Hello All,

This is my first year doing ADC full time. Work has dried up. I have been using the Rob Russell word by mouth advertising post as a guide to get business.
I have approached a lot of town animal control officers. Some tell me that they are interested in my service. I give them business cards and brochures. I get all pumped up. Then nothing no calls, no business.

I have gone to a lot of police dept. dispatches some tell me that they can not recommend one company over another. Others appear to be grateful to now have a solution to a potential problem.

It is frustrating when individuals say one thing then do another or don't call as they said that they would.

I knocked on doors for two weeks straight about two months ago and I am still looking for the payoff.

How would you approach the animal control officers that said yes to using me but, I have yet to get a call.

Thanks

The work is starting to slow down here as well. Some police dispatchers already have some one they use. In my are, the dispatchers usually give out all the names on their list. Some dispatchers have no one on their list, so they are glad to have someone to refur people to. But, as I said this time of year the work is starting to slow down. The police get more calls in the spring when the young are starting to get out and get into trouble.

Coondog, that is a tough one, I doubt many folks haven't experienced the same frustration to some extent.

I do get referrals from some of these types, but I count on other advertising to keep things moving. Adwords has
worked well for me for the money, depends on your market though.

There have been some great posts including robbs on how to attract clients, marketing is an art and science but
one thing that usually is mandatory is spending some funds to attract them.

Most folks serious about business spend a good amount of funding each year to gain new clients.

Finding out where your clients are and what they read or if they use the internet to find you etc.... all important.

I've found animal control to send me more of the calls I don't want or folks who don't want to pay or not pay much
versus those I attract through targeted marketing.

Not sure that helps, but guess I'm saying, don't count on these folks branch out and take all the tips you can from
what you are reading that you think suits your market.

Justin

Read the book "Guerrilla Marketing". It is full of ideals geared toward small business. Many subjects in the book are about no to low-cost advertising.

Coondog I never said it would be easy. It took me 8 years to pull the umbilical cord of a secure job and trust I could keep my own doors open. You are gonna have to grow your sphere of influence locally.

HD mentioned Google Adwords and I agree. . Your gonna shake a lot of hands before you shake a few of the right ones but don't give up.

The World wide web is what you need to focus your efforts on. The first place people look for help with critter problems is online. Build a site point adwords to it, and if you keep up with the site the less you will need pay per click when the search engines find you. I sent you a PM to help you out.

Word of mouth will bring in some work during the year, but as RF and Robb stated it's all about the web to pay the bills.

You need a service that requires followup. Then you can tap it when it slows.

I agree with DaveK on looking to adding other add on services. The animals alone rarely keep you busy enough compared to adding animal damage repair, attic restoration and other skill sets.

Here are four podcasts that should help you better understand the web and advertising. Got a questions call me. Phone number is on the web site.

http://thewildlifepro.com/robb-russells-podcasts-marketing-online-2013/

Pay your dues....

Two things you must do.

Shoe leather marketing. Get out on the street and make as many face to face contacts as is physically possible to in a day then get up and do it all over again and again and again until everyone knows you by name and what you do. Then maintain those contacts as often as you can. This is all about selling yourself and if you fail at this you will never be successful.

Since you already have past clients find out how to leverage these people to your next job or client. It could be add on services to the original call or best of all direct referrals to new clients then leverage those and so on. Of course this can only work if you were indeed of actual value to your clients. If you know customer service then you will know a satisfied client base is one of your greatest assets.

BTW, while the Internet is almost a must have these days it is IMO over rated.

Yes, it is a must have to get your name and number out there, just posting it to this site alone will spread your contact info to all corners of the globe.
Yet here's the but, without the personal touch of face to face contact and personal referrals your just one more impersonal internet marketer among millions of others. Make the most of what is getting to be a rare commodity these days the personal touch.

As much as I want Georgia Wildlife Services to be well known it pleases me even more when a stranger calls and asks for David.

