Bidding jobs

[John Paul Sanborn]

Doorhangers suck on their percentage of return, but on thier return on investment they are much better then a YB, mass mailing or newspaper.

1. you can look at the properties hwere they are recieved
2. you choose the area where they are placed
3. the recipient usualy can see some of your previouse work
4. you can white a note on them to the recipient
5. they cost more to go hang then to purchace
6. it only takes one sale to pay for the order
   [/list=1]
   
   With todays computer publishing one can put out a relatively professional looking piece of marketing material at home. Presentation will do a lot for you, I've seen studies from focus groups where on how a glossy folded item will get a far better reaction then a similar 8 1/2 x 11.
   
   If you want to refine the method a little
   1. make a postcard style piece
   2. canvas an area that could use some work
   3. take down addresses of the properties that you would want to do the work
   4. maybe take short notes on each property
      [/list=1]
      
      Now you don't look like a door to door operation, your still only palying around $.30 per uinit, though investing a little more time.
      
      I have not put this to use yet, since I'm not working directly for the property owners, but I know I am more likely to look at a card in the mail then one hanging on the door.

 

[Higherup]

theres some good ideas coming from this topic and I surely appreciate it. one thing I do since I took over the bussiness I bought is send out fliers to everyone in the surrounding zipcodes and introduce myself and my abilitys adding some educational info such as the preferrable times for fertilizing and major pruning e.t.c. offer a 10% discount on new estimates my wife handles this aspect of the bussiness and she generally does 100-150 mailings a day and I believe the return on those has paid for themself quite well, when I took over this company in july 2002 we were lucky to get 5-6 calls a week, since doing the fliers we've gotten 3 calls a day minimum until mid december, I got 3 calls wed and I expect when this winter storm advisory passes people will start calling. I worked for a company that had me and 2 other climbers 5 yrs ago now they are the largest in the city and the reason why is he made his name a household name, everyone knows their name, you have to be relentless and persistant i believe, I was at the point 4 mos after owning this bussiness that I pondered the idea of a 2nd fulltime salesman and another crew.

 

[Climbing mike]

When I see a tree that needs work i have a dangerous or damaged tree form I fill out. If I can see the tree well enough from the street I'll put the estimate on the form. If I need to go into the yard I check the box "call for estimate need to get a closer look". Any Extra time I have I pick a area ride around making notes, and taken addresses. Then I send the forms out. The last batch of 17 form got 7 responces for about $4500 of work. We have been working 7 days a week for about 3 or 4 months. The only other advertizing I do is word of mouth, My cleintel is normally large or multiple take downs. i rearly do a single removal, I recently done 106 pine trees, 34 pine and gum trees, today 8 large oaks. If you do good work at a fair price you be in the biz a long time. I started out never working for any tree company, I was cheaper that all, And I done high quality work. Now my prices are up and I still cant get caught up.

Mike

 

[Dan Flinn]

I like the direct mail approach, but I do a little research first. All of the real estate transactions are listed in our local paper on Sunday. (Asheville is a small place). Anyway, each listing tells who sold the property, who bought the property, the street the property is on and the selling price. Every sunday, I go through the listings and circle all the ones that sold for $300,000 or more. there might be 3 or 4 each week. Sometimes I lower the cutoff price if I recognize the neighborhood.

At this point, I look in last years phone book for the sellers name. That gives me the exact mailing address. I just add the buyers name to the address and send them a "I'm here to help with your tree needs...blah blah blah" letter.

My first mailing of 100 letters netted 11 calls, 8 jobs and about $4500 of work for about $100 invested in stamps, and good paper/envelopes. Of the 8 jobs, I have been called back to 4 properties for additional work. I have been able to face-to-face most of their neighbors.

This method allows me to qualify, somewhat, the customer before I solicit business from.

This was a gamble that paid off. The customers I've gotten as a result are the "when you get a chance, come take care of this and bill me" kind. They also know the definition of an Arborist and know the value of hiring one.

Compared to my listing in the Arborist section of the phone book, this method is worth the money. My yellow pages ad, for the most part, gets a lot of "what do you think of this...how much? oh my" and they get 5 bids and the lowest gets the job. Last year I closed only a few jobs from the phone book.

I have another list of about 160 to go out. I'll post the results.

Oh, all of this information about property listings is at the register of deeds if your paper doesn't print the info.

Sorry to run on so long, but I really do believe in this!

Good luck,
Dan

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Many cites will list on the internet too

I can get all the property tax info for MKE, searching by an address or a block.

 

[Higherup]

Just what John said is true in cincinnati, we tgo to the county auditors web site and put in a street name or zip and they give u every one on that street their name, price for property e.t.c. I question how ethical it is then I look at my overhead and send out more mailings.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It is a public record, I have no ethical problem. You can buy this info with more demographic stuff over the internet.

