Searching for new accounts today, residential. I recall Luke said something about the level how much you can humiliate yourself one day. Yep.
Most people were barricaded behind their doors and alarm systems, wouldn’t open. Two borderline hostile responses, one ‘maybe’, one possible roof cleaning job. I guess, all in all, pretty good result.
If you are wondering if there is a question anywhere here, I guess it’s this: 50% of mailboxes are ‘no ads’-tagged. Door hangers are still in printshop. How do you advertise?
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Online advertising has worked best for me. Google
Google, website and door hangers can work too! Much success.
Google and a good website. I do not use adwords but you can try it.
@Johnlee What do you use for promoting yourself on Google?
Appreciate all answers, thank you.
Do you carry business cards with you at all times? I love having them on me. If the homeowner is not answering the door. Hand out business cards at the grocery store. The restaurant you are eating at. It can be uncomfortable to put yourself out there like that, but that feeling starts to go away. Let people know reasons why it is important to have clean windows for their home. In a way it is almost a small infomercial to benefit them. Instead of highlighting yourself. In other terms cultivate your field around you . It took me awhile to realize that we are their to help the homeowner. Make it valuable
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What are your stats on the door? How many people open let’s say out of 100? If they are not even opening, something is up with your body language and approach. After all, if the doors dont open for you, you cant tell the owner what you want to tell them.
The idea of being on doors is you have to get their attention in an interesting and unexpected way. DO NOT SELL AT THE DOOR. Your goal is to get into their house past the door, where they will invest more time in you. Then you can attempt to sell and close.
I hope this helps a bit.
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Hey Cashman, thank you for your input. I do have business cards, and like you said, it was uncomfortable at first, but that goes away. One related thing is that friends and relatives around you, who have monthly salaries, just never understand that you actually have to find your own jobs, win them, and only then can you actually do the work and bill the client. Somehow this does not compute, and you actually have to remind them all the time that I…NEED…CLIENTS.
This goes for clients too. In my billing form it says, that if you are pleased, tell others. Some of my clients actively promote me when there is opportunity, and some do not. I know it is not their responsibility nor duty, but once for instance my father sold a client from under my nose, my late aunt’s home, interior cleaning and windows. Dude, seriously?
Hello Jacob!
Well said. I recently pinpointed the selling problem to its source, between keyboard and chair. Since then I have been studying door to door selling videos. The results are to be seen in near future.
During my brief training sessions in D2D I have noticed much to my enjoyment, that I can actually get doors open, and the training is starting to work. For instance: The people here are nervous and therefore not listening. Chistopher Voss from Black Swan company advices to raise the problem out in the open. So: I start by saying my name and continue that “since I noticed that folks around here are quite nervous when someone is behind their door…” and this has caused smiles. That solved, move to ‘no trust’-issue, solve that. Then the next. I must emphasize that I’m very much wet behind the ears when it comes to D2D, but I’m also a quick learner, and I know my quality of work and can vouch for it, so once I get to show them, that speaks on its behalf.
The thing is that my work consits of add-ons, 2018 top sellers were cleaning, garden work and mixed group of industrial clients and furniture assembly and whatnot. That brings a problem, the selection is wide. While being steady in income, it is that that much harder to sell. Not to mention the vast selection of tools and equipment.
All in all, despite being finnish, I am feeling optimistic and upbeat (partly because of your input, thank you guys), and continue to practise.
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Onefinnishguy,
You are not normal! LOL, This is what sets your apart from others who are drawing a salary. It sounds like your are an entrepreneur; you enjoy creating something from your resources. Many other people are afraid to take a chance, fearing they need a weekly stable income ultimately limiting their abilities. There will be times when you generate more income in one day they they do for the whole week. Eventually as a high-caliber person you will receive one order that exceeds 30% of last years total sales! Yeah, it has happen to me:>).
Selling door to door is a challenge, not many people are willing to make the effort. My dad was in sales and taught me sales, I have learned there is never only one way to get new customers through multiple types of media including print. Ignore the naysayers with doom and gloom. Let them see your results by not telling them, but showing them! Continue learning sales and marketing techniques and adapt to what fits your personality and business. Remember the old saying about your first impression, this rings true even in 20 years when your doing the same thing!
Oh, and one more thing; always be kind and pleasant when a customer says NO! It is a natural defense to tell someone no; later when they realize what you were previously offering they may realize how nice you were and call or refer you!
Wish you all the best!
Bill R
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Google is good, but I find the cost per click to be quite high when comparing to Facebook advertising. They’ve made some changes in the last … I want to say 6 months and I’ve been finding them reasonable. However, the quality of client is always best with Google. I find that Facebook is much like Yelp or (god forbid you’ve ever given these guys a thought) Groupon. Poor, cheap, and never satisfied customers seem to live on sites like these…
Regardless, if you’re a good window cleaner and you’re not afraid of making a touch-up visit, Facebook is a solid way to go.
#1 Google My Business
If you don’t have a GMB account yet, get your head out of your ass and get on it. This is by far the best way to get leads for free. Recently Google has updated the platform to allow you to send Google links to your existing clients to drive your online reviews with GMB. This is, no doubt, in an attempt to make them the #1 ratings platform online and if you ask me, it’ll work. Get an account, keep it up-to-date.
If you have an account (or when you get one set up) ALWAYS keep uploading fresh, new pictures & post before your last one expires. Put promotions (free) on your GMB profile and keep up with replying to EVERY review - good or bad. Handle the bad ones with grace & professionalism - remember that replying publicly to that bad review has NOTHING to do with the unhappy customer and EVERYTHING to do with showing your potential future customers how you handle that interaction. They want to see you’re going to do everything you can to solve a problem, should it arise - or at least feel like you are handling it professionally.
#2 Your Website & SEO
I can’t tell you how important this is. My personal opinion, if you’ve never built a website before in your life, is to use Weebly. Quick, easy, free HTTPS, pretty, cheap, reliable… Just plain good. It’s not a WordPress website with Elementor & OceanWP, or Divy (paid) but you can do JUST FINE with ranking a page in the top 10 searches for “YOUR_AREA window cleaning” organically. I’m doing it! www.mossaway.ca
SEO is Search Engine Optimization. You need this because without good SEO your page is pointless. You need a good URL that “keywords well”, and you need to plug as many keywords into you H1 headers and paragraph text on every page. It might be worth it to spend a down day googling what good SEO looks like.
ORRRRRR you can pay me to build you a beautiful website. I do service based business websites on the side & in my off season. I love this stuff!!!
#3 AdWords
Your website is a great start. Without regular, organic traffic finding their way to your website & spending time looking at it your page will never REALLY take off. By spending a few bucks to get even 2-3 paid clicks per day you are increasing what is called your “click-through rate”. Hopefully you have lovely, dialed-in content that keeps people looking for a minute or two, even better if they fill out a contact form - this relates to you “bounce rate” and “conversion rate”. GOOGLE KNOWS! And so does Bing and all those … “other” search platforms that no one really uses unless they forgot to download Google after they bought their new computer.
By spending a few hundred $ per month for even 6 months you are driving eyeballs to your page, building brand recognition, improving your site’s statistics in the eyes of Google and other search engines, and hopefully getting some conversions in there.
Once you’re established, you’ll see your organic page ranking rise, and this will bring you FREE LEADS! This… this is the dream…
#4 Facebook & Facebook Ads
Have a Facebook business page. Engage with people online AS your business page. Reply promptly if you get a message. Once you have a following of even just 30 or so friends & relatives, start putting up Ads with Facebook. I’ve seen cost/click as low as $0.11 that generated really good conversions, and that compares to AdWords at around $5-15 depending on keyword. Now, ever area is going to be different because you are bidding locally, but I’ve seen really good return on investment from Facebook, and Facebook Ads.
#5 Wordstream (if you’re a baller)
I fuckin love these guys. They will change your game when it comes to running ads, but keep in mind that it’s a 12 month commitment for the first term, month to month after, and it’s not cheap. With the service $ your ad budget you should expect to spend no less than $750/mo for 6-12 months. If it is REALLY not working for you, you can cancel - they don’t want to bankrupt your business - but as they’ll tell you, that rarely happens. BE PREPARED to be busy if you go down this avenue. Have a staff of 2-4 including yourself who are ready to work hard so you don’t lose out on jobs because you can’t keep up. Results may vary, speak to an actual Wordstream agent for details (lol).
#6 Business Networking Groups
Two popular groups are BNI and B4B - BNI is pretty international but B4B might be more Canadian, I really don’t know. But find business networking groups!!! Meet people in other businesses who want to connect with you - who knows, you might meet a property manager who does all the small residential service for the biggest group in your area. It happens! Bring cards, be professional, introduce yourself with a 30 second elevator pitch that you’ve prepared & rehearsed.
“Hello (their name), I’m Ryan. I’m the owner/operator of Ryan’s window cleaning here in Yourtown. We do window cleaning, gutter cleaning, and whateverelsewedo cleaning on residential and commercial properties. We’re currently top rated on Google! Here’s my card, please let me know if there’s anything you need done down the road.”
#7 Hang the fuck out someplace
Sometimes on the weekends I go down to the busiest dog walking areas and hang out on a bench on the path. Sometimes I bring a sign “Victory Window Cleaning - All Window Cleaning 50% Off!” sometimes I just pet dogs and strike up conversation. Whatever. I bring cards, if people like me they might call, if not, I expanded my brand awareness in town. I do this when I have holes in my schedule that I’d like to fill. I’m not doing anything, so by doing ANYTHING to pick up a job I’m investing in myself instead of costing myself.
Damn that’s a lot of points. More than initially anticipated. I hope this helps! Feel free to ask me follow up questions.
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Out selling door to door, using Green Pro Clean’s method; Show up 16.30, do it for a while, then get out. No more than 10 seconds per door, people have just come from work, they are tired and hungry. But: Zero rude answers. One said he didn’t want my ad at all (politely), but the rest of the lot: “Hey, thanks a lot man, good to know, I’ll keep it in mind.”
Now, we all know what that translates to: Usually ‘No’, but they are aware, some said that they’ll put the ad in fridge door, good one, and I got a chance to show my face, appear sane, professional and so on.
So, I guess it is true what they say, people usually want to know what you are there for.
And practice is good. No more want to pass the first door to build up some courage…
Thank you for your answers, guys.
If you MUST doorknock do it on a Friday after 5pm. People just got off work but it’s the weekend. They’re generally in good spirits and I find they’re more open to chat. Have business cards ready that link them to a good looking website & clearly display a professional email address and that you are licenced & insured (ONLY IF you actually are - to lie about this is a crime).
If your email address is joewindows@hotmail.com or reallylongwindowcleaningcompanyname@gmail.com just fucking forget it. People will throw that shit in the trash. Do you want to be a real business? Do you want people to take you seriously? Then spend $10 and buy G Suite you cheapskate.
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Comments like this tend to sound very condescending and disrespectful to everyone in my opinion. I wouldn’t say anything but this seems to be a common trend for you. I’m not sure I can speak for everyone here, but I personally find this offensive. Please tone it back some, we all try to act as friends here.
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