John Carmichael pictured during a coaching session on Skype with Lee
John Carmichael realised that he needed to do something dramatically different if his Edinburgh-based business was to remain strong; the recession was taking its toll on the building trades, people he had known for years were hinting at closure, and news headlines offered a continuous diatribe of doom and gloom.
Doing his best to fight back, John followed the traditional tactics he could see his competitors using – putting more funds towards bigger and more frequent adverts, and updating his website. He had minor success with Google’s Adwords pay-per-click service. When leads came, he fought to win work by offering aggressive discounts.
Set against this background, his diary was pretty sparse where there should have been bookings, and the thrill of being in business was replaced with a fear about what the future might hold.
After laying off staff, he sat tight and hoped for a while that the economy would become easier again, but at the start of 2011, John decided it was time to get some fresh eyes on his business. He found this website and was impressed by the testimonials. He rang, we talked and he decided to engage my services.
My initial questioning suggested that John could improve things with a revised sales process (see Chapter 6).
John had already created a culture of strong customer service which we strengthened through introducing what he called his 10 Commandments of Super Service as part of his One-Page Growth Plan (see Chapter 5). His team left clients’ homes cleaner than when they arrived.
Some advertising was generating leads, although we measured that less than 1 in 3 were converted into sales. Introducing the 4-Step Sales Process and rewriting his quotations to use a variation on the AIDA principle very quickly turned this up to 50, much to John’s delight!
Next, we added in some carefully targeted marketing, aimed at specific customers using direct mail and Internet strategies.
Simultaneously, we did a detailed review of John’s prices. His quality of service was undeniably “premium”, and so – despite a recession – we increased his prices accordingly.
In tough times, the business is expanding, he has increased his fleet of vehicles and employed new engineers to handle the extra work.
The order book is full for 6 weeks ahead and John is excited and bullish for the future.
Within six months of working together, Superwarm Services sales had risen 98% – and by the end of a full year, his sales were up by 148%.
That’s another business doubled.
But that’s not the end of the story. We continue to work together to push through to double his business again.
This case study is adapted from my book, Double Your Business: How To Break Through The Barriers to Higher Growth, Turnover and Profit.
Disclaimer and Contact Information
Not all businesses will achieve results of this nature or with this speed. Superwarm Services’ results are not typical for every client; John worked extraordinarily hard to implement the advice, strategies and actions from the coaching programme. Your results may vary depending upon your industry, your specific situation and the effort you put into your business.
John Carmichael will be happy to confirm these results and can be contacted via his website Superwarm Services Limited, Edinburgh.
No comments yet.