Customer relationship marketing for the mobile jobber

There are two primary reasons for a mobile jobber to use a form of social media called “customer relationship marketing” (CRM) for business: to sell more stuff and make more money.

I’m guessing these are both good things for you and your family.

What is customer relationship marketing? It’s using what information you know about your customers and prospects to market your products to their specific needs.

That said, here are some of the objections that might be going through your mind right now:

You may also wonder why there’s such a strong need for CRM: ”I make my calls every 2-3 weeks and see X number of customers, why do I need CRM?”

You just answered your own question. By taking a few minutes to compose a message on a social platform (either you or your support person), you can communicate with all 200+ customers and prospects in an instant. Let’s say you just took in a nice storage cabinet on trade-in and you want to unload it for $700. In 5-7 minutes you can take a picture of it, send it to your followers, and sell it off quickly. Otherwise, you may end up keeping the item in your warehouse until you stumble across a buyer months later.

Here are a few more ways you can make the most of customer relationship marketing:

If you don’t already have this info, collect email addresses and phone numbers from every one of your customers. I know this will take some time, but you only have to do it once. If they ask you why, tell them you’re putting together an email marketing program informing them of new products and special offers. Yes, you’ll have some customers who will balk at this. That’s fine. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Just say “thanks” and move on.

Next, you’ll need to record this information with a spreadsheet. To get started, add individual columns for first and last names, phone, email, brand dealer (if any), and their field of work. The brand dealer and field of work is very important since this will allow you to send mailings based on a technician’s line of work, if they have one: P&B products to P&B specialists, alignment mailings to alignment techs, Chevrolet tools to Chevrolet technicians, etc. As time goes on, you’ll want to add other details, such as birthdays, spouse’s name, and other important points. Send me an email and I’ll email you a basic Excel spreadsheet to use: [email protected].

Now that you’ve rounded up all this contact information, you need to decide which form of customer relationship marketing you want to use.

There are many media platforms you can use to communicate with your customers. I suggest considering email as your media form of choice. It’s easy, quick, and gives you significant flexibility for pictures, videos, and links. Texting is fine, but you’re limited to what you can include with pictures, videos, etc. You could also look into Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but since you only want these communications to go to your select group of individuals in your sales area, email offers the tightest control.

You can start by highlighting the email address column in your spreadsheet, copy and paste it in the address line of your regular email system, insert your content, and hit send. Presto! You’re now part of the customer relationship marketing world.

You should consider investigating and using one of the many email marketing providers available, sometimes referred to as communication software systems. Doing so with a program like Constant Contact (constantcontact.com) or MailChimp (mailchimp.com) will allow you to look professional and track who’s opening and reading your email. These programs also give you the opportunity to personalize each email with your customer’s name, company, and other important points.

With these mailing programs you can easily use your brand or field of work identifiers to narrow down the recipients of a mailing so front-end technicians get front-end tools, etc. These mailing programs vary in pricing from free for the basics to $20 per month. Track who’s reading, run surveys, and resend mail to anyone who didn’t open the first time. These programs also fill all your legal needs by giving recipients the ability to opt out any time they wish.

Now that you have your customer data collected, you’re ready to get started with marketing. You may want to watch one of the tutorials on this subject such as this one from Constant Contact (youtube.com/watch?v=xLg3RQ_gD0s).

An easy way to start is to scan a copy of your company’s latest promotional brochure and mail it out with your contact information. As you get more comfortable with the program you’re using, you can try implementing these strategies to improve your sales results.

• Remind your customers that they can call or email you to bring them a needed product on your next visit so they don’t have to wait for your follow-up call. This may save you some time or expense and eliminate the chance they might buy from the competition.
• Your CRM program gives you an easy way to ambush your competitor’s monthly specials by you having your own special on similar products. You’ll also be able to highlight why your version is better than the competition’s.
• People love to see their name and faces in print. You can take a picture or video of your latest big box or high tech customer and post it with their permission.
• If you see a customer using your tool for some unique application you can send it out as a useful tip.
• If you have some overstock, this is a great way to special it out.
• If you’re taking a well-earned vacation, you can notify your customers via your marketing communications.

The list goes on and on of ways you can easily use customer relationship marketing to increase sales and form closer relationships with your customers.

Now go sell something.