Hi there. . .
I’m Lee Pemberton,
This is a special message to all of Pembertons valuable customers and friends.
I want to share some news I believe that you might be interested in:
As many of you may be aware, I have spent over 50 years in this great industry, & I love it and all the great people that we have the privilege of supplying equipment, products and training for!
I have watched consumer attitudes change over the years, but I am afraid many of you are so busy delivering the services you provide, that you haven’t had time to notice some of the changes.
A quick trip going back a few years to the past of our young industry might be very revealing to you. . .
In the late 70’s, a new carpet cleaner could run an ad in any paper or pennysaver & the phone would ring and ring! The carpet cleaner then went out to look at the carpet & give them a price before providing the service.
Then along came “price merchandising”, and our industry started down the road of “commoditizing” carpet cleaning.
Costs increased, carpet values increased, but carpet cleaning prices did not! In fact prices actually dropped with the advent of truck-mounted equipment!
But probably the change that has impacted the profession carpet cleaner most is the change in consumer attitudes!
Profit margins also dropped. The yellow pages seemed to be gold mines in the 1980’s, then in the 90’s they seemed to explode into dozens of money sucking books that you had to be in to stay alive, with 12 month contracts!
And most of all, I watched the costs and effectiveness of marketing continue to change with diminishing results! The consumer not paying attention!
Again I am afraid many of you have been so busy delivering your services, that you also haven’t noticed some of these additional changes.
But, you I know you are noticing the results! You are working harder than ever, just to tread water & pay your bills! Profits are tougher to come by!
Over & over I keep hearing some of you saying that you plan to start working on improving your marketing as soon as more money comes in.
And all the while the competition is already spending time & money, working hard to grab new customers.
(Remember, the competition is far more than just the other carpet cleaners in the area!)
Today I am seeing too many of our customers running a very strange race! It’s a race where you keep hoping you can outlast the competitors, but without doing anything to either keep existing customers or get new ones!
That just doesn’t work!
The bottom line is this. You have to take control of your business and go out there and get more customers. Like it or not, it is all about doing something!
The lazier you are on your marketing, the worse the results.
You must do something. Do it now! Your future depends on it. But you have to do what you feel comfortable doing and that you can afford, or it won’t work!
To lend a hand with some ideas that are doable & not overly costly, I have set up this blog with the goal of sharing ways to market that you can afford.
Look these last two charts over and I will be back in my next entry with some details for you.
Your comments and questions are welcome
Lee
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