discounts and free offers

[humble1]

As I am thinking about early marketing what sort of "free offer " or discounts do you use to get new customers?

I was thinking of a few:

5% off Seniors, Fire,
Police and EMS

1-Free perimeter foundation treatment when you sign on for our Full Mosquito or Tick control program.

2- I will probably have a lawn site lynch mob chasing me down on this one.
Free lime application when a customer signs on for The full lawn care package which would be 5 fert/ weed spray. Pre em, surface insects, merit, aeration.
6th app lime and fall fert

I dont have a problem giving the other %5 ontop of this I happen to be an EMT on a call fire dept.

[RigglePLC]

Sounds good.
I hope you are not giving away the Merit treatments--at around $75 per bag (.5G), plus a dollar per 1000 sqft to apply it, plus the trip and overhead--too expensive.

[humble1]

I should be more clear the foundation treatment is a spray.

[PSUTURFGEEK]

One discount I always would reccomend is a 5-10% off of entire year for Pre pay of entire season, this works for you and the customer , saves them money thier gonna spend anyway and in this part of the country brings in money when you don't have much coming in to pay for that expensive preemergant upfront and save even more money.

[Whitey4]

I'm offering a straight $50 bucks off spring cleanups. They save money up front, and while they could screw me, once they see my work I think they will stick with my service.

[Whitey4]

Hey humble... a question about offering a free lime app. That seems like a very difficult freebie to figure out costs on, isn't it? I mean, take a lawn with a pH problem, say 5.5 vs. another that is just a tad low at 6.3. The difference in materials is going to be about X's 4! I know lime seems cheap, but you use so much more of it vs. fert per 1000.... for the 5.5 turf you will use roughly 75 pounds per 1k in a loamy soil. Now, Iknow you can't aply more than 50/1k, but still, on a 1/4 acre that's over 500 pounds!

OK, so it's unlikely to run across a p H that low, but still... seems like too large a variable to offer as a freebie. maybe I'm missing something.

[humble1]

Originally Posted by Whitey4

Hey humble... a question about offering a free lime app. That seems like a very difficult freebie to figure out costs on, isn't it? I mean, take a lawn with a pH problem, say 5.5 vs. another that is just a tad low at 6.3. The difference in materials is going to be about X's 4! I know lime seems cheap, but you use so much more of it vs. fert per 1000.... for the 5.5 turf you will use roughly 75 pounds per 1k in a loamy soil. Now, Iknow you can't aply more than 50/1k, but still, on a 1/4 acre that's over 500 pounds!

OK, so it's unlikely to run across a p H that low, but still... seems like too large a variable to offer as a freebie. maybe I'm missing something.

Im offsetting it with high aeration costs, plus i can eat some stuff on the chem side to gain more accounts, not carved in stone yet, wanted to run it by everyone for input.

[ArizPestWeed]

The best attention getter is the word "free"

[rcreech]

Originally Posted by ArizPestWeed

The best attention getter is the word "free"

EXACTLY!

And we need to remember that the FREE app or service is later in the season!

Do the FREE app first, and they may cancel and tell you they can't afford your or something!

[garydale]

We offer:

- !0% prepay
- $5.00 Senior discount(one time)
- Free appl. on 6-appl. package(lime or late fall)
- Free appl. on referral (lime or late fall)
- Price of one appl. as sales commission(paid on 2nd appl. payment)

The word "free" is a great sales tool. Just watch your #'s.