Hoy do you guys get commercial work

Be back

I don't have any great secrets to getting commercial work, it has just been a matter of keeping your eyes open and making contacts.

For example, do you frequent a particular place? Of course you do, you go to the same dentist, doctor, barber, store, theater, etc. right? But do they know what you do? Do you ever talk "shop"?

I make it a point of letting people know what I do at these places. Wear the uniform shirt or driving your van to these places makes a difference. They need to know what you do for a living.

Then you have to be approachable. You need to be friendly and approachable so that people ask you for advice on their particular cleaning concerns....perfect chance to sell yourself at the same time.

The last tool is to be critical of the other cleaner (if there is one). Make a point to look at the floors and point out the flaws that you find. Maybe the edges are not getting cleaned, not rinsed properly, or stains exist. It doesn't have to be a manager either, just any employee....just make it obvious that you see flaws and that you would do things differently.

At some point in time, the manager will come find you and ask for a bid or at least your card. Most of the time, they were happy with the cleanings until you just pointed out the flaws and now he/she will be seeing those flaws every single day...it will drive them crazy if they take any pride in their business and you phone will ring.

Every hotel I stay in, I will leave a customer feedback regarding any cleaning issues and include my recommendations and business information. That has been enough to get me a few jobs.

Bottom line is this. You just have to build the relationship with the same people that you are already seeing on a daily/weekly basis anyway. Once they know what you do and become comfortable with you, those commercial jobs will be yours, regardless of the contract price.

Just like residential, they want to hire someone that they know and trust. Just let them know that you a standing right there in front of them.

I don't do a lot of commercial, I do what Rob was saying and left some business cards as well as showing some pictures and videos on my phone of our cleaning before / after and during cleaning, aside from those "wow" I haven't had any single customer from doing those, I've gotten a few phone calls and went out and give bids but only got about 5 % or less of those bids, the problem with commercial is they are always price concern customers which is understandable, I would shop around if I need to make large purchases, unfortunately I need a certain $$ to make profits, if I'm only making $ 100 or $ 200 profits from running the machine 3 - 4 hours, I would rather not do it at all, the longer that machine is running, the risk is higher of something goes wrong.
That being said for a bigger jobs, ( over $ 1000 ) I can be a little more competitive on pricing, unfortunately on those jobs, the customer also will contemplate whether to clean it now or just let it be dirty for another year and then replace the carpets, since they may not need padding if they're on the slab, they might getaway with $ 1 - $ 2 / sq ft which makes them really think twice to get them cleaned.
If you can win with commercial, I applaud you, you're doing something right, I think it's awesome to be able to work without anyone breathing down your neck and clean at your own time.

Also LA is a cut throat market for commercial work, I've heard some companies are charging $ 0.08 / sq ft, that is insane, at that price I'm losing a lot of $$ it's almost like paying the customer to clean their carpets which is not going to happen anytime soon.

Very interesting thread, I want to see what others say about how to get them and possibly how much is the ideal rate for contract cleaning ( twice a year or once a year ? )

I have a few very good, long timer and good paying commercial accounts. But I can't say that I went out of my way to get them, more like they found me.

So I guess I really can't answer the topic question, as I've always felt residential work is where the good money and daily payment is at.

As the old joke goes:

I lose money on every job, but I make it up in volume.

There is more money in residential, but it cost you more in advertising to find it. Commercial comes without any advertising costs, no need for door guards, no door drapes, no moving blankets, no furniture moving, etc.

You just run hoses and wand away without interruptions for 6-8 hours and take your $2000 home at the end. I think it evens out more than people realize.....how much advertising does it take to keep a van busy daily?

On the winter, no matter how much I spend on advertising I can't seems to get 5 - 6 jobs average to keep 1 van busy, more like 3 - 4 jobs a day average and usually I spend about $ 350 / month, on the summer about $ 1000 - $ 1500 / month to keep one van busy for sure and one van gets the spilled of whatever the 1st van can't handle, more like 1 and a quarter vans, lol.

I wonder what AC spend on ads per month ?

milspec6 wrote:As the old joke goes:

I lose money on every job, but I make it up in volume.

There is more money in residential, but it cost you more in advertising to find it.  Commercial comes without any advertising costs, no need for door guards, no door drapes, no moving blankets, no furniture moving, etc.

You just run hoses and wand away without interruptions for 6-8 hours and take your $2000 home at the end.  I think it evens out more than people realize.....how much advertising does it take to keep a van busy daily?

D@mn, I'll spend 10 hours for $ 2000 on commercial any day, unfortunately in LA it's very hard to get $ 200 / hour on commercial work.

DP, spending that kind of money on advertising. Are you putting in a good effort to remain in contact with previous customers.?? That's were the biz starts being really profitable. Cost to acquire that job is so small compared to a new custy.

Matt, I usually don't keep in touch with them but I reward them with free cleaning after 4 cleanings they do with us, I believe that works really well, I save $$ from post cards and stamps and just put those funds into giving them free cleaning, it makes them happy and stay with us.
The way I see it is I hate junk mails and cold callings even from businesses that I do business with in the past, so I won't do that to my custys.

dp1 wrote:Matt, I usually don't keep in touch with them but I reward them with free cleaning after 4 cleanings they do with us, I believe that works really well, I save $$ from post cards and stamps and just put those funds into giving them free cleaning, it makes them happy and stay with us.
The way I see it is I hate junk mails and cold callings even from businesses that I do business with in the past, so I won't do that to my custys.

I couldn't agree more.

I have been doing business with the same mechanic for 22 years. Despite being like family, I still don't care for their recent ad campaign of sending out reminder cards several times per month.

I don't know why it bothers me, but for some reason it feels too intrusive having them contacting me so much instead of me contacting them for service....almost feels needy or desperate for business.

I never want to look desperate for work (sometimes I sure am), so with my commercials, I just give them a monthly calendar with dates that are open for their selection. I let them contact me from there.

We spend 1100/month year round plus 350 to an SEO/marketing company

winter still is worth it for the 1100 and early spring to late fall its a great return, its a yearly contract so cant turn it down in the winter unfortunately

Well, lately we have been getting calls from offices and have done a few more commercial building and I have to say I'm enjoying them, I still didn't close much but the closing ratio is definitely increasing, I notice that some places that we close the deal on, they really aren't looking for the cheapest but simply a company that they can trust, I wish every company think like that, a couple of weeks ago we cleaned a bank on a saturday, 2 stories, it's only the 2nd bank we did in all these years in business, thank God it's in Pasadena, the 1st one was in east LA which is scary as hell, lol.

ya commercial can be deceiving... the rate seems low but residual income is far more valuable.

I just landed a brand new pool hall/club that opened in my area, 2000sq ft every 3 months they want it cleaned

it will be all encap on high quality commercial carpet squares