[david@zap-clean]

The first 'official' day of trading for me today 
I spent the morning doing a job, and the afternoon leaflet dropping with my son.

I walked up a long drive, to a big house, to find a sign saying 'p off, I'm busy'.
It made me laugh.

On another point, with leaflet dropping: There's not much skin left on my knuckles now...

[Neil Jones]

Good luck, you have a nice market in the areas around you so I hope you're targeting them.

[david@zap-clean]

<snip> you have a nice market in the areas around you <snip>

...aka lots of legwork 'cos of the long drives :-) 

Yeah, there's some big houses around this part of Cheshire.  I'm making a point of going the 'extra mile' to leaflet drop to the 'out of the way' houses as well as more normal ones.  I'll be using the trusty old mountain bike for deliveries to some of the villages.

I'm not sure if it's worth the extra effort - but I'm guessing some people avoid leaflet delivery to these types of houses due to the time it takes... I could deliver 20 leaflets to 'normal houses' in the time it takes to deliver to some of the big ones around here.  I guess it's the same in many other places too.  We'll see....

[Mike Halliday]

the theory of that sounds Ok but do the high end of the market who live in those really big houses respond to leaflets?

i would rather deliver leaflets to 100 middle income homes than 20 high end homes.

I have 8k leaflets delivered to an up market village near me which is full of detached BIG houses, the response hardly makes it worthwhile. compared to the average nice homes that make up the rest of my delivery

[wynne jones]

I think Mike has a point, but it is possible as it's how I started getting into high end homes. The thing though is, as I was going round I was chatting to people as I met them, especially their gardeners and other workmen doing jobs for them.

You are probably in one of the best parts of the country for people throwing money at you. I would go on every course you can to improve your skills and get really confident applying them. Then get friendly with the most trusted carpet retailers in the area.

Also if you have kids the tell them they are having riding lessons whether they like it or not. Will pay for itself many times over. 

[mick doherty]

David, have you tried doing a 'free room' and the 3 stage letter approach. If your area is high end this works brilliantly, especially as you seem to be prepared to go the extra mile (no pun intended)

[david@zap-clean]

David, have you tried doing a 'free room' and the 3 stage letter approach. If your area is high end this works brilliantly, especially as you seem to be prepared to go the extra mile (no pun intended)

I'm leafleting with a 3for2 offer at the moment - I'll add the 'free room' option to my list of future ideas - thanks.

[david@zap-clean]

Me and my son mark completed the leaflet drop to the whole of the Tytherington housing estate today - A great result :-).

If you live in Tythy and you didn't find my leaflet, it's in your dog, along with two of my fingers, which I'd like back please!

I touched canine tooth twice today :-(

www.facebook.com/zapclean

[Paul Clapham]

That's why I have mined printed on card ( A5 postcards) so much easier to just slide them through the letter box, never ever put your hand in the letter box, you never know who or what is waiting to bite you     

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Or as somebody once said use a stick (like the handle of a wahing up mop) to push the leaflet thru the letter box. Sticks don't tenmd to bleed!

Rog

[Ian Gourlay]

Have you tried using a strong ruler or strong thing stick to open letter box?

I would concentrate on houses Mike H suggested for leaflets and send letter to high end homes by post.

You may need to consult various web sites to get model wording its out there somewhere.

[*Hector*]

A wooden spoon is good to use...

The rounded end does not poke through the leaflet that way...

[Mike Halliday]

David, have you tried doing a 'free room' and the 3 stage letter approach. If your area is high end this works brilliantly, especially as you seem to be prepared to go the extra mile (no pun intended)

Do people still use the 3 stage letter?  I thought the postal costs had killed that one.

If I wanted to target high end homes I would mailing decorators with ......get your carpets cleaned for free when you reccomend us to your customers or hitting the private schools to be put in there newsletter in exchange for reduced price cleaning.