Cleaning Business Owner Archives

9 Word Email That Will Get Your Phone Ringing With New Clients Today

May 30, 2017 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

9 Simple Words That Will Get Your Phone Ringing

Ah, customers. For some of us in the cleaning industry, attracting new customers is what we do day in and day out. For others the fear of trying to attract new customers can feel SO big and SO crushing that it shuts us down completely from actually doing any prospecting at all.

Prospecting, whether by direct mail, telephone, cold calling – whatever your preferred method is, can be time consuming and battering to the ego…

No-one, likes to be told ‘no’ all day long…

Sometimes the things we want to do the least, we need to do the most

Here’s the thing though, we often give up WAY too early. According to Forrester Research, “Companies that nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost 33% lower than non-nurtured leads.”

If you’ve been part of the Cleaning Marketer community for any length of time, you’ll know that we regularly discuss follow up and how important it is to growing a cleaning business. If you’re new here, welcome, you can check out past blogs on this subject here and here, or head on over to the Cleaning Marketer Blog to check out our other articles.

In today’s video, you’ll learn a great new way to re-engage with your prospects who may have gone a little, shall we say, stale? These prospects you may have followed up a couple of times, and for whatever reason, you didn’t hear back.

You’re going to love this tip…and it will literally take you just minutes to action in your cleaning business.

Now I’d love to hear from you. Reply in the comments below.

How do you personally keep in touch with your prospects – what works well for your cleaning business?

Share as much detail as possible in your reply. Thousands of incredible cleaning business owners come here for insight and inspiration and your words may be exactly what someone else needs to hear to move ahead in their business journey..

Important: share your thoughts and ideas directly in the comments. Links to other posts, videos, etc. will be deleted as they come across as spammy.

Cleaning isn’t just cleaning. It’s a thriving business full of dedicated and hardworking business owners and entrepreneurs who see the value in investing in their own education, and offering 21st century solutions to their customers.

“To anyone that ever told you you’re no good … They’re no better”. Hayley Williams

Lisa x

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Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

PS A FREE REPORT FOR YOU: “How To Get Cleaning Clients Even If You’re Brand New To The Cleaning Industry”

Go Grab Your Free Copy By Clicking On This Link: Here

Want fast access to great information to help you build and grow your cleaning business? Go ‘Like’ us on Facebook or hit the ‘Subscribe’ Button on You Tube.

5 Top Cleaning Industry Events You Should Attend in 2017

April 19, 2017 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

It’s one of my favorite things to do… Attend cleaning industry events – either conferences or exhibitions and literally surround myself with people who are passionate about the same things as me – entrepreneurship, marketing, their businesses and of course, cleaning..

As far as I’m concerned, attending industry events are a must do if you’re looking to grow your cleaning business.

Why? Because you get the opportunity to hang around other successful people and learn from experts while you’re there. AND, you’ll not only get a host of new ideas and inspiration, you’ll also start to operate on a new level (and probably make some great industry friends and contacts while you’re there).

So that’s our focus today – getting inspired, and making a decision to take action and book an event to attend…

Before we dive in though, I wanted to share something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago while I was at an event. .

My husband Hamish and I attended a 2 day marketing conference event in San Diego, CA and as with most events, there were various networking opportunities where you could informally meet other business owners and entrepreneurs.

It was a great event and a lot of fun..

But there was something that happened while we were there that I wanted to share with you, because I know you don’t want to make this mistake.

So, there we were at the first “official” event the night before the conference actually began. Three hundred and fifty business owners and entrepreneurs in this lovely hotel, all asking *kind of* the same question to each other…

“So… what business are you in”?

And you can imagine, some people in the room were powerhouses of the “elevator pitch”, while others just shared what they actually did.

It was great…

Until, we met let’s just call him “Jason”.

Now Jason, was from Alabama, and he was in a bricks and mortar business. And “Jason” was kind of a big deal. He regaled us with stories of the different cleaning businesses he’d hired (and fired) over the years, and each sounded worse than the previous. And then he said:

“So tell me, why would you fly all this way to go to a conference – how could being here help your business when all you do is clean”?

Um… whaaaaaaaaat?

For the record, I put him straight right away… but, his comment made me think about you guys. And to be honest, I rarely meet many other cleaning business owners at events I go to (and I go to a lot of conferences each year).

So where are you, and what conferences ARE you attending?

Is it because you believe what “Jason” thinks is true (and I really hope that’s not the case)… because in the cleaning industry we need to stay up to date. Things have changed (big time) and as business owners, it’s important to stay connected and keep learning.

I’m about to fly back to the US in a couple of days (yes, that’s right. I’ve flown to the US twice in the past month from Australia)

Why?

