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Month: October 2013

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Here's a reprint of an article I wrote for the National Carpet Cleaners Association magazine in the UK back in 2009. I think you'll find that it still applies!

Earlier this year I was watching a football agent being interviewed on Sky Sports. It was the day after the football transfer window had closed. The reporter asked him “Is the recession affecting football clubs?” His was response was that in general it wasn't. In fact he made the point that more players had been sold for a sum over £10 million than ever before. Determined to report some doom and gloom, she said that smaller clubs must surely be having a bad time. When the answer was again a negative, the reporter concluded with the comments “So at the moment, football is not being affected by the recession but how long it will be before it does…we will have to wait and see!”

This interview was a prime example of the media of today. Report ‘doom and gloom’. And if there isn’t enough, make some up. I’ve found it helpful to remind myself of the real economic situation in this country at the moment. After all, I’ve not really found my business that affected by the “recession”. In fact, two weeks ago, we had our busiest week for well over 12 months. All residential work I might add.

So here are the facts: According to the National Statistic Office the workforce in the UK is about 30 million out of a population of around 60 million. Unemployment is around 6.5% as we’ve now passed the critical two million mark.

Hold on…doesn’t that mean that 93.5% of the workforce are…in employment!

Even if it rises to the dizzy heights of three million as the worst predictions seem to be, doesn’t that mean that 90% or 9 in every 10 people who are able to work are actually in a job. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad. Not only that, but the public sector (ie: taxpayer funded jobs) has actually taken on more staff over the last year and given them above average pay rises!

Parallels with the ‘Great Depression’ of the 1930’s doesn’t help either. Paradoxically, life got much better for those who kept their jobs back then. The cost of living fell sharply, so their spending power rose sharply. Some parts of Britain were actually more prosperous at the end of the 1930’s than before.

I now make it a point to tell these facts to as many of my clients as possible. Many seem to think that soon nobody will be in work or have any money. Yet there are many firms doing well. Cadbury’s for example has recently reported a 30% increase in annual sales, up from £430M to £559M. A Daily Mail article in February had the headline ‘Fee Paying Schools Beat The Recession’. Apparently record numbers of parents want to put their children into expensive private schools.  There are many, many more.

Getting through the “Recession” is largely a mindset thing. I have heard of several people who have stopped reading the newspapers over recent months. The effect has been that they have simply stopped worrying about any “downturn”. For us, we have made sure that we target PWM (people with money), explained very clearly why we are the best value for them and have not reduced our prices at all. When things are ‘tight’, people still spend, they are just more careful with whom.

Oh by the way, in a recession, nearly every business cuts its marketing spend. If you increase yours to find high quality, high service seekers who are prepared to pay a premium price for it, your business can not only withstand a recession, it can positively thrive!

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It’ was 4:30pm on Friday 9th January 2009 and I’d had several phone calls to book in work. Normally January and February are expected to be quiet months in the carpet cleaning industry. Yet, we were busier than ever…even more so than December.

What had caused these homeowners to phone my office on this day? Quite simply…a deadline!

I had sent out a number of reminder cards to existing clients telling them that if they want to take me up on an offer they must respond by Friday 9th January. And they did. In droves.

It’s amazing how a deadline focuses the mind of potential clients. Why a flurry of calls right at the end? I imagine my prospects mentally going through a fear of loss. That if they didn't phone by that day they would miss out. They simply cant just ‘put it off’.

I clearly remember about 11 years ago agonising over a buying decision. I had received a very good offer from a company saving me money on a particular product…but only if I responded by a certain date. And today was the date. I had to make a decision. I wanted the product but it was a lot of money. I was going on holiday the next day. If I wanted to buy I had to make the decision NOW. And I did. I bought. This was one of my first experiences with the power of a deadline.

It’s been said that the deadline is one of the best things ever invented. It forces people to make a decision. One they probably would have put off and put off until they forgot about it. It seems to be human nature to procrastinate. Now we never send out an offer without one. Often we will have prospects phoning us AFTER the deadline pleading with us to do business with them because they have just come back off holiday and found our postcard, flyer or letter. And of course that changes our positioning. All of a sudden they are just relieved that we will even consider doing business with them.

But you must be believed that the deadline is genuine. So make it genuine. After all, if you offer a discount (or as I prefer, to add value rather than discount) you must have a good reason for doing it. It could be that you are making an offer (perhaps 3 rooms cleaned for the price of 2) in a certain area until a certain date. Or you could be limiting the number of jobs you will do with the offer. Whatever the reason for the offer being limited in some way, it must be believed. It then stands a good chance of being acted upon.

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I’ve just returned from a local business exhibition with over one hundred small businesses exhibiting. It’s a great place to learn.

Marketing experts like Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham speak about the need to look at businesses outside of your own and learn from what they do well. I must admit that there didn’t seem to be much to learn from what they did well but plenty from what they did badly. These lessons are so much easier to see in a different industry as we are usually too close to our own.

