whats up? I hope biz is well for you, I had my best week last week ever thanx again I think I have to go to phase 2, write me back
I had my best week last week ever
hehehe. Good! I’m pumped! Congrats again on all the hard work. As far as my business is concerned, it’s starting to get a little tough to spend a great deal of time in the forum. Sales have been going absolutely freaking crazy, not to mention the fact that I’m in the middle of opening another store so time is becoming increasingly valuable, but I try to get in here as often as I can.
Phase 2:
Do a customer appreciation day. Print it out on (yep, you guessed it… half page flyers). Your message should be, “Customer Appreciation Day” in big bold print. Make sure you have your logo, phone number, delivery dine in and carryout, address, hours of operation, etc. on there as well. Your special should be a large 1 topping, carryout only, for $4.99. This special should be one day only (probably a Saturday). Print up about 1,000 flyers and distribute them everywhere in town the week leading up to your promotion.
If you’ve got the extra money for a banner (about $120), get it printed. The banner should be bright yellow with black font (stands out better). Make sure you have your logo with phone number under it. The message should read, “Large 1 topping pizza $4.99 Today Only”. Under it should read “Carryout Only” because if you don’t put that disclaimer you’ll have people wanting to get it delivered. (By printing your banner generically like this, you can use it over and over and over).
After you’ve gotten your banner delivered, go to the nearest hardware store. Purchase enough 1/2" PVC pipe to “frame” the banner. Make sure you get plumbers glue for the corners so that it’ll stay in place. Tie the banner tightly to the “frame” with some string. Also, get some streamers and put them up for the event if you don’t have them up already.
On customer appreciation day, have a person scheduled to stand out there in front of the store “bannershaking”. This should only be an hour shift and you should alternate througout the day so that everyone gets a turn. Now, “bannershaking” is just that. Let them know they are not to stand out there with the banner below them. That just won’t work. They’ve got to move the banner all over the place. Up, down, sideways, upside down, left, right, etc. The whole time they’re doing this they should point at the banner and then point in the direction of your store to let passing cars know that “this special” can be found over “there”.
up23, this special will completely hammer you for the entire day. Make sure you’ve got enough food prepped and ready to go. Your net sales generated off the $4.99 will be in the $1000 - $2000 range, depending on your location, not to mention your normal sales. Remember, $2,000 of $4.99 pizzas is almost like doing $4,000 based on regular price so it WILL be extremely busy. Make sure you’re staffed for this.
Customer service has got to be paramount. All boxes must be folded with boxtoppers days before the event (about 400 large boxes). Make sure you have menus and marketing material readily available. Your customer service area must be clean and customer friendly (maybe balloons will add to the festivities). You want to make the customer feel like he’s walked into a “party” in your store on that day. Everyone should be upbeat, no matter how busy it gets. Most importantly, production has got to be as fast as you’ve ever had it.
This special, if handled correctly, will gain you a net of 200-400 NEW customers who might have never ordered from you. If you don’t handle this, these 200-400 new customers might never order from you again, so pleaseeeeee make sure you’re staffed for this. Another thing you can do is slap out a couple “floaters” before your peak hours to give you a head start.
Start timing your people now. One person should be able to slap, sauce, and distribute pepperoni/cheese in a minute or less. If not, get your times better. You’ve got to be quick with this promo.
The Breakdown:
Flyers (1,000)…$40
Banner…$120
Streamers…$50
Balloons…$5
Total cost of promotion…$215
Sales Generated…$1000-$2000
After this, we’ll talk about phase 3. -J_r0kk
Im opening in Mid April, what is phase one?
You can search j_r0kk’s phase 1 by using the search by author option of the think tank.
It had to do with a hella lota doorhanging ! 
Lol, ok, thanx ill look for it
heck, i’m a 18 year pizza veteran, and j rock’s program outline still pumps me up. good job!
I cant find phase 1 someone help me?
If I remember correctly this was Phase 1.
Quoting j_r0kk:
If there’s any surefire method of raising your sales it would be doorhanging. I’ve preached this over and over until I’m blue in the face… but it works. It doesn’t take an excess amount of cash to print some flyers, and the only other thing you put into it is a little legwork. Doorhanging is the low volume independent pizza operator’s best friend. If you’re only doing $110.00/day I’m sure you have all the time in the world to get out there and put some flyers on some doors. A lot of indy’s who’ve just gotten started just don’t realize that the door isn’t going to start flying open the second they turn on their open signs. You’ve got to work for it. It’s pretty cool actually, because you can watch your business grow from total dogsh!t to a freaking monster! And actually, after you’ve developed that habit of doorhanging regularly, it kinda sticks with you. So, even if you’ve been in the pizza business for a few years and you’ve got a few stores all doing a million dollars a year in sales, you still get your butt out there and doorhang. Why? Because you stick to what works and doorhanging is what got you there.
I’ve broken these numbers down countless times but I’ll do it again for you here:
Doorhanging gives you a 5%-8% return over a two week period (on avg).
The avg. person can put out 100 pieces per hour.
Spend just 2 hours a day with you and your wife/business partner/girlfriend/best driver… whoever… every day for a week. Do this religiously and I guarantee you these are the results you will see:
2 hours per day x 2 people = 4 hours doorhanging
4 hours doorhanging x 100/hour = 400 doorhangers/day
400 doorhangers/day x 7 days/week = 2,800 doorhangers/week
2,800 doorhangers/week x 5% return =140 extra orders/week
140 extra orders x $15.00 avg ticket = $2,100.00
So, at $110.00/day on avg. you will have raised your sales from $770.00/week to $2870.00/week. That’s an increase of 272.73% and you’ll avg. a little more than the number you hoped for of $300/day. You’ll actually be at $410.00/day.
Keep this up every week and I’m sure you can see how this will snowball. Hope this helps. -J_r0kk
Thank you so much!