Zig Ziglar made famous the expression” Stinkin’ Thinkin”. This is defined by many groups as a misplaced set of ideas. This can be especially true when selling power washers and pressure washers. When economic times are hard, sales people become guilty of “stinkin’ thinkin’. I can’t afford to advertise; I sell the machine they ask for; my market is shrinking. This may be because many distributors of power washers view a machine sale as a single point in their business model. It looks to them like filling a jar with pennies… each sale puts a few pennies into their jar. So when times are tougher, fewer pennies go into the jar.
Think Rube Goldberg: make the pennies from each sale role into your maze of other revenue pools. View the sale of a power washer as a part of the revenue flow.
CETA did a survey of distributors that revealed about one third of their sales were from parts and service, one third of their sales were from machine sales. Bundle the sale with offers from your other sides of your business. For example, give your power washer customer a service special and a parts special with the order of the pressure washer. Take the customer information, put it into your contact manager, like Outlook or ACT!, and set a reminder to call or e-mail this customer within a week or two to see how things are going. Set a second reminder to send a service reminder of the special you offered. Every pressure washer sale can produce a “customer” for your service and parts business. You have captured this prospect with “free” advertising.
Each sale contributes to the revenue flow of your business. The “cheapest” customer to sell is the one you already have.
How have you used Revenue Flow to grow your business?