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What Do You Give to Cleaning Prospects When Meeting For The First Time?

One of our members shared the following:

Some of the customers we have gained have commented on our presentation at the initial meeting. They said it was "unique" and different. I guess I never really thought of doing it any other way.

For every initial meeting, we bring a packet/folder of info for them to look through during the walk through. Some of our clients have said it made us "look" more professional than the other companies who just gave them a price and left.

In that packet, we have the following:

-an intro letter that tells about us and who we are
-a copy of our insurance certificate
-a copy of a W-9 form
-two copies of the contract - one for us and one for them, once both are signed
-a walk-through checklist
-a specifications sheet
-a follow-up checklist (that we leave after every cleaning)
-a stamped/addressed feedback postcard that we ask them to send after service begins
-several business cards
-a copy of our policies (that cover payments, lockout, reschedules, cancellations, etc)
-a brochure that covers our referral bonus program and the "extra" services we offer

It may seem like a small thing, but our customers have told me that it made us stand out as the more "Professional Business" and that's why they chose our service!

What do YOU do to make yourself memorable in the prospect's eyes? Share your thoughts by clicking on the Comments link below.

Cleaning Company Owner Shares Success Story

A member of The Janitorial Store shared this success story.

I belong to my local Chamber of Commerce and was able to get a set of mailing labels for free. (Most Chambers charge a small fee for mailing labels of Chamber members)

Next I bought some postcards from Staples for $25.00.

It cost me $42.00 for bulk mailing charges.

Four days later I was awarded a $500 a month account ($6,000 a year). I also got a $250 one-time clean, a window washing job and the opportunity to submit a proposal on a floor care account.

Please share YOUR success stories by clicking on the Comments link below.

Do You Offer Cleaning Bids or Cleaning Proposals?

Steve asked Dick Ollek, author of Selling Contract Cleaning Services 101, why he thinks the word "bid" is used so much when talking about submitting a cleaning proposal.

Dick replied:

"Great question Steve. We seem to do it to ourselves. We call a prospect and ask 'when do you go out for bid'? or 'Can I give you a bid'?. When we use the word 'bid' we immediately imply that we are selling a commodity like a case of Pepsi. What we then are implying to the prospect is that we are no different than any other contractor or service provider that they may talk too.

Usually when I make that comment, contractors will say, 'now wait a minute, I do better work than my competitors because etc. etc.' You do? Then why are you asking to 'bid' the work? Why aren't you asking if you can present a proposal to the prospect so you can outline to the prospective customer why they should be hiring your company rather than all the others who 'bid' the job.

My theory is that if all you are going to do is 'bid' the work you may as well write the price on a napkin and hand it to the prospect. If you want to be classy, buy a Vanity Fair napkin and write the price in ink.

Steve, you can probably tell this subject can make my blood pressure elevate. We want to be treated like professionals by our prospects and customers and yet we are more than willing to just give a 'bid' for our service, which makes our company look like all the rest and makes us look like we are just selling a commodity instead of a needed professional service.

By now I have probably created a few enemies but I am very passionate about the fact that the only people that can professionalize our industry is us. We have only ourselves to blame when we allow ourselves to get caught up in 'bidding wars'. Believe me, the customers love it and we wonder why we don't have more profit.

The word bid needs to be eliminated from our vocabulary and replaced with 'proposal' and then we need to take the next step and really offer quality proposals to our prospects that truly differentiate us from our competition."

How often do YOU find yourself using the word "Bid" instead of "Proposal"? Click on the Comments link below to share your thoughts.

One Example of Why You Should Join Your Chamber of Commerce

Lately we've had a lot of people contacting us asking what to do to keep their cleaning business afloat during the recession. One cleaning business owner is a firm believer that joining the local Chamber of Commerce is helping them keep their business going.

"The goods news is, business is out there. We are working our tails off getting known in our community and especially the business community.

Join your local Chamber of Commerce first. Depending on where you live the Chamber could potentially provide you with literally thousands of leads. Our local Chamber has just over 1000 members.

Second, plan on spending many nights attending networking events i.e. classes, after hours, morning classes, new member orientation and ribbon cuttings of new businesses. Over the past three weeks I have already met and collected business cards of fifty to one hundred people and created an email list from that. I attended my first ribbon cutting yesterday and it was a blast and I also got free pizza. I am going to another one today at a Tapas Restaurant. When you go to these, if your Chamber has them, they take pictures and place them in the newsletter and your face is in there and that equals visibility.

