THE
4Ps OF MARKETING
To begin
this discussion, we discuss the 4Ps of Marketing
PRODUCT
PRICE
POSITIONING
AND
PROMOTION
In
this section you will learn:
-
What the
Product you’re offering REALLY IS: The answer may surprise you
-
That
consumers don’t really buy “price”; they buy “value”
-
How you
“position” your company in the market place can determine the price you
can charge for your service
-
Why the
lack of promotion by most of your competitors opens up an avenue of
opportunity for you
-
What
activities fall under the “promotion” category
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PRICING FOR PROFIT: THE POM=CP FORMULA
The cleaning price seems to be the Achilles
Heel in the profitability of many, if not most, house cleaners. There seems
to be no formula used at arriving at cleaning prices. If anything, house
cleaners either shop the competition and then set prices to “underbid” their
competitors, or establish arbitrary prices based on what the market will
bear. Little thought goes into what it costs to provide the service they’re
selling.
You ARE in business for yourself and you may
choose any method you wish to determine what you charge for your service.
However, we’re going to share what we feel is a very viable way of pricing
for profit. We call it the POM=CP Formula
In this section you will learn:
-
What
elements go into the “P” part of the equation
-
What
elements go into the “O” part of the equation
-
How the
“M” part of the equation can virtually guarantee a predetermined profit on
every cleaning job you do, provided the “P” and “O” portions are properly
determined
-
Detailed
examples of how the POM=CP formula works
-
Another
look at the “Team Share” compensation method and why it helps make this
formula work so well
PLUS an Internet hyperlink to the following
Web site:
-
United
States Directory of Workers’ Compensation resources for all 50 states
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ESTABLISHING
THE PRICE
You now
have a formula for pricing the job that allows for adequate compensation of
your employees, factors in overhead expenses and provides for a
predetermined level of profit for you and you business.
What we’re
going to be discussing in this session are all the elements that need to be
considered in order to determine how much work is involved and the amount of
time it will take to perform the work.
In this section you will learn:
-
Two
homes could be identical in size, layout and design but one could require
far more time and effort to clean than the other
-
There’s
a big difference between “old” dirt and “new” dirt accumulations, and how
to “look for” dirt when creating your estimate
-
The
difference between pricing a first-time or onetime cleaning and routine
weekly, biweekly or monthly cleanings that follow
-
The
danger in under pricing or “low balling” your first-time cleaning price
-
How to
justify a higher first time or one time cleaning price to your prospective
client
-
The
first steps in pricing the work
-
Using
your Cleaning Worksheet to come up with both the first-time and repetitive
cleaning prices for your clients
-
Factors
that tend to increase the price of your regular, routine cleanings
-
Factors
that tend to make cleaning a home easier
-
What to
do if you price the job incorrectly
-
Beyond
the “numbers”
PLUS the following printable PDF document:
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SCHEDULING
Inefficient scheduling of client cleanings will have a major negative impact
on your overall efficiency.
It makes absolutely no sense to fine tune the
cleaning skills of your employees and then turn around and lose it all
through inefficient scheduling of your clients.
.In
this section you will learn:
-
An
illustrated look at how inexpensive, off-the-shelf software ($40) can help
you schedule more efficiently and prepare in advance for your cleaning
consultation appointment
-
How to
establish the most efficient routing
-
Why the
order in which you clean for a group of clients on any given day is so
critical to your bottom line and to employee morale
-
Why you
need to clean on days and times based on your cleaning schedule
-
It’s
important to know your teams’ schedule BEFORE visiting a prospective
client
-
Why you
may need to schedule a client’s first-time cleaning on a day other than
that which will become her regular cleaning day
-
Options
for fitting in first-time or onetime cleanings into a busy team’s schedule
-
How to
use a Map Grid in planning your advertising activities
PLUS the following Internet hyperlinks for:
-
Sites
offering software programs designed to help you schedule and manage your
business
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YOUR
ADVERTISING OPTIONS
A solid investment in consistent, relatively
intense advertising can get your business to a weekly sales volume and
client base that would otherwise take many years to achieve through lesser
efforts. Actually, attracting new housecleaning clients is the easier part
of the equation (it is much more difficult to attract and keep good
employees). It is basically a numbers game — the more advertising you do,
the more clients you're going to attract — but it requires you to commit
the necessary financial resources to make that happen. You are in a
marketing-driven business.
In this section you will learn:
-
What you
can anticipate investing on advertising to obtain a client
-
Factors
affecting your “Client Acquisition Cost” (CAC)
-
Door
hangers: what they are, how effective they can be; and your options for
using this method of advertising
-
Factors
that can influence the effectiveness of a door hanger campaign
-
Direct
mail: your options for using direct mail advertising, and how the direct
mail compares with door hangers in terms of cost and results
-
Information on mailing list companies, list costs and demographic features
you can choose to obtain when selecting a list
-
Web site marketing
-
Information on “coop” or “marriage mailings where literature is
distributed to homes in a “packet” with other advertising literature
-
Factors
affecting direct mail response rates
-
Yellow
Pager advertising; what to consider about this media
-
Factors
affecting Yellow Page response rates
-
Newspaper Inserts: what are they and are they worth considering?
