Little help please
Discussion
So basically we have a gas heating business really busy 4 subbies and 3 direct employed guys and about to take a further 3 on full time
I’m wanting to focus our attention on boiler maintenance plans - I don’t need a spiel on how it’s a gamble etc and I know fine well it’s a numbers game having been the manager at one of the larger providers of said maintenance plans.
I’m looking at the best way to get people signed up to our plan, I can buy a shed load of data (homeowner boiler over 7 years old etc) but don’t have the first clue about telemarking and the such.
What would be the best solution for strong volume of return - Outsourcing telemarketing ? Where and how would I go about this
We have around 1000 customers so far through our existing customer base and word of mouth but looking to really get this to around 5-6000 fairly quickly
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
I’m wanting to focus our attention on boiler maintenance plans - I don’t need a spiel on how it’s a gamble etc and I know fine well it’s a numbers game having been the manager at one of the larger providers of said maintenance plans.
I’m looking at the best way to get people signed up to our plan, I can buy a shed load of data (homeowner boiler over 7 years old etc) but don’t have the first clue about telemarking and the such.
What would be the best solution for strong volume of return - Outsourcing telemarketing ? Where and how would I go about this
We have around 1000 customers so far through our existing customer base and word of mouth but looking to really get this to around 5-6000 fairly quickly
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
If you go down the telesales route, you need to generate visibility first. People are more likely to be interested if they've heard of you before someone calls. This means advertising. Depending on your budget, you should be looking at outdoor advertising in the areas you are targeting and social media. This should be run over long a period as you can afford. Don't do this yourself, hire in a decent ad agency.
On telesales, to get 6,000 customers you need a list of at least 60,000 contacts. Probably more. Check if you are buying the list or hiring it.
I would initially out-source the telesales. If it works, you can always bring someone in later but you may find that it's not the best way to hoover up business so you'd be lumbered with an employee if so.
In my experience, the best telesales companies charge a flat fee and then a modest commission on top. I'd budget around a £1k - $1.5k a month on the basic. Be wary of those that charge only on results (though there may be some good ones that operate on this basis but I've yet to find any).
We've had some good level of engagements for clients using shopping centre 'Engagement Pods' - fancy little stands in the walkways of shopping malls, manned with a few people chatting to shoppers. Search for a company called 'Space and People'.
Make sure your brand identity is all up to scratch - decent logo, working website....basic stuff but often overlooked.
HTH - Good Luck.
On telesales, to get 6,000 customers you need a list of at least 60,000 contacts. Probably more. Check if you are buying the list or hiring it.
I would initially out-source the telesales. If it works, you can always bring someone in later but you may find that it's not the best way to hoover up business so you'd be lumbered with an employee if so.
In my experience, the best telesales companies charge a flat fee and then a modest commission on top. I'd budget around a £1k - $1.5k a month on the basic. Be wary of those that charge only on results (though there may be some good ones that operate on this basis but I've yet to find any).
We've had some good level of engagements for clients using shopping centre 'Engagement Pods' - fancy little stands in the walkways of shopping malls, manned with a few people chatting to shoppers. Search for a company called 'Space and People'.
Make sure your brand identity is all up to scratch - decent logo, working website....basic stuff but often overlooked.
HTH - Good Luck.
Start with what you already have!
If 1000 existing customers can be incentivised (£50 off renewal for each signed-up customer, or similar) let them sell for you. A couple each over the year gets you half way to your target.
Similarly, 10 fitters doing 2 jobs per day each is potentially 400 face-to-face opportunities monthly with people who already need some kind of help, so could be relatively easy to upsell to. Perhaps invest in some decent sales training for the fitters & give them commission/bonus for new customers.
If 1000 existing customers can be incentivised (£50 off renewal for each signed-up customer, or similar) let them sell for you. A couple each over the year gets you half way to your target.
Similarly, 10 fitters doing 2 jobs per day each is potentially 400 face-to-face opportunities monthly with people who already need some kind of help, so could be relatively easy to upsell to. Perhaps invest in some decent sales training for the fitters & give them commission/bonus for new customers.
I’m guessing travelling to the job is wasted time and if you could hit up several houses in the same area at the same time it would be very profitable. If you get a confirmed booking in an area ask the customer to maybe post a few flyers to neighbours offer a discount t to customer for each flyer used and to the recipient . If they get enough they could have a free series . Just a thought
matjk said:
I’m guessing travelling to the job is wasted time and if you could hit up several houses in the same area at the same time it would be very profitable. If you get a confirmed booking in an area ask the customer to maybe post a few flyers to neighbours offer a discount t to customer for each flyer used and to the recipient . If they get enough they could have a free series . Just a thought
I do admire your optimism on the commercial benevolence of customers but if an engineer asked me to post fliers on his behalf prior to his arrival I would respectfully ask him to do one and I suspect I am not alone!Maybe get on the "boiler service" comparison sites, be the cheapest in your target area, then each service you do can be a potential upsell to a plan. That way the only marketing cost is the lost margin on each service, but you're actually in front of the customer who can see how good you are. I'd use FB local groups rather than anything else, people buy through recommendation far more these days from what I see.
