4 min read
Anything you do to help a client prepare for a disaster can be called a disaster preparedness plan. However, today’s commercial property owners are very sophisticated and will expect much more.
There are only a few dozen “legitimate” pre-disaster plans and most of those were created by and offered by the franchise groups or the exceptionally large “national” restoration players. Even amongst the “players,” there is a wide range of preparedness concepts and a dramatic difference in their effectiveness. One large franchise group has an app, which is available to anyone, but no loyalty or real relationships are developed with it so it’s a gamble how effective the app is when the time comes.
For the independent restoration contractor, there are only two or three well-designed and complete pre-disaster plans available. One of those relies on the idea of fully digital, which certainly simplifies the offer for the contractor. The problem with that is there really isn’t anything “tangible” to offer the client – which means it’s difficult to sell to the prospect. (Sell by getting a signed commitment from the prospect – no money is exchanged).
There is only one disaster preparedness program that combines a tangible preparedness manual with a commitment from both the contractor and the property owner AND facilitates the ability for the marketer to forge a long-term, strong relationship with the management of the facility. That program is called Priority Response Emergency Plan (PREP™) and is only available through The CREST Network.
The complete and exclusive PREP™ program was created more than a dozen years ago, with hundreds of contractors now using the program, and there are many thousands of commercial properties participating in the program. The most exciting part is the millions of dollars of disaster work that contractors have realized directly from the PREP™ program. They get work directly from the commercial end-user without having an insurance agent, adjuster, or a TPA steering the loss to one of their “preferred” contractors. Contractors have the program in place for more than a year or two and experience several commercial jobs regularly when relationships are built using the PREP™ program. Many of these commercial clients have had multiple disasters and those repeat jobs go directly to the PREP contractor. (One nursing home called the contractor 6 times to clean up a flooded commercial space – each job was about $25k)!
If you want to know if the program is available in your market or would like to have training for your marketers so they can begin to develop a commercial portfolio, call me today! 419-202-6745
By Dick Wagner, a nationally recognized speaker, trainer, consultant, and coach.
