Pest Management Professional, December 2017

Added VAlue illustration istock com tasnaiart By Ray Johnson Contributor You can reach Johnson a past president of the National Pest Management Association NPMA president of Sevierville Tenn based Johnson Pest Control and founder of ACES for Business at ray@ johnsonpestcontrol com 5 ways to sharpen your networking skills H ow your business has grown over the years may be a direct result of the networking youve done Getting involved in the Rotary Club chamber of commerce local sports teams or dozens of other activities can be a great resource for your business Simply knowing a lot of folks from the various activities you participate in allows you to make new contacts and meet people who may one day need your services Networking is a great way to get others to help you pre sell business on your behalf We all need cheerleaders who will be pulling for us so lets look at five ways to get others to sell for you 1 Build A relAtionsHip If you send customers birthday cards or offer praise when their children win sporting events for example in the future customers will remember your kindness and appreciate the time and effort you took to acknowledge them 2 rewArd customers for referrAls I give out 25 Starbucks Cracker Barrel or McDonalds gift cards to any current customer who sends us a new customer 3 Ask for testimoniAls A personal recommendation or endorsement from one of your customers is very convincing to a prospective client in need of pest management What you say about yourself is not nearly as impressive as what someone else says about you When we send customers our Report Card to find out how our service visit was performed we get back a fair amount of feedback We use these as testimonials on Johnsonpestcontrol com which currently features 200 and counting 4 ActuAlly get tHe testimoniAls The key to physically receiving testimonials is to make them easy to complete We ask just three questions in our Report Card survey and we use an email subject line that says Three questions for you If customers know it will only take about a minute to give feedback then they will give it 5 tAke your testimoniAls to tHe next leVel If you can convince a customer to spare a few seconds look directly at your smartphone camera and spout off about the great service you provided youre on the right track Its not that hard folks like to see themselves on TV or in a YouTube video posted on your website If you have a smartphone in your pocket you are walking around with everything you need to create a quick video testimonial When I see my customers even if its just at the grocery store most of the time they are bragging about the technicians they love to see at each service visit Our customers really care about their technicians and they want to tell others that Kevin and Tony are good at controlling pests at their homes If you try these five networking methods you will be surprised by the response you get Keep networking as part of your business strategy every day pmp 68 December 2017 pest management professional mypmp net