Skip to content

Category: Management

Published on Leave a comment on Could This Be The Reason Why All Your Customers Want a Cheap Price?

Free Mini Course "Carpet Cleaners... End Price Shoppers Forever" reveals how to get higher prices for your carpet cleaning https://coaching.success4carpetcleaners.com/getfreecourse

Published on

For many years I used to wonder why the phone wasn't ringing more. After all, everybody has carpet that needs cleaning at some time don’t they? What could I do to get people to enquire about getting their carpets cleaned?

Of course, it’s all about getting the right type of person to call. Maybe you only want high-end residential customers. Or maybe you only want large commercial work.

However getting more customers doesn't have to be hard. In fact, it’s a very simple process. There are really only FIVE steps.

Here’s what you need to do…

  1. Identify WHO your ideal customers are – the ones that you’ll enjoy working with the most, the ones who are the most profitable or who will pay premium prices for high quality work and the customers who will not be a ‘pain in the backside’
  1. Find out WHERE they are - do they read certain magazines or newspapers? Do they attend specific events or seminars? Do they live together in a particular area? Are they gather-able together in ‘one place’ so to speak?
  1. Get in front of them - once you know who they are and where they are to be found, now you can get in front of them. That might mean setting up a meeting, writing an article, giving a talk, delivering a flyer or placing an ad. But you need to get in front of them.
  1. Create attention and interest - your positioning, value proposition and sales argument need to be relevant to your ideal customer. You must be able to get their attention and then get them interested and engaged so you can have a conversation with them.
  1. Make an offer - it could be a free trial offer or a free audit or inspection. Or some other ‘direct-response mechanism’ that causes them to respond to your offer.If you work through this process you will see significant results. Most carpet cleaners will not do this. Instead they have no idea of who they are trying to attract or where they can be found.

    Remember, we’re in the marketing business not the cleaning business.

Published on

Over the past 30 plus years of running a carpet cleaning business, I've had a one, two and a three truck operation. I've had a workshop with an office and I've also had just a home office. And I've ventured into fire and flood restoration for a number of years as well as concentrating solely on cleaning carpets and upholstery.

It seems to me that success is often measured by how many trucks you have. Or how large the business is.

Now, that I'm once again an owner operator working from a home office, I've come to realize that residential carpet cleaning is a great opportunity for a good lifestyle. There are so many benefits in this industry to remaining small.

In no particular order, here they are:

Far, Far Less Stress
Ask any business owner their number one headache and it will usually involve employees that need parenting! That seems to be particularly the case with carpet and upholstery cleaning.

Good employees are hard to find but it’s harder to find employees who know how to deal with people and can present themselves to high-end homeowners. After all, we work in peoples’ bedrooms! Customers have to feel very comfortable with whoever is going to do that and really need to trust them.

Each job is unique. There are probably dozens of different decisions to be made on each job. Employees don’t care as much as you do. My last employee moved a table with a very expensive Tiffany lamp balancing on one end…and it fell off!

The employee thinks about your cost of replacement – you think about what the customer will tell others about you!

I've once booked in an old customer who hasn't used us for a number of years. He responded because I sent him an irresistible offer. He finally told me that he kept hesitating to use us again because the last time the carpets were cleaned the skirting boards had been damaged with the wand. Yet, he’d never mentioned it on the Report Card. People don’t like to complain…they just go somewhere else!

And then, you don’t have to worry about terminating employment and being taken to an Industrial Tribunal.

I've had staff try to take me to a tribunal. (fortunately I took advantage of the National Carpet Cleaners Association (NCCA) free legal helpline) and I've known a colleague who sacked an employee for theft only to have to pay him compensation for “not following correct procedure”

Loyal Happier Customers
Who would you prefer to perform a service in your home? The owner, or one of his employees? Customers prefer to have YOU and quality minded consumers will pay a premium to have the owner. And, unlike a large firm, they know who will turn up to do the work.

A while ago I had a new driveway on the front of my house. The owner of the business brought a new member of staff to do some of the ‘grunt’ work of cutting the bricks for the edging while he presumably managed another job. He’s now been back twice to replace many of the bricks that the ‘employee’ fitted. Am I happy? Yes. Would I use him again? Not unless he’s doing the work himself.

Low Expenses
No office required, no employee liability insurance, no Employers National Insurance Contributions (currently 13.8%!), no sick pay, no holiday pay (currently 5.6 weeks!), no P60’s to prepare at year end, no spare equipment needed in case of breakdown, no losing money and paying staff at the same time when it does etc etc.

There’s also considerable savings on training staff perhaps to have them leave after a month (as I have) or to start their own cleaning business (as I have).

And here’s one of the myths of a larger business. That if there’s “sufficient Gross, there must be some Nett around here somewhere.” Big numbers do not always translate into more take-home pay for the owner.

Yet it’s just the opposite for an owner operator: low investment cost, low overhead and high profit margin!

Published on

Recently while visiting my father-in-law, he informed me that a sales visit from a double glazing salesman was imminent. My initial reaction was "there goes our evening together." In fact, he seemed to know it as well. He was resigned to sitting down together for a couple of hours while the salesman pressured him, cut the price in half and offered him a further reduction if he "signed up tonight"

Have you ever wondered if that's how home-owners asking us for a quotation think about us?

The fact is that people like to buy. They just hate to be "sold".

The result is that people "tune out" sales messages. That's why they fast forward TV adverts, in fact any hint of a manipulative sales message.

And that's why they take the advice of their brother-in-law about carpet cleaning, a subject he knows nothing about. It's just that they trust that he's not going to pressure them to buy something!

It's often been said that people do business with those they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST. It's this aspect of trust that is so important today.

So is there a way that you can acquire business without repelling prospects with your "sales message?" And is there a way to help yourself if you feel uncomfortable viewing yourself as a "salesman"?

The simple answer is to have a SERVICE attitude rather than a SALES approach. Old school says to "Promote, Promote, Promote." But if no-one's listening because they feel like a sales victim, what's the point?

What people want is an expert resource, an advisor to help them do what's in their own best interests. We sometimes have prospects phone us from outside the area we cover for cleaning. As soon as they realise that we do not want them as a customer, their whole attitude changes. Usually we will give free advice to help them choose a reputable cleaner. .Now that they KNOW we are not trying to "sell" them, they trust what we say. Make no mistake, people fear being "sold"

The question you should ask is...What can you do to build trust, not just make the sale?

There are a number of things. You can demonstrate your expertise first. In this way prospects can in effect "sample" you without buying.

Instead of reserving your expertise for only those who have paid you give it freely to all who ask. Give more service upfront. Educate your prospects about how they can remove their stains, or make their carpets look better for longer. If they're thinking of buying a new carpet, offer to give free advice that will help them make the best choice. Do all this WITHOUT selling.

All of this means you'll naturally be in contact more with prospects WITHOUT the fear of selling. Selling is all about "you hire me". Serving is all about your prospects even if they never hire you.

In fact, you now have multiple reasons to contacts your prospects without being perceived as a pest who is only trying to "make the sale". So you don't have to phone to ask if they've had "time to consider your offer" or if they've "made their minds up yet". That in itself builds trust. And trust leads to sales.

You are simply "serving." And people like being served. They will view you as a trusted advisor and reward you with their business.

Published on

I’m always interested in seeing how successful businesses market themselves to see if there’s any lessons to be learned. I’ve usually found that the larger the organisation, the worse the marketing and customer experience. However, a while ago I found an exception.

I went to the Yucatan Peninsular in Mexico for two weeks, staying at a fairly large RIU hotel. I have to say, I was very impressed with this hotel chain and how even the little things that affect customer satisfaction are not left to chance.

So let me relate just four of the ‘lessons’ I learned.

Firstly, I was amazed at the All-Inclusive restaurant. No queues. No waiting for drinks. Everything running smoothly. How could this be, I wondered?

So I took the free ‘Kitchen Tour’ on Sunday at 12pm. Now this really should be called ‘The Free Marketing, Advertising and Branding Tour’ because that’s really what it was. It’s purpose was to show us exactly how RIU have the customers' experience in mind. The end result was to change or improve our perception of the RIU brand (which of course is all in OUR minds). Hopefully we’d choose RIU next time.

The tour was carefully choreographed. They saw exactly what they wanted us to see in the order in which they wanted us to see it. But a key word that was repeatedly used was “Organisation” (in FIVE different languages!). It couldn’t be stressed enough. They wanted us to see that customers were happy, not by chance but because they had systems in place that ensured it. I was really impressed. I had no idea. Everything done at a set time and in a set way.

It was explained that they cater for a possibility of 600 hungry guests at 1pm every day. And that one hour later a further few hundred could arrive. And all had to be seated, drinks ordered and delivered and food cooked, ready and waiting immediately. And this they did!

Later, I joined the tour of the next door RIU hotel. This time one that is referred to as a ‘Palace.’ The reality was that it was hoped the next time we would ‘upgrade’ to this hotel. What better way than showing it to us? Again, everything choreographed.

So…the lessons?

Lesson 1: Your customers don’t know what you do unless you tell them. I had no idea that everything behind the scenes was so organised. Nothing left to chance. Customer satisfaction an absolute priority. My view of this large hotel chain has been positively changed.

Now…do your customers know exactly what it is that you do that other cleaners don’t do? Do they know why you vacuum the carpet before you clean them, something that most of your competitors don’t do? Are they aware of how much training you’ve undertaken? Do they know that you are National Carpet Cleaners Association (NCCA in the UK) members and why it’s important?

Lesson 2: The importance of a set way of doing EVERY activity in your business. In other words, to quote Michael Gerber of ‘The E-Myth’ “this is how we do it here.” The customer gets the best experience possible because we’ve worked out what that is and then written it down in our Operations Manual. It’s done that way every time.

Lesson 3: Always up-sell. And demonstrate if possible. What better way to show how carpet protector works than to SHOW it? If you added protector to only 30 percent of jobs… well maybe you could go to the Yucatan Peninsula next year.

Lesson 4: Remember, everything you do affects your BRAND, an over-used buzz word today. But put simply, a brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer. So even being just systematic and organised can increase your ‘brand value’ in their minds. In real terms, they are more likely to use you again and refer you!

Published on

I was recently consulting with a carpet cleaner and looking at every aspect of his business. After discussing what was different about his service from his competitors, his sales systems to convert a prospect to a paying customer, his systems for referrals and his advertising and marketing amongst other things, he said “Yes, yes, but all I want is for the phone to ring more!” It’s the view of many carpet cleaners.

All very good. But if you don’t have everything else in place to provide exactly what your customers want, the marketplace will just find out that you can’t deliver what they want. And if you advertise to get the phone to ring and it does…they’ll find out even quicker! Presumably there was a reason why this cleaners’ phone wasn’t ringing more.

Just getting the phone to ring may well get you an initial customer. But if the experience was not as expected they will not use you again or refer you. And repeat customers and referrals are the lifeblood of any business. Especially carpet cleaning.

So before you want the phone to ring, take a look at your carpet cleaning service from the viewpoint of your customer.

Is there a good reason for them to phone you in the first place as opposed to phoning your competitors? This is the first thing that should be addressed. It’s often been called a Unique Selling Proposition. I sometimes prefer to call it a Unique Buying Advantage. It’s the unique clear reason why your prospect has to call YOU. There’s two mistakes often made here.

  1. Selling by Price. If you can run profitably at the lowest price (and want to) then by all means just tell your marketplace that. You’ll have an instant competitive advantage. You probably don’t need much of a sales system either. Just tell them you’re the lowest price. However most customers aren’t looking for lowest price. They know there’s usually a reason for it. And often it’s poor quality. And don’t forget, there will be someone cheaper sooner or later.
  2. Selling by Method. “We use a truck-mount” is not a differentiator if your competitors use one too. But pre-vacuuming with a water filtration vacuum cleaner that improves indoor air quality might be!

It’s much better to design your business for the kind of service your prospects actually want and then charge a premium price for it. So if you can get carpets dry quicker…design your business around this benefit and then promote it to those that want it. If your customers don’t have to move any furniture at all…design your business around this benefit and then promote it to those that want it. Everything comes back to your Unique Buying Advantage. And make sure everything delivers on this promise.

So first give your prospects a good reason to phone and then deliver what you say you will. Suddenly you have a good (and unique) reason to communicate with prospective customers.

Once you have this clarity and are delivering exactly what your marketplace wants…and you can communicate this clearly…suddenly your phone will ring more.

Published on

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!

Published on

Why should you have a system for selling in your business?

Well, have you ever had this situation?...

You arrive at a prospects home to give them a quotation for cleaning carpets or upholstery. As you pull up outside the home you know instantly that they will not be using your service.

The front garden is overgrown. The house needs painting. And there’s an old car in the drive in a state of disrepair. You ask yourself “What on earth am I doing here?”

It’s a situation I have had many times until I put in place a system for selling to prospects. Including most importantly, disqualifying those I don’t want. I only want to deal with high-probability prospects. That is, those who have a very good chance of using us.

Nowadays all our interactions with prospects and clients are written down in our Operations Manual and we are always in control, even if it appears that we aren’t.

So when a prospect phones us to ask “How much do you charge?” we have a scripted reply. We don’t just wing it. Even the way, that is, the manner of how we answer is documented. It’s a system and it works.

