Andrew Leslie is a man they don’t make anymore.
Hard-working, Cajun born, duty driven. If the deep caramel skin (that’s about
as smooth) and the tell-tale accent reeling quick witted tales didn’t make you
question his age, his overbooked work ethic would.
Though he’s just days from an age 65 retirement, I’d suggest
cardio training if you tried to keep up with him. I’ve seen his personal shadow
almost give up in frustration.
He had a full time career with J.R. Smith, helping assemble
a few million specialty plumbing products, then moved into receiving, spanning
as he told me in his thick accent, “23
years, 5 months, 2 days and about 6 hours… or thereabouts.” Andrew is rarely
without wit or supporting evidence.
Yet his “other” full time job was being a father to son,
Eric, who’s with the Federal Railroad and daughter Rachelle, vice president of
a bank. Andrew also unhesitatingly calls his nieces Kerry and Kimberly – both
business owners – his “daughters” since they raised them as well. His wife,
Eva, was equally active, but Fibromyalgia and Arthritis had other plans,
enlisting Andrew as supportive caretaker for the last 14 years.
And his other full time job was lawn maintenance. He
probably did other things, but I am getting tired of listing them all. Yet atop
all this…
He was our lawn
maintenance guy. Did it by himself too. Pulled a neatly-crafted and packed
trailer behind his trusty silver Dodge Ram truck. Weed eaters, blowers, and a
Snapper Mower than was more an extension of his hands and feet than a separate
machine.
Many a Saturday, I’d see Andrew, turning a zero radius
circle around one of too many of our tall southern pine trees with the fluidity
of an ice skater (yet thankfully in khaki instead of spandex). Where he willed,
the Snapper went.
And if our yard wasn’t enough, he had the neighbors to the
left. And the right. And two doors down, plus the next one, and a couple more
he’d hit on his way home. Master of efficiency, he had to “disengage” from one
customer who was well off the route. “I had to tell her the drive was too much
for an old man,” he said to me once, adding “She wasn’t all that darn nice
either.” I laughed, but he wasn’t done. “I truly hope she doesn’t move to a yard
that’s more convenient.”
You can tell by the ‘connection’ to customers that if Andrew
got one job, he’d get all the other ones he wanted, where he wanted, at the
price he said. Shopping was over. Why?
Because Andrew’s
referrals were so enthusiastic you’d half question if there was some
pyramid scheme of sudden riches coming to the referring party.
He got jobs – at will – in our neighborhood of yard-crazy
people (historic neighborhood in the deep south, need I say more?) that is regularly
patrolled by the ‘big’ companies. Their postcards were tossed, their TV
commercials rendered us blind, the radio ads made us deaf. All we knew when
prodded was, “Andrew does our yard,” usually recited like unwavering,
slobbering robots. And we were.
Until Andrew retired from us.
Finding his “replacement” will be in word only. Oh sure, the
“new” guy may have a little more bounce in his step, some more “moderness” to
the approach, and potentially more eagerness for additional clients. But he
ain’t gonna be Andrew, and that’s a fact.
The beauty of Andrew’s legacy, only briefly shared herein,
has a marketing thread of fascination for me in that he scored 100% of the
jobs he wanted, sans price-shopping.
Here’s how he did
it -
1. He “Advertised” his work while
doing his work. A neat truck, parked out front, with good well maintained equipment was better
than an interstate of billboards. If you’re NOT doing this, plus yard signs,
and/or parking pylons, and/or door hangers, and/or windshield signage, how are
the neighbors to know you’re ‘endorsed’?
2. Focused, targeted marketing
efforts. Andrew controlled his jobs instead of the other way around.
Sure, he could’ve gotten jobs in multiple inconvenient locations, but he
focused on a particular customer, in a particular area, and “owned” that area. You
think neighbors don’t talk?
3. Pricing insensitivity.
Andrew could price a job efficiently since he had to move his truck a few feet,
spreading the ‘windshield time’ over the adjacent yards, where others had to
quote from a ‘rate sheet’ that unwisely assumed a trip charge regardless of
relative proximity. Smart. Yet, his increased efficiency went into his pocket, not ours, because he
followed these steps! Double smart.
4. Established a Referral chain.
Each new job came with a blessing and endorsement from the previous. This was
the ‘first step’ in a three step process that followed with…
5. Asked a simple question
of the potential referrer: “If I introduce myself to your neighbors, is it okay
if I tell them that I do your work?” Who’s gonna say ‘no’ to that? No one did.
Thus the near simultaneous 3rd step…
6. Qualified Introduction:
Andrew would introduce himself as being the lawn maintenance professional for
and wondered, “I love this area and these great lawns. If
you’re looking for someone to take care of it, I’d be honored. The
said it’d be okay to call them to ask anything you’d like
about my service.”
Generally a phone call would ensue, which began the blathering, which ended in “SOLD!” Even if no phone call ensued, the “implied endorsement” was good enough. (Remember this when you blanket an area. Your trucks, signage, follow-up calls, radius mailings are all implied endorsements.)
7. Regular re-endorsement and
relationship building – We got an invoice monthly, sometimes with a
hand written note (bill stuffer anyone?) and a Christmas card every year. It’s
the small stuff that can make the strongest glue. His regular recontact even in the months we didn’t see him
regularly, reinforced his presence, our loyalty, and the subsequent
discarding of competing effort. This is massively important. If you’re
not ‘recontacting’ clients, they’re not as much ‘yours’ as you hope.
If Andrew had been a “company” of more than one, I’d have
recommended all the above, but suggested using media to broaden the message. Thus,
my advice to you is to “multiply the effort” through media and “multiply the
results” as well.
The message remains the same…
Your referrals will not
“just happen” in the numbers you could get if you “made them happen”.
Andrew made his happen. You must
target, ask, follow up, and perform as promised, then repeat. If you do this
for 23 years, 5 months, 2 days and about 6 hours… or thereabouts, you can grow
your referrals and retire happy too.
Happy retirement Andrew. Me and my overgrown yard already
miss you.
Questions for You:
■ What “ACTIONS” do
you take to ensure that one customer leads to many? I’d suggest a 7 step follow up procedure,
beginning on the first day following a new customer contact, spread over the
next 120 days, with 2-4 ‘programmed’ contacts until they moved, died, or told
you to go away.
■ What “SYSTEM” is in
place to make sure the actions don’t get “forgotten”? This is a biggee. Our
“Endless Referrals” program is designed to be just that, putting a single
person in charge of this (should take 20 minutes a month) to enact.
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