The Secret To Getting Business...

KellyPainting

Everyones always asking about advertizing or getting work in general,
The real secret is to put extra effort into the job your on.... give them
perfection.... make them happy.... throw in a door for free....show them the wow factor.... help them take out the trash..... anything.

The amount of money and effort people put into advertizing is ten times the amount of money or time you could spend doing a little extra for someone..
and that will pay off ten times more.

Tonight my customer cooked me steaks on the grille. And sent me home with
a bunch for later.... They were on a deadline and I went the extra mile for them.

This is my second year in.... still have never advertized in a paper or phone book. I have no small yard signs..... just a ten foot banner and a nice truck lettered up right... I'm booked in advance for 2 months.

It's the word of mouth advertizing that you really need. Work on that and the rest will fall into place.

Da Vinci

I agree that going the extra mile pays off. We just finished a 13,000 s/f Estate home for a client worth $100 million+. Everyone that worked for her knew she had a ton of money- they charged for every second they worked, and she paid.

But on her birthday, we sent a small bouquet of flowers. On her sons birthdays, we sent cards. There were things that really bugged her like mirrors and pictures that no one would hang. So we volunteered, stayed late, and I didn't charge her. Told her to consider it a house warming gift.

We are the only sub trusted with a key and alarm code. She continues to call for more faux, and misc. things.

Bottom line- our original contract was for about 4 months. Because we went the extra mile, we got all the extras, all the faux, all the venetian plaster work. Our contract ended up more than 3 times the original.

Bay Area PAinting Company

RCPainting

Kellypainting, you are right! I have picked up enough work by word of mouth to keep me and 2 helpers busy thru winter. I do all new construction and have built a rep as a "git er done" guy while still maintaining a high level of quality. Keep your word, do your best work and be honest!

George Z

I thought so too, years ago.
When I raised my prices and stopped bending over,
they all scattered away

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George Z

Can you quantify that?
How much extra are you giving, or giving up every month?
How does that compare to let's say a well orchestrated marketing plan
that includes word of mouth, or better Customer retention marketing?
As far as ROI, I mean.

Did you know 60% of any customers will leave, no matter what you do?
So, if you don't bring at least that ammount of new business
you are eventually screwed.

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George Z

That's very nice.
We wouldn't do that. We have pride.

Actually, we would do that for a charity, or someone that can't afford it.

We are contractors, not "THE HELP"
The Ultra Rich is not our market at any price!

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BT006

? What's wrong with the ultra rich? They are people too. While Kelly Painting perhaps hasn't really quantified his ROI on this marketing approach I would say in general it is sound business given what many companies spend on lead generation. As a general rule it is cheaper to keep customers than get new ones.

Most ho's can't see the difference between a great paint job and a good one. Extra's like hanging a mirror will really stick in their minds however.

Paul_R

I grow tomatoes, and have quite a few that I can't use. My wife insists that I cut back next year. I give tomatoes to my customers if they are interested. Many have accepted my offer, and have appeared to be happy. I like to build customer relationships, and give as I can without hurting my pride. I don't see any problem with doing a few extras without compensation, as long as you are comfortable with your part. However, if you have a thing for looking back and saying, well I did this for them and they didn't show appreciation, or pay any extra. I think that that is wrong.

Happy painting, Paul

welovepainting

Give a little get a little. I beleive its a good idea to throw in a door, paint a light, hang pictures. Rich or poor it dosnt matter. If you do what people like they like you. If you do what people dont like they dont like you. In my veiw if you cant give 1 hour of your time to help a wealthy or unwealthy customer that is rediculous. You should raise your prices. To me its not a pride thing its lets be friends thing I help you hopefully in return someday someone will help me.

My job is to make sure evryone is happy employees, customers, vendors.... We have done some things over the years ( give aways, free bees) to some very large successful filthy rich corporations, and what have they done for us in return? Hundreds and Hundreds of thousand of dollars of work. I cant complain. I wish I knew someone I could paint another free door for so I can get some more Hundred Thousand Dollar Accounts.

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welovepainting

Lets see 1 hour a week at 50.00 per hour x 50 weeks = 2500
Thats for the entire year and 50 really happy customers for 2500 dollars. That to make sure every single client happy. Which we all know word of mouth is the best

On the other hand 6,000 postcards at 0.30 each = 1,800 do that for each season and thats 7200 for direct mail only and many times no calls. What about all the other advertising and marketing cost? I think that the ROI is outstanding and very rewarding when you take the time to help a client without charging them.

We have 10 painters a few subs... nearly 1 million a year in sales. We did not get their by giving away our services. These people that overcharge and backcharge for every single thing to me its bad business. I try to immplement old fashion services. Why yes mam ill paint those lights at no charge thank you for selecting our company. Another thing we always do is wash the windows on every house we paint. You should here these ladies talking at the hair salon or on the phone ranting and raving how great we are because we washed there windows for them.