Because if you’re not continuously working on educating yourself and staying connected by attending cleaning industry events, you and your business may find you’re being out-marketed by your competitors, and you’re using outdated methods that have stopped working.

Have you ever wondered why what worked a few years ago, now is a lot less effective?

It’s because things in our business are changing all the time…

That’s why I head to conferences like the Infusionsoft’s annual user event, ICON every year in Phoenix, AZ. Even if you aren’t an Infusionsoft customer, this event is THE event for small business – because of the amazing speakers, and the educational content alone it’s worth the trip.

And full disclosure here – it was at this event that our very own cleaning business, Cleancorp, won the Small Business ICON Award in front of 3000+ business owners (you can check that out here.)

And I really LOVE attending this event – but even if we didn’t have automation, this is a cool event to learn great sales and marketing principles from..

So, want to know what other events you should be putting on your calendar?

Infusionsoft ICON 2017 Event – 25-27 April, Phoenix, AZ – Going? See you there.

Lisa Macqueen, Infusionsoft Cleaning Business ICON, Infusionsoft for Cleaning Businesses

Meet Us At ICON – Phoenix, AZ – 25-27 April, 2017

Reframe Janitorial Conference by Swept (My friends at Swept have invited me to speak at a few of their Reframed events, so keep an eye out for those dates)

ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo (I’ll be speaking as part of a panel – Melbourne, Australia)

ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo

Here’s a few more that you should definitely aim to attend:

ISSA Interclean North America (September, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV)

BSCAI Annual Convention (September, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV)

ARCSI Event (September 2017 – venue TBD)

So “Jason”, let me put you straight on this…

I’d love to hear from you – what conferences are you planning on attending this year? Leave me a message below, and who knows, I just might see you there… 🙂

“People don’t resist change, they resist being changed”. Peter Senge

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

PS A FREE REPORT FOR YOU: “How To Get Cleaning Clients Even If You’re Brand New To The Cleaning Industry”

Go Grab Your Free Copy By Clicking On This Link: Here

Want fast access to great information to help you build and grow your cleaning business? Go ‘Like’ us on Facebook or hit the ‘Subscribe’ Button on You Tube.

How To Change Your Cleaning Business into a Success (Even If You’ve Made Some Mistakes)

January 16, 2017 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered how to change your cleaning business into a success, even though you know you’ve made some mistakes…?

If you’re anything like most people, you may scroll through your Facebook or Linked In newsfeed and marvel at how amazing and successful everyone is – all the good news they share, the awards, the accolades, the adulation…

Do you ever think about the other option?

What would it look like if your feed was full of bad news, bad decisions, things that didn’t work, awards that they didn’t win…

I was wondering about this myself the other day, and thinking

“Wouldn’t it be cool to learn from other peoples’ mistakes sometimes?”

So, I’m going to share something I’ve NEVER shared with my community before – because this was definitely a mistake…

A big, fat, embarrassing failure.

Back in 2008/09 my husband’s cleaning company, Cleancorp, was starting to do really well, and I thought to myself… well if we’re ‘cleaning up’ (pardon the pun) on Google with one company, imagine how well we’d go if we had 2 cleaning companies on the first page of Google…

How To Change Your Cleaning Business into a Success (Even If You've Made Some Mistakes)

My big, fat failure, The White Lotus Team…

It had to be different of course. Look and sound different, and of course have a different service offering – so after months and months of work, building the website, writing the content and finding just the “right” images (not to mention the considerable expense), The White Lotus Team was born.

This cleaning business was focused on providing green cleaning and (of all things) feng shui services – I wanted to provide services that I thought would make us SO DIFFERENT that no-one would be able to match our offering (I know, right… WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking?!!!).

So, we promoted it with Google Adwords campaigns, and got a big fat zero – week after week. Sure people were hitting the page, but there just weren’t any conversions – you see, I hadn’t gone out to the market and done what I should have done:

A TON OF RESEARCH

Months went by, and I stubbornly tweaked, the copy on the website, changed the images, updated the ads – and literally by this time, had ONLY 2 customers – who incidentally didn’t give a ‘fig’ about the feng shui services, they just wanted a clean office…

Meanwhile, we were still spending a lot of money on Google Adwords. Our ROI (If I’d had the courage to measure it back then…) would have been definitely on the ‘minus’ scale.

And as any small business owner can attest, you’d just can’t afford to waste money – sometimes, you’ve just got to face the truth.

My day of truth came – it was hard, and I felt like a complete failure, but I had to close The White Lotus Team down… ironically, not that much to close, because we only had 2 clients, which we switched to our other (successful) cleaning business :)…

So today’s blog video is for cleaning business owners who have experienced a failure, a disappointment, or perhaps an unfortunate discovery in your cleaning business. You need to watch this video, and once you have, I’d love to hear your feedback. What have you done that you wish you hadn’t in your cleaning business? What are you doing better today than you’ve ever done before..? Leave me your comments below and I promise I read and reply to every one.

