Hey all:

The other day I received an email from a window cleaner asking me what my thoughts were on him participating in the local home show coming up in his area in April. You can read everything below, but before getting into it, I wanted to urge you to contact your local chamber of commerce and see if there is a home show coming up in your area. There is an investment in renting a booth obviously, so some of you new window cleaners might not have the funds to swing it, but if you can, do you have any idea how many targeted window cleaning prospects will walk past your booth over the weekend? A LOT! Literally in the thousands.

I’ve talked about home shows before, but this is the time of the year to plan for ‘em. They’re usually held in late march/april, so proper planning is important right now in order for you to have a successful show. Anyway…happy reading.

Hello Steve!  My name is Junior and I am with the Custom Cleaning Pros here in <location deleted>. We have only been in business for about two years now and I must say I feel like we have the window washing business down packed. Your absolutely right when you say this business is pretty simple yet very profitable. Our business is doing great and we are having success beyond our wildest dreams! There is only one problem though-you can never make enough money-so I am always pondering how to generate more(aka acquire more prospects).

I have kinda assumed the role of the person in charge of marketing in my company and not to boast or brag but I seem to know my stuff when it comes to figuring out how to reach people. On April 18-20, my city is hosting the Home Design And Remodeling Show which will bring in 50,000+ people to the convention center over three days. Now as a marketing major I have this bright light that comes on over my head that tells me that this is a great branding and marketing opportunity for us to get some exposure and to  reach our ideal customer.

The problem is that it cost about $1,000 to reserve a booth and I guess because the lack of success with other expos in the pass my business partners are reluctant to side with me regarding this event. My question is should I take their advice and just stick to what has been working for us and use the money in that manner or should I take the risk cause I feel the benefits far outweigh the monetary loss upfront and sign up and continue on my path to WINDOW WORLD DOMINATION..lol? Thanks for your time and effort.

Junior

Custom Cleaning Pros

My Response:

Hi Junior,

Good morning.  Sure…I remember you well.  We spoke a few weeks ago. 

First I’d like to provide you with some information on home improvement shows which I wrote about before.The first is a newsletter that addresses home improvement shows. Click here to read it.

This 2nd link is from a blog post about a window cleaner’s experience with the home show he attended. It was posted in march of ’07, but the home improvement show he went to gave him the immediate jump start he needed in his business. Click here to read the post.

So now back to your email.

I’m glad to hear your business is doing super.  Excellent.  But you’re right…you can never have enough customers.

I think a home design and remodeling show is the absolute perfect vehicle to generate more profits.  Without a doubt.  #1, by the time the show is here, it’ll be springtime, so people are automatically in spring cleaning mode.  And #2, just the title of the show (design and remodeling) tells me it’ll be a great show. People attending the show are interested in design and remodeling stuff as it relates to their homes, so they care about their homes. And probably not too many poor folks or low to middle income folks will attend.  So you’re talking about the ideal person at the show to go after with your window cleaning service.

I personally would be willing to dump a couple grand into this marketing tactic because I know it works.  I’m not sure what other expos you participated in, but were they the exact same show as what is happening april 18 to 20th?  Or was the target market of the past shows a bit different.  Because I really feel that this particular show coming up would be an absolute winner for your business.

I do want to say though that it’s very, very important that you present a rock solid image for your company at the show.  $1000 is just for the booth space.  But I would invest another $500 or so into some personalized items (giveaways), I would get a 2 or 3 panel quality brochure made up and display them in take one boxes on your booth table. 

And if I were you, I’d be willing to hold 2 or 3 drawings to give away two or 3 window cleanings to the ones who win.  Have little address pads made up so visitors can leave a name, address, and phone.  Then get 2 fishbowls with a large sign over them that says "Free Window Cleaning" in red.  Folks come by, fill in their info. tear it off the pad, and drop it in the fishbowl. 

Another idea is to take a video of yourself cleaning some windows. Upload the video to your website. So visitors walking by your booth can see you in action cleaning windows.  Do you have a laptop?  And within the video, you can explain the importance of making sure windows are cleaned regularly.

I firmly believe this show would  be a wise investment for you to make.  As tony mentioned at the 2nd link above, he got 180 people from the show to request estimates. He wrapped up $10,000 in jobs on the first day!  We’re talking serious numbers here.  Although distributing flyers and postcards work very well, you simply won’t get those kinds of numbers from either flyers and postcards in a 2 day period.  So what other form of marketing can you do where you can attract your ideal target market in one weekend?  Nothing that I’m aware of. 

So a thousand dollar booth rental and a few hundred in additional expenses to make sure your image is top notch will gain you a whole slew of new customers.  In addition since you’re collecting names, addresses, and numbers, you’ll have people you can insert into The Customer Factor software (congrats on joining up by the way) and send personalized follow up letters to them which will turn some of them into even more jobs over time. 

The right home improvement show will pay dividends to your company for years.   But as mentioned, don’t just show up at the show with a table/table cloth and plop some business cards on the table. Start planning now so you can put together an attractive and high impact show. This isn’t something you want to wait for the last minute to plan for. But the preparation and planning will be well worth it.  Hope this helps.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve 

 

 

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