(Part 2 of a series) It’s common for dealers to spend tens-of-thousands (even hundreds-of-thousands) of dollars per year on advertising to bring new business in their door. Nothing wrong with that, except that in the 14-plus years I’ve been mentoring dealers, I’ve found that most have hidden gold in their business they aren’t mining. Mining that gold is far less expensive than most advertising, so this series is dedicated to helping you get the gold and stop wasting money on advertising you might not need.
We’ve all had this happen: You spend thousands of dollars in advertising, and you get someone to visit your store. You spend time with them in your showroom and then you go to their home and give them a quote and/or samples. Then, after all that time and money invested, they “ghost” you. It’s frustrating and it stinks.
People who reach that stage in the buying process are the most valuable prospects. They are right at the end of the customer journey—one step away from transitioning from shopper to buyer. Forget red hot, these folks are white hot. This means that any time, energy and money invested into landing these prospects is a very wise investment. However, few dealers have any kind of system in place to get these valuable prospects back. Let’s look at a 30-day, multi-media “boomerang campaign” to make that happen.
Create a 10-email drip campaign. This equates to one email every three days over the course of a month. They should contain fun, informative, relationship-building content. Some subjects to cover include:
• Why buying on “cheap price” is a mistake
• How to choose a dealer
• Five questions to ask a dealer before buying (Tip: create questions competitors will have trouble answering, but which are easy for you. For example: “Do you have a list of references?” Keep a list of testimonials handy. Most dealers won’t bother to do this.)
Include testimonials and a special offer if they respond by a deadline.
Advanced strategy: create a series of short educational videos and email prospects the links to watch them.
Direct mail
Create three direct mail pieces, one to go out every seven days. These pieces should also contain informative, relationship-building content. Also include testimonials and a special offer. I like to make these unusual and fun. For example, one letter my company provides our floor dealer members is the “Lotto Scratcher” letter. It has a scratcher stapled to the top of the first page. The scratcher ties into the message in the letter.
Follow up phone calls
Every week, the salesperson should do a follow-up call. Ask the prospect if she has questions, tell her about a new product and remind her of the special offer and the deadline. The calls continue until the prospect makes a decision or the end of the 30 days is reached.
This kind of campaign takes effort, but if you get even one out of five “lost” prospects back, it will pay for itself many times over.
Jim is the founder and president of Flooring Success Systems, a company that provides floor dealers with marketing services and coaching to help them attract quality customers, close more sales, get higher margins and work the hours they choose. For information visit FlooringSuccessSystems.com.
