How to Build a Rock-Solid Puppy Waiting List

Here’s some tips to building a rock-solid waiting list for your puppies so you can breed with confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We know the “COVID puppy-rush” is pretty much over now.  So the days of being able to sell our babies really quickly without a waiting list – just doing it on the fly – sadly they are over!

It’s more important than ever to have a list of eager qualified buyers waiting before you even breed your litter.  How do you build a waiting list that’s rock solid?

• Aim for the Top of the Market

Well, first of all, you’ve got to aim for the top of the market.

At the bottom of the market are the non-discerning buyers: by the time they decide they want their puppy and which kind of puppy they want, they actually want it yesterday, don’t they?

The more discerning owners though – they look at getting a new puppy as a really important decision and they’re willing to wait for the right one.

Those are the people you want to please, because if you do please them, once they’ve found you (which might be the sticking point if you don’t have a strong online presence), they’re happy to wait.

How do we please them and give them what they want?

Basically, you give them a puppy which you’ve set up to be a really good pet.  Focus on adding the sort of value to your puppies that matters to the top end of the market.

And if you’re not sure what that is, then you should watch my free webinar. So offer the right kind of value in your puppies and aim for the top of the market.

• Ask for a Waiting List Deposit

The next thing that you need to do to build a rock-solid waiting list is ask for a waiting list deposit. It’s not going to be rock-solid if it’s just people who are putting their name on a list.

If buyers are just putting a name on a list, they can easily change their mind and most of the time won’t bother telling the breeder.  I know this because I used to just ask people to put their name on the list and when I turn around and checked, most of them were gone and they never bothered to tell me.

But if they put a really big deposit onto the wait list, then they will let you know because that waiting list deposit can be mostly refunded to them if they change their mind.

• Have a Fair Pricing Policy

That’s the other thing about building a rock-solid waiting list, ask for a big deposit (I ask for $500), but have a fair pricing policy. Have it written out, and ask them to read it before they join the list.

The pricing policy should set out what happens if they change their mind. Don’t be like some breeders who once they take a deposit, they won’t give any of it back. That’s really not fair. It’s not even legal in some countries and also it puts people off putting their deposit down in the first place!

What I do is if someone changes their mind, I give them all but $100 back, I give them a puppy manual too, to help them with whatever puppy they ended up getting instead of my puppy and wish them well. And people see that’s fair and are happy to join the list.  They are only risking $100.

• Be Clear About the Wait Time

The next thing, if you want to build a rock-solid waiting list is when you communicate with people, tell them what the wait time’s likely to be.   Be a conservative and tell them you’re making a conservative estimate: that it could be sooner, but they need to be prepared to wait this amount of time and tell them if they have a specific preference for a certain sex or color, the wait time could be longer.  Set that out very clearly.

A lot of breeders say to me, “I can’t have a waiting list because what happens if people want a particular color/sex combination that doesn’t show up in the litter?” Well, it’s simple:  they can elect to wait till the next litter!

Don’t just think one litter ahead, guys. Think a year ahead.

At the moment we’re taking waiting list deposits for puppies which won’t be available for 15 months… and people are still joining the list.

• The More Inquiries You’re Getting the Quicker You Can Grow Your Waiting List

This strategy works really well when you’ve got a strong presence online and you’re getting a lot of traffic.  You need lots of inquiries because not every buyer is a discerning buyer; not every buyer’s going to want to wait ages for their puppy, so you do need to get your online presence sorted out.

There’s no point advertising in directories. If you want to build a waiting list and you’re relying on puppy directories, then you’ll be pushing it uphill!   Because there’s always puppies available on those platforms, isn’t there?  Whoever wants a puppy can just go to someone else and get one right now.

• Key Takeaways to Building a Strong Wait List

If you really want this to work, you do have to set yourself apart online. You do have to give the top people what they want. You do have to have a fair pricing policy and you do have to be very clear about how it all works in your first message to buyers.

What you’ll find is that you won’t even have to really try to sell at all.  If you craft a good message, discerning buyers will recognize the value of your puppies.  They’ll put themselves on your list and put that money in your account straight off the bat.

Then it’s just a matter of keeping your list fair and keeping good records.

I hope that’s helped.

If you want to more information about how to do all this stuff, then:

1. First step is to watch the Marketing for Breeders Masterclass [which is FREE] 
2. Then if you want to know more and you’re really ready to progress to the next step, then book a FREE mentoring session with me over the phone. 

I’m happy to help you out for free personally and offer you a customized plan to get you where you want to go. Okay, hope to talk to some of you soon. Bye for now.