How Do I Find More Business?

[hausdok]

In another report about report writing, Tom Raymond remarked:

As was said, I can't write one of these for fun, so I refine my document with every new report. Now, if only they weren't so few and far between...[:-weepn]

Tom, the list below is the ten largest employers in Western, NY.

State of New York - 16,508

United States of America - 10,000

Kaleida Health - 9,500

City of Buffalo (includes schools) - 8,218

HSBC Bank USA N.A. - 5,867

Catholic Health Systems - 4,832

Employer Services Corp. - 4,650

County of Erie - 4,610

M & T Bank - 4,422

Catholic Diocese of Buffalo - 4,000

I'll bet you a case of Martinelli's apple cidar that every one of them has an intranet message board where their employees discuss everything - including where to buy the best car, who to buy life insurance from and who to hire for a home inspection, etc..

Ask every single client where they work and when you get one that works for one of these entities, propose a deal - a $25 rebate - if, when they get the report and like it, they'll take five minutes to make one glowing post about your services on their in-company message board.

This doesn't happen overnight. You have to be persistent and you have to repeat it over and over when you find folks that work for those entities. Do it religiously and someday you're going to wake up and realize that the number of realtor referrals is tiny compared to those from former clients and that you're business is almost entirely customer referral driven.

Fliers, yellow page ads, realtor presentations and all that other crap will be a thing of the past and you'll be able to concentrate on inspections instead of what the next marketing strategy is going to be.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Marc]

I tried local cities, parishes and some drilling companies. Some had no intranet that I could locate via either the site search engine or the site map. One had an intranet, password required, employee status required.

Maybe I'm short on detective skills, but how do you find the intranets Mike?

Marc

[Tom Raymond]

Thanks Mike. I actually have a folder full of marketing advice gleened from TIJ. I've tried all of it, except for reading the recently mentioned "Guerilla Marketing" which I intend to do. Perhaps I'll get it on tape. I have marketed a little to REs, but every one of my gigs has been a referal from friends, family, and coworkers. Not one referal from the Dark Side. I still talk to REs, but only the ones I happen to bump into. I don't go out of my way looking for them.

My mother does a pretty good job of promoting me to her coworkers at Blue Cross and Blue Shield. That should eventually get me onto a couple of those intranet boards, hopefully before she retires.

[hausdok]

I tried local cities, parishes and some drilling companies. Some had no intranet that I could locate via either the site search engine or the site map. One had an intranet, password required, employee status required.

Maybe I'm short on detective skills, but how do you find the intranets Mike?

Marc

You're not paying attention, Marc. You don't go on those sites, they do. If you go onto their sites blah-blah-ing it's seen as advertising. You need to get the client to do it. People come on here looking for recommendations for stuff from their peers, don't they? It's the same on those sites and folks are more willing to listen to a co-worker's recount of a good business experience than they are apt to bother to read anything they see from a vendor who they know is trying to sell them something.

Get the client to advertise for you. Ask them up front during the inspection. I do it as part of the on-going small talk with the client during the inspection process. Now I no longer have to do it for certain firms because the clients tell me up front that's how they learned about me. With those, I just ask them to add their comments; if, after they get the report, they agree.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[hausdok]

My mother does a pretty good job of promoting me to her coworkers at Blue Cross and Blue Shield. That should eventually get me onto a couple of those intranet boards, hopefully before she retires.

What I discovered is that not all employees of very large firms are even aware they have these boards until I mention it to them. One guy sent me an email thanking me for getting him motivated to look into it and said that it was a treasure-trove of information that he intended to use in the future. He said he found plenty of positive comments about my company on the site and had added his own.

Nothing ventured - nothing gained.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike