This is a brutal but effective strategy. Its going to be emotionally exhausting and mentally exhausting.
Keep going on the offensive. You are going to keep piling on the offense until a business drops their guard and realizes they are in a bad position without you. Go to all the different stores you can, then go further than you normally would. After you hit up those stores, you will try again. Success is in the followup and success is only accomplished 3% on the first try. Normally on average it takes 5 to 12 attempts at leaving a message to generate 80% of your business’ success.
Do not get hung up on them having a cleaner. Instead when they say we have someone else doing it, respond either with relief or enthusiasm. Either way I usually add in “Excellent!” or “Super!” or “That’s great!” but do it in a way where you actually care too. Then ask questions and do what is called “qualifying” your prospect, don’t give up. Here are questions I ask (not essentially in this order), eventually I find out what is going on if they stay in the conversation long enough, if not…just keep at it. (Also, if the cleaner is doing an excellent job already, there would be no problem to solve. Just find another problem to deal with if thats the case. You are there to solve problems, not create them.)
What do you like about your current cleaner? What do you not like about your current cleaner? How does the service make you feel? Do they clean your home as well? What is important to your business at the moment? Can you see yourself owning this service? Are you in the market for a cleaner? What made you decide on having this service? How would you rate your current cleaner on a scale of 1 to 9? What could I do to make it a 10?
Sometimes you will find they are actually not happy with who they have even though they stated they have someone. It could just be annoying to them to even think about a cleaner because the cleaner isn’t solving problems. Again, you are the problem solver, if they still have a problem…make it so they know they are dealing with a professional who is going to solve that problem. That’s done through great attitude and follow up.
I have had business owners I cleaned homes for first then ended up getting their stores after even with another cleaner that was not doing great.
Jordie, Luke, even Keith Kalfas have great storefront strategies to get stores and obviously they have made it work for them. There are differences but some similarities between them. People approach prospecting a bit differently from one person to another, maybe you are very good at finessing words or striking up conversations with people to dance around barriers. Maybe you are straight forward and can use power to break through barriers and actually do better with people who are very direct. Depending on who you are dealing with, you can use the same strategy with different success but the way you handle one person may not work well with another person. For you, the direct approach will work for now until you start getting in the habit of asking questions when you come to a stall, objection, or a reactionary defense response.
Also, if you need to hit up a bunch of stores without taking too much time, you can leave a price, service and frequency on the back on the card during after hours in the door. You could probably get about 50-100 stores done in an hour if done quick enough and if they are close together.