Day after day, I get calls asking “Hi mate, I want your cheapest price for Leaflet Distribution please!”
Now, I’m really into customer service, and I do understand the need to get best value, but usually the conversation doesn’t go much further than this!
So why am I saying that you shouldn’t go for the cheapest? Surely the only reason I would say this is to make more money?! Well, don’t get me wrong, we all want to make money! That’s the key to it. I want both us and our customers to make money from a campaign. We always do our best to give great value, and to ensure that you get a good ROI on your leafleting, but this is not achieved purely with the cheapest prices.
If you went to a car showroom with £5,000 and asked for a brand new BMW, what do you think your chances would be? Slim? Well, it’s a really close analogy actually. We aren’t prepared to undersell our service to the customer by taking the money and running. There are times when we’re happy to offer great money deals (you should sign up to our weekly newsletter for this) but we certainly aren’t trying to compete on a daily basis with the cowboys offering ridiculously low rates.
Not to say that they’re all cowboys! There are some companies offering “deals” that are dirt cheap, and they will deliver your item, but at what cost? We had an enquiry a couple of months ago from a handyman service. He wanted us to do 20,000 A6 cards around the BD12, BD19 and BD11 areas. I quoted him, and as we had a suitable sharer, we were able to go in at a great price. I’ll tell you now – I quoted him £25 per 1000. He wanted us to do £20 per 1000 as he’d been offered £22 elsewhere, but liked the sound of us better, and wanted to deal. I simply couldn’t match it, nor would I have wanted to!
Three or four weeks later, I received his A6 card through my door. Brilliant! He’d found success. The issue was that it was bang in the middle of a bundle of 9 other leaflets – 10 in total!! HOW is that going to work??
I’m no scientist, but I think that in this case, for an extra £60, he would have been better off taking his chances with us. We put a maximum of 4 items out together on our shared plan, and even that is rare. Three is the norm. Would he have generated just one more job from having his advertising more prominently “displayed”? I would hope so.
So, is this sour grapes? No, not all. The reason I was prompted to write this article? Well, guess who we’ve just had on the phone?! That’s right – MR Handyman! Wanting? A price on distribution to WF15, WF14 postcodes. No mention of the word “cheap” today!
Just do your maths, and ask, “How can my material be delivered door to door for £35 solus?” – Work it out. You know the minimum wage rates, and I’m sure that you have an idea how many leaflets can be delivered in an hour. It doesn’t take a genius to work out a reasonable rate which ensures correct planning, execution, reporting, and yes, a bit of profit for the leaflet distribution firm!
About Richard
Richard Farnhill runs MR Leaflet Distribution who operate throughout Yorkshire. Richard blogs about Marketing, Small Business, and Leaflet Distribution and Print special offers. Follow Richard @richardfarnhill
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