By: Carl Davidson, Sales & Management Solutions
As I travel the country meeting dealers, it is clear that
the most successful dealers have an on-going automatic plan for creating leads,
but smaller, less successful dealers tend to advertise by impulse.
It All Starts With the Leads
My work with dealers proves to me that success starts with
the leads. Having enough leads allows you to attract and keep great
salespeople. Nothing increases recruiting results like being able to say,
"We provide the leads and appointments." It also increases
production. Dealers who provide leads average twice the sales per salesperson
as those who do not. The best thing you can do for your company is to lock
yourself in a private room for a few hours and plan your marketing plan for the
next 12 months. If you decide to do this exercise, here are a few areas you
might consider.
How Many Do You Need?
The first thing you need to calculate is how many leads you
will need to generate. Let's assume you have or want to have three salespeople
who perform two demos per day. That means you will need to generate six demos
per day. I suggest you shoot for nine per day or approximately 180 per month to
allow for a 33 percent cancellation rate.
Make It a Buffet
Once you know how many leads you need, you should make the
decision to generate them buffet style. Use five or six ways to generate leads
consistently. Never rely on one lead source, as lead programs ebb and flow.
Have several methods, but don't jump around. Try five or six methods
consistently every month.
What It Costs Not to Advertise
If you forget, get too busy or can't afford to advertise,
it's time to close your business. Advertising is the lifeblood of your
business. If you cut it off, your business dies. It costs you money not to
advertise. For example, let's assume you have a postcard mailing you have
devised. Let's further assume it costs you $0.50 for postage and printing.
Finally, let's assume that when you mail 1,000 of these at a cost of $500.00,
you get 10 people (1 percent) to ask for an appointment. Then, you sell half of
those people--that's five sales at an average of $3,000. That means you made
$15,000 in sales every time you spent $500 in advertising. It means you make
$15 every time you send a postcard. Once you calculate your return and measure
results, you will see that it pays to advertise and it costs you greatly to
stop.
How to Make a Marketing Budget
Many small dealers think they are too small to plan their
marketing. I believe the smaller the budget, the more you have to plan to be
effective. If you have a small budget, you can't afford to make any errors. In
my book, Financial Secrets, I reveal that average water equipment dealers spend
4.7 percent of sales on advertising. Whether you use that figure or a higher or
lower amount, pick a monthly figure you can afford to invest in advertising.
I will use an example of a dealer who wishes to spend $4,000
per month and generate 100 appointments. This means the dealer will invest
($4,000/100) or $40 per appointment. This dealer knows he closes 33 percent and
makes about $3,000 per sale. That means he is spending $40 to generate $1,000
in sales. (Use Table 1 as an example.)
Cutting Your Cost Per Demo
Once you have leads coming in, you can expect your sales
team to do its part to generate sales by getting referrals and calling on
neighbors at each appointment. If they generate one lead for each one you
invest in them, it will cut your cost per demo in half. You will find that when
you have leads to give out, you can expect more and get more from your team.
You Cannot Manage What You Cannot Measure
All marketing plans are based on knowing how many demos you
get from each lead source, so you know what works and what doesn't. Oddly, few
dealers know this for certain. I suggest you record which advertising generated
each. Total the answers and you will know the number of demos you get from each
lead source. Failure to do this is failure to manage your company. Many clients
also say that you get a lot more demos if the owner or a specially trained
office person answers the phone instead of salespeople. Salespeople tend to
under report and over qualify phone-ins. The only way to control sales is to
control the phone-ins.
A final tip on this subject is to take action. If your
Yellow Pages ad doesn't work, change it or get rid of it. Don't spend money on
lead sources that consistently under perform.
Making It Automatic
We all get busy and forget things. Make your advertising
automatic so you can't forget it. How do you do that? Plan and book your mall
and trade shows a year in advance so you make a commitment you can't change. If
you are doing mailings each month, use a printer that also will mail them for
you. Then, just provide the printer with the zip codes you want and the number
per month to mail. The printer automatically will send them out for you. If you
are advertising in your local weekly paper, make a monthly commitment, so it is
automatic too. The more automatic you can make your advertising, the more
likely you are to stick to your plan. You can't get too busy and forget to do
it.
Common Pitfalls of Advertising
Since it already has been established why you need to
generate leads, let's take a look at some of the common pitfalls of
advertising.
*Stinkin' thinkin'.
Some dealers think small. They think advertising is for the big boys and that
they will catch up by word of mouth. This is a fallacy. Every business needs to
advertise. It is better to do a good job with a $500 ad budget than to do
nothing at all. Pick a number you can afford to invest and make sure you work
it to increase sales.
*Stop when sales are slow. Ceasing advertising because sales are slow is like stopping the clock
to save time. Make a commitment that every month you are in business, you will
advertise. If you can't afford to advertise, you really do not have enough
capital to be in business.
*Nothing in it for the customer. Many ad campaigns fail because there is nothing in
it for the customer. Make sure all your advertising copy clearly states the
benefits for the customer, not for you. For example, many mailers and ads say
things such as "family business for 50 years"--how nice for you, but
what is the benefit for your customers? "New York's largest water
dealer"--again nice for you, but what is in it for the customer? Remember
that your customer is interested only in his own business. Also, make sure a
lay person can understand your ad. If you talk about ROs or DI water, realize
that your customers probably don't have any idea what this means.
*No call for action.
Make sure your advertising has a call for action. "Call today for special
savings for new home owners, seniors and veterans," or "Call now and
we'll pay your water bill this month just for having us out." Also, ask
yourself (and maybe ask your customers) what bugs them about people in our
industry and then advertise that you are the solution to these irritations.
Research has told me that people hate two things most of all when dealing with
businesses. First, they hate calling and talking to a machine. Second, they
hate waiting for your service people to keep an appointment. If you put in your
ad something such as "We answer our phones ... call and speak with a real
person today" and "Our service is on time or it's free." These
are the things that will generate action from reader.
It's the Number of Impressions That Count
Remember that advertising works based on the number of
impressions. Nothing works instantly. For example, a consumer might see your
display in a mall and do nothing. Then, they might receive a post card and do
nothing but think for a minute that they have heard of you before. Finally, you
might bottle-drop or telemarket that customer and get an appointment. You got
it because of the number of impressions or repetitions. That is why you need to
stick to a plan and keep advertising. Dealers who advertise for a week on the
radio and then say it doesn't work have failed to develop enough impressions to
make it work.
I hope this will help you to plan your marketing for the
year and successfully generate all the leads you need.
About The Author: Carl Davidson is president of Sales & Management Solutions Inc., a New York-based company specializing in training, recruiting and consulting for the water equipment industry. His training, consulting and seminars are used by more than 4,000 companies in
