Rick were did you say there was more info on marketing?

Randy,

When we spoke on the phone the other day, I was referring to a post I had made on the ICS board. I have posted this before, however this time I added a little more detail to it.

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FROM THE ICS BOARD:


10 Steps I Use To Get Commercial Work
Posted By Rick Gelinas on 3/31/2004 at 4:56 PM

Here is a brief overview of how I sell commercial accounts:

1. I start by selecting an account that I'd like to acquire as one of our customers (my target). I'll then call the business 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. I can normally get through to the decision maker at this point.

5. Once I have Mr. Jones on the phone, I inquire about the info that I mailed (at this point he may or may not know about the info I sent - it doesn't matter either way). I tell Mr. Jones that I have a brief 15-minute presentation. Can I stop by to show it to you? I would 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 will then run through my printed Powerpoint presentation binder that outlines my companies services.

7. I will review their carpet and current cleaning program. After I assess their needs I'll clearly show them how I intend to FIX THEIR PROBLEMS. "Fixing problems" has been the key to selling to this market.

8. I'll then do a demonstration for them. (It's been said that "a presentation without a demonstration is merely a conversation").

9. Then I'll measure the building. I will prepare a written proposal, and in many cases a service contract too.

10. If they don't buy on the initial call I will follow up. Persistence pays off. I once approached an account that I wanted to get at least 10 times before they finally decided to use my company. That customer remained a $2400 a month customer for 18 years.

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. These few simple steps work very well for me! I think it could work for you too.


encapman







Rick Gelinas

I have been dilligently following this exactly as written, step-by-step, for almost 3 months now and am have ZERO return for my effort.

I'm not saying that this marketing system doesn't work (appearantly it does for some). It just has not worked for me.

After making over 500 initial phone calls, sending out nearly the same amount of marketing pieces and sales letters, and making 500 follow-up phone calls..... I get voice mail! How many messages do you have to leave? 3? 5? At some point, you must realize, "Hey! This person does not intend to call me back."

And when I do (miraculously) get to talk with the decision maker, they tend to say that they didn't see the stuff I mailed to their attention (the gate keeper probably chucked it into in the trash can! - real nice, huh?) and ask me to mail it to them again.

And when I do and make the follow-up call, what do I get?

V O I C E - M A I L !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am now convinced that (at least, where my company is concerned) this is a waste of time and effort. I am currently looking into other marketing avenues that may "bear the fruit" of commercial accounts. If anything starts working consistently, I will post it here immediately so others may benefit from it.

It sounds like you're having difficulty implementing the fifth point...

5. Once I have Mr. Jones on the phone, I inquire about the info that I mailed (at this point he may or may not know about the info I sent - it doesn't matter either way). I tell Mr. Jones that I have a brief 15-minute presentation. Can I stop by to show it to you? I would also like to provide a free demo on one of your worst areas too.

Did you notice... (at this point he may or may not know about the info I sent - it doesn't matter either way).

I only mailed the letter to him so that I can now have an opportunity to call him back and ask to speak to him in person. The reason for these initial steps is to get me past the gate-keeper. I want to get into his office to make my presentation followed with a demonstration.

Once I have the decision maker on the phone I have to press him for an appointment. People are busy. They're not sitting there waiting for me to call to ask about their carpet cleaning. So I MUST impress upon him that I have something of value for him. Push the right buttons at this point and I'm in. I need to capture his attention by promising to provide him with information in a brief presentation that will outline how we can improve the appearance of his carpet, and likely cut his costs too. I also invite him to take a look at my website during that conversation.

Leaving voicemails for people will get you little results. However, when I do leave a voicemail I also tell them to check out my website.

Also keep in mind #1 and #10 listed above...
#1 I have a TARGET, I have chosen this company to become my customer. #10 I will continue to follow up till I break through. If #1 is worth my effort - a worthy target, then #10 is worth my while too.

This approach may not fit your style. It may not be something you're comfortable with. But it DOES work! In fact it works really well. I can land just about any account I set my heart on with this approach. Sure I will get some rejections, that's part of the law of averages when you are selling anything. Any good salesman will tell you to celebrate each NO you get, because you're that much closer to a YES!

Mark there are a number of good books on the subject of selling and marketing that could possibly help you too. Get in touch if you're interested and I can suggest a few good ones for you to consider.

And ultimately if you find an approach that works well for you - go for it. I have just found that with commercial marketing I have to go toe to toe in the trenches. I need to get in front of the decision maker to get results. And the steps outlined above are simply the steps I use to make that happen.

Wishing you all the best!





