If you are just starting your cleaning company there are several ways of landing your first few clients, it may not be easy at first. Finding clients for cleaning businesses and selling commercial cleaning services in Kenya because most of your potential clients will want some assurance that you are capable of providing quality services and that in the event of an accident your will indemnify them of any losses suffered. However, selling is not hard when you know-how.

First things first, you need to determine your service range. Don’t be a jack of all trades. Only market services that you are 100% sure that you have the capacity of delivering quality and that you are solving your customer’s problems or pain points.

Some customers prefer bundled up services eg, office cleaning plus fumigation services, if office cleaning is your core business and you have no capacity to provide fumigation services, you can opt to outsource these services from a reputable company bearing in mind that you will be directly responsible for the quality of services provided.

You need to identify your target market. The beauty of marketing cleaning services is that every home or office requires cleaning services however, it’s easy to get carried away and cast a wide net leading to ineffective marketing.

Identify a certain market Demographic that best suits your product range. Demographic attributes like age, sex, gender, religion, and educational qualification, play an important role in identifying the best marketing approach to use.

Identify your customer’s pain points. How do you gain that information? Simple. You ask purposeful questions. These are questions about your prospects, not about what you have to sell. Once you get a good sense of what your prospective customer wants and needs, then you’re in a position to explain how your services would benefit the customer.

With this in mind, below are some of the marketing techniques that will get your more cleaning customers.

Building a website.

Well, we do live in the digital age and forecasts all point to signs that the Internet will continue to be a vital platform for attracting, keeping and engaging with clients.

Your best bet for lead generation and finding clients for cleaning business is having a well-optimized website. Wouldn’t it be great having potential customers contacting you? It is even easier to close a sale since in most instances qualified customers will reach out to you.

Door to door selling

Now that you’ve identified your target customers, it’s time to reach out to them. Selling door to door at first can be a difficult and intimidating way to conduct business. Still, in many instances, it is the best way to bring your services to people’s attention especially if you are not yet an established brand.

If you have the right approach, you can increase your chances of success, and maybe even find some enjoyment in the process. Here are a few pointers on the effective door to door approach.

• Dress Appropriately – You need to look presentable to the customers you want to reach. In most cases, try and avoid casual wear such as jeans and a t-shirt. You will be walking around in these clothes, so they do need to be comfortable.
• Start with a greeting. Avoid your sales pitch at first. A simple, “Hello, how are you today?” treats each person as an individual rather than just a potential customer. You want the person to trust you and want to talk to you.
• Be friendly and confident. You aren’t just selling a service, you are selling yourself as a trustworthy representative of the company you work for. Potential customers should want to invite you in for more information. It’s always better to smile and make eye contact as much as possible.
• Be persistent and patient – Don’t give up on your first attempt. Most doors you knock on will not want to talk to you. Don’t get discouraged by people saying no. You aren’t looking for everyone to buy your products, just the people who are interested.

Cold calling

Cold calling can increase your chances of closing a cleaning contract, as people are more open to engaging with people with prior meeting appointments. However, cold calling can be a tedious approach with most salespeople running away from this form of prospecting.

All you need is a great attitude, persistence and a great cold call script which you should stick to. Try not to sound scripted. The greatest challenge to cold calling is getting to the decision-maker especially if you are selling commercial cleaning services to an office or business. Most companies have gatekeepers who’s duty is to screen all incoming calls in order to determine which call is important and which one is not. In most cases, they try as much as possible to prevent sales calls from getting to the decision-makers.

If you master the art and science of cold calling bypassing gatekeepers should be a walk in the pack, hence greatly increase your success rate and end up spending less time on prospecting. Cold calling can also be used as a medium of learning your customers, qualifying them to determine if they are a great fit for your services and setting us appointments for a sales meeting.

Cleaning services Sales referrals

 Sales referrals are among the most valuable prospecting methods used by most cleaning companies to generate new leads. A sales referral takes place when an existing customer provides the name and contact information of a prospect.

More often happy customers are more likely to refer you to potential customers. You leverage the trust you’ve built with your customer, and the trust your customer has with the other company to open up a sales conversation. These sales lead typically have a much higher closing rate as compared to sales leads generated through other lead gen methods.

Why is it important to request cleaning services referrals from your existing customers?

1. Your best customers will most likely know others who run very similar businesses, which means they are highly qualified leads for your company.
2. You are being introduced to them via a friend and have the benefit of trust right at the start of the relationship.

Social media Marketing

It doesn’t matter if you run a small local shop or a big national company. Social media is an essential piece of your business marketing strategy the best part is that it is free.

Social platforms help you connect with your customers, increase brand awareness, and boost your sales leads. With more than three billion people around the world using social media every month, it’s no passing trend.

SMM helps a company get direct feedback from customers (and potential customers) while making the company seem more personable. The interactive parts of social media give customers the opportunity to ask questions or voice complaints and feel they are being heard.

With a basic camera, you can take photos or videos of your staff cleaning, upload it to the various free social media platforms eg Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, write a simple caption and boom! you are off the beaten track and in business.

I hope that you’ll find this article informative, all the best as you grow your cleaning business to an unscalable level, and remember, “practice makes permanent”.