30 Nov Getting New Clients NOW !!
Alright, here is a plan of action for everyone who needs new clients now.
1. Put out 1000 of your most productive flyers every week per tech.
2. Mail 100 sales letters to commercial prospects per week. Restaurants, lawyers, doctors. Whatever, your choice, but do it once a week.
3. Follow up the mailing 7-10 days with a phone call.
4. Contact other business owners. Swap customer lists. Contact 100 new prospects from each list every week. Send a sales letter first. Then follow up with a phone call.
5. Offer these same business owners gift certificates to give away as premiums to their clients.
6. Give gift certificates away at every Real Estate Office in town for every Realtor working in that office every week.
7. Contact 15 prior clients every day. Let them know you are still alive.
8. Contact 30 cold prospects every day in the market area you want to work in.
9. When completing a job, go to the neighbor and knock on the door, introduce yourself. Give them a business card. Give them a flyer. Tell then you want to be their cleaner of choice as well and hope they will consider you when they need the work.
10. Offer a cash reward or cleaning credit to anyone that gives you a referral now.
11. Offer a strong incentive to use your services now ( a discount, a contest, whatever, be creative).
12. Join a service club or your local chamber of commerce. Attend the meetings, do the service and volunteer work. Great networking opportunity.
13. Whatever other great idea that might come to your head.
Now here is the biggest key.
Don’t do one at a time. Don’t just do the ones you like and ignore the rest. Do them all right now. Not tomorrow, not next week, NOW. This is the success law of taking massive action. It doesn’t matter which success guru you subscribe to, they all tell you to take action. Massive action yields massive results. Don’t think about it, DO IT NOW!
Use your mouse, left click and drag this entire message. Go to Edit on your tool menu at the top of the page, and click it. Select copy and click. Now open your word processing program and click on edit and select paste.
This posting will magically appear on paper.
Print it and post it where you will see it daily.
A little bit of inspiration again from The Industry Giant Two years ago, on the other message board, I posted a 13 step plan of action. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the notoriety. Nor did I expect it to be reposted and reposted and reposted and reposted… Thanks to those who endorsed and complimented it.
It even led to some exchanged emails with Ron “crocodile bait” Curtis. I have found that Ron and I have traveled a similar path. Particularly the slow, tough start we had building our businesses one cheerleader at a time. Like Ron, I had also declared personal bankruptcy, lost my home because I could no longer afford it, and moved back into my Mother’s home (scary). Meanwhile, my business was growing consistently from repeat and referred business. I knew that with patience, persistence, and a lot of years, I would have a large and profitable business.
In my first four years:
I had to rely on Social Assistance (welfare) once, delivering pizzas twice, and preparing tax returns once, to get through the winter months. And personally, I wouldn’t recommend them. But at the time, I really didn’t have any idea what to do.
My fifth year was dedicated to my personal growth and education.
Everything I had experienced up to that point had prepared me for this new growth.
I became even more of a craftsman, due in large part to networking with other carpet cleaners. I had actually developed and implemented a Marketing plan (what a novel idea that was!). I became a voracious reader. I devoured a number of books either recommended by or given to me by mentors. And my mindset changed.
One of the books that comes to mind is The Ultimate Success Secret, by Dan Kennedy. I highly recommend it. It was a gift from Joe Polish for being a client. In it, Dan outlined a 10 step action plan for a woman who needed to secure financing for her manufacturing company to allow for growth. He also stated that all ten needed to be implemented all at once, not one at a time. By doing so you invoke the “law of massive action”.
And that is…
Massive action produces massive results.
That was the basis from which my plan was born. Now to be honest, I did not implement all 13 steps. I didn’t have to. By getting started, a magical thing happened.
My phone rang and rang. I got busy. And I have stayed busy since. My business turned around. And it became fun again.
That is the lesson I wish to convey. Sitting around wondering why your phone doesn’t seem to work won’t change anything. Go out and make things happen. Take action, preferably massive action. It takes an incredible amount of energy to develop momentum, but very little to maintain it. By taking action now, you will get the ball rolling and then you will be able to cruise through your winter months.
Remember, take what you need, and discard the rest.
Paul Douglas
Copyright 2003 Paul Douglas. All rights reserved.