Winter Time Selling Blues…

Here’s a good Q&A:

Hi Bob,

I feel that I know you, I have read your website, blogs, ect. And am a friend on Facebook. But, you don’t know me and I dont subscribe to your monthly help. I hope you can take a second to read this and possibly help out.

I have a background in Door to Door alarm sales with APX and Pinnacle security. I started my own dealership with Security Networks january of 2008. We had a good year for what we wanted to do. 500 accounts.

Unfortunately my partner ran off with the money. I have since put the company in my name only and all of the sales people and techs were my guys and are coming back with me. My partner was just a money partner and he was the only one on the bank account, ect. I am ready to have a great year and expect to do over 1,500 accounts since I have 3 offices going starting march.

My problem is that I live in Ohio and our buisness is 100% door to door, and it is 20 degrees and snowing. I would like to work in January and February, but Door to Door is a hard option. I will this year subscribe to your monthly help and look forward to using your services later in the year, but right now I have very little money and need to find a way to sell security alarms to make money to do marketing.

How can I sell alarms with no marketing budget???

Thanks!

Bill

Hey Bill,

Thanks for the kind words. Seeing you’re strapped for cash, the easiest and least expensive road to take is to go to your existing clients base and “shake the tree.” I’m suggesting this because your clients have already purchased from you and, therefore, would be more apt to make another purchase.

Offer your clients a wintertime incentive for them to do upgrades and/or add services, such as, monitoring, cellular backup or service contracts. Also start a referral program so that your clients refer their family, friends, and colleagues…you’ll need to be able offer $$$ or a gift card for any referral that turns into a sale, though.

To cheaply acquire some new clients, when you are on a job, start “farming” the area around your install. Seeing you are a pro at door-to-door, start canvasing the area and letting people know that you are doing a job nearby and offer them a card with a special 10% “good neighbor” discount. For those people not at home, hang a door hanger on their knobs.

I have a door hanger that I use. It lets the homeowner/business owners know that we are doing an install in the area (there’s a blank line on the door hanger where we write down the address) and offers the recipient 10% off of a new install or upgrade.

These are only a few ideas, but you can get many more solid marketing ideas and tried-and-true samples of successful direct marketing pieces by becoming a member of our Smokin’ Security Newsletter.

Best of luck!

Thanks!

Bob

Have a gr8 Super Bowl Weekend everybody! Go Saints! Go Colts!

Bob Maunsell
Former Sgt U.S. Air Force

Have an E.S.P style day, Easy, Successful, Profitable.

Now Go Smoke Your Competition!

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How Important Is The Right Business Name?

Hey Guys,

Awesome question from David out in Northern California.

Hello Bob:

My business is both private security and Investigations…NOT ALARMS.

Question maybe you can assist me with.

Currently the business name is as advertised…. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

We are experience a gross slump in business and placed a lot of money in phone book advertisement (front cover of book). Nothing has come out of it…nothing. We have since found there is a similar business named XXXXXXXXXXXXX in Sacramento that is not so well liked. Could the similarity in the business names, have that huge of an impact? We have received calls of people misinterpreting our business as that one and they are not happy, although they apologize when they see the mistake in the company name.

My license is under: XXXXXXXXXXXXX – the licensing bureau advised as long as we use Northern Cal in the name we can pick and choose what goes with it. I’m not convinced that was a good idea.

We have considered returning to the name… NORTHERN CAL XXXXXXXXXX
~ OR ~
Or a COMPLETE name change to XXXXXXX or even Northern Cal XXXXXXXX.

As we both know the name is important as to how it relates to the product being sold. The licensed name Northern Cal XXXXXXXXXX …Says SECURITY, although so does XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Of course if we drop the Northern Cal in any fashion we have to re-license in that name. I really do not want to have to do that but at this point we do not know what to do. The business is 25+ years old and Northern Cal has been attached to that name for at least 15 years and the last addition to the name “XXXXXXX” is probably a name that has turned off prospective clients not all but most.

Could you offer some thoughts as to this name thing? Stick with the licensed name ‘Northern Cal XXXXXXXXX’ or change it to Northern Cal XXXXXX or just….XXXXXXX??

What would you think would be best???

De

David .S
Chief Supervisor
Northern Cal XXXXXXXXXXXX
By Law Investigations & Associates
Chief PI

Hey David,

Sorry to hear about the drastic gross slump your having in business, that’s a real bummer!

