No more procrastination here...I'm finally going to walk in to some big Class-A office buildings all day tomorrow and introduce myself to them. Residential has dropped off considerably in my town due to many people leaving to find work out of state, so I need to get my lazy rear end out there and get me some commercial accounts!

This is my plan:

1) Hit at least 25 buildings
2) walk right in and:
2a) Introduce myself to the gatekeeper
2b) drop off a flyer describing my services;
2c) Get the Facility Mgr's contact information.
2d) Ask the gatekeeper some basic opened - ended questions (Do you know if someone is currently cleaning the carpets, etc.) ...I find that some gatekeepers WILL tell you some basic stuff.

That's it. Period. - No hard sell.

3) THEN early next week call the FM directly and try to get an appointment to go over what we do and offer a free 100' cleaning demo.

I'm going to start with a "soft" approach, rather than barging in and talking to the FM directly the 1st time. Part of this is I'm not a pushy type of guy, and believe it or not, I have to fight with a little bit of "fear" - I think that is why I havent persued these big buildings...

I appreciate your comments / advice!!! Tell me if I should do something different!

Thanks!

Joe

PS. I just wanted to say thanks to Rick Gelinas, Fred Guyen, Steve Toburen and John Garger for all the commercial cleaning / Marketing advice over the past 5 years... I feel I am confident enough now to change my company around from mostly residential to mostly commercial...AND BTW I'm using Rick's CMS toolkit for flyers, etc...

Someone once said, and I can not remember who but someone out there might know, and I quote, "The hardest door to get through is your own". That helped me to do the same. Thanks for letting me know I am not the only one that is making an effort because I have procrastinated to long. Lets do it and let the race begin. Win many accounts and keep ourselves busy like we are supposed to do. That is why we went into business of our own is it not? To be able to have the freedom to do as we want and work as hard as we want. I am talking to myself, whew, I fill better.

Thanx :~}
Mark Anthony

Afterglow Carpet Care

There is lots out there, but only that, that is left over from those of us who hustle!!!! Good luck.

Go for it!
It gets easier as you get your script/intro down as you walk in the door and introduce yourself. PRACTICE it at home for a while. It sounds silly but it helps. And I think you are exactly right on dropping off, getting a name and setting up a "15 min appt. to explain our services and how we might be able to SERVE you best" meeting. If you try to do it right then and there, remember, you are one in a LONG line of interruptions for your potential CLIENT (note the deliberate use of that word) You should have clients and not customers. On that note I ALWAYS say "we" "our" and "my staff (or techs)" to help present yourself somewhat bigger that you are. In general you are going up against the ABM Services of the world so every bit helps.
Good Luck!

At some point in time Rick as spelled out a plan off attack for commercial prospecting.
I would use that formula Rick seems to have it down

David

Joe It could be great timing on your behalf. Don't know about your area, but where I am there was a trend a few years ago to give the carpet care to the Janitorial Contractor. We have picked up a couple good jobs recently because the companies involved have had enough of improper carpet care, and have gone looking for a company that can protect their carpet investment

good on ya Joe!

your "soft" approach is the only one that will work.

barge into 99% of the facilities out there, and demand to see the DM / FM....well that aint gonna work. ppl are busy, one of the last things they often care about is us / a salesman.

stick to it.

Has anyone thought of asking to do a carpet "audit" for a prospective client. This would be a no cost, no obligation way to get your foot in tne door. You could do a complete report on your findings from vacuuming to overall carpet condition, plus recommendations on areas that are in need of a better maintenance program.

Don wrote:
"Has anyone thought of asking to do a carpet "audit" for a prospective client. This would be a no cost, no obligation way to get your foot in tne door. You could do a complete report on your findings from vacuuming to overall carpet condition, plus recommendations on areas that are in need of a better maintenance program."

