Question for Steve Toburen

[Mikey P]

The proverbial Time Machine you got for Xmas had a major glitch and instead of taking you back 30 years so you could witness Iron Butterfly from the front row, it only reduced your age and robbed you of your fortune.

Now you are a 20 year old carpet cleaner all over again.
Your Time Machine turned into a Jon Don installed Pro Chem Truckmount and you live in a big city with plenty of high income earners.
You have your memory and the skills but no one knows you.

How do you go about getting a client base and how much would you charge off the bat?








p.s. Dont worry about Elmer Fudd, he didn't read past my first paragraph, so give us the long answer.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Wow, Mike. That is a heavy, but very good, question. Unfortunately I am under deadline for my ICS column AND the missus just called me for lunch.

Let me think on it and get back to you. (Meanwhile I think everyone else should feel free to chime it.)

Steve

PS I think you just gave a me a great idea for a column, Mike. Because that is what the question deserves.

PPS I write a bit on the ICS column and then I check the boards. Sort of gives me a break.

 

[hogjowl]

An article on this would be appreciated, but do us a favor and let us read a shorter version here, while you are compiling the LONGER version for ICS.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Ok, back from lunch. (chili! burp!)

First, Mike, let me say that I would cheerfully exchange what passes for my 'fortune" to be 20 again with the knowledge I have now. My guess most of us would.

So ... 20 years old, decent truck mount, big city with high per capita income?

Well, here goes. I would first ...

1. Begin with the end in mind- Before I ever knocked on a door or handed out a flyer I would TRY and visualize what my mature business (and really my life) should look like in thirty years. (Heavy stuff for a twenty year old.) All too often we sort of "lurch" through life. I know I did.

2. Get my cash flow going- I would put a dress shirt and tie on (a twenty year old needs all the help he can get) and start knocking on commercial work doors. I'd promote regular maintenance cleanings to build a route that would give me a base for my next business expansion. (Or who knows. I might just focus on commercial work, add trucks and crews and build a large business based solely on regular commercial clients. There are worse ways to make a fortune.) Either way I would get enough work asap to get me off the truck by hiring a commercial night and weekend crew. (I hate doing night work myself!)

3. Work on my graphics- I would now hire an imaginative graphic artist that works cheap out of their home and sweet talk them into taking a personal interest in my company. Assuming I had decided to go into high end residential work we would design an emotional logo and I would do a classy wrap of my van with some sort of family theme.

4. Face to face, belly to belly- You haven't given me a marketing budget here Mike so I assume it is limited. Let's say 1,000.00. OK, I would print up an informational flyer about my company on high end stock and order (shameless plug here) 30 cases of FREE Spotter for Life "Spot-Out" from Jon-Don. I would work closely with Tina or Parthavi to make the four-color label perfect with my great new logo and with a high end tag line. I used to have as my slogan- "Superb carpet and upholstery cleaning- only from ..."
I would then pick upper-middle income neighborhoods, put on my starched, crisp uniform and start knocking on doors. When the homeowner answered I would hand them a free spotter bottle and my flyer, explain what it is (no pressure) and how they can receive a complimentary replacement bottle for life just by calling my company and wish them a good day. (If local laws allow it and they are not home I would securely put a flyer in their door.)
By the time I have gone through the thirty cases (720 bottles) somewhere between 2 to 5 percent of these people are going to ask me "well, since you are here anyway could you look at ..." and I am off and running with fifteen or more high end jobs. (I would absolutely slip my shoes off as I walked into their home and they would mentally swoon.)

5. Work my first clients- Those fifteen new jobs are going to get overwhelmed with my personal, dedicated service of a sort they have NEVER encountered before. So much so that they WILL start talking to their friends and neighbors. These folks are what I call Cheerleaders and being able to consistently develop Cheerleaders through my employees is the reason I was able to retire at the age of 38. But I digress ...

6. "Luck favors a body in motion". (Ripped off from my old buddy Chuck Violand.) Of course, I'm only going to be doing the spotter thing during the hours people are most likely home. So I'll also be introducing myself to high end carpet stores, builders and interior decorators. I'll also probably join business organizations, a barter club, etc.

This is all off the top of my head, Mike and now the boss says it is time for our daily hour fitness walk. (Gotta get rid of the chili calories.)

I'm sure lots of people can rip me on the above and scream that it wouldn't work in their town. Well, in that even I guess I would go broke and wind up on welfare. But you asked ...

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS What I wouldn't do is what every other starving carpet cleaner does and snarl over the low end customer like a pack of starving dogs. And whatever advertising they did ... I wouldn't. Oh yes, I would also call my buddy Bill Yeadon who knows more about marketing to women than anyone I know and i would do whatever he told me.

I'll try to post more later. Thanks for thinking of me, Mike.

 

[joey895]

"I would then pick upper-middle income neighborhoods, put on my starched, crisp uniform and start knocking on doors. "

If I keep seeing these kinds of posts and keep getting hungrier and hungrier and I am going to start knocking on doors.

I've been putting fliers in peoples newspaper boxes but I'm not getting enough of a response to keep the bills paid, although I do at least come out positive with fliers, unlike every other type of advertising I've done.

I appreciate this question Mike and also the answer Steve. Keep it coming.

 

[Ken Snow]

Steve said give them a bottle of spotter too, not just put the flier in.
Ken

 

[WISE]

Joey--

Here is a spotter program that I like. Has a marketing plan similar to what Steve and Ken are talking about...has neighborhood bags to leave the spotters and info on doors and other stuff.

www.cleanermarketing.com

Take care and good luck

WISE

 

[alazo1]

That was some great info Steve, thanks much.

Question. How do you feel about hiring someone for the door knocking (commercial/residential). Some are not comfortable doing this. Myself, I've done it but eventually will stop. It is outside of my comfort zone which some say to just do it and get better but...

