My furnace is just so insensitive. It doesn’t care at all about my economic needs. Here we are on the eve of the vast holiday season, where fun, frivolity, and the collective shooing of over-served relatives will soon be heard throughout the land. This extra in-home traffic, increased system usage, and changing of the seasons will equate to more in-home service calls for the 873rd year in a row. Those are givens that can be loosely translated as get ready or get left behind.

Another given for this time of year is increased competition for what I call share of wallet. In essence, mail, email, and other media will begin pounding us to cough up money to buy things — shiny, expensive, decorative, redundant things. (Author’s Marital Tip of the Month: If you’re shopping for a female, make sure your gifts are not terribly useful, lest you want this to be your winter of discontent.)

With this, the market need for in-home service will increase. Good. The market competition is high, yet attraction for service need is fairly low. Not so good. Now if your subconscious is saying, “What about the recession,” tell your subconscious to shut up and re-read the headline.

Three minor recessionary points in your favor: People are more prone to pay for needs than wants. (Strange marketing and sales tip: Your job is to make them want the needs.) Second, since they’re being urged to spend more in this season than others, that message can only help your cause. Third, your direct competition has probably pulled back on marketing, even though the market demand is about to increase.

The marketing answer to all this holiday commotion is to cleverly penetrate competitive forces with sanely-budgeted differentiation.

This is a departure from the marketing myopia that causes many to mimic retailers’ holiday sales pitches. If you advertise a giant holiday sale, please ask yourself how many customers really want to give blower motors to their loved ones.

In fact, it is pointless for a contractor to send sales messages between Dec. 10 and Jan. 12. Not only will your efforts most likely wind up discarded, but you will also earn a spot on the list of insensitive hawkers.

What marketing messages work best during the holidays?

• Rebates, cash, tax incentives. These are especially effective in the current economy. Use them extensively from November through January. Focus heavily on either “Cash Back for the Holidays” rebates and/or the tax incentive for replacements, urging compliance for this year’s tax credit. (Want an audio CD on how to market tax credits? See end.)

• Seasonally-effective guarantees. Many people put off having contractors come into their decorated homes and adding to the general seasonal discord. Thus, offer “We’ll leave your home as clean or cleaner than we found it or we’ll pay you $100 cash.” This strategy stands out and is very effective. Leads will greatly outpace your unwarranted concern that homeowners will take advantage. (We have seven other guarantees we recommend that stand out, space here restricts. Call if you get stuck.)

• Creative discounts. Before the season hits hard, offer discounts that support savings towards holiday cash needs. Tie the savings you’re offering into helping pay for other gifts, such as “How to Turn This Postcard into an iPod.” That one is new for us this year, but clients have successfully used variations on it for years. We’ve also done well with “Have A Repair Free Holiday,” which introduces the maintenance agreement program.

• Publicity and charitable giving. Call your local Habitat for Humanity (our newest charitable donation partner) and inquire about upcoming participatory projects. Alternatively, call your television news for the same purpose; telling either that you’d like to get involved. If you’re granted airtime, make sure of three things: Thank the other volunteers; encourage other service businesses and individuals to help; and wear company attire with a company truck nearby. Good-heart marketing is real; people are naturally attracted to support those who support others.

• Send thanks. If you can only do one of these, do this one. Every year I urge contractors to do this. To be a guaranteed standout, send a unique holiday card — not the same cartoony junk everybody’s sick of — with a nice, thankful message or a little humor. Studies show that stability and humor have risen in response ranks this year. It is a good idea to follow this trend.

When working on implementing your holiday message strategy, try some of these:

• Forget the envelope. Save money and use a self-mailer card. Use the money you would’ve thrown away on sending more cards.

• Send first class. Holiday stamp preferred. This way you scrub your list, which should be done twice a year. This is among the cheapest methods.

• A clever twist. Last year, Yelverton’s Electric used our cards but asked about including a coupon, which almost made me violent. However, he’s so smart it gave me an idea. We termed the coupon as a gift certificate and he sold $17,460 of service in January from card keepers. Who said I couldn’t learn?

