NEED HELP WITH GETTING NEW WORK

[elcruisr]

Gerald has a good point, never compete with your customer base. Believe me they will find out and remember it. We refer work TO our customers and they really remember that! Just convince them how you're going to make them money while you make money as well and you have the start of a good, long term business relationship.

Eric

[jhicks]

Well lots of good advice here as usual but I respectfully disagree with minimizing a web presence. As a veteran professional sales person I spent much of my time in front of clients for years. In fact personal face to face is still the best. The problem is getting any and the cost of these visits. Folks are busier than ever and generally want to see something or qualify a supplier without a meeting. Today that's done via the web at all hours of the day 24/7.
So relying on a convincing phone conversation IF they will talk to you, Then scheduling a face to face with samples, literature, gas, traffic, and late meetings is just way too cumbersome and costly.
We have found that even if they do talk on the phone, the 1st question is either can you send me literature, or DO YOU HAVE A WEB SITE?
After my initial start up with our wood work and shop bot, I made fliers, faxed folks(Black and white = poor quality images to sell with) , e-mailed them with color attachments, and made sales calls 2 to 3 days a week. Then came back printed more fliers and did it again.
Now we have a simple and cheap web site which I don't care for much anymore but it enabled us to say.
1) Yes we have a web site, can you go there while we're on the phone and we can discuss some of the things we offer.
2) Yes, that's a specicific material, style, or similar work to what you're describing.
And more important these days then the web site per se and free is a BLOG. There we post work regularly with stories about the piece or project. For us thats the absolute best vehicle to carry on an efficient sales discussion.

PLUS with some work one can get a substantial presence on the web by working it and all the free directories out there so folks find you easily.

Most new leads come to us via tour web presence and I rarely make cold calls anymore.

Usually from there we get e-mail files, quote, and often never have any sales call until we deliver or they pick up their material.

to each their own but don't overlook a cheap, easy, and effective web presence of some kind.
Best of Luck

[myxpykalix]

Just to follow up on jerrys comments about web presence. Go to: www.hostexcellence.com they have a package for $3.00/month that is more than adequate for any type of business presence. So cost should not be a factor in getting a website up.