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How Do I "SPECIFICALLY" Market Cleaning Services?

by Brotherly
6 replies
Hello All,

i need help as this will be my very first marketing and sales endeavour for a client.

A friend invited me to be part of a meeting that included the CEO of a Dry Cleaning & Laundry outfit, my friend (Financial Strategist) and my humble self (Accountant & Salesman). They want me to drive the ERP and the sales of the business.

My friend is on my list and he's received a couple of my mails and so he believes i can help their business bring in customers.

The services they currently render are:

1. Dry Cleaning & Laundry services
2. Corporate, Residential & Industrial cleaning
3. Fumigation & Pest control
4. Janitorial Cleaning Services
5. Facility Management
6. Sewage Evacuation
7. Waste Management Services
8. Recruitment & Training

What i deduced from the meeting was that, currently, "Dry Cleaning & Laundry service" is the highest generator of income for the business but the Financial Strategist is of the opinion that the business is operating below capacity. Currently generating monthly income of (700,000 Naira = $3180 exchange rate of N220) but believes it can earn 2,000,000 Naira = $9000 per month.

So, the challenge is, "what & how do i go about SPECIFICALLY marketing the cleaning businesses of my client"?

I'll appreciate your counsel.

Regards.
#cleaning #market #services #specifically
  • Profile picture of the author TheBigBee
    Probably not what you wanted to hear, but lead with the best product.

    If the best product is cleaning services, then the owner is risking stifling his growth with respect to his #1 service by carrying the other services. Additionally, the business will never grow unless it's truly awesome and has hoards of happy customers. Many interviews should be had with customers. The CEO should be out shaking hands, listening, learning and looking for any little nugget to help him improve that product.

    IMHO, the leading product (Dry Cleaning Services) should be the only product. If I were in his position, I'd drop every other service offering like a bad habit and instead broker out those jobs to other companies. I reduce my overall overhead, generate passive income and free up cash to invest more aggressively in the money maker.
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
      Originally Posted by TheBigBee View Post

      Probably not what you wanted to hear, but lead with the best product.

      If the best product is cleaning services, then the owner is risking stifling his growth with respect to his #1 service by carrying the other services. Additionally, the business will never grow unless it's truly awesome and has hoards of happy customers. Many interviews should be had with customers. The CEO should be out shaking hands, listening, learning and looking for any little nugget to help him improve that product.

      IMHO, the leading product (Dry Cleaning Services) should be the only product. If I were in his position, I'd drop every other service offering like a bad habit and instead broker out those jobs to other companies. I reduce my overall overhead, generate passive income and free up cash to invest more aggressively in the money maker.
      With all due respect TheBigBee there is no possible way of knowing this is solid advice without knowing much much more about the business and its resources etc...

      Most of this advice is much more relevant to IM businesses and one man shows with little or no resources that cannot focus.

      This type of advice of focus on one thing is preached and makes sense to internet marketers that are having no success because they run from shiny object to shiny object so we tell them focus on one thing.

      In the real world I have many clients that own/operate half a dozen businesses and due to their resources (people, cash, assets), skills and economy of scale it makes good sense for them to have their finger in many pots. When markets have changed for one business they have shifted focus to another and leveled out what could of been really tough times. They also are often able to port customers from one business to the other.

      If anybody walked in and told these guys ditch all your other businesses and focus on one they would quickly dismiss him as a fool. The more patient ones would say "why".

      You stated "If the best product is cleaning services, then the owner is risking stifling his growth with respect to his #1 service by carrying the other services". Why?

      If they have the resources and compartmentalization one business would have no affect on the other. Again I would say this only applies if they have no resources and the business owner cannot focus due to too many projects but we do not know that.


      "Many interviews should be had with customers. The CEO should be out shaking hands, listening, learning and looking for any little nugget to help him improve that product." Well maybe... depends on the size/structure of company and the CEO and his knowledge of his market. If we are talking dry cleaning this is not rocket science he likely already knows the issues. More locations/takeover, client retention, some sponsorship or exclusive contracts etc..

      "Generate passive income and free up cash to invest more aggressively in the money maker." This is only solid advice until a certain level is reached that he may be well beyond. The next step is free up cash to invest in OTHER money makers.

      So to recap TheBigBee your advice may be great for some but horrible for others. You said "If I were in his position" but really the OP has not given us any insight into what his position is. Is he wealthy, does he have 4 brothers operating those other businesses. Does the whole of all the businesses give him a critical mass that puts him in the green, the list goes on.
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      • Profile picture of the author DABK
        How do they get new business now?

        Easiest way is to take something that's working already and scale up or improve what already works.

        If you need entirely new ideas:
        this is based on Dan Kennedy:

        He says that dry cleaners he's worked with did great if they got someone to come in 4 times... And they did that with deep discount offers via postcards and flyers.

        They'd come in the 1st time for the discount...That's #1.
        They'd come in to pick up their stuff. That's #2. At this point, they were handed another, not as deeply discounted offer but still great.
        Some would come in to claim the 2nd offer. That's #3.
        They'd come to pick up their stuff. That's #4.

        The way I picked my dry cleaner the last time: I Google it and went with the one that had the best review and was close to where I live.

        By the way, they're doing great.... The thing that amazed me was how good at marketing the staff was... The lady who took my shirts mentioned upsales... The lady who was manning the counter when I went to pick up the shirts, told me the coming week they have a sale on coats and asked me if I wanted to enter their raffle contest.

        I was also impressed with the service...

        I brought that up to point out to you that getting the staff up to speed and involved also increases revenues, so does getting reviews in Google +, yelp and other local directories.
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    I think push the services that they are most capable of doing.
    2 through 7 come under the broad heading of Facility Management

    Perhaps they can put in dry cleaning pick up/drop off stations (or at least have a
    van come by) in some of the facilities they manage. Office worker sees their logo
    at the stations, or on the van, and think "Oh, I know them. They are the people who
    do our office cleaning."

    Use their brand to their advantage and be sure they introduce all their
    services to existing customers who think of them for one or two things.
    Do you know we also do this and this?...

    Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author umc
    I've been cleaning for years, and what you have there is a list of services that can be cross promoted in many cases, while others won't be easily promoted. It seems like they're trying to do too many things. In the end, how SPECIFICALLY you market them depends on your skills. What kind of marketing SPECIFICALLY can YOU do? Where do your skills lie? How are they getting clients now, and how does your skill set amplify that? Your question is broad and tells us nothing about you, not to mention that the services provided are quite broad as well. Figure out what you bring to the table and there are threads on here about marketing various cleaning and other services already. Look through them and figure out what aligns with who you are and your customer.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrmarketingmike
    I would say you first should go about finding out who their customer list is primarily composed of for the dry cleaning business. If there are any clients who have not come in for a while, do a mailing to reactive them as customers, maybe by sending in a coupon. Another option is to joint venture market. Since your client owns multiple businesses, there is always the option of cross promotion. Otherwise, join venture with a non-competing company that serves the same basic market as you clients dry cleaning business customers. Then you can negotiate either a database swap or some kind of special offer with a profit split.

    Thats just off the top of my head
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