Copied from a post on www.cleaningcoach.com
In the last newsletter, I shared "Thoughts On Selling" with you. I appreciate the overwhelming positive response you shared. I've been referencing the article so often during my consulting sessions that I decided to post it on the website. Since I still haven't been able to catch up on your emails, I thought I would write a follow-up article to respond and expand at least on the first few points I made on marketing plans.
Take action! If you want your business to beat the odds and be succesful over time, you must create and implement a measurable marketing plan. You must also be willing and capable to make adjustments based on your measured results. This is not an option, it's just like death and taxes. If you don't realize it now, you will when your business fails. I hope I'm preaching to the choir, but for those of you who still don't have a plan, please understand how critical this is. Yes, this can be done on a zero budget.
There are four key components needed for your plan to be successful. They are:
Create
Implement
Measure
Adjust
I'm going to focus most of this article on the creating portion of your plan. Here is a simple overview of what you should do: Create your plan based on where you would like your business to be in one year. If your number is reasonable, it should be achievable. In fact most numbers are achievable when they are based upon an appropriate, corresponding amount of capital to be invested. If you don't have monetary capital, you will have to rely on human capital. That means your time and energy. Money is time, time is money and neither comes free. If you have little or no money, determine how much time you have to personally spend on this, at least initially. If you have monetary capital to invest, decide how much is appropriate for you. Determine what you would like your monthly sales to be at the end of the next twelve month period. Then, plot out the pace you will need to achieve this by recording where you are now. Subtract your current monthly sales from the monthly sales you want at the end of a year and divide it by twelve. Let's say you are doing $8,000 per month now and you want to be at $20,000 per month at the end of one year. The difference is $12,000 per month. That means you will have to pick up and keep an additional $1,000 per month in new business. How many accounts will this take? You might consider averaging out your current account values to estimate what each new account may be worth.
Next, you need to determine one or more methods of marketing for your business. Will it be telemarketing, yellow pages, radio, knocking on doors with flyers, classifieds, billboards, cross- couponing , the internet? Are you ready for a salesperson, or perhaps a sales manager? Once you have decided, assign a monthly budget to one or more of these methods. If you are just starting, with little or no budget, it may be your own telemarketing, or cold calling. In that case, assign the number of man hours you will dedicate to this task each month, then break it down into smaller numbers each week or day, depending on your schedule. You have just completed the first step. You have created financial targets, determined a method of marketing and set aside a portion of capital, either monetary or human, to invest in your plan. Next, TAKE ACTION! Implement your plan. What are you waiting for? The key is that you expend the energy to get this moving. Don't second guess yourself about it any further, or make excuses for why you should wait. No, you don't need to do that first. Getting a new account should be a nice problem to have.
Next, measure your results. After the first month, examine what you have accomplished. Track the following 3 pieces of information;
The number of attempts of contact that you made and / or the amount of capital you invested (dollars or hours). If neither of these apply , somehow quantify the action that you took. Let's call this figure, result A.
The number of proposals that you were able to submit. Let's call this figure, result B.
The number of accounts that you gained as a result. Let's call this figure, result C.
Now let's put these numbers into a simple formula. It takes how much of "A" to result in "B", then how much of "B" to result in "C". Perhaps you spent $300 on yellow pages, classifieds or better yet, telemarketing through Cleaningcoach ! Maybe you invested 20 hours in knocking on doors or making calls yourself. Determine how much money, or how many hours you have to spend to create the opportunity to submit a proposal. "A" divided by "B", will give you the answer. If you spent $300 and wrote 2 proposals as a direct result, they each cost you $150 If you spent 20 hours cold calling to write 4 proposals then it costs you 5 hours per proposal. Next determine, how many proposals you need to write in order to have one accepted. Divide "B" by "C" and you have the answer. Let's assume you had to write 4 proposals to get a new account. Now you can work the formula backwards to determine the investment required for each account. In this example you had to spend $600, to write four bids, in order to get one new account. Whatever the method that you use, you must measure your results as you go forward. After you measure the results, you will need to adjust as needed. Are there things you need to do better? Would your time or money be better spent pursuing another method? If your numbers don't improve as you move forward you may want to take a closer look at those two questions.
