who's sucessfully marketed to Dentist, like Tom King ?

[Moser Brothers]

I need to stir up some commercial accounts quickly. Tom talked about cold calling to Dentist. I don't have a script and I'm horrible at cold calling.
I was thinking of saying something like this " I'm going to been in your area and would to show you how to keep your clients happy and I only need a few minutes of your time to come out to your office and talk about it. What time works for you?"

Or I can just show up and try and set an appointment.

Any better ideas???

 

[Shane Deubell]

If you live in a big enough market, you can join the association which gives you a list to work off of and a warm lead.

 

[steve_64]

just walk into the office and look down at the carpet with a sad look on your face and ask the receptionist whos in charge of taking care of the carpet.

works in any office, store or home.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree just ask for the work. Few do and while rejection is a part of selling, so are sales.

You can always make up a simple flyer with a special just for dentists. Or maybe a discount coupon to leave behind.

If you want Tom's pitch, send him a PM.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Joining a business association is one of the best ways to get started in commercial. You can go industry specific like a dental association or broad like chamber of commerce.

Why? It reduces anxiety, businesses are very skeptical of contractors in general, especially cleaning contractors. They come and go out of business constantly, change schedules, don't show up, etc, etc. Anything you can do to make a connection helps, even more so in those first 20 jobs.

You can also layer in that you understand the specific challenges THEIR industry faces because you specialize in it. I KNOW there is little difference but prospects think that sometimes and like it in general.

Like anything else in sales/marketing its not an end all, still have to show up looking professional, be persistent and have good looking print materials.

Yes i have used associations on/off for about 15 years in real life. Can be a nice angle...

 

[Steve Toburen]

Joining a business association is one of the best ways to get started in commercial. You can go industry specific like a dental association or broad like chamber of commerce.

Agree on this and the "we specialize in..." angle. But the simplest, fastest, cheapest and by far the most effective way is the good old "cold call". However, you can morph it into a warm call this way:

You: Take a quick gulp of Liquid Courage (vodka) in the parking lot and walk into the dentist office.

Receptionist: "May I help you?"

You: "I'm not sure. (Slightly confused smile here and not just from the vodka) My name is Steve Toburen with Moser Brothers (hand her your business card) and we specialize in maintaining the flooring in dental offices. In fact, Dr. Smith just over on 3rd Avenue is one of our accounts. Is the person who looks after your maintenance in today?" Then when you do make contact with a Decision Maker...

D/M: "OK, whatcha got? How much do you charge?"

You: "I can come up with that very quickly. May I ask you a few questions?" ... and you pull out a clipboard with your Commercial Carpet Analysis questionnaire already on it. (You can develop your own CCA or check out the one I used HERE.)

Now, does this work every single time? Of course not. That is why you must get the Law of Large Numbers on your side. (Most carpet cleaners try this three or four times, get rejected and go drink boiler makers all day while lamenting that the economy sucks) That is why the "I need to stir up some commercial accounts quickly". quote above is a bit concerning.

The single most important sales principle we teach is SALES IS A PROCESS- NOT AN EVENT. It just kills me to see really great people engage in a burst of "Binge Selling" and then slide back into complacency.

Steve

PS Another important principle to developing regualr commercial contract accounts is to never give them one price even if that is all they ask for. Always include at least three "Frequency Options" in your proposal. (These people don't really know what they want!)

 

[Shane Deubell]

I don't understand the BUT steve.

You are starting off with a list of dentists addresses, phone numbers and emails. Now you can cold call and say you are the preferred vendor for the NYS dental association. Then show them the decal to provide evidence....

Talk about how this is a "perk" they receive with their membership. Dentists are same as carpet cleaners, they wonder why I am paying for this trade association anyway? Welp, you just gave them one.

Something like this is just a credibility signal. I would also add some testimonials in print as soon as possible.

All these little yes signals lead to the big matzaball YES.

 

[dealtimeman]

sounds like shane might have used this method already.

