Yet Another great way to find RAVING FANS and Clients

18 replies
As some of you may or may not know, I'm an old crusty retired restoration contractor who has retired and is now doing Offline marketing.

A few years ago I got a lead from my roofing web site and I went to run the lead.

When I arrived I met a very nice gentleman who also was gay. He wasn't to concerned with hiding it so it was a no brainer in knowing.

I signed him up for a complete re-roofing job that was around 15k. As any professional business man I treated him must like any other customer and made sure his job went through smoothly and that everything ended up perfect.

He was a really cool dude and when I went to pick up my final payment we sat and bull****ted for about half an hour and that's when he asked me a question that ended up in an additional 200k of new roof job before the year was over.

He asked me if I was an advertiser in the local gay and lesbian yellow pages. I was instantly interested because from my past experience with doing roofing jobs for people from this community I knew they are RAVING fans if you've done a good job for them and just treated them like any other person/client. I would get many personal referrals from them to others in the community. But this was the first time I heard about a yellow pages directory for this community.

As it turns out, he gave me a web site to the local yellow pages for his community and I ended up buying a spot in the yellow pages which also gave me a business listing profile on their web site.

Here's why this is such a GREAT resource!

This community has its own sub culture and they make a point of doing business with each other and they ESPECIALLY make it a point to do business with businesses who are gay and lesbian friendly.

After I signed up for their yellow pages I put a badge on my site indicating that we support the community and of course I did a little extra marketing.

The result was about 200k in extra roofing job that year that I would not have had. That's about 25 extra complete re-roofs! For me that was 1 months of extra work.

This is a very tight nit community so you should you decide to pursue you better deliver, you better be professional, and you better have a good bearing about you. This community on average has more money and is better educated as well.
#clients #fans #find #great #raving
  • Profile picture of the author RRG
    Interesting.

    Do you think it's important that the service provider himself is gay? Or is being "gay-friendly" enough?
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      LOL I knew some one would think that! haha

      Actually its FAR better to be outside the community and show support and provide a great service.

      This community has been long discriminated against buy businesses outside of their culture.

      I know this for a fact because this was always a topic of discussion when I'd hang out and just talk with these clients. They have been treated as social outcasts by many business owners who do not align with their cultural beliefs for a long time and it continues today.

      However, you better get on this band wagon like yesterday! More and more businesses are finding out how FAITHFUL this community is as patrons.

      Originally Posted by RRG View Post

      Interesting.

      Do you think it's important that the service provider himself is gay? Or is being "gay-friendly" enough?
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      • Profile picture of the author RRG
        Originally Posted by Rus Sells View Post


        This community has been long discriminated against buy businesses outside of their culture.

        They have been treated as social outcasts by many business owners who do not align with their cultural beliefs for a long time and it continues today.
        Money has no sexual orientation.
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        • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
          Exactly and they get that! That's why they fall in love with businesses that are friendly to their community! = )

          Originally Posted by RRG View Post

          Money has no sexual orientation.
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          • Profile picture of the author LongTail Silver
            Cool man. It's good that you're spreading a little tolerance. Time for everyone to grow up.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Pawlett
    The pink pound is gold!

    Another group that I have found that network well is the catholic professionals, I used to advertise in their newsletter and got great results.

    This method of marketing that Rus wrote about works in a lot of groups, in the UK the Lions and Rotary clubs are also great places to network.

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Hey John!

      Its been a long time since we talked last! How are you buddy! = )

      Your right, there are other groups like this that are a culture all to their own.

      What I love the most about my mention is that these people become raving fans that market for you for free.


      I've worked with various other club's/cultures and I'm telling every one here, not saying... TELLING!

      The community I am talking about is GOLD.

      They are better educated and have higher incomes.



      Originally Posted by John Pawlett View Post

      The pink pound is gold!

      Another group that I have found that network well is the catholic professionals, I used to advertise in their newsletter and got great results.

      This method of marketing that Rus wrote about works in a lot of groups, in the UK the Lions and Rotary clubs are also great places to network.

      John
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    I'm wondering how many people will bother to reply to this thread once they read the first post.

    Having been a business owner for 20+ years I speak from an experience that very many people in this section of the forums can't speak from. So we'll see.
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  • Profile picture of the author Power and Wealth
    Great tip Rus, thanks for sharing. This is definitely outside the box thinking.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Those in the know realize that these people are IDEAL clients. As long as you perform you'll have very minimal attrition and you'll be keeping your clients for a long time.

