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What’s the ‘Correct’ price to charge for Window Cleaning?

How would you answer this question?

One of my blog readers from California asked me this question a couple of days ago, and I know that it’s going to help a lot of you, so here goes:

His question (it’s a little long, even condensed, but it’s good!):

“I have been having trouble pricing jobs…I was trying to figure out what the average hourly rate a professional window cleaner should be making…what is the minimum range that it needs to fall in to be worth my time or correctly bid? I know I offer the kind of quality to position myself differently for people who are looking for superior window cleaning.

The other good thing is that out of the people I’ve done windows for I’m guessing my customer return rate is around 95% or so, and many people have complimented that it’s the best window cleaning job they’ve ever had done vs. previous companies they hired. That is why I know I need to really shift focus to building my clientele and marketing, which is something that you really a knack for. I just want to make sure I’m making what I’m worth, because I know when I’m on a job I definitely work hard to be super detail oriented and wow the customer. Look forward to your input/suggestions.

-Luke”

What would you have said?

Here is the response I wrote him back:

“Ok, Luke.

Let’s start with what you’re “worth”, or what is a “correct” price.

There is no accurate answer to this, not because I don’t know the answer, simply because an accurate answer does not exist.

“Worth” is subjective. “Correct” is subjective.

I know of many window cleaners that earn $75/hr, if that helps. I know some who earn more. Much more. Many earn $40 - $60/hr.

You just have to decide what your time is worth.

Why not decide now that your time is worth $100/hr, and start bidding jobs at that rate, and see how it turns out. You may be surprised at how many people will have no problem with that price point. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend telling people your hourly rate, but use it as a pricing guide, and factor in surprises when you come up with your job durations for this formula.

Interestingly, you seem to have justified your worth with the fact that “you work really hard and do a great job”. That actually is true of many low-paid workers, too, and yet they continue to earn peanuts.

You have to switch they way you define your justification of increased pay to something else, like the advantages you bring your clients, or simply the amount of money you need (according to your own estimation of your needs) to make in the next year.

Know what I mean?

If you need $50,000 gross revenue in the next year, to pay your bills, and have the lifestyle you want, and you only want to work 3 days a week, with 4 weeks of vacation, just reverse engineer it.

Here’s the math:

$50,000 / 48 weeks = $1,042/wk = $347/day

When you think about it, you’ll need to include a healthy dose of marketing in there, too, so maybe for every 5 days or work, you need to spend one full day of marketing. Which means that now, you really need to earn the $1,042/wk in 2.5 days of actual window cleaning work every week, which means that you need to generate $417/day. If you want to work 8 hrs/day, then you’ve got to start earning $52/hr during actual WC work time, to meet your financial goals for the coming year.

Hope that helps.

Kevin

P.S. Incidentally, don’t forget that I picked these financial goals quite arbitrarily, and in the end, you get to decide exactly what they could and should be.

And of course, once you know what you “should” and “could” make, turning up the heat on your marketing machine will provide the means to change the “should” and “could” into “will”.”

You - no doubt - also face challenges when coming up with pricing in your local window cleaning marketplace, and I hope that this little message can help you more effectively navigate them!

Kevin

Posted in GOOD Window Cleaning Business Advice | 1 Comment »

How to Put Pressure on a Prospect

Today I received this great email question from a window cleaner out in Dublin:

“Hi Kevin,

I’ve ordered your book already and cant wait to get it, but I just have a quick question for you. I recently priced the window cleaning on a block of apartments, here in Dublin, for a property management company.

I e-mailed them the price and they e-mailed back saying that they were happy with it and said they would be in contact with me “tomorrow”, which was about two weeks ago!

I don’t want to seem desperate or pushy with them, but how do i go about contacting them to see if they want to go ahead with the work and if they are happy with the price etc? Do I simply call them or e-mail them? And if so, what do I say to “seal the deal”?

Cheers Kevin.

R______ W________”

Great question, isn’t it?

Well - what would YOU do?

Here’s part of what I suggested:

“Congrats, R_______.

When you said you ‘emailed’ them the price, what exactly was the message that you sent them?

I email estimates too, but I prepare them to be kind of ‘over-the-top’ intentionally. Generally, I send a one-page PDF estimate as an attachment, and also throw it onto my web server, so that I can give them a “live” link to the same estimate online. This approach always goes over well. Keep it in mind for your next estimate!