 

One other thing. A friend of mine owns a marketing consultation company and when I told her we were starting a cleaning business she said "yeah you and a thousand other people". Then she went on to tell us to look at differentiating ourselves from the competition. Do something unique that no other cleaning service is doing. This will take some work and research on your part, but if you identify what separates you from the current vendor or other bidders, you will have have something different to offer when you cold call or submit a bid.

 

I will give you an easy one to start with -- the Chamber of Commerce. Out of all of the people I have met, not one of them are in the cleaning business! So when you go, have your niche ready, tell them about it and get their contact info!

 

You won't believe this. As I am typing this message the phone rings and it is the Chamber office wanting me to come over and look at some work! No lie. Gotta go!"

Should You Break Down Man Hours On Your Commercial Cleaning Proposal?

A commercial cleaning business owner was asked to submit a proposal, but the customer asked for the invoice price to be broken down by man hours. He believes they want to know if the all the employees are really needed. He's wondering what to do.

Here is some of the feedback received from other cleaning business owners:

1. If they are paying a flat rate monthly and are happy with the service, why should they care how the money they pay you is spent? That's really not any of their business!

2. When a client says that usually a bean counter is trying to get involved so he can figure out if they should go in-house. Let them know you can break this down but the time involved in doing this is costly and you would have to bill them for your accountants time and make it expensive for them to get this cost even though you can spend the time to do it yourself.

3. I never really objected to giving them man hours once I was able to determine from them why they wanted them. I would explain all the hours such as cleaning, recruiting, training, supervision, accounting, etc. I made sure never to alienate them.

I reminded them that level monthly invoicing was one of the advantages of using a service such as ours in addition to us doing all the recruiting, orientation, training, supervision, etc. etc. It gave me another opportunity to sell them on my value to them.

Don't ever tell them they don't need to know that or something that implies that. You may not have to give the information but you won't keep the customer either. Many times, not always, I was able to discourage the process by explaining all the details outlined above.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Click on the Comments link below to post your feedback.

Competing Against the Low-Ballers in the Cleaning Industry

Lately we've had a lot of subscribers tell us they're struggling with having to complete against people who enter the industry and low-ball prices to get new accounts or to steal accounts away.

One subscriber asked: "How can we as business owners compete with such companies who are out there low-balling us and having all these workers that are most likely illegal and are being paid probably pennies on the dollar. What can one do to avoid this?"

Another business owner made this suggestion: "I had to have a long talk with myself on how to keep my prices where they are (somewhere in the middle), and still get the jobs. So what I did was to include with all my bids a copy of my license, bond and insurance, with all my bids, and a note saying that this is for their protection as well as mine. I ask them to get this information from anyone bidding against me to protect themselves from any problems. You know what? This is an easy way to weed out the LOW BALLERS as they cannot provide this information. I have been winning a few more bids by doing this.

And my friend, Dick Ollek, author of Selling Contract Cleaning Services 101, offered this advice: "I think it is also very important to determine the types of accounts you really want to focus on. There are much easier accounts to clean than restaurants and at higher profits. Determine what you are good at, focus on how to secure those accounts, market yourself as a legitimate, bonded and insured professional company and you will get business. There will always be those contractors who low ball and always be those customers who buy their service. Focus, Focus, Focus. Become an expert in a niche market. Amazing how much fun and how profitable it can be."

We are all facing tough times right now, and dealing with the low-ballers is one battle you may be facing. What are YOU doing to compete and WIN?  Please post your comments by clicking on the Comments link below.

What is the Difference Between Selling and Marketing?

Many people interchange these two words, selling and marketing. But here's the difference:

Selling is something you do when you're talking a prospect.

Marketing is what you do to get the opportunity to talk to a prospect.

Effective Marketing is when you are only talking to people who are:
1) already interested in your cleaning services (referrals)
2) motivated to buy
3) pre-qualified (you researched who you wanted to market to instead of marketing to everyone)

When you market your cleaning business effectively, it makes selling easy and in many cases it makes selling unnecessary.

One of our members at The Janitorial Store recently went to give a proposal on cleaning a home. She rang the bell, introduced herself and the homeowner said, "It's really just a matter of working out a schedule. When can you start?" How easy was that!

The reason it was so easy is because her husband had previously cleaned his carpet and provided such great customer service that he immediately thought of their company when he wanted a house cleaning service. This person was already interested in their service and was motivated to buy (number's 1 and 2 above).