• Choose the right image. I beg you, please do not show Santa or a snowman trying to get warm. Kids, animals, happy scenes, and unique scenes — supported by uniquely warm messages — deliver a better, higher-image message.

• Video cards. In addition to your holiday card, you can make a short video from your company to post on YouTube. Sing a holiday song no matter how poorly, or just thank customers for being your customers. If it’s especially heartwarming or funny, you can bet that the link will get forwarded well beyond your customer base. Put the link to this video in your email signature and in your holiday cards for more exposure.

• Share and share alike. Look, for many contractors — and well, everyone else — this has been a tough year. Why not share the expense of holiday marketing by using a cross-promotion with a non-competitor, like a plumber, a restaurant, or movie theater? In exchange for discounted services, tickets, or free appetizers, include these with your holiday mailing.

Likewise, the restaurant can give out your holiday cards (with a clever sales twist as mentioned above) with each meal ticket. It’s a win-win at almost no cost to either of you. Plus it’s an awesome way to gain access to a valuable list, adding to your own.

Bottom Line: The holidays are full of opportunities to get out front and stay there. Don’t waste this built-in opportunity to generate leads, goodwill, and future sales. I promise you, if you retreat during the holidays, you’ll have more “Silent Nights” than you ever wanted. Get bold, get creative, have fun, and join the furnaces who have thankfully forgotten there’s a recession. Maybe we should learn from them.

Are you thinking about relocating someone you'd like to hire or have you considered it in the past? Well don't ... at least not yet.

Why wait for 2-3 months for them to get moved and start working for you? Then, what if it doesn't work out? What if they aren't what they say they are? Heck, what if they move and they don't like working for you?

Well, there's a way for you to get them to start working within 1-2 weeks without them actually moving. You get to try them and they get to try you.

Have you ever heard of "Per Diem"?

Well, Per Diem is the maximum daily rate that you can pay someone "TAX FREE" to help offset any additional living expenses while they are working in a location other than where their primary residence is. You can look at your areas daily Per Diem rate by going to www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_BASIC&contentId=17943. Per Diem rates can vary based on the time of year in certain metropolitan areas or it can be a fixed daily rate all year long. (see the rate schedule for details on your area)

For example, we’re located in the Dallas area. According to the 2009 rates, we can pay someone up to $174/day in tax free income to help them offset their living expenses. That's $115/day for Lodging + $59/day for M & IE (Meals and Incidentals) for a total of $174/day.

That's $870/week (5 day work week) in Tax Free income that you can legally pay them ... $3,480/month; money that they don't have to claim on their taxes as income, saving them 20% — 35% depending upon their tax bracket. That's equal to paying them $5,000/mo of taxable income. Plus, it saves you the matching taxes of 7.5% +/-, which would be $375/mo based on the $5,000/mo if it were taxable income.

Now, you don't have to pay them that much, but you can. The fact is; you do have to pay them something reasonable as “taxable income”, but you can offset that by the Per Diem, which will help everyone. Sure it's still going to cost you a little more per hour to have this person working for you then it would if you hired a local guy, put it's well worth it if they work out long-term.

You only have to pay the Per Diem for as long as they are still working for you. If they quit or you fire them, you're done. Heck, for someone to stay in an extended stay hotel or furnished apartment would cost between $600 and $800/mo. ($30 - $40/day (based on a 5 day work week)) and Meals would be about $25/day +/-. So, in reality, you could get by with paying someone an extra $65/day in Per Diem to cover all their additional living expenses. That's only $325/week.

If it works out...then they can eventually move and everyone lives happily ever after. If it doesn't work out, they go back home without risking a thing. I think that you can continue to pay someone Per Diem for up to 18 months, but you should definitely check with your payroll company or accountant to get all the facts straight before you start paying Per Diem to anyone.

Mike Mayberry is the president of HVAC Agent, www.hvacagent.com.

