Bring A 5 Year Old Phone Book To Sales Presentation.

Ed the Roofer

I have never done this, but often times thought about it.

How many of your competitors advertise they have 12, 25, or a gazilion years in business?

What if you carried the section from your trade from the 5 year old yellow pages. Nobody has to pay for the free in column listing, so everybody who was in business at that time should be listed. If not, they are either lying to the customer, relocated from somewhere else, or changed company names.

Do your customers care if the first thing that your competitor told them in their ad is a lie? If so, you can prove it using some other rationale to show off how long you have legitamitely have been around.

Oh, and guys who only have a cell phone for there business will never be in there.

Ed

mdshunk

In my area, the cell phone's all have unique prefixes. As soon as I hear a phone number from my area, I can tell you if it's a cell phone or a real phone. I've been very surprised to see the number of lettered trucks parked at the supply houses picking stuff up that have cell phone numbers on the truck as their business phone number. That alone speaks volumes.

Gordo

We do not worry about the competition too much. Being WoM has its advantages. Never been in the phone book because guys always said that mostly it was a waste of time (this was 12 years ago).

We always show our CURRENT (2007) business license that has the year we started (1995).

Net profits this last year were through the roof.....and calls just keep coming for us to do more work.

My basic marketing plan: Do what you say, do good work, follow-up, honor your warranty, keep the work site clean, and ask for referrals. Service and quality........notice nothing was mentioned about low price/competitive price.

We are a small remodeling/ home repair company.

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Gordo

My business phone has always been a cell #.

We show all clients our contractors license.....which contains our business address for the cautious.

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AAPaint

Yup...my business line is my cell phone. I like this better than having a land line that I can't answer during the day. When a customer calls, they go straight to the top, no middleman, no secratary, no dealing with someone that doesn't know anything about their project. The calls only go to voicemail if I'm on the phone with someone else because I give everyone full attention when they are talking to me, or if the phone doesn't have service which is rare. In those cases, every call gets returned within 5-10 mins. I answer this phone for customers from 7am to 7pm 6 days a week. I catch leads any time of day by the cell phone calling in, and I can then divert if need be to do a quick estimate. I catch customer issues instantly and can solve many over the phone.

There's a number of advantages to using a cell phone for business these days. I have nextel so I can click to talk to a number of contractors and other contacts at any time. I can coordinate with other trades easily, etc...

These things just weren't possible ten years ago with expensive cell phones and less reliability, but today, they make a land line obsolete.

The only thing good about a land line is it makes the customer feel that there is something more solid because the is supposed to go to a physical location they could possibly see. It makes things seem more real to them.

However, there is a flip side to that. Here in Jacksonville, EVERYBODY and their brother has a cell phone. I'm not lying either. People look at you funny if you don't have one. Most cell phones have the same area code, and dialing prefixes are very diverse because of how huge the city is, so nobody can usually tell if it's a cell phone or not. So, in my case, it is pretty much a non-issue anymore.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Second Look

Whatever volumes it speaks doesn't seem to be hurting my business any. Sure, I operate out of my home. I use VOIP for my home phone and cellular for my business. It's the 21st century, what the heck do I need a land line and a phone book listing for?

Let us know how this works!

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Second Look home improvement www.SecondLookHome.com
Handyman and Home Repair Specialist in Rhode Island
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Gordo

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RobertCDF

I have a land line at home for personal use. But I use the cell for all business. It just makes sense because I will have it with me wherever I go.

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Robert Shaw
Colorado Springs Custom Decks
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plazaman

Depending on the size of your operation and if you have someone to answer that phone and is somewhat knowledgeable about your project then yes.

Otherwise it’s the cell. Customers want to deal with you directly.

If you are running multiple jobs where the volume of calls are beginning to be a PITA, then yes.


Cell all the way for now.

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Hartsdale Remodeling Contractor
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Rich Turley

I too use a cell phone, but the numbers in the Yellow Pages are regular numbers that ring thru to the cell. In reading the replys I'm thinking more seriously about dropping those numbers and just using the cell phone. I'm sure it would at least cut down on the telemarketing calls.

Rich

dirt diggler

business line (land line as ya'll call it) for new clients


cell phone for existing customers and friends/family, doctors, lawyers, accountants, girlfriends, ex girlfriends, siblings, etc




im kinda like md - i thought displaying the cell phone as your main biz line was unprofessional


i rarely see anyone round here doing that ... when I do, usually they're driving a beat up minivan and they have a magnetic sign that's just slapped on


or worse ... they bought individual mailbox letters and spelled out their "sign" that way




my problem is I have nobody answering the office phone. Who knows how many people might call and not leave a message (I'm like that).



