Giving a sense of urgency in storefront

Storefront
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I’m thinking of ways to improve my success in storefront canvassing. I have been contending with surprisingly high amounts of competition, and also been fighting low priced competition.

Since I’m pricing my services much higher than in the past, I have realized that I need to sell myself a whole lot more, since my price is not doing as much of the selling for me. I have emphasized my reliability, quality, professionalism, methods of payment (cash, cheque). But I feel I need to do more. I need to get them to buy with emotion, and one emotion (sort of) is buying because of a perceived lack of time.

I want customers to feel that they have to call me back first, or use me quickly or they might lose out on the “great deal” I’m offering them (I pretend my price is very reasonable, and low even when it’s quite high).

Although they can call me anywhere from now to 5 years from now and I’ll do it, I want them to think that they got to quickly make a decision or else my schedule will be too full, or the price will be higher.

So I’m thinking of using two methods

Price is only for a limited time. or telling them, you should call quickly before my schedule is full and I can’t accommodate you.

I think that might help me to more quickly land commercial, storefront clients.

What methods that use a sense of urgency work for you? I would especially like to hear those that have a number of storefront jobs.

Thanks

Mike

1 Like
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I think the first thing I would look at is the emotional factors you mention. I try to do the same thing with residential- BUY NOW!

Hands down an incentive is far and away the best way to pack my schedule (as a side note, I NEVER offer [B]money[/B] off. I NEVER cheapen my service)

Now, since I have many years of experience with route work, their triggers are a little different. Most homeowners don’t want [B]cheap[/B], they want a great [B]value[/B]. Route/commercial prospects are not really looking for value as much as they are looking to do 2 things.

-Eliminate a headache (i.e. they need to assign employees to do the work, their current service is not showing up or some other issue… etc)
-Stay within the budget

Coming at them with a bunch of “high quality” mumbo jumbo is like speaking Chinese to them. (if anyone questions this, go look at the quality 90% of route is getting now. They except it if it satisfies one or both of the above 2 emotional triggers. Sometimes this goes on for years and years.)

Also keep in mind every company promises “high quality at a low price”. The prospects have been takin over and over, so the promise is empty to them. They want to hear something else… something else that matters and matters now.

Did I even answer the question? lol

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Thanks Paul

So…How do you get commercial customers to quickly make a decision about window cleaning. How do you give them a sense of urgency? I’d like to hear from more of you. Especially the Brits! Thanks

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Try this for fun Mike.

Send a friend, wife or other family member to several stores that you’re trying to get. As they go in, have them ask [I]“Hey, are you open for business? I couldn’t tell because you can barely see in your windows.”[/I] Now you drop by the next day and say [I]“Hi, I’m Mike from M&M Window Cleaners. It doesn’t appear that you’ve set yourself up with a regular window cleaner yet, may I offer you a quote?”[/I] :stuck_out_tongue:

Hey, you never know right?

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lol

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I find it hard to believe no one has an opinion or some helpful thoughts they’d like to share with anyone one on this.

Dont hold back

:slight_smile:

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Mike I want to answer this for you… but can you give me a bit more info? How many prospects are you hitting a day and do you have an idea of what your approximate close ratio is?

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i would also like some help in this area! I am been thinking on ways to do mailers to different types of business such as salons, law offices, etc.

I have a hard time walking into a beauty salon and trying to explain why i am there and sell my services in front of everyone in the store. I loose focus and mumble stuff off.

There has to be a easy efficient way!

My area seems to be in a major lack of storefront window cleaners, i need to swoop in and save the day:)!!!

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Chris - I can’t give you an accurate answer. But It feels like I hit about 100 establishments, and I may land 1. So maybe 1%.

Before I was working under a franchise agreement. My prices were 40 or 50 percent lower. I was firmly entrenched in an area, and I only targeted new stores opening up. So things were much easier. It was easy to make a sell of window cleaning.

Now. I started on my own. I started and incorporated my own business with $0 of customers to my name.

I’ve started with blitzing areas, calling on every establishment, industrial or commercial. I haven’t focused on residential but rather partnered with an another company on this.

It’s been very difficult since my prices are much higher than the typical companies, especially the fly by night operators. I have been trying $1.50 per outside pane for storefront with a $10 minimum, and $2-$2.50 per pane for the exterior for industrial areas. With a $10 and $20 minimum respectively. So my prices are a harder sell.

I have managed to make some good progress in building a profitable route. But it takes a long time, and alot of selling to get to this point.

I’ve learned to overcome objections about price, value, “we have a window cleaner” and so on. So I felt I have built an arsenal of tools to use to make the customers willing to pay more and get a reliable window cleaner.

