Posts tagged "window cleaning software"

Merry Christmas To All…

Hey Folks,

I just wanted to make a quick post to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and happy holiday season. I hope you all have a great time with family and friends during this time.

In the week between Christmas and new years is also a great time to make plans for 2009. So with that said, I have some good information and tips that I’ll be sending you over the next week or so which will be really beneficial to you and your business next year. This info. will be sent out to you via email and also posted to this blog. So stay tuned over the next few days. 

Well…my wife is calling me to open presents, so it’s time to scoot. Again, have a great holiday and a super duper Christmas day. Ho Ho Ho.

Sincerely,

Steve

An Ireland Visit…

An Email From Ireland:

Hi Steve, 

Postcards, Addresses, and Demographics

Steve,

I was wondering if you might know the answer to a question. I live in a small affluent area maybe 10,000 people living here.
Do I have to purchase a mailing list in order to direct mail out postcards? Would it be possible to drive around writing down addresses and simply compile my own list of addresses of specific homes I think would meet my criteria as far as target market goes?

Maybe a program that you type them into that can be submitted when you go to mail them? I have some friends in the real estate business maybe they have some sort of access they could pull some strings on to get addresses based on certain demographic factors like home value?? I am gonna probably try and get a batch of postcards printed up soon and shipped out
very soon. I am gonna sit down and try modifying one of the postcards that you included and using that.Talk to you soon.

Luke

My Response:

Hi Luke:

Good morning.  I would follow what I talk about in chapter 7 as far as using the "carrier route" method. The problem with driving all over the place copying down addresses is that it’s way too time consuming. It would take a long time to come up with a decent list and then have to write each address on a postcard. If you look at my postcard file that I sent you (the "pdf" version), you’ll see it says "Attn Postal Patron". So every homeowner within a carrier route will get one. This is much easier than having to address each postcard.

And the problem with mailing lists sometimes is that yes…you can target the lists by income, by home value, etc. but the homeowners may be spread out all over your town.  You want to use laser focus and target specific areas of people that are close together.  That’s what carrier route mailings do.  Each route consists of a group of homes (usually in the same subdivision).  So this works to your advantage because once you start getting jobs in an area, other folks in that area will see you, they’ll be receiving postcards from you, and you’ll be getting more exposure vs if you bounced from one area to another area to another area to another area, etc. etc.  Make sense?  So I personally focused on few areas and spread out from there. 

If you have any questions on this, let me know.  And I’d recommend going back and rereading chapter 7 also to catch up on what I’m talking about as far as carrier route mailings.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve

Talking to Prospects…

Hey Steve,

This is Nathan. How are you?  I had a question or two for you.  I had my door hangers and business cards printed up, and delivered them to some higher end homes in my community around a golf course.  It would have been better to have flyers but I didn’t have them yet so if the people were home I gave them a business card and explained who I was and if they weren’t home I left the door hanger.  I got lots of people that seemed interested, but unfortunately I did not take a record of which people I talked to and which ones got a door hanger.  My question is: do I go again and deliver flyers or hangers again, some of which to people I’ve already talked to or should I get postcards made and sent?  Also, can postcards just be sent to the golf course area or not?
 
Also, I was in town the other day in my truck with my lettering on it and I knew there was one other window cleaner in this community that walked down the streets doing store fronts and some houses.  Anyway, I have never met him but when I parked my truck on the street he was doing the store fronts right there.  He came up to me and wanted to meet me.  It was a little akward I must admit. 

Anyway he was polite, gave me his card and wanted mine, and was more than willing to tell me how successful he was.  In my opinion, he also hinted that he was the "Window Guy" in the area and surrounding areas, but tried to be encouraging.  I couldn’t quite tell what he was saying except that he said he is 70 (I’m only 26 so you can see it was a little akward) and going to be significantly reducing or quitting the business in a couple of years and when he does, he’s not selling it he’s just letting it go.  I obviously want those jobs but I also don’t want to wait 2 years.  I don’t know all of his customers  and I’m not going to take his, but what is my best option for now without stepping on his toes for the possible future jobs.  I need to build my business and yet it appears maintain a good relationship with the other guy. 
 
My last question is that I’ve gone to the fast food places to inquire about window cleaning.  I think I need those kinds of jobs to keep going in the winter.  Most of them say that their employees do it.  Is there a tactic in getting them to accept being put on a weekly or bi-weekly route?

Sorry so long but I love hearing your suggestions.  Thanks
Nathan 

My Response:

Hi Nathan:

How are ya?  It’s good to hear from you.

