Creative marketing for new residential clients

Residential
21

Just to be clear my intent was not to imply the hourly rate of return in terms of hours on the job is higher but that the total revenue brought in by one customer is greater with a job that is worth $1000.00 dollars vs on that is worth $300.00 so I am willing to spend more money to acquire the customer. Yes it might pay out the same $ per hour spent on the job, which for me my experience has been the opposite.

Right now my customer base is a mixture of different homes with a high percentage of high end homes. The last few years It seems I have been doing more high end homes than not and have really enjoyed it. I find that It takes me less time to earn more $ with and less head aches with these customers. I seem to have a great rapport with these type of customers as well which makes my day much more enjoyable.Not to mention the fewer jobs I have to manage the better. All these factors make these type of jobs less stressful and more profitable for me which has lead me to make the decision to narrow down my market to these type of homes. It is a decision that I have been toying with for some time now and I feel this year is a good time to make the transition.

I will not give up my other customers right now but rather just focus all my marketing efforts on the high end residential market. Eventually the goal would be to be exclusive in this market in terms of my residential side. I may just raise my rates on the other customers and hand pick the cherry ones to keep. I will being doing the same thing on the commercial side of my business as well.

Although I do have a lot of experience with the high end market I always like to glean ideas from others as well and pick out the best ideas and try to implement them into my approach. I know other guys experiences may be different than mine but this seems to be the best move for me right now.

22

another thing to consider is: how much work do you need? are you a one-man show or one crew, with you always on site? it’s much easier to dial in on high end if that’s the case.

and if you want only that kind of customer, i wouldn’t spend any money trying to mail to them. in my experience that clientele operates on referrals from friends, family and workmates. they almost never take a chance on a company without asking around. there is a network of friendships and acquaintances, and if they need anything, they ask their peers.

so i would build up a really killer referral system and work it hard. don’t waste time with mailers and flyers and emails. they’ll just get ignored.

23

If you are spending more to acquire each client, you not earning more and you are not working less, you simply have fewer customers at a greater expense???

If you want to make more money, you need to charge more money and or become more efficient/faster at the job you are doing. You do need to increase your hourly return, period.

On the other hand, what are those customers paying you for, clean windows? If so, you need to rethink what you are selling…

24

Caleb thanks for the input. Yes right now It’s just myself. I have had employees in the past but decided to scale back a few years ago. Right now my desire is to continue to grow without hiring on right away. I will probably eventually hire back on but for now I want to stay solo and continue to increase revenue. I feel this is the best way for me to do it. If and when I do hire back on I will formulate a plan for that at that time.

I have the same concerns about the direct mail approach which is why I am trying to be creative in terms of my approach. I agree that the high end market is highly relational and although I do get lots of referrals I am also refining my approach with those as well. Initially with the direct mail I am going to be targeting a high end community where I have a lot of customers already and I am listed on their preferred contractor list in there community directory, which you can only get there by referral from the residents. I am looking to use a creative approach through direct mail and build off of my existing presence in the community. It may not be a cash cow but It may gain some customers from the community, and with an emphasis on generating referrals, lead to more customers in the community. Since I already have quite a few customers in the community and get referrals from them I feel with a little push with the right marketing I can gain a good portion of the homes in the community.

I will use the experience in this community to target other communities where I have a good presence as well. This is what sparked the thread. I was not sure if ordinary direct mail post cards would yield much of a return and thought I would see if anyone else has had good success with any one method in the high end market. I am not tied to any one method but I know I want to do some type of marketing. Since I already have a good amount of high end customers, along with an emphasis on referrals it would not take a whole lot of marketing to makes the transition I am looking for.

25

that sounds like a good strategy. the eddm pieces out there are usually pretty generic and i don’t think they’ll get much in the way of response.

i have a similar situation in one of the developments we work in. i’m planning on putting together a tri-fold pamphlet that describes who we are, how we can fill their needs, and explain what services we can offer them. i’m going to use a photo of their main entrance sign to help them realize the piece is targeted at them specifically. i might try to get some quotes from my current clients in the community and add them in the piece.

maybe try something like that.

