by
Robert M. Hinderliter
Rahsco Cleaning Systems
Telemarketing, Direct Mail, Faxing, and email:
Making Cold Calls is the way almost every cleaning business starts out. The trick is knowing who and when to call. Cold calls typically are by telephone or in person. Always ask for the opportunity to send or leave a brochure and business card. These items will get filed for later reference when needed. I have had several customers who have saved my business cards for over 20 years. This also emphasizes the importance of being in business in the same location for a long period of time. Some companies achieve these results by buying out long established companies.
When cold calling always collect names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses for future contact. This information needs to be put into a data base for continued sales effort. Secretaries typically are in charge keeping prospecting phone calls from their bosses (Palace Guards). You may be able to reach him by email or fax.
When cold calling try to determine if they an immediate need, future need, are they satisfied with there current vendor, or do they know someone who could use your services. Always keep a list of people and companies you called who may need your services. Most of the time 3 call backs to companies or home owner who need your services will produce better results, or as good as the first time calling. A lot of people miss this point. Repeated targeted qualified calling establishes creditability, trust, and top of the mind recall. This way they will remember you when they need your services. Repeated calling can be done by telephone, faxing, direct mail, or email. You never know what medium that your customer may respond to so you need keep repeating the same message over and over through different mediums.
You can now buy large lists of "home owner" and
"business" in the
Yellow Pages work good also for businesses but CDs have the ability to down load addresses and phone numbers for automatic direct mailing or telephoning. For Home Owners you need to look at the address location before calling and only call upscale neighborhoods.
The secret to making advertising work is consistency. You should set daily, weekly, or monthly goals for telemarketing and direct mail pieces. For Contract Cleaners just getting started 30 to 40 mailing per week is reasonable along with 10 to 20 phone calls per day. What normally happens is that you get some jobs and stop your marketing efforts until the work is finished. If you would prospect at least 30 minutes to one hour per day by telephone you can keep a better flow of work.
The goal of your marketing effort is to build name recognition and trust. When the customer needs your services you want him to call you. Trust is equal to honesty over time. You start out by delivering on small promises then building upon them over time. Small promises may be as simple as keeping your appointments on time.
Telephone Solicitation
Beware of the laws governing telephone solicitation. Your telephone company should be able to supply you with complete laws governing your area. However some items effecting Mobile Pressure Power Washers are:
Telephone solicitors must:
A telephone solicitor may not call a residence before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday or before noon or after 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Exceptions: The requirements above do not apply to telephone solicitations, made at the customers request, or solicitations made in connection with an existing debt or contract, or calls to a customer with whom you have had a prior or existing business relationship.
Dog and Pony Show
Everyone should have an album of before and after pictures to show the quality of their work. One picture is worth a 1,000 words when establishing the quality and credibility of your work.
You should start your business with a camera close by. Pictures of prestigious customer's residences and equipment are always impressive. 35mm cameras are relative inexpensive and you can use pictures for years. Also the pictures will be the basis of flyers and brochures for your company.
Digital Camera pictures can down load directly to your PC, be put on your website, and emailed to your customers. Some contract cleaners are equipping their crews with digitial cameras and take pictures of all jobs. These images are stored on 3.5" disks for storage and later usage if needed. Sending customers pictures of before and after shots by email is quite effective where the buyer is not on site to inspect your work. This also helps you supervise your crews better without being on the job site.
When taking pictures try to take the before and after shots from the same position and time of day so the pictures are identical except for your work. Remember to dress in a professional manner when having your picture taken and be aware of anything that may be distracting in the background.
When doing a sales presentation your photo album can be your best tool. Pictures always draw interest and are generally received better when in a photo album than in a sales brochure. Sales Brochures are for filing away and later use, but photo albums can create dialog, establish creditability, and trust.
Yellow Pages:
Never have an advertisement larger than an in-line business card or smaller than a regular listing. When there is less than one page of advertising an inline business card advertisement will get more leads than 1/4 page advertisement. I tested this for one year. and the inline business card advertisement produced more than the 1/4 page advertisement.
