Domestic to Commercial Changing the balance.

[jack b]

I would like to try and change the balance of my customers from, heavily in favour of domestic work to more commercial.

Things are going pretty good and I have enough customers to keep my busy, BUT, I have had a run recently (perhaps due to the weather change / time of year) of customers saying to me " don't bother this month or next month can you do just the front blah blah or, they havn't paid for a couple of months or leave it this month and I will give you a call when we are ready to start up again....you know the drill. Its just starting to niggle me as I try to run a professional / organised small business.

The Commercial work on the other hand never gives me any issue. They don't appear to care whether its rain or shine just pay up on the due dates. (Perhaps I am lucky with the ones that I have)

Anyway, I want to change the balance toward more Commercial work but am loathed to jump through the hoops of contacting Procurement Departments in another part of the country in the hope that I can find the right person that will make a decision in my favour on a local store / office. A lot of the chain stores /coffee houses/Banks etc etc have nationwide contracts that are negotiated by the big cleaning firms, their admin departments and the respective Head Office, wherever that may be in the country.

I don't expect any of you to declare your specific methods of attracting Commercial work on an open forum but any genuinely helpful pointers would be great. I regularly walk into commercial type businesses offering my professional services (window cleaning of course)...... but usually get the same reply," its all dealt with by head office in XXXXX, you should contact them"

A couple of the big boys around here have got commercial work coming out of their ears....it seems. Any tips ?

 

[Eviestevie]

Contracts pay well and I used to love them

Over the years I've dropped the builders cleans and a lot off contract work

This week alone I've dropped 2

Constant calls asking for late payments

Resenting invoices to head office and constantly checking online banking can be a nightmare

Some months I was owed way more than I'd earned

Domestic if priced right you won't be far off commercial pricing without the constant headache

 

[jack b]

Contracts pay well and I used to love themOver the years I've dropped the builders cleans and a lot off contract work

This week alone I've dropped 2

Constant calls asking for late payments

Resenting invoices to head office and constantly checking online banking can be a nightmare

Some months I was owed way more than I'd earned

Domestic if priced right you won't be far off commercial pricing without the constant headache

Thanks for the reply Eviestevie.

Did you have to send lots of letters off to the decision makers to get the commercial work or was it just ,as I have done for my own to date, walk in off the street, ask to speak to the boss and give your patter

 

[spruce]

I would like to try and change the balance of my customers from, heavily in favour of domestic work to more commercial.Things are going pretty good and I have enough customers to keep my busy, BUT, I have had a run recently (perhaps due to the weather change / time of year) of customers saying to me " don't bother this month or next month can you do just the front blah blah or, they havn't paid for a couple of months or leave it this month and I will give you a call when we are ready to start up again....you know the drill. Its just starting to niggle me as I try to run a professional / organised small business.

The Commercial work on the other hand never gives me any issue. They don't appear to care whether its rain or shine just pay up on the due dates. (Perhaps I am lucky with the ones that I have)

Anyway, I want to change the balance toward more Commercial work but am loathed to jump through the hoops of contacting Procurement Departments in another part of the country in the hope that I can find the right person that will make a decision in my favour on a local store / office. A lot of the chain stores /coffee houses/Banks etc etc have nationwide contracts that are negotiated by the big cleaning firms, their admin departments and the respective Head Office, wherever that may be in the country.

I don't expect any of you to declare your specific methods of attracting Commercial work on an open forum but any genuinely helpful pointers would be great. I regularly walk into commercial type businesses offering my professional services (window cleaning of course)...... but usually get the same reply," its all dealt with by head office in XXXXX, you should contact them"

A couple of the big boys around here have got commercial work coming out of their ears....it seems. Any tips ?

You don't say how long you have been cleaning windows, but if you have recently started you will find it takes quite a while before you sift out the messers. 9 times out of 10 the customers you pick up to begin with will be other window cleaners dumped customers, usually because they've been messed around for payment or window clean schedules. (Customer's circumstances also change and so a perfectly good customer can start to become a messer.)

On another forum the saying at one time was the 3 C's, canvass, clean and cull. If you have laid your stall out clearly before your initial clean, then they will know/need to be reminded that extending the time between cleans will increase the price in according with your quotation. If they choose to cancel, then you are sorry you will no longer provide a service to them, but you will have to replace them with another customer. This means that there may not be a slot left should they change their minds. They will also have lost the loyalty pricing they enjoy and will be quoted at the new going rate. Then thank them for their business.

Asking you to stop cleaning windows during winter and resume in Spring usually means that they no longer want their windows cleaned. (In 10 years we only have ever had one that resumed in the spring and finished at the beginning of winter. The following year they no longer wanted our services.)

Commercial customers.

We have never gone out of our way to canvass for commercial as they have come our way via recommendation. We have also found from experience that a really good commercial job can finish very quickly without warning and catch you with your proverbial pants down. When this happened to us we found we had a big monthly clean gap to fill - it was our best paying job we have had to this day. Thankfully we got paid before they went bust and the receiver took over.

In another life I was a commercial van salesman and that required a lot of prospecting (as they called it). The object of the exercise was to find out the name of the responsible person and decision maker who dealt with fleet purchases in that business. Most of that information came from the telephone receptionist, many of who were also good at blocking access to the person you want to deal with.

Usually a quick drive around an industrial estate or business area, maybe on a weekend, will give you a list of local companies to canvass with a telephone number.

To start off with you need to be selective and knock just a couple of doors. You also have to keep your enquiries warm so they don't forget you. Once you get a job then don't be afraid to ask the boss for a referral. Business owners associate with fellow business owners so they are a great source of leads.

Some found it good to become a member of a breakfast club where networking leads are swapped. But you also need to be a 'giver' at these clubs as well.

You also need to ensure you have adequate insurance cover and also are proficient at producing RAMS documents. Health and Safety are on all business managers agenda these days. In fact, it sometime more important that the cleaning job itself.

.

 

[spruce]

Thanks for the reply Eviestevie.Did you have to send lots of letters off to the decision makers to get the commercial work or was it just ,as I have done for my own to date, walk in off the street, ask to speak to the boss and give your patter

Sending introductory letters out is a complete waste of time in our experience - you need to talk to them on the phone. 99% of all introductory letters end up in file 13 and never reach the responsible person. The first thing is to find the right person to deal with and then set up an appointment. At that appointment you need to have found a good reason why that company can benefit from your services.

The first letter you send is after you have had the appointment thanking them for their time a briefly confirming any relevant detail you discussed such as pricing.

 

[spruce]

Contracts pay well and I used to love themOver the years I've dropped the builders cleans and a lot off contract work

This week alone I've dropped 2

Constant calls asking for late payments

Resenting invoices to head office and constantly checking online banking can be a nightmare

Some months I was owed way more than I'd earned

Domestic if priced right you won't be far off commercial pricing without the constant headache

One of the things I enquire about after I get a job is the exact process I need to follow for payment. Each business has their own procedure, and when you know that to the letter, then it makes it less easy for them to loose your invoice or find an excuse to delay payment, especially if you have the name of the responsible person in the accounts department and you email him/her a copy of the invoice directly into their email box.

One of the other things to ask when quoting a job is what their payment terms are. I forgot with one of the latest ones we do. It ends up that our invoice will be paid on the cheque run at the end of the month following the month our invoice was approved for payment. If we do the job in the last week of the month, there is a good possibility the invoice won't get onto the next month's payment run, in effect getting another 30 days from us. So we do the job a week earlier.

As it is the payment run at month end means the cheques only get sent out in the middle of the following month, so in effect they can get up to 60 days from us before payment is made.

It unfair, but that's the nature of the beast.

.

 

[jack b]

Sending introductory letters out is a complete waste of time in our experience - you need to talk to them on the phone. The first thing is to find the right person to deal with and then set up an appointment.
The first letter you send is after you have had the appointment thanking them for their time a briefly confirming any relevant detail you discussed such as pricing.

Thanks Spruce, that's been very helpful and informative reading.

I have been going about 4/5 years off and on and have a few hundred customers. Most are pretty good in fairness but I've just had a poor run of messers lately and it has stirred me up to take some action.

I have tried the formal letter to many businesses /schools and a like but never had any success, mirroring your own experience.

The owner of one commercial business that I clean did invite me once to a Breakfast Club when I first started cleaning his premises. He explained to me what it was but I didn't feel comfortable with it at the time and declined. I realise now that I probably should have.

Thank you for your ideas.

 

[Dave B]

Breakfast clubs don't work for our game

Means you are out at one of those rather than working once or twice a week and you get to pay a grand a year for the privilege

I could have done a couple of commercial jobs or a few houses in that time

You could be lucky and find one with someone in property management there who could help you but you would have to be lucky

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

I have been going about 4/5 years off and on

A perplexing statement Jack. 4-5 years 'off and on'

Not being rude but that sounds to me like you may not have been the most reliable window cleaner on your turf but yet you still expect loyalty from your clients? Am I mistaken?

I am into year 4 this time round and found it took 3 years to squeeze out the wasters properly.

Some of my favorites are the 'carrot danglers'

'Yes I want a quote for my two bed bungalow and if you're any good I'll get you set with my 250 dear friends that want a window cleaner' They make me laugh. I always tell them the price is the price, once they have put a few friends my way I'll take care of them, a free gutter clean or something.

As Spruce says the commercial is a gamble, lose one and it's quite a hit to the books. Also if you are living on daily cash flow waiting for payment can be a pain in the but.

It has been a strange week, commercial inquiries have been quite this summer and no just this past week I have closed deals with two schools plus a large commercial with six buildings on the one site. You have to know their payment structure, follow it to the letter, it is incorporated in my contract, If they don't pay within the time they specify then there is and additional £30 admin fee to cover reminders etc. I also wont take any commercial that wont agree three years contract as I don't want to put in the first couple of cleans and all the effort to get them nice then lose them to some noob coming along undercutting people.

I personally prefer decent residential but will take commercial on my terms.

Good luck.

 

[jack b]

Breakfast clubs don't work for our gameMeans you are out at one of those rather than working once or twice a week and you get to pay a grand a year for the privilege

I could have done a couple of commercial jobs or a few houses in that time

You could be lucky and find one with someone in property management there who could help you but you would have to be lucky

That's one of the things that I said back to him (Being there when I should be working on the glass) but he said that I would get out of it much more than I put in !

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

BNI is the main breakfast club across the UK.

You can attend a couple as a guest without having anyone invite you, just rock up and pay something lie £10 for the breakfast.

Everyone there will give you a card and from there you can judge whom is of any use to you.

I went along for a couple of weeks but passed on membership.

 

[jack b]

A perplexing statement Jack. 4-5 years 'off and on'
Not being rude but that sounds to me like you may not have been the most reliable window cleaner on your turf but yet you still expect loyalty from your clients? Am I mistaken?

Hi Green, no problem at all but yes, quite mistaken. What I meant was..... my first year was not full time because I had another full time job and the window cleaning was in addition to that. The full time job involved shift work, I would do the windows in the morning before I went in for an afternoon shift and also after I had done a morning shift. They were long days but that's how I cut my teeth then.

I take pride in the work that I do and treat others as I would wish to be treated. Reliability and courtesy are two of my strengths and I have lost just a handful of customers in those years.(messers)

I do like the idea that you only go for commercial work on your terms though, That's a powerful statement and puts you in control. Of course, that confidence comes with experience and I can see, has been well thought out.

I didn't appreciate that the commercial work was such "a gamble".

Its great to have this facility i.e. The Forum, to air these ideas and learn from more experienced folk. It puts different perspectives on your thoughts and I find it very helpful.

Cheers

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

In my opinion glass is glass dosn't matter if it's residential or commercial I know people with vary good residential only rounds with 0 messes and earning great money.

You can get grief and agro from both commercial isn't always the golden goose people think.

I am mainly commercial and by next year will be commercial only for me it works the main reason for me is commercial is the type of work I prefer and I enjoy it more.I would much rather do one or two big jobs a day than 15 houses.i personally can earn a lot more on commercial.

But commercial has its risks you only have to lose a couple of jobs for the impact to be massive.I also know companies doing certain commercial jobs for very low prices and next to nothing so sometime not all is what you see.

Commercial can also require a greater investment some jobs may require a larger pole and a big job will use plenty of water so backpack and trolleys won't be practical.

I won't say on an open forum how I gain work too many lurkers on here but what I will say is who you know can play a major part the last couple of jobs I gained all approached me.

 

[noddy]

You don't say how long you have been cleaning windows, but if you have recently started you will find it takes quite a while before you sift out the messers. 9 times out of 10 the customers you pick up to begin with will be other window cleaners dumped customers, usually because they've been messed around for payment or window clean schedules. (Customer's circumstances also change and so a perfectly good customer can start to become a messer.)
On another forum the saying at one time was the 3 C's, canvass, clean and cull. If you have laid your stall out clearly before your initial clean, then they will know/need to be reminded that extending the time between cleans will increase the price in according with your quotation. If they choose to cancel, then you are sorry you will no longer provide a service to them, but you will have to replace them with another customer. This means that there may not be a slot left should they change their minds. They will also have lost the loyalty pricing they enjoy and will be quoted at the new going rate. Then thank them for their business.

Asking you to stop cleaning windows during winter and resume in Spring usually means that they no longer want their windows cleaned. (In 10 years we only have ever had one that resumed in the spring and finished at the beginning of winter. The following year they no longer wanted our services.)

Commercial customers.

We have never gone out of our way to canvass for commercial as they have come our way via recommendation. We have also found from experience that a really good commercial job can finish very quickly without warning and catch you with your proverbial pants down. When this happened to us we found we had a big monthly clean gap to fill - it was our best paying job we have had to this day. Thankfully we got paid before they went bust and the receiver took over.

In another life I was a commercial van salesman and that required a lot of prospecting (as they called it). The object of the exercise was to find out the name of the responsible person and decision maker who dealt with fleet purchases in that business. Most of that information came from the telephone receptionist, many of who were also good at blocking access to the person you want to deal with.

Usually a quick drive around an industrial estate or business area, maybe on a weekend, will give you a list of local companies to canvass with a telephone number.

To start off with you need to be selective and knock just a couple of doors. You also have to keep your enquiries warm so they don't forget you. Once you get a job then don't be afraid to ask the boss for a referral. Business owners associate with fellow business owners so they are a great source of leads.

Some found it good to become a member of a breakfast club where networking leads are swapped. But you also need to be a 'giver' at these clubs as well.

You also need to ensure you have adequate insurance cover and also are proficient at producing RAMS documents. Health and Safety are on all business managers agenda these days. In fact, it sometime more important that the cleaning job itself.

.

this guy put s it so nice as is on the money , heres the short version ,
your round is full of arseholes that need to be binned off asap , everytime you get a new job bin one of these off that way you wont feel it , tell them from the off your rules , I explain that we clean in the rain , that we don't do leave it unit next time ect ect , " just say to them that you cant pay your morage next time on a odd month " this is what we do and it works ,

Commercial customers are great until they don't pay , your debt list will be like mine 5-15k in the red most times so if your one of these that cry and hound your custmers for payment then stop away from commercial work .

we lost a change of nurseing homes to someone else last year which cost us 24k a year as they were cheaper then use buy 5pound per job !

you lose one small job at 15 every 4w you wont even remember there name in 3 months time , lose 2 grand a month in one phone call you poop your pants and wounder how you bills are getting paid

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

I won't say on an open forum how I gain work too many lurkers on here on here but what I will say is who you know can play a major part the last couple of

Ronnie Pickering? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

 

[spruce]

I find it quite worrying is how we have quite a small number of commercial jobs when compared to residential (just on 2%), but that those commercial jobs account for nearly 30% of our annual turnover.

What I haven't done (as its far more complicated) is to try to compare the time those commercial jobs take annually against the time it takes to do the residential customers. After all one commercial job once a year takes us a full 4 days. All I can say is that our hourly rate is better on the commercial we do, but then we also work a lot harder.

 

[spruce]

this guy put s it so nice as is on the money , heres the short version ,
your round is full of arseholes that need to be binned off asap , everytime you get a new job bin one of these off that way you wont feel it , tell them from the off your rules , I explain that we clean in the rain , that we don't do leave it unit next time ect ect , " just say to them that you cant pay your morage next time on a odd month " this is what we do and it works ,

Commercial customers are great until they don't pay , your debt list will be like mine 5-15k in the red most times so if your one of these that cry and hound your custmers for payment then stop away from commercial work .

we lost a change of nurseing homes to someone else last year which cost us 24k a year as they were cheaper then use buy 5pound per job !

you lose one small job at 15 every 4w you wont even remember there name in 3 months time , lose 2 grand a month in one phone call you poop your pants and wounder how you bills are getting paid

I couldn't agree more.

In the financial crash of 2008 we lost 3 residential customers directly as a result of the downturn. We lost that big commercial clean which sent ripples into our business finances for quite sometime afterwards. We got paid in full but it left a big monthly gap to fill. This is why I tried to focus on residential. Loose one and its not the end of the proverbial world.

 

[Cghwindowcleaning]

Ronnie Pickering? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

What does Ronnie Pickering mean?

 

[Dave B]

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