Print this page | Go back to previous topic
Forum nameMarketing Mix
Topic subjectRE: Im Not Sure Where To Begin! (Cleaning Business)
Topic URLhttps://www.businessownersideacafe.com/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=1244&mesg_id=1247
1247, RE: Im Not Sure Where To Begin! (Cleaning Business)
Posted by Pepperfire, Tue Oct-21-08 06:12 AM
Well, the easiest thing is to actually answer the question...

Why would they want to use your company?

From where I sit, you seem to have failed to do one piece of very important homework. You haven't studied your market. Why do people hire cleaning services. I know that I might hire one so that my staff aren't cleaning the toilet; or because I don't want to do it. But that's not a "motivating factor" for me to hire someone who might be trying to prospect me.

You need to know how many people use such a service and why, and believe it or not... why not? How much are the going rates, who is the best in your area... who is the worst, etc.

I haven't the slightest clue what such a company would charge me as the business owner; but you will absolutely need to know that. How often do I want them to come in and what are they going to do when they do... empty the paper baskets, sorting stuff for the recycling, refilling water bottles, watering the plants, washing windows, picking up trash that has blown onto the lawn? Are they just inside or do they do outside as well... etc.

Why would I change cleaning companies if I was already working with one?

If I am dissatisfied. That's the easy answer. Perhaps they are too expensive, perhaps I don't like the hours they choose to come in (disrupting my business), etc. Maybe I simply don't like the company I'm currently working with... Maybe I need someone but aren't working with anyone yet. Determine who your best possibility for getting a contract is by doing the market research.

You might want to use the student's time and have him/her submit a survey... ask business owners these questions as part of a market study; qualify them by only actually surveying businesses who currently use such a service.

Finally, once you know who you are, why you are doing what you are doing, and the answers to all those questions, you can pre-qualify people on the phone and won't be "sitting down" with people who aren't candidates to be your customers. So the sales presentation bit, I think is a premature worry, at this point.

Good luck with it.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!