Competing with Lowball Bidders
We have all been there, trying to provide a good service at fair prices with a little bit left over to put food on the table only to be frustrated with competitors offering to “clean” for a fraction of the price.
Today’s guest Joe Scrozati of Dust Busters NJ asks Mike how he can sweep these people under the rug.
But in a world of instant gratification and walmart cheap prices, how do you compete with the lowball bidders?
First things first you have to ask yourself is it just you or are you customers angry about the service they get with the lowballers as you are?
BONUS TIP: The opportunity lies in the quality of service you can give.
The short answer to this problem is EDUCATION.
You need to educate your customers and perspectives on the benefits to THEM
If you have customers that you have good experiences with coming in after lowball bidders use them as case studies.
It’s worth it to hire a videographer to film it. Mike breaks down the step by step process to getting excellent testimonials and sound bites to use in your marketing arsenal against the lowball bidders out there.
BONUS TIP: Get your client’s pain from before using your services. Ask how it affected their lives. Ask how their lives/business/employees are better since switching to you
It’s also very likely that you have customers and prospects that just don’t care. If you do have customers that don’t care and are just trying to get the cheapest service, don’t bother wasting your time, get different clients.
BONUS TIP: Use a lead magnet.
Mike harps on the lead magnet often, but only because it works! Listen in on how to do it right.
Finally you must know your Unique Selling Proposition. If you don’t know what that is, you better listen up.
Here are some of the guidelines for your USP:
It has to be unique
Not cheap or green or anything generic
Not money back guarantee
Very specific audience meeting a very specific need
Ask your customers what they want for ideas
To tie it all up in a nice pretty bow Joe shares his smarts in the Lightning Round
Don’t stop selling
Do what you say you are going to do
Get somebody to help you with the paperwork
Check out the last episode http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/bidding-on-cleaning-jobs/
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Bidding on Cleaning Jobs
Choosing the Right Cleaning Employees
Hiring the right staff for your cleaning company is a big challenge in the industry. After your first 10 or so hires you know generally who your star employees are and who you would die happy never seeing again.
But you can’t say “ I only want to work with a specific race, age or gender” in your hiring ads...Well, you could, but I’m sure there’s some kind of government entity that would frown upon that.
Today Mike coaches Michael Frenda on how to zero in on choosing the right cleaning employees that work with your whole team cohesively and make your life easier.
BONUS TIP: Find out where you ideal employees hang out, what they’re interested in, what they read and listen to and put your ads there!
Next up is Culture and Core values. This is a topic that Mike hits on all the time but it’s crucial to making your cleaning company run smoothly on all levels.
Listen in on how to weave your core values throughout your cleaning company and hiring process.
If you are very clear on your core values you ads should be dripping with your core values.
If your core value is honesty or integrity then make that abundantly clear in your hiring ad.
“Would you rather cut off your left arm than tell a lie? then this is the company for you
You”
Learn how you can use the copy in your ads not only to attract the employees you want but repel the ones you don’t.
Prospective employees should know exactly who they are dealing with from the words you use. This can also be translated to your sales copy but that’s another podcast for another day.
The right employees will be attracted to your core values and culture will feel like they’re home when they are working for you.
Mike shares wisdom on how to transform your hiring process into an indoctrination to attract the best cleaning employees and keep them.
It’s not about the money.
A lot of employers make the mistake of thinking if they pay more than the others they will get a better caliber of employee. Learn why that fallacy can be costing you more than $1/hr per employees.
Obviously you have to pay min wage by law and it’s not going to be 18/hr but typically it’s a 1-3$hr swing.
Hear how you can combat the hourly rate battle and weed out all those problem employees before they even step foot in your office.
Mike recommends reading Topgrading - Bradford D. Smart Ph.D. These concepts can really supercharge your hiring process.
BONUS TIP: Don’t accept people with large employment gaps.
Don’t just accept long periods of time of no work. Dig into why didn't they work. What they might be hiding could save you time and money.
You might be surprised at what you’re telling your new hires when you don’t dig deeper into their employment history.
Finally Mike breaks down a few key concepts when it comes to hiring.
Don’t let your fear of not hiring someone you need to hire a bad employee.
Learn what he means when he says 3 different places, 3 different people and how it can refine your selection process without any extra work.
Finally, when it comes to choosing the right cleaning employees keep in mind, once you do hire them you can easily turn a good employee to a bad one without ongoing support, community and daily examples
Michael then brings the heat in the Lightning Round
“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better” -Jim Rohn
Make sure you put enough effort into marketing and sales
Make the decision that you are going to work ON the business more than IN the business
More great stuff on the last episode http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/where-to-adverti…cleaning-company/
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Are you bombarded with advertisers trying to get you to spend your hard earned advertising dollars?
Listen to todays podcast with Jose Guerra on where to advertise your cleaning company.
Learn how to maximize your website with John Ayers owner and founder of Local Slice.
Bidding for Janitorial Services
Today’s podcast is gonna blow your mind as Mike shares his genius ideas about the things you should do when bidding for your cleaning business.
Lamar Saunders asks Mike about following up and closing a bid, but instead Mike coaches Lamar about the important things to do before placing a bid for clients that might be unworthy of his precious time.
TEASER: Mike gets excited about finally sharing his thoughts about the stuffs he usually gives to private clients.. Got curious? Want to know about it? Go on and listen to Mike’s podcast episode for today!
