Lead Conversion

[bentleys]

I'm a one man operation working full time in the Midlands. Achieving reasonable sales from August to October. November conversions to date have been very poor - though no shortage of leads. Quality of the leads has been a problem (the 3 for £99 offer has brought out the bottom end of the market - those who will literally only pay £99 or less). FSM advice has been sought but none forthcoming. Is anyone else having a tough time making a living and covering the increasing costs of petrol and operating costs (screws, drill bits etc.) Keen to hear from other one man operations - how they manage to generate good revenue. Presently I fit on two days a week and sell on 3 and a half days a week but I'm not able to generate sufficient revenue to justify the number of hours which go in to this. Keen to make a go of this but can't seem to get any solutions to the difficulties.
Does anyone else have worries about the lead effect stats on the monthly reports and how these are perceived by head office?

[Augustus]

Hi Bentleys,

Firstly - welcome to the forum - I'm glad you have taken the time to join us.

I too work alone and the nature of the postcodes that I cover make it a high mileage week.

One thing I might do is try to spread sales and fits onto each day. This way you open yourself up to more sales calls when the customer wants it ( this makes it easier to close as the lead is still warm ) .

If you prefer to keep sales and fits separate, why not book all your fits into the am of each day ? ( where possible ) . I'm sure I read somewhere that more and more customers are asking for later in the day.

How about competition in your area ? Are you up against many other companies ? Your fsm needs to be aware of it if you feel that it's effecting your business.

If you do have leads asking for 3/99 and there is no option but to sell to them then make sure the fits are on your terms ( blame xmas etc ) .

None too sure what else to advise as Nov has been a mixed bag for me too.

P.

[desmorse]

Bentleys,
we're nearly all 1 man bands, so you have to think and plan around what is good for you, not your FSM. I'm full time and cover quite a large area so my postcode set up is very specific.
On 3 days per week I cover local postcodes only. On 2,1/2 days I cover remote postcodes, but can do some of the better local codes on the way out or back. So, if I'm working EPM/LPM/EVE I have remote and local postcodes in EPM and EVE, but only remote codes LPM.
Even on the days I'm working locally, 1 area is limited to 2 consecutive time groups because it's an island with just 1 road bridge. By limiting it to say, LPM & EVE it can be my last LPM & first EVE call. Selling and fitting are done at any time I'm in that area.
It's worked well for me for the last 3 years, enabling me to just top £300k of sales last year

SO GOOD LUCK and remember, IT'S YOUR BUSINESS not your FSMs

[filo]

Hi just one word on this, I been here 15 years and never had a problem booking fit , morning or afternoon , have never done late evening fits , so why is it so hard for the call centre to fill the diary on the AM , EPM ,LPM slots , I lost count on the customers who say the only slot offered was 6-9pm , so how many customers didn’t make an appointment because the call centre didn’t look for other times or days with the customer , if their were to try and book from the am slots first and leave the evening for the customer that can only do evening , then we might not get 2-3 hour gaps between calls.

[Bear]

No Nails Have to agree with you there

My last statement was 4 weeks ago and I am owed now over £650.00 over and above the £400 due for last weeks balances sent in..

There is a smell in the wind, and I DO NOT LIKE IT...

How would you like £64.88 in your Bank today and expect 10 times that--at least??

No one answers the phone, and even if you try and sneak in via another line they block you off!!!!!!!!!

I think we shoul;d get Motters to open a new Heading and put all Commssion stuff in there
This may be the one think that sinks Hillarys

I bet salaries are paid on time?

Bear

[Bear]

MOTTERS---

Suggest you open a special area for "Commissions" as from recent postings all over the place there seems to be a genuine concern at the missing Commission Statements, wrong payments, short payments, and
" No one available to clear it down " excuses now seem to be the order of the day for many of us.

I sincerely hope we do not have a firm that is going titsup on cash flow, because in the experience of at least 2 of us we have seen similar behaviour in other firms we worked for , who worked the angles on cheap product and big deposits before going to the wall dropping us in the fertiliser. ( In my case for £4,500 in the late 1980's -in a kitchen fitting firm)

I AM GENUINELY WORRIED--
WHATS SO DIFFICULT ABOUT RUNNING OFF A COMMISSION STATEMENT AND BANKING THE RIGHT CASH.
IF SOMEONE ( WHY ONE?) IS OFF ILL , IS THAT A VALID REASON TO COCKUP NEEDED PAYMENTS TO SALES/FITTERS??

MELISSA--YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS BATON AND RUN WITH IT TODAY BEFORE WE HAVE A WILDFIRE SITUATION

BEAR

[Augustus]

Will be adding that later tonight - I too have a number of problems

But don't panic - My fsm told me there are no problems, all is well, I'm the only one having trouble , it's a glitche in the system, they have been away, the french done it etc etc etc etc....


P.

[Augustus]

Ok, commissions section created.

P.