      Originally Posted by Xpert Marketer View Post

      Great tip Rus, thanks for sharing. This is definitely outside the box thinking.
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  • Profile picture of the author marketingva
    Rus,

    Thank you for sharing this story. My very favorite, long term client is a member of this community and she has referred more people to me then all of my other clients put together. My parents taught me to be tolerant and respectful of everyone and this is one lesson I really thank them for!

    Bonnie
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Can you say?

      SOCIAL PROOF!

      I do know what I am talking about! = )

      Thanks for the confirmation!

      Favorite long term client giving you tons of referrals. Isn't that what ALL of use want from a clients aside from their payments? lol

      Originally Posted by marketingva View Post

      Rus,

      Thank you for sharing this story. My very favorite, long term client is a member of this community and she has referred more people to me then all of my other clients put together. My parents taught me to be tolerant and respectful of everyone and this is one lesson I really thank them for!

      Bonnie
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  • Profile picture of the author Flyingpig7
    I didn't know they were discriminated that much in America . I mean you just ring up for a plummer they don't know your orientation why should that make a difference?

    Having read your post I do know that there are some underground directories in the Uk the one I know of are women only; for female tradespersons (would you believe). However I've never felt the need to employ them from a directory especially, nor have I heard of anyone being discriminated against by service providers.

    But hey if these niches provide you with great referral leads go for it Rus.
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    Have a great day

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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      Hey thanks for the feedback. Unless you have clients that are from this community that you've spent time getting to know you would not know about the discrimination they endure from business owners.

      Point in case: I used to own a wedding gown shop and every now and then I've have men come in wanting to try on wedding gowns. They'd been shunned and told to leave all the other bridal shops in town.

      They however were sensitive to how it appeared and usually came in during the early morning hours when the shop wasn't busy at all to try on gowns.

      Ultimately I chose not to side with my peers and allowed them to come in and try on the samples. It resulted in a few extra sales so yeah!




      Originally Posted by Flyingpig7 View Post

      I didn't know they were discriminated that much in America . I mean you just ring up for a plummer they don't know your orientation why should that make a difference?

      Having read your post I do know that there are some underground directories in the Uk the one I know of are women only; for female tradespersons (would you believe). However I've never felt the need to employ them from a directory especially, nor have I heard of anyone being discriminated against by service providers.

      But hey if these niches provide you with great referral leads go for it Rus.
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  • Yet Another great way to find RAVING FANS and Clients?

    Double entendre'? :rolleyes:

    Great tip Rus - 3 snaps!




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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Thanks for sharing your feedback Charlie!

    Another thing about the market segment is that they have much more disposable income then most people do. Hence they may take a little more risk then others.

    They really are the ideal prospect! HEHE

    Originally Posted by Charlie Lyons View Post

    Living on the cusp of West Hollywood in Los Angeles for seven years I experienced this first hand. Although I no longer live there, most of my neighborhood was and still is predominately gay and lesbian. When I lived there, local businesses went out of their way to advertise that they are LGBT friendly businesses which I always thought was smart on their part. Heck, even the LAPD runs ads in the gay and lesbian publications promoting their support for recruiting events.

    My experience is they also really appreciate people not just for operating a business that's LGBT friendly but they genuinely appreciate you as a service provider and the work product or service you deliver; assuming you're delivering quality. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that everyone in this community will roll out the red carpet for you. Just like every major city has good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods, occasionally you come across people in this community that are just pissed off at the world and no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to please them. But how is that different from the clients you have now or the one's you may be courting.

    Russ, you're spot on! They are generally very well educated, intelligent and earn above average income and in my experience, they're really awesome people to boot! The only caveat I would share with offline consultants is to consider the community you're targeting for new clients before you start promoting that you are an LGBT friendly business. I live in a major metro area (L.A.) where there is a huge LGBT community (e.g. also San Francisco) that could provide you with plenty of business. The unfortunate thing is many areas nationwide and globally that are still very discriminating towards the LGBT community. While I think that's really backwards, the reality is if you're an offline consultant and you live in one of those backward thinking, discriminating communities (I won't mention any cities to protect the innocent), you could cost yourself local business by displaying support. I'm not encouraging anybody not to be fully self expressed with who and what they support as much as I'm inviting people to make intelligent, healthy business decisions as an entrepreneur. All I'm saying is proceed with caution, fair enough?

    Overall, Russ you are spot on about doing business in this community! These are generally awesome people and I've always had amazing experiences with them (not that kind, but nice try ;o). The reason this thread caught my attention is because I was just flipping through a gay magazine I picked up recently with a bunch of others from the stands outside of a health food store and was revisiting the idea of advertising in that mag.

    Glad to know others are thinking the same way. Great advice Russ!

    Charlie
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  • Profile picture of the author mantis108
    Great info, thanks Russ!
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