So that brings me to the topic at hand. Its not all about me, I want to start a lively discussion on getting customer to make a decision, and not procrastinate using you. Because while I’ve slowly got some yeses there are a lot of maybees and a lot of people who will just keep my card.

So if you want to share how you can get people to make quicker decisions I think it would be a good discussion. Or if you want to include too how to improve your selling, and distinguish yourself from competitors you can.

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Chris - I can’t give you an accurate answer. But It feels like I hit about 100 establishments, and I may land 1. So maybe 1%.

[B]Hmm that # seems pretty low… Do you think you are to high? [/B]

Before I was working under a franchise agreement. My prices were 40 or 50 percent lower. I was firmly entrenched in an area, and I only targeted new stores opening up. So things were much easier. It was easy to make a sell of window cleaning.

Now. I started on my own. I started and incorporated my own business with $0 of customers to my name.

I’ve started with blitzing areas, calling on every establishment, industrial or commercial. I haven’t focused on residential but rather partnered with an another company on this.
[B]
When you say calling … do you mean on the phone or in person? We have acquired lots of accounts by simple phone calls… You can sometimes be more productive that way.
[/B]
It’s been very difficult since my prices are much higher than the typical companies, especially the fly by night operators. I have been trying $1.50 per outside pane for storefront with a $10 minimum, and $2-$2.50 per pane for the exterior for industrial areas. With a $10 and $20 minimum respectively. So my prices are a harder sell.

I have managed to make some good progress in building a profitable route. But it takes a long time, and alot of selling to get to this point.

I’ve learned to overcome objections about price, value, “we have a window cleaner” and so on. So I felt I have built an arsenal of tools to use to make the customers willing to pay more and get a reliable window cleaner.

So that brings me to the topic at hand. Its not all about me, I want to start a lively discussion on getting customer to make a decision, and not procrastinate using you. Because while I’ve slowly got some yeses there are a lot of maybees and a lot of people who will just keep my card.

So if you want to share how you can get people to make quicker decisions I think it would be a good discussion. Or if you want to include too how to improve your selling, and distinguish yourself from competitors you can.
[B]
Maybe you can offer up 2 prices when your out selling Something Like:
[I]
Well the price for something like this is normally $15 but if you sign up today I will lock you in for a full year at $10 per service today. Thats a total yearly saving of $XX.[/I]

This is just a thought and just some hypothetical #s[/B]

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The problem is, I don’t think anyone is monster successful with route on this forum. That type of work is by far the hardest to get and there is no kickarse method that works great for anyone.

I would bet Mike is almost the most experienced person with dealing with the prospects face to face… if you don’t have an answer, you should not be surprised by the lack of replies…

nobody has a solution

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Totally agree… Man commercial route store front work is a tough nut to crack… I wish I had more answers for you Mike

I think A-1 Orange in Florida is super successful with route work. Anybody here from Florida area have more info on them?

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No problem.

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I wouldn’t say that its really that difficult[B] to get.[/B]

Its more just a [B]really poor paying segment[/B] of the market, and one that will consistently result in lower revenue. I firmly believe that I could build a $80,000 commercial route in 60 days here in Toronto.

But that’s less than $40/hr. Who wants that?

That’s why doing residential right is WAY better. Double the money. Even if you only work half the year, you make the same coin.

But I digress…

My two cents is that urgency-based techniques won’t work that effectively with commercial, simply because the market is flooded with solicitation. One of my clients gets solicited every single week from various competitors of mine. Much of the GTA is like that, Mike.

That being said,[I]deadlines [/I]on your estimate pricing is probably the best bet variation on your urgency angle.

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Good post Kevin.

My objective is to build a $100/hr route of commercial customers. it will take a long time to build, perhaps 16 months but I think it can be done. It takes a lot of selling and a lot of canvassing.

I’m working on ways to distinguish myself from the competition, some customers can be convinced that there are good reasons to pay more for window cleaning, and that you do indeed get what you pay for.

Mike

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Hey Mike, I do not want to be a rude sob, but you will never make $100.00 per hour doing route work, Residential yes but not store fronts.

why are you soooo against Residential window cleaning???

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you will never make $100.00 per hour doing route work,

Its actually do-able, just not easily so.

I have regular commercial accounts at that price point, and Mike’s managed to score some early on, too.

Just not as easy to land. Car dealerships, 2-3 story office buildings (cleaned regularly), and high-end restaurants are what do it for my business. Some smaller, seemingly less-likely accounts, too.

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That’s not rude, just an opinion based on your experience.

For Mike, it IS doable.

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thanks Larry

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I’m not against residential window cleaning.