References Make a Difference!
Hi Everyone,
I thought I’d post an email that I received the other day. This window cleaner was asking how to go about asking his window cleaning customers for references. Have a wonderful day.
Steve
Hello Steve,
I am a little over a month into it, the postcards are bringing in calls and jobs. I have printed out almost every kind of artwork you sent me (tweaked very little), and have figured out how to make my own small full color small yard sign for less than $5 and have been leaving them in customers yards for five days after I clean their home. I have the thank you letters and magnetic business cards.
Read more…
Free Exposure for your Business.
Hey all,
The other day I received an email from a window cleaner in the UK, and in the email he describes something he recently did that brought in some free publicity for his window cleaning business. It is really quite an idea. So I thought I’d post the email here in it’s entirety:
Hi Steve,
I have recently started after becoming redundant in January this year – so I’m still learning….
With the current recession there are now lots of empty shops around town which make many streets look scruffy. I took it on myself to build my window cleaning profile around town by cleaning all of these empty shop windows.
The local paper and our town renaissance team picked this up and contacted the local newspaper. The Bridlington Free Press then wrote a story detailing my window cleaning business and what I was doing to improve the town.
It can be read here:
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Putting Your Window Cleaning Business On The Web…
Hey All,
I’ve decided to start posting content to the blog that deals specifically with how to make the most from a window cleaning related website and/or how to get a website online if you haven’t done it yet.
This came about as a result of talking with many window cleaners over the last few months and also from listening to my hosting customers at 5.88webhosting.com. There is clearly a need for information on what steps people need to take in order to get their websites online.
The first thing I’d like to mention before we do anything is that I don’t think some folks realize how many window cleaning customers they can secure by having a website for prospects/customers to find. I know window cleaners who rely only on the internet to generate phone calls from interested prospects.
Here’s an email I received the other day from a window cleaner in new york:
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Which Flyers Work The Best…
Hi All,
I hope everyone is having a super day today. Below is an email I recently received. Thought you might benefit from the question/answer. Take care for now.
Regards,
Steve
Hi Steve
Well, I waited a whole yr, but I am ready now! I didn’t have the proper vehicle, still don’t actually, I have a very small sports car, so that still poses a big problem. I already market for another business, going door to door, I should have already been advertising for windows all along. I hit about 1500 single family houses a week , so I figure that is a good place to start.
I was wondering if there was a way to get copies of the flyers so I can take them in for mass production? Never mind…I was able to find the flyers u sent me. My question is this…I notice on your master copy there is no mention of price, I am assuming you believe this is the best way to go? I have read a few others saying this was not the way to go. I hope you don’t take my question as critical .
I’m just starting out and want to get the best possible response from my 1000 flyers, which flyer do you think would be best to start with?
Thanks,
Mike
My Response:
Hi Mike,
Good morning. And it’s good to hear that you’re ready to roll.
And that’s a great way to start as far as hitting 1500 homes a week. Make sure though that these homes are in your target market. I’m not sure what other business you’re doing, but if the markets aren’t the same, then you could run into some issues with not getting the proper amt of response from your window cleaning marketing to those 1500 homes.
As far as flyers, have you downloaded the flyers yet from the “materials” webpage? You can visit http://www.yourwindowcleaningbiz.com/materials.htm and download some flyers for editing. You were previously emailed the username/password. If you get the flyers printed up in bulk like maybe 1000 at a time, it shouldn’t cost you more than 4 to 5 cents each.
Oh…I see your second email where you found the flyers already. Cool. 
)
Right, my philosophy in my business is that I didn’t want to make it about price. You need to be careful that you don’t turn your business into Read more…
From the Mailbag…and Some Motivation!
Hey All,
First I’d like to say that I hope you are enjoying your memorial day weekend. We’ll be having our traditional cookout later, so that’ll be a fun time. But before focusing on fun, I figured I’d post a quick post to the blog with an email I recently received from a window cleaner. And below the email and my response to the email, I’ll explain why I posted it. Here it is:
Steve,
Looks like you have been a busy guy! Just wanted you to know that I intended to read a few pages of How To Adopt The Business Mindset last night about midnight last night… Finished it about 1:30! It was fantastic! I really think that if every person were to read this manual when entering into any small business and followed it, there would not be the fallout with small business start ups that there is. Great work, I like seeing all the places that I am doing things right as well as being reminded of the few areas that I noticed I’m not following so closely.
How To Adopt The Business Mindset
Hi Everyone,
This morning I just released the manual How To Adopt The Business Mindset. If you’re a past purchaser of my window cleaning program, you’ll be able to download it for FREE at the materials webpage here.
This 41 page manual discusses the “Business Mindset”. Actually there are 20 business mindsets that I talk about. Each and every one of them are important to adopt and to live by if you want to experience the ultimate success in your window cleaning business.
