Recently I have noticed that we are not landing as many commercial jobs like banks, clinics etc. We recently bid on a 3,000 square foot job and they wanted protector applied after cleaning. They requested us to bid based on a testimony given by an employee who had used our services for their residence. I bid my normal sf pricing for commercial and .10 psf for applying Scotchgard. I was outbid by a national company that came in at less than1/2 my price. Their price came in at .16 psf protector included (for HWE). So what's up, and do you think they may be applying "Watergard"?
Commercial Bidding Wars?
- Thread starter BLewis
- Start date
Ken Snow
RIP
That would be normal for metro detroit and can be done well amd profitably.
I just looked up info to be specific. It was 3,918 for $627. Ken, would this be in your range? If so would your bid be approximately .10 for cleaning and .06 for protector? I also saw a residential quote that this same company gave on another job and it was about twice what my cleaning charge would have been and they also offered duct cleaning for 33 registers etc and I about fell out of my chair! And they won that job because they offered duct cleaning and we don't.
I have always known that our pricing structure is backwards, meaning we make more on commercial (except for churches) than we do residential. This past year is the first year we haven't gone up $5 per room on our residential pricing. We did go up on commercial but have since trimmed that back to last year's price. I also just bid another 3k + job at .05 cents per sf lower than our normal price just to see if we could land it and did not get that one either.
We do price restaurants @ a lower psf price due to frequency of cleaning and currently do over 36 restaurants per month. I would like to increase commercial business (preferably work that can be done from 5-8 pm) but would also like to get a premium price because until I can let loose of the reins some it keeps us pretty busy.
I have always known that our pricing structure is backwards, meaning we make more on commercial (except for churches) than we do residential. This past year is the first year we haven't gone up $5 per room on our residential pricing. We did go up on commercial but have since trimmed that back to last year's price. I also just bid another 3k + job at .05 cents per sf lower than our normal price just to see if we could land it and did not get that one either.
We do price restaurants @ a lower psf price due to frequency of cleaning and currently do over 36 restaurants per month. I would like to increase commercial business (preferably work that can be done from 5-8 pm) but would also like to get a premium price because until I can let loose of the reins some it keeps us pretty busy.
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My "WaterGard" comment wasn't a slam on ScotchGard. I was being sarcastic in suggesting that they may be applying water. I'm sure even with my multiple case purchase of Scotchgard from Jon-Don that they get it for probably 1/2 what I pay, so that may very well be true. And again I am not slamming the national company, I'm just a little tired and grouchy right now. lol
Ken, I have your pricing sheets you emailed me a couple of years ago but I can't seem to locate it with all my "organizational" changes over the years. I spend very little time in the office lately. And as you can tell from my posts tonight, this is the first time I've been on MB while setting in front of a computer for quite along time. I'm not a big fan of fighting with the small keyboard on the iphone
Ken Snow
RIP
Yep, that would be a common price for here and like said above larger companies will be buying protector in much larger quantities and have the ability o be profitable with it at a lower selling price. I can't say for sure what our price would be cause other factors than just sq ft come into play.
Desk Jockey
Member
Billy they could have been selling the protector at cost plus a little for applying. If it cost them .04 for the product and applying then they can still make their profit on the cleaning at .12 sq/ft
While $360.00 for carpet cleaning isn't much, the time it takes to clean 3000 sq/ft of open area isn't much either. Two men two hours?
$360.00 divided by 4-man hours is $90.00 a man hour (not great but still very acceptable).
If they ran dual wands or used two trucks they could possibly clean it in an hour, $360.00 divided by 2-man hours is $180.00 a man hour. Lots of ways to skin the cat
I personally wouldn't price that cheap unless there were more sq/ft, maybe 10,000 or more.
Greg Cole
Member
Normal for Atlanta as well
Ken Snow
RIP
Depending on the product and their buying power it could be under .03
Desk Jockey
Member
Ken I read your post and factored that in, that extra penny was for applying it per sq/ft.
We don't do any restaurants and even back years ago when we did we never had anyone ask for protectant.
Is there real value in applying protectant to the carpet? Wouldn't the foot traffic just wear the protection off?
We don't do any restaurants and even back years ago when we did we never had anyone ask for protectant.
Is there real value in applying protectant to the carpet? Wouldn't the foot traffic just wear the protection off?
Desk Jockey
Member
Residential for sure. We have an office building that the manager insists on all carpet cleaned be protected also. We've explained it doesn't need it everytime but she insists. We've even told her that some of that expense could go towards more frequently cleanings but she wants the protectant. Oh well we tried, no guilt just profit once it's been explained.
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Ken Snow
RIP
Our protection closing rate is less than half our residential.
Desk Jockey
Member
That's still a pretty great number considering most of those decisons are made by non property owners.
Ken Snow
RIP
Just looked at report. YTD we are at a closing rate for topical treatments (SG, DEO, Disinfectant etc.) of 66% residential and 46% commercial.
Historically Residential has been around 70% but last few years closing rate has dropped a few points.
Historically Residential has been around 70% but last few years closing rate has dropped a few points.
dealtimeman
Everyday is Saturday.
Ken that's is impressive that you have that traceable data on hand for referenceing. Do you use that data to do projections or just for the purpose of tracking.
Ken Snow
RIP
More for tracking and bonus programs. Ultimately it factors in to budgeting, but is just one component.
Ken, WOW I am so impressed with your closing stats on Scotchgard! So much so that I was sharing this with my wife (office Gal) at 5:30 am on a Saturday. From Steve's SFS class I know it's important for the office staff to at least plant the seed on Scotchgard to get the client thinking about it before your service then the tech would have a better chance of closing the deal. Would you mind sharing your script for selling Scotchgard?
Ken Snow
RIP
No script really, we ask and then the crew asks again. Probably 30% say yes on front end call and balance of yes happens in home with crews. The 66% does include all topicals, so it isn't just SG.
I am not real big on scripts- more just making sure things are covered and asked/told about.
I am not real big on scripts- more just making sure things are covered and asked/told about.
