An email recently received:
Hello Steve,
I have a prospect that i wanted your advice on. I recently approached a man from a local chain store and asked them if they would like an estimate for their windows. he gave me a number for their head office. So i talked to the head of operations there and he said that they dont have anyone doing any of their stores windows and that it is his decision if they do get them done. so he said since it is either all of the stores or none of the stores, he suggested i make a proposal for a service.
This is just an estimate, but i’d say they have over 100 stores in the region (ie. 60 mile radius area, and maybe a few more stores a bit more out of that range that they might want lumped in as well). i know that this company is very successful, as their parking lots are always packed with cars. Yesterday you mentioned to me to not focus too much on a single prospect, but i know this one is different, as it is a commercial customer with around 100 repeat jobs, monthly jobs, if not bi-weekly.
How should i approach them for more info without sounding like i’m totally green to that kind of a client? i’m worried that they’ll feel that i’m too small an operator and that i can’t handle that magnitude of a job(i have that feeling already, but i know it can be done- i can focus only on that job, and when it becomes routine to do it, then i can look at hiring someone to do those stores for me while i focus on the residential work). I already know that some stores have security bars, and those are a big job to take out, maybe i should offer to do those stores on the inside twice a year only. how should i price it, by the store depending on their size or take an average and then get paid equally per store, maybe more for the really far flung stores. what do you think?
i wanted to get your honest appraisal based on your experience. this is too big a customer to take lightly! I’m really excited about this prospect.
By the way, everything is starting to come together with my advertising materials, i’m working on organizing all of the various letters you gave me and will soon approach my customers for their very important referrals. I hope you’re having a good day and that everything is going good with your family.
Best regards, Tom.
My Response:
Hi Tom:
Good morning.
That sounds like a sweet deal if priced correctly. A word of advice though is to make sure that you have the personnel in place to handle that type of customer. With the frequency they need to be serviced and the amt. of the stores they have, you’ll need at least 2 people full time working on just that account. It depends on the frequency obviously, but more than likely 2 folks will need to be hired. You won’t be able to handle it yourself. Nor would you really want to. You’ll need to price it competitively which means that if you do all the work yourself, your overall hourly profits will be lower. So by hiring 2 window cleaners to handle this "route", it allows you to continue your focus on building your overall business. You don’t want to get too wrapped up or too involved time-wise in this one customer anyway because what happens if you lose the acct? I’ve seen it happen. So if you don’t have a fallback plan where you have many other customers already on the books, a loss of a customer this large could literally hurt your company overnight. So that’s one of the biggest reasons why a window cleaner should never be too dependent or tied into any one customer or relationship.
With this said though, i think this acct. is definitely worth pursuing. As mentioned earlier, it could be a sweet acct. to have. What you suggested in your email is the way that I would approach this type of account. Offer to do the whole job in/out maybe every 3 months. And then a regular outside service every 2 weeks or something like that. But I would ask questions of the decision maker to see what he says. He might have different plans. Or maybe the employees would do the inside glass. So the key is to pick his brain on what he might be interested in. If he’s not sure, then present him with 3 choices. One choice might be once a year in/out for all stores and then a monthly "outside only" service. Another choice might be twice per year in/out for all stores with outside only service every 2 weeks. Another choice could be in/out every 3 months with outside service every month and the doors (customers fingerprint the doors fast) every week.
As far as pricing, it would be too much of a hassle to price each store individually, so I would ask the decision maker if each store is somewhat similar in size and glass. If not, ask him to let you know which one or 2 stores might represent an average of all the stores. Then go price those 1 or 2 stores by themselves. As far as an exact price, I wouldn’t be able to help you there until I know the overall size of the glass, how many windows there are, etc. etc. And of course frequency comes into play also because you can offer a good discount depending on how often they want it done. Normally I’m not a fan of discounts, but this type of account requires a price break due to its size and how often they’ll want the glass done.
Hope the above helps. I wouldn’t spend a great deal of time researching or working on this particular acct. because although it’s certainly exciting, the decision maker hasn’t really given you any indication that he has any true interest. According to what I read in your email, it sounds like he’s fishing for a number. It would be different if they had a window cleaner servicing their account who they’re unhappy with so they need to make a change and are looking for a new window cleaner. I don’t want to sound negative here at all because again, this is a great opportunity for you. But on the other hand, I like to keep it real.
Congratulations on beginning the building of your reference list. Cool. A strong reference list can win you many jobs. Most window cleaners present no references when presenting an estimate. So with everything else being equal, the window cleaner who brings references (w/phone numbers) to the table has a huge advantage.
Take care for now and thanks for your comments for sure. Have a great day today. Talk soon.
Regards,
Steve
