I don’t know about you all’s customer thought processes, but here in KY I keep getting this DIY answer whenever I mention pressure washing.
It doesn’t matter what I say, the typical answer is “we have a pressure washer and my husband loves to do it”.
I kid you not, we had a WC job last week and they were planning to do a 3,000sq/ft driveway with one of those plastic Lowes surface cleaners and a 2.4gpm unit.
Any suggestions for nailing down a few more jobs before winter hits?
The short answer is those are not the type of customers you really want.
The long answer is that you have to become a salesman. Offer them a free demo and explain every step as you go along. Explain the benefits of having it done professionally and explain the risks of doing it themselves. Offer bundle discounts.
The art of selling can be reduced to one very simple thing. Make the customer say yes. Ask leading questions to get them to say yes. After saying the word “yes” a half dozen times or more then hit them with the hook that you’ve been leading up to the entire time. Subconsciously, it is now much easier for them to say yes because they’ve already said it a dozen times in the last ten minutes. You have to bring down the fear wall before you go for the jugular. Once the fear wall is down most people are an easy sell.
I’ve never paid anyone to do anything that I couldn’t try to tackle myself. my philosophy Is to go buy my own tools to do a certain task, Then learn how to do it, Then I have that knowledge and new tools and saved a buck, HOPEFULLY. LOL.
I’ve never paid someone to wash a window. makes no sense to me. But if I won the lottery tomorrow ,You’d be safe to bet I’d wouldn’t wash my windows, laundry,mow lawn or wear the same socks and undies more than once.
I’m thinking you need to attack or seek out ppl with more money than common sense and have no problem paying a professional like yourself, with the knowledge and tools to do a particular job flawlessly and quickly. MO only
@dcbrock.
As a fellow native son I understand this mentality. My goal isn’t to service folks like me. But rather go after those with both expendable income and the disinclination of doing it themselves.
I’d target affluent neighborhoods where I know people of means live and do my best to instill competition anxiety amongst the neighbors.
Tough sell here, that’s for sure. The affluent homeowners will call the established, high dollar rig guys here in town before even considering my operation. So far 90% of PW has been achieved through my existing window cleaning customers.
I sell my service and my chemicals to higher end customers. I do a more catered wash than most.
You gotta find your catered wash as well. The big fellas aren’t to worried about detail IMO
Pick the worst house you can find on the block wash it on the cheap and put a yard sign up. Make sure you tell the homeowner why you are doing it at that price after its clean and looking good the phone will ring. At least that’s what I do when I’m trying to break I to a new neighborhood
I noticed an uptick in calls when I built the big truck. Makes people feel all fuzzy and warm inside I guess. Not that the beast was high dollar lol
Just keep chipping away at it!
That’s because folks felt sorry for ya! Hahhahaaha
No kidding lol
I’m not a particularly religious individual but some of the larger churches in the area might be worth stopping by. If nothing more than a networking opportunity. One I’ve gotten some woodburning work from has a “Pro board” that anyone is free to leave cards up. Might be worth setting through a sermon to rub elbows as it were.
Just keep doing what you know how to do. You obviously built a window cleaning company. Anybody can clean a window with a Windex and a rag. So whatever you did to grow your customer base cleaning windows, do it washing houses/driveways. You’ll be fine.
On another note, most of my best customers have a washer in their garage. They almost always say it’s too hard and takes to long. They’d rather pay me to clean their stuff.
99% of my customers on a pw and have used it once and don’t won’t to have anything to do with it again, lol
So true, we get asked a couple times every few months if we would like to buy their like new, used only once pw…lol
I actually considered doing some pro bono work at small churches in high crime areas in town. Just wish I had the time, everyone calls about WC this time of year.
You should do Pro bono work at small churches in ?? Wait for it…
High GRIME areas in town
…
Here all week fella’s, don’t forget to tip your waiter.
Wow… just wow
I’m not sure high crime areas are going to attracting the clientele your after. Think Mega churches, the more hypocritical the better. Jesus might have hung out with the poor and the destitute, but none of them were paying him for his carpentry skills.
Go where the money is to make money, if you want to do pro bono charity work that’s great to, I just wouldn’t do it expecting paying customers, just more requests for “free” labor.
I’m not trying to attract anyone by doing that.