I realize many of you already understand this basic concept of business. I'm amazed that while many business owners understand this fact, they don't measure their results regularly. I've talked to at least half a dozen owners of mid-size companies in the last month (and you know who you are) who could not give me a brief description of their marketing plan. A couple of them said "you're it". Take a few minutes to determine the A, B and C of your Marketing Plan. Is your salesman producing as well as he did six months ago? Were those color glossy brochures worth the printing cost? For the A, B and C of our Guaranteed Lead Program just click on the link below. If I can help you with any of the other elements of this process please let me know.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Should Your Cleaning Company Sell Supplies?
Copied from a post on www.cleaningcoach.com
Supply Sales - Should You? I was recently asked for my take on whether or not you should be promoting supply sales to your janitorial clients. The answer is yes. There are a few do's and don'ts involved. Don't try to be something your not. Don't promise outstanding pricing unless you know you can deliver it. If you can offer competitive pricing, while taking the inventory or ordering burden away from the client, it will provide them a tangible benefit. Customers also appreciate the benefit of reducing their costs by processing fewer invoices, checks and 1099's. For operators small and large, you can provide this as a value added service to your clients and improve your profit line across the board.
Hopefully most of you already know that you can typically get a 10 to 20% discount off shelf pricing just by asking when you set up an account with your supplier. You can usually improve these savings when you can increase your volume with your supplier by providing products to your clients. This will save you money on the products you have to buy for your operations and provide a profit on the product you sell. When you negotiate with your vendor, set them up to do deliveries (when appropriate), with a packing slip that doesn't disclose the prices that you are being provided. You can resell the product for shelf price and your customer shouldn't complain. As your business grows, you can continue to negotiate better pricing from the vendor and pass these on to your accounts when appropriate. Many vendors will supply you with dispensers at no or little cost, or on a lease, as your purchasing power and relationship improves. You can in turn offer this as a benefit to potential clients when offering your cleaning services.
Supply Sales - Should You? I was recently asked for my take on whether or not you should be promoting supply sales to your janitorial clients. The answer is yes. There are a few do's and don'ts involved. Don't try to be something your not. Don't promise outstanding pricing unless you know you can deliver it. If you can offer competitive pricing, while taking the inventory or ordering burden away from the client, it will provide them a tangible benefit. Customers also appreciate the benefit of reducing their costs by processing fewer invoices, checks and 1099's. For operators small and large, you can provide this as a value added service to your clients and improve your profit line across the board.
Hopefully most of you already know that you can typically get a 10 to 20% discount off shelf pricing just by asking when you set up an account with your supplier. You can usually improve these savings when you can increase your volume with your supplier by providing products to your clients. This will save you money on the products you have to buy for your operations and provide a profit on the product you sell. When you negotiate with your vendor, set them up to do deliveries (when appropriate), with a packing slip that doesn't disclose the prices that you are being provided. You can resell the product for shelf price and your customer shouldn't complain. As your business grows, you can continue to negotiate better pricing from the vendor and pass these on to your accounts when appropriate. Many vendors will supply you with dispensers at no or little cost, or on a lease, as your purchasing power and relationship improves. You can in turn offer this as a benefit to potential clients when offering your cleaning services.
Thoughts On Selling - Part One
Selling is absolutely my favorite part of the cleaning industry. I wish I had time to do more. My main influences include Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar and of course Dale Carnegie. I'm sure many of you have had these same leaders impact your careers in some shape or form. There are a ton of great ideas and techniques available to you from these guys and others that can improve your ability to sell. After being involved with literally thousands of bids in this industry I've just a few thoughts to share with you. Contact me if you would like to explore the details behind these.
