ive been in business since July of 2013. ive been marketing my butt off, mailing letters, tweeting, facebooking, making cold calls, posting ads on craigslist, passing out my business cards to anyone who speaks to me and ive received no phone calls or emails.
im getting VERY frustrated. i cant seem to get anyone to want speak to me. im advertising everyday but my email box is empty and the phone never rings.
im seriously considering pay per appointment or lead generation at this point.
It happens initially, you cannot expect something directly at first. You need to get some referrals and then go talk with them about your service to attract them. What you are doing is blind marketing like shooting in arrow, you need to find the area where you can shoot.
You need to use your selling skills to contact potential business and persuade them to give you an appointment for a no obligation cleaning quote. Don't expect anyone to call or email you back. You need to make the appointment by selling them on what you have to offer that will improve their situation.
Peter Weiss
Total Maintenance Services www.totalservices.org
When I stared (Residential /small office) I flyered directly to the source, right on the door. I personally did the first 2,000 at about 250 per day. Loooong days! I then hired college students to do it and did another 5,000. I had full-time work within a month.
Those processes you listed are too diffused. You need to be targeted when starting and then go more broad after you are busy.
Great advice! This was one of the subjects in our last newsletter. We talked about the door-to-door approach and "tail end marketing" Direct to consumer is always the direction to take. You may also want to target specific groups, like families that have two working professional parents, or single parents with high income. Think Dr. and law offices. Get those accounts and then upsell the residential.
Sometimes you just have to think out side the box. Do you have a unique (USP) unique selling proposition? Something that makes you stand out from others in your area? I haven't been in business very long since September 2013. However, my client base is slowly building each week. I just keep reading more books and compiling more information on the business.
Keep smiling, hard work and persistence will pay off.
That is a shame to hear, but you have to keep at it, it takes a while to get things moving but once they do you will be fine, alot of us have been there at one point or another. Good luck.
I would like to add that Facebooking and tweeting does next to nothing for getting you actual cleaning jobs - in any real number. It is a bad tactic anyway because you do not want any old client that stumbles by, you want to pre-qualify your clients and target them directly.
You have to go direct in the first couple of months, then you broaden out after that.
it may not directly get you many clients but i'd say it helps verify your business. if a customer stumbles across your site and sees you twitter or facebook feed and views it and then sees a few years of activity, perhaps it's boring but it shows you're active and a real company
You can offer introductory specials on groupon and livingsocial to get the ball rolling. Many of these one time jobs will work into full time gigs and you cancget references and testimonials quickly. I had client that got over 60 one-time jobs running a special and got 12 long term clients out of it. The trade off is they are not the highest paying jobs.
What about running a promotion where you'll do a free cleaning each month for a deserving family. You promote it on your website, company facebook page, craigslist and other free local classified ads.
You might even get a free article about your program from a local paper or something.
This is the hardest part by far. Think of it as the snow ball theory...Once its moving it is so much easier to keep it moving!
I wish I had a magic wand for you. It is just constant adjustments to see what works and what doesn't. your approach will be always changing. Read books on the subject listen to people talk about sales. If this works it's because of you...If it doesn't, well the same answer.
That is extremely frustrating, and I've been there and done that. Do you have an active website you are steering these people to? If not, you might give that some thought so people know that you are a serious and professional company. Do you also have business cards printed that state that you are bonded and insured for peace of mind? Just some suggestions.
Just hang in there, I have been in the same position as you have and that's why at time I sub-contract with other cleaning businesses and agencies. I know how hard it is to get contracts that will be permanent clients.
I started my company may 2011 and didnt get anything until about jan 2012. keep working the contacts and then when u get money rolling in a little use yp or google. And you can create a 15 dollar a month website at wix
Flyers made me a few million in the cleaning business. Most people say they don't work but the reason mine worked is for a few reasons. One reason they weren't cute. The next thing is that the more you pass out the more customers you will have.
Cute flyers are.... cute. If you like cute flyers make one with cute pictures and all kinds of cute things and tape it above your desk... hopefully that satisfies you on the cute stuff. Now let's move on to what makes money. Keep everything centered and NO pictures unless it is a face pic of yourself.
A good catchy heading.
A good body that says what YOU can do for the customers.
Leave off all the crap about you are insured and bonded and your grandmother just LOVES your cleaning and that you can get them 3 references blah blah blah....
Make a statement. Tell them that if they aren't satisfied with your work to call within 24 hours and you will come back out and re-clean. And if they aren't satisfied with that cleaning you will pay for another company to come out to clean. Very bold thing to do but I always had confidence.
Don't just say that you offer cheap cleaning from top to bottom.
Say that you offer the best cleaning for the best price possible.