 

[Moser Brothers]

The local Dental Association charges $2,900 a year!!!. I told them I'm not a doctor, just a carpet cleaner that would like to become an affiliate.

I might pay $295 to sponsor a hole in their golf tournament and set up a table. They'll be 90 doctors playing golf with their friends. If I get 2 good accounts it will be worth the money .I have a prize wheel, and I can give away $50 off to everyone that spends the wheel and leaves their business card or contact info and create a mailing list. I could go around to all the dentist offices in town and tell them that I'm the official carpet cleaner for the golf tournament.

I'll have to make up some brochures and maybe compare carpet maintenance to maintaining your teeth, that proper regular vacuuming is like brushing your teeth for carpets. And quarterly cleaning is the deep cleaning to prevent carpet decay, and waiting too long to have the carpets cleaned may lead to fiber loss and ugly wear, which leads to having the carpet pulled out and replaced prematurely. And most of all that clients may feel better about going to the dentist with a sparkling cleaning carpet with no unpleasant odors.

View attachment 4087

 

[TomKing]

Don't do it!!!! Doctors are not the decision maker's in the office the practice manager is. You get to those by walking in the front door.

Get on the phone you can call an awful lot of dentists office in a day.

Just because they have professional organization does not mean it is for vendors.

The local Dental Association charges $2,900 a year!!!. I told them I'm not a doctor, just a carpet cleaner that would like to become an affiliate.

I might pay $295 to sponsor a hole in their golf tournament and set up a table. They'll be 90 doctors playing golf with their friends. If I get 2 good accounts it will be worth the money .I have a prize wheel, and I can give away $50 off to everyone that spends the wheel and leaves their business card or contact info and create a mailing list. I could go around to all the dentist offices in town and tell them that I'm the official carpet cleaner for the golf tournament.

I'll have to make up some brochures and maybe compare carpet maintenance to maintaining your teeth, that proper regular vacuuming is like brushing your teeth for carpets. And quarterly cleaning is the deep cleaning to prevent carpet decay, and waiting too long to have the carpets cleaned may lead to fiber loss and ugly wear, which leads to having the carpet pulled out and replaced prematurely. And most of all that clients may feel better about going to the dentist with a sparkling cleaning carpet with no unpleasant odors.

View attachment 4087

 

[Moser Brothers]

Thanks Tom, I won't waste my money. I don't have a phone sale pitch yet, I'm waiting for a client who's a dentist to get back to about using his testimonial on a flyer for a leave behind. I only wanted to join the dental association so that I could say I was the preferred carpet cleaner of the sdds, or that could get me in trouble if I word it wrong.

After I call and ask to speak to the practice manager, what would be the best sales pitch???

 

[Shane Deubell]

I wouldn't do that deal either, each one is different and some don't allow local service contractors.

Honestly, any business with 10 or more employees is my target. Minus restaurants/apartments...
I never understood why it matters.

 

[knoxclean]

About 2 months ago Tom and I talked on the phone and he mentioned what he was doing with his commercial program. He basically went over the same thing he talked about at MF. Since that time we brought in 8 accounts 4 that have 3-4 locations so a total so 17 locations total. All just by walking in the door. Until this past week my residential guys have split the work but we hired a night guy this week and we are well on our way to filling a 4 night a week schedule. Don't over think this. Just start walking in doors. Steve laid out a great script to use.

 

[Shane Deubell]

op·ti·mize

1. make the best or most effective use of (a situation, opportunity, or resource).

Definitely agree, walking into a small business and/or calling ahead to ask for the best time to stop by.

But, details matter. The question i ask myself constantly is what little things can i do to pull out 1 more job. What is the cost/benefit.
If i add an association, follow up with a mailer, follow up with phone call, follow up with email, how should we dress. The hyper-technical details of what my estimate looks like, sell sheet, etc. Should we have a separate website just for commercial?

Why? because all these things are cheap and if i can close 20-30% more jobs for peanuts then im good. X that by 3-5 years and we are talking about REAL money.
Just sharing what has worked for me....