BONUS TIP: Mike is very specific about Setting Your Ground Rules
Never go out on an appointment unless agreed upon. Get a straight commitment, demand for a specific length of uninterrupted time for the whole meeting/appointment. It should be fixed with the ground rules to avoid you getting your time wasted.
BONUS LOVIN: Do not sell yourself too much.
Customers can’t stand having too much information about you that they don’t actually need. It annoys them, and an annoyed customer means zero profit. Instead Mike suggests to change that into asking questions and then you follow up, in that way you can get good informations that favors your interests.
BONUS QUOTE: If there’s no ‘pain’, there’s no sale ever!
What Mike means by PAIN is, the NEED of the customers. All you have to do is ask them instead of feeding them with info’s which are practically useless to them. They don’t care about you, they care about what can you do for them.
BONUS MANIA: Mike sums up the 3 things you need to know before placing a bid. Here’s a brief break down for it:
Make sure you listen close and listen carefully to what mike has to say about these three things because it is crucial and Mike want’s all of you to know.
And then lastly, Mike advised Lamar to raise his prices. Lamar complains about customers often give him bad credit or stereotyping him and claims that Lamar lacks some experience because his rate is too low, might as well his services aren’t good either.
Before they end this episode, Mike invites Lamar to the lightning round as he lights some of his bright ideas to answer Mike’s questions:
Links
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We are giving away free stuff that could help you grow your cleaning company at our website at www.GrowMyCleaningCompany.com. Check it out, it’s free!
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Mike opens today’s conversation with the WORST time to try and keep a customer and some red flags to look out for that can mean something bad is coming. One of the things you will discover is how to take a proactive approach to keeping customers for the long term instead of trying to salvage a problem last minute.
Too many times we get busy and don’t listen when our customers are telling us there is a problem- even worse, we tend to blame the customer for being “too picky” instead of figuring out how we can use their feedback to step up our game!!
Sure we cover the tried and true- it takes six times the time money and effort to replace a customer than to keep one, but listen in and figure out HOW to make that number work in YOUR business.
You will also discover how to set your customer up with “pain of disconnect” so they are more inclined to stay with you, give you more chances and forgive you when you make a mistake!
When we do lose customers, rookies feel like that is the end of the story- veteran owners of cleaning companies know that there is a treasure trove of valuable information to be mined from customers on their way out- Mike explains how to get that information and make it profitable for your cleaning company.
KEY POINT: Your BEST prospects are your PAST CUSTOMERS!!
So few owners spend time and money on previous customers and lost bids that never were customers- but those people are so much cheaper and easier to convert into customers than total strangers.
When you lose a client, that is THE best time to start marketing to them!!
Just when you think you have had all the customer retention fun you can handle, Mike invites Joshua into the Lightening Round and he treats Cleaning Nation to some wise words…
Resource Alert: Once you know how to retain your customers, you are going to want to retain your employees- discover how HERE. For ALL the good stuff, subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking HERE and iTunes HERE. What’s that you say? You are a Stitcher fan? We got you covered- check us out on Stitcher right HERE (we just started on Stitcher, so make sure you leave us a nice review while you are there…
For all of you that want to really dive in and ENGAGE, join our Facebook Group for owners of cleaning companies- you can talk about retaining customers, getting new customers, employee drama, and all sorts of cool stuff- request to join HERE
Last but not least, you can get your Grow My Cleaning Company fix on Twitter HERE- follow us and give us a shout out!!
Janitorial Company Hiring
Getting tired of working all day and wondering how on earth would you make your job become lighter and make your life much more easier?
Listen in to how today’s awesome episode can help you with your milestones by giving you some tips and advice on how you can grow your company.
Today’s podcast interview is with Todd Vaccarello from West Coast Commercial Cleaning www.WestCoastClean.com.
Todd and Mike discuss promoting from within and hiring for the best employee. Mike’s shares his insights about the concept of different salaries according to your employee's workload and for him.
BONUS TIP: Cleaning is $10/hour work.
Mike comes up with a set of ideas that can help cleaning business owners improve their approach in hiring or promoting employees. Make sure you check out Mike’s brilliant ideas!
BONUS TIP: There are two things to consider before hiring/promoting an employee and Mike will deliver them to you, so tune in. Don’t miss this! This is interesting!
Of course, a workplace should include Core Values that is shared between each and everyone within the company and reflects them to the customers. Without these factors, you are bound to do things the hard way, waste most of your precious time and spend it on less important things, and what makes it harder is you’ll be doing it everyday!
Being systematic is very important, that is why Mike suggests to create systems that average people can excel in to do the work, systems that could make the work easier and could handle different situations and scenarios. Systems saves lives people!
BONUS TIP: Get your Culture & Core Values Right!
Mike strongly promotes to have a good set of core values for a growing company.
Of course, always encourage employees that they should make decisions that don’t violate the company’s core values. Listen in to hear how to pull it off.
WARNING: Don’t violate the core values, or it’s gonna be ugly!
Here are some last thoughts Mike shares with Todd:
BONUS TIP: Do not abdicate authority but delegate authority
Mike believes that posing authority must be done in a right way. Making sure that an employee is ready and capable to do your work, they must undergo a long and systematized process before considering them to be locked and loaded. And abdicating authority is just setting things up for failure.