26

I can spend a lot more on marketing and still be spending less overall because I am not having to acquire as many customers to generate the same revenue.

Lets suppose we have time in our schedules to do $100,000.00 worth of work in our schedules this year (a conservative #). Now lets say you spend $30,000.00 in advertising to acquire 222 3000 sq ft homes that generate $100,000.00 (charging $10.00 per window and assuming they go in and out once and out only another time that year) to fill your schedule for you. So you spent $135.00 per customer. I only have to acquire 66 10,000 sq ft homes that generate $100,000.00 to fill my schedule so even if I increase the amount I spend on advertising by 80% per customer at $243.00 each that’s only $16,000.00 to fill my schedule for the year! How’s that for increased profit? Would you take an additional $16,000.00 this year? Not to mention your time and expenses to service 222 customers vs my 66 is significant.

The more money made comes from:

  1. Less Money spent over all in marketing
  2. Less money spent in transportation cost driving to less job sites
  3. Less time spent on travel for jobs and Estimates
  4. Less effort and time involved in manage half the customers for the same revenue

Less time = more potential job time making money. Or just less effort to make the same money = a promotion.

Keep in mind there are more ways to increase revenue than just doing more jobs. You have to consider the cost and time involved in the management side of your business also.

27

Good stuff Caleb I will take a look at that.

28

On paper it looks ok but in reality its a different story. How many 10,000 SF homes are in Co? How many days will it take you to clean the windows in a 10k SF home?

If you spend an extra 16k on advertising, how does that equate to 16k in profit, you lost me on that statement…

Like I said before, if you want to make more money you need to charge more per hr. And like I said before, if all you are selling is “clean windows”, you need to rethink your sales format.

29

That is why I rather the smaller houses. I used to go after the 10,000 sq ft + homes. I just felt like the larger houses took so long to finish, lots of ladder work, etc. I like the 4-6 hour houses.

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I’ll never stop going after the high end. They provide the best referrals (worst tippers). However, I’d rather do two $300 houses in one day, than spend 4 days on a $2,000 house.

31

You are right John! They do provide the best referrals. And they never tip!

32

In my experience daily profits are higher when you pound out 4,5,6 smaller homes in a day, verse 1 or 2 high end luxury homes. However, most of my mid range home only clean their windows once, sometimes twice a year. Whereas the super high end homeowners get their windows cleaned 4-6 times. The more often your at a house the more comfortalbe they become with you, and instead of being an after thought, you are on the forefront of their mind.

33

You could try to market to the fact of selling the luxury experience. To most people in the ultra high end market cleaning the windows is a social thing… keeping up the the Jones. They don’t need to have the windows cleaned at Thanksgiving when they were just done in early October. Its not going to ruin Christmas if their windows are dirty. Yet they choose to have them done anyways. How many times have we heard that it feels great to have clean windows. Making all those events more like a perfect moment than real life. Its a luxury they have and want. So what comes to mind when I think of luxurious things, is not just the service but the overall experience. I think of luxury spas, luxury car dealerships, clothing retailers, ocean resorts. The client wants to have that special feeling.

I have just started a campaign to work with a massage therapist. While I clean the windows the clients gets a massage. You can’t make it much more relaxing or luxurious than that. If it works, or even if it doesn’t I still may do the same type of thing with a personal trainer, or golf professional.

34

The math was a little off, you’d end up with $14K extra, not $16K. In his scenario, the original advertising budget was $30K to acquire the lower end clients, vs. only $16K to acquire the higher end clients (despite having a higher cost per customer).

My experience has been similar with making somewhat smaller margins on the larger jobs. There aren’t really many jobs like that in my area, though. And the big jobs I have done, the customers aren’t uber rich, they just have a ton of windows (usually with storms). So I end up cutting a little slack in my pricing to make it affordable for them. But if there was a large enough market of high end homes with very well-to-do homeowners, I could see how this would make sense. It would depend a little bit on price bias, as well. In some parts of the country, even with very large homes where they have money coming out the wazoo, they can’t fathom spending $1500+ on window cleaning, as no one has ever dared charge that much before. (heck, from what I understand of the SoCal market, the pain threshold is closer to $200-$300/home)

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WHY???