Back to your question:

“Good afternoon, Mr ________, this is R______ W______ calling from ____________ , here in Dublin (?). How are you?”

(allow for response)

“I figured things would be hectic on your end, so I had written myself a reminder note a couple of weeks ago, promising to give you a quick shout today to firm up a specific date for your apartment’s window cleaning service, like we promised.

How does next Tuesday, October the 28th, sound? Our crew will arrive around 8 am, and we should be completed everything by ____ pm.

Shall I schedule you in for 8am?”

(allow for response, and go from there!)

Subtle, firm, and friendly.

Something like that should do the trick, and it doesn’t sounds needy or pushy, just professional.

Hope that helps!

Kevin”

Learning how to follow up on prospects is an important part of leveraging the maximum results from your estimate process. Sit straight up or even stand when you make the phone call, to project your voice with more authority and confidence, and don’t forget to smile when you talk. If appropriate, send an email follow up to the phone call, to remind them of what was discussed, or what you left them on their phone message, if they didn’t pick up.

And if you hear in their voice that they’re starting to waver a bit in their decision to hire you, ask them if something has come up that has made their decision to hire you a challenge now, and go from there.

Try not to assume that you know what the obstacle is, and instead listen carefully with the goal of fully understanding their unique problem, and then propose a solution that will address and solve it head-on.

I’ve made the mistake in the past of jumping in and blurting out a deep price discount, only to find out that they simply needed to reschedule because of family illness, and then I was stuck. I had thrown money down the drain for nothing.

So never assume. Listen carefully, instead, sympathize, and then offer your best solution to make their lives easier. After all, thats why they wanted to work with you in the first place, right?

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I’m dead wrong in the UK?

Okay, so today I was participating on an interesting forum discussion over on www.window-tools.com - a very interesting and experienced group of cleaning business owners. Great board, by the way, you should check it out if you haven’t already!

Anyway, one of the guys on there challenged me on some ideas I shared regarding the validity of spending concerted effort on “marketing” as WC business owners, and my reply was too long for the window-tools forum configurations , so I’ve posted it below for you to benefit from, instead!

Incidentally, I have a sneaking suspicion that just maybe YOU TOO have thought these same things, so what you’re about to read below my just be what you need to hear for today to help you achieve greater business success with your window cleaning business, too!

Enjoy!

zeusweiler (screen name of other forum member): I know what you are trying to say, However i think there is a difference between promoting and advertising a business and effectively marketing it.

me: Cool, that’s your right to think that.

I disagree completely with you. Marketing, promoting, and advertising are all pieces of the same LEGO set.

zeusweiler: Your point on my point about someone being either related to or offering a freebie to a client. i see this as circumstantial where they already have direct contact with the client therefor they are not indeed marketing there business as opposed to offering a bribe to keep in favour

me: Okay, these 2 things are different, here’s an extended explanation.

The WC who is the nephew of the owner - he obviously is simply lucky, and we can’t probably do anything about that. This is a good example of a situation in which we are likely “incapable” of competing, as I said in the post you are alluding to. However, even these dimwits do just barely good enough a job to keep their connections intact, therefore I believe they are not completely oblivious to the fact that they must to some extent leverage their opportunity.

Offering a freebie to a corporate client is intelligent, and done openly and honestly, is above board. DO some people make dishonest extension of this tactic? Absolutely. Does that mean that you should never do it, at least in a limited way? No, you should. It’s honest, open, and smart. Different corporate situations have different rules of conduct for this, so my advice is to learn the rules of the game for each corporate client and then win by them.

zeusweiler: there is nothing more off putting than [sucking up], once you go down that road you may find that 90% of your work that comes from these connections you have made using these methods could be pulled from you overnight then where are you.

me: I agree with you on the negative results from sucking up. I am not recommending that we do this, but your forecast above is a pretty dramatic extrapolation.

zeusweiler: I worked for a facility company once where a contractor was doing the window cleaning round, “mate of the regional director”. “here’s an idea” lets take the WCing in house, buy his van as he has no work left. If he didn’t take the offer he loses 95% of his work.

me: This WC’er is a fool, business-wise, for putting 95% of his eggs into this one basket.

