In my previous post, I outlined the differences between dealers who are hunters and dealers who are ranchers. Most dealers are hunters, meaning they are transaction-oriented. They spend their time, energy and money hunting down the next customer, bagging it, skinning it. Then they’re off hunting for the next one.
Three big problems with customer hunting:
First, hunting is very, very hard work. Hunters wander the countryside searching for game. Sometimes you get the game, and other times you go home with nothing. Dealers try to get good at hunting, but in reality, customers are price shopping and beating you up about how some box store is offering free installation.
Second, hunting is unpredictable. One day there’s game everywhere, and you’ve got all the customers you need. The next day they disappear like a burp in the breeze. Your showroom is empty, your phone is growing cobwebs, and you’re wondering where all the game went.
Third, hunting keeps you stuck on the hamster wheel of doom. You work more and more hours hunting down customers, only to make the same or less. If you do manage to grow, hunting takes so much time and energy. You’ll most likely wind up working far harder than necessary.
Ranching changes all of that!
A rancher’s job is to round up a relatively small herd of the right customers and live in style. Ranching is easy and predictable compared to hunting. When your herd of customers is rounded up and fenced in, you don’t have to wonder where your next one is coming from. Ranching lets you escape the hamster wheel of doom so that you work fewer hours, and your income goes up and up. To help dealers transition from hunter to rancher I teach them the ultimate floor marketing system.
The Marketing System
It’s a simple, three-step approach which enables them to round up a highly profitable herd of customers and sell to them for life.
The first step is ‘Before.’ This is what you do to round up lots of new customers before they’ve done business with you.
‘During’ is the second step. It’s what you do during the sales process to wow the customer, create differentiation, position yourself as a trusted advisor, and close more sales. A strong During step gets you out of the “proposal business” of spending all your days and nights preparing and delivering proposals to customers who don’t buy from you. Instead, you put yourself in front of high-quality prospects and get them to say yes.
‘After’ is the third step. This is what you do after the sale to dramatically increase repeat and referral business. It lands their next projects for you in a virtually competition-free zone, and it produces ongoing referrals to their friends and family. That is the result of using a strategic outreach and messaging process which keeps you in front of your past customers week in and week out.
The After step supercharges your results. You stay connected with your past customers in a very personal way. You build real relationships so you can generate a consistent stream of sales. Also, it’s virtually guaranteed that none of your competitors have a regular past-customer marketing system. That means having a strong After system gives you a big advantage. Many dealers that I’ve worked with have totally transformed their business using just this one step.
The Before, During and After system is like having a 12-foot razor-wire fence keeping your herd of customers in, and poachers out. It makes your business a lot easier, fun and profitable.
In the next installment, we’ll do a deep dive into what goes into the Before step, so that you can more effectively round up a herd of high-quality customers.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!
A gift for you! For a FREE copy of Jim’s latest book, “How Floor Dealers Can Beat the Boxes ONLINE,” visit BeatTheBoxesOnline.com.