Sending A Bid In The Mail?

I love marketing and ingest as much information on the subject as possible but I also have a background in sales.   Sometimes things that small business owners do baffle me when it come to their sales techniques.

My wife wanted to get some bids to have some landscaping done in our backyard. The first guy that came out had some very good ideas and she was anxious to get the bid from him.

So yesterday we receive his bid in the mail. My wife opened it looked right for the bid amount and said “holy crap, we can’t afford that” and put it away.

I’m sorry but I would never send a bid for $6500 in the mail. That’s just too much money to let someone look at without any discussion in my book. Personally I would have called up the customer and let them know I had their bid ready for them and asked for an appointment.  That way I would be able to handle any objections and let the customer know why this is going to be a good investment.  Also I would have to assume the customer was getting bids from my competitors and would want to highlight why they should choose to do business with me.

The other thing that baffled me about this landscaper is he never asked my wife what her budget was.  I mean come on that’s basic stuff.   That would be one of the very first things I would want to find out.  If a customer wants some big elaborate landscaping job but only has $500 to spend, you need to set their expectations right from the very beginning.  Instead this guy who came to my house spent all that time working up that bid with a drawing and everything and it probably won’t happen.  What a waist of time.

People, qualify your customers before you spend time giving them free estimates or anything else.  Make sure they can afford your products or services.  Make sure that your products or services fit their needs.  Everybody wins in the long run.

An Opportunity Lost

Friday I had an experience that I would like to blog about. And since I told the marketing dept that I would probably blog and did not receive a response back from the company I’d better hold true that.

Here is the email I sent to the marketing department of a local banking institution.

This afternoon I went to one of your branches on Center Drive in Medford and used the ATM machine as it is right next to where I work. The machine would only distribute $20 bills and I needed some $5’s. I paid the ATM’s $2 service charge since I am not a member and walked inside to get change. I was told that they could not give me change unless I was a member.

Now I was not asking to cash a check or anything. I just had $20 in cash and needed some $5’s. I thought that this was terrible marketing. In fact I had been wanting to open an account at your credit union since it is so close to my work but have just not had the time. Now I am sure that I don’t want to use your company.

I did think “maybe all banks have this policy”. So I drove a few miles to my bank, walked in, asked for some $5’s and got it. No questions, just smiles. And I never go into my bank so the people did not have any idea that I banked with them.

Being from a marketing and sales background I know that this could have went much differently. Think about if this had happened. I walk in and say to the teller “can I get some $5’s please?” She says “you know we normally reserve that only for our members. Would you like to open an account? It only takes a few minutes?” (Here she has attempted to gain me as a customer at least) “I don’t have time right now” Teller says, “That’s alright, I’ll go ahead and make the change for you since you are a potential member and I’ll give you some information on our credit union” I say’ “That would be great”. Teller says, “If you are interested fill out the paperwork at home and then when you bring it in it will only take a few minutes to set up the account”

I walk away happy and will probably become a member.

Instead I am using my lunch break to write this and will go back to work and tell everyone what happened and this weekend will probably blog about the experience.

I will not mention the name of the bank as I will give them a little more time to respond. However, I would like to mention Sterling Savings Bank is my current primary bank and they were the ones that gave me the change without any questions. However, they did not find out if I was a current customer either. I think they should have used that opportunity as well.

How does this experience relate to you and your small business? Remember that every customer wants to feel special. This bank could have made me feel special by ‘bending the rules’ per say in order to gain my business.   And it probably would have worked.  How do you make your customers feel special.

In your marketing plan you should uitlize the sales acronym ABC…Aways Be Selling. Every interaction with potential customers is an opportunity to move them one step closer to making them a paying customer.