Remember how I told you about a company I started in college called Name Droppers?
My friend Neil and I would hire college girls to go out into neighborhoods in the evenings and weekends doing surveys, looking for households planning to do home improvements that summer. So that we could identify people who wanted to get painting jobs done.
The one thing we figured out quite quickly (in our selfish desire to get more painting jobs for ourselves) was… If we’d just go knocking door-to-door for that one thing, it would be a wasted opportunity. Because even if somebody wasn’t planning to do any painting, maybe they needed their roof replaced… or their driveway cleaned… or something else fixed.
And so, instead of just looking for painting job leads, we decided to go door-knocking for our entire category! We appointed ourselves as mayors of the home improvement niche… and started collecting data on everyone planning to do household improvements that summer.
The reasoning was, even if we didn’t do roofing, and we didn’t do pools, landscaping, or driveways… even if we didn’t do anything else besides painting… We knew that if we got people who wanted to get those other jobs done, we’d find somebody else who’d be eager to do them. And because most people prefer to work in their During Unit than go out generating leads, we were paid a handsome commission. And sure enough, we made more money referring a pool job or a roofing job to somebody than we would have made if we did the painting job for that house.
The same is true for any other industry…
Think about it. Whatever business you’re in right now, I’m willing to bet there are 5, 8, or 13 other things your prospects need to be done… that fall within your category, but you don’t directly do them yourself.
For example, let’s say you’re a plumber.
You fix leaks and boilers and bathrooms in people’s houses. However, so many other things could go wrong in a house that you don’t have a solution for. But somebody else does. What would it cost you if you could team up with all these other businesses and create something like a household emergency handbook? You know, a little directory covering everything that could go wrong in your house… and then list numbers and contact details of people who can fix them.
I’m sure other businesses would happily pay you to be featured in that handbook. But that’s not even the best part… The greatest thing about becoming the mayor of your category is how you make your prospects and customers feel. And that is…
You make them feel they’re being taken care of. Because now, you’re their “guy” with the magic wand. And for anything that goes wrong with their house… they know they can just call you and stop worrying about it…
And that means lifetime customers for you.
For more on gaining lifetime customers, come listen to the podcast.
