Canvassing Company's

[Den]

The Royal Mail thing sounds good especially if your got plently of work and just can't spare the time delivering yourself, on the other hand every time I have delivered myself I have caught people in the garden or they have immediately came out and asked for quotes there and then obviously right place right time, if your a newbie and got the time to leaflet drop and don't like canvassing I would defo recommend delivering them yourself, just remember to have a notepad and pens on you.

 

[adamangler]

I think if you do some quantity of leafletting youself with your chosen flyers you will get some idea on R.O.I. it will depend on what services you are offering and what your pricing is.

For example royal mail is 70 quid per 1000 plus cost of leaflets. So with the cheapest leaflets you are looking at 80 quid. If you average 3 us ties per 1000 at 10 quid each that's 30 quid of regular work. You have to decide if that's a good return no one else. If yiu also put on your leaflets pressure washing and pick up a bonus job then happy days.

Its all experimenation with marketting, just track your figures and fimd something that works.

 

[Poles Apart]

Why would anybody in there right mind pay for such a thing.? Grabbing business off a doorstep by cold calling brings the highest percentage of messers compared to any other marketing, and those charges are mental, could buy est rounds for not much more... Most customers prefer leaflets to read in their own time and talk it over, good online presence, been seen working in the street, or meeting the actually owner/s
I see establised WC still paying out for external canvassers, always makes me wonder why lol.!! Clearly not as busy as they claim....

Save your money and do it yourself if you need it /emoticons/smile.png

You are the first person I've seen that agrees with me that door knocking is the worst way of getting regular work, well said.:thumbsup:

 

[jason1965]

I never base my return on how many customers i get from the advertising, its all about the money not how many customers, i will give you one example, one potential customer rang me and ask me to look at there house, it was abut 10 miles away but they said it was a big house and wanted it done every month, so i went there quoted for the job and got it £50 a month, after abut 3 months they said we own two play groups would you like to quote for them, so i did £50 each per month, so thats £150 a month and since i have been doing them i have cleaned the FSG on there house and the two play groups, £450 i have pressure washed there back patio £250 so with the extras in total thats £700 and £150 a month all last year and this year, so that one leaflet basically nearly paid for all last years cost of advertising and i am going to clean there front drive this year which is massive so will probably be around £600 so you add it all up. So thats why i do not base it on how many customers its about how much money. so i have George window cleaning system, so what i do is an income forecast before the leaflets go out and then at the end of the year what i earned with advertising, and then minus of what the advertising cost. ie income forecast eg £41,000 actual earnings £53,000 cost of advertising £3500 £53,000 minus £3500 = £49500. set that against the income forecast of £41000 so the advertising was basically worth £8500.

 

[adamangler]

I agree with you @jason1965 it's all about the return you get.

In my area your example wouldn't fly as there are very very few areas with property's big enough to be getting those sort of prices. I'm looking for 10 -12 quid semis with my leaflets who might pay 30 quid or so fir there gutters or 50 quid for a conny if I'm lucky.

Its doubtfull in the area I'm targetting that 80 quid plus a 1000 for delivery would yield a great return for me on window cleaning leaflets but I won't know till I try. I've got 10k going out in the next couple of weeks so I will find out soon.

 

[Tuffers]

You are the first person I've seen that agrees with me that door knocking is the worst way of getting regular work, well said.:thumbsup:

An example of how door knocking has worked for me. I leafleted a new build estate of 150 houses. Not one call. I knocked the doors a couple of weeks later on the same estate. Got 16 new customers. Admittedly some have gone by the wayside, one bad payer (still owes me for 2 cleans), one is having financial troubles, one is loopy so I binned her after the first clean and one has decided to do them herself.

 

[Solarpanelcleanington]

Got to do a bit of everything innit.

 

[Poles Apart]

I prefer them to 'knock my door' I leaflet and Facebook put your website out there linked to your Business Facebook Page and on the Leaflets, let them look at what you're about, I've been in this game 22 years decisions on door steps are made on the hoof most end up messers end of.

 

[adamangler]

I prefer them to 'knock my door' I leaflet and Facebook put your website out there linked to your Business Facebook Page and on the Leaflets, let them look at what you're about, I've been in this game 22 years decisions on door steps are made on the hoof most end up messers end of.

It has its place though. When starting out its the quickest and most cost/time effective method of getting new work fast. That's why so many people advocate it, it's not banded about to be the best method for nowt, it works.

I totally agree with you the retention rate from leaflets it's a lot better but it's a lot slower to pick up work in terms of hours put in.

Once you are somewhere near capacity paying for a leaflet drop is the least stress way forward imo.

