A+ Sales and Marketing Your Business

[ChipStop]

Greetings, This thread is dedicated to helping the start up company with the Sales and Marketing aspect of the business. I will be posting on a regular basis, tips and tricks of the business side of the trade. I will be offering some insights and thoughts to ponder as well. Please respond with your feedback as to what is working for you.--Thanks!--ChipStop.

SM Post #1 The Windshield Repair Business is a proactive process. We cannot sit and wait for things to happen. We must go and make them happen. If we sit and wait for things to happen, we will only expedite our own failure. Yes, we can make a comfortable living at this business. But it takes a lot of foot and phone work on the front end, and a lot of customer care on the back side to make this happen.

Question: How many cold-calls do you make in a given week?
Our Experience: In the early days of our business, I regularly set up six appointments a day, starting at 8 am and ending at 8 pm. One appointment every 2 hours and a quick bite to eat. This sounds crazy, but in order to develop a future in this business, you might consider some long range planning.

Next Post: Steps in the Sales Cycle

[Ridge Runner]

Chipstop,
Thanks for starting this thread. Should be a great help to start ups & anyone wanting to learn from ideas of others.
Blind Squirrel,
I miss David Coit's input on the forum. The reason "Coitstering" worked so well for him was because he never met a stranger. Hope this thread keeps going & all the marketing geniuses will contribute.

[GlassStarz]

With the death or at least devastating illness of the Autosales buisness I have gone back to my cold calling roots I spend about half my time now working a large Gas station cold calling thier customers just walk the pumps and aproace those with chips throw in the its probably free sales pitch and its not hard just a matter of being friendly and looking professional uniform shirt clipboard in hand.

[cracknaut]

With temperatures in the teens this morning, cold calling has a whole new meaning!

[SGT]

You know in the recent past, for those just starting out, dealerships were a fantastic place to get work and get a business foundation started becuase it was somewhat easy to aquire accounts since they have long known about the cost saving benefits of repair. Today, if you have dealership accounts hold on to them as this will eventually pass. I do not know if I would be wasting efforts trying to aquire more dealerships that may close though, that are not putting money into the cars becuase they are not selling cars, until this market turns around. Unless of course you live in an area they have not been impacted.

With that being said, where ever you our focusing your marketing efforts, if it is not working this business is so flexible if you are willing to adapt, imprivise and overcome current adversities. Consider diversifing your revenue sources. This preventitive maintenance recession friendly service may just be what customers are looking for. Cost savings is now hitting home harder than ever. Most marketing techniques generally are not new or unique as they have been written about in countless books. What is unique is how we as individuals implement these sales concepts to our service and deal with rejection.

MY MARKETING TIP: The seek damage and find the owner concept works best at small to very small business, say at strip malls or stand alone offices like realtors. On the other hand it is very hard to actually find the owner of a car who works for medium to large corporation. Do not rule these places out though. Contact the human resources dept. or company equivelant, find out if they have an employee discount program in place and sell your service. Obviously provide a discount! I have a couple large corporations that have posted our laminated flyers on company bulletin boards and also provided internal website exposure. It probably wont be the goose that laid the golden egg for you but it is continued free exposure and another source of potential revenue.

PS. The man known as Coister at one time established a "MASTERMIND" group that consisted of a few of us here on the forum and some not from across the country to share with each other all kinds of marketing tips with each other that have worked us. It was a territorial group in that only one person in an area could be a member for competitive reasons. Which is why some may not share openly on the forum and understandably so. It was a great concept but it ended up only being a few that continued to contribute and eventually dispanded. Dave and I still keep in touch and he is doing quite well in his new venture of a gourmet hot dog and specialty sanwhich grill cart. He still has a passion for chips though.

[ChipStop]

Good Day fellow Chipsters! I love all the comments and PM's about this subject. My hope is that Brent will see the need for a dedicated forum category to this topic of business development. That way we can add posts on subtopics, which would be a great way to help us all develop and grow our businesses. Keep them coming!--Mark Howie

[ChipStop]

[b]SM Post #2 Steps in the Sales Cycle

Thought: Albert Einstein said that the greatest discovery was not E=Mc2, but the discovery of compound interest. What he learned was that as you save money, your savings tend to grow as a result of the process. Although not a perfect analogy, especially during economic tightening, believe it or not, WSR business is no different. As you continue to try to get reoccurring business; As you seek to create some stability in your sales; As you use a proven process, and continually "tweek" your system. The process begins to take on a life of it's own. Your prospects begin to recognize you and your company, they start to admire your persistence, and you develop recognition in the market that you could not achieve otherwise. In fact, the more you prospect, the easier it gets., and the more the prospects realize that you are not just some jack-leg-repair-dude.
Unfortunately, you can't make up your mind to sell today and start to generate significant revenue today. It takes time, and this time is called the sales cycle. In my opinion, the single worst place a WSR professional can be is--working only on current opportunities.
For Discussion: What steps do you use to ensure you will have a revenue stream four to six months from now?
Example: Here is an example we have used in seeking fleet accounts:
1. Planning
2. Prospecting
3. Meeting with the decision Makers
4. Recommending/ Selling
5. Closing / Contracts---I usually get a 1 year contract for WSR on fleets.
6. Servicing
7. Referrals/ Endorsements/ References

Have a Great Delta Day!

Mark Howie--ChipStop, Inc

[Brent Deines]

Good Day fellow Chipsters! I love all the comments and PM's about this subject. My hope is that Brent will see the need for a dedicated forum category to this topic of business development. That way we can add posts on subtopics, which would be a great way to help us all develop and grow our businesses. Keep them coming!--Mark Howie

So if I am understanding you correctly you would like a forum dedicated solely to the sales and marketing aspect of the windshield repair business. Is that correct? I have toyed with the idea of having more specific forums to address the different aspects of the business, but not sure how the general membership of the forum feels about searching multiple forums. My other concern is that in order for that idea to work we would need to be much better about staying on topic. I might put out a poll to get a better idea the direction we should take this. In the mean time I welcome feedback from any of you who wish to send me a PM with your thoughts on the subject.

[revive]

Why a new forum?

Start a new topic in the general interest topics called Marketing your businesss
Then Chipstop/Brent etc can give out info on marketing info to grow businesses ie planning to AVOID cold calling etc

Just a thought
Zander

[revive]

Hi Blind Squirral

When I said avoid cold calling I was talking Fleet -not car wash/supermarket or Joe Bloggs!
ie research the co/institution find the descision maker then..
send an intro letter
follow up with a call for an appointment
confirm with letter or e-mail
then go to appointment listen be yourself ... then sell sell sell!

thats a warm sell!... and it probably wont be an instant one but in the fullness of time it will probably be a a very lucrative one

Hope that helps

Zander