Janitorial Marketing Fundamentals

The basis of any marketing program in the janitorial industry must encompass every available vehicle. The marketplace is too competitive to rely on old standbys that worked in the past. The companies that are experiencing solid growth understand the current market.

Old-line companies that do not understand the market have seen growth stagnant or stand still. Failure to understand the current competitive landscape will yield disappointment and waste valuable limited resources, particularly in a small or start-up in today’s market.

Oh No! I Got No Dough but I Need to Grow

THE E-MAIL:

“Good Morning Ed,
We still can’t get enough clients, we need more jobs, more customers. What can we do? What else can we/should we do? Right now we don’t have any money. I bought a lot of new equipment and a vehicle. Do you know anything I can do to get more jobs?”

I know this young couple have a new baby in the house, so I invited them to call me. I have been through one start up with a brand new screaming mouth to feed, so I remember that feeling of panic.

THE CALL:

One little detail left out of the e-mail is that they have only been hitting it full time for about three months. Who has enough clients in the first three months? I know I never did.

So we did a 10-minute marketing plan over the phone based on a ZERO marketing budget. With sincerest apologies to every single Harvard MBA, I am going to share with you what I told them. To my friends from around the globe, I think this will work everywhere, so grab a pencil and a note pad.

One Janitor’s Journey Into Quality Cleaning

I signed one of those dream cleaning contracts in 1983 that janitors lust over in their most secret day dreams. No one outside of our business could possibly understand that the sight of a giant new office building turns the most genteel janitorial professional into a drooling, heavy breathing, rain-coat-clad pervert, willing to risk life, liberty, and reputation for the cleaning contract on beautiful office buildings like these.

Three brand new class “A” office buildings, 250,000 square feet each, built and expertly managed by one of the nation’s most prestigious commercial real estate companies. A top-notch client that would provide me a one of the best references I could ever have.

I was definitely at the very top of my craft. No more once-a-week beauty parlors for me. I was now in the big leagues. From now on, any actual physical cleaning I would have to do would be with me dressed in a crisp white shirt and tie. I was now the “executive” janitor leading a sizable group of zone cleaners, restroom cleaners, utility specialists, and supervisors.

Like most of us, I never paid much attention to who the tenants of the building were beyond their suite numbers. So after that first grueling night of the start-up, with feet still sore from walking every inch of all three buildings at least twice, I arrive at the property manager’s office bright and early at 8 am to bask in the glow of a job well done (at least, that’s what I had anticipated).