Rick Gelinas

Rick I think Mark is having much the same problem most of us encounter in large commercial buildings.
Voice Mail SUCKS BIG TIME
The person can be sitting right at his desk, checks call display, and if he doesn't wish to speak to you lets it go to voice mail.
On the other hand Mark I would not give up sending info to the decision maker, because sooner or later there will be a problem with the carpets or any other areas you service and maybe just maybe he will remember your name.
Accounts I have serviced for 20 years do not return my calls when I just want to schedule a visitation to review our services, but let them have a little problem 11.30pm Sunday night and they can sure call you, so trying to get into a new account is so darn frustrating you want to scream. Sometimes you need to find a maintenance person and go from the bottom up.
If they don't have a real problem they don't seem to care about something as little as carpet cleaning.
It is like a carpet cleaner spending hours and hours of his time to find a detergent that will save him $300.00 in chemical costs, yet cost him hours and hours of additional labor costs, you just can't figure it out for love nor money.
Rick the one thing you don't mention in your statement is using referrals to get into new buildings. Once you do an account always ask if they know someone else that could benefit from your services, always easier if someone recommends you, or work the receptionist for all you can they usually know just about everything that goes on in the building, find out who is doing the carpets now maybe it is a very good company, and if so you may be wasting time, however, if it is the Janitorial contractor keep pounding away something will go wrong sooner than you may think.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Guys!

I forgot to mention another hurdle I have been coming up against. Many times, the "decision maker" is located at a corperate office in another state. Trying to get ahold of this person and then setting up a demo has been next to impossible for me.

Maybe, I just suck as a salesman. But, I really don't think so. I have an open mind to make whatever changes are necessary to become an effective communicator. I don't take well-intended criticism as a personal attack. I view all this as a wonderful learning process I am going through.

Don't worry. I, indeed, do not plan on giving up. In fact, I never give up. Sheer tenacity is part of the reason I have stayed in this business full-time for over 10 years. Of coarse, my main market has always been "residential", so agressively going after commercial accounts is kind of new to me.

To reiterate, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with Rick's marketing approach as it obviously is working for him. But, is this the ONLY way to get commercial accounts? Surely, there must be other approaches.

As you suggested, Rick, I am doing a great deal of research on this and feel confident that I will come across an effective approach for me. When I find it, and it indeed produces results, I will share it with everyone here.

Now that I have such an awesome commercial carpet cleaning system (The Cimex/ReleasIt System), I have a real fire in my belly to "arise, go forth, and conquer!"

This could be a great session for Connections. Maybe a session set up for VLM Association members. Lonnie would be good person to have set it up for us under the LMCCA.

"Commercial Only"

Fred,

I'll be covering some of the commercial marketing stuff along with encapsulation, in my part on the program at the Florida Connections.

BTW I was a guest speaker at CM Expo in Tampa yesterday with Jeff Cross in his spotting class. I presented a quick overview of encapsulation. And I then showed the group our trick for eliminating spill stains. It was fun.






Rick Gelinas

I did a search on this site for the word Spill and did not see any Spill Trick messages. Let me in on it it sounds great.

"Commercial Only"

Fred,

Instructions for treating spills are listed on the Releasit jug. I've also shared this little trick in detail with everyone who has purchased a Cimex.

You won't likely be able to get these same results with Sion-5.

And that's why it's a "secret" for encap club members.






Rick Gelinas

Just messin with ya Fred.

Here it is...


http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/message?forumid=228309&messageid=1064751325





Rick Gelinas

Side point:

Here are a couple of reasons why this trick with Releasit accomplishes the task so well...

1) The crystallizing polymer encapsulates sticky soda residue and holds it in suspension extremely well.

2) The fluorochemical in Releasit has an excellent propensity to stop capillary wicking action.

BTW Here are comments I received about Releasit's anti-wicking properties from a cleaner who likes to test products...

I went to a class reunion over the weekend and just got back. While I was gone, I had a test going on testing Releasit side by side with (product name withheld) for antiwicking. I only tested Releasit against (product name withheld) because in several previous tests (product name withheld) won over all other encapsulating products... (product name withheld) was number two and the others were about equal.

The test I ran over the weekend was ran by soaking nylon rope in each undiluted product and then drying completely. Next, the ropes were hung vertical in a vat of Black dye with just the ends in the dye... doing it this way the ropes acted like a wick. After two days in the dye bath the dye failed to wick as high on the Releasit rope as it did on the (product name withheld) rope.... I ran a similar test, for one day only, last week.

I am happy to report that in both tests Releasit was the clear winner. EXCELLENT!!!!!







Rick Gelinas