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I didn't get the bid!March 31 2008 at 8:15 PM |
iluvcarpet
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| I got the call today and I didn't get the bid to clean the hotel. They went with the cheaper bid. My wife is not happy because she feels that I should of went cheaper because a profit is a profit. I was very professional with with my bid proposal and so on but it doesn't mean crap. What do you guys think I could of done different? I told them all the benefits of encap. Also again what do you guys feel good commercial accounts are? Thanks for you time and info. |
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Thomas Owens
| Re: I didn't get the bid! | March 31 2008, 8:39 PM |
I think your wife needs to be out there marketing with you. If she dealt with those people, she probably wouldn't be feeling the same way. Cheapskates can be very irritating to deal with. Just got to learn to spot those types right away, and stay away from them.
By the way, a profit is a profit, but if you are charging too little, you may not really be making a profit. This is business, not charity work. People mistaken getting paid by the hour of a regular job versus the cost it actually is to run a business for one hour. Big difference.
Also, just because they get a cheap price doesn't mean they won't complain or be unreasonable about their expectations. In fact, it's usually the ignorant ones that give the most trouble.
Obviously this job was 100% price driven, so that doesn't sound like the type of service you want to provide. Leave that to companies that will be out of business in a year.
From the sound of it, you haven't experienced much rejection yet, which leads me to believe you haven't marketed long enough. It's a numbers game. Keep with the marketing and it will pay off.
This message has been edited by johnsmith808 on Apr 1, 2008 4:10 AM
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Tony Guttieri
| Re: I didn't get the bid! | March 31 2008, 9:35 PM |
Here's a good Idea of what it can be like.
We had cleaned a hotel the past 12 years and steadily increased our prices with no complaints. It WAS locally owned until this year. The new managers for the new owners called us to clean and: complained about the price
complained that we didn't include cleaning up the wall base trim which is carpet, not base cove vinyl.
complained that we left the furniture up on the beds, which we have always done
complained about the price of the small club which was always cleaned with the restaurant it is connected to.
Now, what was the difference?
Not our service
Not our price $12 a room and $75 for the club
IT WAS THE NEW MANAGEMENT REPRESENTING THE NEW OWNERS.
These hotels are not easy and they want it cleaned well.
We did do this job but I don't mind not working for these people again.
I don't like loosing work but some people look at our service as a cheap lowly service. I guess when I am nearly going broke or ready to slave will I do this work at which point I may as well go work for the City and at least get way better benefits. |
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Scott Raeder
| Re: I didn't get the bid! | March 31 2008, 9:57 PM |
Sorry to hear that you didnt get the bid..I think all commercial accounts are good anything with carpet is a good account just have to find people that are willing to pay your price..I really think image is everthing too the way u dress for the appointments and your bid looking professional will get u more accounts then not.. I hope you are not in the dog house for long..... |
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Joe M
| Well | March 31 2008, 11:09 PM |
You can look at it in two ways. One, you stuck to your guns, didnt lower your price and lost the bid. Now you get to enjoy some cold shoulder from your wife for a while, all because you stuck with your price.
Two, you could have came down in your price did the job and made 3000 or 2900 or even 2800 bucks. Work is work.
I would have came down a bit. Got the job and had some work.
Its your business and only you know how to run it. You got to do what you feel is right.
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Rick Gelinas
| Count your blessings | March 31 2008, 11:22 PM |
You dodged a bullet! Trust me on this. I'm not kidding.
And that one simple truth is what your wife should be focusing on.
Life goes on. Be happy! Don't sweat this one. You didn't lose out on anything.
Now get out there and start work on filling your quiver with some good accounts.
Rick Gelinas rick@excellent-supply.com |
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Charles
| You're Lucky! | March 31 2008, 11:43 PM |
Wait til Mr. HWE Man starts running soapy solution thru his machine and leaves the carpets sticky and within 3 days they wiil be black. He will never be able to clean the hotel in one day. Depends on how many rooms are booked up and the rooms must be dry before they are rented. The hotel thinks they ae getting a deal cause of the money but just wait til the job is finsihed. Anyone who worries about price is not concerned about QUALITY! Go find yourself an office building and get your $3,500 back. |
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admiralclean
| Re: You're Lucky! | March 31 2008, 11:58 PM |
Tell you wife that you can't win every time you bid, and she should be thankful that you didn't get the first wife you bid on. |
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iluvcarpet
| Re: You're Lucky! | April 1 2008, 12:27 AM |
I will have to tell my wife that one. Its also hard because my wife was due with our first child on friday and now its monday. doh!!! All the money can help at this point ya know. I cant wait to get my machine next week and try it on my clinic account. It takes us about 4 to 5 hrs with my butler and rx20. I should cut my time in half and i can see encap at work. I hope i am amazed like i was with all the pictures. How hard is the cimex to get in a van. whats the best way to get in into a van. About the bid i lost i know its money but to me it was also the principal. I treat all my work and customer with the tons of care and respect. I have uniforms and give a nice fold with tons of info for commercial customers. The only thing is i just started going after commercial accounts after this winter was slow. I work for a guy that cut so many conners and only charged 19 cents a foot to clean with hwe. He was a hack. So thanks everyone who has gave me feedback and keep up the great work. Also are office the best commercial accounts to have? 19 cents was for all residential customers.
