Marketing your residential services to nervous, skeptical, fearful and sometimes downright confrontational home owners can be a REALLY tough sell!😲 Honestly? For most routine maintenance and/or repair services at best a 1st-time caller will view you as a ‘tolerated irritation’! GULP!
“Hey, Steve! Just wait till they get to know my sparkling personality!”💖 ABSOLUTELY! If you (and your employees) instinctively build great relationships with home owners you’ll go far!
BUT WAIT! How can prospects ‘get to know you personally’ while shopping anonymously over the internet and telephone? They can’t!😥 (Here’s one great resource to ‘win over’ first-time callers!) However, a great trick to super-charge your sales is to…
Get face-to-face with residential prospects in your local Home Shows
Steve’s true confessions? I had a love/hate relationship with my home shows. I LOVED the incredible sales home and trade shows produced. But I HATED the physical and emotional demands spring home shows put my employees and me through at our busiest time of year!
Now you’ll get a decent Home Show ROI just by warmly greeting previous clients. (We covered our total show investment with past clients booking future services. New customers were the gravy!) But here’s ‘Steve’s Secret Home Show Tweak’…
‘Reach out’ to new prospects walking by your booth! Here’s how to ‘convert’ a show attendee into an ‘engaged prospect’:
1. ‘Work the aisle’. Home show attendees are both overwhelmed and a bit ‘standoffish’ so most won’t enter your booth. So your (well groomed) employees should a) make eye contact, b) smile and c) reach out into the aisle to hand out coupons for your services. (We used $25.00 off.)
WARNING: Give your aisle employees very defined boundaries. Your fellow exhibitors will correctly be irritated if your eager beaver salespeople intrude into their space or worse breaks up a potential sale!😣
HINT: Staff your booth with lot’s of employees. Every attendee that walks by without giving them your marketing piece may be a sale lost forever! Also schedule frequent rotating breaks. ‘Working the aisle’ is hard work! (I literally banned chairs in our booth!)😲
NOTE: Use your best people to work your booth. Want more great employees? Then click HERE to learn more about our online SFS: Hiring the Very Best! LIVE seminars!
2. ‘High grade’ attendees. Not everyone will be a good prospect. So give your staff the ‘desired demographics’ you want them to target. Then if a prospect slows down and shows sincere interest…
3. Mention your Home Show contest. Hand them a small clipboard with the coupon attached. I suggest gift certificates. Make the prizes big enough to grab the prospect’s attention. (Our main prize was a $1,000.00 gift certificate good on any of our residential services.) Keep your contest form simple. (Name, phone # and zip code.)
ProTIP for your contest coupon: Include the question, “Would you like a free home pre-inspection?” Then include a box they can check. (Be sure to call these ‘hot prospects’ right away after the show.)
The great bonus of a home show? Residential prospects will be coming to you! And (properly handled) they’ll leave your booth very impressed. The result? Instead of a ‘commodity’ you’ll become a desired service!💲💲💲 (This is important!)
Best wishes on your home show efforts! (Let me know your results!)
Steve