(And do so even if you’re NOT the cheapest cleaning company they receive a quote from)
The most important (critical) thing you can do at the in-person/onsite meeting when pricing up a potential commercial cleaning job is to ask value-based questions that elicit (as specifically as possible) what is most important to the prospect about a particular cleaning job they are seeking.
In short, at the in-person/on-site meeting you want to find out:
1. The specific results they are looking for
2. How they will know they’ve got those results
By the way…
It is at this stage in the process (the on-site pricing-up meeting) that you’re finding out what to put in your written quote/proposal to give yourself the highest possible chance that it will be accepted – it is THAT important.
Therefore, DO NOT jump over finding out:
1. The specific results the prospect is looking for.
2. How they will know they’ve got those specific results.
It’s simple to do, too.
All you have to do is ask the question:
‘What’s important about… ?’
To give it context, let’s say that you or one of your reps is out onsite at the prospects building assessing the scope and pricing-up, and discussing a potential floor cleaning job.
All that you (or the rep) has to do is ask:
‘So… what’s most important to you about having this floor cleaned and polished daily?
Let the prospect answer.
Maybe they say: ‘Well, we’d like it not to distract from the newly decorated walls.’
This is where you (or the rep) need to go deeper. How?
By simply asking the ‘What’s important about…?’ question again. Maybe like so:
‘Ok, that makes sense… so tell me… what’s so important about it not distracting from the newly decorated walls?’
To which they may reply:
‘It’s because we have a client flying in from Japan next month to evaluate our company’s ability to be their distributor in North America. A lot is riding on that meeting. And we know the Japanese are very particular about cleanliness of buildings… and frankly… those baseboards really let us down!’
See how that ‘What’s important about…?’ question asked repeatedly (and with some sensitivity) “drills down” to getting to the real issues on the prospect’s mind?
You can then use your judgement to keep asking the ‘What’s important about…?’ question on the same want/issue.
Or you can find out if there is ANYTHING ELSE that’s important to them. Like so:
‘Thank you for sharing that information with me. That’s helpful to know. Now, just so I can ensure our company can provide everything you want from floor cleaning to baseboard cleaning… is there anything else that’s really important to you that would be helpful for me to know about?’
Let them answer in their own good time (hint: it may take them a bit of thinking time to come up with an answer because you can bet that none of your competitors are asking them these questions; and they’ve probably never asked themselves such questions).
Again, use your own judgement to determine if you need to ask the ‘What’s important about… ?’ question more than once to “drill down” into the specific issues that will give them the result they ideally want.
(NOTE: As a rule-of-thumb: Typically, you’ll only have to ask the ‘What’s important about…?’ question no more than 3 times on a want/issue to get to the specific root cause underneath it).
You can then ask questions such as:
‘How will you know you’ve got those results?’
Again, use your judgement. Sometimes the answer will be more obvious. Nevertheless, it’s always good to ask the question.
Bottom line though: Make sure (at the on-site meeting when pricing up) you know as specifically as possible how and when the prospect will consider a cleaning job complete and their expectations have been met.
Then, at the end of the in-person/on-site meeting – you can explain a bit as to how your service meets (or exceeds) the criteria (specific results and requirements) your prospect has shared with you in the answering of the ‘What’s important about…?’ and `How will you know you’ve got those results?’ questions.
Here you are not doing a “canned” generic presentation. Instead, you will be closely “matching” exactly how your cleaning service (equipment used / professional cleaners / processes etc) will give the prospect specifically what they are looking for.
This will make the prospect feel heard, understood and that by dealing with you (and your cleaning company) they are in the best possible hands.
If done right, at this juncture in the process, they will already be mentally and emotionally “sold” on you and the cleaning services you can provide.
Now that you’ve established value (i.e., you’ve established you can provide the prospect with the result they want in the very specific ways that they want it) you can give an indication of the likely price range to get a sense of whether or not it’s within their purchasing ability.
Of course,only ever reveal the full and exact price in a written quote/proposal AFTER you have gone through the steps outlined above and you have established enough value in your ability to give the prospect exactly what they’re looking for; as well as addressing all their surrounding concerns and issues, etc.
So, to recap:
By asking the questions `What’s important to you about……?’ and ‘How will you know you’re satisfied with the result?’ you’ll really UP your chances of being selected as the company to carry out the commercial cleaning work (even if you are not the cheapest company they receive a bid or quote from).
Centaur produces these articles as a “value added service” to the commercial cleaning industry. Our overall aim is to help you become more commercially successful with more time-freedom – irrespective of if you ever buy from Centaur. So please “bookmark” this article resource and check back often for more informative articles that can help you run and enjoy a more lucrative commercial cleaning business.
For any enquiries about Centaur Floor Machines / Vacuums or Accessories or any other question you feel Centaur may be able to help you with – please let us know. We’ll be glad to help as best we can. You can contact Centaur at: 1-905-475-5640