i dropped of my marketing material to 21 offices / retail stores today. took approx. 3 hours. i ran out of my envelopes or i woulda done more....was an area that is SATURATED with offices & retail. i only scratched the surface with 21.

at any rate, out of 21 i got 1 demo setup. about half of the contacts were located in an office park that is maintained by the landlord....they take care of office cleaning and carpet cleaning.

i will try to update how many out of 21 actually become paying clients.

i do make call-backs on each place i drop off material, i dont stop calling til i get the decision maker and he tells me they are all set.

any tips or advice from you older pro's?

thanx fellas --- Derek.

"i dont stop calling til i get the decision maker"

That would make me never 'need' your services.

Maybe just me, but I hate persistent, annoying phone calls.

We recently refinanced our house, the company with the best
all-around package kept calling, & calling & calling, trying to 'make' us decide to use them...long story short, we went with another lender.

Very fine line between being aggressive and being a PITA

...and I absolutely refuse to do business with anybody that
bugs me on the phone....

...maybe it's just me...

Good luck
KC

I agree Ken. Overly persistent phone callers are a turn-off to me as well.

I'm not saying that this won't produce work for Derek, but I wonder if he'll also be "burning bridges" as well. Hard to say for sure, though. It all depends on your personal "gift for gab". Some have it better than others. Gate Keepers do tend to remember with disdain those who annoy them.

So far, there are only two things that have produced solid commercial work for me.

#1: Referal [example: The Principle of a High School I clean refered me to a nearby Elementary School.]

#2: My Yellow Pages Ad [example: I asked several businesses who called me out of the Yellow Pages why they chose to call me. They all said that they liked the way my ad looked and what it said.]

I'm sure (I hope) there are many more ways of getting solid commercial accounts, I hope I get clued into them soon. But for now, these are the only two things that are truly producing for me.

I've done what Derek is doing and found that it didn't feel right to me. Neither did it produce anything much. But again, maybe thats just my experience alone. Who knows? You have to try something before you know if it works or not, anyways.

i agree that ppl who irritate me dont get my biz, but 9 out of 10 times i dont have a hard time getting to the decision maker. the reason being, the envelope i have dropped off has an offer for a free demo with pic's printed on the envelope of what they might expect. this works to get past the "gatekeeper" because they see a FREE offer and she / he smartly decides that they arent in the position of making these kind of choices for the company (they dont wanna make this decision when it isnt theirs to make). this is my opinion on how it works anyways lol, and it appears to be the truth. ppl's eyes light up when they see the b4 and aft pics and the offer for a free demo, best marketing i have ever done in my limited experience.

thanx for the feedback fellas, i will try to keep it in mind, def dont wanna burn any bridges.

thanx --- Derek.

Sounds like a solid plan Derek, and I'm glad it's
working for you. And that's the bottom line,.. results.

If it works, keep on, keepin' on

Good luck & take care bro,
KC

Derek you are close to our results. We kept a file for several people doing selling for us. We logged all calls.
Results: 25 calls = 1 appointment
3 appointments = 1 meaningful customer

"Do not be dismayed by small starts"

"Commercial Only"

Derek -

I understand what the folks are saying about overzealous telemarketing. I have a different take on it.

Most commercial work that is not referral from existing customers has to start from somewhere.

You're talking about that 'somewhere'.

We do thousands of dollars per month of ongoing work for regular customers. Looking back at where that came from, there was a day, a while back maybe, when I picked up the phone, called a bunch of likely sounding prospects and heard the following:

1. No, we're all set. Bye!
2. No, we don't need any. Bye!
3. No, our landlord handles that for us.
4. Maybe if you call me back next spring.
5. Well, we just had all our carpets done 2 weeks ago, too bad you didn't call earlier
6. No, my brother is in the business!
7. We're moving out of state. You don't service Omaha by any chance, do you?
8. No, please leave us alone.
9. The president is a very busy man. He doesn't have time to take unsolicited calls from people like you.
10. Sure, come on in and give me a quote! I was just going to look into this next week, so this saves me time..Tuesday OK for you?


Now multiply times three (lost 2 out of 3 bids) and add the time on to find the right person and play screening games with very worthy opponents (executive secretaries/receptionists) and it could take all day or more to knock down a quality deal with an excellent long term customer.

So, try to be as sweet as honey, and as professional as you can, but don't feel embarrassed to promote YOU, INC. If you care about their carpet enough to invest in the state of the art system, (You do, you did!) then by all means get through to them and let them know! Don't be a pest, but don't let the 9 out of 10 that say no today bother you. It's the tenth guy who makes the payday for you.