Wisdom for getting Commercial work.

[harryhides]

That extra work does help. Try this as well, its a technique that I learned from Chuck Violand.

Go through your business area and look for buildings with these characteristics:

Paved parking area
A sign on the building
Landscaping and shrubbery

(All say "I care about appearance")

Go in the building, and if the carpet is heavily soiled, leave. (If they let it look bad before they clean, they'll definately be "low bidder types" who expect too much.) If the carpet is clean, or nearly so, they probably pay to have it cleaned regularly, or its relatively new. And its unlikely to have been abused and full of residue.

Once you establish that they "qualify for you", approach the receptionist and ask for the name of the decision maker, not for a cold sales call,but just so you can mail "them" important information about carpet maintenance. (In a number of places, the "gatekeeper" actually makes the cleaning calls. Imagine a doctor or lawyer shopping for carpet cleanign). Because of the non-threatening approach, she'll either give you a chance to make a proposal to her, or give you the contacts name gladly.

Go back to the office/your home, and mail your information directly to the decision maker, and mention in the letter that you will call on a specific date.

When you call and the receptionist/gatekeeper answers, you'll know her name, mention the reason for the call, and your more likely to get through.

Once you get through, get an appointment to give them a proposal.

This is a bit more involved that direct mail, but you'll get a far higher percentage of interviews to a far better prospect list.

I hope this helps!

 

[Desk Jockey]

I believe Chuck also said something like "If you wanted to increase your sales by $40,000.00, you can go out and get 10- new commercial accounts at $4,000.00 or you can clean 400-residential jobs. They will both get you there but the commercial is going to be the most profitable with less travel time and more billable production time"

That's what really made us give commercial cleaning another look.

 

[Jeremy]

Bump!

 

[Captain Morgan]

mail "them" important information about carpet maintenance

What exactly is the information you'd send? Where do you find it? I've tried going online to dig up information, statistics about how they will get the most of their investment by regular maintenance/cleaning of the carpets but I've never found information that I felt was sufficient to send to "decision makers".

Instead I fall back on the usual garbage that they don't care about.. my equipment, cleaning chemicals, how I wear a uniform, smile alot and am polite, show up on time..

I would feel better about showing legitimate documented proof that regular cleaning helps carpets last longer, how spending money cleaning their carpets will actually save them $$ on the back end when they get 10 years out of their floor covering investment rather than just 5 years... something like that.
Does anyone have this kind of information they are willing to share with a struggling carpet cleaning looking to expand into more commercial work.. or where I can find it?

Thanks for any help,
Bill

 

[KevinL]

That's the kind of info the cri should supply us with but they're to busy helping the manufacturers avoid paying warranty claims for their shitty products.

 

[Chris A]

mail "them" important information about carpet maintenance

What exactly is the information you'd send? Where do you find it? I've tried going online to dig up information, statistics about how they will get the most of their investment by regular maintenance/cleaning of the carpets but I've never found information that I felt was sufficient to send to "decision makers".

Instead I fall back on the usual garbage that they don't care about.. my equipment, cleaning chemicals, how I wear a uniform, smile alot and am polite, show up on time..

I would feel better about showing legitimate documented proof that regular cleaning helps carpets last longer, how spending money cleaning their carpets will actually save them $$ on the back end when they get 10 years out of their floor covering investment rather than just 5 years... something like that.
Does anyone have this kind of information they are willing to share with a struggling carpet cleaning looking to expand into more commercial work.. or where I can find it?

Thanks for any help,
Bill

I would start with a nice sales letter introducing yourself and your company, a brochure perhaps, and any other tidbits you can think of. I like using the EPA recommended guidelines for cleaning just to give you a bench mark when giving a proposal. This is something I need to get back on as well, most of our marketing efforts this year have been towards residential.

 

[Steve Toburen]

mail "them" important information about carpet maintenance

What exactly is the information you'd send? Where do you find it? I've tried going online to dig up information, statistics about how they will get the most of their investment by regular maintenance/cleaning of the carpets but I've never found information that I felt was sufficient to send to "decision makers".

Instead I fall back on the usual garbage that they don't care about.. my equipment, cleaning chemicals, how I wear a uniform, smile alot and am polite, show up on time..

I would feel better about showing legitimate documented proof that regular cleaning helps carpets last longer, how spending money cleaning their carpets will actually save them $$ on the back end when they get 10 years out of their floor covering investment rather than just 5 years... something like that.
Does anyone have this kind of information they are willing to share with a struggling carpet cleaning looking to expand into more commercial work.. or where I can find it?

Thanks for any help,
Bill

Good questions, Bill. I would never argue with Chuck Violand and/or Jim Pemberton, both of whom have been in the industry since before I was born! (Well, almost, anyway!)

However, for me personally a simpler "Dedicated Sales Morning" of walking through the door and introducing myself to 20 new businesses a week worked better. I found all the pre-mailing just delayed the inevitable meeting with the prospect and almost all commercial mailings just get tossed anyway. I'm just a sort of "cut to the chase person". (Your results may vary.) For a complete report on how I set up our commercial sales system just go here:

http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com/755 ... commercial

The download is free. After looking at the two approaches toward commercial selling that Chuck and I espouse I would suggest you test each of them for one month. Whatever works for you. One of Chuck's other favorite sayings is, "Luck favors a body in motion." And so it is ...

Steve
http://www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS Now once you actually are talking to your commercial prospect what do you say and how do you "control" the process? (Remember that these folks are busy!) Over the years I developed a one page Commercial Carpet Analysis form that I used to "interview" the prospect. It worked great, especially in nudging the customer toward setting up a regular contract maintenance service with you. The free download is here:

http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com/197 ... t-analysis

NOTE: You can download any or all of the resources on the SFS site after filling out a simple, one-time-only registration form. (Be sure to make a note of your user name and the password that is e-mailed to you immediately after hitting "finish" on the site. Then you can change your password to whatever you want when returning to the site.) BTW, I guarantee no spam- ever.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

I won't argue back Steve.

The most important part of Violand's program is the qualifying of the job by outside and inside appearance. Giving proposals to places that don't care about the appearance of their place is a waste of time.

Such places either are not in the market for any cleaning services at all, or will be looking for the cheapest guy to do it at the longest cleaning interval.

Giving too many proposals to people who are not genuine prospects creates needless anxiety and disappointment.

Let that happen too often and sales people (or owner operators) often give up on commercial sales and just go home and wait for the phone to ring.