Tons of referrals from pest control companies here. They know my reputation (I have happy customers call back to their dispatcher/office managers to thank them for referring me), and the work keeps flowing. Take care of your PCOs, they'll take care of you. Networking with others in similar trades (pest control), trades that need you to remove animals first (roofers, HVAC guys, plumbers) and property managers (Realtors, landlords, apt managers) who are tired of listening to tenants complain about noises in the attic/walls/ductwork, will get you a lot of work. I've been invited repeatedly by most of them to join their BNIs, but don't have time to sit around meeting with them trying to work up referrals, since they've already sent me so much work I can't take time off to network. I'm due to renew my Superpages contract this week and the salesman is going to be unhappy when I tell him that I'm dropping more than 50% of his service. Will be an interesting meeting since I'm also giving him a bid for ratproofing and trapping at his house that same morning. He's been waiting two weeks for this rat inspection appointment. Word of mouth referrals, repeat business, property managers, and less expensive optimized internet listings account for the lion's share of my calls. Very few look in the paper yellow pages, and I noticed my Superpages listing falls way down the list below my other internet listings when I google/bing wildlife control of any kind for my area. It will take you time...it took a few years before I had so much work that I quit answering the phone every time it rang. This summer was so bad that I was taking 20-30 calls every Monday morning, and had over 100 calls by the end of each week. That happened for almost 3 straight months. Calls are finally starting to slow down now but still more than I can handle, and the nor'easter just set me back another week. I take mandatory time off (wife's orders) since there hasn't been a true lull in business in 3 years. Yeah, you may be eating cardboard and ketchup this winter, but keep at it, provide excellent service, build a solid reputation as the best of the best, network, have satisfied customers call to thank the one who referred them, meet and greet people of influence (those who can send lot of work your way), and eventually the work will come like a flood you wish you could stop.

Thanks for the input.

It sounds like I need to pound on more doors. That is the one thing that I can afford.

Have a friend call in need of a coon removal and see who is recommended. Then, have another call for squirrel removal.

Then you'll know if someone is already their "go to" guy.

Make sure you get onto yelp. I get a lot of business from yelp having good reviews

Despite how well Robb's website works for me I still have been unable to wean myself from the dreaded yellow pages. They still produce too large of a percentage of calls to drop them, just keep your ad simple so you don't spend too much on it. Of course the Montana market is completely different then Califony so you'll have to weigh my advice.

Every market is different and what works in one market is never a guarantee it works in other markets.

Back in Sarasota the YP was dead and a waste of money.

I tried it here in North Central Florida and the locals who only use YP usually unable to pay for any services.

I often find more folks using YP and not searching the web less capable of being able to afford my services.

Those who have a computer, have searched and found us are more likely to be better informed customers and capable of paying for professional services.

Word of mouth is still my best for me.

What Kevin and Robb said x2, especially about BNI. We got exactly ONE job thru BNI, and my wife worked very hard at trying to make BNI work for us. Apparently, it worked for some of the members - just not for us.

You really can't hold other people responsible for you not getting work. If you talk to them and they say they'll help you, all you can do is hope that they actually do it. Some will, some won't. This is the start of my 5th year and I'm just now seeing jobs roll in. I was looking forward to a mid summer lull that never happened and the jobs keep rolling in. I'm part time, with a full time job, working towards building a new career when I retire at 50 years of age. I've spent a lot of time developing a good professional image, knowledge of the animal biology and behavior that I can answer questions with facts not generalities and performing the job in a professional manor that they wouldn't get from their neighbor weekend recreational trapper. I also put a lot of energy into getting my business name out in front of everyone. A good web site and google adwords are the cheapest paid for advertising you can get. My first $100 lasted three months on adwords and landed me a $90 dead animal removal the first day I ran them. I now do between $100 and $200 a month on typical months. I only had a few people refer me out by asking them to, but I've got a lot of people to refer me out because they've heard about the quality of work that I've done. I now have pest control companies referring work to me and I've never met them.

In summary, it takes a lot of work to get work.