5 impressions -
Mailing
Personal Introduction
Seeing your truck in the neighborhood
Seeing you clean the neighbors home
Website
Etc
Really anything that puts your company in front of their eyes or ears, was my take.
John K Wyatt
All Washed Up Window Cleaning
awuwindowcleaning.com
Same thing but more descriptive. Stand out and above from the low ballers.
That dang convention is going to destroy me, Next year you guys canāt goā¦Just saying.
[MENTION=6741]wcs[/MENTION]. Whatās wrong? You a low baller? Lol!!
SHHHā¦Please donāt tell anyone, I donāt think anyone will see us talking hereā¦
I think i have the same problem as you. But the thing that irks me is the people do not want to be educated, and they are not educated. They do not know business, even if they live in a 700k house. They honestly think the lowest price guy out there sets the standard, and everyone should meet it, then they can pick out the nice guy who is nice looking, nice talking, drives a nice truck, is insured, follows the laws, etc. I find if i try to talk to people even a few minutes after getting to prices they do not care. I can tell they are not listening, much less thinking about what i am saying. They are waiting for me to stop talking, so they can say no.
It irks me they do not drive the cheapest car, eat the cheapest food, do hardly anything cheap. If they want cheap services at their home, the people doing the service are just subsidizing the home owners lifestyle which often includes private school for the kids, a number of cars in the drive way that add up to 80-200k in total cost, a fancy home with allot of taxes associated with it.
I have had people quote me prices āthey heardā from others, their old home, their rural cabin etc, as if window washing is a commodity, and not an individual specialty tailored to each home. Mind you these people are not living in government row houses that are all the same.
Its madness.
I really wish i knew what the low ballers were up to. Do they have no self esteem? Are they stealing stuff? Are they skipping windows, or breaking things in their rush?
There is not a ton of secrets after you have some skill and some knowledge and some tools. Its all labor and hours. Prices should not be that different. But yet they are. I do not understand it, and i do not understand why supposedly educated successful people do not question how a guy can do the work for 1/4 the price.
True, but there is always new guys, and some low ballers can last years. There guys out there whose wives support them, they have trust funds and just need the look of work and income. Many are retired union guys with pensions, and it is beer money and boat gas money. I know of cops cleaning gutters gutters for $30. Not while they are their doing something else, but a trip to go do just gutters, on a two story 4 bedroom colonial.
They do not have to make money, hell their health insurance from the city alone is worth maybe as much as half of what allot of guy net in a year. Allot of cops have 20-26k health insurance package per year. They also can get hurt doing gutters, and say it was on the job, and go sit at home for a week to a few months. They have steady work, with steady pay for basically the next 30 years, and if they want, they go to the front of the line for a job at the rec center, the park, as a clerk, etc when they retire. They literally have no worries.
Thatās He-Manās Notch as itās known around here. Herman Weiland has contributed a lot of cool tips and tricks to this forum.
I agree, but the lowballers do not give you a hint very often. The only hints i get is sometimes people mention price more then once, or they think i am a donkey and try to lure the ābountyā of they own a few rental homes, or a business etc and if i do good work like a good little worker boy, then they will āletā me do these other places.
I have tried to explain if i do 3 houses per day, every day, them owning two houses is not some boon to me. Nore is it even if they own ten houses. As i still have to do the work, its not a production line where i crank up the dial on the conveyor belt, and with every unit off the line my unit cost goes down. Its walmartification. All allot of people care about is cost. This is not the pizza biz, this is not two for one, or buy one get one half off.
It annoys me to no end. That is fine one cheap commodities that you have to search out, you go buy, you drive to. Not when just an estimate in person can take 40 minutes and it takes three estimates to get a job. It is not something you see with $200-$2000 products. You do not buy one wedding cake get one free. You do not buy one hot tub get one free. You do not buy one ski boot, get one free.
I hate that these people drive up costs for good customers that know the value of labor, and a business needs to make money.
Yeah, thatās so unfair that you have to compete with someone who has managed to marry a wife with a good job. Itās unfair that you have to compete with someone who got their way into the fire dept. Itās unfair 'cause the other guy has a nice set of teeth and a great salesmanās voice. Itās unfair because he has a truck wrap which you know his parentās paid for. Itās unfair that heās a yoga instructor and can reach more ackward windows. Itās unfair that heās taller and can lug around a smaller stepladder, itās unfair that he has a cool mustache and all the ladies compliment him, itās unfair that he has no kids to support, itās unfair that he has 5 kids to support because it makes him more motivatedā¦ this could go on forever.
Who doesnāt have any worries. How do you know the copās wife doesnāt have cancer? How do you know that being a cop was easy. What if he had to bring himself up from nothing, going to night school? So he wants to make some extra $ on the side, this is threatening because?
If a window cleaner is serious about his business, the part timers arenāt a threat. The low-ballers arenāt a threat. Get the window cleaning skills and the marketing skills and the only thing to fear is yourself.
itās all the same song in any service industry since they are labor based and have an ease of entry that anyone can get involved, business minded or not
i have been surprised to hear over the last 5 years of many other industries that are not labor based singing the same song too
that means oneās success is about finding creative ways to overcome the same 'ol same 'ol
not easy, but everyoneās dealing with the similar version of issues
at least your not the only one . . .
we work shirtless and itās been a real hit.
a new 80ās band: Men Without Shirts 
I just ran into him, and he had a pole, some unidentifiable ladders in his car and said heās been doing his route for 10 yearsā¦
I told you not to tell anyone you saw me.
lol. Sorry, but your [I][B]āIām with Bobā[/B][/I] t-shirt kind of gave it awayā¦
Lmaoā¦
I have one competitor in my area that used to advertise that he will beat anyoneās prices. He may still advertise this, I just have not looked in the phone book for years. If a customer says their name in the bid process, I just simply confront it and tell the customer that I will be more expensive than they are and see what they are looking for. Many just want the cheapest price, while others want the best quality and will pay a higher price. In fact a customer I did work for many years ago called and was looking for a better price than they offered. I flat out told them that I could not beat their price and that I doubt they could find anyone who could. The customer could not believe that I refused to play the lo ball game. Why? Because that is who they are. We donāt align, so why would I waste my time with it.
I used to let it bother me a lot that he was getting these bids, but then I realized that he is aligning with the type of customer he wants and I am aligning with the type of customer I want. I donāt waste time with his type of customers but concentrate on my type of customer. The more of those type of customers he gets, the less of those type of customers will call me and essentially waste my time.
I have also heard many complaints about the service this competitor provides, but many who have complained will still take his bid, over mine because that is who they are. They just simply are not my customer and thatās O.K.
My take when I get the olā can you match his price I have a variety of questions that I use depending on my mood and of I feel like it.
1.no
2. Would you like us to do less
3. Iām not selling a product like a computer itās a skilled service believe it or not I donāt know how skilled they are. We can get your size home done in a couple of hours he may take all day because of skill how much time do want to invest in this service?
4. I donāt know if he has a criminal record
5. Iām careful with who I let in my house especially if Iām not home with my wife and kids Iām sure your the same
5. We offer 100% satisfaction or you donāt pay one cent does he?
6. We have cleaned over 3,000 homes has he?
Etc etc after this I usually get what I charge but I usually go with answer one and move on because probably not the person I want to work for Iām the boss thatās the beauty of working for yourself.
Well, so is the panhandler driving a nice car parked around the corner and eating well.
