Clearview National February 2020 - Issue 219 | Page 76
BUSINESSNEWS
Taking your
business to
the next level
Benjamin Dyer, CEO of Powered Now,
looks at how to grow your business
from a one-man band to having
employees. Then to grow on further
from a small to a larger company.
» THERE’S A LOT TO BE SAID FOR A
lifestyle business. You can deal with the same
pleasant customers that you have always had.
Your overheads and risks are low. You can
make time to pick up the kids or grandkids if
you want to. But lifestyle businesses aren’t for
everyone.
This article is written for people who don’t
want to be sole traders or even run small
installer businesses all of their lives. Instead
they want to grow their companies and see
themselves really prosper.
The first thing to ask yourself is whether you
will make it if you try to expand. In reality,
it’s hard. Certain skills are pre-requisites. One
of these is a skill at estimating and pricing.
A critical capability is to be good at knowing
how much effort jobs will take. Another is
building rapport with customers. If you’re no
good at either of these, it will be very hard to
succeed.
MARKETING
It’s easy to think that the first priority when
it comes to growing your business, assuming
that your company does good quality work,
is to find new customers. Recommendation
is still the prime way that new business is
76 » F EB 2020 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
won, at least in the residential market. But
30% of business comes from other routes.
It’s exploring these that will really make a
difference.
A lot of this 30% now comes from the
internet, but it’s complicated. Some will arrive
from having your own web site, although most
likely not a huge amount. As you probably
know, most people report Yellow Pages as a
complete dud. Instead, Facebook, Google,
Rated People, My Builder, Checkatrade and
more are all trying to corner the market for
people searching for installers and other
trades.
There is no magic wand for marketing and
trying out some of these different channels
to see what works for you may be your best
approach.
SALES
Marketing is hard. However, when selling
to the leads that have come your way there are
a lot of obvious and easy things to do. These
should be a higher priority than marketing
as they generally cost little or nothing. So,
converting a higher proportion of leads into
orders will grow your business at a lower cost
and risk.
The first rule is to remember that people buy
from people they trust. So, the first time you
meet a new prospect, you should do everything
possible to build up that trust. Here are some
points to consider:
• Be totally professional.
• Offer to take off your shoes when you
arrive at the house, it shows that you
care.
• Have a smart, clean van and make sure
you look smart too.
• Try to reference your experience,
qualifications and so on when you are
talking to the customer, but without being
too pushy.
• Try to establish in the customer’s mind
the likely ballpark cost – people tend to
react badly if your quote is in a different
league to what they were expecting.
• Make sure you produce your quote really
quickly – either the same day or the next
day. This alone will grow your business.
• Always honour what you promised. Turn
up when you said and produce the quote
when you said you would.
The effort you put into creating a
good template for quotations will pay off
handsomely over time. Once it’s set up, it’s