[Ed_Selkow]

The basis of any marketing program in the janitorial industry must encompass every available vehicle. The marketplace is too competitive to rely on old stand-bys that worked in the past. The companies that are experiencing solid growth understand the current market.

Old line companies that do not understand the market have seen growth stagnant or stand still. Failure to understand the current competitive landscape will yield disappointment and waste valuable limited resources particularly in a small or start-up in today’s market.

The vehicles that MUST be employed include the traditional ones of;
1. Networking through professional associations
2. Telemarketing
3. Direct mail
4. Fax follow up
5. Personal sales calls
6. Public relations ie; writing for local media, volunteer programs, community involvement.

Now with the wide spread use of computers these vehicles MUST include;
1. Email campaigns ie: Constant Contact or iContact
2. A significant web presence (optimized) which includes a web site, a response device, an on going blog updated twice weekly, video/audio links (NO cheesy, home made videos, they will only HURT)
3. A unique selling proposition ( a position that differentiates one company from all others )
4. A social media presence

All of the vehicles must be employed and then integrated to work together. No one vehicle will work all by itself and each vehicle cannot be pulling in separate directions. Using one or two will not work effectively, period. Not having them integrated will not work either. Now here’s the really important piece, just one or two methods worked at one time. Many great companies were built with just networking or just personal sales calls.

The days of 4 TV channels is over as are the days of horse and buggys, THINGS CHANGE. Some folks recognize the changes and some are stuck in some nostalgic fog. That’s why today you see 60 year old guys running around with pony-tails, ear rings and Jefferson Airplane Concert t-shirts, that punctuate every sentence “faaar out”.

You have two choices, recognize the current reality or “keep on truckin’” down nostalgia row and you too can wind up in a multi-colored, VW microbus covered with daffodils and peace signs, broken down on the interstate, which will definitly NOT be “faaar out”!

Ed Selkow

 

[amessica]

Pricing

Hello,
I would appreciate your opinion on this matter. I have my first contract with a property mgt. and they offered my .05cents / sq. ft. for move in/out residential cleaning, is this a fair pricing? Also they have mentioned for the second home on the cleaning list they require appliance cleaning, I am planning on asking $10/appliance, is this reasonable? Please provide feed back as soon as possible. Thank you.

 

[Ed_Selkow]

Pricing

The Sq Ft rate seems low and the individual appliance price seems high.

You will need more than $50 for a 1000 SF move out, some of them are really nasty. With the right chemicals you shouldn't take more then half an hour for each appliance.

 

[MikeFromHC]

With the right chemicals...

I picture a slumping mass that used to be a stove. There's a guy looking at a can in his hand and the caption reads, "Oops, should have read the label first."

I agree in general with what you say above but email campaigns are a double edge sword and the side facing them is rather dull today.

I doubt I see more than 10% of the unsolicited email I get and about the only ones I read are new versions of people wanting to give me millions of dollars.

A web presence is needed and Google ads are well worth trying.
An owner should also search for his or her business and follow up on the portal sites that can be such a pain. Make sure they are up to date and have your web address on them.
Blogging is worth doing if you will commit to it and update it on a regular basis, even if you just cut and paste tips from this site. If not, don't start it or take it down.

Most of the people I run into are paying about $30.00 a month for a static small web site where few changes are ever made. That's about $25.00 a month to much.

Telemarketing is another problem area. I just reported a business to Both Better Business and the Do-not-call registry because they kept calling back.
Perhaps you mean cold calling which I consider a different beast.
Anyone who does this should try to find a class in salesmanship and take it. There are so many simple tricks that will make you money.

 

[Ed_Selkow]

Mike all valid points, let me clarify a few

The email cannot be junk/spam, agreed it just won't work. Now this is directed to professionals with something to sell and not the folks out there driving a 1976 Ford Uvula with a Dollar Store bucket filled with the Spanish version of Mr. Clean, a can of Comet and a roll of paper towels (almost 90% of the operators in the US).

The email must contain something of value to email to professional Property/Facility Managers that they NEED to read. Most companies sorry to say only can say, we dust and vacuum real good, please sign my contract to clean your office building. Even seen some horrible pitches about "I have kids to feed so you NEED my cleaning services". Imagine any other company trying to market with this approach.

So creating compelling content for our prospects that they ask for and want to read is what has to happen and email is just the next generation of old company newsletter but there HAS to be a reason for the prospect to read it. These are "opt-in" programs by the 2 companies I mentioned so you can't spam anyone with them, the receiver has to agree to receive these emails from you.

I would not have believed it myself just a few years ago but there are companies I have worked with that are using their web presence as a part of their marketing program and are doing VERY well. One small company signed up over $1.2 million in sales just from their website. One large national company signs over $15 million per year from their web presence. So the web DOES work and serious companies need to face the fact that the web is here to stay or get left behind.

Now the telemarketing that needs to happen is more involved than simply script reading a " we clean real good " message. The phone is an integral part of data collection, follow up and relationship building all of which are separate parts of a totally integrated marketing plan. NO ONE SHOULD be calling folks on a "no call" list because then they would be calling residences and not businesses. Calling home businesses to sell cleaning would be moronic. Businesses that have yellow page and web listings CAN'T be on a "no call" list. All they can do is hang up on the caller, they have no legal claim to prevent one business calling another business.

Great points and thank you so much for your comments! Really love your stove metaphor!!

Ed Selkow

 

[Total Clean]

I agree with Ed's online marketing ideas and I'd like to include a very powerful one he forgot. "Go Local" use tools like Google Place Pages and Facebook to enhance even further your online presence. Two easy to set up tools that can generate qualified traffic to your website.