By the time you’re done this article, you will know how to get 3 new janitorial estimates today!

But first let me guess how your feeling and I'll use one work, STUCK; you want to grow your business, provide for your family, become the person you know you can be but you don’t have any money. Been there, done that, NEVER GOING BACK.

When I was starting, I had such low confidence in myself and what I could accomplish that I invested with one of these “LET’S GET YOU RICH” programs. The company was called the Janitorial Agency. If you have never heard of them, let me tell you what they promised. You invest $15,000 and they will get you $250,000 in new business, and train you how to sell, clean, hire, and support clients. They would also take 17% off each contract they acquired for you.

I did my digging, called references, and looked online. Everything seemed to be legitimate, so I invested the $15,000: $5,000 went on a credit card and $10,000 came from my savings. At that time, $10,000 was all the money I had saved up from operating my business, we were still in our first year. To this point, I had not taken any money out for myself and was living in my parents’ basement with my wife and two year old.

 You can probably guess what happened next,  They gave me a training program (which was GARBAGE) and got me one estimate, then ghosted. Just like Houdini, they vanished into thin air. Later on, I find out they went under from ripping off clients and not getting them any contracts.  

 So there I was: No savings left, no new contracts. I felt cheated and crushed. Turns out it was the best thing for me. Having no money left, I was forced to dive into my business, up my skills, and figure out how I could get more contracts WITH NO MONEY. 

HERE IS WHAT I DID

 STEP ONE -   I Built a Contact List

 So what is a contact list?  A contact list is a detailed list of potential clients that could use your services. So, I chose to make a list of restaurants in my city. We'll get to why I chose restaurants in step two.

 Now, how did I make a list? Back in the day (6+ years ago) I used the yellow pages and wrote down everyone’s number and business name. If I was doing it today, I would use the Yellow Pages online (or your local online directory) and print off all the restaurants. It’s important to try and get a list of at least 200 business. Then, go onto LinkedIn, find the owners or General Manager's name. Then, move onto step two.

 STEP TWO - Defining the Purpose for You and Your Client.

 Now that you have your list of the businesses, phone numbers, and possible decision makers, you will have to phone them! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN...Wait. No, that's step three.

 Step two is you have to define the purpose of your call and why your potential client(s) would want to spend time with you. So what do you think the purpose of the call is? To sell to them? To tell them how great you are? If you think it's one of those, you're wrong. It’s SIMPLY TO BUY TIME.  What is buying time?    

 All you're trying to do is get 5 - 10 minutes to go over how your services can solve all of the decision maker’s current issues and be better than their existing services. That’s it. YOU ARE NOT SELLING HERE.

 Now, back to step one where I mentioned: “why I choose restaurants to call.” I choose restaurants because:

1. There were no gatekeepers to get through, so it was easy to talk to a decision maker
2. I have restaurant owners that were friends, and they always talked about having issues with cleaning companies, consistency, quality etc (I also contacted those friends who had restaurants)
3. I had heard profit margins were small and I thought getting their attention would be easier if I could find a way to save them money.

 Now that I have the purpose of the call and why our PC (potential client) might want to listen see me. I can move onto step three.

STEP THREE - Building a Script and Making the Calls

This is the part where you craft a presentation that would get your attention and allow you to get in front of them for at least 5 - 10 minutes.  I found there are 7 steps to crafting a presentation.

1 - Short First Paragraph - takes less than 20 seconds for you to read

2 - Huge Claim - that helps them

3 - The Takeaway - peaks curiosity, makes them wonder what it would take for them to qualify  

4 - Questions -  that probe for issues and what they like  

5 - The Ask - for the appointment  

6 - Grab Email & Info - If they say yes or no, grab their information    

7 - Follow Up -  If they say “NO” set a time to follow up and ask again.

Here is a rough draft for you to use (I would not ask all these questions, I just wanted to give you as much ammo as possible)

 ----

 “The reason for the call is we're taking over cleaning for a lot of the restaurants in the area, found we could [INSERT HUGE CLAIM], and increase the quality and consistency of their cleaning. Just to make sure we can actually [INSERT HUGE CLAIM], let me ask -

 [Then move on to a few qualifying questions like]

 Do you currently have a janitorial company?  

 When you switched companies last time, what were the qualities you were looking for in a new company?   

 The company you hired, are they delivering on everything they promised and more?

 Other than saving you money, what could your new company improve upon?

 Then ask for the time.  If I would even do half of what we talked about, which is [repeat issues], would you consider spending 5 minutes with me?

-----

 There. That's it, that’s your script.  Once you have this, grab your wife, girlfriend/boyfriend, mom, dad, whoever is the closest to you, and start practicing. You need to make sure you are practicing on ANYONE: If you can't find someone, practice alone. But make sure to NEVER practice on your potential client.   

 You're going to fumble, sound like you can’t read, get nervous, and want to hang up on yourself; but keep going.  The point is for you to screw up on someone that won’t cost you money or opportunity.  

 Once you're done and feeling like a pro, it’s on to making the calls.  

 This is where you find out what you’re really made of. The first thing you're going to do is procrastinate.  I don’t know what your procrastination will look like, but mine results in a lot of clicking. Clicking Emails, Websites, QuickBooks invoices, Youtube videos, and on and on.

 I suggest going into your office, telling everyone to get lost and not bug you for [X] amount of time, shutting off your notifications, turning off your computer, and then picking up your phone.

 Then make your first call and don’t stop until you have at least 100+ calls. Don’t stop to analyze, don’t go to the washroom, just keep calling. The more you call, the more confidence you will get and the more fluid you will be with your pitch.

This is when the magic starts to happen: The decision makers you’re calling will stop thinking you're a cold caller and start thinking you're a business owner trying to help them [Which is what you are].  What's the difference and how does making more calls change how they view you?  It's easy: You stop sounding scripted and start sounding like a real person trying to have a conversation. That's when the magic happens.

Before you know it, by the end of the day, you will have a minimum of 3 appointments for potential clients that WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU.

 GREAT WORK!!!!  NOW DO IT!

 I hope you enjoyed this article. If so, please go to my Youtube Channel  - Janitorial Solutions - and click subscribe.  If you have any questions please mention them in the comments.  

Have a great day

Thanks!