Ok, so now you have my confession…. 🙂

Ready to hear what we need to do to recover from our mistakes, and what may be holding you back right now, from success? Here’s how to change your cleaning business.

Click here to watch…

Lisa Macqueen – CEO & Founder, Cleaning Marketer

P.S. If you’re serious about business growth, come join us at Cleaning Marketer – a community where cleaning business owners gain access to information that attracts prospects, makes sales and keeps top clients on their roster. Need a few quick ideas to get you started?

Click here to grab your free copy of “How To Get More New Clients, Even If You’re New To the Industry” ..

Today’s quote:

“One of the main reasons we struggle with insecurity: we’re comparing our behind-the-scenes with everybody else’s highlight reel”. Unknown.

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Want fast business growth? Register for the next Cleaning Business School – Fast Growth Ideas for Cleaning Businesses who want to attract more prospects, make more sales and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City in 2017? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now

PS A FREE REPORT FOR YOU: “How To Get Cleaning Clients Even If You’re Brand New To The Cleaning Industry”

Go Grab Your Free Copy By Clicking On This Link: Here

The 10 Best Podcasts & Resources for Cleaning Business Owners

December 13, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: Dayne Topkin

The 10 Best Podcasts & Resources for Cleaning Business Owners

When I was starting out in the cleaning business, all I wanted to do was find other (more successful) cleaning business owners…. it would have been awesome to have had a list of the 10 best podcasts and resources for cleaning business owners back then -:)

I dreamed of hanging out with them… talking about new ideas to attract customers or staff, or just to have a sounding board when I was unsure of something…

It can be really lonely being a cleaning business owner….

My friends weren’t overly entrepreneurial (and a lot weren’t business owners), so they just couldn’t relate to some of the daily issues I was going through as a cleaning business owner. They thought I was crazy to be working so hard in my business….

I needed to find people who ‘got’ me and who I could learn off ….

People who had been where I was, down in the trenches, who had actually grown a cleaning business beyond just a “hobby” and weren’t doing things the old fashioned way…

Are You Still Doing Things The Old Fashioned Way In Your Business?

Photo Credit: Nirzar Pangarkar

I wanted to learn new stuff…

None of the so-called “Gurus” ever talked about cleaning businesses – so I was left to figure things out the long way (read: the hard way)…

I became absolutely driven to learn more about the cleaning industry – and yes, if I’m honest, it became kind of an obsession..

I wanted to understand every possible way that I could make a bigger impact with our customers and our staff.

AND YOU SHOULD TOO……

You see as Cleaning Business Owners, you’re problem solvers and relationship builders.

The thing is though, you’re busy “being” that – right? If you’re like most cleaning business owners, every day you’re facing a different set of challenges.

You know you should be “doing” social media, but have absolutely no idea where to start right? (HINT: Click Here to learn that)

You’d probably love to have a quick “go-to” list of podcasts and resources specifically for cleaning business owners right? How about a community you could interact with?

Sounds good doesn’t it? Not being alone in your business anymore…

You Don't Have To Be Lonely In Your Cleaning Business Anymore

Photo Credit: © kieferpix

So, I curated this cool list for you – in it you’ll find some of the finest podcasts, resources and thought leadership on the cleaning industry, and my prediction:

The cleaning business owners who become “experts” in their area, win. They win better staff and better customers.

And look, there’s no need to feel overwhelmed; it’s quick and easy to press play on a podcast during your morning commute or scan a quick article while your lunch is heating up. And we’ve made it even easier by curating a list of the most crucial ways to stay in-the-know.

The following resources are in no particular order of importance –so whether you like to read, watch or listen to information here goes – just make it your mission to start somewhere!

Top 10 Podcasts and Resources for Cleaning Businesses

Photo Credit: © alexmillos

Here’s Our Top 10 List:

