Best approach for acquiring new business.

[Barbara Richmond]

Hi Shawn, 



After moving, I had to start over. One of the things I did was follow through and keep up on writing proposals.  If I saw work, I didn't ignore it or casually mention it, I told the people or institutions that I would send a proposal.  Right away I got some bites and then later, things trickled in.  A year later, I was surprised that as a result of a proposal I made at one church, they invited me to come look at ALL the pianos they had and make recommendations.  It took them nine more months to come up with the funds, but a $5000 job came through. 



It is SOP for me to mention the condition of the piano, unless there's some special circumstance like, the house smells bad, or the people creep me out, etc.  For example, this morning I had a first visit with a S&S grand.  I imagine it was quite a sight when the first chord I played made my hair stand on end.  I turned to the owner and asked her if she liked the tone quality of her piano.  She looked at me for a moment and said, "No!"  She didn't realize that anything could be done about it and thought it was remarkable that I mentioned it right away.  We got down to business.  To protect my hearing and show her I could produce results, I did a quick, minor hammer shaping and voicing that made a huge difference.  Now we're checking schedules to see when that big regulation job is going to take place. 



The good thing about doing bigger jobs, is it gives me the chance to really show my stuff.  People are pleased with the work and talk about it ,or church pianos change magically one week and someone asks about it.  Then I get a call.  This is the kind of work I prefer to do.  There's nothing wrong with doing "however many" tunings a day, but I like the challenge, creativity and job satisfaction of the bigger jobs--plus I can schedule them to fill up less busy times. 



Best, 


Barbara Richmond, RPT 
near Peoria, IL 











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