Always have at least a regular listing so that you can be found in the yellow pages by your customers. And do not waste your money on off brand yellow pages.
Yellow Page Advertising
Home owners:
For "home owners" only market to higher income areas and retirement communities. Retired people have the money but not the health or desire to do the work.
Also home owners can be reached by placing your business card in the following places: Grocery stores, bathrooms, doors of homes, under wind shields of automobiles, restaurants, and all public places where you see other business cards being posted. I know of one very successful contractor who used the 3 foot rule, everyone who was within 3 foot of him was given his business card.
When doing jobs for home owners always place a yard sign with your Company Name, address, and phone number. in the front yard. Put door hangers on the houses within a 2 to 3 block area. Keeping up with the Joneses will help you get more sales.
After the job is completed offer the Home Owner a Bird Dog Fee of $25.00 for any customers he sends you. This will offer him a way to pay for his work.
Flyers are also an effective way to market to homeowners. "Penney Saver", "Money Mailer" , "Val-Pak", etc. will help you develope you flyer and do your mailing for you at a fairly reasonable cost. These companies can be found in the yellow pages under: Advertising-Direct Mail. Before and After pictures work very well for this. Catchy phrases like "Is your deck covered with mold, mildew, tree sap, and turning grey? I can restore your deck to its natural wood beauty and extend it's life" can get people thinking about protecting their investments in their decks.
Mobile Home Parks
The spring and the fall is when most of the cleaning is done in Mobile Home Parks. The upscale parks will also have decks and awnings that will require washing. You can introduce your services by doing a free wash for the Resident Manager.
For "mobile home parks" only market to higher income areas and "trailer parks" for retired people (no Kids). Retired people have the money but not the health or desire to do the work.
Some Mobile Home Parks require the residents to wash their trailers annually.
Selling Deck Cleaning and Wood Restoration:
Work out an agreement with Lumber Yards, Garden shops, and Fence Companies to treat their exterior wood fences and walks with different treatments, colors, etc in return for placing a sign with your name address and phone number. Of course you want the buy all of your material from their stores if they sell it. If there is a wooden deck, bridges, or fence where customer pass this would be ideal. This will give them an example of your work and what the customer can expect.
Home and Garden Shows offer an opportunity to obtain many leads and display your work. If you give away a "Free Deck Deck Cleaning and sealing" by filling out a questionnaire you will probably get more than enough leads to keep you busy for several months.
Truck Washing
Cold Calling, Yellow Pages, and Direct Mail seem to work the best here when getting started. Joining their trade associations helps to establish creditability and prove that you are here to stay and not a fly-by night company. Creditability can be enhanced by giving out copies of your General Liability and Workmen's Compensation Insurance with your bid proposals. Point out the liability that the customer assumes if the contractor is not covered his own insurance.
Just because a Trucking Company has their own wash bay does not necessarily mean that they are not a potential customer. A lot of trucking companies with their own wash bays contract their washing. to outside vendors. A major reason for this is that the companies typically assign their lowest paid employees to the wash bay with typical results. I have even seen them sabotage the equipment to keep from working. The trick is to call just after some one has quit or sabotaged the equipment. The way to do this is by regularly calling and staying in touch. I obtained some of my biggest accounts by using this technique.
When cold calling on Trucking Companies a lot of contract cleaners have chosen to go in the back door to the truck wash bay first. Since the front door is usually guarded by "Palace Guards" whose job it is to keep everyone away from the boss. If you show a little respect to the wash bays guys you will be surprised at what you can learn.
Contract for Stability
In the power wash business as in any service business you can expect competition. If you are doing a quality job at a reasonable price your customer usually does not want to take a competitive bid. However, he feels that if he does not take a competitive bid he is not doing his job. One way that you can stop about 80% of this competitive bidding is by putting your customers under contract.
For the customers that are leery about signing a contract put a clause in the contract that says "the customer may cancel your services at any time for any reason". On the surface this may seem ineffective, but in practice it works very well. What this does for the customer is to enable them to say that they are under contract without lying and that they are not taking bids at this time. This is what your customers will probably do unless they are not happy with you.