I can appreciate what you did as far as business cards, door hangers, and "if people were home", but there are a few probs with this kind of marketing attack.

1- I assume you’re saying that you knocked on doors since you mentioned "if people were home".  This is really, really time consuming to do, so I recommend window cleaners not knock on doors.  The goal is to get out as many marketing pieces as you can in the quickest amount of time.  Knocking on doors simply takes too long.

2- Using a business card as a marketing piece to tell your prospect a story about your company/service isn’t going to work.  There isn’t enough room on the card.  A nice 8 1/2 by 11 flyer is an excellent size and can tell a complete story.  Flyers are inexpensive to print up.  Much cheaper than business cards as a matter of fact if you have the slightly more expensive quality business cards printed up (recommended). 

Anyway…I would absolutely distribute again to the same area. Makes no difference if you talked to them, gave them a door hanger/business card or whatever.  But this time go in with inexpensive flyers and go in quick. Just swoop in and swoop out.  )  Don’t talk to anyone at all because it’ll slow down the process.  Just distribute as quick as you can or better yet get a couple of kids to help you out.  

Postcards can absolutely be distributed in golf course areas.  I had a number of different postcard campaigns I conducted which happened to be in golf course communities.  When you’re cleaning the windows at a home on a golf course, make sure you have a yard sign in the front for street traffic and a sign in the backyard for the golfers going down the fairways.

That sounds like a great guy you met.  This is the way I wish more window cleaners were.  For some reason, some window cleaners feel "threatened" by another window cleaner.  There’s no reason for it.  First, there’s plenty of glass to go around.  And second, you can really help each other. Maybe he needs help with a job. Or visa versa.  Or maybe he’s too busy and can’t get to a job for 3 weeks but the customer needs it done right away.  So it would be smart to maintain a relationship with this guy.     

You wouldn’t be stepping on his toes by simply marketing your business like I talk about in chapter 7.  Not at all.  In other words, I wouldn’t give much thought to his customers.  There’s not much you can do now since he’s "letting them go" in 2 years.  It’s definitely not worth waiting around for 2 years for them.  So continue to build your business.  And then in 2 years when you have your own solid customer base, you can maybe make him a deal where you pay him a small percentage for each job done.  Not a bad deal for him since he was planning on making nothing from his customers.  I would pay him this small percentage (10 to 15%) for 2 years or so.  So maintain the relationship for sure.  I would take him out to breakfast and pick his brain.  He may be able to impart some helpful tricks.  Be careful though…some window cleaners who are older and have been in the business for awhile are really set in their ways.  So they may not think out of the box too much when it comes to marketing.  As a matter of fact, they might not even be in the box because they might not be doing any marketing at all.  )   

As far as the fast food places, if they have their own people in place, there’s nothing you can do to make ‘em change their mind.  So no worries.  Just move on to other storefronts.  There’s lots of them out there.  Besides, having these fast food/franchise places as customers is not all it’s cracked up to be.  I spoke to someone yesterday who told me he knows a window cleaner in his area who had 37 Boston Market’s that he was doing.  And he lost them all.  Not sure of the reason.  Probably heavy competition and another window cleaner was willing to do it cheaper.  So fast food/franchises come and go.  Can you imagine losing 37 stores in one fell swoop? 

I hope the above helps.  Take care for now.

Regards,

Steve

Maps…Buying a Business…and more…

An email recently received:

Steve,

Is there some way to get a map of my area that denotes the price ranges of the houses. In other words, a map that will let me see where to focus my marketing by income? I can certainly see that some areas are better, but I don’t know all the different neighborhoods and how to get there. It would help to have some way to quickly identify where to flyer and place ads.

Todd

My Response:

Hi Todd:

Good morning.

A good place to go for maps of your target area would be the national association of realtors.  I’m sure they have an office in your area.  Just tell ‘em your target market and what you’re looking for.

I personally didn’t use maps. I just got in my car and drove around entering subdivisions and developments.  If the homes in the subdevelopment looked like they were ideal for my window cleaning service, then I made a note of them. 

Another way to identify target markets is to hook up with a direct mail company in your area.  They mail items for multiple companies day in and day out, so they would know the best areas for your service.  I’m not sure if they’ll reveal this info. to you though if you’re not going to spend any money with them.  So you may want to start the conversation off by mentioning you want to do some postcard mailings and you’re looking for the best areas to mail to.