The Quick Talk Podcast hosted by Josh Latimer is dedicated to helping business owners succeed. This episode divulges how to get more cleaning clients and grow quickly with a Power Followup Planning Checklist. New talks are posted every Tuesday and Friday.
Savvy Cleaner is a site dedicated to providing training and certifications for house cleaners. With tips and training services, you’ll be confident that your team is delivering high quality cleaning to your clients.
The first news and information source dedicated solely to the cleaning industry, Cleaning Business Today lists tools, techniques, industry best practices and tricks of the trade in a streamlined environment.
INCLEAN Magazine offers up the latest news and events so you can always be at the forefront of the cleaning community. This is both a print and digital magazine that sends out regular email newsletters as well, so it covers all the bases.
If you believe better communication resolves many of the major challenges in your line of work, Swept’s blog (and their incredible software) may be right for you. Swept is devoted to showing owners how to get the most out of their employees with software that assists with time tracking, scheduling, reporting, instructions and supplies, so you can focus on the bigger picture, (and they just happen to write a killer blog) -:)
Though not directly related to the cleaning business, The Tim Ferriss Show is an incredibly insightful podcast for expanding your reach. Voted iTunes’ Best of 2014 and Best of 2015, this guy knows how to draw the celebrity guests, but more importantly, how to reveal unique bits of business wisdom you can’t find anywhere else.
From dealing with cleaning services to cash flow, the Grow My Cleaning Company podcast covers it. Hosted by Mike Campion you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode, no matter your schedule
The Cleaning Business Forum on Facebook states that “all cleaning business owners are welcome” to join this group. Focused on giving and receiving advice from fellow owners, this is truly a grassroots way to stay involved and learn from others.
Cleaning Owners is another Facebook group you can join that asks the tough questions while dispensing regular encouragement. This group is especially recommended for those just starting out.
If LinkedIn is more your thing, Growth Strategies for Commercial Cleaning Professionals is the group for you. This discussion is targeted more toward expansion and other advanced topics rather than the challenges that beginning cleaning owners typically face.

UPDATE:

After feedback from my community, it looks like # 9 isn’t a very active Facebook Group – so if you’re in the Maid Service space, go check out the ZenMaid Group on Facebook…

Of course, you’re here on our very own information platform – the Cleaning Marketer Blog and we’re completely focused on helping you achieve your entrepreneurial goals, and shorten your learning curve in the cleaning business.

So be sure to stay connected with us as we cover everything a modern cleaning business owner needs to know – sales and marketing, systems and processes (that actually work for cleaning businesses), how to hire (and sometimes, fire) staff, social media, and the list goes on and on…

In fact. Could you do me a favour?

If there’s an area within your cleaning business where you need help, and you’d like me to either do a video or a blog article on it (or even a free webinar) – I’d be happy to, because chances are it will help you and it will probably help others too….

So, leave a message in the comments section below outlining what you’d like me to cover for you – I read and reply to every message…

Hopefully you’ll find these resources beneficial to your cleaning business. Owning a business is challenging, and you don’t have to feel alone when navigating the murkiness of hiring, managing, meeting service expectations and increasing margins. There are people out there like you who are experiencing similar situations and are making it work for them.

If you’re serious about business growth, come join us at Cleaning Marketer – a community where cleaning business owners gain access to information that attracts prospects, makes sales and keeps top clients on their roster. Need a few quick ideas to get you started?

Click here to grab your free copy of “How To Get More New Clients, Even If You’re New To the Industry” ..

Today’s quote:

“Merely surviving is not the same as truly thriving”. William C Taylor

Lisa x

………………………………………………………………………………………………

First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Want fast business growth? Register for the next Cleaning Business School (Starting Jan 2017) – 8 Weeks of Fast Growth Ideas for Cleaning Businesses who want to attract more prospects, make more sales and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City in 2017? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now

PS A FREE REPORT FOR YOU: “How To Get Cleaning Clients Even If You’re Brand New To The Cleaning Industry”

Go Grab Your Free Copy By Clicking On This Link: Here How To Get More Cleaning Clients, Even If You're New To The Cleaning Industry

7 Cleaning Client On Boarding Mistakes (That Ruin Relationships Before They Start)

November 8, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

In the ferociously competitive cleaning industry it can be difficult to make a new sale, and you did it – congratulations… you just won another new client – great work!

However…..

Signed contracts (actually, I don’t like using that term – can we go with ‘paperwork’ instead?) are only half of the cleaning business puzzle, the other half being client retention. There are milestones that happen early on in client onboarding that significantly impact the relationship down the road, and your ability to retain a client for much, much longer.

So, how do you go from that initial hand shake to years-long, steady paperwork renewals?

By avoiding the easy-to-miss mistakes that have been stunting the growth of cleaning businesses. Below are some of these crucial mistakes and how you can avoid them.

You don’t match expectation with service.

During the on boarding meeting, discuss your new customer’s goals and set them beside your company’s deliverables. Ensure your team is up to the task, that the client doesn’t have unreasonable expectations and that everybody knows what they’re getting all within the same meeting. You’ll be saving everyone time.
You haven’t built any rapport.

Creating an authentic connection from the beginning lays the groundwork for continually fostering trust and understanding throughout the business relationship. Plus, a solid foundation keeps clients happy long-term and smoothly covers any unexpected bumps that may appear later.
You don’t have all the information you need to do the job well.

