Thought I’d post an email below that I received recently. Oh…and by the way, please stop back tomorrow (1/19) to this blog. I’ll be posting a newsletter that you’ll absolutely want to read.  See you then.

Steve

Email:

Hi Steve

thanks for the responce to my last email.  Will work on the quote in person and also just dropping off a flyer as you suggested.It’s good to have someone who has been thru this to talk to.

A while ago you sent me a email will sample prices for window cleaning in my area. Could you please re-send  some suggestions for pricing a regular windows, sliders, French doors etc.  Could you please let me have those suggested prices again as I have lost the email. As I said my experience has been with small commercial windows and I have been trying to base those on making $20.00 per hour .

Just a side note, I flyered a small sub-division  approx 100 flyers that day , and just got a ring for a quote from that small amount.  Shows it works.  I use the flyer in a 2 inch by 9 inch zip lock bag with a small stone inside drive by the driveways and drop them off.  Very quick to get out a couple hundred in no time.

Thanks again

Ted

My Response:

Hi Ted:

Good morning. Thanks much for your comments.  Right, been there…done that.

I’m not sure which email you’re referring to, but really all of the pricing posted in my manual will apply in your case for residential customers.  My business was in north central florida and so is yours so we would use the exact same pricing structure.

For additional pricing info., you can check out this pricing webpage:

But a note on above "pricing" webpage. I mention "$3" for a window. That’s for a very small bathroom window. The majority of my windows were $5.  If it was 2nd level, I did bump each window up another $1 to $2 due to the time spent climbing ladders. 

All other pricing on the webpage above is exactly what I charged.  Keep in  mind though that I usually did a bump-up in price before presenting pricing to prospect.  I’ve written about this before, but by doing this, you can cover gas, any incidentals at the job (like moving furniture) that might slow you down, etc etc.  So if an estimate’s "true" pricing is $141, there’s an excellent chance I would present it as $159 or even $169 to the prospect.  Doing this is tough when you’re just getting started.  The tendency for new window cleaners is to go "lower".  But try and resist this urge.  Because if you do end up going lower, you’ll be doing this job again and again (assuming you did a good job the first time) for the customer at this "lower" price.

Right…flyers and postcards work very well.  It’s just all about numbers.  An example of some "not so good" numbers can be illustrated by a phone call I got the other day. The gentleman was talking about distributing 20 flyers a day.  Just 20 flyers!  Based on the response percentages (average of 1%), that would be a tiny fraction of a phone call for 20 flyers distributed.  So he would be working for 5 days to distribute 100 flyers and only walk away with one phone call of which he may or may not get the job.  So again…think bigger numbers.  If you can distribute or hire someone to distribute 1000 to 2000 flyers per week, you now have a business that’ll grow consistently week in and week out with new customers.  And then before you know it, those new customers become repeat customers and the snowball effect begins.  :o )

Take care for now.  Have a profitable day.

Regards,

Steve

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