Clover Leaf Your Way to Bigger Business

How many marketing opportunities do you utilize that can easily add an additional 20% to your bottom line? Whatever your answer, it's not enough! This issue of ShuBee Business Tips, we're taking advice from ShuBee founder, Steve Stone on a simple and inexpensive, yet highly effective way to grow your business.

Steve explained a technique called "Clover Leafing," which he used to gain new customers when he was operating his plumbing/HVAC business. The concept is simple; after he would finish a call with one of his clients, he would go to the house to the right and left of his service call as well as to the house across the street (making a clover leaf pattern) to drop off a leave-behind advertisement such as a door hanger, business card, magnet, etc. with his contact information. By taking these simple steps to introduce his company to potential clients, he guaranteed himself new sales every day! While the effects of a campaign may not be as immediate as some other forms of advertising, its long-term impact can help grow your business exponentially.

Using a quality leave-behind in a technique like this does several things:

• It introduces your company to new potential clients
• Promotes word of mouth advertising - the best kind
• It keeps potential clients out of the yellow pages and away from your competition's ads

How effective can clover leafing be? Well, let's do some math...

The average service-based business has three trucks. Each truck serves five calls a day with an average ticket of $280.00. Each day's business comes to $4,200.

Assuming that you're not taking calls on the weekend (just to keep things simple), that's about $21,000 in business per week or just over one-million per year.

Not too shabby. Now let's add a clover leafing campaign into the mix.

Let's say that all your drivers reach out to just three potential new clients after their service call using this clover leaf technique. If each service team can gain one new client per day, that's an additional 15 calls per week. Based on the same $280 average ticket price, total sales for the year just went up $201,600!

Let's say my math is off and your return rate is only half of what we've projected here... Couldn't you stand to gain an additional hundred thousand or so?

To help make the program even more effective, consider adding an incentive to your customers. Advertisements that utilize customer savings are generally three times more effective than ones that are simply an advertisement for your business. Consider offering these potential new clients a discount for responding to your clover leafing campaign by waiving their travel charge on this call since you're already in their neighborhood.

Use promotional items you already have in hand such as your business cards, door hangers or refrigerator magnets.

Make this program worth while for your employees as well by offering a spiff. Let's say you include a $50 bonus to your drivers for each new customer they pick up using this clover leaf campaign. This may sound like large spiff to pocket, but if you figure that on average it takes around $230 of advertising to close a new client, wouldn't it be nice to pick up a few up for $50 or so?

Six Tips to Get Your Mail Read

You've already spent money putting together a flyer, promo package or other mail piece to send to your customers, this week we're going to go over a six pointers on how to make sure it doesn't end up filed away in the trash can.

Stuff It - If you're sending a sample or other trinket to a client or prospect, find a way to make it puff the envelope. This makes it harder to stack other mail on top of yours which means your mail is more likely to end up at the top of the stack - making it the first to be read.

1. Hand Write Your Addresses - Computer generated mailing labels can certainly be a time-saver, but they also make your mail look more like everyone else's junk mail as well. Hand writing your mailing label adds a personal touch to your message and shows your recipient that you've put time and thought into your mailing.
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3. Use Colorful Wrap for Packages - Mailing departments, shipping and receiving or even the small mom and pop shop receive numerous letters, boxes and brown paper wrapped packages daily. Packages wrapped in colorful, festive papers stand out to the delivery team (and the recipient) and are more apt to be delivered to the right person in a timelier manner. Also, bright colored packages are more likely to be opened instead of sitting on a desk for days.
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5. Use a Clear Call to Action - Tell your reader exactly what you want them to do and by what time. "Save 10% if you call by 9:00 a.m. Tuesday." This seems like common sense, but you'd be surprised how many advertisements are ineffectively written by not including a call to action. If you're advertising a new product or service, make sure to include a line informing the reader that this is a new item. If you're promoting a sale or special, be sure to include the sale price and valid dates for the offer. And in any written correspondence, always, always,always, include a way for your readers to get back in touch with you! The best call to action ever written will do you absolutely no good if there's no clearly identified way for a customer to get back in touch with you.
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7. Validate Your Recipients - The USPS receives 5.4 billion pieces of undeliverable mail every year. Why? 2.4 percent have moved; 4.1 percent have missing or wrong apartment numbers; 6 percent have missing or wrong directionals or suffixes; 0.4 percent have wrong route or box numbers; 5.9 percent have wrong street names or numbers; 4.8 percent have the wrong ZIP code, city or state. Make sure you have the correct delivery information on your mail piece. If you're unsure, call your customer to verify you have the correct information. This is a perfect opportunity for you to introduce yourself or merely touch base and let your customer know you have an important piece of mail you'd like to send them.
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9. Don't Send "Junk" Mail - We all loathe junk mail. It's important to stay in front of your customers, but make sure your mail has a purpose! Don't overwhelm your customers with mail every other day and don't include irrelevant information in your messages. Keep you mail short, to the point and action-oriented.

