Originally Posted By: Russell Frame This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Congratulations on your first call Vince.
While I haven't yet marketed any HI services, I have been involved in another business and I can agree 100% with the market-market-market mentality. Especially in the first 0-9 months, you will spend an abnormal amount of money on marketing per revenue dollar...that's just the fact of life.
I truly believe that the number one reason businesses fail isn't purely a lack of capital but rather a lack of capital devoted soley to marketing.
People dont call you if they dont know who you are. And it takes quite a while for anyone to know who you are. Repetitive exposure to your name and business equate to stability and that produces a sense of trust and thats what people are looking for in any transaction...someone they can trust.
My suggestion is that once you feel comfortable enough to try to sell your services you kick into a 90%-effort-marketing mode. Read everything you can and make every reasonable and cost-effective effort to get your name in front of home buyers. They are your customer base.
Where do home buyers go? What do they read? What are their concerns? How do you get in front of their face day-after-day-after-day?
Just my thoughts...
Congrats again, I know it is a real boost when people start calling to inquire about what you are selling...enjoy it and leverage on that energy.
Originally Posted By: ekartal This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Russell Frame wrote:
People dont call you if they dont know who you are. And it takes quite a while for anyone to know who you are.
When I was a (new) realtor back in the 80's, I thought people would walk in off the street and ask me to list their home. Never happened once. I mapped out a territory that I wanted to call my own and knocked on every door in the area. Nothing happened at first, but in time the listings came and the referrals soared. Interest rates in the mid-teens was another story...
Originally Posted By: tallen This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
The yellow page add is free if you have a business #. Single line bold print.
A job line will cost you 4 times as much as a normal #
I am not sure why ,but I cancelled my job # and switched it to residential after 6 months.
I have only received 1 call directly from the phone book unless you count marketers. I declined the phone book add ,but I think it is probably a good thing if you serve a small area and people look -u- up which in this day and age is not likely.
MY 2 wooden nickels.
– I have put the past behind me,
where , however, it now sits, making rude remarks.
Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
30% of my calls are thru the phone book. I don’t have an ad, just a bold listing.
The reason it may work for some and not others?
Your alphabetical listing…If someone is using the phone book, they start at the top and work there way down until they find someone…usually it’s the first number they call. If your company name is low on the totem pole, the yellowpages may not be your best bet.
Check any big city and look for a towing service…you’ll see it like this
1AAAAAAAA Towing
AAAAAAA Towing
AAAAAA Towing
AAAA Towing
You get the idea.
The name of my company may be generic, but there's a reason I chose it. 
Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
BTW…Congrats on the call Vince…
Work on the confidence angle, and like someone told me here, work on your replies…get ready to answer any question that comes your way, whether you have to BS your way thru or not.
Write down possible questions and then write down the answers…writing will help you remember, and pretty soon it will just roll off your tounge. Took me a few times to figure out I needed to do this, as I wasn’t ready with my schpeel…especially when they are price shopping…got to turn that shopper into a sale!A couple guys on here helped me out with that stuff.
Originally Posted By: rray This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Another very good method, which most, if not all, sales schools and seminars, and public speaking classes, teach is to give your presentation to yourself in the mirror. You are your nightmare customer, and you can see how you react. It sounds funny, and it’s a little strange when you first do it, and that’s why it works. As you get comfortable watching yourself in the mirror, that same comfort turns into confidence. Eventually you won’t need that mirror.
Originally Posted By: dfrend This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Better than the mirror is video. When I went through Fire Instructor classes we had to give 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 minute presentations to complete the class. Each one was in front of the class and video taped. Boy I hated seeing those tapes.
But it really helped me in my presentation. I looked at my first and was horrified, my hand in pocket, jiggling change, rocking on feet, and shaky voice. By the 60 minute one, I looked like an instructor. Obviously, this works well for voice skills too. Write your pitch line. Video, or voice record it. Play it back, do it again. I guarantee, each time you read it back you will get ideas to change things.
Congrats on that first call. It will all come together, slowly, but surely.
Originally Posted By: Guest This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Nice going, Vince
My first call came at 9:30 pm and I thought it was one of my friends screwing w/ me. After hearing "I'd like to schedule an inspection" from the client, I replied "no need, the house is a piece of crap that nobody'll want after my inspection." I was hired. I don't recommend that anyone else give this approach a shot.
Originally Posted By: kmcmahon This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
hahahaha…I had the same thing happen to me, but not on my first call…someone had a cell phone with a number that looked familiar (Caller ID), so I was real defensive cause I didn’t want my friends thinking they put one over on me…the guy was like “This is ABC Home inspection right? I found your name on findaninspector.com” I swallowed real hard cause I knew it was a potential client, went into my pitch and made the sale…sort of. He hasn’t booked it yet, but did call again to work out dates.
Originally Posted By: Vince Santos This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
Man that must have been a shock to you when you found out it was actually a client. What's more shocking is that they still used you after that comment.
-- Desire is half of life, indifference is half of death.
--Kahlil Gibran
Too funny