We may need to join forces brother.
I respect you more and more every day
This is the problem I have faced many o times when I was pounding the pavement.
What do you do? Not what I did and walk in with your schlong in you hand. What is it they care most about? Expenese? maybe. Reliability? possibly.
get a feel for what majority feel. All people buy on compulsive behavior, even commercial prospects. But, they will only buy if you are speaking their language.
What is it they want most?
I think they care most about reliability and quality.
Where did you come up with the $250/hour model. Do you think that couled be applied successfully, for example, if you are doing commercial route, and a customer is being done every week. What about when a new manager comes, who balks at the price? I think it’s easier to pull off on one time jobs or once a season jobs than every week or every other week jobs.
quality is a fallacy (a delusion)
Do NOT use that as your selling point.
Every company soliciting them is screaming [B]High Quality[/B]
What are the indirect benefits for your company cleaning their windows?
So much to respond to, so little time…
[B]CFP [/B]: Thx man.
[B]MikeP[/B]: Residential clients especially lend themselves to this model, yes, more so than the commercial market. However, it can be done with commercial stuff, too.
Remember the earlier suggestion to have a higher minimum commercial window cleaning rate? Have you tried that yet?
One of my newly acquired jobs at a super-high minimum rate [I]recently[/I] ended, as the business was here for a 3 month promotion period only. It consisted of only 4 windows, including the single glass door, in & out. $50 charge, 5 minute job, [B]weekly[/B], at a rate of about [B]$600/hr. [/B]
[I]Last week, [/I]another prospective client contacted me, looking to have his 3 condo windows cleaned, in & out. Casement windows, no tricks, no CCU, no hidden stuff. 6 windows total, 3rd storey condo, ladder accessible.
How long would it take you to clean 3 third-floor windows, in & out, when you can park right beside them with your ladders, and nothing is in the way? Of course the inside of those windows are not 3 floors up, but simply main floor normal windows. This job will be done next week, but even with ‘small talk’ and ‘schmooze factor’ (in themselves, very valuable marketing techniques), AND super detailed cleaning, maybe 15 minutes total. Maybe. I gave him a price of “only” $120 + tax, and he was totally pleased, and in fact, is hustling MORE clients for me in his building for a slightly (like $110) reduced bulk price if more get on board.
Repeat: He is hustling more work FOR me, at a high price point.
Even if I get no more work from that building, what hourly rate is this job going to work out to?
[B]15 minutes for $120 = $480/hr.[/B]
Not bad.
[SIZE=“1”]Important detail: As previously mentioned, pricing jobs higher than your competition requires pricing “support” - aka specific techniques and strategies designed to ‘justify’ your high prices. Enter: Marketing game 101.[/SIZE]
As far as the “soliciting vs. inviting to bid” question, I really don’t know the answer to that. This tactic has worked extremely well with invitations to bid, but I haven’t really tried it with the solicitation process. I would like to, just haven’t yet…
With regards to what to say if they refuse, that’s when you kick in your marketing skills, and do your best to help them see all the great reasons why they’d be nuts NOT to hire you.
One super-crazy-effective means of doing just that: Offer a no-holds-barred guarantee (sound familiar?). If they are not totally thrilled with the results, if they don’t see an amazing difference, and don’t absolutely love the end result, they will not pay a dime. End of story.
Don’t mess around with people. If you believe you can “walk the walk”, and are legitimately capable of doing so, then you might as well master the ability of “talking the talk”, and cashing in along the way.
[B]CFP[/B]: Nice “indirect benefits” reference. I listened to that ‘Motivational Marketing’ interview a couple days ago, again, for the 15th time. Great stuff.
No I haven’t tried it yet. But that doesn’t mean I won’t. You’ve certainly given me a lot to think about, and some new ideas to implement. Thanks for the info.
[B]mikep[/B]: No problem. You’re welcome.
[INDENT][I][B]Something to think about:
[/B]
I never thought I could bench 315, until I tried.
I never thought I could land a $25,000 window cleaning job, until I tried.
I never thought I could steal awesome window cleaning clients from my competition simply with words on paper, until I tried.
I never thought I could build something powerful from nothing, until I tried.[/I][/INDENT]
[B]STOP talking and TRY already![/B]
This week, mikep. Seriously. Do it this week. Knowledge is worthless without implementation.
Thanks for the motivation Kevin.
New to this forum. I am from down south a little ways. Weather is not that big of an issue. But why don’t you guys add on some services that will help you get through winter . Such as picking up a couple of office cleaning jobs at night. It would make you a regular income, it is year round, does not require a lot of overhead and could easily be done in conjunction with your window cleaning.Sure it may not pay as much as window cleaning does per hour but its a lot better sitting at home wondering how you are going to make it through the season. I make $20 to $25 perhour doing offince cleaning and I always have them furnish supplies. Just some thoughts.
This is in reference to the guys letting off steam about nothing to do in winter.
Good advice, Dan, in terms of its practicality.
Sometimes it can also work to simply focus on getting more clients, and motivating them to pay you more, during the good season, instead.
Then you can invest the “off-season” in making your marketing machine even MORE powerful.
If last year, you did 100 residential clients @ $200 each, and winter was hard, then commit to doing 200 or 300 or more this season, instead.
Otherwise, 5 years will go by, and nothing will change with your business. Get strong for the Spring, and make as much hay as possible while the sun shines…
Build and buy more and better tractors in the winter, if you know what I mean.
