Where Are You Finding Leads During Slow Seasons?

Referrals and existing customers usually saves us. I'm reaching out to everyone we've done a quote for that never accepted and seeing what they ended up doing. I'm making sure to attend all my le tip meetings, seeing what other places you can go and make connections.

I'm trying facebook ads as well. This is a little bit of an art. There's a really good program I can recommend about that, hit me up for those details. 

I’ve found that slow seasons are usually a good time to lean more on past customers and referrals instead of relying only on new leads. A quick follow-up with previous customers can sometimes turn into a small job or referral pretty easily. I’d also try local Facebook groups and Google Business during slower periods, since people still need work done even when demand drops.

In the past it has been local customers, thumbtack app, and Facebook groups.

If most of your leads are from property managers, I would try to join networking groups and associations for property managers and single family homes to get in front of that kind of avatar.

We’ve been pretty intentional about not relying on one lead source, especially during slower periods.

The biggest shift for us this year has been commercial. We invested heavily in SEO/AEO, built out dedicated commercial service pages, and started treating commercial as its own pipeline instead of something we just took when it came in. That has probably been the biggest opportunity for us lately.

On the residential side, Google is still huge for us — reviews, organic search, and just having a really strong local presence. Social definitely helps with brand awareness and trust, but I don’t always think the lead attribution is as clean as “they saw one Reel and booked.”

We also look at our existing database during slower periods. Past clients, old quotes, clients who paused service, one-time customers who could potentially convert to recurring, etc. Sometimes the easiest lead is somebody who already knows who you are.

I think the biggest thing for me has been building lead sources before we desperately need them. Slow season feels a lot scarier when marketing only starts once the schedule has holes. 😂

We’ve sent out over $400k in annualized commercial estimates this year, so that’s definitely where a lot of my attention has shifted.

We've stayed on following up with our old clients, unfortunately in our industry, if the appliance isn't broken, they typically don't have a use for us.  Not many people go for the maintenance programs 

We've had a slower stretch too. What's helped most is partnering with property managers and landlords. Rental units always have something breaking, and one good relationship can mean steady jobs all year. Realtors and home inspectors are worth a coffee as well, since they're constantly asked for repair referrals.

On the maintenance side, I've had more luck selling one specific job than a whole program. Dryer vent cleaning in winter (framed as a fire safety thing) or an oven check before Thanksgiving gets a much better response than a general tune-up offer.

Nextdoor's been decent for us too.