I hate trying to sell storefront owners on window cleaning. I hate it so much that I don’t do it.
About a year and a half ago I spotted an older guy cleaning windows downtown. I knew he cleaned for a few business-owner friends so I stopped him on the street and introduced myself. I wanted to tell him that whenever he retired that I would be interested in buying his route from him. Before I could say these things he told me that he was planning to retire in a couple of months and that he would give me his route in my town (he had storefronts in a neighboring town also). That sounded amazing but when I tracked him down a few months later he told me that he wasn’t retiring.
Out of the blue he called today, he broke his leg and was out of the window business. He rattled off his storefronts, the owners, the price, frequency and phone numbers. He said they were mine. It’s not as much as I thought it was going to be, and I’m going to have to raise prices, but adding this to my current storefront route gives me a full day once a month. Hashtag winning.
That’s amazing ! Sucks for him but wow very cool for you! Now let’s hope they stay with you after raising the price.
Charles this is excellent. Now are these corporate accounts, mom and pop shops or a mix of both? Reason I ask is, while corporate accounts and the store owners may not do this, the mom and pop store owners will see you clean their windows. After a few cleanings or even the first time you could pitch this idea or say "Now if only your house was this clean. By the way, when would be the next time I could drop by? There’s something I have to show you. (Or ignore that and present them with a 25% off coupon or like 50-100 dollar coupon off their house cleaning the first time. If they call you out and ask you what you need to show them, have the coupons ready.)
In theory if everyone signed on, that would also be 12 new houses to add on.
Love the idea of residential coupons for storefront customers and employees.