LAST HIT: KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) Enjoy Mike’s nerdy talks about KPI. This will definitely give you some good ideas on how to come up with your own KPI and make your company grow!
Here comes the Lightning Round!
We can help you grow your company more, visit us on our website at www.GrowMyCleaningCompany.com and also Subscribe to our show on iTunes here: http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/itunes
iTunes http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/itunes
And don’t forget to Follow us onTwitter https://twitter.com/CleaningCoGrow See ya!
How to Build a Successful Cleaning Business
A lot of owners of cleaning companies are burdened with the tightrope walk of working in their cleaning businesses and trying to spend the time and energy it takes to grow their business to hire people so they can stop cleaning and start being the entrepreneur they know they are.
Today Mike coaches Jeffrey Carruthers from Gold Cleaning Canada on how to build a successful cleaning business.
Having enough cash flow to hire people to do the cleaning for you can be one of the biggest problems owners have when it comes to transitioning out cleaning for their business to working on their business.
Finding the time to plan can be a big obstacle for knowing how to build a successful cleaning business, especially when you are exhausted from manual labor.
For commercial cleaners, finding that time can actually be pretty simple. Listen in for some quick tips on when and how to find the time and what you need to focus on.
Mike breaks down how to selling for 30-60 days, earmarking all jobs for subcontractors can change your business and your life.
BONUS MATH: Say you sell $1200 of work, then subcontract them out for $600, You now you can hire a $600 employee!
If you can pay someone 10$/hr that’s 60 hours a month of time you just bought yourself deal listener.
Mike explains the simple concept of when you want to get out of the business 90% of the time it’s not a transitional problem it’s a client acquisition problem.
He then goes into how you can set up a good client aquisition system to finally free you from working in your business to on it.
BONUS TIP: if your margins are right, you’re always going to be ok
He then explains a huge mistake owners make when charge for their time. Are you afraid that raising prices will scare all of your clients away? Then listen in, you might be surprised at the reality.
Don’t get tricked into thinking you can save money by doing the work you yourself, listen to why this can be a business killer.
Finally Jeffrey brings on the Canadian charm and wisdom in the lightning round
Check out the last podcast at: http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/how-to-get-government-cleaning-contracts/
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How to Get Government Cleaning Contracts
Are you looking to make that leap into government contracting? Before you go down the route of getting special certifications, minority certifications and chasing that Government Cleaning Contract dragon, you need to ask yourself who is your target customer?
Mike coaches Anthony Fisher of Anthony’s Janitorial Maintenance on how to get government cleaning contracts. Anthony is currently in the residential and commercial market but wants to specialize in government contracts with his minority owned certified cleaning business.
Have you gotten confused or derailed with special designation? Find out why having the designation does not necessarily mean you will get the contract and what you can do to get a leg up on your competition.
Mike explains how to find out what your ideal customer really wants so that you aren’t trying to sell them something they don’t even want or care about.
BONUS TIP: They want a problem solved or their life to be better not necessarily than the cheapest price.
Mike shares how to get the answers to helping your customers reach their goals.
Certifications aren’t easy to get or maintain, you’re competing against the guy that ONLY does government contracts. Fortunately there is an antidote, listen in to hear how to not only compete, but crush your competition and master how to get government cleaning contracts.
BONUS TIP: The government wants you to understand their rules and make sure you know how to follow them perfectly.
But don’t be fooled by the allure of fame and riches with the government, find out why if the government is only 20% of your business they aren’t worth your time
The good news is it’s a great time to be in the commercial cleaning space even if you don’t know how to get government cleaning contracts or even want them.
But if your heart is set on working for the man, it should be your full time job. Mike explains how long it actually might take to carve your niche out in the government contract world, you might be surprised.
BONUS TIP: The best 12 ideas you have are always going to perform below the 1 idea you put all your focus on .
Mike explains how to know your niche inside and out and how that can be your ticket to success. Why being able to answer your customer’s business questions and not their cleaning questions can revolutionize your closing ratio.
Finally Anthony shares his wisdom in the Lightning Round
Check out our last show-http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/how-to-start-you…leaning-business/
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How to Start Your Own Cleaning Business
Mike coaches Zohar Rangel of Merimon in Salt Lake City Utah on the do’s and don't’s on How to Start Your Own Cleaning Business.
Mike lays down the number one key idea - “first you’ve got to actually DO this”
Don’t get caught up in the “I’ve heard this before, I’ve tried it” hear why that mentality can be a business and progress killer.
Mike explains the problem with assuming that you know it already and that you get it.
Knowing it does you absolutely 0 good, doing it is the key.
Next they get into what every new cleaning business owner should do - Pick a niche - Learn why this is one of the most important things you will do to build a start a successful cleaning business.
Mike then lays out how to pick your niche:
Commercial cleaning is awesome because it’s recurring revenue, maybe you gain a couple or lose a couple but you know some money is always coming in.
Residential cleaning is good but smaller accounts, more work and generally more fussy customers.
In Zohar’s case Mike brings up the point that construction clean up is good but isn’t exactly recurring.
He then shares the secrets that almost no one does - but every successful business knows.
Mike shares the good stuff on how to find out what your customer wants and how to be the only one giving it to them.
Learn how to beat the “Everyone says they want the best clean at the lowest price” game.
You can’t be the cheapest and make any money and if you aren’t making money you can’t really give a good service.
