Want to get your 2010 off to a great start? A little preparation now will go a long way come January 2.
It’s December, and homeowners across the continent are looking forward to a joyous holiday season. As they do, you need to set your sights out just a little further: the upcoming home show season.
What should you be doing? Get prepared to follow up on your home show leads. How? One step is to plan how you best stay connected to those homeowners who inevitably tell you during your follow up, “I’m just not ready to meet with you yet.”
To understand, let’s look at the lifecycle of a home show lead.
You spend days at each home show asking homeowners about their home improvement projects and pitching your company. Afterwards, you follow up on the leads you generate (I hope) in a rigorous, structured way.
- You call back interested homeowners a timely manner
- You work hard to connect with as many of those homeowners as possible
- During those calls, you set quality appointments with as many homeowners as you can
But even with the most diligent of efforts, you still won’t reach everyone on your list. Moreover, of those you do reach, you won’t set appointments with all. “I’m just not ready” you hear all too often.
But that doesn’t mean you should toss those contacts in the trash can. There’s gold in those names—if you handle them right.
These are homeowners who have already experienced your brand, people and products. They liked you enough to give you their names and contact info at the home show. But they simply may not be ready to pull the trigger and commit to continuing the sales process.
We find this a lot in our work on behalf of home improvement companies. They sometimes hire us to engage our call center to follow up on dealer home show leads. Inevitably, we uncover a number of homeowners who liked what they saw at the show and remain interested. However, they’re just not ready to move ahead.
That brings us to e-mail. It’s the simplest, cheapest and best way to stay in front of these prospects.
But what should you say in your e-mail? Forward your free newsletter containing home maintenance tips. Perhaps offer a money saving coupon encouraging them to agree to a free estimate. Send your prospective buyers whatever it takes to ensure that you and your company are top-of-mind when they are finally ready to make their decisions.
So as you prepare this month to ring in 2010, spend time thinking through how you will use e-mail to stay in front of your home show prospects.
Said another way, look at exhibiting at home shows as planting seeds for future sales. Given that some seeds take longer to germinate than others, you need to stay visible with home show prospects who don’t buy from you immediately.
Make sure that your company is front and center when it’s time for the harvest.