Albert

 

[JeffC]

Albert,
While we're waiting for Steve's response I'll tell you my experience on hiring someone to sell for you. Simply stated it won't work! On paper it sounds like a good idea but the reality is you are the best one to represent your company. I'm sure 99% of cleaners feel like you, I know I sure do, but trust me on this you need to develop a system of doing it first. Then if down the road you want to hire it out, you'll know what works, how long it should take, and what to expect of your salesperson.

My heart was pounding like crazy the first time I did it, but it gets easier. You'll mess up, stutter and probably not have very much success the first few times you go out, but with time you'll gain confidence and start booking jobs. In my opinion as an owner we have to be able to go out and sell our services. Then if down the road we choose not to, that's another thing.

Last year I tried hiring a friend part-time to go out and hand out goodie bags to potential commercial customers. She is a very outgoing person, fairly good looking (MUCH better than me anyway) and I gave her all the tools she needed. After a month and supposedly spending 40 plus hours selling, she had passed out a whopping 15 bags. I later found out I could have accomplished the same thing in way less than 2 hours. Lesson learned, I might of well of just thrown the money in the trash can!

I'd suggest if you want to gain confidence selling, that rather than starting off hiring someone that you invest a few hundred dollars and take a Dale Carnegie course or go with someone maybe in another area that does something similar. Your money will be much better spent. I think you'll find that anyone can do it, if they set their mind to it. At first try setting your goals very simple, maybe just go out one morning a week and set a goal of how many contacts you'll make.Then you can always do more once you've reached your goal. I have a good friend that sells custom mats to car dealers. I tagged along with him one day just to see how he did it. His presentation was VERY simple in fact I thought it was rather boring, he definitely didn't do anything special or have a killer presentation. But he goes out 3 days a week, every single week without exception and he's built a VERY successful business with his simple sells formula. It does work.

Jeff Cutshall

 

[J Scott W]

"If I keep seeing these kinds of posts and keep getting hungrier and hungrier and I am going to start knocking on doors.

I've been putting fliers in peoples newspaper boxes but I'm not getting enough of a response to keep the bills paid, although I do at least come out positive with fliers, unlike every other type of advertising I've done.

A large part of the success is actually knocking on the doors (something Steve is experienced at) and talking to people. As the owner of the business you have knowledge and enthusiasm that can not be conveyed by reading a flyer.

Steve and I would do much the same thing except we would use different brands of spotter.

Scott Warrington

 

[Guest]

Albert,

You can hire someone but first you must do it and successfully grow the company. When I had my restoration company I hired someone to do the marketing but we went over what was said each day on his routes and I worked with him. He knew I was the expert and took direction well.

If you hire a marketer to just go get the work, I can tell you they will not most likely do it. I've had too many situations like that. If you need help just give me a call (708) 670-4043 and I can help guide you.

Dave

 

[Buzzbac]

Thanks Steve some great info there, and well worth using.........2 probs with employees tho that I can see.
1 your training your next competitor.
2 very hard to get an employee with the same interest and commitment as oneself. ( of course if they have that commitment the first thing they will do when they leave ya is grab the custys they got ya)

Wasnt always this cynical
(Honest!)

Buzzbac

 

[harryhides]

For all you twenty year olds with big dreams, here is how it's done by the man himself talking to one of them HIGH end ladies.

 

[Heathrow]

I wondered what happened to Benny Hill

 

[Steve Toburen]

Cutshall nailed it pretty good above. Selling is both an art AND hard work. Plus almost no one enjoys it. What this means is that good sales people are in high demand and very well compensated, which means they probably won't be interested in working for a small carpet cleaning company.

Sort of like the old Grouch Marx joke, "I would never want to belong to a club that would accept me as a member!" You basically don't want anyone out there representing you that would be available to do this work! It's gotta be you ... at least in the start up. Desperation was always a tremendous motivator for me. (Check out the current issue and last month's too of ICS magazine for my columns talking about face to face/ belly to belly selling.)

Albert, remember the way I describe the door to door system above it really isn't "selling". Heck, you are giving away a valuable gift for free and IF they want you to you'll be delighted to "inspect" their carpets. It doesn't get much more low pressure than that!

Once you do get invited in it is obvious that you better "sell" your heart out. Doing a proper carpet cleaning inspection is essential. If anyone wants my Special Report, "Carpet Cleaning Inspections That Sell", just send me your e-mail address. I used this system on all of my inspections (never "estimates") and closed over 95% of them.

The Report even includes a magic phrase to turn around the dreaded customer response after you reveal your price, "Let me check with my husband and I'll get back to you." Which of course they never do ... unless you turn them around right there.

Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success

PS to Buzzbac: I feel your pain. Been there, done that ... far too many times. However, it is possible to find good, long term people. Many on the board (Ken Snow and Richard Chavez come to mind) are proof of this.

PPS Wow, Tony, that was some dorky haircut I was sporting. My problem is many years ago I loaned a friend here in the Dominican Republic the money to open a barber shop out of his house. My "interest" on the loan is free hair cuts for life. BUT he really doesn't know how to cut a foreigner's hair. It isn't a money saving thing with me as a high class hair stylist here charges less than four bucks. But my barber buddy is one of my best friends and I think he would be hurt if I didn't have him cut my hair!

 

[harryhides]

Steve, just remember how much better your haircut is than your high end client who also hangs out here on occasion..

For now he shall remain nameless..........

 

[Shorty]

For now he shall remain nameless.......


What's it worth to keep the secret ???????????

Last time I saw "her", he had bigger boobs, make-up & was even smoking ;-)

Cheers,

Shorty.

PS::: Names and locations are saved to protect the innocent.......