getting comm. accounts

[Roman Cleaning Services]

is there anything like servicemagic for offices or restaurants? what are other ways to find these accounts?

[kim]

If you already do residential, talk to them, Find out where they work and ask if they have a cleaner at there work place. If you are good I m sure they wouldn't mind checking it out for you and putting in a good word. Or you could ask them to let you know when they will being taking knew bids.

[jdinstl]

James,

I'll back up Kim's advice on getting the word out through your residential base. I responded to online ad seeking residential cleaning services. It's in my neighborhood, and I'm a member of the neighborhood association, so made mention of that in my reply to the anonymous posting.

Lo 'n behold, the reply came -- pregnant! I opened the email and she wants to meet and discuss her home cleaning. The email continued, giving birth to an invitation to bid on the cleaning at her office!

So yah just never know! :-)

Cheers!

John

[tcmb04]

How do you go about joining a neighbor hood association?

[rclllc]

HOW TO GET COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS:

when you are ready to service commercial accounts you must first decide what kind of commercial accounts you want to deal with and you must know what you are able to effectively handle. don't ever bite off more than you can chew because you will give your company a bad name from the start and kill your chances of survival. start w/ small offices and build up your client list before you go after bigger ones because you want to be able to keep all of your clients happy and provide them w/ quality service. you also want to have enough money to be able to buy new equipment for new accounts and to leave the equipment there. it's more professional and it eliminates loading and unloading time.
get yourself a fax machine and build a list of company faxes. program the list into your fax machine and send the companies on your list a new special you are offering every month. get them familiar w/ your company name. to get these fax numbers, all you have to do is call offices and say, "hi, can i have your fax number please?" half of the time the companies are so busy they just give you it and don't even ask why you want it. if they ask you why you want it, tell them. don't ever waste one contact you make by sounding like an idiot because you do not know what you are talking about. HAVE THOSE SCRIPTS W/ REBUTTALS READY! THEY WORK! also, make sure that you give the customer the option to have faxes stopped. put it on the bottom of the notice in small letters. nobody likes a pester.
call different offices every single day of your life until you get contracts. persistence will pay off as long as you learn from your mistakes. when you call these offices remember to take control of the conversation and get that walk through. if you get the walk through than you know the company they currently have is not making them 100% happy. it may be the service or it may be the price. you have to find those hot buttons (the reasons that the company may be looking for a new service.) and keep pushing them! keep bringing them up and offer ways to SOLVE problems. if you don't get the walk through ask permission to call again in 6 months. they will respect you for asking.
find a busy street with over 2 story buildings and find out who the property manager is or the owner. deal w/ the people in charge from the beginning or you will put obstacle in front of you. send them a mailing, follow up w/ a fax and then call them or stop by their office. BE PERSISTENT. people are not going to throw contracts at you. you have to go out and get them. BE CREATIVE and stand out... or STARVE! there are certainly plenty of janitorial services to choose from these days. you need to differentiate yourself from other companies to make them remember you.
always make sure that you and your business look professional. if you look like a million bucks you are more likely to get a million dollar contract than someone who submits a bid w/ ripped jeans. when submitting a bid don't just hand the potential client a couple pieces of paper w/ a lot of legal mumble jumble on it. try to submit your "piece" in a nice folder w/ your lettering on it if possible w/ a business card and a company bio at minimum. you don't want to submit a novel but you do want the potential client to know you have covered all bases. i personally always tell my potential clients that my insurance certificate will be faxed from out insurance carrier to them. this is a good thing because most successful companies know that if a certificate of insurance is faxed or sent from the insurance carrier, they know that most of the insurance carriers will sent a notice of cancellation to the faxed or mailed parties if for some reason the insurance is ever canceled for whatever reason. it tells the client that you care about their well being and it is more professional in my opinion.
if you do at least one thing every day of your life to make your business better than it will come.

GOOD LUCK!

