How to Start and Grow Your Own Cleaning Business
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CD 4: THE 4Ps OF CLIENT DEVELOPMENT
(Run Time: 3 Hours and 35 Minutes)

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:

• Cleaning Worksheet

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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 Newsletter companies, list costs and demographic features you can choose to obtain when selecting a list
• 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
• Newsletter 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 coop mailing companies with offices nationwide
• 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

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:

• Telephone Log Form

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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
• 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

Return To Complete Course Table of Contents

Click here to see CD 1 Table of Contents

Click here to see CD 2 Table of Contents

Click here to see CD 3 Table of Contents

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