In order to prep your team for success, you need to know all the little details. Create a checklist for initial meetings to confirm you’ve thought of everything. Is there an alarm code for the building? How many sets of keys are involved? Should your team be watering plants as part of the cleaning service? Are there items laying out that shouldn’t be handled? Questions like these will help you help them. Your new client needs to see your value right away, and this step gets you there. The client seeing an immediate, tangible improvement in their environment instills a dramatic, lasting impression.
They don’t have all the information they need.

As you’re probably aware, it works both ways. Are there specific processes a new client needs to understand before your team gets started? Have you talked through process, timeline, schedule, relevant team members? Covering these bases in the onboarding meeting is a game-changer.
You don’t have a system for consistent communication.

Establish a S.Y.S.T.E.M (save yourself some time, energy & money) for emailing, calling and face-to-face meetings so that communication stays open. Having these steps for client interaction in place gives you the opportunity to maintain positive relationships. There should be steps for contacting before the initial meeting and immediately post-meeting, as well as long term follow-up.
You don’t market to your existing clients.

Yes, you read that right. Marketing happens before, during and after a sale – Think of it like this – at the beginning, you’re a problem solver and relationship builder…. Their problem is they need cleaning services… Perfect, that’s just what you specialize in…

Now for the relationship building… Think of this as kind of like a romance… You meet the perfect ‘someone’ who’s looking for great cleaning services… what next?

Well – you gotta flirt a little right? (and no, I don’t mean literally…!) When a new prospect and potential client comes into your sales ‘funnel’ your job is to ‘flirt’ with them – you go and meet with them at their site or residence, you make sure you look sharp, and you’re on time, you listen to them and let them speak more than you…. in essence you’re building a relationship so that they will eventually know, like and trust you…

quote

If you’re in a relationship, you don’t stop the romance right? In fact, to have a long and happy relationship you need to be impressing and romancing them for ever more 🙂 ….

Same thing with your clients – romance them… flirt with them, win them over, and then continue to always show them that you care about them and their business by staying in touch, include thank-you notes, holiday greetings, account reviews, survey cards and testimonial requests, and providing great service….

Give So Much They Can’t Ignore You…

When was the last time you looked at your list of clients and wondered ‘how could I help them grow their business?” You would be shocked at how many of your clients could do with a hand…. Have you lost a client because their business is down? Maybe you know someone who could use their service… remember the Law of Reciprocity… it works!

Click here to grab your free copy of “How To Get More New Clients, Even If You’re New To the Industry” ..

Today’s quote:

Take the time every day to be grateful and thankful for everything you have. You can always have more, but you could also have less. Unknown.

Lisa x

………………………………………………………………………………………………

First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Want fast business growth? Register for the next Cleaning Business School – 8 Weeks of Fast Growth Ideas for Cleaning Businesses who want to attract more prospects, make more sales and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City in 2017? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now

How to Hire & Retain the Best Cleaning Employees

October 27, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

How to Hire & Retain the Best Cleaning Employees

You’re a diligent boss who’s careful to hire the ‘standouts’….but you’re finding it challenging to say the least, to get the right applicants to even show up for an interview, much less be a great fit for your cleaning business.

You hope they’ll stick around so that you can continue to provide superior service to your clients with a reliable cleaning team. You want to keep hiring exceptional people, but also recognize and encourage a long-term commitment to the job. Below are some practical examples on how to do just that.

Know Your Company’s Hiring Reputation.

It’s great to know your reputation with clients in order to stay profitable, but knowing how prospective employees regard your company is also essential. Your public persona inadvertently tells those out in the job market how they’ll be treated. Does your staff speak of you highly? Do your social media channels and website give the impression that your company offers a rewarding experience for its employees? College kids with good grades can also make amazing staff, just ask Student Maid… Each of their team must meet a 3.5 minimum GPA requirement to even be considered for the job – and they’re having great success in hiring great staff, who are committed to them and their clients.

Pro Tip: Become a ‘role-model’ company…. the type of organization that people look at as more than just a paycheck. Be a paycheck with purpose…

Conduct Interviews with Current Staff.

We know it seems strange, but interviewing existing employees who’ve made it through the long haul with you can be incredibly beneficial in the hiring process. Find out the reasons for their loyalty and what makes your company a great place to work. Offer a referral bonus program to encourage employees to recruit good prospects for you…

Establish the Right Company Culture

Allow staff to develop strong bonds. Make your company a place of respect and active listening. If your employees feel like their feedback is heard and even implemented occasionally, it can make a significant impact in workplace contentment. Treating people well, especially in the early stages of employment, is proven to boost retention, and will definitely boost loyalty.