How effective is YOUR marketing? Click on the Comments link below to post your replies.

 

Do You Ever Make Drop-In Calls?

A cleaning business owner recently shared this success story:

"I had an appointment with a client to walk through a second office she wanted cleaned, but she did not show up. So I droppped into the office next door and left my brochure and business card offering my services. The young lady at the desk said that they have some one already that they are very happy with, so I walked out and continued waiting for my client. Thirty seconds later the same young lady came after me and asked if I could give her a proposal because they in fact are looking for some body else, so I did." (Apparently someone else in the office disagreed that they were happy with their current service).

"I got so excited that I walked into the next office and did the same thing -- dropped my packet and the man ask me right away how much I charge so I did my talk and we did a walk through. So I have two potential  costumers, plus my  regular client all in the same building...   All you have to do is drop in!"

When was the last time you made drop-in calls like this?

How a Cleaning Business Used a Marketing Kit to Market Their Business

We recently had a cleaning business owner share a story about how they put together a marketing kit using several marketing pieces from The Janitorial Store. Here's what they did:

First I downloaded several marketing forms from The Janitorial Store's Download Libary. I updated the forms for my business (name, address, phone, email). I even added some clip art -- it looked very professional!

Next I called some of the biggest Real Estate Management Properties I could find, and I noted the persons name that I spoke with . The next day I sent a packet.  The first item in the packet was a cover letter addressed to the person I spoke to on the phone.  And all the forms I'm going to mention here came from the Download Library. I also  included the "7 Reasons Your Business Needs Our Cleaning Service" sheet,  next was "About Us," which I wrote about myself and how my company was started, etc..., then I included a "Service" sheet describing services done Daily/Bi Weekly,etc.  Then I included "Why Use My Company" sheet  and finally "Frequently Asked Questions" sheet.  Again, I changed the wording to be specific to my company.

The company that I contacted called me the next morning after recieving my packet and said they were very impressed and asked me to bid. It just happened that they had gotten enough complaints on the current cleaning company that they decided to find someone else.

I also just did a walk thru today and I'm working on a bid for over 65,000 sq.ft.!

If you'd like more information on marketing your cleaning business, check out Marketing and Sales Success for Cleaning Companies: Ebook, Audio Class, Marketing Plans and more!

Lesson Learned About Cold Calling from the Movie, "Pursuit of Happyness"

Over the Christmas holiday we went to see the Will Smith movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. The movie is based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a single father who went from homelessness to self-made millionaire.

In order to break free of his situation, Gardner managed to get accepted into an internship program for brokers. The interns were given lists of people who worked in a particular business and their task was to start at the bottom and work their way up the list, selling their firm's financial services, until they finally reached the CEO of the company. Since Gardner wasn't able to work the long hours some of the others were working (due to having to pick up his son at 4pm every day), he had to find ways to be more productive with the time he had. But no matter how fast he worked his way up the list, he couldn't get through a list in one day. And that's when the idea hit him...

Rather than starting at the bottom of the list, Gardner decided to start at the top. He started by asking for the CEO by name, and when the "gatekeeper" asked what it was about he simply said, "This is Chris Gardner with XXX Company."  Notice he didn't say, "This is Chris Gardner and I'd like to talk to Mr. CEO about his financial portfolio." She would have cut him off instantly!  But since he simply stated his name and company, she wasn't sure if the CEO knew him or not, so she put the call through.

When the CEO picked up the phone Chris simply stated that he needed about 10 minutes of his time, to which the CEO said YES!  Now I hate to give the whole movie away, so I won't tell the whole story about the innovative ways Chris put himself in front of the CEO. But in the end, when the CEO discovered that Gardner was simply an intern, he was honest and said there was no way he was going to let Chris handle his portfolio. However, because Gardner managed to build a relationship with the CEO, he was introduced to other people in the company and was able to sign on several new customers.

This method of selling is something we've talked about over and over again. First, start at the top. If you start at the bottom, you may not ever get a chance to talk to the actual decision maker. If the CEO doesn't make the decisions on cleaning in the building, then he or she will let you know the person you need to talk to. When that happens, you can call the correct person and tell him that the CEO gave you his information. Believe me, that will make them take notice and will very likely get you an appointment.

So the next time you pick up that phone to make a cold call, how will you handle it? Click on the Comments link below to post your comments.

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