[Roman Cleaning Services]

thanks for all the info

[RJ Cleaning]

good stuff I like this part,
""""call different offices every single day of your life until you get contracts. persistence will pay off as long as you learn from your mistakes. when you call these offices remember to take control of the conversation and get that walk through. if you get the walk through than you know the company they currently have is not making them 100% happy. it may be the service or it may be the price. you have to find those hot buttons (the reasons that the company may be looking for a new service.) and keep pushing them! keep bringing them up and offer ways to SOLVE problems. if you don't get the walk through ask permission to call again in 6 months. they will respect you for asking.
find a busy street with over 2 story buildings and find out who the property manager is or the owner. deal w/ the people in charge from the beginning or you will put obstacle in front of you.""""""""""""""""""


few other things, a lot of names you can get right from the phone book and from verizon online phone book. you can also check to see if your local chambers has a online directory. start a mailing list, which then can be printed right onto labels.
I usaully send out lots of mailings, flyers, postcards, brochures. plus I advertize in the local phone books. also local business journals most of the local business read them. it is definitly best to do a lot of follow up calls. remember the only thing your trying to sell on the phone is to set up an appoinment to talk to them about the services you offer. then even if they say no, still send a thank you card.
I had plenty of times I would get a call a year later from someone who said no, but kept everything I sent them.

and like the post above said never where ripped jeans, always look your best, actually don't even where jeans.
you first impression with them is the most important. I usaully where a suit, but with out a tie. that way it is not to much, and not to little, its just right. if you look like crap, you get crap.

when talking with them try not to give a fast car salemen talk. just be yourself, relaxed calm, think of it, just as if you were talking to your friend or family member, but keeping it a little more professional. and try and show a interest in them and there business. always make them feel like they are in charge, by giving total respect to there position.

but over all, you have to call them. restuarants you can actualy also walk right in and ask for the general manager. give them your flyer, a brochure and business card. and start telling them who you are and what you do.

check out your local chambers, maybe sign up, and do some networking, go to the meetings and start meeting people. you have to get out there and make your name known. if its kept a secret, it will stay a secret. it will take some time to get your name known, but it works.

sign
Rob

[Roman Cleaning Services]

thanks i'm gonna start restuarant hunting next week. what is included in a cleaning of that nature? how do u charge?

[logan5127]

We offer several services to resturants; ceramic tile cleaning; ceiling and wall cleaning; carpet cleaning; we even have one that pays us once a month just to vacuum the lights and fans.We were there one night stripping their stock room floors and the manager told me he had a company dusting the fans and lights with feather dusters and paying them $300.00 mo. He said they were awful and only knocked the dust from the lights to the tables. I told him we would do the job but instead of using dusting we would use HEPA filter vacuums and no dust would come back out into the air. And I said we would do it for $10.00 less then he was paying. He was amazed and started us right away. It only takes 4 to 4 1/2 hours to do and is so easy. Looks like we might recieve the whole district.

[rclllc]

james -if you go to a restaurant, try to go between 2 and 4. it is the best time to go. restaurants may want a cleaning up tp 7 days a week depending the volume they do. stay away from the kitchen unless you have experience. it is a whole different kind of cleaning all together. you may want to plan on getting paid once a month, too. we charge 25-30/ hr for regular restaurant cleaning and 35/hr for kitchen restoration. i would suggest sub contracting the kitchens until you know how they are cleaned the right way. there is a lot of liability cleaning kitchens and it is very technical. good luck!

[Roman Cleaning Services]

so its an hourly charge instead of sq ft? is there a formula for determining how long the job takes? sorry for all the ?'s. i'm just wanna learn to do things right

[Crowz]

rrccs said:

so its an hourly charge instead of sq ft? is there a formula for determining how long the job takes? sorry for all the ?'s. i'm just wanna learn to do things right

James,

Unfortunately, experience is the only formula. Some are fast, some are slow, some get better, some not, some work better alone, some in a pair..... trial and error. This is the way it was with us anyway. Sorry.



Natalie