BONUS TIP: If you ask your prospective customers WHY they want the cheapest price you open the conversation to getting to the root of what they really want.
It’s easy to sell something to your customer that they've already told you that’s what they want
Mike talks money and marketing - Set aside a customer acquisition budget and stick to it. Test and find your customer acquisition strategy - start that early
These systems are going to be expensive in the beginning so at the bare min - set aside a fixed % of your income to devote to marketing and client acquisition.
BONUS TIP: Find a mentor that has done it and have them guide you through how to start your own cleaning business.
Once you find out what your customer wants you have to sell it to them, but how do you sell your first few clients? Guess you will just have to listen in to find out but here’s one little gem right off the bat:
Finally, Mike gets into the things not to do:
It’s just as important to not focus on things that are a waste of your time as the things you need to do
Zohar then brings the heat with his Lightning round answers
For some more genius ways on how to wrangle your employees check out this Link from last show-http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/employee-motivation/
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Employee Motivation
Employee motivation is what separates the good companies from the great.
Mike coaches Ivan Perez of Evelyn’s Cleaning Service on how to cultivate the best employees for his cleaning service. Bottom line, if you can get your employees engaged and excited you are going to be much more successful.
Mike starts with sound foundational keys; If you have the problem of employees doing just enough to not get fired, you have a culture problem.
First he tackles the silly belief that most business owners believe; if I give you $10 you will give me x amount of your time.
Listen in to what the problem is with this line of thinking and why it can not only not build the right employees for you but stop you from ever getting them.
Mike goes into how employees REALLY think, and it may surprise you to know that that YOU are a commodity, not just the other way around.
BONUS TIP: When you are hiring $10-$15/hr employees you e competing with all the other $10/hr jobs out there or worse the government that will pay them to do nothing instead
The fact of the matter is that there are too many people willing to give them 10/hr for a labor intensive job
Mike explains your employees don’t take your employment seriously because they can just go out and get another job to pay their rent when it’s convenient if they’re too hungover to come into work that day or just plain don’t feel like it.
Never fear, Mike has the Solution.
BONUS TIP: You are never going to get anyone's heart and passion for 10-15$/hr
It doesn’t matter if you pay them $10 or $15 it’s always going to be the same level of commitment.
So how DO you move them from seeing you as a commodity is they have to be a part of something bigger than cleaning toilets?
Mike shares the power of giving them something they believe in, something that they're passionate about.
He then breaks it down into 2 steps.
Step 1 - identify and discover your core values - why you do what you do.
They discuss the best way to create that same drive that drives you through creating a culture and atmosphere that goes hand in hand with your core values.
BONUS TIP: You can’t manufacture your culture, you have to ask yourself what is important to you, something bigger than the company. Make that the golden thread to build your company and culture on.
You want the employee that is passionate about what you are passionate about so find the reason you do what you do that is bigger than money.
Following the steps lined out in this podcast your employees won’t see you as a commodity anymore, they will want to be a part of the culture, they don’t want to let the cause down, their coworkers down.
Mike suggests some awesome reading material for any owner looking to build culture in their company; Rockefeller habits by Vern Harnish
“If your employees aren’t mocking you about your core values you haven’t been talking about them enough” - Vern Harnish
Mike breaks down easy suggestions to building community and culture in your own company that you can start implementing this week!
Finally Ivan shares his own nuggets of wisdom in the Lightning Round
Check out the last show- http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/cleaning-service-pricing/
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Cleaning Services Hiring
If you have questions on when to start delegating tasks and your cleaning services hiring you have come to the right place.
If you start by doing everything yourself with no employees or partners you should be building cash pretty quick. Mike breaks it down for Tiffany on where to find the capital to start hiring and why you need to delegate those tasks ASAP.
Learn why you want to be doing “everything” as little as possible.
BONUS TIP: The first trick is to identify $10/hr, $50/hr and $100/hr work
Cleaning is $10/hr work
If you’re cleaning there’s no way, even if you’re the best cleaner that ever lived will ever be doing $100/hr work.
Let’s delve into this further and say that now you are not doing $10/hr tasks but now you are managing cleaners, that is still like $20/hr but definitely never $100/hr work.
If you are saying to yourself, you can’t afford to not do the $10/hr jobs but then simultaneously saying because you are doing the 10$/hr jobs you can’t be doing the 100$/hr jobs, it costs you 90$/hr!
BONUS MATH: An account that you charge $500/mo for, over the course of a five year contract earns you roughly 30k. If that takes you 3 hours to manage that contract its $10k an hour!
Mike then talks about the biggest mistakes owners make when they are no longer “doing the cleaning” and how that mistake can cost them the most in time and revenue.
He goes over what you absolutely shouldn’t be doing and what you as the owner cannot afford not to do.
Of course moving from doing everything to only the $100/hr tasks isn’t an overnight transformation. But Mike goes into depth about how to make that shift mentally and strategically.
If you are cleaning, who’s running the business?If you saw the pilot of a plane cleaning the bathroom you would be worried about who’s flying the plane?
Knowing when your business is about to die isn’t as easy as knowing when a customer is upset and ready to stop service. But it’s even more crucial to be paying attention to it.
Because it’s easy for the $10/hr tasks to get on fire, you get so used to going fire to fire you forget to create systems for your business. Hear how to avoid this common mistake.
As the owner it’s your job to make sure the right person is doing the right job.
