Issues 11: Get smart... or else!

GET SMART... OR ELSE!

Nobody's walking around with sandwich boards, saying: Beware - The End is Nigh but word on the streets is that the good times are over. The market for replacement windows is close to saturation level, so it's getting increasingly difficult to generate orders. Generating orders isn't the same as waiting for them to come in, of course! If you make trade frames and you're waiting for orders to come in, what you need is The Mirror and a pen to do the crossword. If you're looking to get out there and pull some business in, then you'll need something else. How about the names and addresses of installers? Everyone has a go at it - getting admin staff to go through Yellow Pages and so on - but somehow it doesn't quite work out like you imagined. Postcodes missing here and there, and never enough time to check the list is still up-to-date. Not the way to do it, if you're serious. The fact is the work is still there (because the Big Boys are doing it by the ton) but it's being taken, little by little, from under your nose. How are the Big Boys doing it? Answer: they're better organised. They're set up to develop their market and improve productivity. It's a bit like escalators. There's one going up and another going down. If you're standing still, the odds are your escalator's going down, with you on it. Meanwhile the opposition's on its way up, learning as it goes, smartening its operations, improving its service and cutting its costs. If there's only so much work out there, someone's going to do it. Large fabricators are investing heavily in new machinery and processes to lower their costs significantly. Nothing gets the attention of the Sales Department like being told there's a few million quid's worth of investment to be paid for. It concentrates the mind. So they get their act together, get hold of good quality data and start mailshotting, making phone calls and appointments. They're mean and hungry, so they get the business . . . what used to be your business, in fact. Turnround times are dropping as quickly as prices, with fabricators and distributors offering improved service to small installers and builders - traditionally your customers, in all probability. You can watch it happen in dismay or you can do what they do. And what they do is make maximum use of customer data. Not just today's customers but tomorrow's. To them, tomorrow's customers are as important as today's. What you can't afford to do, if you're going to continue trading, is nothing.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

We've all heard about small fabricators being persuaded to give up making and start buying in from large trade firms. It hasn't happened as fast as people thought because it's an emotional issue - not just logic based on improving profitability - but it is happening. It might not affect small and medium trade suppliers directly but it does strengthen the bigger companies, allowing them better profitability and everything that results from it. Now you can do as they do, without investing huge sums in data. How about a limited edition database, containing the names, full postal addresses, contacts and phone numbers of 2,850 small installers who don't fabricate? What if it was cheap enough for you to be able to ignore the areas you're not interested in? The only catch is that you MUST order before the end of November.

HOW GOOD ARE YOU?

Everyone likes to think they're good at their job. If the company's not doing as well as it might, there's always a reason and it's always down to someone else, isn't it? Royal Mail produce an excellent folder of booklets, called The Complete Guide to Advertising your Business by Post. It contains just about everything anyone might need on the subject. The secret of being good is knowing your limitations and wanting to learn more . . . wanting to be better. If someone offered, absolutely free of charge, a complete guide to something you do for a living, it has to be worth a look. Everything to gain, nothing to lose. Have you got this guide? Have you read it? Ask around the sales and marketing departments of some of the Big Operators and, surprise, surprise, they've got it. And they use it. Why not? It's good and it's free. Follow some simple rules and your business could be picking up very quickly. All you need are motivation, strategy, something to offer and tactics. Motivation comes from the need to do better. It takes different forms, one of which might be next month's mortgage instalment. Strategy, if you haven't thought about it, comes, by the boatload, in the Royal Mail Guide. For information, or to receive your own copy, just call your local Royal Mail Sales Centre on 0345 950 950. No amount of mailshots or telesales is going to make much difference if you don't have something to offer. Only you can know how you might win new customers, though it could involve sharpening up your act for a while. Don't forget you should also be working hard to keep your existing customers because they are receiving new, attractive offers all the time. Tactics, when they're good, look like nothing more than common sense. Good tactics usually take common sense to new levels - in other words, by taking a hard look at what you do, and figuring out how to do it just that little bit better - or more thoroughly. The Smart Operators are throwing hundreds of thousands of pounds at their tactics but you could start turning your company onto a new, and better, road to the future for not much more than a grand or so. All you need to do is see where the money's going and look at investing it shrewdly.