...Don, actually one of the pieces in our CMS marketing package is a Carpet Inspection form. It is a comprehensive form for assessing the entire situation - from their parking lot out front, to walk-off mats, to carpet construction, to vacuuming, to service intervals, and more. It is intended for turning you into an "expert" in the prospects eyes. After all, a physician examines the patient before he begins any form of treatment. This approach turns us into the doctor.


Joe - go for it! Selling to commercial accounts happens at arms length. Going out and talking to the accounts face to face is a great way to kick some doors open. Your plan of attack sounds perfect.

The main thing to focus on is your strongest ally, or your worst enemy --- YOU. You're the one who can kill your sales energy with thoughts like --- "I don't like this" "I think I should stop and have lunch" "Man I really blew that last call" There's no way these people are taking me seriously" etc.

On the other hand, YOU can also play a part in keeping yourself focused. You have to keep yourself dialed in and feeling good about what you're doing. Your own positive energy is what will make you a success.

When you first get started, expect to start out slowly. Pick a couple of less important stops to warm up on. Then once you feel good about what you're saying, start hitting some of the juicier prospects. Build your confidence as you make progress with each account, but remain humble in your approach to them.

Look sharp! Wear nice slacks (no jeans), nice shoes (no sneakers), a belt, and a buttoned shirt with a logo. Make sure you look (and feel) the part of a successful man!

To sum it all up: Work off of your own momentum! What does that mean? Simply put - when you are on remain on. When you make a sale or get some promising leads - keep going - you're in the zone. Conversely, when you are down and feel like you can't make a sale to save your life - STOP. Come back to it at another time when you can get your head into the game.

Hope this gives you some food for thought. I wish you success as you get out there and do what you need to be doing.






Rick Gelinas

I was goung to start the same thing near me this year. Here is the problem though - most of the large building near me are multi tenants - can't seem to find who is the gatekeeper!

With regards to the large, multi-tenant, buildings, I find that most of them are managed by an, off site, management company. Sometimes you can find the management contact info on the directory board in the lobby. We have called these companies and have picked up some work from that. Otherwise, you can go into the office suites and ask for the managements contact info. Occasionally, the management office is on site.

We find that most of the larger buildings in our area are under contract by the "One stop shopping" cleaning services. They provide everything from office cleaning, carpet cleaning and security. We have found that going after the small to mid sized building has yielded some nice results. The larger cleaning services don't have much interest in those, so we target those.

We have found it beneficial to get the cleaning job to maintain the hallway carpets in those buildings and then we target the offices in those. Once you get 1-2 office, then we find it easier to get others. When we clean the halls at night, we leave a postcard in each door that says "We just cleaned the hallway carpets, We can clean yours too" We will also send a sales letter to those offices and follow up with a call in a week or so.

It was a crazy afternoon to say the least...you guys left some GREAT comments! Thank you Rick and Fred for the additional info...Rick is SO dead on about the mindset...I got all dressed up, Logo'd button up shirt, walked in with a nice leather binder with the CMS flyers and went for it...I FELT CONFIDENT in myself - this is HUGE!!!! Everyone else is in suits so I felt like I blended in. Keep in mind most CC'rs out there will walk in wearing jeans, and a baseball cap with their name embroidered on it - good for cleaning, NOT good for sales presentations. I did walk thru the buildings and measured some up to see what I was dealing with... see post above

One thing I did that was recommended in the IICRC Commercial cleaning tech class is got a name badge made up and clipped it to my belt - it cost around $20 w/ shipping ($13 for the badge, $7 for S&H LOL!)...It made me FEEL a lot more professional...I noticed EVERYONE in these buildings had one; and I noticed them looking at mine, too so get one!

Joe

When I was doing janitorial in the 1990's I was "scared" to go for big buildings because I assumed they were all being cleaned by the big name companies. Years later when I was selling supplies I learned that many of these big medical buildings in Toronto were actually being cleaned by mom-n-pop, joe the janitor type contractors.

as everybody else said GO FOR IT!