What kind of houses do you guys tend to target? Should I be shooting for the super rich, or middle class?
Big houses, with lots of dirty windows lol
Actually, I target anything and everything. Believe it or not, I’ve been getting a lot of business out of multi-family and duplexes in the hood lately. In all honesty though… upper middle class would be my aim.
Upper middle class is my sweet spot. Lots of doctors’ and lawyers’ wives.
I always say if it looks like they are paying to have their lawn cared for, they will probably pay to have their windows cleaned.
That is a good way of looking at it.
I focus on middle class and up, but you never know. The old grandma in the rambler has a daughter and who knows how the daughter lives.
Nice houses with some kind of view.
Upper middle class. I do clean for a variety of income levels but these are the ones w/ the right combination of disposable income and no time to do it themselves.
These guys are all spot on, I have been targeting many different demographics, but upper middle class seems to be the niche.
We target only the homes that have glass. We service everyone. You shouldn’t limit yourself to any specific group.
Upper middle class. I have noticed that there are 2 types of super rich people…those that want to pay as little as possible, and those that don’t care what you charge. I have ran into both, and it is not easy to target the one you want.
I’m not an elitist, I’ll work for anyone who wants the work done. In my area upper middle class people are the ones who desire and will pay for my services.
Rich people have handymen and maids that handle that stuff. Middle class people tend to be very DIY around here.
I think it might be more complex than this.
But I do hear what you’re saying…
If I may, I think the split is more “I don’t care about window cleaning” versus “I do care, and want them cleaned right”.
Wealthy people who drive klunkers aren’t cheap, they just don’t care about cars. That same cheap guy driving a used Honda may have just enjoyed a $35,000 golf trip.
Take me, for instance (not wealthy, unintended segue)
I will not pay a lot for you to come and paint my place.
I will not pay a lot for a shirt.
I will not pay a lot for a tie.
I will not pay a lot for seafood.
I will not pay a lot for a haircut.
Yet, I am not cheap. I simply don’t care very much about having the best of these things listed above.
I will pay a lot for a burger.
I will pay a lot for a computer.
I will pay a lot for a truck.
I will pay a lot for a trip.
I will pay a lot for a book.
I will pay a lot to enjoy a meal at a cool restaurant.
When you try and look at it from this point of view, it can help you see what Linda said, that people across the demographic board both love and could care less about window cleaning.
It’s not a cheap vs. not cheap thing.
I’ve tried several different neighbor hoods and have noticed results. The very rich neighborhoods haven’t done well. Not sure what you call it, I think it would be the upper middle class has been my best.
In My area we have several prominent oldmoney areas that we have targeted (1500 flyers) and 0 results. but done only 3-400 in an upper middle class neighborhood right next to the above mentioned and had 4-5 calls. Now for most of my canvassing I target middle class homes and use the something that was mentioned earlier in this thread. If they get their lawn manicured profesionally chances are they will get their windows cleaned as well!
I think the idea of the superwealthy or old money is that they have people who handle everything for them. Also on same homes if you are leaving a door hanger think about who will take it off the door on their way in ie: maid service, handyman, kids, babysitter, visitors
My first service area had those old money folks. I did a job for one of them and she was the most stuck up person I had ever met. I found most of them still had the first dollar they ever made and they kept it by being cheap and demanding. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind demanding people as long as they are willing to pa y for the privilege.
This would be a perfect way to prove door to door, knocking on each gives better results. It would take longer, but I’d bet if you knocked on the 1500 doors you put fliers on you’d land atleast 12+ jobs. If you don’t have time to be knocking on 1500 doors, then that means you aren’t really in need of any new business anyways.
Good point.
Was it the same message for both demographics?
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Well when I started this business early last year the one thing I was the most afraid of was knocking on peoples doors. So that was the first first thing I made myself do. I would go out to a good neighborhood.Like Queen Anne in Seattle, Dressed in a button up, got my pocket calendar and notepad and a stack of fliers. I went door to door and did a few estimates and got my first ten jobs that way, but what I found it the hard way was that people at home during the day on a weekday are usually busy and get very irritated.So I started just putting a flyer on the door, and here is what I found to be true…
That in 1 hour I could knock on about 20 doors .All the houses are on hills…so lots of stairs…takes anywhere from 2.5-4.5 minutes to walk to next house ring doorbell,or knock and wait for answer. It takes 5 minutes at least to do an estimate, or 1 minute to do my schpeil. The results average is 3-5 puople an hour are home 1-2 let me give them a FREE estimate. and I mite sell 1 a day when I do 3 hours of the above.
In that same 1 hour I can doorhang about 100 homes. Most times I get 2-3 calls for 3 hours of canvassing, and sell at least 2 of them. But that was then, Now I have hired my teenage daughter and some of her friends to canvas for me after school and on weekends for $9 an hour…You do the math on that one.
Oh also we just ordered our first batch of full color postcards to doorhang with and I cant wait to see if I get better results with them! We ordered 15,000 of them for almost nothing from PSprint.com. Was $400 including shipping!
P.S. Sorry for the long winded post