Finally Tiffany lays some wisdom down in the Lightning round
Check out the last episode at http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/niche-cleaning/
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Niche Cleaning
Are you sick and tired of trying to serve everyone? Do you know who your ideal customer is? Have you been wanting to really drill down you business and do niche cleaning?
Today Mike coaches Derreck Smallwood of Sqeaky Kleen Washing on Niche Cleaning. Derreck has chosen Property managers as his specific target customer and wanted clarity on how to supercharge his marketing efforts.
First Mike shares a little wisdom from The Ultimate Selling Machine by Chet Holmes .
He explains what a dream 100 is, why it’s important to set aside time to figure out who they are and how it can help you to maximize your marketing dollars and save you thousands of wasted effort and money.
BONUS TIP: Instead of having so many customers doing everything you can, specialise in your ideal customer
Mike then explains how trying to attract everyone can crush your business. None of us have the budget to market to everyone so learn how to pick your niche cleaning business. A lot of cleaners will make the mistake of thinking more service mean more clients and that means more money but it can mean the very opposite.
Some of the benefits of fewer clients are:
If you are like Derreck who has the doggedness and determination to show up at his prospects door every day until they say you’re hired or go away then listen for these great tips on how to supercharge your efforts:
BONUS TIP: Don't try to get into too many services - focus on your niche and position yourself as an expert by getting to know your clients on a deeper level than your competitors
Mike explains how niche cleaning can keep your customers happy because you know what is important to them.
It’s difficult if not impossible to have more than 1 niche. You can only do so much with the time and money you have, spreading yourself too thin can be a detriment to your business.
Lastly, Mike’s parting words are “Building relationships is key”
Finally Derreck lays some wisdom on us in the Lightning round
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Today Mike coaches Jaime Kulaga of Two Maids and a Mop on how to keep cleaning clients that are leaving due to situations outside of quality and performance by encouraging an attitude of total responsibility.
Learn how to focus on your circle of influence and not the things you cannot and should not try to control.
Mike explains that the sphere of things you can control is very small but the sphere of things you can influence is much larger and why there’s power in knowing the difference.
Hear what your cleaning clients are communicating is really saying when they cancel service for reasons other than problems with your service.
BONUS HINT: The way to combat customer loss is to provide a solution to their deep needs
Start with a solution to THEIR specific problem and then communicate it continually.
Mike goes on to explain when you truly believe you are solving problems and you communicate that to your employees you will get a higher quality of employee to your cleaning clients.
Hear when the worst time is to try to save a cleaning client. And what the indicators are so you aren’t caught off guard.
BONUS HINT: The best way to make losing customers a non-issue to have a steady stream of new prospects that turn into leads that turn into customers.
But how?? So glad you asked.
The one problem with franchises is they don’t help you with getting you clients other than their general advertising. You can’t trust that the marketing budget for your area through your Franchisor is going to serve you as well.
Mike explains how to create client attraction system and put them in place in your business.
Finally, they cover the important of why you need to know your numbers. Do you know where your company is financially? How many cleaning clients per month you loose? How about how many new leads turn into paying customers?
You must have a very specific tracking system for your leads per month and your conversion rate.
BONUS TIP: Get away from statements like “the phone is always ringing”
You must track
Finally Jaime hits us with some of her own business genius in the lightning round.
For more genius subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChxfA97D5XdOD4WWwHYrM
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Check out our Last Podcast-
http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/cleaning-company-website-design/
Today Mike coaches Cinderella Bermudez on how she can update her cleaning company website design to keep up with today’s time-strapped, short attention spanned, technologically advanced world.
The landscape is changing for the cleaning industry, you have to be intentional with being innovative and keeping up to date.
The fact that your customers don’t even have time to have a phone conversation bodes very well for those of us in the saving you time and work arena.
Cleaning can’t be outsourced to the philippines. It’s a real service that has to be done locally and more and more people today just don’t have the time to do it themselves.
Taking the time to have an actual conversation with their customers and get to know them and what they need/want is very effective but doesn’t work if you want to break that 7 figure barrier.
If your desire is to build your cleaning business to a multi million dollar business you(the owner) can’t be doing all the selling yourself, you have to systematize it and the changing landscape to getting customers online is very conducive to that reality.
The beautiful thing about the written word is you can make it perfect unlike salespeople who have good days or bad days.
You have to understand your customers pain. Asking questions that hit their pain is a much more effective sales tactic than “50% off first cleaning”
Mike suggests Cinderella make an “I You Count” of her website. Go to your website today and take out all the Is and We’s and change them to YOUs.
Customer’s only care about themselves not you, use THEIR words to address what your customer’s pain is.
Use video on your site. There’s a lot of added benefit to video:
Mike breaks down the myth that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. One on one conversations with you (the owner) aren’t scalable, what is scapable is knowing what your customers want and answering their questions with written word, pics and video and send thousands of people to that site a day.
So create a website that addresses all of your customer’s questions and needs right off the bat. Don’t be afraid of new technology, embrace it!
Websites don’t have bad days- they are always up and always perfect.
When looking for a website designer, most people look for a web design company usually because they’ve been marketed to by that company. They look at the websites they’ve done before and say “wow that’s a beautiful website” and then pay their fees for a beautiful website.
But then 2 months later they have a beautiful website that looks great but doesn’t perform any different.