What does your customer hear when they call your company and are put on hold? If it’s music, do all your customers like it? If there is nothing, just silence, well that is less than exciting. Perhaps you hook them into your local radio station. Wow, watch out for this one. You have no idea what they are listening to including advertisements from your competition. There is a better way.

Consider installing a professional on-hold system. You can get the equipment, have the content professionally written and recorded, and have the music of your choice in the background for about $450 a year. A professional system tells the caller you are a professional company, even if you are a one-man operation. Be sure your script includes a summary of what you offer. Perhaps your message is about the value of an Annual Maintenance Agreement.

I don’t care if the phone hasn’t rung for 3 hours, put the caller on hold for about 15 seconds, no more. You know what they are listening to. Then pick up the phone, apologize for having to put them on hold, and ask them something like “Hello Mr./Mrs. Jones. Thanks you for calling. I am sorry you were put on hold. By the way, did you know we offer annual maintenance agreements for your equipment?” You know what the customer just heard so off you go, perhaps to the sale of a maintenance agreement.

This, and other tips, are shared during our three-day “Basic Business Boot Camp”. For more information click http://www.grandyassociates.com/bbb

Tom Grandy is president of Grandy & Associates.

What do you do when you don’t know for sure what to do? Jacki Bradbury-Guerrero, owner of Coastal Comfort Heating & Air in Ventura, Calif., is in one of those areas that, like many, has been hit hard during this economic downturn. Jacki is a leader who believes in daring to take action and not simply repeating more of the same action even though she and her team had a track record of proven success.

Jacki and her son Todd began calling on some prospective customers as a team. And, what a great idea that turned out to be — customers were very pleased. Not only did they close more sales, Jacki and Todd enjoyed presenting together.

So where did Jacki get this idea? She lives by her favorite quote, "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, It is because we do not dare that they are difficult." – Seneca

Jacki dared to try this approach when she remembered she had sent her sons, Todd and Jason, on sales calls together in slower times when their company was new. She dared to borrow from that successful sales strategy and everyone is enjoying the benefits including very happy customers. So, what new ideas or old ideas have you dared to try?  It’s time to roll ‘em out! 

Sharon is a consultant who specializes in selling to women and couples. You can contact her at Sharon@r2assoc.com.

The law of money, simply stated, says “Any significant sized budget (personal or business) will absorb every dollar put in it.” But the bottom line is we spend what we have available. Are you tired of working hard but having nothing to show for it other than a weekly salary?

Try this. Go to the person that handles the checkbook. Instruct them to right a check for “x” number of dollars each week, perhaps on Tuesday. It might be $50 a week or a couple hundred dollars, you pick the number. Once they right the check instruct them to deposit it in your personal savings account or mutual fund. The law of money says everything in your checkbook will be spent but it also says “Somehow you will make it no matter what’s in your checkbook.” Tell the person in the office not to look at the company cash flow and not to ask you about it each week — just do it!

If you invested $100 a week in a mutual fund that historically earns 12 percent (I said historically, not this year in this economy) in five years you would have nearly $35,000 and within 10 years the figure would growth to nearly $100,000. You will never miss the $100 a week and it’s a lot of fun to watch it grow! Try it and then give me a call in a few years.

This, and other tips, are shared during our three-day “Basic Business Boot Camp”. For more information, click http://www.GrandyAssociates.com/bbb 

Tom Grandy is president of Grandy & Associates.

I hate it. We all hate it.

E-mail has turned into the digital telemarketer during dinner. It’s too much, too often, and — in my lowly estimation — too cheap. I wish they’d charge for it so the spammers, slammers, and scammers could just go bother someone else.

In the meantime, you and I nearly dread the return from a vacation, finding inboxes crammed with promised millions, Viagra offers, male “enhancements” and some scandalous promise from the marketing world. (Yes, probably even me on occasion.)

Many of you have e-zines for clients who visit your Website. Yahoo! Great move, that’s an awesome babystep toward the relationship. But it cannot stop there, or in fact, it WILL stop there … then retreat.

