I posted this on the ICS message board, but I thought I'd post it here too.
Perhaps it will give you something to ponder


Posted By Rick Gelinas on 10/10/2006 at 6:09 PM

There was a post below about following up on commercial accounts. That made me think of this lil story that I experienced in my business. I thought it might be food for thought for some of you...

How I Landed a $47,000 a Year Account:

Back in around 84/85 (when I was a young man in my cleaning business with a lot more hair than I've got now) I was going after a very choice floor care account. It was a group of 18 small stores in my area with VCT flooring that received service once a week.

There I was, a young buck looking to land a big fish. I walk in to the main office for these stores and ask to speak with the owner of the company. I was told that the owner wasn't the one I should speak with - I'd need to speak with the owner's son, and he's not available to speak with you. So I left my flyer on the receptionists desk and left the office.

End of story? Hardly! Remember I was a hungry young buck looking to land a big one.

I came back a couple of weeks later and asked to speak with Steve (I had learned what the owner's son's name was on that initial contact). Same response... Steve is not available. Again I left my flyer on the desk and left the office.

Well this scenario was repeated again. Same response - Steve is not available. I went in again - same response. I went in again. This routine replayed at least a dozen times or more over the next several months.

Then guess what happened one day? Yep! You guessed it...

One day I walked in and before I could ask for Steve, the receptionist told me that Steve would see me today. I don't know if they were curious about my dilligent persistence. I don't know what what they were thinking at that point. They might have been wondering if I was a nut - LOL But I can tell you this... MY PERSISTENCE HAD PAID OFF!

You see the first dozen times I went in there they weren't looking for a new floor guy. But when the time came for them to shop for a new floor guy, I was the first one they thought of. Or you could say, when the time came that they finally had an itch - I was the one that came to mind to scratch it.

If I hadn't been persistent I would NEVER have landed that account. An account that paid me between $800-$1000 every week for the next 18 years. That's over $840,000 for being persistent.

But better than the sale of that account, I learned a valuable lesson about marketing to commercial accounts. I learned that persistence pays!





Rick Gelinas
encapman

nice tip Rick.

might be i should call them less and get in their face more.

thanx --- Derek.

Excellent tip, Rick.

Green Eggs and Ham. You gotta keep asking and pretty soon they will taste it, and find out they really do like it, Green Eggs and Ham or Your Service. Good story Rick. Just another year or two and it would have been a Million.

Rick I have heard you tell me that story before and you may have also wrote it on the BB before, (because I have heard it several times) but it never gets old. Thanks for the inspiration.

Kevin Pearson

I love that story Rick, I am in the middle story similar to yours. Tommorrow I present a proposal to a large retail store thats wants the carpet cleaned every 8 weeks. It took me 6 months to get in the door and now the facilities manager calls me 3x per week. He is so excited about encap he called me Monday to see how my weekend was. What a product..


Ralph

Smoke and mirrors, others call it Shampoo. I just like to call it a "Money Maker"

when i went to connections in florida i heard this story. and the other one that he said on the ics board  we care as much about your carpet as you do lol

Guess I need to come up with some new material eh?

It's funny how the events that make an impression on you can affect your outlook for years to come.
There have been quite a few things like that in business for me.


Hey - while we're talking about this...
What memorable situations have had an effect on YOUR business?
Let's hear from you guys. This could turn out to be an interesting thread






Rick Gelinas
encapman

the day i was introduced to orbital bonnet cleaning by a good freind of mine that i met on these chat boards .i was a hwe guy at the time with a big bad propane fired unit and a 59 blower and i thaught i was allmighty with heat of 400 if i wanted to. but there were plenty of times when i was less impressed with the cleaning results the way the carpets looked. i mean the steam was allways impressive to the customers but not my legs when the lines would touch me. but when all the steam dissapered the carpets wouldnt look that great all the time. but when i got introduced to the orbital bonnet machine i mean the visual results were always perfect .i know the hwe system removes tons more soils but what does that matter when the customer only sees the top part of the carpet ? so since that point on i sold my truckmount lost 50% OF WHAT I PAID ONLY 1 YEAR EARLIER and got myself a challenger /cimex/ brute and dual cylindrical machines and now i do mostly commercail carpets and from then on i have really been making some serious $$$ AND EVEN A BRAND NEW FORD ECONOLINE VAN lol coming from a 97 with 200,000 miles so i gues this will qualify as a life carrer changing moment and i owe itb all to a lot of people but thank god for encapsulation and the results i get almost all the time guarenteed .