How to sell more Firewood

[arboriculturist]

It looks like most of us are spending some time at home with the arrival of Snow, so it may be an ideal time start a new thread.

 

We have the capacity to sell more Firewood and it would be interesting to hear others views on any original ideas they have apart from the obvious, that you are willing to share. Being well down South we don't plan to take anyone's customers!

 

I have found that endeavoring to produce high quality, which is better than other Firewood available has brought in a lot of additional sales.

[Stubby]

21 minutes ago, arboriculturist said:

It looks like most of us are spending some time at home with the arrival of Snow, so it may be an ideal time start a new thread.

 

We have the capacity to sell more Firewood and it would be interesting to hear others views on any original ideas they have apart from the obvious, that you are willing to share. Being well down South we don't plan to take anyone's customers!

 

I have found that endeavoring to produce high quality, which is better than other Firewood available has brought in a lot of additional sales.

Quality is the key I think . It sometimes takes a few " mistakes " by customers to get the idea but you will never have your product rubbished even if its a little more expensive .  Where abouts are you ?

[arboriculturist]

36 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Quality is the key I think . It sometimes takes a few " mistakes " by customers to get the idea but you will never have your product rubbished even if its a little more expensive .  Where abouts are you ?

Yes - keep the price up.

 

Not far from John Harvey - but far enough distance wise. Hoping to get some 8 wheeler and drag loads from him soon once he gets cutting again - he's had a bad time of late - wet!

[gdh]

I think the obvious options are lower prices or deliver further - neither sound very appealing though. 

 

Other than advertising, where Facebook has helped us recently, I think the best way to increase sales is by having stock this time of year so you can pick up customers whose usual suppliers run out. Usually if you can give them good quality and price now they'll still with you and you can build from there.

[arboriculturist]

1 minute ago, gdh said:

I think the obvious options are lower prices or deliver further - neither sound very appealing though. 

 

Other than advertising, where Facebook has helped us recently, I think the best way to increase sales is by having stock this time of year so you can pick up customers whose usual suppliers run out. Usually if you can give them good quality and price now they'll still with you and you can build from there.

We have recently pulled the plug on several distance deliveries - exactly as you say, no longer appealing!

 

No way would we ever reduce prices - period. I hope you have raised yours this year.

 

Facebook use as you do sounds interesting - i can't recall if you have a business page or private.

 

 

 

 

[gdh]

14 minutes ago, arboriculturist said:

We have recently pulled the plug on several distance deliveries - exactly as you say, no longer appealing!

 

No way would we ever reduce prices - period. I hope you have raised yours this year.

 

Facebook use as you do sounds interesting - i can't recall if you have a business page or private.

 

 

 

 

Yes, we do a few deliveries around the 40mile mark, obviously we charge a bit more but it's annoying when you're busy and could do 3 local ones.

 

We tend to put prices up in line with purchasing timber, any more and we get undercut during most of the year. We could put them up this time of year but I would rather keep giving people a fair price than make a quick profit at their expense. At the moment anyway

 

We've got a business page but don't spend any money on it (despite Facebooks best efforts to offer me deals) and after about a year it's starting to gain us a few customers. It's a bit of effort to find stuff to post but I enjoy taking photos so it's worth it for us.

[SbTVF]

High quality is the most important thing secondly value for money. You have to be able to keep customers when you get them.

Then it comes down having enough stock to service all your customers.

After that you need good interpersonal skills, customers love polite, helpful delivery drivers who go the extra mile to make their lives easier. Particularly when they are elderly!

If you’ve got all that the recommendations will come flying in.

We do extremely well by being good friends with a few stove shops and fitters, they give out leaflets for us to all their customers and use our logs to light the first fire when fittings stoves. I give them as much as they need FOC for fitting fires and they pay a heavily reduced rate for logs for their showrooms. The best advertisement we could have and costs us very little.

[Woodwanter]

Out of curiosity, what would say a 25t load of mixed logs worth now? Assume 25% or below (is that too wet?) split but in various lengths?

[arboriculturist]

37 minutes ago, SbTVF said:

High quality is the most important thing secondly value for money. You have to be able to keep customers when you get them.

Then it comes down having enough stock to service all your customers.

After that you need good interpersonal skills, customers love polite, helpful delivery drivers who go the extra mile to make their lives easier. Particularly when they are elderly!

If you’ve got all that the recommendations will come flying in.

We do extremely well by being good friends with a few stove shops and fitters, they give out leaflets for us to all their customers and use our logs to light the first fire when fittings stoves. I give them as much as they need FOC for fitting fires and they pay a heavily reduced rate for logs for their showrooms. The best advertisement we could have and costs us very little.

There's some reals gems there ! - appreciated and thanks for posting.

[arboriculturist]

2 hours ago, SbTVF said:

High quality is the most important thing secondly value for money. You have to be able to keep customers when you get them.

Then it comes down having enough stock to service all your customers.

After that you need good interpersonal skills, customers love polite, helpful delivery drivers who go the extra mile to make their lives easier. Particularly when they are elderly!

If you’ve got all that the recommendations will come flying in.

We do extremely well by being good friends with a few stove shops and fitters, they give out leaflets for us to all their customers and use our logs to light the first fire when fittings stoves. I give them as much as they need FOC for fitting fires and they pay a heavily reduced rate for logs for their showrooms. The best advertisement we could have and costs us very little.

Do you have a Website?