Chapters include:
Read more…
5.88Webhosting.com: A New Hosting Service
Hi Everyone:
We finally launched our much anticipated hosting plan where we’re providing high quality and inexpensive webhosting for service business owners and managers who need to host their websites.
Many folks have asked me over the past few years where they should host their websites. Although there are many hosting companies around (some good and some bad), they all seem to have one thing in common…and that is that the world is their market. In other words, they go after any and all customers which means that they have to offer multiple plans and multiple options for the many different types of customers that are out there. And this my friends, is enough to make your head spin. 
What I’ve done at 5.88Webhosting.com is simplify hosting by providing… (click the link below to continue)
Should you be knocking on doors?
Hi Everyone,
Hope you’re having a fine day.
I received a call a little while ago from a window cleaner and I thought it would be a good subject to discuss on the blog.
This gentleman was distributing flyers (good), but he was knocking on doors (not good) to distribute them.
It’s really, really important to make sure that you “play the numbers”. Many of you have heard me talk about this a few times, so I’m sorry to sound like a broken record.
But it’s about getting out as many flyers as you can in the shortest amt. of time. It simply takes too much time to knock on doors, wait for the person to answer, talk to them about your service, leave them a flyer, and go on to the next person.
I don’t know the exact number of prospects you can talk to in 3 to 4 hours, but does 50 actual conversations sound good? Maybe 100? I’m thinking that if each conversation lasts just 5 minutes, talking to 50 prospects takes more than 4 hours. In that same 4 hours, I can get out 1000 flyers which I can guarantee you will get more action, more phone calls, and more jobs than talking to 50 prospects.
I actually call ‘em “suspects” initially because you have no idea if they’re even a prospect yet. A prospect is someone who has at least expressed some interest. Someone who has requested an estimate.
So keeping everything extremely conservative, a 1% return on 1000 flyers distributed to 1000 suspects gives you 10 phone calls from actual prospects. These 10 calls should turn into 7 or 8 jobs when presented correctly. Read chapter 8 in my manual for more information on this.
Now if we apply the 1% return to 50 suspects who we talk to, what does that give us? A half a call.
Some window cleaners may argue that if you’re actually talking to them in person, then you’ll see a higher interest level and get a higher return. Maybe. But I’ll still take 1000 flyer delivery suspects over 50 talked to suspects any day of the week. So please understand that it is truly about the numbers. Nothing else matters. And anything that slows you down (talking to people) in achieving those numbers should be avoided at all costs.
To clarify something…as I wrote about in a recent blog post, an excellent way to close jobs is to do a face to face presentation. But I’m referring to a presentation to someone who has expressed an interest in your service. I’m not talking about doing a presentation to someone who you don’t know if they have any interest or not. You have to let the flyer do the work of determining for you who has any interest or not. If they don’t have any interest, no probs. They’ll throw it in the trash and you’ve saved yourself some time. Maybe when they receive a 2nd or 3rd flyer from you, they’ll start to take more notice about your service. They may or may not. But again, who cares?
Some window cleaners get too hung up on the people who don’t call instead of the people who do call. Don’t even give a second thought to folks who don’t call. It just doesn’t matter. Just make sure to distribute plenty of “numbers” consistently and as fast as you can, and you’ll have your hands full with people who DO call.
I hope this helps some of you who may have thought about doing some door knocking or for those of you who are currently knocking on doors. It’s a huge time waster.
Sure…you may make a friend or two along the way, but isn’t the goal to get as many phone calls and jobs as you can? You’ll be able to turn your customers into friends.
One final note to make on this is that my definition of solicitation is someone who knocks on my door. In the old days, I sold encyclopedias door to door, gourmet meat door to door, light bulbs on the phone, and lots of other items direct to the consumer via the direct selling method of door knocking. But there are plenty of “No Solicitation” signs nowadays that warn against solicitors.
Flyer distribution fast and easy under a door mat with half sticking out and moving on to the next w/o talking to anyone isn’t my idea of solicitation. You’re not bothering anyone. You’re not intruding on anyone’s day. You are simply using a “leave behind” to let folks know about your service. If they have an interest, they can then call you. If not, as mentioned above, no probs.
For those of you who have not heard me say this or write about this, my own method was to go out each saturday morning at 9am. I took 2 to 3 teenagers (usually 3) to my preferred subdivision, distributed 1000 flyers between them, and pointed them in the right direction with instructions for them to be quick, don’t talk, put the flyer under the welcome mat with a half of the flyer sticking out, and move on to the next home.
No more than 4 hours later, the vast majority of them (if not all of them) were distributed.
See how this works? It’s not rocket science. Serious numbers can be put out quickly for a minimal investment ($50 for flyers and no more than $75 total for all 3 teenagers).
So there you have it. JUST DO THE NUMBERS! Sorry to shout, but it’s that important.
Take care for now and have a super day today.
To Your Success,
Steve
