Patience When Marketing?

I think I’ve noticed a trend in e-waste marketing that is different than other sectors. In my experience there is a large time lapse between the marketing and the business generated from the marketing. For example, the winter months are normally my downtime in lawn care. I use this time to do lots of breakdowns and market e-waste. However, phone calls normally take a couple of months to start rolling in. By this time, it’s close to spring and my lawn care is at its peak. I did the same thing in the summer and it took till the fall before I started getting the phone calls. Do you guys think this is a trend or do you think that most people simply tend to do their cleaning in the Fall & Spring?

I agree with you to an extent. What I've found is that direct marketing does not yield result like indirect (direct/indirect is what I came up with. I'll explain). By "direct marketing", I mean to actively contact individuals with sales pitches or other means such as brochures etc. By "indirect marketing", I mean where you put the information out to the general public or other groups and wait for them to contact you. Web sites and Craig's List would examples of "indirect marketing". Winter is a "dead time" as far as getting scrap so I stockpile in the fall and tear down during the winter. The few who do contact me in the winter usually tell me what they've got but want to wait till Spring to actually get it.

As dead as things were this Fall, I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have anything to do this winter. Then within a week this month I got two calls. I already wrote about one. I'll write about the other AFTER I get it (after - for a reason). Now I'm swamped and running out of room.

I too have noticed that there can be a long period of time between making contact with the right person and actually hauling the stuff off. There is a lot of red tape and other issues that come up that can cause a delay. If it is a large company that has a huge room to store their old stuff, they are not very motivated to get rid of it. Many of my customers are other small businesses that need to get the stuff out ASAP because they have no room.

Another thing to consider is that the fiscal year is not always the same for every business. At my "real job" it goes from March to April. Sometimes the person you made contact with is just waiting for the fixed assets(computers etc...) to fully depreciate before writing them off. On the same note, they might not have the budget to buy the new ones they want until the beginning of the next fiscal year, or quarter or whatever.

The response is going to be mixed. In just the past 2 months since I've started "full time", I have gone to a couple dozen local computer shops. About half I have not heard back from. 25% gave me stuff the same day and another 25% called me a couple weeks afterwards. My intentions are to go back to the ones I havent heard from and nudge them a bit. Some of them already have a buyer for their stuff, some are wondering if they can do what I do and increase their profits, and some just dont see the value in it (hard headed). I have noticed a huge increase in business from the trickle-down effect of handing out tons of business cards to anyone that seems interested in what I do. I have received a lot of calls from people that know someone who had my number, saw my flier, etc. Just keep marketing your business everywhere you can think of and the snowball will start rolling.

MY opinion: In e waste, espicially computers, computer shops are more aware of what is going on in the bis, plus getting rid of their waste, when a part they may need tomarro is available are not in a hurry to get rid of their stuff unless, they have an incentive, i.e. they are crowded with junk, or a money motive.

like the rest of us they are struggling to keep their heads above water so, you have to make it as easy, convient, and profitable for them to the point of almost becoming a pest. "even a mouse can be cute".

back in my sales day I was very good, one of the best, but I had a disiplen and motivation problem, here is how I solved the problem.

some where along the line, I learned the 10 point system.

tae a lined piece of paper creat the following spaces;

day/date
under that:
point customer name phone contact address notes

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________________________________________

the Idea is "10 points a day makes your pay"

make a call, no sale , give your self 1 point, make a sale, give your self 2 points.

be honest its not a sale unless you walk out with a solid customer and or product.

this absolutly works. mcw

Excellent idea, old dude. I have 3 points so far for today!

What I would suggest is to create a marketing plan. It does ot have to be eloborate just functional. A notebook from the dollar store will do. Add a calendar and you're set. Start with writing down a list of Marketing weapons you intend to use. Set goals for yourself as far as what you want to do and what you expect to achieve.

Using the calendar to coordinate everything will allow you track the results as well as aid in setting dates for adds, calls etc. Record every leads that comes in and the source. By doing so you will see what works and what does not. Then you can allocate more resources to what does.

The business I generate this week is most often the result of hat I was marketing for 90 days ago. Try to remain consistent and stay true to course IT WILL PAY OFF.

If you need information I suggest reading everything you can about Guerilla Marketing from Jay Conrad Levinson. It is all low cost easy to impliment stuff that will generate income.