Snail Mail (Direct Mail) - Time to dust off a tried and true weapon in your arsenal

This morning I blasted through my first batch of email in 20 minutes. To stay ahead of the curve, I get more email than most people do, about 400 messages a day. The first batch in the morning is the biggest anywhere from 50 to 65 pieces during the week. I can do this because of the magic of two buttons, delete, and archive. I delete 85% of everything that hits my email box after scanning for anything marvelous.

I have been advising my clients to go back to snail mail for marketing and sales in their janitorial business. Yesterday one of my clients reported to me a 5% return on his first snail mail campaign. For the younger crowd snail mail, is an old-fashioned letter sent in an envelope that comes occasionally in that pile of flyers, junk mail and bills.

I am an old direct mail sort of guy. I spent a solid 10 years learning everything I could about how to get people to buy things through the mail. I built my first cleaning business with direct mail all by itself. No cold calls, no phone calls and this was before anyone dreamed of computers or the web. I personally licked 5,000 envelopes after personally signing 5,000 letters in blue ink carefully folding each letter and placing in an envelope along with a brochure and my card.

Just like the law of gravity, there is an immutable law of direct mail that says, “The right letter, to the right person with the right offer at the right time ALWAYS works”. The truth is today a personal letter works better than ever because of the delete button everyone has with just a mouse click away.

To be very clear I am not talking about junk mail but a personal letter from you to your prospect with your signature at the end of the letter arriving in a business sized number 10 envelope with their name correctly spelled and typed on the envelope.

Could direct mail work in your business? Here’s a test for you to try before you jot off some trash can bound advertising with the usual blah, blah, blah, wasting precious first class postage (yes, first class, not the junk mail rates). For the next 6 weeks place EVERY piece of mail you receive into a box. At the end of the 6 weeks go through the box and pull out every single business letter you receive with your name spelled correctly, NOT in a window envelope (which tells you it was done by a machine) from someone that KNOWS you actually use what they are selling.

First count how many there are and then study them carefully to see if it was sent by someone who knows you need what they have to sell. You will be surprised how few you find. In the direct mail advertising world, what you have started is a swipe file. Be on the lookout for really great letters that makes you FEEL something and were written just to and FOR you.

So you know, with everything that I learned about making people buy things through the mail, I might spend 8 to 12 hours to write a good letter. Carefully honing every single word, using a personal voice and reading it through the reader’s eyes in order to make the reader DO something. Will your letter be tossed in the trash? Yes, most of them will but it is the ones that DO NOT that will make a difference in your sales.

The silver bullet you have been searching for, no but a very powerful tool to incorporate into your total marketing program. Once again, what do we do to grow a janitorial company? We do EVERYTHING and old-fashioned business letters is just one piece of ammo in a well-stocked arsenal.

Why the Web Matters and Why it Matters Even MORE Today

 A $50,000 per month janitorial contract with a 22% gross profit that came off a web site hit got my attention. With all the competition for accounts like this one, I was shocked. I built one of the largest janitorial companies in the US without knocking on a single door but I was still shocked. 

I was the guy that licked 5,000 envelopes when computers were the size of trucks. I learned how direct marketing worked, was successful at it, and then spent the next 25 years listening to people telling me that it didn’t work. (It just did not work for them because they were doing it wrong). 

The first chance I got to run out and buy a computer I bit the bullet and spent more than the car I was driving at the time. Then there was a way to talk to other people with computers over phone lines. Once again, I was there, we could type with a keyboard, and it would show up on the screen of the person on the other end of the phone line. No pictures, no sound just very plain type that looked like what telegrams used to look like. This was before Al Gore invented the World Wide Web. 

Last weekend I spent some time getting hooked up to something called Tumblr. One of the big stars there is Jenna Marbles. She is also one of the stars of Web 2.0. Everyone my age will look at Jenna Marbles whining about the girls she hates, why her cat is better than a boyfriend, advice on how to avoid people that she doesn’t want to talk to and how to trick people into thinking you look good (which is strange coming from a very attractive young lady in her early 20s) and dismiss her completely. Here’s the deal though, Jenna invites you to then comment or tell her what you, the viewer thinks and people do. 

Do you have a computer? Have you ever sent or received an email? Have you walked into any Fortune 500 company to sell janitorial services? Face it, in 2011 if you do not use a computer then you might as well get rid of your telephone. Oh and while you are at it, get rid of that new fangled floor machine too and then you can go back to the “good old days” when floors were polished by attaching rags to your feet. So the bottom line is your computer is here to stay if you are in the janitorial business. The internet isn’t a fad either, it’s here to stay. 

Jenna Marbles matters and so does Web 2.0 and here is why. Al Gore’s wonderful invention of the Web was not worth very much to the average person. Do you know who were the first bunch of Joe Averages who it did matter too? The fans of the Grateful Dead were the first to use Gore’s invention for their own purposes. Stoned out Deadheads found out that there was something called Mosaic (the very first web browser) and they used Mosaic to organize each other. Deadheads traveled around in brightly painted VW vans, following their favorite band. Jenna Marbles’ twenty something very public angst is today’s permutation of those stoned out Deadhead’s partying.