This message has been edited by iluvcarpet2 on Apr 1, 2008 12:32 AM
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Rick Gelinas
| Re: You're Lucky! | April 1 2008, 6:27 AM |
"How hard is the cimex to get in a van. whats the best way to get in into a van."
You'll want to use a ramp. Lifting the Cimex can hurt the machine, and more importantly, it can hurt YOU. You can make a ramp out of plywood, or we also have a very nice aluminum ramp.
http://www.excellent-supply.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=8&idproduct=74>
"Also are office the best commercial accounts to have?"
Offices are very good sources. Pretty much any commercial type of commercial account would be good to pursue. The only exceptions are hotel rooms and most restaurants, and most apartments (which are really residential anyway). Aside from these couple of exceptions, the world is your oyster.
You sound like a business man who loves what he's doing and loves his family too. Your priorities are perfect! So don't become frustrated. Maintain your fine attitude and get out there and kick yourself in the pants. Get into a regular routine of commercial marketing. Commercial carpet care can be a very nice way to provide for your growing family. BTW, congrats on your new baby!
Here's an incentive for you...
If you acquire just 1 new account per week that will spend a total of $2,000 over the course of a year (which really isn't that big of a number for the whole year). You will add $104.000 of revenue to your business! It will require work, but it is a worthy goal to shoot for.
Wishing you success!
Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com
This message has been edited by cimex on Apr 1, 2008 6:36 AM
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Don Eldred
| Re: You're Lucky! | April 1 2008, 9:11 AM |
Yeh! Just wait til HWE messes up with his sticky residue and you will back in a couple weeks!!!!!!!! Yes some HWE guys may not clean properly, however, there are just as many Low Moisture jerks out there messing up. If you nothing good to say about a system say NOTHING! |
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Joe M
| Good luck | April 1 2008, 9:31 AM |
Good luck with the new baby, the joy a child brings into ones life is just wonderful.
Now guy's, your all here telling this guy how lucky he is to have not have won the bid. Come on, Rick, many people are not in a position such as your are to say he is better off not getting the bid.
He lost a bid that could have been a nice 3000 or a few $$ less, trust me with a new baby any money would have come in handy.
Next time do what you feel, but remember there is no shame in comming down a few $$ to feed your family.
We all post here to get info and learn but you still need to know how to follow your own mind and take advise by looking at it at both ends.
Next time maybe listen to your wife, after she is a partner in everything you do, isn't she? |
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David Hebert
| Re: Good luck | April 1 2008, 11:02 AM |
Remember only you know what you need to make to make a true profit for your company. You should know your break even point in terms of per hour $$$$ on your jobs. If you do not know this then get a program that will tell you it.
Anyone on this board can say you should lower or raise your price but you have to live with your decisions.
For me, I give the prospect a price and that is that unless I look over the bid again and see I some how was way off in my assessment and can do it for less.
For some reason people think it is ok barter with cleaning companies but not to barter with the plummer the electricians or a dentist.
I dictate my prices not the prospect. The prospect with never respect you once you start lowering the price because they squawk.
Know your price and stick to it. When I get asked to lower my price I will respond in kind with asking for a discount in this case 1/2 price for a room. They soon get what I mean. This is said in a manner along with an explanation so that will not have a pissing match ensue. (no one wins those)
Do your self a favor, DO NOT SELL METHOD SELL CLEAN.
once you lock your self into one method if you switch if lessens your credibility. You will not win every bid nor do you want to. move on to the next thing pick up the phone and start calling potential prospects, figure out how many new clients you need to get and set your self a schedule to call so many new people each day so many follow ups each day and so many appointments each day. In a month or two you will laugh about this little missed opportunity.
BTW if you really want this account do not give up on it and keep in contact with them. See how the cleaning went.Call them once a month to check up on them so see if you can help them out. Persistence is key with anything we really want, it took me two years to get one account at a local university, this account has lead to several other accounts by referral.
Remember there is a difference between owning a job and running a business, something many small companies loose site of.
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Joel Riggs
| Re: I didn't get the bid! | April 1 2008, 3:52 PM |
Joe M got me thinking on this one.
Iluv carpet - on the sales side of things I agree that you did right thing by not changing your Bid to low ball the competition. David Hebert makes the best point on this link so far.
