Best approach for acquiring new business... Willem

[Paul T Williams]

Wim

I've found that showing your face to someone really helps.  Oahu folks are 
really into personal touch...( i know, I was at one time engaged to a hula 
dance competition lady from Waipau.  An incredible amount of clique 
rules...very tight in their relationships)  By what I learned in that 5 
year relationship, face to face really does the job. I know the miles on 
your car can be painful, the interpersonal face to face thing works for 
me....and even when I started, I showed my face every month to all the 
piano stores until they started using my services, not just a call or card 
in the mail... It did start paying off after a few months. even here at 
UNL, I ran a "special" for faculty tunings at home...I didn't get much 
return on my email, but asking them in person nearly doubled the reponse!!

Good luck and keep truckin'

Paul




wimblees at aol.com 
Sent by: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org
10/24/2008 02:33 PM
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Re: Best approach for acquiring new business... Willem






Julia

That's an incredible amount of business with just two phone calls. I have 
sent all the churches and school (a total of about 450),  here on Oahu 
several letters, including my resume and a PTG brochure on taking care of 
piano, and got maybe 6 calls. Maybe I need to call them. (something I can 
do during my "days off", like today.) 

Thanks

Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Mililani, Oahu, HI
808-349-2943
Author of: 
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com


-----Original Message-----
From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 7:07 am
Subject: Re: Best approach for acquiring new business... Willem

Greetings,
 
       About 320 churches,  about 50 area schools, from Reading area phone 
book, (some churches and schools outside our county were listed in there, 
I called them all) I contacted each one at least twice. When twice, if 
their answer both times was consistently something like: "We have all 
electronic pianos." or "We have a member of the church who tunes it." or 
(annoyed) "We have a tuner contract."  I notated it and never re-called 
them. The remainder I called maybe, twice again, making a total of about 4 
times. So total I'd say I called 250 churches, 25 schools, 4 times.
 
Julia
 
In a message dated 10/22/2008 4:17:13 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
wimblees at aol.com writes:
Julia

These are some interesting statistics. On the schools and churches, about 
how many did you contact, and did you do it more than once?

Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Mililani, Oahu, HI
808-349-2943
Author of: 
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com


-----Original Message-----
From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 5:34 pm
Subject: Re: Best approach for acquiring new business.

Greetings,
 
        Just out of tuning school, In my first 2 years of business, I 
painstakenly notated where every tuning came from...then calculated that I 
got;
 
19% from dropping off cards at music stores
38% from making phone calls to churches and schools, either leaving a 
breif message on the machine or if I got an answer, asking if they would 
like a copy of my resume and a bus. card and then sending them.
13% by passing out cards at local small flea markets and "arts and 
antique" fairs.
3% from leaving cards at 2 local community schools of music
6% from senior tuners  (who didn't want to tune those spinets which they 
were referring)
13% from yellow page ad (a lot of bargian hunters)
3% from a piano teacher I was aquainted with
3% from sending small pack of cards to 3 local moving companies
2% from local shoppers'/merchants' paper
 
Doing tuning for about 6 years now. Mostly referrals, and repeat business, 
some yellow page ad. I must admit that I got lazy with the phone calls and 
dropping off the business cards. I probably could have more business. 
 
Hope this helps,
Julia
 
 
In a message dated 10/20/2008 10:53:39 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
shawnbrock at fuse.net writes:
I'm hoping some of you will way in on what you think the best method for 
soliciting new business is based on your personal experience.  I am 
considering a few options for getting new church customers.  1: Sending 
out postcards to most or all of the churches in my area.  2: Good old 
fashion cold calls.  I have not tried the cold calls method for a few 
years, but I recall that it didn't work vary well for me previously.  On 
the other hand I don't want to waste money on sending out maybe 1000 
postcards to get one tuning on a old Baldwin 243.  Why we all know nothing 
is a sure bet when trying to get new business we know some things work 
better than others.  So what do you think the best and most profitable 
approach has been for you?  I appreciate your input as always. 
 
Regards,
Shawn Brock, RPT
513-316-0563
www.shawnbrock.com



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