How To Follow Up With Cleaning Prospects

You just got a great prospect through your friend or family member.

You think to yourself that it is only a matter of time before they call you to come clean for them.

After all, you were just referred by a mutual friend. Why wouldn’t they call you?

You’re courteous, professional, and do a great job.

If this is your typical thought process when trying to land new clients, you’re in trouble.

You can’t sit around and wait for prospects to reach out to you. It is essential for you to learn some follow up skills to more efficiently grow your customer base.

In today’s world, everyone is busy.

There are a million things on your prospect’s to-do list and two million other people trying to get their attention (okay, not really, but you get the point).

Do you think with all the things going on in your prospect’s life and with all the distractions they face that they will remember to call you?

While there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus, the number of contacts or touchpoints required to make a sale is somewhere between seven and thirteen.

That means you need to follow up with your prospects through phone calls, emails, messages, and in person at least seven times before you can earn their business.

Of course, some people will make a buying decision in an initial meeting, but that is extremely rare.

Also, following up with your prospects will significantly increase your chances of closing deals. Nurtured leads close 50% more and cost 33% less than non-nurtured leads do.

With this information, it is evident that you need to follow up with your new leads to move them closer to using your services.

Obviously, you are going to need some contact information before you can effectively begin the follow-up process.

At a minimum, you should get your leads’ cell phone number with an alternative number and their email address.

If you clean for both residential and commercial locations, try to get your contact’s administrative assistant’s information or their direct line if applicable.

Now that you have some contact information, it will be much easier to follow up with your prospects.

There are a variety of ways you can begin this process.

Phone calls are probably the most common method today. However, be prepared to leave a voicemail. Many people use caller ID and will not answer numbers they don’t recognize.

Another common and useful method is to follow up with your prospects through email. Write a quick note that says you would like to get in touch.

There are many strategies you can use to increase your response rate with email. The best follow up emails are short, concise, and not overly formal.

In addition to phone calls and emails, social media has become a favorite way to interact with customers. If applicable, add your customer to a social networking site where you have a business page or presence.

You can then follow up with them outside of work hours, which may increase your chances of getting through.

If none of these strategies are working, and you have attempted to call and email your prospect with no success, you can always pay them a visit in person.

It is easy for someone to screen your calls or ignore your emails; it’s not as easy to tell someone to go away in person.

Often, using a combination of the methods above will increase your success.

For example, you can start off by calling a prospect and leaving them a voicemail. Instead of waiting a few days or a week, you can immediately follow up with an email as well letting them know you called.

As mentioned previously, there are many things competing for your customer’s attention. This means you have to be unique and creative if you want to attract their focus.

If you are going to call or email your prospect, you need to say or show something valuable if you want to get through.

Instead of calling to see if they are ready to pay you for your services, call and offer a cleaning demo. Call and offer to drop something off, like a business card, flyer or free gift.

Alternatively, send them something interesting via email. The idea is to get the person to commit to meeting with you so you can 1) stay present in their mind 2) further persuade them to do business with you.

However, focus on building a relationship in these interactions. Don’t come across as too much of salesman or you may turn the prospect off.

You want to earn their trust so when the time comes; it will be easier for them to say yes to you.

Utilize technology as much as possible to stay organized.

There are many great CRM resources available that enable you to keep track of your customers better than trying to remember everything. Set reminders to follow up either on your calendar or phone.

Try following up at different times of the day if you are not getting through. Usually calling in the afternoon and later in the week will yield more success.

Be persistent. You will hear no’s way more than you hear a yes.

That’s just the nature of the game when it comes to making any sales call. Which leads to the final point; cut your loses.

Knowing when to quit is challenging for many people. There will come a time where it will no longer be worthwhile to pursue a particular lead.

You need to be aware of these situations and understand that wasting more time calling the same person over and over is unproductive and unprofitable.
After about fifteen attempts, it may be time to move on and try them again a few months down the road.

Following up can be very challenging and scary at times, especially if you do not have a sales background.

Be tough and persevere.

It will pay off substantially because most people in the cleaning industry probably aren’t following up. As stated previously, nurtured leads will buy more often than not.

So stick with it and hone your sales skills.

Make sure you get as much contact info as possible so you can use multiple touchpoints.

Be unique, be creative, and be yourself. Being authentic and personable will make a massive difference to your prospects and will earn your more deals than any other tactic you can think of.

Let us know what you think below. What follow up strategies do you use to attract more customers?

If you would like more assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to help you succeed in growing your business.