Pro Tip: Ask your team: “What can we do to help make your job better?”

Recognize That Rewards Go Beyond Money

While bonus checks are always eagerly welcomed, recognition in front of peers, involvement in company parties and group activities, or even lunches with you and the rest of the team can make a crucial difference in keeping someone around. Verbally recognizing good work is key. It’s easy to forget to do so on a consistent basis, but people relish this praise and work harder because of it.

Pro Tip: Something that Jancoa does (that I love), is they take a cold can of Coke in to their employees when they go and do site quality visits and while they’re there, they thank their team for their hard work…

Show Them a Real Future

Hire and promote from within when possible in order to spur motivation. Delegate responsibilities that help your team members grow and gain relevant skills. Encourage ownership over job duties and thinking of themselves as ‘problem solvers and relationship builders’ when they’re out at a clients’ site.

Taking these steps will ensure a solid team to bolster the success of your cleaning service. Watch your business grow from the results. And if you’re serious about business growth, come join us at Cleaning Marketer. Join a community where business owners in the industry gain access to information that attracts prospects, makes sales and keeps top clients on the roster. Click here to grab your free copy of “How To Get More New Clients, Even If You’re New To the Industry” ..

Today’s quote:

“No such thing as spare time. No such thing as free time. No such thing as down time.

All you’ve got is life time. GO”! Henry Rollins

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City in 2017? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now.

The Secret Behind All Great Cleaning Businesses

August 2, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

How Do You Target Customers?

What’s the secret behind all great cleaning businesses?

The great cleaning businesses have multiple attributes that create their success – they work with a cleaning business coach, they have great people in their Organization, they’re passionate about serving their clients, and they’re dedicated to having outstanding systems and processes. All of these are very high on the list, but another thing this group of cleaning businesses do very well, is that they know how to look for, (and find), their ideal clients.

You see, in today’s economy, success in business is all about search. Get good at search and it changes everything.

Think about it: to build a great database you need a number of contacts, and then need to be able to filter those contacts to the ones that count, based on recent events i.e. when their current contract is up, or when they are moving etc…

Here’s some searches to think about:

Bring up a list of every prospect that you’ve ever provided with a quote for your cleaning services. How many of them have changed their cleaning service since you last spoke? Maybe they’re ready to change right now and just need a call to get the wheels in motion…
Geographic search – Got a great staff member or subcontractor in a certain location? Look at your prospect list –who do you know in that area who might be looking for a great new cleaner?
Find your top 100 clients, based on those that have done multiple transactions with you, or those that refer you the most.
Create your ‘dream list’ of clients you’d like to work with and start building up a relationship with them on social media – start following them, liking, sharing or commenting on their posts…
Of course, search can also include using Google Adwords and/or Facebook and buying ads to advertise your business. These are very effective also, but remember, there are costs involved in setting up and then having your ads displayed… and, if you’re targeting isn’t done right, it could end up costing you a lot of money for very little return on your investment..

The secret is finding the right list to call at the right time, because being relevant wins.

So how can you do that easily?

If you have a cleaning business coach, have the conversation with them – what do they recommend? Here at Cleaning Marketer, we’re totally focussed on having cleaning business automation to handle all of the ‘heavy lifting’ with prospecting that will handle this process for you and keep you ‘in front’ of your ideal prospects on a regular basis, and save you a lot of time without the headache of having to ‘figure it all out’ by yourself..

Are you a great cleaning business? What’s been the number # 1 secret to your success..? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below..

Today’s quote:

Even great people need constant opportunities for improvement. Thomas Crosby

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Want fast business growth? Register for Cleaning Business School – 4 Weeks of Fast Growth Ideas for Cleaning Businesses who want to attract more prospects, make more sales and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now.

How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…

July 6, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…

If you’re a cleaning business owner, I’m sure you’ve wondered how to manage a cleaning team more effectively, so that it takes up less of your time… right?

It’s one of the most common things I hear from time poor cleaning business owners. Instead of focusing on winning new accounts, they’re often spending countless hours every day, managing staff and dealing with issues that stop them from growing their business.

It’s enough to make you scream…

Or, they have team members who are just the wrong fit. But they keep them on out of either misplaced loyalty, or fear of what will happen if they move the ineffective staff out of their business.

It’s enough to make you scream…

However, if you have team members who just aren’t ‘cutting it’, you need to show leadership to the rest of your team, and make the necessary changes. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that over the past decade, many organisations have been investing in developing their leadership rather than developing management skills.

(A cleaning business owner needs both of these skills. If you feel like you’re lacking in these areas, investing in cleaning business coaching, will be a great way to shorten your learning curve..)