BONUS HINT: Hire someone who is an expert in client attraction to manage your website design .
Here are the components you should have to build a successful website:
Then take those components and give them to a client attraction guy to craft the best client attraction system/website for you. Know who your customer is, know what their pain is and take painstaking time to craft a message that is compelling to them.
Don't focus on whether or not the website looks good to you in your eyes, ask prospective web designers what kind of ROI are they getting, how many leads per month, how many are converting to bids?
Website designer requirements:
BONUS TIP: Don't fail for the trap that everyone falls for that you want a consult therefore your call to action is call now for a free consultation. What your customer is hearing is “call now to get pestered by a salesperson”
A way to get around being positioned as a salesperson is to use a lead magnet.
Finally Cinderella shares her own wisdom in the lightening round:
Marketing a Cleaning Business
Have you felt the sting of spending thousands of dollars on marketing a cleaning business only to get virtually nothing or absolutely nothing back?
Today Mike helps Annie Bobbitt of Northern Connecticut Maid Brigade solve the question of how NOT to waste money on marketing that doesn’t work.
If your past marketing efforts didn’t pan out it doesn’t mean marketing as a whole doesn’t work, it just means what you did wasn’t right.
KEY POINTS:
We also cover Direct mail. Yes, real, 100% dead trees direct to your prospective customer’s mailbox. There are 100 ways to skin that cat and Mike covers a few key concepts to get you started.
Mike explains the benefits of direct mail versus other forms of marketing. Learn how direct mail can narrow down who get’s your marketing by zip code and specific demographics and how that can save you thousands.
Avoid the pitfalls of using the wrong media when marketing a cleaning business by knowing where you should be spreading your message to attract your dream customers.
Once the media is settled Mike moves on to the message.
A lot of Val Pac advertisers don’t know how to do direct response, call to action or appeal to your customer’s specific needs and wants. They just do tagline, name, logo, artwork and phone number. But there’s nothing about the specific pain of your target market.
Your client isn’t interested in how long you have been in business and generic lines about being green, reliable or trustworthy. They are interested in THEMSELVES.
BONUS GENIUS: Know your customer’s biggest paint
Next Mike moves on to “Branding” and why unless you are a $50 Million dollar a year company it just isn’t worth your advertising money.
As a smaller company, marketing a cleaning business is more like putting in $1 and hoping to get a $1.50-$1.02 back. So you MUST know how to carefully craft your message that speaks directly to your specific customer.
BONUS HINT: When you go on a sales call and get to emotional place with your prospective customer, use their words exactly in your ads.
If you can get 80% of someone’s pain, you’ve won the marketing battle. If you don’t have pain and a strong call to action, then you definitely don’t have the resources to spend on “branding”
You time and energy is better spent figuring out what your customers want and how you can solve their problems.
Hear how to find a solution that is interesting to your prospects that will have them coming to you as the trusted source in that field.
Hear how you can create a consumer guide that solves your customer’s problem and how you can change how they view you from a pushy salesperson to trusted advisor.
Mike gives a quick shot out to the Sandler Sales System and how their sales process is all about getting that pain from your customer. https://www.sandler.com/sales-training/sandler-selling-system
Finally Mike explains the best way to make sales work is to have a good marketing process. If your prospects come in already educated on your free resource they are 10x as valuable as someone who has no idea who you are. (AKA a cold lead)
Your salespeople have good days, bad days, show up on time or no show, but sales copy says it perfectly every time.
Here are the key takeaways from today’s Show:
Finally, Annie shares her wisdom with her final Lightning Round answers:
If you want more Marketing a Cleaning Business lovin’ subcribe to our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChxfA97D5XdOD4WWwHYrM
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Want some cleaning marketing ideas? Yes? Well you my friend are in the right place! Marleen Swoboda owner of Mars Cleaning Service asks for marketing ideas for her 38 year old cleaning company Mars Cleaning and Mike hooks her up on this episode of the Grow My Cleaning Company Podcast!
Marleen shares some of her thirty eight years of experience and some great war stories before hitting Mike up for some cleaning marketing ideas. If you want to see what Marleen is up to nowaday’s you can check out Mars Cleaning at: http://marscleaningservice.com
Before you do, listen in as we talk about the myth of “branding” for small business and discover why direct response marketing is the ONLY way to go for your cleaning company.
KEY POINT: You MUST TRACK!! If you can’t track it, you are just throwing money away on a strategy called hope!!
Listen in as Mike gives away the secret to using your vehicles to actually MAKE you money. How to market with your company vehicles along with the HUGE mistake so many owners of cleaning companies make with their vehicle marketing.
HINT: When people are driving (hopefully NOT online) is sending them to your website the best way to go?
BONUS HINT: Talk about what people are interested in...
DOUBLE BONUS HINT: It ain’t you!!
Once Mike get’s off of his vehicle advertising soap box, without even taking a breath he dives into the importance of a Market, Message and Media match.
A flurry of amazing ideas to market your cleaning company ensues and Mike teaches you how to come up with the right marketing budget that you can actually afford and simultaneously debunks the “I can’t afford to market” myth/ excuse/ bad thinking.
RESOURCE ALERT- www.GrowMyCleaningCompany.com has EVERYTHING you need to grow your cleaning company!!
The people who say advertising costs too much will find the money to create advertising that says “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS”
Always remember, advertising is only expensive if it doesn’t work!!