All those little survey cards you fill out with household income and whatnot, many companies sell that stuff to data gathering operations.

 

[geofore]

ethics?

The phone company did that by the way they assigned the exchange numbers to reflect demagraphics. The area in one city was simular to the area in any city with the same three digits anywhere in the country but now with the housing going up like weeds and cell phones they can't keep up.
It is not the ethics question but how do you use the tools that are out there to do your research for your work. Here in PA the insurance co. uses your credit report as an indicator to set your rates/ bad report higher rates, good report lower rate for same coverage. It is like the lawn service guys using TerraServer to look over aerial veiws to see were the best lawns to bid on are located or the roofers using it to see who needs a new roof or FEMA using it to see flood plains to move people out or ins.co. using it to see who needs flood ins.
If you wanted to know where the old underground mines are so you don't build a house on top of one you would go to ConSol and ask for a map of the area. These thing are tools.
How well informed do you want to be not your ethics. How you use it and for what is ethics.

 

[Dan Flinn]

I'm not sure if I'm being picked on here, or not.

The idea for this letter came about as I drove around the first year I moved here. I could drive into a wonderful, upscale neighborhood and see the entire location with topped trees. One uneducated consumer in the neighborhood had a guy come and top their trees and their neighbor said to the hacker, since you're here, will you do mine?.....you all know the story.

Deep down, I feel if I can educate the tree consumer who might not know any better, I feel like I've helped. The problem is, I got so busy giving advice and from the resulting work, I had to find a way to narrow my target.

My letter is loosely based on that. I'll gladly forward a copy to anyone who wants it - to criticize or to use as a template.

Ethically, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I don't knock on their door, I don't hound them with phone calls, I merely send them a letter letting them know I'm here if they need me.

Dan

 

[Joe]

As a 3rd party source I conclude Dan F. is not being picked on. However, that could change if that is what Dan wants.

Joe

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Would you be willing to serve him up some hash, Joe?

 

[Joe]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
Would you be willing to serve him up some hash, Joe?

Not particularly, I don't like trying to cleanup afterwards.

Dan's not the only person I've heard who does as he's talking about to generate business for his company. There's nothing wrong with it. I think it's a smart thing to do and it works.

Joe

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

IMO anything short of door to door and telemarketing is good buisness.

As for the latter, even with the no call list here in WI, an individual can cold call residential properties as long as it is for that persons interest.

Mike, tell your boss he can statr calling people

 

[mikecross23]

I've been trying to muster enough courage to just waltz up to someone and say, "hey, I noticed you need some tree work done." For some reason I feel weird approaching someone to solicit business. I'm trying to get over that b/c where I'm from people are generally very nice, and I'm usually good at first impressions.

Thanks for the idea.

-Mike-

 

[Dan Flinn]

Hey Joe,

Thanks for the 3rd party opinion! I'll pass on the hash

Dan

 

[mikecross23]

The magazine I placed an add in started reaching consumer's mail boxes today. I have already gotten 2 calls and lined up 2 estimates in the last hour!!!!! Most folks probably haven't even gotten home to check the mail yet, so it's very comforting knowing many more will hopefully call.

Yippeee kiaaaayeah!!!

 

[Ryan Willock]

Mike, I get most of my business from referals. now having said that if i see a yard that needs work done and I see some one standing out side I'll go up and talk to them. whats the worst that can happen?? them telling me NO? sales is STRICTLY a numbers game, you have to get your name in front of as many people as possible!

 

[mikecross23]

Ryan,
Referals have been my main source of work, but I only work on the weekends. I'm tryin' to get enough work lined up and still coming to me to make the jump over to full time. I do run my mouth a lot, but that add has already, in 5 hours or so, produced 4 estimates. I gave two of them already and lined them up for the next weekend coming up. I've got two more estimates for tomorrow and two more from word of mouth to give soon. I hope to run the adds only long enough to obtain a network of referals. It's a good start for me!

-Mike-

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Originally posted by Ryan Willock
sales is STRICTLY a numbers game, you have to get your name in front of as many people as possible!

Sales is usualy more presentation, if you can bring off an air oc competent professionalism, you can sell more then you loose.

One learns to pick the clientel, read people to see if they want the work. I would always anotate my copy of the bidsheet to remind me how I read them.

I've a buddy here who I cannot convince that the biggest way to increase your closing rate is to call back. Let them know that you will be calling in a few days and stick too it.

 

[Ryan Willock]

John, you're right about presentation but the more people you can get infront of then your chances of getting work are greater. "Screening" your cliental is also important as there are just some people who don't care or just want it done cheap.