But you can't say canvassing isnt useful. I hate doing it as much as anyone.

 

[Poles Apart]

It has its place though. When starting out its the quickest and most cost/time effective method of getting new work fast. That's why so many people advocate it, it's not banded about to be the best method for nowt, it works.
I totally agree with you the retention rate from leaflets it's a lot better but it's a lot slower to pick up work in terms of hours put in.

Once you are somewhere near capacity paying for a leaflet drop is the least stress way forward imo.

But you can't say canvassing isnt useful. I hate doing it as much as anyone.

The last time I door knocked was about 5 Years ago picked up 10 Jobs in one Road, 9 of them cancelled over the oncoming Months I haven't door knocked since? The days of Window Cleaning Rows of Houses were left in the 1970's when it was 50p a House I charge a Premium for the Service I provide I give them options such as Morning or Afternoon or Saturday's I don't mind driving to one job as they get charged accordingly most of my work is within a 3 mile radius so I can always fit jobs in with other work either on the way or on the way back.

 

[adamangler]

I haven't done much canvassing because I hate it. I've maybe canvassed 20 customers myself over the last 2 years.i probably have half left at a guess.

I've paid for a fair bit of it mind.

What I've done myself is mainly facebook and leaflets.

I can say without doubt leaflets is a better retention and canvassing is more of a financial outlay. Canvassing has caused me the biggest headaches in terms of messers etc.

But the work i have had canvassed for me gives me my most profitable days simply because it's well priced but more importantly it's because its the most compact.

Like you say the real compact work of house after house is with the guys who've had them 20 years.

Today's example I did 17 houses on 7 streets, that's all canvassed work, with work that's come form leaflets and fb o tend to do average 12-15 a day and it will be over 12-15 streets, also it probably won't be all in the same area so will involve more travel.

The only reason I fork out for canvassing is because I know long term it's going to pay off.

That said 10k leaflets have just arrived on my doorstep today so depending on the return I get will decide how I go forward in future.

Ive got a plan in my mind to have an area canvassed to get a days work there and get a foothold and then continue to leaflet it periodically to fill any gaps that may drop off.

 

[Den]

Last week I dropped approx 100 leaflets got 11 jobs out of that and the last two weeks also pickup 6 other jobs due to recommendation, weeded out my messers recently so hopefully these with turn out good customers.

 

[Tuffers]

I haven't done much canvassing because I hate it. I've maybe canvassed 20 customers myself over the last 2 years.i probably have half left at a guess.

I've paid for a fair bit of it mind.

What I've done myself is mainly facebook and leaflets.

I can say without doubt leaflets is a better retention and canvassing is more of a financial outlay. Canvassing has caused me the biggest headaches in terms of messers etc.

But the work i have had canvassed for me gives me my most profitable days simply because it's well priced but more importantly it's because its the most compact.

Like you say the real compact work of house after house is with the guys who've had them 20 years.

Today's example I did 17 houses on 7 streets, that's all canvassed work, with work that's come form leaflets and fb o tend to do average 12-15 a day and it will be over 12-15 streets, also it probably won't be all in the same area so will involve more travel.

The only reason I fork out for canvassing is because I know long term it's going to pay off.

That said 10k leaflets have just arrived on my doorstep today so depending on the return I get will decide how I go forward in future.

Ive got a plan in my mind to have an area canvassed to get a days work there and get a foothold and then continue to leaflet it periodically to fill any gaps that may drop off.

I'm not sure if I'm reading this post right, but it comes across as though you're contradicting yourself Adam. On one hand you say canvassed work has caused you the biggest headaches with messers and then you say you fork out for canvassing because in the long term you know it will pay off.

I've had a canvassed job cancel via email tonight. I've not even done it yet, it's due next week. I had one in the same road cancel before I got round to clean too. All seems a bit iffy to me. I've emailed him back asking if he's had a lower price. I need to know if I've got competition.

 

[adamangler]

I'm not sure if I'm reading this post right, but it comes across as though you're contradicting yourself Adam. On one hand you say canvassed work has caused you the biggest headaches with messers and then you say you fork out for canvassing because in the long term you know it will pay off.
I've had a canvassed job cancel via email tonight. I've not even done it yet, it's due next week. I had one in the same road cancel before I got round to clean too. All seems a bit iffy to me. I've emailed him back asking if he's had a lower price. I need to know if I've got competition.

What I mean is that a when I take on canvassed work It can be guaranteed that a chunk of it will cause me problems. There will be cancels before the first clean and during the first few months, there will be non payers etc. Basically messers. So I kind of take on the chin that element of it because...

when I look at my most profitable days work its the canvassed stuff because it's compact.

So although at the time it causes problems i know long term it pays off although it may be many months until I get a return on the investment.

I wouldn't say your experience is strange. I'd say it's par for the course with canvassed work. For some odd reason some people just can't sat no to your face then pull all sorts of tricks to get out of it.

The thing that keeps me going through all the messers is the knowledge once I'm pretty much full all I have to do unless I decide to expand is keep it topped up and that can be done via website, fb and leaflets etc. So in the not too distant future it should all come together and life get a lot easier.

 

[Tuffers]

Gotcha

 

[maryfstaples]

I think costs are based on various factors including location and company fame as well. if you are looking for cleaning, you can search affordable, company through making good search online and physically.

 

[BlueClearChoice]

Hi Jason. Who wouldn’t you use? 

 

[jason1965]

Hi Jason. Who wouldn’t you use? 

I only ever use Royal mail, i know i can get cheaper prices, but with the royal mail network, and were i live i know they will get delivered.. As an example i live in the New Forest, and the houses are so spread out it would take me  year to deliver to every house. You can check the post code sectors and see how many houses there are, there is the option to add businesses and it also tell you the price. best thing to do is go and have a play on there website, its called ROYAL MAIL UK CHANGES. dont ask me why its that name i have no idea.here is the link. https://www.ukchanges.com/royalmail/door_to_door/home.asp

 

[P4dstar]

I've employed myself a salesman. A good mate of mine, he works on commission only because I ain't got enough work to give the guy a wage at the moment. He knocks the doors while I clean. Touch wood he hasn't had any cancellations so far but he has taken on a couple muppets. The biggest wins have come from canvassing where we are cleaning, knock the door ''hi, we are cleaning your neighbours windows and wanted to know if anyone else would like a quote?''. This is the old fashioned way it used to work. Once the neighbours actually see you cleaning a lot of fears in their mind are removed. Its easier to tell a customer you collect via direct debit if they can see you're legit, this isn't easy when you just go randomly door knocking.

Prior to taking this chap on I found a lot of messers from canvassing. It can be soul destroying! You knock 100 doors over a few hours, get the door shut in your face countless times and finally pick up 2-3 customers.... then 2 of the 3 go and cancel either after the first clean or before you even get to clean. I've found there is a much higher take up where they can see me working and a lower cancellation rate.

I like the idea of Royal Mail leaflet drops. It would be interesting to see the return on these against just standard leaflet dropping. When the Royal Mail junk comes through my door I just drop it straight in the recycling. The postie even separates the junk mail from the normal post. When I have done leaflet drops myself I have got around a 2% return (roughly) 1% on the day and 1% over the following weeks. I delivered yellow pages a couple of months back and dropped my leaflets at the same time, the return on leaflets delivered with the yellow pages was just 1%. That said these are my best priced customers and have recommended me to their friends and family etc, perhaps the fact they were delivered with the yellow pages made me seem more legit, who knows.

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

I've employed myself a salesman. A good mate of mine, he works on commission only because I ain't got enough work to give the guy a wage at the moment. He knocks the doors while I clean. Touch wood he hasn't had any cancellations so far but he has taken on a couple muppets. The biggest wins have come from canvassing where we are cleaning, knock the door ''hi, we are cleaning your neighbours windows and wanted to know if anyone else would like a quote?''. This is the old fashioned way it used to work. Once the neighbours actually see you cleaning a lot of fears in their mind are removed. Its easier to tell a customer you collect via direct debit if they can see you're legit, this isn't easy when you just go randomly door knocking.

Prior to taking this chap on I found a lot of messers from canvassing. It can be soul destroying! You knock 100 doors over a few hours, get the door shut in your face countless times and finally pick up 2-3 customers.... then 2 of the 3 go and cancel either after the first clean or before you even get to clean. I've found there is a much higher take up where they can see me working and a lower cancellation rate.

I like the idea of Royal Mail leaflet drops. It would be interesting to see the return on these against just standard leaflet dropping. When the Royal Mail junk comes through my door I just drop it straight in the recycling. The postie even separates the junk mail from the normal post. When I have done leaflet drops myself I have got around a 2% return (roughly) 1% on the day and 1% over the following weeks. I delivered yellow pages a couple of months back and dropped my leaflets at the same time, the return on leaflets delivered with the yellow pages was just 1%. That said these are my best priced customers and have recommended me to their friends and family etc, perhaps the fact they were delivered with the yellow pages made me seem more legit, who knows.

Can you send your salesman over to quote my conny roof? ????

 

[Part Timer]

Can you send your salesman over to quote my conny roof? ????

Was he not in the van when he collected the water tank ?