Before the fun ends, Marleen gives back to cleaning nation with some amazing answers and insight in the Lightening Round. Check out this quick summary to whet your whistle:
Still jonesin for MORE cleaning marketing ideas? Check out this podcast:
http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/janitorial-marketing/
What?? Still can’t get enough of the Grow My Cleaning Company universe? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and the Grow My Cleaning Company Podcast below:
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Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter- https://twitter.com/CleaningCoGrow for quick marketing ideas for your cleaning company
Last, but NOT least, join the best online group of owners of cleaning companies to swap cleaning marketing ideas here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growmycleaningcompany/
It is free and is a great opportunity to ask questions, show off your knowledge and experience and best of all it is FREE!
Have you ever wanted to know how Pay Per Click (PPC) works with your janitorial marketing plan? Today is your lucky day as host Mike Campion dive’s into marketing your janitorial company using PPC with guest expert Ed Stapleton from Clicks Geek.
We talk about the eight hundred pound gorilla in the PPC world as well as what other pay to play platforms are out there.
Tune in and learn why Pay Per Click ads are so much MORE valuable than other forms of advertising and why customer intent is so important.
BONUS LOVIN: Find out why Facebook advertising is cheaper but lower quality than Google?
Discover what interruption marketing and direct response marketing mean to your cleaning business and which one you should avoid and why.
We talk about typical mistakes owners of cleaning companies make in their pay per click marketing and how you can avoid them as well as how to determine a budget for your janitorial PPC marketing.
Listen in on expert secrets to PPC marketing and how to use negative keywords to save you money as well as how crucial a well written ad is to get people to click. We dive into janitorial marketing concepts that work online as well as offline and with paid as well as organic traffic.
Learn why working with an expert can help you get the MOST out of your paid traffic marketing budget for your cleaning or janitorial company.
KNOW how to peek into your prospects mind and understand what their pain points are and how to speak their language- how to jump into the conversation that is already going on in their head.
RESOURCE ALERT: Subscribe to our podcast for FREE at: http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/itunes
Before the show ends we talk about the ONE THING you MUST do to make your pay per click campaigns successful.
Here are some gems for a brand new adwords person:
One of the biggest mistake people make with google adwords is not having a landing page - don’t send traffic to your home page- this causes leakage. Send paid traffic to a specific page with an offer or a call to action and not give them the opportunity to look around and lose interest
Another key is to make sure you have a good sales process in place to work with your ppc lead acquisition
We also talk about the fact that you might not be paying for ppc but your competitors are. From a marketing standpoint there isn’t a better customer that just typed in looking for your service in your area. When you choose not to participate in that, you are handicapping yourself.
Ed ends with an unbelievably good offer that you can get here:
http://grow-my-cleaning-company.clicksgeek.com/
For more in depht janitorial marketing genius- check out this episode: http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/building-a-cleaning-business/
Show us some love and get all of the good stuff on YouTube by subscribing here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChxfA97D5XdOD4WWwHYrM
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Follow us 144 characters at a time on Twitter- https://twitter.com/CleaningCoGrow
And for all things cleaning check back early and often to our homepage
DON’T Miss out on Ed’s AMAZING offer of a FREE account audit for current PPC users or a FREE consult for people who want to start using Pay Per Click http://grow-my-cleaning-company.clicksgeek.com/
Do you know the difference in cleaning companies with the first couple employees, the first ten staff and how things change at every level? Are you struggling with building a cleaning business?
BONUS LOVIN: You can sneak by not really knowing your business in the 0-10 employees, but it is HARD to grow after that without SYSTEMS!
Here are a few of the key numbers you NEED to know to run your cleaning business
You can't grow without knowing your numbers. In fact, major purchases and hiring decisions should only be based on your numbers, NEVER your gut feeling.
You have to understand how one customer works and makes money before you can grow and scale.
Your foundation and practices need to be solid before you build. Understand how you make money and if you are profitable at every level
3 things every business has to manage well:
When it comes to providing your service and sometimes even accounting, most business owners realize the need for a system, but they DON’T have a system for Attracting Clients!
Make a system for both your sales and marketing efforts to build your cleaning business.
Problems with salespeople in a small can be overcome with systems saving you time and headache.
Systems can crank out leads every month and you can set them up in such a way to know how many of those leads will turn into bids and sales.
BONUS LOVE: Automation and systems can make up for an average or even sub par salesperson
The foundation under your systems is mission, vision, values and your core values are foundational to building a cleaning business.
There is nothing harder than instilling core values in someone who doesn’t share those same beliefs
Learn more about hiring the RIGHT people to build your cleaning business here:
http://growmycleaningcompany.com/cleaning-business-hiring/
Here are some other great ways to connect with us and all sorts of resources to Grow YOUR Cleaning Company:
Subsciribe to us for free on YouTube
Join our amazing Facebook Group FULL of owners of cleaning companies from all over the world
Check out our website where we give away way too many FREE resources to build your cleaning business
Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
We release new shows every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and they are 20 minute bursts of cleaning company growing dynamite!
And of course, you can always follow us on Twitter
Mike Shares his thoughts on the question of whether or not to hire from within or outside your cleaning company
BONUS INFO: There are actually a couple exceptions to the rule read on to discover.
Core Values are the essential to your company and how to integrate them into your hiring process ESPECIALLY when it comes to hiring supervisors and managers.