Accept Credit Cards
We are in the days of electronic commerce and this means accepting credit cards. Your bank can help you with this. You will need to accept Master Card, Visa Card, American Express, and Discover Card. Almost everyone will have one of these credit cards.
Accepting credit cards will make sales easier to close with both businesses and home owners. Some vendors will accept credit card payment for past due invoices.
We have used Novus Services for several years to process Visa, Master, American Express, and Discover Cards. Their Phone Number is 800-347-6673.
Image
First Impressions are important. This could be by: 1) How you answer the telephone, 2) your physical appearance, 3) cleanliness of your wash equipment, 4) signage at your office or on your equipment, or 5) fliers, business cards, and brochures.
You should answer the telephone by saying: "Thank you for calling (Rahsco Cleaning Systems), this is (Robert), how may I help you". This has given them a warm welcome telling them of your appreciation and whom they are talking to. This helps to establish a personal relationship with your customer and tells them they are talking to a real person who cares and not to an impersonal machine.
Clean uniforms present a professional appearance. Did you ever see a Sears Service Person without a uniform on? If you are going to do quality work you need to look like it.
Being in the cleaning business you should strive to keep your own equipment looking nice and neat. Have professional lettering done. You can have professional lettering done rather inexpensively at Quick Print Sign Shops. Some contractors have chosen covered trailers, vans, and bobtail trucks for the ability to keep their equipment covered and have the advantage of a big billboard traveling sign instead of exposed dirty equipment. Other advantages of covered equipment include protection from freezing weather and theft.
Quick Print Shops and personal computers can produce nice looking brochures, flyers, business cards, and letter heads. Always leave a brochure or flyer with a business card when doing cold calls. Purchasing agents usually catalog these items so that they will know who to call on when needed. I have had people save my business card for over 20 years!
In today's market you need to advertise all the ways of being reached. This includes your mailing or physical address, phone and fax numbers, and email and internet addresses. Normally you want all of this information an all of your brochures, flyers, business cards, catalogs, and letter heads.
Newspapers: Advertising:
In smaller communities there is usually a section for home services that is very inexpensive. I have found that two line listings work great and are inexpensive. Do not be misled or talked into putting in more than two lines. Two lines every week, or daily work great and are better than larger less frequent ads.
Also you can have inserts put into newspapers that target different areas. This way you can target your potential customers just like direct mailings. You can follow up targeted inserts or mailing with phone calls to increase the effectiveness of your advertising.
Area Survey:
Use your leisure time to survey your market area and make a list of potential customers (prospects). I used to drive around on Sunday afternoon with my wife looking for new prospects. I drove and she made a list. On Monday we would start calling and mailing my brochures and business cards.
Professional Organizations
Always join Professional and Trade Organizations that service your industry or a market that you are serving. Examples are: National and State Trucking Associations, Restaurant Associations, Home Owner Associations, Building Owners Associations, Tenant Associations, Automobile Dealer Associations, Chamber of Commerce, Toast Masters, etc.
National Associations for Power Wash Contract Cleaners are
A lot of business is based on personal relationships. In order to develop these you must not only join the associations but also become involved in their activities. Volunteer for committee assignments and jobs. Offer to speak on areas of your expertise. This will add prestige and integrity to your company.
Association membership will also increase your networking ability. Also confidential information is only available through personal contacts. I have often found that the personal contacts made at trade shows was the most valuable reason for attending, not the seminars and trade show itself.
Social Time:
When starting a business you need to take advantage of your leisure and social time and use it to your business advantage. Your work, leisure, and social time will blend together. You should use your social time for joining organizations like the the Lions, Masonic Lodge, Elks Club, Optimists Club, Rotary, Kiwanis, VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), Shiners, etc. where your potential customers may be members. Religious Organizations may work well for this also.
Take advantage of all your contacts, this needs to be a conscious effort. A lot of first time entrepreneur are offended by this thought but slowly adopt the principles after time and getting used to the idea.
If you have more questions call: Rahsco Cleaning Systems at 800-433-2113.
Last Updated: September 25, 2009
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