TIME IS ON MY SIDE

When Mick Jagger first sang those words, he didn't have any wrinkles. Different times, in other words. Time isn't on anyone's side any more because it goes so quickly. Everything's changing. Not too long ago, you could offer trade windows for delivery in two weeks' time. Today, that would be a joke. The story went something like: when you want quality and reliability, you can't rush things. Everyone still wants - AND GETS - quality and reliability. It's not long since a company offering a seven day turnround was news. Now it's the maximum, at the sharp end of the market. The company that offered windows in a week is now one of the biggest in the business. The need for quick response times wasn't taken seriously by the industry. Customers were thought to be happy with existing lead times. Loads of them voted with their feet. It stands to reason that turning orders round in 24 hours is over the top. Who really needs windows the next day? In other words, there's no such things as Fast Track projects, or Just-in-Time stock control. Oh really? Wanna bet? Ask yourself one question: if big companies can offer competitively-priced, top-quality windows quickly, who calls the shots - them or you? Remember also that, only a few years ago, what are now big companies were starting out as small companies, same as any other. They were just that little bit smarter and now they call the shots. Keep up with them or go under because what they're doing can hurt you. They get to up the ante in sales and marketing, too. They are marketing very effectively indeed. They wouldn't dream of handing the car keys to reps and telling them to go out there and get business. They use data - they can't afford not to. If you think you know what's meant by using data, then you obviously know the Royal Mail's booklets New Business and Getting It Right off by heart. If you think you know what's meant by using data, then you already have a constantly-updated and refreshed database that's been analysed a dozen times from different perspectives. And you know why some of your customers keep coming back because what they want is something specific. In other words, you've already figured out that your company could be concentrating on selling 80% of its wares to 20% of its customers because the rest a) isn't all that popular and b) isn't that profitable. So why are you reading this?

KNOW THYSELF

The Smart Operators know what they can offer but, more importantly, what their customers want. They don't continue flogging dead horses because nobody wants to buy dead horses. Instead they respond to customers' needs. They shift their focus to service instead of price. And then they use their comprehensive databases to identify and locate the most likely prospects. They do it quickly and they do it cost-effectively. They don't let reps drive round the country, covering the same old ground to no purpose, because they can't afford to. Instead their reps are working face-to-face with prospects to close or cement business. They don't waste their petrol, time or money visiting all the usual firms that everyone else visits. Every visit yields results of some kind, as long as they're fed into the database. They build up information like it's pure gold. To them, it is. What's more, to them it was very expensive indeed . . . but, used properly, it was worth every penny. IF YOU WANT THE SAME PURE GOLD, you can have it, AT A FRACTION OF THE PRICE. Windowbase is offering, this autumn, the one-off chance to invest in a copy of the window industry's finest database for only £490. You'll get the same names as they have, complete with all the addresses and phone/fax numbers, even with contact names and it comes to you on a 3.5" disk, ready for use the same day. If you want to mailshot everyone installing windows in only one or two very specific postcode areas, you can do it in an hour. Two or three days later, you can be making your follow-up calls, you can be making appointments, making sales . . . and making more windows. That's how easy it is to get instant results from Windowbase data. Start feeding your own information into that database and you're on the road to success. To find out more, all you have to do is read the Royal Mail's New Business booklet.

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS

When you don't know where to start, the booklet suggests the obvious: what you know already. As it says, most of what you need to know might already be at your fingertips. Pull together facts and figures on your existing customers. Check on customers you've lost, and why. By building up profiles of your existing customers, you'll be surprised at what you learn. And at the patterns that emerge. The booklet asks some good questions: is there a profile of a type of customer that responds to a price cut but not to a free gift? does a particular offer work well at one time of year but not at another? are your individual products and services selling to the types of people you thought they would? is your ideal customer profile actually turning out to be correct? Are there other factors you hadn't noticed or thought about before? To make serious inroads into any market, it's essential to take the guesswork out of mailshots. With your database up and running, you have real control over your direct marketing activity. Before long, you'll know exactly what response you're getting to each type of mailshot. You'll be able to forecast sales more accurately. So you can manage your production and stock control more effectively. You start to become more selective, focusing different campaigns on different segments of your customer (and potential customer) base, tailoring your offers to THEIR needs, not yours.

SUCK IT AND SEE

They might not shout about it but most systems suppliers and big fabricators use Windowbase data. Now you can do the same, for only £495. For more info, just ring Mike Davis on 01706 644308 - but you must do it BEFORE THE END OF NOVEMBER!