How To Get New Business
During Your Slow Season
By Eric Ruth
Here’s a SERIOUS SECRET to your success as a marketer:
You MUST be able to look at successful promotions being used in other industries and figure out ways to apply them to your business. There’s simply no need to reinvent the wheel. If you are open to it, there are tons of great applications you can copy.
I want to share one of them with you now. This is a great story, so listen closely.
I heard about a guy who owns a car parts boutique in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He sells sunroof installations (very popular in Michigan?), window tinting, caps for pickup trucks, stereo installations and such.
He does good business from April to November, but then business slows substantially during the winter months.
One of the things he does really well is capturing contact information from all his customers. Over the years he has built a database of over 5,000 names. He segments his list by many criteria, one of them being “type of purchase.”
Apparently, window tinting is something that is not permanent and must be redone every couple years.
Last winter, when business was slow, he came up with this special promotion:
Name Your Own Price For Window Tinting Contest!
He pulled 200 names from his database of customers who should be in need of new window tinting, and sent them a letter with this basic message.
My window tinter has no work to do this winter, and that concerns me. So I’m offering you the opportunity to name your own price for a new window tinting application.
This is a contest and I will choose the top ten “bids” for window tinting. All you have to do is fill out your name, address and phone number on this form and fax or mail it back to me with your bid for window tinting.
Obviously, if you bid just $1, your chances of being in the top ten and winning this service will be slim. But you can bid anything you want, and the top ten bids will be selected for window tinting treatment at the price you bid.
I must receive your bid by December 15, so please hurry.
From the 200 names he mailed (his targets), he got 68 replies with bids. That’s a whopping 34% response! Of those 68 replies, 49 of them had reasonable bids.
In fact, OVER 50% OF THE 49 TOP BIDS WERE FOR PRICES HIGHER THAN WHAT HE NORMALLY CHARGES FOR WINDOW TINTING!
Isn’t that interesting?
Think about it for a second. Not only did he have a serious winner of a promotion on his hands, he also conducted a scientific MARKET ANALYSIS and discovered that people were willing to pay MORE than what he already charged for window tinting.
What does this mean?
It means that he should RAISE HIS PRICES.
See, one of the biggest mistakes almost all businesses are guilty of is discounting price or simply selling below what the market will bear.
If you properly educate your prospects and build VALUE into what you do, price is NEVER the issue.
We think it is, but it’s not.
Anyway, the bottom line is that this auto parts boutique owner was able to schedule 49 window tintings, with over 50% of them at higher prices than he normally charges, all for a promotional expense of about $200.
He went on to use that promotion three more times that winter to the rest of his list of people who had purchased window tinting in the past, and he’s using it again this winter.
Now he’s working on figuring out ways to apply it to other services he offers.
When you have a major winner like this (or even a minor winner), the only challenge you face is figuring out how you can use it as often as possible.
What if you were to mail to your past clients and other hot prospects with a similar promotion?
You could offer them the opportunity to name their own price for a six-session “fitness jump-start” package.
The CRITICAL element of this offer would be the building of VALUE into the offer. You would need to spend a lot of time in your sales letter explaining the BENEFITS and clearly describing the OFFER. What does the client get in this package. And don’t just say “six personal training sessions.” Describe your “success system” and how you guarantee results. Include testimonials. And don’t tell them what this package normally costs – that defeats the purpose of your market analysis. Just really focus on building value into the service and see what kind of bids you get.
Be sure to use “scarcity” as the motivating urgency factor. You might want to say that you have only 3 available slots in your training schedule, and that the top three bids will win the contest. You may just be shocked to find that people are willing to pay even more than you already charge for this service. If so, you know what to do, right?
Okay, since we’re talking about creating a compelling sales letter with a strong offer, here are…
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