Lead generation Ebay Warning!!

[mike007]

Agree with Spruce, have seen a quite few new Windies over last couple of Months around my area that i have not seen before, mostly wfp but at least 3 two man Trad guys as well as a couple of solo trads. Course some may well be old campaigners in the trade that I just have not noticed before, but seeing new faces, vehicles etc. Be interesting to see how many survive through the winter because if they are newbies they will not have anything like a full round in a couple of Months methinks and with the end of furlough the amount of household tightening their purse strings will increase.

 

[mike007]

When I started it was a mixture of door knocking, networking and above all asking existing customers for referrals. We were fortunate in that we did purchase a neglected trad round which was compact and about 4 days wfp work. We heard about a window cleaner who had given up and moved. We knew the areas he used to service but not his individual customers. We canvassed the whole area and picked up loads of his abandoned work.

I found that the most effective way was asking existing customers for referrals. Over the years one of my customers and his wife got us around 30 new customers which snowballed from there. Now most of our loyal customers have come from that one customer.

I always said that you needed to eat and sleep window cleaning, taking every opportunity to ask everyone we spoke to if they wanted or knew of anyone who wanted a window cleaner. When you are building a round you have no time to talk football, F1 or anything else.

Times have changed. New window cleaners think that a sign written van, sending out mailing shots and social media are the way to go. In some areas that must still work. Door knocking is so old school, but in the old days, it was the way it was done. Very few these days want to put in the leg work and ask a potential customer face to face if they need a window cleaner.

If I saw a home owner cleaning their windows I would have no problem stopping the van and asking if they would consider a quote for me doing the job for them. My son used to get so embarrassed but I got a few jobs doing that. I also got a few 'no thank yous.'

I found it took a lot of effort and hard graft to grow our round. 16 years ago it was easier than it is nowadays. I would hate to start from scratch now.

Agree with Spruce, have seen a quite few new Windies over last couple of Months around my area that i have not seen before, mostly wfp but at least 3 two man Trad guys as well as a couple of solo trads. Course some may well be old campaigners in the trade that I just have not noticed before, but seeing new faces, vehicles etc. Be interesting to see how many survive through the winter because if they are newbies they will not have anything like a full round in a couple of Months methinks and with the end of furlough the amount of household tightening their purse strings will increase.