About this time of year — as folks are winding down for the winter and thinking about the holidays — enterprising portable sanitation providers are planning for the success of the coming year. What better time than this seasonal slowdown period to consider how you’ll get more business from your current markets, or perhaps move into a new one?
With that in mind, we talk with three PROs who take a distinct approach to their promotional efforts, and find out what works best for them.
Tom Bowen remains a traditionalist when it comes to marketing. He mounts a consistent, steady campaign of letters and follow-up calls to new prospects.
“While I’m on my route, I’ll notice signs on new construction sites. I write down the name and phone number from there. When I get back to the office, I’ll look up the address and then write a letter introducing our company, services and territory.”
After he sends the letter, if Bowen doesn’t get a call, he’ll follow up with a call of his own. Many times, he finds that the prospect is interested but simply didn’t prioritize calling him, so it’s important not to assume that lack of a call indicates lack of interest in doing business. He closes the majority of new sales this way.
Todd Bailey, with one of his brothers, recently took over the newer portables side of the longtime family septic pumping business. A true Gen-X’er, Bailey fully embraces the wonders of the Web in marketing his services, but also understands that his chosen industry requires lots of old-fashioned “face time.”
“A lot of my strategy is continuous contact with customers and word-of-mouth,” Bailey explains. “I do a lot of networking through local chambers of commerce, homebuilders’ associations, current customers. I read local literature — magazines, newspapers, flyers — to monitor upcoming events.” Then he’ll make a phone call to determine an event’s decision maker, and follow up with an introduction letter to that person. The purpose is getting an all-important personal visit scheduled.
“It’s almost like a babysitting thing, especially in the portable restroom industry. In the springtime, with all the small organizations for youth and other groups getting active outside again, you really have to stay on top of them. With people changing positions, if they don’t pass down information to the next person because they’re not friendly or they had a bad split … now that person doesn’t know to contact you even if you’re a current vendor. They’ll go out and call someone else if you don’t stay in front of them.”
He also does mailings into new subdivisions around the growing area. “We had magnets made so when we’re working an area, we might stick one of those on the outside of a mailbox so we don’t break any laws. I’m also having door hangers made to have my guys hang on the doors of the houses on either side of any residence they’re already servicing.”
Eliseo Garcia is a new PRO serving the Baja Peninsula of Mexico, just south of the California border. Serving the capital city of Mexicali and nearby Tijuana, Saniahorro is approaching its second year in business, renting portables and pumping septic tanks and grease traps. Portables are rented primarily on long-term contracts to builders, agricultural concerns and the military. The company’s largest contract is for 1,200 units with nearby army bases.
He and his staff are always on the lookout for special events prospects. “Because we’ve only been in operation for a year, we don’t have a long track record,” explains Garcia, so he must aggressively seek new customers. “We’re new and nobody knows us yet, so we go directly to event organizers, calling to make an appointment for a personal visit. We check local events calendars and get a contact list from our tourism board.”
They’ll attend the events personally to survey the layout and logistics of the event grounds, so they can put together a realistic proposal for their visit.
