if they did it themselves – yet they did not have to do a thing except collect the fees! This A/C-Heater
Company derives 30% of their work from this program.
Customer Satisfaction
Most customers never hear from their maintenance man after the repairs are made. Make it a policy to call your customer 24 hours after the
job to be sure it was done right. Remind them of your commitment to serve them. Tell them that you'll be happy to help them at any time of the
day at no extra charge. Offer a twice-yearly check to ensure that things are still going well. This will do a number of things for you:
A) It will keep you in Top of Mind Awareness.
B) You'll catch big problems before they occur.
C) You'll discover things that need fixing and you'll make additional revenues.
D) You will be unlike any other repairman they've every had so you'll get more business, for a longer period of time, and more referrals and
testimonials.
Other Ideas
1. Become a spokesperson for your company. People will relate to a person much more than to a cold entity. This will likely increase your
recognizability and responsiveness to your advertising by as much as 30%.
2. If you give your service or products with excellence, then it's effective to offer a risk-free service or reduced-price sample. Go for long-term
relationships. You'll see the exponential results over time. If your products and service isn't the best in the market, either upgrade them
seriously, or get into a new business.
3. Consider hosting an hour-long "talk show" on the radio on a Saturday afternoon. If the radio station won't give it to you for free (or pay you),
then consider the cost and measure how many new clients you would need to break even. Don't forget to consider the lifetime value of the
client. That is, how much money will they spend with you over the course of their buying relationship. If the average customer spends $5,000
with you over 10 years, and also refers two others to you, then you know that you'll earn $15,000 from acquiring a new client. Your profit on
those three new customers might be just $5,000, so if you can get one new customer from a radio show, and the show cost you less than
$5,000, then you have a winning strategy.
4. Find out what is the market cost of doing an energy audit in a house, perhaps ones that people have owned for more than 5 years. If the
normal price is $100, then come in with a price of $19.95. You'll pick up a lot of clients and make a lot of money on the back end.
Appliance, Air
Conditioning and Heating