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I need some help guys and gals!
The winter, rainy months, are here in seattle and business is really starting to slow down. We’ve bought a mailing list of 6000 names and are sending those out in 1000 increments.
Should we make follow up calls to the people we’ve sent the postcards to?
I’m going to continue to go door to door looking for commercial jobs, i.e. apartments, doctors, dentists, movie theatres.
What are some other good places to go to?
Any other suggestions are warmly welcomed.
Justin
HI Justin,
You’ve got some good ideas going! I would definitley follow up w/ the customer’s you’ve sent post cards to! Also, start going through your customer list, see who you haven’t cleaned for a while and call them as well.
Justin
To another Pacific North Wester, pretty good storms rolling tru the past few days, eh?
Funeral Homes have been very good to me.
Plus if I get real tired there are plenty of comfy places to crawl into and have a quiet snoozeAlso movie theaters. There is a big push in their industry to get people back in the seats and sticky floors and dirty seats isn’t helping. We have 700 seats and $900 carpet cleaning job next week at one.
Dennis
Dirtbag,
Would you share how you quote out a movie theater? Do you clean everyseat or do a walk through with a manager and pick the dirtier seats?
Thanks.
Ok
this is pretty much my whole MO
I contact a business, find out who looks after the cleaning and then thats it. i send out a letter to that person and then make a follow up call, asking for that person and reminding them of the letter they just got. Usually it flows from there. Nothing too earth shattering, but seems to work very well.
As for the movie theaters, funeral homes, old peoples apartments and nursing homes, the theaters have been on the cheaper end of the scale and sadly and some nasty work, but……..i have managed to get the carpets cleaned quarterly so its not too bad now and the seats yearly. the chairs end up being all, even when they say only do the bad ones. take a spotter bottle a nice white towel and do some test spots. they will be filthy. My friends call to go see a movie and I say NO WAY. dirty dirty dirty. I have found that most of the pimply faced “managers” are pretty quick to offer insite into past cleanings and costs. It has been cheaper than I’d like, but rolling thru 700 seats at $3.25, 60 seats per hour isn’t all bad either. Man, my back is hurting just thinking about it. we have 700 to do starting Thursday. I’d like to be getting $4 or $5 but then i’d not be cleaning any. The theaters are doing what they can to get people like me back in the seats. I can help.Also ask, they’ll usually comp you some passes. More questions? fire away!
Dennis,
I am sure that if any of us did 10% of what you just described, we wouldn’t have any worries about winter business…thanks a lot!!! Gave me a couple of great…GREAT…ideas!!
Dave
Dave
We are cleaning at a theatre tomorrow which is a new one for us. The carpets are going to be $900 and the seats are $2300. The place is a mess, and they want the carpet cleaned quarterly instead of tri-yearly. UHG!
My brother Gordon, whom you will all meet in Vegas, (You are all going to be there? Right.) went to a movie one night, reported that the place was a mess. I just called and it went from there. The apple was there all the time just wanting to be picked.Make a call. send a note, do something, anything. Good things come to those who work for it.
Thanks Dennis,
I just sent out 27 info packets to property managers in the area and will be calling them to check in next week. working my way through the phone book and will be sending out a lot more. Thanks for all your help, it saves alot of time and money sending info out than driving all over the damn place to go see them. I know that there is nothing better than shacking their hand and talking with them but we can get much more quantity this way. I’ll let you guys know how it works.
Justin
Justin,
Ditto with everything stated.
Having good connections with real estate agents are also very helpfull. Talking with the new owner will be an easy sale for protector as well! Even in Jan of Feb.If you do carpet, tile and wood. You pretty much got it covered. Go anywhere, to any business. 60% of our business is commercial. When we started it was about 80%. Nothing wrong with that. It just means we are getting more residential, which we want. Commercial jobs are great but want the best deal obviously. Offer a free demo. Every free demo we have offered has landed us the job, plus there is no obligation. Be sure to mention that. Who turns down a free demo.
Mike Nowlin
Dennis,
Thanks for the info…really nice job. I have a rather dum question though..when you are quoting dollars in your review, I presume Canadian dollars? Am I correct or did you convert?
Can make a big difference here.
Thanks,
Dave
Pricing seems to be different all over. I think we are average. Right now the difference in our dollar to yours is about 10-12% not real huge like it was a few years back.
What do you guys think about cold calling residential customers. Do you think our time would be better spent calling commercial or residential customers.
Justin
No offense, but that ticks me off when people make sells calls to me. That’s me though. If it cost nothing but air, then wouldn’t hurt to try. I think it would make more people angry than interested. Give it a shot. Try direct mailers. You can buy mailing list for a reasonable price. If you want to target high end, then go to your local city or county office and ask for demographics on population by income level, or something to that nature.
Mike Nowlin
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