 

[Desk Jockey]

Tom King mentioned the sub branding idea that I really liked and have already begun to some degree but I'd like to continue within our company.


As far as a commercial image, I think separate commercial cards, brochure, rack card and website would all make you look like you're a specialist in commercial cleaning businesses. It might be enough to separate you from the competition when compared to other cleaners. After all do you want the guy that specializes or the one that does it when his other business is slow.

I'd be sure make an emphasis of that throughout all your materials. "Your commercial care specialists...carpets, upholstery, wall partitions" something along those lines.

Be consistent, one hit wonders probably won't bring you as much work as repeated visits.

 

[idreadnought]

I remember 20 years ago. I was dead broke and thinking to my self of some clever way to contact busness's about carpet cleaning. I thought that perfect flyer would help. Should I send them postcards non stop. What line should I use?

Ok here is the deal. There is no magic bullet in sales. Just Do it! If you need the work... Beat the streets and ask for it. Most dentist offices and any other for that matter know they need to keep their carpets clean but are usually too busy to think about it. Just the fact you show up and make it easy for them to take care of a problem is an advantage you will have over all other cleaners that wait in their arm chair for the phone to ring.

The largest dentist in the area which we clean for was aquired by cleaning next door and saying hi. I didn't even pitch him. He asked me how much because I was a live body that cleaned carpets and it was convenient for him at the time. He knew it needed done but hadn't taken the time to call anyone because he was busy. I fell into his lap to solve a need he had.

 

[bob vawter]

jus ask for the guy that puts the little prick in your mouf......

 

[Moser Brothers]

Thanks for everyone's help!! So, I'll have my assistant call the 1,000 dental offices in my area, and ask for the practice manager, and what would be the best time to stop by for 15 minutes of there time. Then route 30 a day using Streets and Trips. I'm trying to learn how to use Streets and Trips. The problem I'm having is that I can enter the address, but not put the name of the business on the route! I called Microsoft and they only have technical support and no customer service for the software. View attachment 4095

 

[knoxclean]

don't forget rick gelinas has a great commercial marketing package

 

[NobleCarpetCleaners]

For 14 months I route sold in my area. Face to face, or B to B as some folks call it. Found out the big buildings are a crap shoot to get in and clean carpets. Bigger they get, the more they're looking for janitorial mafia. I'm NOT saying that's 100% of what I found but it was surely the norm.

I also found the smaller offices CAN be sold and sometimes ya stumble on the office person in charge of the facility. Other times ya gotta keep coming back. Dental offices were the best to close a sale. Eye Glass folks, horrible. And in-between was everyone else. When "looking" for the work ya get yer teeth kicked in. Tom King is used to selling so he has a unique perspective. Us owner/operators who hold all the hats have yet another unique perspective.

Personally I found no joy what so ever route selling or trolling for commercial work. So much better when they come to you first. From my perspective it was a numbers/attitude game. Make a ton of stops over time with as positive an attitude as you can muster. I've bitten the bullet the last 3 weeks. Getting back into the morning meetings of 10-15 Real Estate offices and creating another list of small business with comm. glue down right here in my town. Churches are starting to see more money in their budgets, I just got another one, hopefully they will continue to manage their money.

I read a ton selling books and listened to many speakers on selling. It's all good information but in the end you have to be comfortable in your own skin. If I had only 1 book I could recommend I would say The Little Red Book Of Selling (and kick your own ass). Then get out there, get your teeth kicked in and figure out what works in your area. Get the sale, work you ass off and get paid.

 

[GCCLee]

Easiest way to get into a Dentist office is to have a tooth pulled!

Gotta pay to play in most cases : )


Sent from da parking garage of dee detention center

 

[Shane Deubell]

For 14 months I route sold in my area. Face to face, or B to B as some folks call it. Found out the big buildings are a crap shoot to get in and clean carpets. Bigger they get, the more they're looking for janitorial mafia. I'm NOT saying that's 100% of what I found but it was surely the norm.

