Don’t Sell Cleaning, Do This
What You’ll Learn
- Show how job hours are learned and priced
- Define staffing, training, and supervision for those hours
- Share inspection checklists and missed-work procedures
Short Summary
An unclear bid plan raises risk for the owner. They cannot see how the work will get done each night. A clear bid walk-through should start with learning the hours on that site. Then explain pricing the job from those hours and listed tasks. Next, share the staffing plan and training plan for that time. Also describe supervising the work and using inspection checklists at the building. End with a missed-work procedure, so problems get fixed fast. Review this plan with the owner to lower risk on day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a building owner want to see in a bid?
The owner wants clear hours, price, and a work plan. The owner also wants to see how quality gets checked.
What does “learning the hours” mean?
It means figuring out how long the full cleaning job takes. Those hours should match the building needs.
How should pricing be explained without guessing?
Show the hours used to build the price. Show the tasks included in those hours.
What should be included in a staffing and training plan?
State who will cover the planned hours. Explain how the team will be trained for the duties.
Why share inspection checklists and missed-work steps?
It shows how the company finds problems. It also shows how missed work gets fixed.
Transcript
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Hi there. Welcome back. Dan again from CleanGuru.
Have you ever noticed that it seems some cleaning contractors just land better buildings, better contracts, better relationships? You might think to yourself, it’s probably because they have better salespeople. Very often, that’s not it, even though it’s tempting to think that.
Building owners and managers aren’t really looking for confidence and charisma from the salesperson. They’re not looking so much for confidence as they are clarity: clarity from the cleaning contractor as to how they bid the job. Do they understand their building? How are they going to clean it? How long is it going to take to clean it? Clarity about how they’re going to manage it, staff it, and train to those hours. If anything gets missed, what procedures do they have to take care of that? What ways do they have to inspect, use checklists, and manage the work? Clarity from how they learned how to price the job with the hours, to how to manage the job.
They’re really concerned a great deal not so much with charisma as they are about avoiding and lowering risk. They’re worried. They want to hire a company that they know can take care of this job.
Another big thing they’re looking for, and it often isn’t said, is when a cleaning contractor has a kind of calm confidence. They’re not needy or desperate for the job. They come across not desperate. They’re simply explaining, “Sir or madam, here is how we do this kind of project. Here’s how we learn the hours. Here’s how we price it. Here’s how we train it. Here’s how we supervise it. Here’s how we manage it. We take care of other clients like yours.” They may give references and so on.
They have quite a bit of confidence in saying, “We know what we’re doing to do our job properly, and we would like to do it for you. Here are all the specifications that we have about your job: the size of the project, all the duties you want taken care of, and when.”
That kind of clarity and calm confidence is what attracts building owners and managers, not so much just a very competent, charismatic salesperson.
Something to keep in mind is, like I say, from not only how you handle your bidding and how you explain it, to how you handle the actual staffing, training, and the work that’s going to be done. All the procedures, from timekeeping and folks showing up on time, to inspecting, and if something gets missed, how you handle it. If that is a clear picture to the building owner, that kind of clarity attracts them a lot more than just a charismatic salesperson.
Till next time, remember: you can do this. You really can.
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