My Business Increased 328% After 7 Months Working With A BBI Consultant

“I’ve been employing Dmitri’s services for 6 months now. As a result of his input, the new account uptake went from 70-90 to 210-230 per month. We’ve budgeted for $300K in turnover for this year, we are nearing $1M in sales.

I have to expand the infrastructure to service increased workload we now have 6 vans on the roads and looking to add 2 more”.

Paul Griffith, Owner, Electrical Company, Auckland

GENERATE A 328% INCREASE IN BUSINESS

Every year tens of thousands of would be entrepreneurs go into business chasing one of the Australian dreams…. Succeeding in their own business.

ADVERTISING TO ‘GET YOUR NAME OUT THERE’ IS A POOR STRATEGY

All too often business owners are told by advertising sales people, that your best strategy is to ‘get your name out there.’  According to Paul “advertising the way I knew it, is guaranteed to help small business owners lose money, because we thought that to get customers in the door, we just had to get our name out there…. We were wrong!” says Paul.  Having just moved business from Wellington to Auckland (a city 4 times the size) Paul thought he was guaranteed success, and this assumption left the business humbled.  Being an electrician by trade, marketing was not his strong point!

After a couple of months struggling Paul made the decision that something needed to change.  They needed to get leads for the business and they needed to get them fast!  The problem was to get help for his business and he was convinced that “Marketing Consultants were a joke and a load of crap.”  To ease his own mind, Paul decided to begin talking to some previous marketing consultants who had approached him in the past.

ONE PHONE CALL PROVES TO BE THE TURNING POINT

After speaking to a few different people, Paul was about to give up his search and then he received a phone call from Dmitri Stern (Better Business Institute) from Outstanding Results company (www.orco.co.nz) one that would prove to be a major turning factor.  Dmitri had called Paul, because he noticed his advertisement in the local paper, and realised that it had all the sings of a bad advertisement.  It had the company name as the headline in really big text; there were no benefits and the phone number was almost un-recognisable.

Paul started speaking with Dmitri and took an immediate liking to him “Dmitri was honest, direct and not too corporate, but most importantly he listened to what I had to say.  Other consultants just told me how good they were, but never listened to what I wanted.”  After listening to Paul about the challenges they were having, the current strategies they were using and his ambitions for their first year turnover, Dmitri went away to formulate the best strategy for the business.

A SIMPLE IDEA INCREASES SALES Y 328%

After analysing the current marketing of the business, Dmitri knew the first step would be to change the current advertising.  Paul was already spending $3,000-$5,000 per week on advertising in all local papers in the greater Auckland area.  The ad was very standard – “Call Stewart and Rogers Electrical” as the headline, with the phone number in small print, and the slogan … “no job too small” – with a black background.

As you would imagine with an advertising budget like this, making a change would have an immediate impact on the business.  The strategy for changing the advertisement was simple “what Dmitri helped us do is increase the number of benefits (reasons to do business with the company), began showing clients testimonials (demonstrates other happy clients) and outlined the companies guarantee” says Paul.

Once these areas were strongly defined, the next step was to have a strong call to action (a reason to call the business now).  As a result of changing the advertisement, the monthly sales went from 70 per month to 230 sales per month, which represents a 328% increase.

THE STRATEGIES FOR CONTINUAL BUSINESS SUCCESS

Now the advertising side to the business was in place the next step was to create a marketing structure, which would provide a consistent increase of leads being generated and sales being made.  “We sat down and thought who has our clients right now?  Instantly we realised that we could do a joint venture with plumbing companies, property valuers and real estate agents” states Dmitri.  A joint venture is where two companies work together for a mutual benefit.  The joint ventures proved to be a valuable source of qualified leads or Stewart and Rogers Electrical!

The next step was to introduce a qualifying questionnaire, which would eliminate potential clients ringing up and saying “what is your hourly rate,” getting the answer….. and then hanging up!  By doing this, the business was losing out on the massive ‘long-term’ value that these clients represented.  After Dmitri made some minor changes to the script, the sales again increased, as people who were hanging up before, were now purchasing.  “Sometimes I have helped my clients increase their business with this on strategy along, as it turns lookers into buyers” says Dmitri.

THE FUTURE IS ELECTRIFYING FOR THESE ELECTRICIANS

Now seven months into the business relationship (between Dmitri and Paul) we continuously see great results being achieved”.  The biggest result is measured in the hard dollars.  Paul’s sales have now increased from a projected $300,000 to just over $1 million in 2003 – 2004 financial year!  In a strategic move, Stewart and Rogers Electrical are now branding their company by publishing advertorials on the success of their clients using their services.  “This has proved a powerful strategy, as clients that call from these advertisements have belief about our business and the service we provide!  The other benefit is building a long-term relationship with the clients we feature” says Paul.  Discovering the keys to marketing has proved a profitable experience for this electrician turn entrepreneur!