There was a chiropractor who built a million-dollar practice. He sold it and then built another million-dollar practice. Then he did it a third time. Clearly, he had a system that worked, so he began to give seminars to other chiropractors teaching them how to build their own million-dollar practices. Attendees would often approach him and ask, “I need a strategy to get 50 new patients.” To which the million-dollar chiropractor would reply, “I don’t know a strategy to get 50 new patients. I know 50 strategies to get one new patient, and I do it 50 times.” That’s the kind of thinking you need to have when recession-proofing your business.
Here are 50 recession-busting strategies:
90/10 newsletter and e-newsletter
90/10 means newsletters that are 90% fun, informative, relationship-building content and 10% about flooring.
- Send out to your past and present clients every month.
- Send to your referral partners every month.
- Send to all the employees of your referral partners.
- Hand printouts to every new client or prospect.
- Begin sending every nearby business the newsletter.
- Hand it out with (or instead of) your business card.
- Give a copy to the cashier at the grocery store. (Have your salespeople and installers do the same.)
- In your neighborhood, hand-deliver the newsletter to the two neighbors on either side of you and the three across the street. Have your team do the same.
- Include in every return envelope when you pay your bills.
Niche markets
- Niche market to doctors. Offer special “no hassle” programs, financing and incentives for busy physicians.
- Do the same with CPAs.
- Do the same with financial planners
Newspaper column
- Write a “Home Tips” weekly/monthly column for your local paper. Include repair tips, do-it-yourself tips, etc. You can pay to run these as advertorials, but you might be able to run these free as a regular column.
- Re-purpose these blogs on your website, newsletter, printed handouts in your welcome pack, etc.
- Link the columns from the newspaper’s site back to your website and vice-versa.
- Link to your articles in social media posts.
Online reviews
- Generate ongoing reviews on Google. Use an automated system to generate reviews.
- Generate ongoing reviews on other popular platforms (Facebook, Houzz, etc.).
- Stream positive reviews to your website.
- Post positive reviews to your social media channels.
- Re-purpose reviews as printed handouts for all walk-ins.
- Re-purpose reviews in your email signature line.
- Use reviews in your marketing efforts.
In the next installment, we’ll continue with more strategies.
Jim is the founder and president of Flooring Success Systems, a company that provides floor dealers with marketing services and coaching to help them attract quality customers, close more sales, get higher margins and work the hours they choose. For information visit FlooringSuccessSystems.com.
