| Marketing in this industry means finding ways to get | | | | cost from $250 to $300, remaining within budget may |
| people to respond, creating opportunities to make | | | | require salespeople to self generate a percentage of |
| presentations and ultimately to sell a fair percentage of | | | | their own leads. |
| the respondents. A large successful home | | | | How do you know the plan is working? Each week |
| improvement company is usually a "lead factory". | | | | measure the number of leads which have been |
| Leads, from advertising and those self-developed | | | | generated, those which are confirmed, presented to |
| through canvassing or referrals are the lifeblood of a | | | | and sold, less those which cancel or are credit |
| business. The successful home improvement retailer | | | | rejected. When some aspect of the plan is not |
| uses a variety of methods to consistently keep the | | | | working, adjust rapidly - eliminate low producing |
| lead pipeline full. The plan to do so is frequently | | | | methods, reduce regularity, intensify methods to |
| regulated by the territory, economy, average contract | | | | produce less costly leads (canvass, referral plan). |
| size, the weather and even the news of the day. The | | | | Unsold leads or those not receiving presentations, have |
| marketing plan includes a budget. How much will be | | | | to be rehashed. Experimentation with new methods of |
| spent and where. It also includes projections to ensure | | | | lead getting requires concentration and control. |
| sufficient leads to provide prospects for the | | | | Ultimately, the measure of a successful marketing plan |
| salespeople. A key is the number of leads which are | | | | is the amount of net business (ready for installation) |
| necessary to produce net good business. In a plan | | | | you have sold, measured against the cost of procuring |
| where the salesman sells a minimum of 2 contracts | | | | the leads to sell that volume of business. If the cost of |
| per week averaging 3 presentations to 1 sale and | | | | your marketing program when measured against this |
| where there is a 30% of fall off from leads issued to | | | | net business exceeds your budget - then the plan |
| actual presentations, the plan calls for 9 to 10 leads per | | | | needs modification. |
| salesperson per week. Since an issued lead many | | | | |