You have a thorough cleaning program. Now it is time to start building out your client list.

Are you wondering how to get cleaning leads that will turn into long-term clients? The five steps in this article will help you win and keep cleaning contracts.

If your cleaning company is trying to grow, then you will have to spend some time promoting your cleaning business. As you develop your marketing plan, remember this Chinese Proverb, “Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”

Just as it took some time to perfect your cleaning process, it will take time to perfect your marketing strategies. If you want to generate quality leads for your cleaning business you must first think about your ideal customer.

These five steps will show you how to get cleaning leads and turn them into long term customers:

Clarify The Value of Your Cleaning Services

As you think about the customized cleaning services your janitorial team offers—clearly explain the problems you solve for your customer. For instance, think about the last time your commercial cleaning service finished a carpet cleaning.

Carpets can hold twice their weight in dirt, which means regular carpet cleaning is crucial to your cleaning for health program.

With years of experience in the cleaning industry, you know that a carpet can hold twice its weight in dirt. By removing the dust, germs, and other allergens, every building patron that visits the facility will be able to breathe easier.

The ROI of a clean carpet in an office building is seen through improved employee productivity and fewer sick days. However, your customer’s view of their own problem is simply a “dirty carpet.” With this perception, your solution is nothing more than a “clean carpet.”

Unfortunately, if this is your customer’s understanding of your service, they will not recognize the ROI of your work. Until your customer understands how a clean and healthy space impacts their bottom line—it will be hard to charge more for your services.

Learn Your Customer’s Language

If you want to market your cleaning business to attract janitorial leads—you must speak that specific customer’s language. Why? Because the way each facility measures and thinks about the value of clean is different.

Truthfully, translating the value of clean, to help your customer see the ROI of your customized cleaning program is easy. Simply think about the facility type and how they measure their revenue. Here are a few examples, a customer in:

  • Retail: Illustrate the correlation between restroom cleanliness and sales volume.
  • Education: Show how sanitation impacts student attendance and performance.
  • Health Care: Highlight the savings related to a decrease in hospital-associate infections.
  • Transportation: Emphasize the city’s ability to grow tourism and attract new business.

In Donald Miller’s book, Building a Story Brand, he explains that depicting the positive outcomes of your service is important. However, to clarify the customer’s choices—also depict the pain they will experience if they don’t choose your service.

Communicate with Commercial Cleaning Leads

As soon as you figure out how to communicate your services, it's time to start reaching out and talking to these individuals.

After clarifying your key messages to fit your various audiences, start considering where and how your ideal clients connect with vendors. A few channels you may want to explore as you develop your marketing plan may include but are not limited to:

  • Networking through your local chamber of commerce.
  • Asking customers that are happy with your cleaning system to provide referrals.
  • Running a press release or advertisement through your local news outlet(s).
  • Handing out flyers or sending a direct mailer locally.
  • Maintaining a healthy presence on social media.
  • Developing a website that is optimized with key search terms.
  • Buying a list of cleaning leads.

As each of these lead generation activities generates names, interact with them to gauge how interested they are in your services. A cost-effective way to do this is through email marketing for janitorial services.

Determining The ROI Of Your Marketing Efforts

To determine the ROI of your marketing efforts, keep careful records. Next to the lead's contact information, keep track of the marketing activity that generated the lead. As your team pitches customized cleaning and disinfection plans—count the number and size of each cleaning bid.

These metrics will motivate your sales team and direct your marketing team toward the most successful tactics. The experience will help your team refine their process. As a result, you will generate more leads for your cleaning business.

Deliver A Consistent Clean

Once you have won a bid for your cleaning business, the best way to retain that customer is to deliver the clean that your marketing and sales teams promised.

Winning bids for your cleaning business was a lot of hard work. Make sure your operations staff have the tools to deep clean the facility after the contract lands. This brings the facility up to your cleaning standards.

After that, keeping clients happy is a matter of consistently delivering the cleanliness standards that your marketing and sales teams promised. To simplify the process, use janitorial management software to monitor changes in both your team’s service and foot traffic.

The data available in the commercial cleaning software will help you correct cleaning errors in real-time. The data may help your team uncover additional opportunities to sell additional sanitation services to existing clients.

Use janitorial management software to empower your cleaning company to earn referral business and expand existing contracts—get started today!

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Blog post by Heather Siefert

Heather Siefert

Heather graduated from Utah Valley University and has been CleanTelligent's PR Specialist since 2018.