Fresh out of University, I got my first job in sales. I started out as a door to door salesman selling roof restorations. I was okay at it, but not great. I realised 2 things very quickly #1 I could make better money by starting my own roofing business doing exactly the same thing I was doing I teamed up with a roofer to do just that.
The second thing I realised not long after I started the business was that I was selling all these jobs but I wasn’t building any equity in the business. I realised that when you sell a roof restoration you don’t need another one for about 15 years or more. So tomorrow, I had to do it all over again if I wanted to eat. If you sell a roofing business there really isn’t too much to it apart from the hard assets, some good will and whole lot of liability for the warrantees on the past jobs.
So I was out pounding the pavement day in day out and not building a business. I owned a job, nothing more. My income was going to be tied to the number of new customers I brought in and that if I really wanted stability I needed to be able to create additional sales from my existing customers.
I tried to overcome this by adding water tanks, gutters leaf screen and irrigation. But it didn’t really do the job. Gutters and water tanks are guaranteed for 25 years – same problem as the roof restorations.
I was never able to get the customers I had to provide me with predictable steady ongoing income – the real key to having a stable business. By the time the Occupation Health and Safety Laws came in I saw the writing on the wall for that business. Who would pay me an extra $5,000 for the privilege of doing a $3,500 job when there were sole traders around who didn’t need to charge the $5,000?
To this day that roofing business made me appreciate how hard you have to work to get a customer.
It also taught me that if I wanted another business, I needed to have a business that allows you to leverage your existing customers and to make customer retention a priority in your marketing activity.
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