-
Classified newspaper advertising
-
Newspaper Display advertising: what you MUST KNOW
-
Factors
influencing newspaper advertising response rates
-
Cross
promotion opportunities with other non-competing merchants in your market
-
Referrals: how valuable they are and the best way to get them
PLUS the following printable PDF documents:
-
NEVER
CLEAN YOUR HOME AGAIN brochure
-
Sample
display newspaper ad
-
Sample
newspaper insert or flyer
-
Sample
Yellow Page ad
-
Sample
neighborhood flyer
-
Sample
Referral Post Card
-
Sample
referral solicitation letter
PLUS the following Internet links to:
-
USPS
Direct Mail 101 site
-
Mailing list
site (get free demographic information and household population numbers
for your area) as well as cost figures for conducting a direct mail
campaign
-
Links to
Web site developer directory
-
Poly bag
ideal for delivering door hangers
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A WORD ABOUT PUBLIC RELATIONS
Have you ever wondered how local businesses
and business people manage to get articles written about them in the
newspaper? Do they pay for this publicity? Do readers pay attention to
what’s written? You bet people pay attention, and it’s better than free
advertising. Depending on the slant of the story and the way it’s written,
it often comes across like a third party endorsement. So, how can you get
in on some of this free publicity, too?
In
this section you will learn:
-
How to
look for PR opportunities
-
What
business reporters and editors look for in Press Releases
-
How to generate FREE publicity by doing
good deeds for others
PLUS the following Internet links to:
-
Software
designed to produce professional Press Releases
-
A
resource site on How to Write a Professional Press Release
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TELEPHONE
TECHNIQUE
Generally, the telephone is the first
personal contact you will have with your prospective client. The impression
made at this juncture can impact your overall marketing effort positively or
negatively, depending on your customer’s perception of the experience.
.In
this section you will learn:
-
That
important “First Impression”
-
What to
do when you’re not there to answer the phone yourself
-
Professional telephone procedures
-
Sample
Telephone Presentation
-
Typical
questions you’ll be asked, and how to handle them
PLUS the following printable PDF document:
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IN-HOME PRESENTATION
By the time you arrive at your prospective
client’s home, she has pretty much made up her mind that (a) she is going to
hire a residential cleaning service and that (b) your service is in the
running for consideration.
To this point, you are still a “voice on the
other end of the phone”, representing a company the client may or may not
know very much about. Obviously, your customer’s inclinations are positive
or you wouldn’t be invited to make a quotation or presentation in her home.
All you have to do now is reinforce the fact that your company will be her
best choice.
.In
this section you will learn:
-
How to
look and act like a professional
-
The
Presentation Procedure
-
Issues
to cover during your visit
-
The
significance of tracking your conversion ratio of leads to appointments
and appointments to sales
-
Typical
questions you’ll be asked, and how to handle them
PLUS the following printable PDF documents:
-
Client
Profile Form
-
Cleaning
Checklist
-
OUR
FIRST CLEANING VISIT brochure
-
Quality
Control Checklist
-
Client
Invoice
-
HAPPILY
EVER AFTER client relationship ground rules booklet
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NURTURING YOUR CLIENTS
It’s amazing how some companies will focus
all their time and resources on finding and selling new customers, and then
spend little or no time and effort on keeping them.
In any business – but in this business in
particular, it’s more important to focus on developing clients than on
selling customers. What’s the difference? A customer is somebody you sell
ONE time; a client is somebody you sell time and time again.
For all the time and effort it takes to find
a new client, it’s critically important to nurture that client once you’ve
got them. And it’s a whole lot cheaper, not to mention easier, to keep an
existing client than it is to go out and replace her with a new one.
.In
this section you will learn:
-
Guaranteeing satisfaction and reliability
-
“Little
things” that can go a long way to maintaining client loyalty
-
Making
and keeping commitments
-
Access
issues: clients’ keys
-
Keeping
accurate records can keep clients happy
-
Negotiating price
-
Dealing
with client complaints
-
Dealing with the "client from hell"
-
How to
deal with clients who want a specific day or time
-
How to
handle clients who expect a certain amount of time spent cleaning in their
home
-
Clients
who want to “trade cleaning jobs”
-
How to
maintain a client’s cleaning schedule even while they’re on vacation
-
Using
due diligence with respect to client’s property
PLUS the following printable PDF documents:
-
Client
Satisfaction Survey Card
-
Series
of sample letters to clients about various issues
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YOUR MARKETING PLAN
This session will give you guidelines for
using all the information in this course to assist you in developing a
workable, manageable and effective marketing and advertising strategy to get
your business off and running and to keep it growing as you progress.
.In
this section you will learn:
-
The
importance of establishing objectives
-
What you
need to do before establishing your game plan
-
Understanding the objective of your advertising – HINT: it is not
to make sales
-
Advertising response expectations
-
Rating
your advertising’s effectiveness
-
Lead
cost versus Sales Cost
-
Consider
“investment advertising” to launch your business
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Click here to
see CD 1 Course Curriculum
Click here to
see CD 2 Course Curriculum
Click here to
see CD 3 Table of Contens
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