Selling is a process that begins with making sure we’re dealing with the right person. The attitude we want to have is not one of hard selling...trying to beat the prospect into submitting to our proposal. After all no-one likes being ‘sold’ to, but everyone does like to buy.

Our view should be "How can I help this person get what he wants through the use of my service?" That means that first we must be speaking to a qualified prospect.

But what exactly is a qualified prospect?

They are someone who:

  1. Must be able to buy
  2. Must be able to enjoy a benefit
  3. Must be the decision maker

So if you’re a high-priced, high-quality service, you don’t want to be wasting time going out and giving in-home quotes to tenants wanting their deposit back for instance. Or those who clearly can’t afford you. You will probably close one out of every hundred. Asking them if they could borrow the money off their brother so they can pay you is a lot harder work than simply finding the right person to start with. It’s simply not a good use of your time.

There are four steps to a selling system:

Step 1: Build trust and rapport.

Step 2: Find the need.  Probe to isolate needs, opportunities and wants. Isolate the dominant buying motive.

Step 3: Fill the need.  Present products and services that fill the dominant buying motive.

Step 4: Close.  i.e. Motivate them to take action.

Each of these steps needs to be carefully thought out and written down. Many small business owners have no earthly idea what they are going to say next to a prospect. Step 2 involves asking a lot of questions to find out what the prospect wants rather than us telling them what they should have or talking about ourselves and how great our company is. It’s also helpful to have a systemised way of dealing with ‘common objections’.

So how do you answer that question when a prospect phones to ask...”Can you give me a price for cleaning our carpets?”

Our answer is always “No.” Well not quite like that. Here’s what we do and it’s written down on a scripted form. Our target market is high-end residential who can pay our prices for high quality work. We are not interested in price shoppers or tenants wanting their deposit back...so we have a script so that we don’t waste our valuable time with them.

Our system is very simple: we first try to disqualify them!

In other words, we ask them questions to make them jump through a few hoops to prove that ‘we’re made for each other’. And we tell them why we are asking these questions. We don’t want to waste each others time. Every week we turn away many phone enquirers because we tell them that “we are not the company for them.” After all, there’s no point in walking into a BMW dealer with £5000 to buy a brand new 3-series. We will just be wasting each others time.

In fact, a failure to target a market (high end residential, budget or whatever) and qualify them, is one of the biggest time wasters that most carpet cleaners make and the reason why many are exhausted and frustrated by the end of the week. Our systemised scripts mean it’s not a problem for us.

Published on

I’ve found that one of the first questions carpet cleaners ask other carpet cleaners is “How much do you charge per square foot or per square metre?” along with “What are you turning over at the moment?” as though this is a measure of success.

I come across cleaners who are turning over £50,000, £100,000 and above. Maybe even £200,000. But does that mean that they are successful? The answer has to do with how much are they taking home? And how much do they have to do to get it?

It’s amazing how many small business owners are simply unaware of the cost of running their business. It reminds me of the old sales story that’s done the rounds for many years and goes something like this: A lady buys apples at 10p each and sells them at £1 a dozen. When asked how that works she explains “I make it up in volume!”

But business is not all about volume...it’s about margins and profit.

Strangely enough, many carpet cleaners think it’s all about volume. If only their business was systemised, they would know that they might be better off dealing only with high-end clients who are prepared to pay for high quality work. It’s far easier to make money by selling half as much but at double the price.

One of the interesting statistics to come out of my ‘numbers’ over the last year has been that my sales are down by about 10% but profit has risen. This has been accomplished largely by ‘qualifying’ people who enquire about my service. In other words, I’m not wasting as much time and money as before dealing with unqualified prospects. Our policy is to get phone enquirers to ‘prove’ that they are worthy of us giving them our time before we ever decide to give them a quotation. In other words, they have to qualify themselves first.

I’m amazed at how many carpet cleaners are very busy but are absolutely wearing themselves out. Several jobs a day then coming home to pick up enquiries then off to do in home quotations. Many cleaners would be better off with a job getting over 4 weeks holiday every year and being able to forget the job when you leave at the end of the day.

My advice? Concentrate on the profit not the gross sales! Work out exactly how much you are making on each job (that means ‘knowing your numbers’). Business is all about margins not gross sales. What’s important is not gross sales or price per sq ft but what you’re left with at the end of the day. Provide a high quality service to those who want and are prepared to pay more for it. Don’t meet with anyone who is not a good quality prospect. And use phone scripts with questions that filter out all the time-wasters (ie the ‘price shoppers’).