7 Sales Mistakes that will Send Your Customers Running!
Start Your Cleaning Biz
7 Sales Mistakes that will Send Your Customers Running!
Are you getting calls about your services but not converting customers? You may be making one (or more!) of these 7 sales mistakes:
Not having a message bank and a professional message.
Congratulations! Your marketing is obviously working and potential customers are calling you. But for whatever reason, you are unable to answer their call.
We know, life happens.
Are you using a message service with a professional sounding message? Potential customers will want to leave a message so that they can talk to you later, but they need to be reassured that they have rung the right number in the first place.
Humorous messages are lots of fun, but not very conducive to a good business. Keep your messages short, simple and business like. Apologise for not being able to be contacted and that you will call back quickly.
This is an important point of contact. Make sure that your message reaffirms that they have made the right decision to call you and that you will talk to them very soon.
Not returning a call a.s.a.p!
This is a big one. If you want the sale, you need to be one of the first people a potential customer talks to. This means you need to be calling back anyone who shows any interest as soon as possible.
Not the next week or day.
Absolutely as soon as possible.
Potential customers are not normally going to wait very long before calling someone else.
As an experiment, try calling a number of tradesmen or services and see how many of them you have to leave messages for and how soon they call back.
I can almost guarantee that a lot of them won’t bother calling you back at all.
Missed opportunities? You bet.
Don’t be one of them. Return calls as soon as you possibly can. It will make all the difference to your business, and it shows potential customers you value them and their business.
Turning up late.
Traffic jams happen. Living in the largest and busiest city in Australia means we know this too well!
But it makes a VERY bad first impression.
This is where google maps becomes handy! Traffic varies during the day (hello school drop off/pick up!) so find out how long it will take to drive there the day before at the same time as your appointment. Then add 15 minutes for parking and walking.
This gives you the best chance of getting there on time and making the best impression!
It’s better to be early than late!
Turning up in overly casual/scruffy/dirty clothes and unclean car.
Now, I’m not saying that you have to wear clothes like you would to a job interview, but you want to be presentable and clean.
This shows respect for yourself, your profession and the people you want to do business with. It also says a lot about your standard for cleaning.
The more you value yourself and your service, the more ‘presentable’ you will want to be and the more you will be able to ask for your work.
It will go a long, long way to building trust and respect with your customers.
Only talking about yourself and never bothering to find out what they want (and especially what they believe makes a good cleaner!).
Sure, a potential customer wants to know about you and what makes you the best service.
But what they REALLY want to know is if you are a good match and will meet their expectations. And how can you show that if you have no idea what their expectations are?
A good service means different things to different people. To one office it may be a record that you have been in to clean. To another, it may be a clean floor or making sure any cobwebs are gone. For others, it’s how their office smells when they start first thing in the morning.
Make sure you find out what a good cleaner means to them by asking thoughtful questions. Listen carefully to any comments they make about your service. It will tell you a lot about what they are after in a cleaner.
For example, if they ask if you did the clean last night – take the initiative to leave a communication book and sign it or leave your card each visit. If they comment on the nice, fresh smell of your chemicals, make sure you use a product that will leave a lingering smell for the next day.
Making it all about price and not about value.
There will always be someone cheaper than you (and yes, they will get customers).
But if you only compete on price, you will be on a race to the bottom.
Are you really willing to work for almost nothing?
The funny thing about price is that lots of people don’t choose the cheapest (and they won’t necessarily choose the most expensive either).
They will more often choose the middle price.
Cheap = unreliable and bad clean.
Expensive = paying for a service that you most likely can get for slightly cheaper!
Middle quote = reliable, quality clean.
How do you show the value that you bring? See the point above, listen carefully to what they say, ask thoughtful questions to draw out what is important to them, then show how you will meet their needs and concerns.
Instant value.
Don’t be afraid to stick to your price if you’re ask to price match. Show customers you value your time and service and they will too!
Not telling what their next step is to start getting your service.
Don’t leave your customer hanging!
Ask for the sale. It could be as simple as ‘when would you like me to start’?
Or let them know very clearly what the next steps are. This may be sending them a quote in writing and following up with a phone call two days later.
But whatever the next step is for your customer to start your service, make sure it is very, very clear and simple, and that they know exactly what it is.
Want to build a cleaning business that is growing AND has regular, loyal customers?
Don’t make any of these 7 sales mistakes!
About Us!
We are the Kimber family and manage our very own successful cleaning business.
Within six months of starting we were supporting ourselves in Sydney, one of the most expensive places in the world to live.
Over the years we have helped people like you start and succeed in their own cleaning business.
We would love to help you too through our new Start Your Cleaning Biz Community starting soon!
We help people start and build their own cleaning business.
We make each step so much easier!
Otherwise you will find us drinking coffee at some wonderful cafe in Sydney :)