The past few weeks I have been working out of town. Every time I have worked out of town I always open the phone book and check out the competition. I was working a larger city and there were about 35-40 PW companies there. While I was there my partner and I were offered what I concidered alot of business to have no advertising on our trucks (15-20 gas stations, 4 restraunts, a large street sweeping company wanting to trade business, and a 6 story building). This was nice! However, also while we were there we had 4 different PW companies come up to us asking us questions about how we get large contracts and how we have grown our business. This seemed odd to me that these guys were asking us how to get contracts and complaining about how difficult it is to get commercial work at the same time companies are coming to my partner and I wanting us to do commercial work.
I have thought about the things which we are doing different. The main difference I can come up with is presentation of our company and services. We have tried to organize and present ourselves as a larger small business. I have found many companies would rather deal with a company they feel are established (although we have only been in business since March). We have put a large emphasis on customer service, being in constant communication with general managers, maintenance managers, etc. All of that comes into play in presentation and word of mouth sales in our local area.
However, when we were out of town the only thing which was speaking for us was the presentation of our appearance, employee appearance, and the appearance of our trucks/equipment. We keep all of our equipment neat and clean (we try to at least rinse everything once a day if not more). A prime example is there was one PW guy came up to us asking us questions and talking with us. He said he did about 50% of his business washing trucks, but he wanted to grow and was asking us how. Now I do not wash trucks/vehicles and I actually avoid like it was the plaque, but I can give him some simple advice. I looked at his equipment, which was adequate for the job, but it looked terrible. He said he washed trucks as part of his business but his truck and trailer looked like he had driven on 20 miles of dirt road. This is a major pet peeve of mine, if you say your are cleaning someone elses stuff for a living keep your own stuff clean, especially when you literally have the cleaning equipment with you.
I also realize not everyone can afford new trucks and equipment. But, whenever we started using new trucks our misc. business really picked up. They ended up making us much more money than the monthly payment on them. The nice new, neat, and clean appearance makes a difference to people/companies we work for. Whenever we come on bid against another company who can provide the same quality of work for essentially the same price we almost always get the bid because of appearance alone.
If any of this applies to any of you please take it to heart and I hope it helps.
PS I appologize for this being the War and Peace of posts.
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I have thought about the things which we are doing different. The main difference I can come up with is presentation of our company and services. We have tried to organize and present ourselves as a larger small business. I have found many companies would rather deal with a company they feel are established (although we have only been in business since March). We have put a large emphasis on customer service, being in constant communication with general managers, maintenance managers, etc. All of that comes into play in presentation and word of mouth sales in our local area.
However, when we were out of town the only thing which was speaking for us was the presentation of our appearance, employee appearance, and the appearance of our trucks/equipment. We keep all of our equipment neat and clean (we try to at least rinse everything once a day if not more). A prime example is there was one PW guy came up to us asking us questions and talking with us. He said he did about 50% of his business washing trucks, but he wanted to grow and was asking us how. Now I do not wash trucks/vehicles and I actually avoid like it was the plaque, but I can give him some simple advice. I looked at his equipment, which was adequate for the job, but it looked terrible. He said he washed trucks as part of his business but his truck and trailer looked like he had driven on 20 miles of dirt road. This is a major pet peeve of mine, if you say your are cleaning someone elses stuff for a living keep your own stuff clean, especially when you literally have the cleaning equipment with you.
I also realize not everyone can afford new trucks and equipment. But, whenever we started using new trucks our misc. business really picked up. They ended up making us much more money than the monthly payment on them. The nice new, neat, and clean appearance makes a difference to people/companies we work for. Whenever we come on bid against another company who can provide the same quality of work for essentially the same price we almost always get the bid because of appearance alone.
If any of this applies to any of you please take it to heart and I hope it helps.
PS I appologize for this being the War and Peace of posts.
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