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Five Dirt Cheap Ways to Increase Sales in Your Cleaning Business
Whenever a person is starting a cleaning business or looking to
grow their business certain questions usually come up. How can I
do it inexpensively? What are the most effective methods? Since
most janitorial work is done after hours this leaves daytime
hours to work on your sales and sales techniques. Here are some
proven methods to help you grow your business.
Telephone
One of the most effective and inexpensive ways to grow your
business is by using the telephone. The average of getting a new
customer is one out of one hundred calls. This may sound like a
lot but let's break it down. One hundred calls a week = 20 calls
a day = 1 new customer a week = 52 new customers a year. Having
said that, there are ways of making your telephone sales calls
more effective. One way is developing a great elevator speech.
This is basically a 10 - 15 second introductory statement about
the strong points of your business that is going to spark the
interest of the person on the other end of the phone. Follow up
your elevator speech with an open-ended question to get your
prospect talking and then be a good listener. It's a good idea
to have a few open ended questions prepared for your telephone
sales calls.
A good place to start to start looking for telephone prospects
is the your local yellow pages. Whether your target market is
Class A office space or industrial facilities, these can all be
found in something you have right at home.
Cold Calls
Keep in mind the 1 out of a hundred average applies here as
well. Also keep in mind that baseball players with a 300-career
average are in the baseball hall of fame. This means they failed
70% of the time and are considered some of the greatest players
of all time.
Targeting a certain area is a good idea for a few reasons.
Obviously this will save on time and gas but more importantly
you should focus on an area with your target market in mind. If
your target market is class "A" office space then start with an
area with a high density of this particular type of space.
You need to have a thick skin. Fear of rejection is what makes
people ineffective or stops them from making enough cold calls.
Having a small brochure about the strong points of your business
can be very helpful. If the person you need to talk to is out or
busy, you can leave your brochure and a business card. Ask for
the decision-maker's business card and put them on your list to
call back within a week.
If you happen to get in to see the decision-maker having your
elevator speech and list of questions memorized can be quite be
beneficial. Be prepared to listen, taking notes along the way is
also a good idea. It will give you a reference to fall back on
later.
Asking good questions and listening closely will help you to
find out if what you have to offer will meet your
Associated Websites
prospect's
needs.
Networking
Networking is basically a short way of saying, tell everyone you
know or come into contact with about your business. Then you can
narrow it down to those who actually have a need for your
services. Joining your local chamber of commerce can reap
rewards and is generally fairly inexpensive. It will put you in
contact with the business community and if attended regularly
will ultimately make you a part of that community. Attend as
many functions as possible. Talk to as many people as possible.
Find out what they do, tell them what you do. Get their business
cards and give them yours. You can also network at social
events. Many people talk about their work when they go out. So
can you.
Follow Up
One of the most important functions of sales is the follow up.
Whether your initial contact came from a phone call, a cold call
or a networking event your prospect has a 0% chance of becoming
a client if you do not follow up. If you made a phone contact
with someone who seemed interested but needed to discuss it with
his partners, follow up within a week. If you made a cold call
and left a brochure because the decision-maker wasn't there,
follow up within a week. If you were at a networking event and
obtained a few business cards, follow up within a week.
It's a good idea to keep a list of your contacts and when you
made first contact with them. Then you need to decide which ones
have the best chance of doing business with you and incorporate
those into a follow up schedule.
Read
Reading is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to
increase your sales. There is a wealth of information on the
Internet, in trade magazines and at your local library. Reading
about your industry increases your knowledge and can make you an
expert. The more you know about your industry the more problems
you can solve for clients and potential clients, which will lead
to more sales. You might also consider reading about sales,
sales strategies and sales techniques. You can pick and choose
from different strategies and techniques and adapt the ones that
work best for you. Reading on a regular basis also has the side
effect of increasing your vocabulary. How many things out there
these days can you say have good side effects.
You may have noticed in my first paragraph the word work. Being
a sales person is hard work and requires good organization, time
management and discipline. Add the right amount of enthusiasm
and you will be on the path to success and realizing the
benefits of your hard work.
About the author:
Steve Hanson is co-founding member of The Janitorial Store (TM),
an online community for owners and managers of cleaning
companies who want to build a more profitable and successful
cleaning business. Sign up for Trash Talk: Tip of the Week at
http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com and receive a Free Gift!
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