I also found the smaller offices CAN be sold and sometimes ya stumble on the office person in charge of the facility. Other times ya gotta keep coming back. Dental offices were the best to close a sale. Eye Glass folks, horrible. And in-between was everyone else. When "looking" for the work ya get yer teeth kicked in. Tom King is used to selling so he has a unique perspective. Us owner/operators who hold all the hats have yet another unique perspective.

Personally I found no joy what so ever route selling or trolling for commercial work. So much better when they come to you first. From my perspective it was a numbers/attitude game. Make a ton of stops over time with as positive an attitude as you can muster. I've bitten the bullet the last 3 weeks. Getting back into the morning meetings of 10-15 Real Estate offices and creating another list of small business with comm. glue down right here in my town. Churches are starting to see more money in their budgets, I just got another one, hopefully they will continue to manage their money.

I read a ton selling books and listened to many speakers on selling. It's all good information but in the end you have to be comfortable in your own skin. If I had only 1 book I could recommend I would say The Little Red Book Of Selling (and kick your own ass). Then get out there, get your teeth kicked in and figure out what works in your area. Get the sale, work you ass off and get paid.

True, it is all in your head. I always think about the wins and how great its going to be when i sell $10k more in work.
Have to be like an athlete almost and have a short memory on the losses.

The bottom line is 99.9% of your competition is never going to do this. EVERY cleaner is attacking adwords and coupon mailers...

 

[Buck1955]

Another plus to dentists, etc are they are not open 7 days a week so you can get in during the day.

 

[Mikey P]

can you find a thread this good on any other forum?

 

[bob vawter]

FOOT DOCTORS........for some reason podiatrists seem to network wit each other more ....
....and ya dentists are good as well...one one my wives was a dental hygienist and i had about four steady jobs from her moving around

don waste yor time on reg doctors....cheep....cheep....cheeeeep!

 

[kingjoelking]

There is a website called www.salesgenie.com where you can buy lists of businesses by SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code. Or you can go to your library and use Reference USA for free. (same company actually) It has business names addresses often times it also has lists of decision makers by title it also as emails for some decision makers also.

What I used to do is pull up a business that I knew I wanted to market to and write its full SIC code down. Because it can get extremely specific. And then I would search by SIC code. Both Sources can search geographically by city or even more specificly by zip code all the way down to route codes.

The 1st ten calls were to fumble my way through things and learn who the decision maker typically is. "Yes I was calling to find out who the person is that decides who cleans the carpets at your office?" Usually get a response like "oh thats probably Suzy, shes the office manager." Or "Im not sure" Then if they dont give you any info you can prompt them with "Who would the office manager be" or whatever title you think may be the DM.
Me: Is Suzy available?
Receptionist: Ohhhhhhh um yeah no she isnt available right now. (because she has just identified you as a telemarketer.)
Me: Could you put me through to her Voice mail?
Receptionist: "Sure "

I dont really want to go to her voicemail or really want to leave a message the first time. I just want a reasonable out, to get off the phone. Because I have allready learned the information I need.


After about 10 of these calls you will learn who the decision maker usually is. And some of their names.

Now instead of making cold calls and saying " Can I speak to the person who makes decisions about who cleans your carpet" I can call and say "Hi this is Joel, I was calling to find out who the office manager is?"
Receptionist : Oh thats Suzy
Me: Is Suzy available?

Notice I didnt say Joel Riggs with Riggs Services in all reality I am on a info search here not really trying to sell yet.


It's best to have a CRM (Customer relations ship Manager) software that you can down load the leads to and then keep notes afterwords.

Once you build your database the next time you call instead of asking for office manager or the person who decides who cleans the carpet you are instead making a much more personal call and its easier to get through.
"Hi this is Joel, Is Suzy available?" Much easier to get to the DM with that call then any of the calls before.

Then you have to figure out your script. so once you have the DM on the phone you can hit them up with an intelligent pitch.

You can make about 30- 50 cold calls an hour when you are just probing for information,
20-30 when you have names, and then 10-20 when you have allready established contact.

This is waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy faster then driving office to office to make your cold calls.