Lesson 1. The need to qualify. Virtually everyone who stopped me failed to find out if I was a qualified prospect. (A qualified prospect is someone who: 1. must be able to buy, 2. must be able to enjoy a benefit, and 3. must be the decision maker)

Here’s an example: A very pleasant man on the Freesat stand proceeded to give me a long spiel about how I needed to have Freesat in my home as it would save me money. “I may not need to subscribe to Sky, particularly if I don’t watch the movies or the football” was his pitch. After about one minute I stopped him and told him that I’ve already got a Freesat receiver (which actually wasn’t true, but it was the only was to stop him). He’d fallen in love so much with his product that he forgotten to fall in love with his clients. Freesat is a High Definition service and I have only just bought a new plasma tv so I simply wont be using Freesat for the foreseeable future. He simply wasted his time with me when he could have been speaking to someone interested (wanting to enjoy a benefit) and ready to buy.

Lesson for us: Have a system in place to make sure prospects are qualified and filter out those who don’t. Many people have dirty carpets…but they don’t care! Or they don’t want to pay premium prices to have them cleaned.

 

Lesson 2. Need for a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). A business owner of a very high-end hi-fi stand caught me looking at his gear. That was enough for him to launch into his pitch. Again he failed to qualify. He simply assumed that I was interested. I bluntly told him that I wasn’t his target market or ideal client as I would never spend that amount of money on hi-fi. He did then explain that they also sold lower-end televisions. So I asked the all-important question: “Why should I do business with you versus your competitors?” His answer was the usual “we give better service; we look after you blah blah blah”.

By coincidence I have just bought a large screen LCD TV which was faulty. I bought it off the internet through Amazon. When I phoned to tell them that it was faulty, it was absolutely no problem at all. They simply asked “would you like it changed or would you like a refund?” No arguments or fuss. I changed it for a plasma TV. Now that’s great service. To just say that you give “better service” is not a compelling reason for a prospect to choose you.

Lesson for us: Make sure we are able to give prospects a compelling reason to discriminate in our favour. This must be specific reasons not just “good service” It must also be different from all our competitors. In our industry we can’t all “give the most thorough cleaning or it’s free” or it’s not unique now is it?

Lesson 3. The need to look the part. A firm of painters and decorators caught my eye because their target market was clearly high-end work. Everything on the stand indicated that they do a quality job except the young man who was sitting there. I can only describe him as unkempt and scruffily dressed with long hair and jeans. Not the sort of person I would want in my house. This is what’s known as an anti-USP because it works against the USP.

Lesson for us: If we are targeting high-end clients make sure that we look and act like they want us to. This includes having our vans clean and tidy, wearing a uniform and saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. Make sure that our whole business is congruent with our message.

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There is one thing above all else that can determine how successful you can be as a carpet and upholstery cleaner.

That one thing is ‘Positioning’.

According to Jack Trout and Al Ries in their book Positioning, The Battle for Your Mind, ‘positioning’ all takes place in your customers mind. It'’s how the marketplace perceives you.

It’s likely that they already have a view on you and your service. They may think that you’re a ‘budget’ cleaner or a ‘high-end’ cleaner.

If you’re their ‘budget’ cleaner they may be very happy with your service for what they’re paying you. But if they have an insurance claim for example (and someone else is paying the bill) they may choose one of your competitors to do the work because they perceive them to be much better. It doesn’t matter whether they really are or not. In the client’s mind, they are....and that’s all that counts!

So are you viewed as just a carpet cleaner? Or as a consultant who can advise them of how to take care of their furnishings?

A carpet cleaner will only get paid so much. But a consultant, a trusted advisor will get paid much more.

Why is this? Simply put…people value consultants. If you’re taken into Accident and Emergency with severe chest pains and the consultant says “we need to operate immediately”, you don’t say “well, my brother-in-law knows a bit about heart conditions...” You trust his recommendation and go along with it. You’re relieved that you’ve found someone who knows what he’s doing. That’s exactly the same view that you want your clients to have.

But what if you feel that you don’t have this ‘expert’ status?  Then simply appoint yourself as an expert. That doesn’t mean simply pretending to be one. Instead, get all the training you need to become an expert and then convey that to the marketplace.

The best way to do this is to use ‘Education-Based Marketing’. Write reports or other educational material that can be given to interested homeowners that shows them that you are indeed an expert. For example, write an information guide that educates homeowners on why they need to have carpets cleaned regularly and how to choose a reputable carpet cleaner. Don’t make it a sales pitch. Simply present information that the homeowner can learn from and they will automatically view you as the expert. And people are desperate for information to help them make the right decision.

Other strategies could include:

  • Having an educational recorded message telephone line.
  • Acting with an air of authority (as a doctor addressing a patient) when speaking about their cleaning problems. No hesitating or pausing...just honest, confident advice from a trusted consultant, acting with their best interests at heart.
  • Giving the perception of being ‘in demand’. You want your prospects to have the attitude “I’m so glad I’ve found you. Now, how can I get on your waiting list?”

Your ultimate goal should be to position and market your business so that your prospects and customers have no choice but to come to the inescapable and undeniable conclusion that...”I would have to be thinking completely irrationally and be totally out of my mind to even consider doing business with anyone else but you regardless of price or the relationship I have with my current carpet cleaner”