To those of you who say I am stretching a point, try selling any of your services to any Fortune 500 company or any government agency without first going to their web site and filling out a vendor registration form. You can stand in the lobby for as long as you like handing business cards to a receptionist and if you are not a registered vendor you are wasting your time. 

You started out with a web site thinking all it is supposed to do, is to act like a brochure. You PUSHING out your message in the form of a electronic brochure and hoping someone that can sign a cleaning contract will see it and spend the time to read it. Web 2.0 is here and your web site is only one small piece of any serious company’s presence on the Web. If you want to grow and thrive in this new electronic landscape, I really hate to tell you this but you are going to have to learn what Jenna Marbles knows.

Now you will not be able to say you have not been warned because I just warned all of you. 

With the Price of Success Secrets Seriously Dropping

The price of the secrets of success is dropping. Once upon a time, the secrets of success were only available through accomplished role models of good character and success or in the books, they wrote. The internet came and the secrets of success began to leak out all over the web but they were secrets of a lesser quality. The biggest secrets should be more expensive or maybe the level of success determines the price but make no mistake about it, the price has gone right down the toilet.

In order to make a full disclosure, I too am a purveyor of secrets for a price but I figure what you save on Band-Aids make mine a good deal. My highest value secrets have left wounds and scars so buying my secrets are a bargain.

The secret selling business has grown right along with the janitorial business. More people today are selling secrets and it’s no secret there are more people selling janitorial services than ever before.

Owner Cloning, Dead Fish and Dead Companies

When my daughter first wanted a pet, I wanted a teachable moment on responsibility so we started with a gold fish. She fed it and despite doing what I thought was a good job; Goldie was floating lifeless in less than two weeks.

We went and bought a hamster and named him MC. We were set with a great cage; toys and everything MC Hamster would need, even played his theme song, “U Can’t Touch This” as he ran around his wheel. Again, she did a great job and MC Hamster lived several months.

There were tears as we buried him in the backyard during our family memorial service. During the eulogy, everyone agreed that MC Hamster was the best hamster that ever lived PLUS he was with us longer than Goldie. MC Hamster had a good life and now he and Goldie were together. Some animals and companies die young, some live longer and some grow old. It is what happens to the survivors that I want you to know about today.

Five Sure-Fire Cleaning Company Killers

1. Not marketing

Sitting in front of a keyboard on the web all day long is not marketing, it is sitting. Subcontracting from other janitorial companies or buying accounts from franchise companies makes you a janitor not a cleaning company owner.

Marketing your services with no money is hard. Whoever said you could open and start a cleaning company with no money, any more than you can open a restaurant or a gas station with no money, lied to you. You can market your services with no money to a point, but getting rich is highly doubtful and you have to work ten times harder.

Exclusive Janitorial Market Master, An Engineered Approach for Long Term Growth

Over my 35+ years in the janitorial business, and thousands upon thousands of sales calls, I have collected and analyzed what I believe to be the definitive list of every response you can possibly receive from a decision maker. 

An initial “no” in whatever form it is expressed is never a lost opportunity. Rather, it is valuable information about the status of that targeted facility’s janitorial contract process. I have codified these concerns, objections, and situations into a complete process of communication that has proven to be highly effective in eventually acquiring the business of my targeted facilities over time. 

With my direct response marketing system, you will know exactly what the next point of communication should be with your prospect and when to initiate it. My system automates this ongoing cycle of inquiry and response so that you can build personalized communications with a large number of prospects. 

Personalization demonstrates to the prospect that you, as a vendor, are truly listening to their concerns, objections, and situations and responding appropriately. This builds a relationship with them over time and is incredibly effective in eventually winning their business. In addition, of course, continuing to listen and respond appropriately to your customers keeps their business. Here is a presentation of Janitorial Market Master. 

The following list outlines the complete program that you will receive.

1) Your complete list of all of your targeted companies and buildings.*

2) Precise up to date contact information for each decision maker for each targeted company. *

3) Current contract/vendor relationship, bid status and next opportunity for proposal presentation of each targeted company (a limited number of sales appointments will be made prospect’s status warrants an immediate sales call for an opportunity to present your proposal).

4) Complete systematic, response-based strategy for you to follow up each decision maker in a comprehensive system that builds personal relationships for you to follow up until your service contract is signed and you begin work. 

5) Complete up to date schedule of all steps to be taken in appropriate periods for each decision maker.

6) All sales materials, letters, phone scripts, e-mail messages, and in-person sales communications in your companies name and in your voice.

7) Full documentation of the program, with directions for use.

8) Full support following completed delivery.

9) Exclusive use/rights in selected metropolitan areas/facility sectors and protected from your competitors for 5 years.

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.