Follow these tips and your mail stand is sure to stand a better chance of staying out of "File 13!"

Steps to Avoid Employee Inbreeding

No, this has nothing to do with the number of forks in an employee’s family tree. Employee Inbreeding occurs when a company continuously recruits candidates that are virtual clones of the existing employee base. It’s only natural for us to gravitate towards those who share the same likes and interests as we do. When hiring for your team, job candidates who “click” and “fit in” with the established workplace culture often seem like the best candidates for your job opening. Many times these candidates have been referred to you as a friend or relative of a current employee. This would seem to make for a no-brainer hire, but research proves otherwise.

According to Career XRoads, referrals make up for an astonishing 54% of new employee hires. However, according to a recent study by BusinessFinance, this type of hiring practice may be an indicator as to why your business isn’t growing as fast or in the direction you’d like it to.

The problem may be that your employees think too much alike. Companies that are working to make changes in strategy to improve growth, retain more clients, increase average sales per ticket, etc. may have better luck if its employees are able to offer multiple ways of problem solving and provide varying perspectives on challenges the business is facing.

While bringing in referrals can make the selection process easier, hiring a large amount of referrals can stunt a business’ growth. Referrals aren't necessarily a bad thing and there are steps to hiring that will keep referrals from turning your business into a "good ol boy" establishment.

1. Encourage employees to think beyond family and friends when recommending talent. Let them know the qualifications of the position and ask for the best qualified candidate, not the ones they simply know best.
2. When asking for referrals, target your current top producers for their recommendations. This is your opportunity to exploit the fact that similar-minded people are attracted to one another.
3. Pay a bonus to employees whose referrals are hired. Spiffs like these are designed to make your employees think a little harder about who they suggest for the job. Avoid paying too much for a quality lead though or you may find yourself spending more time recruiting than actually hiring, which is sure to stall growth.
4. Consider posting your job openings online. This broadcasts your opening to a much wider audience, attracting a bigger pool of personalities and skills to choose from.

The idea is to make sure you're getting the most qualified candidate for the job, not just the most popular one. Hiring referrals may make interviews and the hiring process go by quicker, it could also be the reason your business has been stuck in a rut.

Marketing Your Mousetrap

Marketing is Essential. This is an important concept to grasp. You must market your business in order to grow it. You may have incredible services, but if they’re not being marketed appropriately, well… few people may ever hear about how great your company is.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted with, if a man can make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, the world will make a beaten path to his door. Do something better than the next guy and you’ll be successful, right? It’d be great if it were that easy. With today’s saturated markets, it takes more effort to stand out of the crowd to your customers, regardless of how great your product and services are. Success requires a strategy to let your customers know who you are, what you do and why they should choose you instead of your competition.

There’s no need to be an advertising guru to market your products or services effectively. Keep these tips in mind to help maximize your visibility in the marketplace.

• Be concise. Avoid unnecessary wordiness. Many people have short attention spans when it comes to advertisements and sales pitches. Know what you’re going to say before you say it. Get to the point and get on with it.

