I’m dead wrong in the UK?
October 18, 2008 – 11:24 pmOkay, so today I was participating on an interesting forum discussion over on www.window-tools.com – a very interesting and experienced group of cleaning business owners. Great board, by the way, you should check it out if you haven’t already!
Anyway, one of the guys on there challenged me on some ideas I shared regarding the validity of spending concerted effort on “marketing” as WC business owners, and my reply was too long for the window-tools forum configurations , so I’ve posted it below for you to benefit from, instead!
Incidentally, I have a sneaking suspicion that just maybe YOU TOO have thought these same things, so what you’re about to read below my just be what you need to hear for today to help you achieve greater business success with your window cleaning business, too!
Enjoy!
zeusweiler (screen name of other forum member): I know what you are trying to say, However i think there is a difference between promoting and advertising a business and effectively marketing it.
me: Cool, that’s your right to think that.
I disagree completely with you. Marketing, promoting, and advertising are all pieces of the same LEGO set.
zeusweiler: Your point on my point about someone being either related to or offering a freebie to a client. i see this as circumstantial where they already have direct contact with the client therefor they are not indeed marketing there business as opposed to offering a bribe to keep in favour
me: Okay, these 2 things are different, here’s an extended explanation.
The WC who is the nephew of the owner – he obviously is simply lucky, and we can’t probably do anything about that. This is a good example of a situation in which we are likely “incapable” of competing, as I said in the post you are alluding to. However, even these dimwits do just barely good enough a job to keep their connections intact, therefore I believe they are not completely oblivious to the fact that they must to some extent leverage their opportunity.
Offering a freebie to a corporate client is intelligent, and done openly and honestly, is above board. DO some people make dishonest extension of this tactic? Absolutely. Does that mean that you should never do it, at least in a limited way? No, you should. It’s honest, open, and smart. Different corporate situations have different rules of conduct for this, so my advice is to learn the rules of the game for each corporate client and then win by them.
zeusweiler: there is nothing more off putting than [sucking up], once you go down that road you may find that 90% of your work that comes from these connections you have made using these methods could be pulled from you overnight then where are you.
me: I agree with you on the negative results from sucking up. I am not recommending that we do this, but your forecast above is a pretty dramatic extrapolation.
zeusweiler: I worked for a facility company once where a contractor was doing the window cleaning round, “mate of the regional director”. “here’s an idea” lets take the WCing in house, buy his van as he has no work left. If he didn’t take the offer he loses 95% of his work.
me: This WC’er is a fool, business-wise, for putting 95% of his eggs into this one basket.
He ignored the principle and value of diversification, and reaped the bad results above because of it. This could happen to an honest WC’er too, who has only one big client, essentially.
zeusweiler: Move in to area, simplify the problem with full facillities. undercut and work on unrealistic budgets, “who cares well lose it in two years lets bluff the client till then”. get bad name sell up and move on. the business equivelent to pikeys.
me: Okay, is this true of every single business? DO they only EVER work thru a property management company or full service provider? If so, then this is a problem I was completely oblivious to, and would need to give it more thought. There are a billion prop mgmt companies over here, too, but most of my commercial clients have an in-house facilities director instead. This person picks and chooses many services (including window cleaning) from various different providers, finding and hiring a mountain of contractors themself.
zeusweiler: The demographics are very different here than over the pond. People (householders) are more shrewd with money and can even be described as tight. sad to say with the state of the economy they will always opt for the cheaper option unless you prove your self through being regular, which is one of the main problems here with the services we offer.
me: Okay, you’ve switched now to residential, so let’s talk about that.
You are telling me that the absolute only thing that matters to homeowners in the UK is price and regularity. The absolute only factors. No one ever makes buying decisions aside from these clear, two determining factors.
Is that what you’re saying?
If so, then even though I live well ‘across the pond’, I know for a certainty that this is simply an assumption that I could prove wrong by simply asking you to list the last 25 things that you’ve bought for your home, or that your prospective residential client has bought for their homes.
This is a cop-out, and you’re taking the easy way out. In fact, your very next statement reveals yet another factor that you must also believe matters to the householder:
zeusweiler: householders will always be more picky with work. this is being good at what you do.
me: I couldn’t agree more. Great point. Now, we’re up to three factors, right?
Price.
Reliability.
Excellence in workmanship.zeusweiler: Anyone can pick up any book on marketing and apply the principles to there own business.
me: You do know that this is kind of the whole point of my book, right? Or does my book not count?
zeusweiler: most here already utilise the mass media through the internet and adds in papers and directories. however i cant see it going any further than that, tv adds radio i dont think so.
me: Okay, good – so you’re encouraging WC’ers to have websites and newspaper ads and directory listings, right? I agree, this is important. Next obvious question is – what should these things look like?
What should be on a website?
What should a newspaper ad look like?
Which directories matter most?This is all “marketing”.
And I would add much more to this list of three things above, as you likely would, too. And you would no doubt also agree that each of these things must be developed “properly” to make them as effective as possible.
“Marketing”, again.
zeusweiler: I’m not havin a go at you at all, and apologise if it seems like it.
me: I love the fact that you are challenging my ideas and not me, in fact, I respect you very much for recognizing this important difference in fostering intelligent interchange of thought! Keep at it. Rip apart anything I’m saying if you have reason to believe I’m wrong.
zeusweiler: however if you think you can help people on here post the info for free
me: Please review my signature line, my coaching website, the book preview webpages, and the posts on here that I’ve made before this one, and let me repeat something that I truly mean and stand behind 100%:
Anyone, anywhere, anytime can read my entire 218-page book for FREE.
FREE as in they have 2 months to devour it before they’re billed for it.
FREE as in if they don’t love it, they can send it back for a full refund anytime in the future, even 8 months, 4 years, or 22 years and 7 weeks into the future.
It’s FREE. Free. free. fReE. Anyone can access all this information for free. How else can I articulate this?
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There’s more to this conversation, too, but that’s at least the first part!
(please also note that this is simply my reply to his post on the window-tools forum, it is not a transcript of an actual conversation!)
I would like to hear from you, too, if you are at odds with some of my ideas! Its a great way to learn and more fully understand, by challenging a position, so challenge away!
Wanna learn more about how to effectively and lucratively market your window cleaning company?
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