If you really wanted to offer this prospective seller some dollars, I would offer her between $1500 and $2000.  But there needs to be some assurances that most, if not all, of that 9k will come to you from those customers.  And you need to have her sign a contract stating that she can’t start another window cleaning business in that area for a certain period, 2 years should work.  You can find these basic contracts at any office supply store.  Then pay a lawyer 100 bucks to personalize it for your company and add whatever legal verbage is needed for your State.

I advise folks to go through the manual quickly first and then go back over it slower a second time.  It may seem a bit overwhelming, but I urge you to just take it one step at a time. 

As far as advanced techniques, I believe in starting with the fundamentals, but you can certainly expand into different techniques if that’s what you want.  I personally wouldn’t advise it now though.  There is no need.  The primary thing we need to do now is to bring in customers.  The squeegee stroke is secondary.  One of the reasons i personally never spent the time learning these fancy strokes is because for the average residential window, they’re not needed.  The advanced strokes like the swirl or the snake are mostly beneficial on large commercial panes of glass, and these were accounts that I stayed away from.

Right…over time, you’ll get better when cleaning windows.  "Practice makes perfect" as they say.  Initially I wouldn’t worry about the time spent on a job or anything like that.  I would focus only on mastering the window cleaning process.  Once this starts falling in place, your time will improve tremendously.

As far as artwork costs, it’s best to contact barb directly on that.  She has her own graphic design firm that is independent of me, so I have no idea what her exact charges are for specific situations.  I do know though that her costs are lower than most graphic designers out there.  I’ve used many.  And Barb provides a quality service/job at good rates.  You can contact her here: barbara@ecoverdesigns.com.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Steve

A Marketing Idea…

An idea recently received by email:

Hey Steve,

I have an idea that I wanted to share with you and everybody else in the business. Being that it’s election time and everybody is voting for this and that, why not join in on the party. I made a yard sign that said "VOTE NO STREAKS for your WINDOW CLEANING SERVICE" with my number. I just thought of it 2 days ago. We’ll see what it will do I wish I would have thought of it sooner. Nevertheless it’s one to build on.  Thanks for everything.

Your friend, Victor
 
My Response

Some Results…

hi steve

just a quick note to say you were right. your marketing works anywhere. 250 flyers out and already received 6 inquiries   3 jobs so far . more on the way . lovely result. more to come
regards
randy

My Response

Hi Randy:

That’s great.  Right, the numbers will always work overall.  Occasionally (on rare occasions) when you don’t do enough numbers, you might have a weak response.  The reason is that quite simply a window cleaner may already have the area (where you are distributing flyers) locked up. Or the neighborhood may have been burned by a previous window washer.  So prospects in that neighborhood are kind of hesitant on calling another one.  But again though…this can be overcome by just making sure you do enough numbers all the time.

1000 is a good round number.  This should give you 10 calls turning into 7 or 8 jobs.  It works like clockwork each and every time as long as you’re marketing to your target market.   

And definitely, as you said, "more are on the way". This is just the beginning.  Take care for now.  Have a profitable week.

Regards,

Steve

10,000 targeted flyers…

Steve, I am trying to put together 10,000 flyers to distribute to targeted communities. Needless to say, this is an overwhelming task. Any suggestions as to how to expedite the process? What are others doing?

Ivan

My Response

Hi Ivan:

Ah…sounds good.  10,000 is a real solid number that’ll generate phone calls, activity, jobs, etc.  Make sure though that you do some of those 10,000 in a repeat fashion. In other words, don’t distribute all 10,000 to 10,000 different homes.  Pick 2 to 4 neighborhoods and really nail ‘em multiple times so you get the best results.  

Using one neighborhood as an example, if you start off with flyers, calls will come and then neighbors will begin to see you in their neighborhood with your signage, so it generates great awareness for your company/service.  In 3 to 4 weeks, hit ‘em again with another round of flyers. All this time, you’re gaining a presence in the neighborhood.  A few weeks after that, you’ll want to do another round of flyers or maybe even a postcard mailing using the carrier route method I discuss in chapter 7 in my manual.

Keep up the repetition and you’ll soon lock down a neighborhood.  To top it off, make sure you collect references from satisfied customers in all the different neighborhoods you do business in.  So for example, if you’re giving an estimate to a prospect in XYZ Development, make sure to insert into your estimate package 2 or 3 references (w/phone numbers) that you’ve collected from satisfied customers living in XYZ Development. This carries a lot of weight when trying to capture a prospect in a particular subdivision if the prospect sees the names/numbers of successful customers that you’ve serviced in the same subdivision. 

I hope this helps.  Take care for now.  Talk soon.

Regards,

Steve