How to fill your diary for November and December before the winter slowdown

Open your diary and count the empty days between now and Christmas. Not the ones with a “maybe” pencilled in. The ones with nothing at all. If you want to fill your diary for November and December before the winter slowdown, that number is where you start, because it tells you exactly how much work you need to go and find in the next three weeks.

The clocks go back on 25 October. After that, customers stop thinking about the house and start thinking about Christmas, and anything that is not broken gets put off until January. The work you book in October is the work you will be doing in November. The work you do not book, you will be chasing in December, when nobody is spending.

Why the winter slowdown catches electricians out

It is not that the work disappears. It stops arriving on its own. Through the summer you are too busy to market, and anything you send out takes weeks to turn into a booked job. So the quiet November was made in a busy September and October.

The bit that really hurts is what people do next. They panic. They pay for a month of leads, or an advert, because they have to do something. I have been there. Years ago, with my first business, I spent £600 on a Yellow Pages advert. It brought in one phone call and no work, and the business folded within six months. Panic spending in a quiet month is the most expensive marketing there is.

Start with the work you have already quoted

Before you look for a single new customer, go back through every quote you have sent since the summer that did not turn into a job. Most of them did not say no. They just did not get round to saying yes.

Ring or message every one of them. Keep it about them, not you: “You were thinking about the extra sockets in the kitchen back in August. I am booking up November now and wanted to check whether you still want it done before Christmas.” That is a business owner organising his diary.

If you have a pile of these, the guide on whether electricians should charge for quotes is worth a read too. A quote nobody follows up is a morning given away for nothing.

Give people a reason to book now, not in the new year

“Need an electrician? Give me a call” does nothing in October. People need a reason to pick a date, and in this part of the year they already have one. Christmas is coming and family is coming with it.

Talk about the jobs people want finished before then:

• Extra sockets and USB points where the Christmas tree, the TV and the chargers end up every year.
• An outdoor socket so the lights are not running out of the kitchen window on an extension lead.
• Lighting in the kitchen, dining room or hallway before the house fills up.
• Outside and security lighting now it is dark when they get home from work.
• Anything that trips, because nobody wants to be in the dark with a full house on Christmas Day.

Then put a real date on it: “I have got four days left before Christmas, if you want it done before the family arrives let me know this week.” A real deadline is honest and it works. A discount is neither. If someone asks what your best price is, add something to the job, check the rest of the circuits while you are there, but do not knock money off to fill a gap. Drop your price in October and you are still living with it in March.

Sell the dates, not the job

This is the change that makes the biggest difference. Most electricians wait for a customer to ask for something and then try to fit it in. Turn that round. Decide which days you want filled and offer those days.

“I have got Tuesday 17th and Thursday 19th November free” is far easier for a customer to say yes to than “let me know when suits”. Offer two dates, not ten. Give them ten and they will think about it.

Keep a short list of people happy to have you in at short notice too: retired customers, landlords with empty properties, anyone who said “whenever you can fit me in”. When a job cancels in the second week of December, you have someone to ring instead of a lost day.

Who to tell, and how often

You do not need new customers to fill November. You need the people who already know you to hear from you. In order:

1. Past customers. They have let you in once and paid you. A short seasonal message with a reason and a date will fill more days than any advert. If you have never done this, the guide on getting repeat business shows you how to set it up properly.
2. Landlords and letting agents. Empty properties over Christmas are a gift. Any EICRs due early in the new year can be done in December while nobody is living there.
3. Other trades. Kitchen fitters, plumbers and plasterers have customers who want things done before Christmas too. Tell them what dates you have.

Once is not enough. Send something this week, again in a fortnight, and again in early November. You are not pestering anyone. You are keeping in touch, and the one who keeps in touch is the one who gets the call.

Make sure a full diary actually pays

Winter is full of small jobs, and a diary full of small jobs at the wrong price is just a tiring way to stay skint. Every small job needs to cover a proper minimum charge, not whatever you felt like saying on the phone.

If you are not sure yours covers your costs, work it out with the free Minimum Charge Calculator before November starts. Most electricians who run it find their number needs to come up, and minimum charges across the trade have been rising, not falling.

What to do this week

Count your empty days. Follow up every open quote. Pick three Christmas jobs and send a message to your past customers with a date on it. Offer two specific days, not “whenever suits”. Then put the next two messages in your diary now, so October does not get away from you.

Keeping the diary full all year, not just in a panic, is a big part of what we work on inside My Electricians ToolBox. The seasonal messages, the follow-ups and the pricing tools are already there. Membership is £127, and it is currently £97 a month if you want to have a look.

So, back to your diary. How many empty days have you got between now and Christmas, and who are you going to ring about them today?