Competitive Rates

[Dean May]

My oldest brother was very successful in a variety of businesses and he
found that YP ads were not worth the money. After some personal experience I
have verified that to my satisfaction.

 

If you have a business phone (a rip off, an excuse for them to charge you an
extra $25/mo) you will automatically get a non-bold single line entry in the
yellow pages. Any other phone book company that comes in will by necessity
include all of those basic listings. They have to, for if consumers go to
use the book and discover it is missing numbers they will lose confidence in
it. That is usually their big draw: they include even more numbers than the
phone company's book- usually from surrounding areas. 

 

If you wish to be listed in regional books outside your area that will cost
you even for a basic listing. I've tried it and it hasn't been real
successful. 

 

Your main source of new customers will be referrals. So my strategy is to
cultivate my existing database of customers. They get a mailer from me at
least twice a year with my office number, my toll free number, my cell phone
number, my email address and my web address. I also leave a business card on
every piano I tune with all that info, every time. I print them out myself
on my color laser printer- heavy 32 lb ultra bright paper and cut them out
on a cutter. 

 

I highly recommend investing in a color laser printer. After getting an HP
and being killed on consumable cost I did a lot of research and got a Ricoh
C410DN with automatic duplexing. It was rated at lowest consumable cost and
my experience concurs. I've had it over a year, run 20,000 copies, and still
have 25-45% on my toner cartridges rated at 15,000 copies. They cost about
$400 to change them all.

 

My other brother proved to himself that a simple headshot picture of him on
his ads was very effective. People like to see who they are going to do
business with (of course if you are an unsavory looking character this might
be a disadvantage). My color picture is on every piece I produce: post card,
business card, thank you card, letterhead, etc. 

 

I also recommend getting a vanity toll free number with matching web
address. Get your phone number at www.tollfreenumbers.com
<http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/> . Mine is 1-888-DEAN-MAY. It only costs me
for the actual minutes that it is used, and it is the same rate as all my
long distance minutes. I use Powernet Global, www.pngcom.com
<http://www.pngcom.com/>  and I think the rate is around 4 cents a minute.

 

If you have a close by regional area that is long distance, there is an easy
way for you to get a local number for those customers if you don't want to
go the toll free route. Just get a pre-paid TracFone for that city. It'll be
a local call to them and you only pay 10 cents a minute when they call. The
number won't, however, be listed in their phone book unless you pay to have
it listed. 

 

Get your web address at www.godaddy.com <http://www.godaddy.com/> . You can
get a website up with basic contact information pretty easy. An easy to
remember phone number and/or web address is very important if you don't want
your customers going to the YP to find you. 

 

Word of mouth referrals is your best source. Work your customers, keep
reminding them you are a great guy. ;-)

 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

 

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