What's the incentive to pay up-front for a service plan from a relatively small company?
I've had such a plan in the past from British Gas (the first house I owned), and the only thing that swayed me to stump up each year was the fact that BG were a big company, quite likely to honour their obligations under the plan, and highly unlikely to shut up shop.
I wouldn't consider such a plan from a small business, unless it was underwritten by someone a lot bigger, or very cheap.
I've had such a plan in the past from British Gas (the first house I owned), and the only thing that swayed me to stump up each year was the fact that BG were a big company, quite likely to honour their obligations under the plan, and highly unlikely to shut up shop.
I wouldn't consider such a plan from a small business, unless it was underwritten by someone a lot bigger, or very cheap.
StevieBee said:
If you go down the telesales route, you need to generate visibility first. People are more likely to be interested if they've heard of you before someone calls. This means advertising. Depending on your budget, you should be looking at outdoor advertising in the areas you are targeting and social media. This should be run over long a period as you can afford. Don't do this yourself, hire in a decent ad agency.
On telesales, to get 6,000 customers you need a list of at least 60,000 contacts. Probably more. Check if you are buying the list or hiring it.
I would initially out-source the telesales. If it works, you can always bring someone in later but you may find that it's not the best way to hoover up business so you'd be lumbered with an employee if so.
In my experience, the best telesales companies charge a flat fee and then a modest commission on top. I'd budget around a £1k - $1.5k a month on the basic. Be wary of those that charge only on results (though there may be some good ones that operate on this basis but I've yet to find any).
We've had some good level of engagements for clients using shopping centre 'Engagement Pods' - fancy little stands in the walkways of shopping malls, manned with a few people chatting to shoppers. Search for a company called 'Space and People'.
Make sure your brand identity is all up to scratch - decent logo, working website....basic stuff but often overlooked.
HTH - Good Luck.
Thanks for the reply, right now we are getting the branding & website etc spot on. Plenty of social media ads to come shortly to get the name out there.On telesales, to get 6,000 customers you need a list of at least 60,000 contacts. Probably more. Check if you are buying the list or hiring it.
I would initially out-source the telesales. If it works, you can always bring someone in later but you may find that it's not the best way to hoover up business so you'd be lumbered with an employee if so.
In my experience, the best telesales companies charge a flat fee and then a modest commission on top. I'd budget around a £1k - $1.5k a month on the basic. Be wary of those that charge only on results (though there may be some good ones that operate on this basis but I've yet to find any).
We've had some good level of engagements for clients using shopping centre 'Engagement Pods' - fancy little stands in the walkways of shopping malls, manned with a few people chatting to shoppers. Search for a company called 'Space and People'.
Make sure your brand identity is all up to scratch - decent logo, working website....basic stuff but often overlooked.
HTH - Good Luck.
Telesales is looking like the better option at the moment and I’m speaking with a few companies now to see what they can do for me.
I’ve also thought about the shopping centre idea also, but my experience is they often get blanked as people tend to see them as a nuisance ?
sideways sid said:
Start with what you already have!
If 1000 existing customers can be incentivised (£50 off renewal for each signed-up customer, or similar) let them sell for you. A couple each over the year gets you half way to your target.
Similarly, 10 fitters doing 2 jobs per day each is potentially 400 face-to-face opportunities monthly with people who already need some kind of help, so could be relatively easy to upsell to. Perhaps invest in some decent sales training for the fitters & give them commission/bonus for new customers.
Sid, as I said In my op it’s a numbers game and one which I’ll need to grow to fairly rapidly to be viable, so hopefully with a little blood sweat and tears we can get to our magic number in under 6 months! If 1000 existing customers can be incentivised (£50 off renewal for each signed-up customer, or similar) let them sell for you. A couple each over the year gets you half way to your target.
Similarly, 10 fitters doing 2 jobs per day each is potentially 400 face-to-face opportunities monthly with people who already need some kind of help, so could be relatively easy to upsell to. Perhaps invest in some decent sales training for the fitters & give them commission/bonus for new customers.
clockworks said:
What's the incentive to pay up-front for a service plan from a relatively small company?
I've had such a plan in the past from British Gas (the first house I owned), and the only thing that swayed me to stump up each year was the fact that BG were a big company, quite likely to honour their obligations under the plan, and highly unlikely to shut up shop.
I wouldn't consider such a plan from a small business, unless it was underwritten by someone a lot bigger, or very cheap.
Upfront ? It’s a monthly plan via DDI've had such a plan in the past from British Gas (the first house I owned), and the only thing that swayed me to stump up each year was the fact that BG were a big company, quite likely to honour their obligations under the plan, and highly unlikely to shut up shop.
I wouldn't consider such a plan from a small business, unless it was underwritten by someone a lot bigger, or very cheap.
The larger company’s have completely lost touch (manager for 4 years at BG) they don’t have any sort of personal level of care for their customers, and believe me the larger operators are the ones who will find any way to wiggle out of their obligations
This isn’t going to be something on a national scale more so west central Scotland, so we’re going for the small enough to care big enough to cope angle.
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