Canvassing for expansion

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

@Andy my canvasser is very young but I don't see the revelance of the age situation. She presents herself well and is signing them up left and right no bother.

A large portion of my business is retired people but I would not consider 80 year old granny as I would worry about her doing the miles each day.

Although granny would probably outpace most of us on here.

 

[adamangler]

Do you think they need to be 18 plus though? I've had a lad very keen but he's only 16. Not sure if that's too young

 

[Andy]

Green im not that botherd about her date of birth. its just that its working for you and i was intrested to see her if her age range had something to do with it, ie old person glad to see some one there grand kids age littile chat lovely girl il get me windows done. or mature type person chat about the rashen books powderd eggs not got black out curtains any more il get me windows done. Green i get the feeling you think i was digging i was mearly inquiring there is a diffrence. im sorry if you thought i was being nosey fair play to you you have found somthing that is cheap that works and other people are sure to want to try it. Im just one of those people who likes to no why its working. PS im 55 and if i do a full day now if its raining a 30 year old looks very young to me

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

No need to be defensive or apologetic Andy, I am simply trying to make the point that I think to a degree the age is irreverent. On the other hand this is also gender and age based job in my opinion.

Now for example the right woman / girl could be from late teens to probably early to mid 40s and do very well at canvassing as a woman of that age is generally quite approachable and non threatening on the doors. However a woman older and it could come across as a little desperate. Now the canvasser is just there to sign them up and that's that not to do the actual job however it's the 'perceived' ability of the canvasser that the potential client is considering.

Likewise if you have a 17 - 20 year old young male canvasser that looks like he hasn't started shaving the 'senior' customers will instantly be on the defense when this lad knocks on the door, just human nature as the press continues to bombard us with the beliefs that all teen males are hooligans. Now that's based on them looking like Eminem lookalikes or Millwall fans.

At the opposite end of that spectrum is the preppy, trendy college kids we get all week long here 'chugging' in the terraces, they ring your bell you open the door and your greeted with 'Hello sir, my names Raif, (or Ky or Afeqgfargasfaef (pronounced Dave)) I'm not trying to sell you anything......blah blah waffle waffle, 'save the squid' 'sponsor a poor politician' etc etc.'

Now as my door slams shut on these annoying preppy little buggers I can never remember if they actually managed to finish their first sentence.

Take you 'typical' (if there is such a thing) working class boy of 25 years up to any age really and send them out canvassing and the response will be pretty good as the visual of this chap is what the customer 'expects' a window cleaner to look like.

And unfortunately, regardless of what we claim when the 'P.C.' patrol is in town we are as a nation still extremely racist so you canvasser for optimum success needs to be white preferably with flawless local 'twang / accent'

(Don't bother retorting to that last sentence with 'Well my mate hired a 97 year old Jamaican woman with a Pakistani accent and only one eye and she was blah blah blah.......) Cause we all know your talking $hite.

Do remember, all of these points as purely subjective and are just my personal views so before you all start slating this post just remember that everything said in it is fact, learned the hard way. And whilst the laws say we are not allowed to discriminate against whom we hire, the laws do not take into consideration the mentality of the people that are hiring us.

 

[Andy]

you mentioning the late teens to fortys ladies being generally quite approachable iv noticed in the past that female window cleaners that have posted on here seem to have work poor in mostly approached while working, im not saying they dont work hard to build a round before i get ear bashed

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

It can be quite that simple Andy, I had a girl working for me when I had my first round, she honestly spent more time getting chatted up by men wanting a window cleaner than she did cleaning windows.

My mate in London has a polish girl doing his windows, he only has her as she's a woman, told me personally he wouldn't have bothered if was a bloke.

As for the ear bending, there is no doubt the ladies on here work just as hard as the rest of us and Beccy is one of my idols with her set up.

The only thing I have tried to offer here is an insight as to my opinions of 'our' customers and their frame of minds.

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

Quick update for those that are interested.

She picked up 5 more in three hours today with a value of £72.

So all in all she's performing very steadily and still keen as mustard.

 

[Gabor]

She does a fantastic job for you, please keep us update! If she keep doing this soon she become a professional canvasser.

 

[adamangler]

Well spoke to a couple of interested lads that are supposed to be giving the canvassing a go next week, so lets see what happens..

one of them sounds promising, the other is foreign but spoke well on the phone so i shall test greens theory lol

 

[noddy]

funny that mr green you find this with the woman thing , we have been in the cleaning industry now 114 years handed down and down and down again and we have found that most will responed better to a woman on the door step your customer base is women

when we sign the carpet cleaning van up we put a baby on the side of the van , designed and sign off by a leading marketing company ! as they said hitting our market place

when my wife works with us and people see us out they will 99% of the time go to talk to her this is based on 25 years of carpets / window cleaning

glad shes doing well keep us updated as I am takeing notes

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

i shall test greens theory lol

I am always happy to wage a bottle of Kopperberg on a statement! /emoticons/smile.png)

No new customers yesterday as we had a day off to hit up the sales, me and the Mrs actually went to an outlet mall the Mrs had spied up and I can say I was pleasantly surprised, there, seemed to be no more people there than on a normal day but all the shops had some great deals on the go.

Luckily I have a medium van so could handle the Mrs spree, grabbed some hoodies and shoes for myself and with the seriously low prices on the Radley handbags I told the Mrs to get whatever she liked (trust me she did) /emoticons/smile.png

Well back to work and I was on the debt collections today chasing up the P.I Stakers of the world and Jade was out hitting the doors, today was the first day she hit bonus, bought in 12 customers today netting me just over £160 (all 10 minute jobs) so as well as her hourly she got a £50 bonus. Not too shabby for 4 hours work.

 

[adamangler]

ive found certainly with the carpets this to be true, it almost always the wife who call or gets the husband to call. This is sound logic as historically the woman takes car of the house, although times are changing with the man bag types in most houses it will be the woman.

@Green Pro Clean Ltd i agree with you and i did not want to employ a foreigner as i think you are correct, as i know if a foreigner knocked on my door id be less inclined to entertain them, is that deep rooted racism or what? i dont know, my girlfriend is nigerian which leads me to believe its not, but then why do i think this way

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

glad shes doing well keep us updated as I am takeing notes

I think you are quite new on here @noddy so i feel it my duty to inform you. As per the spirit of another particular thread on this forum should you continue to take notes about how I work and my methodology then you will need to send me a cheque for £220.

For this you will get a certificate of competence, a t-shirt and a sticker for your vans (with my company details on it) - I must inform you that the certificate holds no value as far as recognition from any official body.

You will however have the exclusive use of my methodology within the county in which you are based.

(Can't believed I just bothered to write that) :rofl::rofl:

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

@adamangler it's not the foreigner part that has me saying we are a racist society, it is the 'color' part.

As you know like your self I am married to a foreigner and when she comes to work people always walk up and have a chat with her.

But picture if you will the majority of your client base, I bet the majority is white, now imagine a young Nigerian lad with thick African accent knocking on their doors, I doubt they would do too well, shame, that is just the society in which we live.

I happen to be canvassing here and there for another window cleaner in North Yorkshire at present, many of you on here know him, and he's a Polish lad, super nice fellow, perfect English but still has the accent and he's found it tough canvassing in an area that we are having no problems with. What does that tell us?

 

[Duncs]

great thread green loads of info there

i,ve tried three man team it did work but felt i was having to graft harder than everyone else so back to two man team but i,m taking eight weeks to get round my work

big step to get another van or sell off some graft

never really canvassed for a long time now properly

but there is loads of work in my area

 

[Andy]

if this guy was canvassing for a window cleaning company id get them to clean my windows and im a window cleaner. CHECK IT OUT.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBlF-p3YMw4[/media]

 

[Pickingpaul]

I like your model

You always seem to take everything into account and accurately plan forward whereas i feel like im blindly stumbling around by conparison

Ive had the thought of building my round to full on my own then taking on someone part time to clean with me and get the round done in 2/3 days then use the rest of the week to expand myself until ive built up enough work for a full week every week, then the guy whos been helping can get promoted to doing all the round with a helper, this then frees me up totally to start a new round for myself and so on.

But it sounds like hard work

I can see the benefits of having someone out canvassing and meanwhile you break in the new customers

 

[jamiesmack]

Great thread @Green Pro Clean Ltd . Pleased it is working so well for you. Would you mind me asking what you ask her to say, sales pitch wise when she meets the customer? Ive been really struggling with getting new customers, and I'm not sure if it is what I'm saying, or something else!

 

[Pickingpaul]

Whats your opening line and general pitch jamiesmack?

I think less is more, but in general its a case by case thing

I too would be interested in what green says though /emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

I really should start charging for lessons!

@jamiesmack it really is the simplest thing in the world.

Knock Knock Knock,

Customer: 'Yes?'

Me: 'Hello, sorry to trouble you, I clean your neighbors windows (point down street in random direction) I notice you don't have a regular window cleaner and I was wondering if I can add you to my round?'

Now the customer has two options

Customer A: 'No' So you move on to net house.

Customer B: 'How much?' Now you have the conversation started and the rest is up to you to close it.

Honestly this pitch has always gotten me an average of 1 in every 3 people I speak to sometimes even better returns.

Hope that helps.

 

[Pickingpaul]

Green, i just say this. "Hi (or hello) would you like a window cleaner?" The convo either goes yes or no from there. Im always dressed in my trad gear and have my number name logo t shirt on