I have considered forwarding to my cell phone.


I MIGHT (thinkin about it right now) include "call my cell at 555.555.5555" on my land line voice message

George Z

You can't be in appointments all day, write proposals,
do 1-2 hours a day on administrative tasks, be on the highway,
using the public urinal etc and run your business out of your mobile.
Depends on your volume of calls but if being on the phone is a whole day's job.
Is this what you want to be doing all day?
We finally have an office manager and the difference is incredible.
Every call is answered properly, every lead is pursued, appointments are scheduled with maps, take off sheets and sales kits ready.
The Customer Retention program is finally working as it is supposed to,
customers are being called with a follow up call, proposals are being followed up etc.
Answering the phone is the easiest job to delegate, why not?

Oh oh! this was not a thread about using you mobile for your business!

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DamionR

There's nothign wrong with using a cell phone for your business line... what matters is how you answer the phone.

Answer it "huuullloooo? Damnit hang on a sec... alllrightt now who's dis again?" - and you give off a pretty weak, small-time image.

At least have a well-spoken, voicemail message that you record in a setting with no background noise.

Also, I'd recommend a cell phoen over a home phone any day. How unprofessional does it sound when your cute, darling 6 year-old daughter answers the phone?

Have any of oyu guys looked into an answering service? Much smarter than having a secretary sitting around filing her nails....

When I was in my teens, I worked at one selling, so I know a bit about them. Typically, you only pay whenever they are on the phone. No phone calls - no bill.

The one I worked at had a special program for contractors/doctors/etc. where they even scheduled estimates or installation dates for the contractor... did confirmations, sent out mailers, etc.

Worth looking into if you want your calls answered professionally, without them going directly to you.

Ed the Roofer

I had a real good answering service at one time when I was starting out and it was great. They realy gave it a personal touch and no one would have known it was not my office if they didn't know better.

Then the other partner bought out the original owner and made everything more high tech. Some good things but when you call and can hear all the other operators in the background, it just started to see cheesy to me. Enter 1st secretary. Ever since, I can not do without one. There are so many things that you can delegate to concentrate on what you should be doing and not what just needs to be done.

I wasn't trying to see if cell phones were more the flavor of the day vs land line phones. I was seeing if anybody disqualified their competition when they lie about how long they have been in business by proving it with the in column listing in the 5 year old phone book.

Thats okay though, maybe the way the topic drifted was a better topic instead.

Ed

Gordo

Ed, I do not think the topic drifted at all. How does being in the phone book qualify you? A quick reveal of the business license/contractors license should suffice.

I completely agree with you about delegation of duties. In my case, I prefer to answer the phone.......a personal touch. If it is a number I do not know.....it goes to VM and will be returned no later than the next business day.

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dirt diggler

gotta say nay to the answering service



I'd rather have them listen to the nice warm friendly voice message.



Either way --- they're leaving a message. Whether it's with an answering service or the voice mail.

dougchips

We have never been in the yellow pages and they are not in our plans for 2007. We use cell phones for all of our business lines and will phase out our last land line this year. If you ask your cell phone carrier, they can get you a business looking #, the last 4 digits of mine is 7500.

Gordo

When I call the dealership after hours, I get an answering machine. When I call the doctors office after (and sometimes during) business hours.......I get an answering machine. When I call my lawyers office after business hours.....when I call my CPA after business hours.......you guessed it. Answering machine(VM).

Shows you are legit, aren't desperate, and business minded.

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Ed the Roofer

DougChips,

I wasn't referring to a paid display ad in the YP. All regular business land line phone #'s are put in the category. If I did not have a YP ad, a listing for my business name and phone # would still be inserted.

The point I was attempting to show, was, that if you know a competitor to be lying about the length of time they state they were in business, would you somehow casually attempt to show the prospect that proof or not.

Ed

dirt diggler

i get kinda leary whenever i've called a small contractor between the hours of 9 and 4 and they (themselves) answer the phone



now, on the contrary


i've called up businesses who've had their land line forwarded to cell

the MAJORITY of the time -- they are goin down the road, they're caught off guard, there's the radio in the background, they're stammering and stuttering ... obviously just not prepared to talk with me


THAT is unprofessional. You expect those kind of situations when you start calling them on the cell phone. Not the business line.


land line gives a sense of establishment ... cell phone gives a sense of fly by night


just in general though - i know there's some exceptions to the rule.