I’ve read several threads on here regarding past successes and failures some of you have had with Realtors.It seems some have had great experiences with Realtors while others not so much. There was one thread from a few years back that caught my attention and I’m going to steal his idea but refine it to meet my needs.
I’m contemplating the idea of mailing a letter to the top 100 Realtors within 10 miles of my house and basically introducing myself, telling them how awesome my company is, and including three gift cards worth $50 off any Residential service of $300+. I will request that they pass these gift cards onto their clients, friends, family, neighbors, co-workers etc.
The referral program that I will offer the Realtors will be called something simple like, “3 and it’s FREE”. They send me three referrals in 2017 which convert into paying residential customers and we will clean their personal home for FREE in 2018. The “small print” will include the fact that this FREE cleaning is limited to outside only of the glass and it must be performed in either January/February when we anticipate being slower than the other 10 months of the year. Just the outside of the glass, no screens, no tracks, no skylights, no appointments. Take the screens out before we arrive and we’ll get there when we get there. Just a very basic outside only glass cleaning. I figure this could very well open the door to them wanting to pay a little out of pocket and get a more complete job done. Maybe they’ll want in and out, the gutters, skylights, whatever. If they just take their freebie and run, then that’s cool too.
If all 100 of these Realtors send me 3 customers each, that would obviously be fantastic for my bottom line. The downside would be that I would have to perform 100 pro bono outside only cleanings next winter. Obviously not all 100 are going to take me up on my offer, I would be happy with a small handful that could develop into a “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” type relationship going forward.
If nobody takes me up on my offer, then I guess I’m out $50 in postage, paper, and envelopes so no big deal. The way I look at it is, if just one Realtor sends me 3 clients at an average job of $250/each after the gift card, that’s $750 in gross sales. If I have to give the Realtor a FREE $100-$300 outside only cleaning (depending on the size of their home), I’m still way ahead in the end. Would you spend $100-$300 on EDDM in order to get $750 in gross sales? I sure would so I figure this is worth at least trying out on such a small scale. If it’s wildly successful, then I’ll try it with 1,000 Realtors next year. If I get zero responses then no harm done and I’ll scrap the idea.
For the record, I’m in Texas and our Winters are probably nicer than some of your Springs and Summers so cleaning homes in January/February isn’t as crazy as it probably sounds to many of you. Constructive thoughts and feedback would be much appreciated.