MarketingSherpa — an online marketing training company — conducted a study of 4,000 e-mail/e-zine publishers and found some startling news about e-mail backlash. If you ONLY use e-mail as a customer contact, they found that “credibility and readership” were most at risk. Seems those might be important.

Shocker No. 2: They found many online, solely digital based businesses “finally” resorted to postal mail to drive customers to portal and commerce sites with resounding results. One seminar company ($40 million in sales) that teaches how to make money on the internet found its biggest response to seminar attendance was from — gulp — postal mail.

Re-read the first 3 sentences of this article. Now read the rest of this entry and the strategies you should consider now to grab your customer’s attention while your competition is looking for the “cheap” way to drive them to boredom….

Bottom Line: Postal mail is back, in a big way.

Almost immediately, we launched a paper and ink newsletter mailed to our top clients (CRC and MegaMarketer members receive The Contractor MegaMarketer every month.) We’ve been bugging you about this trend, feeling it would only get worse. We were half right.

It got worse, but for two different reasons: distraction and interruption.

Whereas postal mail can be read at leisure, and other media can be chosen or not, e-mail continues to relentlessly bling into place, ever heightening the stack of “unopened” mail, each begging for attention … while some legitimate e-mail lands in the SPAM folder for no discernable reason. (Case in point: I’m doing a product exchange with a man I’ve communicated with for a couple months; today, without warning I see his proposal is in my SPAM folder ... and has been for 2 weeks. Why? He had a dollar sign in his e-mail.)

I was sure I was on the “other side” of the age group attempting to form a “Let’s Kill the Sender of the Next E-mail I Didn’t Request” party. But no, not by a rather long shot. And the “target” audience that contractors are after hate e-mail more than you do!

So, here’s where I admit I was half-wrong, twice in one article. Quoted from Vertis Communications study on readership habits and advertising response:

“Despite the rise of Website, e-mail, and other electronically based advertisements, printed direct-mail marketing pieces are still widely read, especially by women ages 25 to 44.

"Eighty-five percent of women ages 25 to 44 (with e-mail accounts) said they read printed direct-mail pieces compared to just 53 percent who read e-mail advertisements. The percentage of young women who read e-mail advertisements has not changed from 2005, when 54 percent indicated they viewed this type of marketing. Numbers for women 45-65 were 94 percent and 45 percent, increasing the e-mail to postal gap markedly.”

Double oops. Your “target” group prefers postal mail, and e-mail readership hasn’t gone up at all in 3 years. (Remember, the prediction was that the U.S. Post Office would be nearly shut down by now!)

After a year of our print plus e-mail versions, results have been astounding. We “point” from one to the other, engaging people at the level they prefer. Likewise, we point from e-mail to web, web to phone, and mail to both. E-mail alone could never accomplish this. Also.…

Ever try finding that e-mail you so enjoyed 4 months ago? Sure, I can print it out and save it, but who does? But with “real” mail, I can keep up with it in one location quite handily. Mark it up, dog ear, write on it, rip a coupon and put it in my wallet.

Your strategy in a limping economy —

• Build a huge, impenetrable fence around your customer base starting yesterday using a variety of media. Primary means is direct mail. Secondary means is Telephone (as thank you to every service visit, follow up to request referrals). Third means is e-mail identified clearly as from you and NOT a solicitation.

• Postal mail contact frequency per customer: 4-12 times per year with at least 4 contacts as “soft sell” and/or educational pieces (newsletters, reminders, or other). Two to four more can be “celebratory” (birthday, anniversary, holiday, etc.) The remainder direct response offers.

• IN ADDITION to above, you can e-mail up to twice as often (since delivery rates are so pathetic) making sure every contact is run through a SPAM filter. More trigger words are added daily: http://hudsonink.com/marketing_ektid1506.aspx

Remember, your credibility is contained in how you contact your customers. If YOU ONLY communicate in a way that’s cheap and grossly overused, don’t be surprised if you’re “associated” thereby. Combine your contact methods. Let postal mail “drive” customers to the phone and to your Website; pound your name into their recall for their friends and neighbors.