I think most of us are busy or crazy busy for 3 seasons of the year. Winter is tricky to be busy in for me and probably many others too, especially smaller outfits like mine of 3 people. I think the larger outfits with full time salesman tend to keep busy because, yes, they have a guy chasing work full time, including lining up winter work in the summer.
I think all I need to do to keep busy in winter is send some emails targeted to likely customers. I think "likely" customers are those that Ive worked for anytime in the last 3 years. A surprising number of times I've done work for people that gave every indication of being thrilled with our work, but I drive by 1 to 3 years later and someone else is doing tree work there. I believe that despite the high satisfaction they showed with our service, they either forgot about us or they needed subsequent work and were presented with a different provider and they went with them just keeping it simple.
So I believe I need to stay on my customer's radar much better than I do now. Seems the way to do that is through email. Maybe Constant Contact-style.
And I also think my web presence needs a little tweaking to be optimal.
My question to y'all is what do you think of my ideas, and have you done anything similar to address the issue of drumming up work when needed, and has anyone had any experience consulting a local marketing/computer guy who could get it all done himself (if there is such a creature)?
Thanks for any insight you can give.
I think all I need to do to keep busy in winter is send some emails targeted to likely customers. I think "likely" customers are those that Ive worked for anytime in the last 3 years. A surprising number of times I've done work for people that gave every indication of being thrilled with our work, but I drive by 1 to 3 years later and someone else is doing tree work there. I believe that despite the high satisfaction they showed with our service, they either forgot about us or they needed subsequent work and were presented with a different provider and they went with them just keeping it simple.
So I believe I need to stay on my customer's radar much better than I do now. Seems the way to do that is through email. Maybe Constant Contact-style.
And I also think my web presence needs a little tweaking to be optimal.
My question to y'all is what do you think of my ideas, and have you done anything similar to address the issue of drumming up work when needed, and has anyone had any experience consulting a local marketing/computer guy who could get it all done himself (if there is such a creature)?
Thanks for any insight you can give.