I’m going to say this to you with utmost sincerity…It’s never a good idea to load all of your money into just one security marketing strategy (i.e. your yellow page ad).   You need to have multiple marketing legs so your business can stand tall and strong!  You sure wouldn’t be writing to me right now if you were catching tons of fish with that one Y.P. ad.

It’s always better to bait and use multiple fishing hooks, so that you will catch lots more fish (clients).  The more poles in the water, the more fish you catch!  De, you should read the security marketing blog post I wrote last summer and you’ll get the idea.  To catch More Fish, Use More Poles!

http://securitymarketingguru.com/bobs-security-marketing-blog/to-catch-more-fish-use-more-poles/

Now with that being said, what to do to get out of the slumps…

There’s no reason, after 25 years in business, you should be in the slumps – I don’t care what segment of the security industry you’re in!  You probably have a killer client list, so what are you doing to stay in contact with your flock of clients?  Are you doing a quarterly client newsletter, a referral campaign, thank you cards, education-based seminars, direct mail campaigns to your target market, joint-venturing with a local security company and locksmith, etc, etc, etc…there are so many things you can do to change your “slump” status – lickety split!

There I go again with that dirty, four-letter word – WORK!  That’s right…marketing takes work, but done correctly, will yield you stability and strength to weather any economic tsunami. If you can implement several marketing strategies, you will be golden….you should check out the video on my website called “The Parthenon” It shows you how to add marketing pillars to your business.

Yellow Page Contest…

De, last August, I ran a FREE yellow page ad makeover.  It’s too bad you didn’t submit your Y.P. ad for a chance to be the winner.  In this month’s Smokin Security Newsletter, the makeover will be revealed (I actually did two killer version of a Y.P. ad!)

ASK Campaign…

De, I have one suggestion for you regarding your name change question:  Who knows you company better than your clients?  After all, they were attracted to you and trusted you to provide them with private and personal security services.  I would make a contest out of your name change and involve your clients.  Do an “Ask” campaign.  Put together a postcard or an email and send it out to your list of clients and offer a reward (maybe dinner and movies for two) for the best new name suggestion.

These kinds of campaigns (client contest campaigns) along with client newsletters, thank you cards, and referral systems are some very good marketing tools for building relationships with your clients…instead of being just a transaction-based business, you will become a relationship-building business and client loyalty and profits will follow.

For every business problem, there’s always a marketing solutions…I don’t care what the problem is!

Good luck with it De! Let me know how it goes!

Just to re-cap what’s in this month’s issue (October 2009, 11hours and 24minutes left for you to get your hands on it!) of the Smokin’ Security Newsletter, you’ll learn…

•    How to Create High-Yielding Ads
•    Check Out My 2009 Yellow Page Ad Critique – A $3,500 Makeover for Precision Locksmith Co. – You’ll Get Tons of Great Ideas To Use in Your Next Y.P. Ad – For FREE
•    How to “Bullet-Proof” Your Security of Low Voltage Business
•    How to Create Proprietary Security Systems in Your Local Market
•    Why You Make More Money Going Against the Grain
•    What Sir Isaac Newton Can Tell You About Increasing Your RMR
•    How to Find Your Best Sales Rep Ever
•    How to Become the Contrarian Security Dealer

But wait….I’m not done with you yet because I way over deliver!  You’ll also learn…

•    How To Turn Your Security Vehicle into A 24/7/365 Selling Machine (in the audio success CD)
•    With this little gadget I have, your business will get 70,000 more eye-ball exposures per year – all for less than $40! (I’m all about adding more sales reps to your business without adding “a dime” to your payroll!)
•    How To Make Yourself King of Your Local Market
•    The Power of Being Resilient

As always, I provide ESP (Easy, Successful and Profitable) Security Marketing to my virtual army of security dealers and low voltage installers around the world!

Have a great weekend!

Bob Maunsell
Former Sgt U.S. Air Force

Have an E.S.P style day, Easy, Successful, Profitable.

Now Go Smoke Your Competition!

Want $2,649,594 worth of FREE Security Marketing Advice? Check out my Blog!
http://securitymarketingguru.com/category/bobs-security-marketing-blog/

My Free Gift To You!
http://securitymarketingguru.com/bobs-free-gift/free-gift-from-bob-maunsell/

Got A Difficult Question? Just Ask Me!
http://securitymarketingguru.com/ask-bob/askbob

Join My Security Marketing Group On Facebook
http://securitymarketingguru.com/bobs-facebook/facebook/

Follow Me On twitter
http://www.twitter.com/bobmaunsell

**Hey, Do you want to post my articles up on your blog? Go right ahead! Just kindly cite your source and give a link back to my page.Thanks!**