Business advice re sales...

[gripper stebson]

Hi all,

OK, my business (as advertised in the sponsored stickies section!) now provides websites from £30 per month with no upfront fee. The £30 includes an hour of my time a month for changes etc... so basically your own site and 'web guy' for £30 a month.

Now design is my forte, sales are not.

I have been considering a scheme whereby if someone provides me with a lead I will pay them £10 per month (out of the £30 paid by the new client) for the duration that the site is live.... in other words provide me 100 leads and I'll be sending £1000 a month to your Paypal account.

This would leave me working 100 hours a month for £2000.

Terrible idea or worthwhile sales technique... Would value any thoughts as I try to grow my business.

Cheers NSC

 

[Springal]

I'd say it is too high really, something around 7-15% for a referral seems fairer, or maybe just as a higher one off finders fee to keep down the admin side of this. For what you want to do, identify the kind of people or business who would pass you leads (and why) and get talking to them. If possible try and work with a fairly low amount of partners and work with them to build something up.

Assuming you are Brighton based, some of the small business / brighton chamber of commerce events might be good for this, although can be a bit old boys club.

 

[Munkfish]

Far to high, although if you think it would help to get people to sell, why not try a tierd approch reducing the amount paid over years the website is in use? e.g.

Year 1 = £10
Year 2 = £7
Year 3 = £5
Year 4+ = £4

 

[gripper stebson]

Cheers guys. Of course any other great ideas of how I might improve sign ups always welcomed!

 

[Surrey_Albion]

Personally I would say have to trade for say three months six months then if that happens then a pay for the lead then you have garunteed yourself the business and after someone been with you for a few months you also building a portfolio and the people your servicing in that time would have already recomended you to someone else so less leads reqiured (I wish the things in my head made as much sense when I wrote them down)

 

[theonesmith]

Cheers guys. Of course any other great ideas of how I might improve sign ups always welcomed!

Do you design web apps?

 

[gripper stebson]

Do you design web apps?

No.

 

[theonesmith]

No.

Okay no worries, I wasn't sure how different they are from a web site!

With sales...

Make sure you take advantage of all 'free' avenues- your business should have a page on every single social network out there
Really you want to target start-up companies like mine, as this is where fresh business is. So if I were you I'd perhaps contact 'formation agents' (I used Company Formation UK | Create A Company UK | Company Formation Agents, there are loads out there). Barter some sort of deal that offers your services to companies that join them. Then aim at business incubators, enterprise centres and innovation parks, where entrepreneurs are starting out. Leaving flyers/business cards or offering free consultations in these places is a good route to fresh companies

Hope that helps

 

[theonesmith]

Oh and in response to OP, I think that referral reward is far too high too; HSBC offer £50 if you recommend a business account to another business and they are a huge company. Perhaps do a 'Sky' and offer £20 of M&S vouchers instead? (or something else along those lines)

 

[beorhthelm]

i'd reiterate £10 is very generous. reckon £5 would be a very good incentive. but you still need to build a pool of people who will know you offer the service and the commission. like say some students, friends, NSC dwellers, who'll act as your sales force.

bear in mind how you will cope with success, 100 sites only require 1hr a month? i think that might be a bit hopefull, or maybe you know this from experience. some will be more demanding than others.

also, do you offer a straight design fee without the hosting, as a one off?

btw as some feedback on your site is tad slow to load. is it really one big flash page?

 

[Wardy]

Think £10 is high. You could maybe do a phased amount. Like this
1-3 Referrals £3 each
4-6 referrals £5 each (but still only £3 for the first 3)
7-9 referrals £7 each (again keeping the amount the same for 1-3 and 4-6)
10+ £10 each.

That way the you are rewarding the people who bring you most business. Also have you thought long term, what happens when you have too many sites for you to manage on your own? Are you going to stop taking new business or hire someone to help? The first option means that you are losing money especially if just after turning someone down, someone else leaves. The second option means that your earnings for the sites they are covering will be less.

 

[Worthingite]

Far to high, although if you think it would help to get people to sell, why not try a tierd approch reducing the amount paid over years the website is in use? e.g.

Year 1 = £10
Year 2 = £7
Year 3 = £5
Year 4+ = £4

I'd do this, but the other way round (i.e. Year 1 £4, Year 2 £5 etc) to increase loyalty. I'd be a bit miffed if the incentivisation (if that is a real word!) went down year on year as opposed to up! Keep your loyal customers happy and you'll be laughing!

 

[Gazwag]

I would say offer an initial one off finders fee, payable after three months rather than an ongoing one, otherwise all of the people giving you leads are earning while you are doing the work. Maybe then you could increase the finders fee. It also means a lot less admin for you.

 

[MattBackHome]

Get networking. Meet loads of SMEs. Find out what people want and offer them that. Be good at what you do and encourage people to recommend you wherever they can...

 

[gripper stebson]

Get networking. Meet loads of SMEs. Find out what people want and offer them that. Be good at what you do and encourage people to recommend you wherever they can...

Is probably the answer. Cheers Matt.

 

[Wardy]

Having thought about this a bit more, from a personal point of view, if someone asks me if I know anyone can build them a website I will recommend you. Assuming you do a good job (and looking at the sites you have done you will), I will get a beer or two of the person who asked me. If you want to buy me a beer as well then I would not say no. Would feel bad taking a finders fee of you. Different if I was working as a sales person for you but this is not what you are talking about.

Like others have said get your name out there. Maybe do a freebie for the Chamber of Commerce or something. Word of mouth is the best advertising money can buy.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Why not offer reduction in monthly cost to the introducer. Say someone introduces a new client after three months give a 10% discount off the introducer's bill. If they find you a total of ten (which in probability will not happen) they get there site for free. You are then only giving your time for free as opposed to actually giving out money. This way you are tying in the introducer as they would be unlikely to better the deal elsewhere. Added to which the new customers can reduce their bills by introducing new customers. With every introduction you will be tying in the existing customer so to speak.

 

[guster]

What's to stop the new client recommending themselves, thus getting "Cashback" for the duration of their site?

 

[gripper stebson]

Having thought about this a bit more, from a personal point of view, if someone asks me if I know anyone can build them a website I will recommend you. Assuming you do a good job (and looking at the sites you have done you will), I will get a beer or two of the person who asked me. If you want to buy me a beer as well then I would not say no. Would feel bad taking a finders fee of you. Different if I was working as a sales person for you but this is not what you are talking about.

Like others have said get your name out there. Maybe do a freebie for the Chamber of Commerce or something. Word of mouth is the best advertising money can buy.

 

[Early Doors]

Do you have a niche? If you work with a certain type of business you will find you get referals when they talk to each other. You can also find which web forums they go on and get known on there. You don't have to stick to just one niche, you can have as many as you like, but it does make it easier to 'find' potential clients.
A good example is life coaches. More and more people are training to be coaches, and when they qualify they all need websites.

Joint ventures are another good way of getting clients without it costing you. Identify other SMEs who can recomend you to any of their clients that need a website. In return you can recomend them to any of your clients that need their services. It's how BMI etc works, but without paying £1,000 per year.

And ALWAYS hand out your card when you meet someone for the first time.