cleaning

Chances are your cleaning company employees work in buildings after hours and have access to areas that may hold confidential information or valuables. How can you be sure the employees you hire can be trusted when working unsupervised? Paying close attention during the interview will help, but another tool you can use is the employee background check.

More companies than ever are doing background checks on new employees. There are several reasons for this:

1. According to the Society of Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Virginia, 37% of all applicants put some false information on applications and resumes and 65% of resumes are enhanced or exaggerated.

2. Lawsuits for “negligent hiring” are on the rise. If one of your employees hurts someone you can be held liable.

3. Current events, such as high profile child abuse and abduction cases, the terrorist attacks of 9-11, and the scandals of executives have created concerns when recruiting and hiring new employees.

4. Federal and state laws require background checks of people working in certain situations, including working with children, the elderly and disabled individuals. Plus some cleaning contracts will require you to perform background checks on your employees if you want to gain the contract.

The types of background checks performed can vary, but they typically include:

Tags: background, business, checks, cleaningbackground, business, checks, cleaning

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Have you ever decided to just pick up the phone and “wing-it” when cold calling for your cleaning business? How did it go? My guess is not so well…

When making a sales call you only have about 10 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention so your first impression has to be really strong. Having a prepared (and practiced) script is essential for your success.

Practicing your script so it sounds natural is very important. Have you ever received a call from a telemarketer whom you could tell was reading from a script? That’s NOT the kind of script we want to use here. Practice with friends or family members so you can have them play the role of the prospect. You want to have enough flexibility in the script so if the conversation suddenly changes, you’re flexible enough to go with the flow.

When writing your script, be sure to write the way you talk, and be sure to get to the point quickly. Don’t waste time by saying something like, “how are you today”? This gives them a chance to end the call before it’s even started. Greet your prospect by name, and then say, “My name is [John Jones], and I’m with [company name].”

Next you want to have a simple, yet strong sentence that explains what you do. For example, “I work with building owners and managers who have cleaning issues that they’ve never been able to resolve.” You need to be creative here — don’t say the same thing everyone else says. Use phrases that help to establish you as an expert. Maybe something like, “we specialize in…”, or “we’re known for…”.

Use your niche market to your advantage. If you’re calling a bank, let them know that you also work with other banks in the area. This lets your prospect know that you’re familiar with their type of business. Plus it’s likely that they know other bankers in town so if you can drop a name, this is a good time to do it.

Next you want to describe your service stating benefits, not features. At this point in the conversation, they don’t care that you’re bonded and insured, but they probably do care that you specialize in marble floor care if they have a beautiful new marble floor. They’re also interested in how you can save them money so think about specific ways you’re able to save them money.

The goal of the phone call should be to make an appointment with the prospect. You’re not trying to make a sale just yet. So end the call by setting up a time to meet. Ask them for 10 - 15 minutes of their time, and give them a couple choices. Don’t simply end the call by saying something like, “Can we meet next week to discuss this?” Instead say, “Would next Tuesday at 10 a.m. be a good time to meet?”

When you have the meeting scheduled, be sure to confirm the prospect’s name, title, phone number and address, and make sure they have your contact information as well.

To recap, here’s what you need for your cold-calling script:

Tags: business, calling, cleaning, cold, scriptbusiness, calling, cleaning, cold, script

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When meeting face-to-face with a prospect for your cleaning business, you need to prepare yourself ahead of time. Make a list of probing questions that will get your prospect talking about their concerns so you can show them your expert problem-solving skills.

You want to do more listening than talking during this meeting. In order to help your prospect solve their problems you need to get as much information from them as possible. When crafting your list of questions, think of questions that get the prospect thinking. You want them to say, “That’s a good question - I’ve never been asked that before.” Here is a list of questions to get you started:

Tags: business, cleaning, prospectsbusiness, cleaning, prospects

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