Advertising

Don't kid yourself Steamer,it's not so much the name "Sears" so much as customers  hearing that steamer does a good job

 

where I live the Sears name was mud,therefore they're CC's are no more.

as far as advertising it's tough for me to say with me living in such a different area

100,000 flyers and I'd be sending them to outlying cities as well

 

population is only 80,000 here

As an o/o I can easily cover my advertising cuz in the last year and a half I've only spent $85 a month on a yellow page ad.The rest has been WOM and referral

 

but I do alot of commercial work as well which was a matter of pounding the pavement

 

You should have no troubles charging what Sears does or more,usually it's more in your head than the customers.......I know it took me a while to get over that hurdle

 

but again it boils down to what your geographical market will bear

They more than make it back...everytime... but it's name "Sears" they get calls left right and center once a mailing goes out with a coupon..

There are people giving away services at half the price and still will never get the calls that Sears or ServiceMaster get...

It's the name they trust... I have a great plan but they still might not call me.... no matter how attractive my ad looks or what bonus specials I run.

I can use my database... but I don't want to target there customers, right away they'll be looking for a way cheaper price...

Do you know how many times a day those a-hole customers approach me to do a whole house for 20 or 30 bucks and cancel the sears call.. They all figure we get paid 7 bucks an hour...lol

 

Steamin... it's not for them it's for me, going to make a go of it this season. 

I don't know why because I get all the Sears jobs in my area, both of my trucks work everyday....There are no other subs in my area to compete with.. I make great money and nothing is more than 30 mins from my home...

now I'm looking at advertising to only 1/5th of the homes in my area for myself.  The advertising cost are high, this was the reason I started subbing in the first place... had to put in another phone line, might even have to get someone to answer the phone...

is it worth it?????

Let me ask you O/O's do you pull enough every month to cover your advertising????and eat and sleep in peace

My own area... where no where will take me longer than 15 min to get to..

Thats why I started with 100,000 homes all with a 15min radius....

Now I remember why I sub... 100, 000 homes is nothing...I need 500,00 homes to compete... I'll have to do at least the whole year so I might get brand recognition.....

it takes dollars

but what do you think about the price doug???

Thanks for the input SGK... I have a meeting with the lady tomorrow... I'll try but 1.7 cents was pretty low... they do all the artwork the printing and the suffing and the mailing... I just sign the checks