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Hello all. This is my first post.
I am in the start-up phase of my energy auditing company and am in the process of looking for my client. First some information about my company. My company, Prime Energy Consultants, specializes in finding ways to reduce the monthly utility bills of small-to-medium sized commercial buildings. This means that I inspect every physical aspect of the building where energy can be wasted. After the building's current state has been assessed, the most appropriate methods of cutting back on energy-costs are suggested. The client then receives a detailed report stating the current state of the building, areas requiring attention, and how to solve any problems found. In addition they will also be shown exactly how much money each energy-saving measure will save and how long it will take for them to win their money back after making the change.
That is my product in a nut-shell. I have experimented with various marketing methods. First I made a flyer that I attached to emails along with a brief message about the company and sent it out to business owners. I sent it to about 150 different people and got no results. So clearly that wasn't the best way to advertise. So then I decided to follow up the emails with a phone call. Turns out most of the people didn't even look at the email! Furthermore I found out that most of the business owners I targeted were in multi-unit complexes and therefore aren't in charge of their own utility bills.
So last week I started going door-to-door to single tenant buildings. Then I came across a new problem. All the buildings I targeted had a receptionist I had to get past. While most of them were friendly enough they all gave me a line along the lines of "So and so are in charge of the bills, but they're [insert excuse here]". So at first I'd leave them with a flyer and a business card to hand to that person, which they agreed to do. It has been a week since I started going door-to-door and I have yet to hear back from anyone I left a flyer.
So today I changed it up a little. Some feedback I got from one of my mentors was that my pitch opening was too long. So I changed that. My current one is "Hi, I noticed your building from outside and wanted to tell you about how I can save you money on your utility bills. Is there someone here who I can talk to about this?" I noticed the difference in reactions immediately. Most of the receptionists allowed me to talk to someone higher up the boss or building manager. The ones who didn't allow me to talk to their boss I got the boss's business card from and I plan on calling them tomorrow. But now I am at my next hurdle, which is to sell them the product to the bosses. They all liked the idea of the product, but I couldn't convince them just how valuable this could be for them. At least not enough for them to buy my services.
What I realized afterwards though, was that I forgot to mention my free trial to them, which is that I assess their past utility bills for free, as this gives a rough idea of how much money could be saved, since trends can be identified from these bills indicating the potential of improvement.
I'm also in the process of writing up a new better looking email to send to potential clients, however this will be a follow up to previous in-person or phone conversations. Not initial contact.
So, as you can see, I'm making progress in the marketing area, but I am always open to advice and will always listen to your opinions of how I could possibly boost my marketing in ways I haven't thought of yet.
Thanks!
John
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