How to Find New Cleaning Customers. Part 1 of 5

Episode 10.

Ray

We’re back, and we’re talking to new cleaning companies and young cleaning companies about finding clients. How do we find clients?

 

Joel

You know what that is the number one question that I am asked by every single client or prospect that calls me, I need more work. But like most startup companies, most of them don’t have a lot of seed money. Most of them are either doing this because, hey, they’re displaced. They trying to start something, they want to do something else. And the first thing I tell them is try to work it parallel with another.

 

Ray

Right. Make this you side hustle, right?

 

Joel

Build it to something. But you have to spend money, to make money, right? But how much money do you have to spend? Well, it’s all going to depend upon what you are looking to do and how quickly you want to scale and build your business. You could say, oh, I’m, you know, “New Janitorial Company in Anytown, USA, and I’m going to drive down the street and I’m going to say, oh, I can clean that building. Oh, I can get that. Oh, I can do that one, too.” But then you go in and you actually talk to them and they clean it in house.

 

Ray

Wait a minute! They’re going to talk to you when you walk in? Are they going to talk to you?

 

Joel

Well, you know, not always talk to, but you know, you find out that maybe it’s the receptionist that you stopped in to talk to, or the admin is the actual cleaner because they only have two people in the office, and the office is a whole 300 square feet. The office next door, you might find out that they don’t even want to talk to you. The third one you go in to, you might actually find out that they just change contractors. That’s a very common answer. We just change contractors or we’re happy with the person that we have. So suddenly you’re deflated and it’s like, “Wow, I thought I could clean those five buildings all side by side.” And that’s the magic question that every marketer in America has ever tried to do to help anybody is find that silver bullet, to find the client or the prospect that’s actually willing to spend money on a cleaning service. So, what are some ways that we can do it?

 

 

Ray

Okay, so it can’t be hopeless.

 

Joel

Well, it’s not hopeless. I mean, look at how many janitorial companies are across the US. There’s a lot of them. But how many janitorial companies do in-excess of $100,000 a year in business? How many janitorial companies do an excess of $1 million, $10 million, $100 million? That’s… those are the real questions.

 

Ray

So, for the folks who are out there and they’re really just looking to get their first few clients, they’ve got the side hustle. They’re already a cleaner, they know their craft, and they’re looking for their first few independent customers.

 

Joel

Ask your friends. Everybody knows somebody. They say that every person that you know knows at least 250 people. So, you start asking your friends and your family, who do they know? And I know that’s vague because it’s like, hey, “who owns a car”? Who, you know, start thinking of everybody you know, has a car, but who do they know that might own a business? Try to make it more specific so someone who owns a business or is in a facility that may require janitorial services or custodial services, as well as are they happy, dissatisfied? Are they looking to make a change, or are they currently doing it in-house but considering to contract-it-out? You got to start asking the right types of questions in order to get people to think properly, and then follow up with them. Just because you ask somebody doesn’t mean they’re going to go out and find you an account because they have skin in the game. No. Now, if you said you were going to pay a referral fee, maybe they would work a little harder.

 

Joel

That’s a way that you can go about doing it. But, you know, hey, I’m in Rochester, New York, and if somebody says, hey, I’m from San Francisco, California, and can you find me an account today? What are the chances of me being able to do that?

 

Ray

Well, you don’t know their neighborhood, right?

 

Joel

Don’t know their neighborhood. I don’t, you know, do I know people in San Francisco? Probably. But are they the right people that I don’t know and the people I know in San Francisco? I might not even have a deep enough relationship with to help them get something.

 

Ray

First and foremost. Looking for your friends family? Contact who owns a business? Maybe the other criteria might be in this part of town, because it’s got to make sense for you to get there, right?

 

Joel

Correct. Okay, so hey, you know, I want it within ten miles of this zip code or ten, ten blocks of this location. So, the more specific we get, the better we can get. If you belong to any after school programs with your children, if you’re involved in the parent teacher association, if you’re with a religious community, is there a posting board? You know, you can do some guerilla-marketing techniques and you can put up fliers inside the supermarkets or job boards, or a lot of libraries allow it as well.