• Proofread everything. Nothing looks more unprofessional than typos. Typos are not only unsightly, but can be costly to fix if your copy has already been sent to press or posted on your website. Avoid these mistakes at all costs!

• Start proofing from the last sentence and work your way to the first. Reading this way forces you to work in a way your brain is not expecting and you’ll catch easily overlooked errors.

• Have someone with “fresh eyes” look over your work after you’ve proofread..

• Re-read it yourself.

• Know your target audience. Understand who you’re really talking to.

• What is their average education level? Are you pitching your work on their level?

• What do they read or watch on TV? Can you capitalize on that?

• Are the majority of your customers male or female? How can you change your current advertising to take maximum effect of knowing this?

• Who’s making the final decision when it comes to purchasing your products or services? Make your pitches appeal to these people to achieve better results with your sales and advertising.

• Think like your customer. Your customer doesn’t care to hear about how big your company is are or how much you spent on your latest whiz-bang gadgetry. They want to know what’s in it for them. Clearly explain how the customer will benefit by working with your company.

• Demand action. The slickest ads or the most cutting-edge website won’t do a hill of beans of good if there is no clearly defined call to action. Let customers know they must “call now” or “visit the website” about a special promotion.

• Brand your company! Work with a designer to create a unique logo and look just for you. Use this logo on everything you produce:

• Business cards

• Stationary

• Invoices

• Vehicles

• Print and online ads

• Uniforms

• Follow-up and thank you cards

You’ve now turned all these items into your company’s calling cards.

• Have a website designed for your company. Your doors may only be open from 9 to 5, but a well designed website is essentially a salesperson that works for you 24/7! Not only that, but with a properly marketed website, you can easily increase your exposure from local to global.

• List your business with Google. Many of your would-be customers do their research online now. Not too long ago, a good phone book ad was all you needed to bring customers to your business. Today’s consumers tend to be more Internet savvy; make sure you’re exposing your services online as well! Google has a host of free services available to help increase your business’ Internet presence.

So, make a better mousetrap and the world will make a beaten path to your door, right? Not really. Even as perfect as Emerson’s idea was, he didn’t get it quite right. It was nearly three decades after his death that he was credited with that line.

What he actually said was, “If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs than anybody else, you will find a broad beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.” A great point indeed… But would you remember all that?

Emerson’s mousetrap quote that we remember coining today was actually only attributed to him; written by an ad copywriter 28 years after his death! Follow this month’s marketing pointers to avoid any delay making history with your business.

Success is in the Details

We've all seen the t-shirts advising, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and though that mantra may have made millions for those in the t-shirt printing industry, not sweating the small stuff in your business may be hurting you more than you think. It's all too easy to become isolated behind a desk and lose touch with employees or what's really going on within the company.

As owners, managers, directors and team leaders, it's our job to keep our employees on task and the business on track. If we ignore the details of the business or rely too heavily on others to do tasks for us, we're suddenly removed from the business operations and can fall victim to a false sense of accomplishment. This only leaves us wondering why the business isn't performing the way we planned. Focusing on the small details will keep you in touch and on top of what's happening.

Analyzing the small stuff doesn't mean we need to micromanage every project or develop a taskmaster-like mentality to ensure that jobs are being done correctly. Really we just need to hone a few management skills to make sure we're not missing the small stuff that may trip us up later. With details in mind, there are a few practices you can implement around the office to ensure the small stuff doesn't get overlooked and provide the ultimate customer experience:

• Plan
• Constantly evaluate your processes
• Practice a "Walk Around" style of management
• Make bad news "safe"
• Obsess over pretty much everything!

Planning is essential for success. Without a clearly defined set of goals and a list of the steps needed to achieve those goals, we're really just floundering around with the hopes that success will fall in our laps. If there's a particular milestone that you'd like to see your company reach, whether it be a set number of new customers per month added to your client base or a dollar figure you'd like to earn per year, write it down and plan the steps that are necessary to make it happen. Goals that we develop for ourselves in our mind are abstract and can easily be undermined or even forgotten. Once we commit a goal to writing, it becomes real and tangible. Keep a list of goals at hand as well as an outline of what it's going to take to achieve them.

