Cleaning-Success.com:

Most people would say absolutely not! Not in this economy! Even though we're almost into our third month of the year, I'd like you to challenge yourself to make BIG goals instead of settling for less.

Here are some tips for changing your outlook and increasing your business for 2011.

1. Think Big!

You'll never get anywhere if you don't have BHAG's (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). If you're waiting for the economy to recover before making big plans or taking big action, you may be in for a long wait. And while you're waiting, your competitors are on the move. So get going and make your BHAG list today.

2. Be Seen In Your Community

You've heard it before - people like to do business with people the know, like and trust. This isn't just lip service, it's the truth so get your butt out of your office and meet people in your community!

3. Define What You Do And Who You Help

If you ask your friends, family and colleagues what you do they'll probably say that you clean for a living. Sure, that's true, but let's get specific and let's get consistent. Define exactly what it is you do and exactly who it is you help. Then use this message consistently with all your marketing messages. You can't be all things to all people, so drilling down to a specific, consistent message will attract more of the perfect clients to you.

4. Get Specific With Your Marketing Plan

Most people come up with a random list of marketing activities in the hopes they'll gain new business from it. But I challenge you to plan a specific marketing campaign to reach your newly defined target market (see #3). Last week's post should help you with this (Are You Tired Of Juggling A Complex Marketing Plan?)

5. Get Better At Closing The Sale

You work so hard at getting new business, but if you can't close the sale, it's all for naught. The easiest way to do this is to come up with a specific system for selling your services. Once you have the system down, you'll start converting more prospects to clients.

Can you really double your business by following these 5 steps?

You bet! Here's an example. Simply replace the numbers used in the example below with your own numbers.

2010:
Current number of clients: 20
Avg yearly sales per client: $3000
Total yearly sales: $60,000
35 meetings with prospects, closed on 20 (57% Close Rate)

To increase your sales, follow the tips above to get more prospects into your pipeline and then do a better job at closing the sale.

2011:
Increased to 45 meetings with prospects and closed on 30 (67% Close Rate)
Current number of clients: 50
Avg yearly sales per client: $3000
Total yearly sales: $150,000

Can you see how this will work if you work smarter on your marketing and closing system? If you're serious about doubling the sales your cleaning business, then I challenge you to follow the steps and work the numbers. You CAN do it!

Are you up to the challenge? Click on the Comments link below to post your thoughts.

If you've ever created a marketing plan for your cleaning business, you may find it difficult to juggle all the different tasks you've laid out for yourself each month.

For example, this week you may have on your plan to create a new postcard campaign, update the specials on your website and write a newsletter article. For many people, this hodge-podge of activities can be overwhelming. And what usually happens is some or all of these tasks are put on the back-burner. When this happens, all your good intentions of sticking to a marketing plan fly right out the window.

If you find yourself with this problem, you might want to consider creating a plan that uses a theme for each month. For example;

February is for creating all your spring cleaning promotions
March is for focusing on website optimization
April is for creating your Mother's Day and Father's Day promotions
May is for building strategic alliances

Get the idea? When you focus on a theme for each month, you'll find yourself becoming more motivated to spend time on really digging in to this marketing activity. Plus, you may find it more manageable and less overwhelming than the "old way" of implementing your marketing plan.

P.S. There are a few marketing activities that should always be ongoing, like networking and social media updates. So I'm not suggesting you completely drop these activities. But spending more focused time on one theme may make it easier for you to stay on track with your marketing plan.

What do you think of this idea? Share your thoughts by clicking on the Comments link below.

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