"SELL CLEAN CARPET NOT METHOD!!!!!!"
Aout the bid here are the suggestions I would make.
1) Learn about your customer 1st. What do they like what don't they like. What did they like about there previous carpet cleaner, what didn't they like. Why arn't they using him again. What are there process's for maintaining their carpets. What do they do when somebody stains the carpet? How often do they vacuum? Are there any other products they are using on the carpet between cleanings? and so on. Then after they have answered all the questions, are there any suggestions you can make that would help them maintain there carpets better betweeen full carpet cleaning. Such as suggesting better vacuums. Do they need a better vacuuming schedule? Are the products they use for spot cleaning helping the process or hurting the process. Are there better products that will give them better results both short and long term. Is there an added service you can provide them that will help them? If you can help them even with a small suggestion of vacuuming every day then you have provided value to them before you have even charged them anything or even given them a quote. In many customers eye's they have no idea what we do, nor do they see they value in what we do because nobody has taught them our value.
You are the carpet cleaning proffesional!!!! If You can let them see thatyou are the proffessional and
If you are
2) Listen to your potential client. What I mean by this is listen to not only what they are telling you, but read between the lines. "Last cleaner charged us $3500" and put that with we got a quote of $6000 but that is too much." When i hear that I put that together as meaning. Last cleaner only charged us $3500 but they didn't do a good enough job to call them back again so we called someone we were told was a really good company and they gave us an estimate of $6000." So now we are just looking for someone to get our carpets somewhat clean and for as low a price as we can get.
I think you did and priced the job correctly at $3400.
3) Offer a free Demo. In a visible but not to visible area. Suggest that you clean half of the managers office. And then they should have the other cleaner clean the other half. That way even if you dont get the job now. When it is 2 weeks later and your side is looking clean and the other side is starting to get dingy then she will have a reminder that you would provide better results for not much more.
4) Tell her that at $3400 that includes call backs for up to x# of spot problems and the ability to call you for emergency's or some other extra service that you normally would provide. And that if she is still interested then you would be willing to drop you price to $3250. Keeping your re-bid above the price of the other cleaner also tells her that you have faith in your product and you are giving yourself more value then the competition. (mental edge)
5) Sell the benefit of your edge, This is a hotel. Hotel's are normally Quiet and they are very wary of anything that could be considered a liability. So sell the fact that you could run the cimex at virtually any time and not disturb the Guests. That you will not have hoses running up stairs and across halls that a customer could trip over. And that in alot of cases that your dry times are going to be considerably faster. Thereby allowing them to reopen the area that you are cleaning faster.
I hope this is helpful and good luck.
Also congratulations on the soon to be new baby.
and sorry my post is so long. I have a bad habit of being very long winded.
This message has been edited by kingjoelking on Apr 1, 2008 4:04 PM This message has been edited by kingjoelking on Apr 1, 2008 4:03 PM
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iluvcarpet
| Re: I didn't get the bid! | April 1 2008, 5:11 PM |
Thanks for all the info everyone it helps alot. I gave them the pros of encap like fast drying times, quite operation, no hoses to trip over and so on. I think what it comes down to is that they didn't care what it was they just wanted the cheapest price. I always ask my customers what they are looking for from their cleaner and do they have a budget in mind. I Try to gather am much info as possible because i can try to tailor the best cleaning at the best price. I can do that if i know what they are thinking. I am wondering what software or how do you present a bid. Do you give them one paper or give them a folder with alot of info. I give them a folder with a cover letter and a bid. I also put info on why you should clean your carpet and how to take care of your carpet. I also put why use our company. Does anyone recommend software to use? Again thanks for all the info everyone. |
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Joe M
| For bids | April 1 2008, 11:12 PM |
I always write my bids on a Burger King or Wendys napkin. Or the back of my business card.
Maybe thats why I dont get much work.
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Thomas Owens
| Re: For bids | April 1 2008, 11:44 PM |
Awesome suggestions everyone. I'll make use of many of them.
As for some marketing software, have you tried the product just to the right of this post? Rick's Releasit CMS has everything you need to market and maintain commercial carpet accounts. It is so well put together that you will have even more confidence in pursing your potential clients.
Just remember, you will need Microsoft Office 1997 or newer. I was able to buy Microsoft Office 2003 for a very good price.
If you haven't bought this cd, I cannot emphasize enough how good it is. Professional all the way. |
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steve r
| Re: For bids | April 2 2008, 7:46 PM |
your suppose to put it in writing?
ill have to try that.
actually i have put in a few written proposals but for the most part i measure and tell them how much.
i do like the whole folder idea thing though.very professional,now i know where else im lacking. |
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Jon
| Re: For bids | March 25 2009, 10:19 PM |
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Current Topic - I didn't get the bid! |
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