Greg Simpson, founder of Press for Attention PR, speaks on missed opportunities.
I blame George Formby. I’ve done this before (sorry George) but I’m afraid it’s happened again. Just this morning.
A few years back, I wrote about a chap doing a job at my neighbour’s who was “trying to earn an honest bob” – cue capering about with a ukelele.
Now it is not often one gets to quote George Formby in a column about PR and Marketing, but I did then and I will do so again now because I hope it gets you thinking.
I needed a regular window cleaner but there was never anyone advertising these services in or around our village. I also needed some guttering looking at.
So imagine my joy when I spot a chap up his ladders next door doing that exact thing. I waited until he was safe and shouted up to him, mere feet from the ground at the time.
Greg: “Could you pop over and look at mine after you’re finished there?”
Formby: “I probably can but I might have to shoot off.”
Greg: “Ah, do you have a business card?”
Formby: “No.”
Greg: “Er, can I take a mobile number and I’ll drop you a text then?”
Formby: “Tell you what. I’ll come over now.”
Now, I didn’t expect him to abandon one job or really want him to at that stage, but he was a lovely chap and we soon got chatting. He was actually a window cleaner, but he adds gutter cleaning to his services as he already has the ladders out. Excellent work George!
If we look at his marketing in terms of the 4 Ps – Product, Place, Price and Promotion, he’s really struggling with the latter as he has no card, no branded van, no local advertising or website, no social media channels, not even a branded t-shirt but he has the Product/s.
He also has the Place as he told me he has a very fixed radius which he moves around to keep things fresh. When I asked him about Price, my initial thought was that he was actually TOO CHEAP which made me worry about quality, safety and reliability a bit but it wasn’t going to cost me much to trial him so that has opened up a prospective client for him.
So we agreed he’d pop over once a month and he’d send me his BACS details so we could set it all up. That WAS a smart move. He gets a regular guaranteed job and gets paid on time, no delays and I get a feeling of certainty.
As he went back next door he suggested I could tackle some of my patio areas with a pressure washer – “it’s what I use.” Well…I COULD but maybe HE could charge me more and do that for me too whilst he’s over? I decided to ‘leave that on the table’ as they say in sales but he didn’t bite, probably because he was halfway up a ladder again next door.
I wonder, how many of you miss opportunities to diversify your offering or make it easier to buy from you as you are too focused on doing the day-job ‘stuff’ and not looking at the marketing? By the way, he never sent me the BACS details.
Fast forward to today and I have just cancelled my old window cleaner at my new place because lovely though he was, he insisted on cash in hand and never told me when we was coming. The cash and his decisions around HMRC are his business, that isn’t what put me off. The issue was his lack of reliability and making it really hard to actually do business with him.
I wanted him to come MORE often, he wants to come when it suits him and expects me to have £25 to hand in cash. I’ve now replaced him with a chap who is more expensive and insists on a direct debit. This makes things easier for me, so the deal was done. Remember, it’s not all about the money.
A former business journalist, Greg Simpson is the author of The Small Business Guide to PR and has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 5 PR consultants, having set up Press for Attention PR in 2008.
He has worked for FTSE 100 firms, charities and start-ups and conducted press conferences with Sir Richard Branson and James Caan. His background ensures a deep understanding of every facet of a successful PR campaign – from a journalist’s, client’s, and consultant’s perspective.
See this column in the July edition of East Midlands Business Link Magazine here.