Not only it is important that all the front line employees share your core values, but It is CRITICAL that all your supervisors share your core values as well.
BONUS LOVIN: Systems are crucial to getting the right people on your team
Here are some truth bombs on how to promote from within and why you should NOT hire for skill!!
Here is a quick overview of this episode:
Just when you think you've heard everything there is to hear, Mike dives into the magic of systems and how an average person with a strong set of systems behind them can be very successful.
Adding daily Checklists to your cleaning company hiring, can allow crucial information to flow from front line employees to supervisors to you as the owner.
BONUS LOVIN: Checklists can be used when it comes time to fire, give pay raises or promote
Here are a few more pieces of wisdom:
If you don’t use the checklists your create, your supervisors definitely aren’t and your employees don't stand a chance at using them.
Remember, your best supervisors are only going to do 80% of what you do and the employees under them are only going to do 80% of what the supervisor does- you must always be the shining example!
Lightning Round Genius:
RESOURCE ALERT- The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull
Our website- www.GrowMyCleaningCompany.com is chock full of videos, an ebook, FREE webinar, blogs, podcasts, everything you NEED to grow YOUR cleaning company!
When you are done there subcribe to our YouTube channel
For even more cleaning company growth join the Grow My Cleaning Company Facebook Group (it’s free)
Still want more? Follow us on twitter
You can also find us on iTunes at http://www.growmycleaningcompany.com/itunes
and if you love the show, do us a solid and Subscribe rate and review!
That said, the conversation isn’t complete without YOU! So ask a question, leave your advice and share the love!
We did another podcast on cleaning business hiring that pairs quite nicely with this podcast- check it out now
Today we discuss janitorial hiring on the Grow My Cleaning Company Podcast with Cathy Patterson from Allied Cleaning Service. After we get to know Cathy a little, we talk about janitorial hiring, firing and everything in between.
BONUS- Want to know how to price cleaning jobs? Check out this free podcast- http://growmycleaningcompany.com/pricing-cleaning-jobs/
Have you ever dealt with the last minute no show, or even worse, the dreaded “no call, no show” cleaning employee? Of course you have- well today is your lucky day as we dive in and talk about how to deal with that exact problem. Listen in and discover:
We talk about communicating a zero tolerance policy on no call, no show right from the beginning- advertising for help all the way through terminating an employee. We also go over how handling a single no call no show wrong can pollute your entire team.
BONUS: Interviewing employees is a PROCESS, not an event
It can be tempting to look the other way or “deal with it later” when an employee misses a shift, but that screams chaos and lack of leadership to the entire team and bad habits spread like a cancer. Handle this wrong and you will soon find the inmates running the asylum!
SUM IT UP: You must have a ZERO tolerance policy- No call, no show- NO JOB!!
Before the party ends, Mike shares in hundreds of employees over a couple of decades, he has NEVER fired someone and thought “I should have waited” and in almost every case he immediately knew he should have done it sooner. Hire SLOW and fire QUICKLY. You can’t wait when it comes to firing problem employees. The time between when you know in your head and heart they have to go and when you actually part ways is some of the most expensive time you will have in your cleaning company.
Cathy shares some of her experience in the Lightening Round
If this gets your motor running, you are going to LOVE our website with EVERY blog, video, ebook, webinar and podcast- everything YOU need to grow YOUR cleaning company!
If you are pickin up what we are laying down- Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChxfA97D5XdOD4WWwHYrMAQ
If you really want to be a part of the “cool kids” club- join us in our FREE Facebook group- If so, we would love to have you as a part of our FREE Facebook Group-
Today you can listen and learn as Mike talks with Thabs Lekota and Tamara Roberts from Maid on the Move all the way from South Africa about pricing cleaning jobs.
You can find out everything about Thabs, Tamara and Maid on the Move at:
http://www.maid.on.the.move.pyot.biz
The key to pricing cleaning jobs and getting out of the low bid rat race is to stop competing with every other cleaning company for a very small amount of bidders. Even better- discover how to the be ONLY bidder in the conversation. When there’s too much competition your prospects are almost always going to go for the lowest price. Combat this by communicating with prospects before they start asking for bids and educating prospects on how your services solve their specific pain.
BONUS- If you aren’t the cheapest you might as well be the most expensive
When pricing cleaning jobs, you must leave yourself enough margin to educate your prospects on your value instead of just trying to be the cheapest.
Mike drops a bunch of wisdom including:
Thabs and Tamara share some good stuff in the lightening round including:
If you like numbers, check out this podcast: http://growmycleaningcompany.com/when-to-hire-an-accountant-for-your-cleaning-company/
To get the full scoop on accounting, CPA’s and bookkeeping for your cleaning company!
That is an overview of just SOME of the great things we cover today, so tune in and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss anything.
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For everything else cleaning go to our main website at www.growmycleaningcompany.com
Today Mike talks with Jolene Vossen from Clean 4 You in Wichita Kansas. You can find out more about Jolene and her team at: www.clean4youwichita.com
Mike coaches Jolene on the super important topic of how to handle accounting for your cleaning company, the differences between accountants and bookkeepers and when to hire who.
The foundation of this episode is the understanding that you MUST know your numbers to be able to run your cleaning company and you must track well before you can know those numbers.
The three main things that need to happen in your cleaning business are: