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Commercial canvassing

OutlaneWC

Active member
Messages
171
Location
West Yorkshire
so I'm thinking about sending a couple of emails out to a few hotels, restaurants and businesses to enquires about window cleaning and just wondered if anyone had any template that's they send or go by? I'm not the best at writing stuff like that and kinda over complicate matters ha

Once again thanks in advance

 
I was sending email to alot to all kind of job. It gave me nothing. The best is go there, Walk in and just ask them.

"Do you have a windy?"

They almost every time say, yes. To get rid of you.

"But why are your windows so dirty?"

"Im giving you a price right now"

Works great for me on smaller job.

Sent using the Window Cleaning Forums app

 
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you need a road in . a good way in is to befriend a current employee of the business and later ask them to ask the decision maker on your behalf . i picked up a big hotel using this method ,my insider found out the current contractors price too which was cool.

 
Honestly you just need to walk in and ask one question 'Who deals with the window cleaning side of things here?'

Ask with authority, no 'errmm, sorry if it's no trouble' or 'could I just get a name?' type stuff.

You OWN the place, you have the right to this information and you are TELLING them to tell you!

8 out of ten people will will simply give you a straight up answer.

 
Some good advice here ,although I'm not sure I like the idea of undercutting a current contractor , there's enough work out there for everyone without having to steal work, and if everyone adopted that philosophy we'll all end up working for nothing.

 
Some good advice here ,although I'm not sure I like the idea of undercutting a current contractor , there's enough work out there for everyone without having to steal work, and if everyone adopted that philosophy we'll all end up working for nothing.
Now please bear in mind @Scribbo that as I write this I am one of the more expensive windys in Nottinghamshire however I still only charge what I believe is a fair price for my time.

If I hear another windy quotes £150 for a job and I think it's a £200 job then that's what the quote goes in at, HOWEVER, if I hear he charges £150 and I think, 'well that's only £100 of work' then that is what the quote goes in at.

What others charge matters not in the least to me, all I care about is charging what I believe is appropriate.

If I happen to have undercut someone by £50 and been awarded the job then that's fine by me, I haven't 'stolen' a damn thing. I have been asked to quote, done just that honestly and gotten a result.

All this about treading on other windys toes, undercutting being wrong etc etc matters not in the least. As any truly experienced chap here knows you will have random Joes on your rounds trying to undercut you 2, 3, 4 times a year, do you lose your round every time? No cause customers are not so fickle that price is all that matters. People want reliability and quality and they also like to be loyal to tradesmen that take care of them.

Just today I took another job of a fellow window cleaner in a small village near me, I did so by charging £5 more than him but the client has come to me ass I do the frames and sills and he simply wont do it. Do I care that I took this work from him? NOPE, he does not pay my bills and put food on my table I do. His loss (laziness) is my gain, will I lose sleep over it? Doubt it.

If I knocked a street of residential houses and said said to all of them 'I'll undercut your present window cleaner by £2 per clean' by the time I got to the end of the street I doubt I would have picked up many if any.

Also in the world of commercial these days, a professional approach, liability insurance, RAMS and reputation go a lot further than a cheap price.

Just my opinion.

 
what you do is Upto you , that explanation seems better than the first , which did come across like you undercut to get work.

Perhaps , on reflection , I'm not truly experienced enough to read that in your first post

 
Risk assessment / method statement , it's an acronym ( I'm sure you could have worked that out so apologies if you could )

 
No , but the lack of clarity in the first post left it open to suggestion that this was the approach , I'm sure some will agree , but tbh that's how I read it and that was my opinion , and whilst I have a hole in my **** I have an opinion

 
And to be fair , in my defence , or anyone else who may have read it as I did , if the price is the price when someone quotes , it is completely and utterly irrelevant what the current contractor charges , thus meaning there's no need to find out the current price .

It's easy for someone to think the only reason for finding out a current cost is to beat it.

 
You will get very little to 0 response from emails.

Most will drop in to there spam folder the others will be opened by a receptionist,secretory,admin assistant who have no care or say in the window cleaning.

 
after while youll get to know how the big commercial boys in your area work. in my area which is coastal holiday region, hotels for the most part are the commercial ,all main hotels/carehomes are done here 3 monthly on a 3 year contract . if youre going to compete with them youv got to hav the capacity to cope with actually doing it. you underprice youll make diddlysquit so you must find out the price beforehand. you can also be sure the big local boys will know about you

i dont do any of this stuff now as iv not the time,and altho iv employees i wasnt big enuff to get serious with the hotels if im honest - but in the time i did a few i learned how it worked. as a small fry i kept getting offered the scraps,the care home trying to pennypinch or hotel who didnt want to do a 3yr contract [avoiding wintertime cleaning]

will always remember one 50 bedder victorian carehome i did and hated doin,fortune has funny ways dont it,well one day the homes handyman took my invoice from me to the office.it seems he then read it and a few weeks later he emailed me, saying he was going to take over the job-at a much lower price [theyll love me was his tone]

,but would i come back if he couldnt cope? i was doing it with 3 employees and it was truly a killer. i didnt reply to his email but iv often wondered how he got along cleaning that !

 
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commercial works are actually underpriced compared to domestic. its volume for commercial.

We do commercial cleaning and its the 'extra over' charges that make up our money. not the price per house.

 
commercial works are actually underpriced compared to domestic. its volume for commercial.
We do commercial cleaning and its the 'extra over' charges that make up our money. not the price per house.
Great thread. Would it be OK to ask please anyone with experience for a chat on here or for some tips please. In short I domestic clean and have a nice round now but with days free and I want to keep some days free too. I have a friend who does the same with his business. We have talked about joining together and doing large properties. We have only just tipped our toes in the water and have landed a school and a huge residential housing authority estate and priced with great returns for the hours we will work. If we can get some work in like this then its just amazing.

I am wanting to ask anyone whom has been down this avenue or has information what avenues are there for gaining work? We have listed care homes,schools etc. but I want to no if there are any direct contacts for specific properties or quicker in roads to local business etc. other than just putting out letters and following up with a face to face visit?

Thanks, any advice would be great as I am sure there are methods we wont think of yet as new to this line of work. All the best /emoticons/smile.png

 
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