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• Facing the Future
For better or worse, Internet pricing is here to stay. What does that mean for independent pool service companies?
(As told to Ben Thomas by Bryan Chrissan, president of Clear Valley Pool Service in Temecula, Calif.)
When I realized how many more accounts I could be getting if I worked with the Internet retailers, I decided to take the initiative and try networking with some of them.
I started by going online and searching for a part I knew how to service — a certain type of pump, for example. I looked on the Websites of the top few search results, and tracked down contact e-mail addresses for those companies.
Then I put together an e-mail, basically describing who I was and what I did, and why I wanted to work with them on referrals. I sent it out in bulk to every large online retailer I could find.
Not all of them responded, but quite a few did, and they started passing new service accounts my way. So I kept it up, reaching out to online businesspeople through e-mail, and making sure to introduce myself at trade shows. Now, I get more online referrals than I have time for.
There’s no big secret to this — you’ve just got to take the lead, and be persistent about it.