Does your mortgage co. cut you slack? Does the local gas station cut you slack? Does the kid at the local grocery store cut you slack? NO, they don’t, they never will and you should not cut people slack - except the elderly (fixed income) or Veterans who have served this great Country with Honor

If the above statement is true, why are you trying to sell them a window cleaning? Why do you care what people in SoCal are charging, are they paying YOUR bills?

You are suffering from lack of confidence - call me and I all explain over the phone much better than in type

36

$275 and the eyes glaze over, regardless if its a 2k sft with french panes or a 10k sft home (you’re lumped in with a foreigner who is a ranch hand’s wages)

37

Ok, I guess I misrepresented what I was really trying to say. I would say that I sometimes lower the overall price on the really big jobs because it’s the only way to close the job. Not because I’m afraid of my competitor swooping in at a lower price (because I know he’ll already be much lower anyway, and there isn’t any point to try and come close to his pricing). People don’t hire me on “price” per se, they hire me because I represent myself in a way that they’re confident I’ll do the job correctly and professionally. They do need to be able to accept the price, though.

I’m not talking about huge price breaks here, sometimes just rounding down to the nearest hundred or fifty makes the price more appealing. And when I do give the price, I give it like I’m telling them the time.

The main thing that kills me on these bigger jobs is the storm windows. I’ve gotten a little faster with them, but I’m afraid that I’ll always be slower with storms than with other windows. I’m already pushing the envelope for my area for storm pricing. I’m at $27 for a 6 over 6 with triple tracks. My main competitor charges $20! Not to say that I base my pricing on competition, because I don’t, but at a certain point people say, “that’s crazy- I’ll find someone else,” or, “I’ll do them myself,” or, “I just won’t have them done”- no matter how you present your company. So my hourly is always lower for storm windows. Period. Average of $50-60/hr for storms vs. $60-$80+/hr for windows without them (and even more for WFP work). For my circumstances, living in an area with relatively low cost of living, and running a company with low overhead, $50/hr is still nothing to sneeze at. It’s common practice in this area for other professional home services to charge $40/hr (painters, in particular).

My comment about SoCal was more of an observation about the overall concept of this thread, than anything to do with my business. I don’t let these sorts of conceptions affect the way I bid a job.

Several years ago was different. I had some strong conceptions of what I thought would be an acceptable price. I slowly tested the limits, until I found that there was no “correct” price. And the stronger I presented myself, the more likely I could win jobs at higher prices. So far the largest jobs I have completed have been in the $1,300 range, because that’s where they aligned with my per window prices. I rounded one of those jobs down by around $30 at the end of the job, just to make it a little easier for them to write the check, the other one didn’t get rounded at all (though I did end up throwing in a window or two for free). If I encounter a job that is in the $3k range or more, I’ll price accordingly.

I think the largest discount I’ve given in order to make a price more palatable was 15%. The job was right around the corner from me, so I knew I would make most of it back in travel time, as it was a 2.5 day job. Plus I’ll give that much of a discount if it’s the slow season, anyway.

But I don’t make a habit of discounts- sorry if I gave that impression in my previous post.

38

All of that said and what I read is you are selling “window cleaning” for about the same price as the other guys in your area. Any monkey can sling water on a window and wipe it down and they price like every other monkey in the area, DONT BE A MONKEY! Professionalism has a price tag, use it to set yourself apart from the other guys/monkeys

39

I suppose you can read whatever you want into what I wrote. But I’m not sure how 35% higher pricing than the competition can be considered “about the same price”. I also stated that how I present myself and my company is what allows me to do this, i.e. “Professionalism and Image”

Where is your pricing in comparison with your competition (and I mean legit companies, not bucket bobs)?

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A window cleaner’s true most aggressive competitor