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Runamuk

I'm happy for you. I too doubled and then tripled, quadrupled my business in the first couple of years by the same marketing technique. What happen when you have exhausted all of your leads?

Put the money in the bank and plan for a rainy day!! Trust me I know!!! See below.


When your customer return rate, because of your first paint job lasting 10+ years. interior or exterior, is 10+ years......you make perfect sense!

I had a customer call me to repaint their exterior after 17 years! I made $4000.00 from them in 17 Years Whoopie! They did however refer me to 4 of their friends whom I will not see for the next 10-15 years................Get my point?

Rick

George Z

When you stop being "the help" they don't like you any more.

I will help a lot of people.
But when we do one hours work, we get paid for one hour's work.

So you are charging them for the freebie. Good!

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George Z

Fact: at best only 60% will return, so that figure is wrong.

We don't all know that.

We charge for all our services and still:

96.7% of our customers have agreed to be in our reference list (accurate as of August 23rd 2007)
http://ecopainting.ca/testimonials.html

If you are doing this on every window, should't this be part of your production rate to do a window? In other words, a window takes 30 minutes you estimate them at 25 minutes?

Are you sure?
I used to think that too, but I never sat next to them at the hair salon.
Come to think of it, my wife worked in a hair salon, she only got me one stinky paint job.
Their painter is the last think they talk about. Unless you have some sort of
CRM program, most of them are gone...

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THINKPAINTING

[quote=George Z;283220]Fact: at best only 60% will return, so that figure is wrong.


We don't all know that.



We charge for all our services and still:

96.7% of our customers have agreed to be in our reference list (accurate as of August 23rd 2007)
http://ecopainting.ca/testimonials.html

I agree with ya George, just be glad you dont work in my state Boston Mass, trust me Painters work for peanuts and 90% have no clue how to estimate a paint job. We are overrun with Illegals and Painting Contarctors who work for 200 dollars a day and think they are making money.

I like your business philosophy.

Nick
www.thinkpainting.com

welovepainting

I certainly look at this situation very differently than you unlike many other topics. As far as the window washing yes it is build into our cost. There are many contractors that get bill happy thats my point. At our company we are not like that. Kind of reminds me of a song where a gentleman was asked to take a 50.00 tip from a customer he did work for he would not except the tip from the customer later that day the customer goes to a resturaunt to get a bite to eat and not knowing the lady that servered her the food was the guys wife and coincidently she got the 50.00 tip. My point is what goes around comes around. Yes we need to run our business like a corporation and don't let the business run us.

Should we really go to the customer and say Mam you know the 4 lights you have... that took us 30 min to paint well thats going to be 100 for our time and a 50 change work order charge.

Or should you say mam those black lights we didnt notice on the estimate we went ahead and freshened them up for you at no cost?

I make it a point to help someone everyday. Weather it be holding the door for an elder or helping a kid that fell off his bike, or painting a few lights.

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welovepainting

[quote=George Z;283220]Fact: at best only 60% will return


To me its not if they return or not thats what marketing and advertising is for. It is how they view our company and us as people.

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George Z

That is great we all should

Free for multimillionaires you said.
So you are stealing one hour from your family and your hard working employees,
and are giving it to a multimillionaire.
How is that fair?

Good, and how is that free?
Be up front with your customers
Your kind of customers are not naive little ladies at the hair salon.
They know it is a built-in cost, nothing wrong with being upfront.
It is a value added service. Nothing wrong with that.

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welovepainting

I totally understand what your saying and agree with you in a small way.

Just to make one last point we had a commercial propety management company contact us a few years back they had trouble figuring out what colors to use for their buildings. One of our top selling or lead generating statagies is we offer Free Color Consultation which many people dont really care but they sucked it up. 4 hours of my time lead to over 1 million in work over the past three years all from the same company.

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KellyPainting

First off, happy Labor Day weekend everyone.

You have to realize that what works for me will not work for everyone..
I am not out of the bucket.... I have helpers and maybe one painter here and there. I don't need as much work as a large company. Am I going to advertize
in different ways as time progresses, yes.
I was talking to the guys who are starting out more than the guys with large company's and a few crews. My point was to pay attention to the customers that you have just as much as the customers that you want.

Advertizing done correctly can work wonders... but to get yourself working on a constant bacis, and have enough money coming in so you can afford to advertize is also important.

mahlere

if you want to "give away" your services in an attempt to buy a happy customer, that is fine. It's a well documented and successful plan. Just make sure you account for it.

You have to charge enough for what you do charge for, so that you are covered for what you do for free.

it's like when a retailer doubles the price of a product, then offers a "buy one, get one free" sale...

someone has to pay for your time...either the customer or you/your employees/your family/etc....i'll let the customer pay without them even knowing it...