Management skills are those ‘one on one’ relationships between cleaning business owners (or managers) and the people in their team.

Having strong management skills, leads to a strong business. It’s as simple as that. So what do strong managers do differently to everyone else?

They communicate. Really well, and, have the difficult conversations when they need to.

Managing and leading a cleaning team is much easier when everyone understands their role. In other words, they understand the expectations of you, their manager, and the customers’ expectations.

And they work together as a team. Working in alignment, rather than individually because good management shares the vision for the business. Company alignment to a clear (shared) purpose is the biggest motivator you can create as a leader seeking to achieve scalable growth in your cleaning business. Once your team buys into the vision that you have co-created with them, it will be easier for you to delegate and focus on growth, because you won’t need to micro-manage all of the details, because your team will take responsibility and ownership.

How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…

Good employees, share that vision, because they helped create it. They helped create the purpose (your why), the values (the how), and the mission (what you’re striving for).

So, effective cleaning team leadership and management, is all about the shared purpose of the business, and the conversations you have with your team. Having great communication – what you say, and how you say it, is paramount.

Within a cleaning business there are so many different conversations we are having each day. Conversations around ideas, delegating tasks, feedback from colleagues and clients, and the conversations that happen in our meetings.

To help you have better conversations here are the keys to success:

A good conversation is two-way. It involves speaking and listening, and it’s imperative that everyone takes part in the conversation and is heard.
Secondly, be clear on what the conversation is about, and what the objective/s of the conversation are: “Today, we’re going to discuss the feedback we received from Mrs Smith, and how we can fix our process to ensure that never happens in the future” .
Be respectful and open. It’s ok to be vulnerable with your team, it helps them to understand your position, and build trust..
Finally, be mindful. Try to focus on building the relationship and encouraging new thinking. If a team member comes up with a great idea, thank them for their input, and encourage more: “That’s a fantastic idea Jane, how do you think we could incorporate that into our service offering”….

How to Recruit the Best Cleaning Staff for Your Cleaning Business

June 8, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

How To Recruit The Best Cleaning Staff for Your Cleaning Business…

How to Recruit The Right Staff – for Your Cleaning Business

Could it be true that nobody wants a part time cleaning job in your town? I was the keynote speaker at a big cleaning industry trade event last week, and one of the recurring questions I had was ‘how can I recruit the best staff into my cleaning business’…

It seems like finding and keeping the right staff can be an extremely difficult process for a cleaning business. But it doesn’t need to be…

In today’s video, I’m sharing some great ideas that you can use right now, to start attracting the right people into your business… Go check out the video, and let me know what you think in the comments below, and if you’d like some examples of good ads that will work for you, just drop me an email and I’ll send those over to you… In the meantime, if you have a great way of attracting new staff into your cleaning business, I’d love to hear it…

Once you’ve had a chance to watch, I’d love to know if you’ve ever struggled to get staff…. and how you overcame that…?

Are you doing something amazing to attract cleaning staff, that’s getting you great results?

C’mon over and let me know in the comments below.

That’s the great thing about the Cleaning Industry, you meet so many people who’ll join you for sections of the journey. It’s a relationship business, where happiness and business success comes from within. If you think well, you’ll do well..

Today’s quote: “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” William James

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer. To learn more about our industry-leading Client Attraction System, click here.

Ready for business growth? Register now for Fast Growth Cleaning Business MasterClass New York, or San Diego in 2016. Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now.

3 Costly Mistakes Cleaning Business Owners Make in Sales Conversations

June 6, 2016 by Lisa Macqueen Leave a Comment

3 Costly Mistakes Cleaning Business Owners Make in Sales Conversations

If you’re a cleaning business owner, or you’re involved in the sales process for a cleaning business, the whole point of your sales and marketing is twofold; to fill your calendar with loads of appointments with your prospective clients and win more clients. BUT, here’s the thing. If you can have a conversation with your prospective client but then can’t navigate your way effectively through the sales conversation

you’ll be wasting a lot of your sales and marketing efforts (not to mention $$)….

Which is why in today’s post, I wanted to shine the light on why it’s so important to focus on the needs discovery conversations – in other words, why does your prospect feel like they need your service?

So let’s look specifically, let’s look at three costly mistakes you want to avoid…

Costly Mistake #1: Not vetting the prospect

Every cleaning business owner has one guaranteed want: a hot prospect interested in working with them on the other end of the phone…

And look, we all get excited if a great new potential opportunity comes to our cleaning business. But here’s a question we as cleaning business owners need to ask ourselves

… Do YOU want to work with THEM?

And the only way to really answer that question is to have a vetting process.

What I mean is having a method to assessing whether you actually want to work with this particular client or not.

