More on Cleaning "Bid" vs Cleaning "Proposal"

We recently posted an article called Do You Offer Cleaning Bids or Cleaning Proposals?

This is a sore spot for a member of The Janitorial Store. He had this to say about Bid vs Proposal:

At one of my accounts there is a 24 yr old studying computer "stuff" as I call it because it is a world I'm not familiar with. Anyway he approached me and said hey, I'll get this certificate soon and that certification, etc etc. But what he said next really irked me. "So if you know anybody who needs their computer fixed, I'll do it for 1/2 of what Best Buy or Circuit City or the others do it for - spread the word."

I asked simply, "Why?"

"Why do you feel that you should get 50% of the same job that somebody else will do at twice your price? Are you only half as qualified? Is your work half as good? Are you desperate? Are you just looking to make some quick money?"

He looked at me like "what an a-hole." I said "Hey, I'm trying to help you. Better you hear this from me now than be miserable doing all kinds of work at half the pay.

I explained that it's great when you start out and you're not sure about things to get a job at any price, do good work and have something to show for it but as you grow you will get trapped into being "the guy who's cheap"

In my business, I make proposals. I hand them a 10-12 page proposal, yet I see a lot of my competition giving one-sentence bids. I call it "bidding in my inner circle" as the word bid is dominating, but I act as if I'm the only one for the job, I work the numbers as such and I don't care if I'm way over or way under as long as I get my price.

In one of my accounts, I clean the president's office. I like this motto he has pinned up in his office - "build relationships, not low bids"

What are your thoughts? Are you willing to slash your price in half and turn in "bids" just to get the work? Click on the Comments link below.

Comments

[Burt Jacobson]

It is unrealistic in these tough economic times to be giving out cleaning proposals that are much higher than your competition. Every business that I appproach is looking very closely at their bottom line. They just will not hire a cleaning service that comes in with a bid much higher than the competition.

[Mike Swinson]

Almost since the beginning of the commercial cleaning industry we've been shouted at by all the so called "experts" about how we should charge the most we can get. How to increase our bottom line usually by selling a company things/services they don't want or need. This approach only works for a small percentage of cleaners. Even in the best of economic times most business's want the best deal they can get for the money. I was laughed at and told I was "to low" in my prices and that I should "charge the customer what they can bear to pay" as one cleaner put it. However, I didn't do that and continued to offer GREAT VALUE for a fraction of what the big companies in town were doing. We never had a problem getting cleaning jobs and now that the economy has turned bad we are making even more money in the business. We haven't had to raise our prices and a lot of the big guys can't lower their price to compete with ours because they have so much overhead and have been living high on the hog for so long. Keep in mind that there are a LOT more Walmarts in the world that cater to low price shoppers than there are specialty stores. What a concept... provide a service or product that the average consumer can afford. The same goes with business's no matter what kind of economy it is.

[Jean Hanson]

It's true that it's almost impossible to get top dollar for cleaning services these days. Everyone is very conscious of budget cut-backs and cleaning is one of the first areas being cut. So I would talk about the elephant in the room and bring up the topic with both new prospects and existing customers. If you don't bring it up with existing customers you might risk losing more accounts. At least this way, you're being pro-active and letting them know that you want to work with them on a solution.

Then take a look at each account and see where cutbacks can be made. Make sure to point out to your customers that they shouldn't cut back on public areas like entryways and restrooms. Instead, you might suggest they cut back services in employees areas. For example, maybe you don't vacuum every day or dust as often. Maybe you reduce trash pickup from 5 days/wk to 3 days/wk. Come up with ideas and areas where you can reduce services and save them money.

When customers and prospective customers see you're being proactive and trying to save them money they'll be more receptive to you.