EXAMPLE of something to take up space but gives them a little information: Kitchen - Bathrooms - Dusting - Glass - Cob Webs - Ceiling Fans - Window SIlls - Blinds - Baseboards
Don't make the body too long. Double space and don't crowd it.
Near the bottom
Jenny
867-5309 (make the number very big. Either 28 or even 36)
At the very bottom of the flyer put this: (don't make this very big... maybe 9)
~Save This Flyer For Future Use~
Or you can complain that you don't know how to get customers or about the economy and the government and never get any or many customers. If you put a lot of effort in to this business you will make a lot of money. I know because I did put in a lot of effort and I made a lot of money.
Flyers made me a few million in the cleaning business. Most people say they don't work but the reason mine worked is for a few reasons. One reason they weren't cute. The next thing is that the more you pass out the more customers you will have.
Cute flyers are.... cute. If you like cute flyers make one with cute pictures and all kinds of cute things and tape it above your desk... hopefully that satisfies you on the cute stuff. Now let's move on to what makes money. Keep everything centered and NO pictures unless it is a face pic of yourself.
A good catchy heading.
A good body that says what YOU can do for the customers.
Leave off all the crap about you are insured and bonded and your grandmother just LOVES your cleaning and that you can get them 3 references blah blah blah....
Make a statement. Tell them that if they aren't satisfied with your work to call within 24 hours and you will come back out and re-clean. And if they aren't satisfied with that cleaning you will pay for another company to come out to clean. Very bold thing to do but I always had confidence.
Don't just say that you offer cheap cleaning from top to bottom.
Say that you offer the best cleaning for the best price possible.
EXAMPLE of something to take up space but gives them a little information: Kitchen - Bathrooms - Dusting - Glass - Cob Webs - Ceiling Fans - Window SIlls - Blinds - Baseboards
Don't make the body too long. Double space and don't crowd it.
Near the bottom
Jenny
867-5309 (make the number very big. Either 28 or even 36)
If you just MUST add your company name do it here.
At the very bottom of the flyer put this: (don't make this very big... maybe 9)
~Save This Flyer For Future Use~
Or you can complain that you don't know how to get customers or about the economy and the government and never get any or many customers. If you put a lot of effort in to this business you will make a lot of money. I know because I did put in a lot of effort and I made a lot of money.
I like your style and want to be you. :laughing: Seriously.
We are currently going door to door, trying for after hours office and small building work. Its all very dramatic not getting work after spending days going out. But the more we are going out the more our name gets out.
Im going to go full force for 6 months, that should get us a good base of 10 to 15 accounts to start. Right?.... Right?
Can anyone else chime in on how long it took to reach the turning point?
Go to your local janitorial supply companies and leave a card. At our shop we have a cork board full of people who have put there cards up. When anyone come in and are looking for a service, we will refer people ( multiple sources ) or they can look at the cork board at all the different business's. Good luck man, I hope you get a turn around here real soon.
Not even a phone call after 3 months suggests your messaging or targeting may be off. I do two things. First solicit 10 people that have used your type of services in the past or are using them now (even better). Show each of them your promotional approach and ask for "if you were looking for a new vendor" what would you do with this? Show them 4 other competitors and ask which one of the four who they would likely call and ask why. Find out if they would respond at all to promotional advertising or would they find a supplier another way.
Take that info and boil it down. Reformulate your promotions to fix what you heard. Come up with three new approaches. Get 8 people together similar to the first people but do it as a group. Have them discuss your current approach. Show them the new approaches and have them discuss them.
Hopefully this will help you refine your approach.
it is true that just even one or two words can make a huge difference in the response to your marketing materials. In one town I used the words "custom" and "elite" and was swamped with work, but this go around in a different town people did not like those keywords at all. They see those words as meaning expensive and snooty, whereas the other town read them as professional and reliable. Wherever you live, get a barometer of the prevailing worldview and tailor your language to that. It is super tricky!
Please note also, that facebook and twitter are referred to as "no follow links" Anything you post on those particular social networking sites will have almost no relevance in the ultimate ranking of your site. I have been an SEO professional for a number of years. If you want some tips PM me and I'll give you a quick rundown. Your time spent online can be much better spent elsewhere. Hang in there!
Business need a lot of patience before you think negative, you need to check all your marketing efforts and make sure that they are into right direction.
Marketing in such a competitive niche really needs a lot of money, even to start. So, you should rethink your priorities, invest some more money, but i guarantee you that the business will go well after that.
I agree with you, it is indeed expensive but I think there is always a solution about everything :smile I started investing in local SEO and things are actually happening. If anyone feels interested I can give some examples :angel
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Cleaning Talk - Professional Cleaning and Restoration Forum
65.1K posts
24.1K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to professional cleaning and restoration specialists. Come join the discussion about upholstery, displays, residential, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!