I've developed a new service which involves email marketing for local businesses. The main part of it includes a system for getting customers to opt-in to the businesses' newsletter I will create which will include coupons and special offers. I finally hit the streets today to find clients and the 2nd person I spoke to (restaurant/pub owner) expressed his concern that this would LOWER his profits ... he says the place is very busy and there are regulars who come in 5 or 6 days a week (I'm assuming he's talking about bar activity). If these people who are already coming in there were to use coupons, he'd be "shooting himself in the foot" by giving them discounts.

Since I'm so green behind the ears with this, I was stumped for a comeback. The only thing I could scramble up to say was that we could be creative and only do dollars off a minimum purchase coupons to ensure they spend a certain amount of money, higher than what they usually spend. Or a "bring a friend" deal of some kind.

He then said he was concerned that most of these regulars would just print or copy tons of these coupons in order to beat the system. I guess we could put on there "limit one coupon per customer per day" or something like that. But there's really no way to control how many coupons someone uses if there's a different waitress or cashier each time ... or is there?

Does anyone have any idea how I could overcome these objections and talk him into using my service? I casually encouraged him to just try the service for one month and see how it goes. But I need something more convincing than that if I'm going to get him to spend the money. Any help from you guys would be appreciated!

The only thing I can think of quickly off the top of my head is to perhaps number the coupons and get the wait staff to cross that number off a master list when customers redeem the voucher. That way there'd be no point in people making copies of the vouchers because that number will have already been used.

__________________
Cath Walter
http://www.diamondva.co.uk

Instead of coupons for percentage off, why does he not run specials. If he already has lots of customers the goal is to have them spend more. Example, if his appetizers are down, then run a "happy hour" special like BOGO or drink special with the purchase of an appetizer. You could run these in the newsletter as well as push any special items that he may have for the month.

He needs to know where he is lacking and you need to find a solution, not the other way around. The point of the "coupons" is to increase business not make the staff crazy. There are a lot of routes he can go being in the food service industry but only someone versed in the industry would know what routes to take to increase profits.

Sometimes we just need to learn from experience and walk away from those who are resistant. You are not going to talk him into your services and do you really want to. If he is reluctant to begin with then he is not your ideal client. You should take the challenges he gave you and apply it to the next pitch.

__________________
Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Maybe the coupons should be for items that the regular customers do not regularly consume? Other than that, I would probably just move on down the street.... possibly to one of his competitors

__________________
Melissa Rahko
www.offsitesecretary.com

Thanks you guys! I'm going to try these suggestions this week.

Well, I'm happy to report that this restaurant is now MY VERY FIRST CLIENT for my new service!! I was shocked when after just a couple of brief follow ups he said he'd like to go ahead and do this. I used all of the suggestions you guys gave me, so THANK YOU!! It's now up and running, the service started September 1st. Woo hoo!

The second time I went out canvassing, I met a store manager/co-owner whose first words in response to my opening pitch were "I like this idea a lot." He got out his appointment book and scheduled a meeting with me for 3 days later. The meeting went FANTASTIC, we were both brainstorming like crazy. He has to get approval before hiring me, but it looks extremely positive and I'm going to be following up soon. I would be able to start off using their existing database of hundreds of customers right off the bat, so the first month's invoice will be a nice fat one.

I'm excited and inspired to get back to the streets to find more clients!

zippy

Congratulations on getting new clients for your email service. I'm curious how you are working this project. You said you have access to one of your clients database of names. What program are you using to create and send the newsletter? I use Constant Contact for my newsletter. Would you open an account in their name, upload their database and go that way? Just curious.

__________________
Pam
www.adminetcetera.com

I think this sounds like a great idea too! Good luck and keep us posted!

Pam, I'm planning on using MailChimp and importing the email addresses from Excel.

Thanks for the explanation. I figured you'd do something like that.

__________________
Pam
www.adminetcetera.com