He ignored the principle and value of diversification, and reaped the bad results above because of it. This could happen to an honest WC’er too, who has only one big client, essentially.

zeusweiler: Move in to area, simplify the problem with full facillities. undercut and work on unrealistic budgets, “who cares well lose it in two years lets bluff the client till then”. get bad name sell up and move on. the business equivelent to pikeys.

me: Okay, is this true of every single business? DO they only EVER work thru a property management company or full service provider? If so, then this is a problem I was completely oblivious to, and would need to give it more thought. There are a billion prop mgmt companies over here, too, but most of my commercial clients have an in-house facilities director instead. This person picks and chooses many services (including window cleaning) from various different providers, finding and hiring a mountain of contractors themself.

zeusweiler: The demographics are very different here than over the pond. People (householders) are more shrewd with money and can even be described as tight. sad to say with the state of the economy they will always opt for the cheaper option unless you prove your self through being regular, which is one of the main problems here with the services we offer.

me: Okay, you’ve switched now to residential, so let’s talk about that.

You are telling me that the absolute only thing that matters to homeowners in the UK is price and regularity. The absolute only factors. No one ever makes buying decisions aside from these clear, two determining factors.

Is that what you’re saying?

If so, then even though I live well ‘across the pond’, I know for a certainty that this is simply an assumption that I could prove wrong by simply asking you to list the last 25 things that you’ve bought for your home, or that your prospective residential client has bought for their homes.

This is a cop-out, and you’re taking the easy way out. In fact, your very next statement reveals yet another factor that you must also believe matters to the householder:

zeusweiler: householders will always be more picky with work. this is being good at what you do.

me: I couldn’t agree more. Great point. Now, we’re up to three factors, right?

Price.
Reliability.
Excellence in workmanship.

zeusweiler: Anyone can pick up any book on marketing and apply the principles to there own business.

me: You do know that this is kind of the whole point of my book, right? Or does my book not count?

zeusweiler: most here already utilise the mass media through the internet and adds in papers and directories. however i cant see it going any further than that, tv adds radio i dont think so.

me: Okay, good - so you’re encouraging WC’ers to have websites and newspaper ads and directory listings, right? I agree, this is important. Next obvious question is - what should these things look like?

What should be on a website?
What should a newspaper ad look like?
Which directories matter most?

This is all “marketing”.

And I would add much more to this list of three things above, as you likely would, too. And you would no doubt also agree that each of these things must be developed “properly” to make them as effective as possible.

“Marketing”, again.

zeusweiler: I’m not havin a go at you at all, and apologise if it seems like it.

me: I love the fact that you are challenging my ideas and not me, in fact, I respect you very much for recognizing this important difference in fostering intelligent interchange of thought! Keep at it. Rip apart anything I’m saying if you have reason to believe I’m wrong.

zeusweiler: however if you think you can help people on here post the info for free

me: Please review my signature line, my coaching website, the book preview webpages, and the posts on here that I’ve made before this one, and let me repeat something that I truly mean and stand behind 100%:

Anyone, anywhere, anytime can read my entire 218-page book for FREE.

FREE as in they have 2 months to devour it before they’re billed for it.

FREE as in if they don’t love it, they can send it back for a full refund anytime in the future, even 8 months, 4 years, or 22 years and 7 weeks into the future.

It’s FREE. Free. free. fReE. Anyone can access all this information for free. How else can I articulate this?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

There’s more to this conversation, too, but that’s at least the first part!

(please also note that this is simply my reply to his post on the window-tools forum, it is not a transcript of an actual conversation!)

I would like to hear from you, too, if you are at odds with some of my ideas! Its a great way to learn and more fully understand, by challenging a position, so challenge away!

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How Strong Are Your Marketing Muscles? Take a Quiz!

I’ve created a quiz to help you learn even more about the value of marketing in generating more revenue for your window cleaning business.

Fun + Learning! Sweet.

Enjoy! (it’s got a 3 minute time limit, and 14 questions, so don’t dilly-dally!)

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10 Juicy Excerpts to Help You Make More Money Immediately

For all you window cleaning business owners that have been really wanting to pick up a copy of my brand-new 218-page Reference Guide “Why Everything You Think You Know Is Probably Totally Wrong”, I’m pleased to provide you with 10 really juicy excerpts copied directly from the pages of this innovative, one-of-a-kind publication.

Check out the guts of the book that is getting rave reviews all across the window cleaning world by clicking on the button immediately below.

These excerpts are no joke, no fluff. Real, juicy, meaty material that you can start using right now to generate more profits in less time within your window cleaning company!

Enjoy.

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