· Take action! You must invest energy into an ongoing marketing program. With the exception of good luck and referrals, sales do not occur on their own. Create a measurable marketing plan with achievable goals. Yes, a zero budget marketing plan is better than no marketing plan.
· You must understand this is a numbers game. You must understand your numbers. Good or bad, you have to identify the results of your efforts in order to improve.
· In understanding that sales is a numbers game, concentrate most of your energy on that fact by making lead generation primary to any single sales technique.
· Do not attempt to close the sale on your first visit to a prospect unless it's obvious that they want you to. It's disrespectful. It shows you value your own needs more than theirs. You are not selling a used car, you are asking for keys and alarm codes to their property.
· The first visit is about listening not talking. Be quiet and listen! Of course you need to ask and answer questions, but your purpose there is to discover their pain while developing the specs you will use for the bid. Make all your questions open ended.
· Make sure your proposal identifies their pain and provides a solution. What problem did they have that you can solve within your proposal? Make sure you identify the fact that you heard them when you make your second visit.
· Make sure you ask for their business! Do not do a bid "drop-off" or fax unless you really don't want the account. Sit down, review your proposal, and ask for their business.
· Make your proposal and contract as short and easy to read as possible. You really can get everything you need in just a few pages. Ten page contracts can give the impression that you anticipate a problem later, and that you are more concerned about protecting yourself rather than serving the client. I have closed many a deal by saying I have enough faith in my service, to not have to try to trap the client in a fine print contract.
· Follow -up! Send a thank you card after the second visit. Ask permission to make a monthly or quarterly check-in call. If you haven't annoyed them, they will always say yes. Position yourself to be the go-to company when they decide to make a change. More bids are won in follow up than in the first 30 days, but too many operators/salespeople are too short sighted to realize this critical fact.
· Be personable, smile and be your natural self. Dress appropriately. Don't go casual to a RFP walk through, but don't wear a three piece suit when your meeting with the Facility Manager at an industrial plant. And remember, this is a relationship business, if they don't like you, they won't buy from you.
· Take action! You must invest energy into an ongoing marketing program. With the exception of good luck and referrals, sales do not occur on their own. Create a measurable marketing plan with achievable goals. Yes, a zero budget marketing plan is better than no marketing plan.
· You must understand this is a numbers game. You must understand your numbers. Good or bad, you have to identify the results of your efforts in order to improve.
· In understanding that sales is a numbers game, concentrate most of your energy on that fact by making lead generation primary to any single sales technique.
· Do not attempt to close the sale on your first visit to a prospect unless it's obvious that they want you to. It's disrespectful. It shows you value your own needs more than theirs. You are not selling a used car, you are asking for keys and alarm codes to their property.
· The first visit is about listening not talking. Be quiet and listen! Of course you need to ask and answer questions, but your purpose there is to discover their pain while developing the specs you will use for the bid. Make all your questions open ended.
· Make sure your proposal identifies their pain and provides a solution. What problem did they have that you can solve within your proposal? Make sure you identify the fact that you heard them when you make your second visit.
· Make sure you ask for their business! Do not do a bid "drop-off" or fax unless you really don't want the account. Sit down, review your proposal, and ask for their business.
· Make your proposal and contract as short and easy to read as possible. You really can get everything you need in just a few pages. Ten page contracts can give the impression that you anticipate a problem later, and that you are more concerned about protecting yourself rather than serving the client. I have closed many a deal by saying I have enough faith in my service, to not have to try to trap the client in a fine print contract.
· Follow -up! Send a thank you card after the second visit. Ask permission to make a monthly or quarterly check-in call. If you haven't annoyed them, they will always say yes. Position yourself to be the go-to company when they decide to make a change. More bids are won in follow up than in the first 30 days, but too many operators/salespeople are too short sighted to realize this critical fact.
· Be personable, smile and be your natural self. Dress appropriately. Don't go casual to a RFP walk through, but don't wear a three piece suit when your meeting with the Facility Manager at an industrial plant. And remember, this is a relationship business, if they don't like you, they won't buy from you.
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