Just because you've been doing something the same way for ten years doesn't mean it's the best or most efficient way to get the job done. Set a schedule to evaluate how processes are handled within your company and review these regularly. How long does it take to process an order? How easy is it to amend an order if your customer changes their mind? How do other companies handle similar issues and would there be any benefits if you were to structure your policies in a similar fashion? What do you do when a customer requests something your company hasn't handled before? These items are just the tip of the iceberg. By constantly evaluating how your business handles itself, you can find any problem areas in the way you're currently working. This will help you work towards the most efficient working processes and the ultimate customer experience.

Get out of the office and walk around. Isolating yourself from your employees is a sure fire way of pulling yourself out of the loop. Visit other offices just to see how things are going or go on a call with one of your employees. This allows you to see what's happening, analyze how problems are handled, learn new techniques of doing things or simply share your vision. If you want your company to grow, get out in the front lines!

Make yourself accessible to all news, even the bad stuff. Obviously bad news is not fun, but what happens when something goes wrong? Do your employees feel comfortable enough to tell you about it? If not, there's probably a good deal of stuff going on behind your back you may not know about. Be just as receptive to bad news as good news. This allows you to know what's going on and also to be a part of the solution.

Obsess over everything! The success of your business is in the details. Take time out of your day to analyze the small stuff that you'd normally overlook. You're sure to find a few holes in how the business is running and may even find some answers to get your business where you feel it should be.

Even with the best levels of communication and planning there are bound to be some items that may fall through the cracks from time to time. However, by following these simple practices you're bound to have a better grasp on your business' operations and be able to make better decisions to move your business in the right direction.

Are Low Prices the Answer?

Small businesses are in a bit of a pickle right now with the not-so-great economy.

So what's a small business owner to do? Well, you may think dropping your price is a great way to attract new clients! However, there are a few things to consider before you make those price cuts.

Fact #1

Price Indicates Value

You've heard the saying, "You get what you pay for." Most people automatically assume the price indicates the value of a product or service.

This month was my husband's birthday and he really wanted a new digital camera. So when I went shopping, which camera did I immediately gravitate toward at the store? The most expensive one on display!

When shopping for quality, most people shop for the highest priced products or services they can afford. They assume that price indicates value. Keep this in mind when you're considering dropping prices.

Fact #2

Low Prices Often Mean Low Margins

Make sure you do the math before drastically reducing your prices to attract new customers. You may end up with too much work and little profit!

Fact #3

Low Prices Do Attract Business

A low price almost always attracts new customers (especially during a not-so-great economy.) However, you should ask yourself if these customers are the type you really want? For long-term business success you need loyal clients. These clients will keep coming to you because of the quality job you do, not necessarily because you dropped your prices lower than the next guy. This brings us to our next point...

How to Increase Business Without Dropping Your Prices

There are a few ways you can increase business without fighting a price war.

• Develop customer loyalty programs. After a customer makes a purchase, offer them a discount or other incentive if they return to you next time they need your services. This saves them money, but it also assures you of another sale!

• Offer discounts to those who refer you to others. Referrals are said to be the most trusted form of advertising. Encouraging referrals is a great way to earn more clients without simply dropping your prices. Offer discounts or other incentives to those who refer you to others. What a great way to keep existing clients and gain new clients!

• Provide more value. There are many ways you can do this. A few of our recommendations: protect your client's floors by wearing ShuBee Shoe Covers, keep in touch using ShuBee Report Cards and develop trust by wearing your Seal of Trust Patch. These may seem like small things, but they really increase the value of your company because it shows you care about the customer, not just their money. This is a way to make clients feel like they're getting a good deal, even at your current price!

Well, if you haven't noticed, it looks like dropping prices isn't the only answer to increasing business. There are many other creative solutions to earn long-term business during a not-so-great economy. Call us any time to talk about other ways to add value to your business.