Here are some marketing ideas that I saw over on the Floor Care board. I thought they're worth posting here for all to read...
Re: Pointers on growing our company
Posted By Peter 1 Hagar on 1/6/2004 at 10:30 PM
Ask for referrals, be persistent. Find people who will be in a position to recommend your services. And get them to want to send you referrals. Leave business cards everywhere you go and always look sharp and be polite when doing this. All you are doing is introducing yourself and your services. After a while you will become familiar with some people.
Remember they may not be in the market for your services but if you are persistent and consistent it will pay.
Any good marketing effort is repetitive and consistent. Remember to be simple and concise.
Pete
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Re: Pointers on growing our company
Posted By John Markey, CBSE on 1/7/2004 at 10:27 AM
Heather,
I agree and practice what Pete writes. Let me add, "You only get one chance to make a good first impression!”
Give me a call! Your company is far enough away from our business, I would be happy to share some of the ideas and methods that we utilize with you.
I would suggest to you:
Get out and “scout” your operational area for the type of facility you want to clean. Make notes what the name of the business is that is located there. If it is a multi-tenant building get the names of the larger tenants or see if there is a for rent/lease sign. Come up with, lets say, 50 buildings.
After your “scouting” is complete get back to your home or office and start looking up telephone numbers for those business.
Put on your “best voice” and start calling the companies on your list. Be polite and friendly and always introduce yourself first.
Something like this:
“Good morning. I’m Heather Johnson and I’m with a company called Michigan Cleaning Service. How are you today?
LET THEM REPLY.
“I wondered if you could help me out”
LET THEM REPLY.
“Our firm provides companies like (name their company) with custodial & maintenance services. I’d like to send your organization some information about our services and would like to know to whom should I direct it to?”
LET THEM REPLY.
“Could you tell me their title or position with (name their company)?
LET THEM REPLY.
Ask them to spell the persons name. Spell the name back to them to be sure you have the correct spelling.
“Thanks for your time and have a great day!”
Now with a minimum of effort you have a specific list of buildings that you want to clean. The addresses of these specific building you want to clean. The telephone number and a contact person of those specific companies’s that you want to clean. You now have a prospect list!
Start marketing to those fifty prospective firms. If you want, feel free to give me a call for some ideas that we use.
Our "prospect list" really not that large, it is about 140 companies. But we are very picky on what companies we have on the list. They need to be a specific type, size with an estimated dollar value. We realized a long time ago that we couldn’t be everything to everybody! Focus who you want to work for and what you want to do.
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And here’s an approach that I’ve been using which works along the same lines…
Here's a brief overview of how I sell commercial accounts:
1. I call and ask if I can mail them some information about carpet cleaning.
2. If they say yes I ask who is responsible for taking care of their carpet cleaning. Now I have the name of the decision maker.
3. I then mail them a good cover letter and some information about my company.
4. Next I call back and ask to speak with the decision maker. If the gate-keeper wants to know why I’m calling I tell them that I sent Mr. Jones some information about carpet cleaning and I’m calling back to discuss it with him.
5. Once I have the decision maker on the phone I inquire about the info that I mailed. Next I tell him that I have a brief 15-minute presentation that I’d like to share with him. Can I stop by to show it to you? I’d also like to provide a free demo on one of your worst areas too.
6. When I go to meet the decision maker I wear nice pants, a white dress shirt with my logo embroidered and a tie. I show him my printed Powerpoint presentation binder. And I do a demo for them.
I don’t always do all of these steps with every prospect that I contact. But that’s an overview of how I typically approach and sell commercial accounts.
Hope this info is helpful to all!
Rick Gelinas
