By Jonathan Crandall
Now that you have renewed your previous clients and hopefully signed on a few new ones, are your marketing efforts complete until next year? Not a chance. Marketing should be done year-round and 24/7. This can be done effortlessly by having a clean professional truck with lettering promoting your brand. Or you can pick it up a notch and map out a full-fledged marketing campaign.
You don’t need to spend a fortune on consultants or a marketing firm to get your brand recognized. However, our industry tends to fall short in its marketing efforts more than ever after the season starts. Many of us shift gears and go into full operational mode—particularly if we do not have a sales staff and are wearing all the hats. But by doing so, we may be missing out on opportunities that are right in front of us.
Stay visible
How often have you driven by a site that was clearly not being serviced well, and wondered how the contractor was getting away with providing inadequate service? He probably isn’t—and if you don’t replace him, someone else will. Making sure your company is visible and top of mind can go a long way when an unhappy customer realizes a change needs to be made.
There are many things you can do to stay in front of your potential clients mid-season:
Brand image. The easiest is to create a good logo and keep it consistent on your business cards, e-mail signature, trucks, employee uniforms, etc. People will begin to recognize the brand and relate it to the type of work you do best.
Communication. Maintain communication and continue to try to establish a relationship with prospective clients. A quick phone call to offer assistance if needed may go a long way. We do things that we hope will help our existing customers, as well as those that we hope to gain as customers in the future. Keep them informed with important things going on in the industry, and share information as much as possible. It will reinforce your position as an industry professional. For example, sending a quick heads-up weather report to your customers or prospects is typically well-received. It shows you care that they are informed. It also can have your potential customers start to wonder why you are going the extra mile while their current vendor may not have even called to check in for weeks.
Live and learn
Snow and ice management service isn’t always as valued as it should be until there is an unfortunate circumstance. Senior property managers, facility managers and property owners who have been in the business for a long time typically have been through some unfortunate circumstances, which have created value for our industry. Sometimes younger managers who do not have the battle wounds that come with hiring an inexperienced or poorly equipped vendor don’t always understand the reason for a higher cost of service.
Before the snow season begins, we go through our regular motions of bidding on new jobs and trying anything we can to make our business stand out against our competitors. We worry about our pricing and try to stay competitive without underselling our product.
But I am always amazed at how things change mid-season for prospective customers who chose a vendor solely on price, and are disappointed when the company doesn’t perform as well as expected. When in need, that same customer no longer prioritizes price, but instead will call on the vendor who may not have been the cheapest but seemed the most experienced. If this is your business and you handle the situation ethically, you may be able to gain a customer for life.
The temptation may be there to try to price-gouge the client, whose back is against the wall and will probably pay whatever you ask. But by maintaining the price you had originally bid and performing as promised to clear the property and make it safe for the company’s customers, you can create a long-lasting relationship built on trust and your reputation as a professional in your market.
We have landed a few customers in such scenarios. I must stress, however, that how you handle this opportunity will determine whether you do one job for this customer or you cultivate a long-term relationship with them. Some people may think that taking over mid-season is an inconvenience and that the client should pay extra fees, such as emergency or overtime. I disagree. Yes, you are helping the customer out of a jam, but at the end of the day, businesses don’t do business with other businesses—people do business with people.
We are human, and we all make mistakes. Now is the time to prove your dedication and honesty to this new potential client. Help them out at a fair rate, or (are you sitting down?) do it for free! I hope no one reading this is offended by that four-letter word, but imagine the bond you would create with the person who knows he or she is at your mercy and is expecting you to jack up the price. Instead, you completely reverse that thinking by letting the client know you are happy you were able to help, and would appreciate the first opportunity to take on the remaining season’s work—at the right price.
Keep resources on hand
It is always a challenge to maintain enough resources to service your existing customers while reserving resources for possible mid-season opportunities. I have found in our business that this reserved equipment never goes to waste. If a mid-season opportunity does not come along, it is almost always used in some form of backup—and is worth every penny.
This reserved equipment should be marketed and itemized. Explaining to customers that you plan for the worst and have a backup plan for your backup plan can ease their minds.
Where do you stand?
It’s mid-season: How is your company performing? The best way to find out (besides your own self-evaluation) is to ask your customers and prospects. Call on your clients and ask whether you have been meeting all of their expectations. Ask whether there is anything that can be done better. Don’t ask just about the service in the field, either. Inquire about their satisfaction with the office support, invoicing, communication, etc. Then do the same with the prospect list you called on in the fall. Ask the same questions about the winning bidder. If nothing else, you will know how happy they are heading into next year.
Don’t ever give up marketing and selling your service. It should always be at the forefront for your efforts—and your employees’ efforts—all day, every day.
Jonathan Crandall is president of J.C. Snow & Ice Management, Peabody, MA. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