This was very effective for me when I was doing it. But I hate cold calling. I hate it, hate it, hate it. But if I wanted to get busier with commercial work, I would go back to doing this again.

 

[kingjoelking]

PS: To Above - Look at your current list of commercial customers. Pull those SIC codes unless you hate cleaning for those types of businesses. Because it can build credibility with potential customers. You already have a good idea what problems they run into and what you need to do to fix those problems. And you can use it in your sales Pitch. We do work for businesses such as Biz A and Biz B. lets the potential customer know you have a good chance of being able to fix common problems they run into because every business in that field has them.

 

[Shane Deubell]

PS: To Above - Look at your current list of commercial customers. Pull those SIC codes unless you hate cleaning for those types of businesses. Because it can build credibility with potential customers. You already have a good idea what problems they run into and what you need to do to fix those problems. And you can use it in your sales Pitch. We do work for businesses such as Biz A and Biz B. lets the potential customer know you have a good chance of being able to fix common problems they run into because every business in that field has them.

Carpet cleaners don't like the phone for some reason, even though its a staple in almost every other industry's B2B marketing plan.
Not sure why...

What i don't understand is about the sic codes?
Why?

I see the # appointments change based on employee size and pretty much ignore industry except to delete restaurants, govt, apartments.
Under 30 employees the numbers start to go down fast, under 20 and forget it. Door to door is more effective in my experience for small local businesses.

 

[bob vawter]

my Vactat gets more walk-ups than a Vortex.......really!

 

[thecleaningdude]

There is a site called listshack.com. You can download unlimited business listings by SIC and NAICS for $50.00 a month.

There is a website called www.salesgenie.com where you can buy lists of businesses by SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code. Or you can go to your library and use Reference USA for free. (same company actually) It has business names addresses often times it also has lists of decision makers by title it also as emails for some decision makers also.

What I used to do is pull up a business that I knew I wanted to market to and write its full SIC code down. Because it can get extremely specific. And then I would search by SIC code. Both Sources can search geographically by city or even more specificly by zip code all the way down to route codes.

The 1st ten calls were to fumble my way through things and learn who the decision maker typically is. "Yes I was calling to find out who the person is that decides who cleans the carpets at your office?" Usually get a response like "oh thats probably Suzy, shes the office manager." Or "Im not sure" Then if they dont give you any info you can prompt them with "Who would the office manager be" or whatever title you think may be the DM.
Me: Is Suzy available?
Receptionist: Ohhhhhhh um yeah no she isnt available right now. (because she has just identified you as a telemarketer.)
Me: Could you put me through to her Voice mail?
Receptionist: "Sure "

I dont really want to go to her voicemail or really want to leave a message the first time. I just want a reasonable out, to get off the phone. Because I have allready learned the information I need.


After about 10 of these calls you will learn who the decision maker usually is. And some of their names.

Now instead of making cold calls and saying " Can I speak to the person who makes decisions about who cleans your carpet" I can call and say "Hi this is Joel, I was calling to find out who the office manager is?"
Receptionist : Oh thats Suzy
Me: Is Suzy available?

Notice I didnt say Joel Riggs with Riggs Services in all reality I am on a info search here not really trying to sell yet.


It's best to have a CRM (Customer relations ship Manager) software that you can down load the leads to and then keep notes afterwords.

Once you build your database the next time you call instead of asking for office manager or the person who decides who cleans the carpet you are instead making a much more personal call and its easier to get through.
"Hi this is Joel, Is Suzy available?" Much easier to get to the DM with that call then any of the calls before.

Then you have to figure out your script. so once you have the DM on the phone you can hit them up with an intelligent pitch.

You can make about 30- 50 cold calls an hour when you are just probing for information,
20-30 when you have names, and then 10-20 when you have allready established contact.

This is waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy faster then driving office to office to make your cold calls.


This was very effective for me when I was doing it. But I hate cold calling. I hate it, hate it, hate it. But if I wanted to get busier with commercial work, I would go back to doing this again.