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waxman18324 · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute Of America

"Pristine Marketing"

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Some of you may know, this past weekend I decided to do some pristine marketing as Ed had coined it. My plan was to knock on doors of homes needing gutter clean outs. Clean their gutters for a fairly low price in order to establish a relationship with them to do more businesss in the future ( roofs, siding). Well the good news it was a complete and total failure. But I failed quickly it only lasted about an hour.

The first problem, from the street you can't really tell if a gutter needs to be cleaned. Maybe 1 in 10 you can visibly see.

2nd problem, I did it on a sunday at 11. (No one except the pope does business on sunday)

Do any of you have sales reps? or have tried sales reps? When is the best time to go door to door.

My thought process, was that it was a beautiful day their should be people outside working on their homes, and their was, but they all had clean roofs and gutters.

Dan

Roof Cleaning West Chester PA · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute of America

Hey Dan, I've probably knocked on 2500 doors this season alone. If I'm not working, I'm usually knocking ... I've slowed down the past month only cause I'm mentally fatigued, but the thing about door to door is you have to play the numbers.

The evening time is the best time of day to go knocking. I haven't noticed or taken the necessary data to conclude the best day of the week, but if I had to guess I'd say Friday and Sunday.

Here's the deal ... "let me talk to my husband or wife" or "let me think about it" is a polite way of saying no. You have to overcome their objections and look to close the deal at the doorstep. Ask open ended questions to facilitate conversation.

A couple things to remember is 1) you'll have customers call you next season for what you do this year. I was shocked at the beginning of this season with the amount of people that held on to my flyer. 2) An hour isn't a large enough sample size to determine whether or not it was failure.

You should be closing 4-6% and as you know those numbers run in streaks. I've probably knocked on 150 doors without getting a customer. That's actually a good thing cause I know that my next 150 should be much better. If you keep at it you might go on a 5/10 run.

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Nov 15, 2012

Ive closed a few good ones door to door. The best way, or time to knock is on your way in to a home and on your way out. I always make the claim we just did their neighbors house down the street, even if that neighbor is a few towns over.

Mike is right, most times you'll get a call a few weeks or months later.

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Thank you all for the support. The Pristine Marketing was a total failure. As far as marketing in general I have been learning a lot. Mike I wonder if we can find the best day of the week. I will have to search google, maybe someone already did the research. My guess would be from 4:30-7 is the best time. But that doesn't leave much room for hiring a sales associate. The reason an hour was long enough, was because I was solely using the "gutter clean out" as my luke-warm lead. It's affordable and people know that it should be done. The big problem was that I couldn't see if their gutters needed to be cleaned! So I basically had no lead. " Your spot on with the polite way of saying no. What are some ways you would get around it?

Ed, are you talking about going out with an assistant tech door to door and trying to clean the roof right then and there, or schedule a cleaning? The door to door with an assistant sounds like a good technique on a saturday.

Roof Cleaning West Chester PA · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute of America

the best time is when the man of the house/decision maker is home ... 4:30 - 5:30 is kind of slow so i usually do 5:30 - 8:30

& i've come up empty after 3+ hours selling gutter cleaning many times, it runs in streaks, you'll go 0/100 sometimes, only to get 7 of your next 20, that's how it goes

as far as getting around the objections, 3 things

1) open ended questions ... so don't say "would you like your gutters cleaned?" ... say something like "how do you go about removing all the debris from your gutters every year?"

2) ABC (always be closing) it's shocking how many sales reps don't actually go for the close. after every objection, you should have a practiced, routine response and then a close ... customer: "let me talk to my wife first" you: "assuming your wife doesn't want her gutters to be clogged and we agree on a price, when is a good time for us to come out here?"

3) doesn't work for everyone, but it does for me: assume the sale ... I do this by literally opening up my schedule and asking him what day next week works best ... this while the customer is scratching the back of his head thinking of a way to get you off his front porch ... a lot of people are afraid to say no, this technique takes advantage of that

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Nov 15, 2012

I would always hand them a card and say we just treated your neighbors roof for black mold. Let them know you exist. Smile, say thank you, turn and start walking. More often than not they'll stop you before you get away and ask for a quote. For me, this approach doesnt come accross so much like "selling". People wont throw up the barrier.

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

two VERY different approaches, but I like both of them. Mike all great stuff, the open ended question is great. It makes them think, rather than just an automatic no response.

Ed, Do you feel guilty calling it black mold, even though its algae? I know people often associate the black as mold.

Dan

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Nov 15, 2012

Dan, do you feel guilty calling it algae when its actually a bacteria?

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Nov 15, 2012

Does an insurance salesman feel guilty calling it life insurance even though its only payable upon death, lol!

Roof Cleaning West Chester PA · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute of America

there's all different methods, the only thing that matters at the end of the day is getting the job, doing excellent work, get a referral, and make sure you add that customer to the repeat business list

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Black mold it is! Yes Mike that is the bottom line. Doing great work goes a long way.

Nov 16, 2012

I think Ed has somthing, but that does not suprise me he's a pretty smart fella. Long story short I just got off the phone with a friend who has a friend who's house got flooded. He ripped out a ton of stuff and is down to the " beams,joist boards" that he has treated for MOLD! He may rip everything out because he does not want to live with MOLD! Mold it is!

Roof Cleaning Cleveland (216) 323-0552 · Nov 20, 2012

Roof Cleaning West Chester PA wrote:
the best time is when the man of the house/decision maker is home ... 4:30 - 5:30 is kind of slow so i usually do 5:30 - 8:30

& i've come up empty after 3+ hours selling gutter cleaning many times, it runs in streaks, you'll go 0/100 sometimes, only to get 7 of your next 20, that's how it goes

as far as getting around the objections, 3 things

1) open ended questions ... so don't say "would you like your gutters cleaned?" ... say something like "how do you go about removing all the debris from your gutters every year?"

2) ABC (always be closing) it's shocking how many sales reps don't actually go for the close. after every objection, you should have a practiced, routine response and then a close ... customer: "let me talk to my wife first" you: "assuming your wife doesn't want her gutters to be clogged and we agree on a price, when is a good time for us to come out here?"

3) doesn't work for everyone, but it does for me: assume the sale ... I do this by literally opening up my schedule and asking him what day next week works best ... this while the customer is scratching the back of his head thinking of a way to get you off his front porch ... a lot of people are afraid to say no, this technique takes advantage of that

Great advice Mike. I worked on closing on the spot this spring and was surprised how often it worked.

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Ya Tom you had givin me some good tips about the close, last time we had spoken.

Roof Cleaning Cleveland (216) 323-0552 · Nov 20, 2012

Thanks Dan, being a painter for so long I just expected people to get multiple estimates. This spring I decided to start asking for the sale. I found just asking for it some people would just give it to you. I also did the old "I'll be cleaning this Friday, or would next week be better?"

Kleen Roof and Exterior Cleaning · Nov 20, 2012

I ran a groupon deal for gutter cleaning. Not so much to make money cleaning the gutters, but to be able to do some quality work for homeowners, and to let them know about the other services we offer. This has worked out very well. Many of the houses I did the gutters on had dirty roofs and or siding. I was able to sell them on cleaning of these. With groupon you are not going to make any money, but it does get you the better jobs.

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