Are they invested in making a change in the cleaning at the home or business? Are they communicative and accessible to deal with? Will they pay you on time? Do they value the expertise your cleaning business has, or do they simply want their existing cleaning problems to go away?

PRO TIP: One of my favourite questions to ask when I’m just getting to know a prospect is… “Can you tell me what is driving you to make this change in your cleaning service provider” How your prospect answers this question will tell you a lot about them.

Costly Mistake #2: Trying to answer every question as it is asked

More often than not, when we’re sitting in front of a prospect, they will be firing questions at us in an effort to make a decision on whether you’re ‘what they need’ and they want to find that out as fast as possible.

And good manners dictates that we should answer every one of their questions right? It might be impolite to do otherwise right? We might make the wrong impression if we don’t – right?

Wrong.

PRO TIP: Conversations with your prospects are NOT interrogations people! Just because they ask a question, doesn’t mean you have to answer it. A fantastic method to avoid answering a question is to go to the bridge… When you use a ‘bridging’ statement, this will help slow things down, i.e: “I’m glad you asked that question Bob, but I think the real question we should be looking at here is…”

In fact, often times that polite knee-jerk reflex means you will find yourself responding to a question that you shouldn’t be answering in the first place.

For example, you may be asked a question by a prospect that, once you step back to think about it, you realize you probably should have answered it in a different way, but because the questions were coming at you so fast, and you really wanted to win this cleaning contract, that sometimes, you’ll almost tell them what you think they want to hear, or what you think it will take for you to win the business.

PRO TIP: Set a pace from the start of the conversation that when your prospect asks you a question you take a calm breath before responding. If you do this from the get-go, not only will you set an expectation with your potential client that you’re someone who is thoughtful in your responses — but this will also help you to condition yourself to slow down in your responses.

Costly Mistake #3: Not understanding that your biggest competitor is actually your prospect’s inability to move forward

A lot of cleaning business owners drive themselves absolutely nuts worrying about what their competitors are doing, and the possibility of missing out on opportunities. But the truth is, you’re losing more deals to clients who are doing NOTHING to fix their cleaning problems, than you are to people who offer similar services to you (hard to believe, but trust me, this is true..)

And this is something really important for you to remember when you’re having a conversation with your prospective client.

Why?

If you’ve been reading my blogs or following me on Facebook or YouTube, you will have heard me say many times, that only 3% of prospective clients are what we’d call “hot” prospects, or in other words, ready to make a change – ready to hire a cleaning service right now. The other 97% are not. Essentially, the chances of your prospect deciding not to move forward at all is usually a lot greater than the chances of them moving forward with someone else.

PROTIP: Make sure that you spend time in your initial sales conversations talking with your prospects about why they feel they need to fix their cleaning problem right now — and why they feel they need your help to do it.

It’s absolutely critical that they hear the words coming out of their own mouths first. The next step is that you then reframe what they just said to you, back to them and get their agreement that you’ve understood those points accurately. This strategy will deepen their commitment to their decision to fix their cleaning problems, and get the help they need – from your cleaning business.

Are you having great conversations with your prospects..? What’s getting you great results and filling your sales funnel?

C’mon over and let me know in the comments below.

Today’s quote:

We pay respect to one of the greats today. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. Muhammad Ali

Lisa x

………………………………………………………………………………………………

First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Ready for business growth? Register now for Fast Growth Cleaning Business MasterClass New York, or San Diego in 2016. Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now.

So where are you, and what conferences ARE you attending?

So, want to know what other events you should be putting on your calendar?

Infusionsoft ICON 2017 Event – 25-27 April, Phoenix, AZ – Going? See you there.

Reframe Janitorial Conference by Swept (My friends at Swept have invited me to speak at a few of their Reframed events, so keep an eye out for those dates)

ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo (I’ll be speaking as part of a panel – Melbourne, Australia)

Here’s a few more that you should definitely aim to attend:

ISSA Interclean North America (September, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV)

BSCAI Annual Convention (September, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV)

ARCSI Event (September 2017 – venue TBD)

So “Jason”, let me put you straight on this…

Today’s quote:

The 10 Best Podcasts & Resources for Cleaning Business Owners

Here’s Our Top 10 List:

UPDATE:

You don’t match expectation with service.

You haven’t built any rapport.

You don’t have all the information you need to do the job well.

They don’t have all the information they need.

You don’t have a system for consistent communication.

You don’t market to your existing clients.

Give So Much They Can’t Ignore You…

Know Your Company’s Hiring Reputation.

Conduct Interviews with Current Staff.

Establish the Right Company Culture

Recognize That Rewards Go Beyond Money

Show Them a Real Future

To help you have better conversations here are the keys to success:

Get The Power Follow Up Planning Checklist

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