Robert Kravitz
New Member
RE: Getting Accounts and Building Your Business
One of the great things about the janitorial business is we can go find our customers, we do not have to wait for them to come to us. There are several ways to do this, it all is up to you and how much marketing and how formal you want to go about it.
You can start marketing your business by just cold calling on areas where you want to clean. This is actually a lot of fun and you will find you do better once your realize that it is fun! Just smile, dress well and be as polite as you can. Even if you are told they are "not interested at this time" get the card of the office manager or business so you can begin your own "leads" database. You will get accounts this way and many, many people market this way very successfully.
Mailing campaigns can be good if you repeat them and mix them with cold calling or follow-up telephone calls. Buy lists from marketing companies with the manager's name. They cost about 10-13 cents per name. Mail them a letter introducing yourself and offer to bid on their cleaning needs. Every couple of months, send another note. Send a card, make a call, send a pen and pencil with your business name, etc. Eventually, the time will come when they are taking bids and you will be called if not sooner.
Telemarketing is very successful. There are times of the year it works better than other times. There are directories you can buy or lease that will help get you the names of offices in specific areas. In California, for some unknown reason, summertime was "get new bids time" for many companies. So, from May through September, we really worked the telemarketing arena.
The advice I would like to offer you is in one word: persistence. Just keep marketing, cold calling, telemarketing, passing out information, networking. Set aside three mornings per week for marketing when you are really serious about it. Two days per week is too little and five days per week too much.
On those days, set goals for yourself. Don't stop until you have called on 10 offices. Eventually, try and have at least three appointments each morning, three days per week. If passing out residential cleaning flyers, keep working an area until you have distributed 50.
Marketing is the most exciting part of the cleaning business. The more you do it, the better you get, the more you enjoy it.
Robert Kravitz, rjk@alturasolutions.com
Altura Solutions Janitorial Resource Center
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Robert Kravitz
alturasolutions.com
One of the great things about the janitorial business is we can go find our customers, we do not have to wait for them to come to us. There are several ways to do this, it all is up to you and how much marketing and how formal you want to go about it.
You can start marketing your business by just cold calling on areas where you want to clean. This is actually a lot of fun and you will find you do better once your realize that it is fun! Just smile, dress well and be as polite as you can. Even if you are told they are "not interested at this time" get the card of the office manager or business so you can begin your own "leads" database. You will get accounts this way and many, many people market this way very successfully.
Mailing campaigns can be good if you repeat them and mix them with cold calling or follow-up telephone calls. Buy lists from marketing companies with the manager's name. They cost about 10-13 cents per name. Mail them a letter introducing yourself and offer to bid on their cleaning needs. Every couple of months, send another note. Send a card, make a call, send a pen and pencil with your business name, etc. Eventually, the time will come when they are taking bids and you will be called if not sooner.
Telemarketing is very successful. There are times of the year it works better than other times. There are directories you can buy or lease that will help get you the names of offices in specific areas. In California, for some unknown reason, summertime was "get new bids time" for many companies. So, from May through September, we really worked the telemarketing arena.
The advice I would like to offer you is in one word: persistence. Just keep marketing, cold calling, telemarketing, passing out information, networking. Set aside three mornings per week for marketing when you are really serious about it. Two days per week is too little and five days per week too much.
On those days, set goals for yourself. Don't stop until you have called on 10 offices. Eventually, try and have at least three appointments each morning, three days per week. If passing out residential cleaning flyers, keep working an area until you have distributed 50.
Marketing is the most exciting part of the cleaning business. The more you do it, the better you get, the more you enjoy it.
Robert Kravitz, rjk@alturasolutions.com
Altura Solutions Janitorial Resource Center
------------------
Robert Kravitz
alturasolutions.com