If it’s illegal in your area to sell door to door please stay quiet…We don’t wanna hear your story. People know if they can do it in their area or not.
Lets hear from people that actually do it and what comes from it.
Do you use a script?
Do you have women doing it for you?
Do you have college kids doing it for you?
Whats a fair wage to pay someone?
What hrs work the best?
What days work the best?
Do you leave a quote if no one anwsers?
Do you just leave a flyer?
What kind of response do you get?
When you do sell a job is it cheaper priced than if someone calls you from a postcard, phone call, news paper ad. ect.
If they say they dont need window cleaning do you offer to clean a dirty spot to show them different…
I’ve completed minimal flyer distribution with the paid assistance of my college-age children and two of their friends. They encountered few residents, and answered few questions beyond my credentials.
My target neighborhoods received a full color flyer with $25 off my standard pricing for in/ out service completed by a specific date.
Why would you go door to door? Do you find the close rate is higher than other
forms of advertising? What leads you to believe it would be? (if you have not tried it)
Please feel free to tell me to shut-up if I fall into the “We don’t wanna hear your story”.
first sorry lou if my post isn’t what you want to hear…
I’m new to the game and have been reading a lot about everything related to starting a company to advertising etc. but most of the “how to start a window cleaning business” lit I keep finding all mention door to door is the best option for a new person.
as a new person I like the sound of it. but I know what it’s like to encounter very rude people at 30 of the 34 houses you visit. because you want to sell them something.
for this reason I personally feel it’s too degrading for me and would look bad for my company image. not what I was going for.
I have no problem with passing out flyers. but what kind of flyer? a printed at home on reg printer paper or one printed on real card stock at a print shop…
Go door to door, but don’t knock. Carry around doorhangers and put them on every door. If someone is outside, introduce yourself and offer an estimate.
I usually don’t do this unless I hit a dry spot in my schedule, but I’ve booked anywhere from $150 to $700 worth of work using this technique. One time I was passing out flyers, got to the 4th door, and got a call from the guy from the first door to powerwash his deck, right on the spot. A nice, quick $200 right there and then
I’m with Chris, I usually pass out fliers but we don’t knock. Actually, my guys pass out fliers. The fliers are on card stock. It’s cheaper than mailers, it keeps my guys in shape and makes them visible. The one thing I make sure to do is put the price for the job on the back of the card. I was passing out mailers, without the price and getting about 1% return. Then, I passed out the exact same fliers in the same neighborhood with the prices on them and got a 9.4% return. It takes my guys about 4 hours to pass out 1,000 cards.
You got me thinking, maybe for ishts and giggles I’ll make up a few hundred fliers with off season prices on them and drop them around town next week just to see if I get any response. I’d be happy with a 1% response this time of year
When I started my WC biz 2 years ago I had never even heard of WCR. Just had an idea and some experience from doing janitorial when I was a teenager. I closed my General Contracting Business 3 years ago due to a lack of business. Door to door is how I started. I started with $40 worth of black and white copies of a flier I made in WORD.I was scared to death of knocking on peoples doors and all the rejection but I did it anyway. I knocked on every door in a prominent neighborhood in the area. Yes there are a few rude people( sometimes we catch them when they are busy with kids, work, cleaning there house, guests etc.) Just can’t be emotional about it and don’t take it personally if someone says no, just thank them for their time and leave them a flier if they will accept it. If no one answers the door leave a flier on the door.
The benefit to this method is instant results and CASH FLOW. I had a very small budget for fliers, and my first day out I got 1 job, next day i got 2. I used some of that money and got more fliers printed. I eventually did well enough that I was able to use other marketing methods to gain business.
But my first 150 or so customers I got from knocking on doors/leaving a flier for future calls. In those days I was closing about 2% average.
I started this business with the last $200 I had in my pocket and a $300 loan. I was a bucket BOB I guess. but it worked and I kept it going!
Good luck to you and your new business!
4 hours? how many guys do you have. also how are you putting prices on the flyers. with a pen? do you give each house an estimate or just a rough price for the neighborhood
I just write the prices with a pen. Its usually in a neighborhood of tract homes so the pricing is pretty easy. There are only a few different sizes of houses. And, I usually have two guys passing them out.
We give an actual quote. My guys and I will go to a tract of homes with say 4 different models. I tell them the price for each model. Then, as they are walking the neighborhood, they will write the price for that home on the back of the card.
What I have found from doing this and talking with people while we are doing their house is that when I put the fliers on the door without the prices, people instantly think “I can’t possibly afford a professional window cleaner”. However, when they see the price, they realize that they would rather pay that amount than spend an entire weekend doing it themselves.
The other thing to remember is repetition. I have found that people will typically call me after the third time I hit the same neighborhood.
I’ve done the whole automatic quote thing and its worked out pretty well IMHO. There’s a specific 55+ community that I hit hard this year. 2 different home models, one I pegged at $150, the other at $250. I fliered the whole neighborhood twice this year, with prices printed on the flier, with the community name printed on it as well. It only took about an hour each time to walk all the units, and I probably pulled 20 jobs out of there .
I’d definitely imagine that I can up that to 60 jobs this year if I hit hard and early in April-ish. I didn’t even know the community existed until late July, so even with the late start I did pretty well. Not to mention every client I have in the community is very satisfied with my work, so word of mouth is working very nicely there for me as well
I make about 3680 and hour on average, I’ll make more next year because our annual revenue will increase by 1.2 million.
I have never waited to for customers to come to me, I dont rely on refferals. We get referals and stimulate them but I cant wait for them. We average around 17,000 to 22,000 per months per man.
Door to door and a Call center is needed if your going to ever be more than a one man show.
All the guys that are happy as one man shows (GREAT)
First thing Lou get someone on the phone on a regular Basis booking for you. Forget the sales person for right now, you are that sales person. When you get the calling down and have her or him actually booking jobs you may or may not need outside people.
I know your mixed in commercial and residential. Find one and stick with it…your to old to fool around bouncing back and fourth.
YES you a SCRIPT!!! When calling, use a few different Scripts.
How will you get the numbers? Good Question…the inportant part is tracking all the data…
I strive to be in your shoes within the next 5-10 years. This is the second time this week that I’ve seen what the big boys make, and it lights a fire under my butt.
Funny thing is, 6 months ago i was ecstatic about averaging $50-$60 an hour, now its not nearly enough
Ron’s right Lou. You need to get a phone person that can book the work. Amy was amazing for our company this year doing that. No more running around doing estimates on housewashes, the phone person can do that.
I will also say I think, (even though I am doing this myself) we can do too much. Wash houses, wash fleets, wash concrete, wash garbage trucks, wash bull balls, the list goes on. Then you get into holiday lighting, salting and plowing, then all of a sudden you lose focus of what you originally started out to do. Believe me, I’m looking in the mirror when I say this.
Hone in on one thing, get it working smoothly, then move on to the next. But ditch the idea for a salesman. Take on that role and get the rest of your office set up this year.
