One of the biggest concerns cleaning company owners struggle with is, “what should I charge.” It shouldn’t surprise you that most business owners are not charging enough. They either struggle with thinking they are going to lose out on the business because they are charging too much or they struggle with doubting their service has enough value.
I am here to tell you 9 out of 10 times owners are NOT charging enough. The tricky part is if you want to charge more you have to be sure you REALLY set the tone for professionalism right off the bat. If you are able to do this you are golden. For those of you who are not sure exactly how to do that and make a lasting good impression, we are sharing the three things we did really quickly in our business to make sure we demonstrated our value. This was a game changer and I know for a fact we were NOT the cheapest in our area and we still didn’t lose out on business because of our pricing.
How to Charge More for Your Services - Step 1
The first thing you gotta do is the business name test. There is more to a business name than just a fun catchy nickname and throwing LLC at the end of it and calling it good. When you think about your business name, think about the audience you serve. Ask yourself these questions…
Will they take me seriously?
Does my business name command respect?
Is it easy to remember for the right reasons?
Is my business name easy to search if someone needs my services?
Now, you may be thinking, “but that’s no fun. I want my personality to come through.” I get it, having fun with your business can be important for some. If you are tempted to have a fun, cute name then it’s totally your call. The good news is there are other ways your personality can come through beside your business name. There are ways you can promote yourself and your business in fun ways that won’t jeopardize their confidence in your company's ability.
Let your personality come through by using a fun tagline. It can be playful but won’t lessen your credibility. Another way to infuse your personality into your brand and company is by having fun with the brand colors. The logo allows some room for fun too.
When you think about your business name it is important for people in your surrounding community to be able to spell it or easily search for it when they look you up online. Although they feel generic names with the city or town you are in followed by Cleaning Services are really good ideas for marketing purposes. They can also be really helpful for SEO purposes and can help you get jobs just because your business name came up on a google search.
How to Charge More for Your Services - Step 2
When you are in the cleaning business your attention to detail matters. Clients typically don’t have a chance to get a sense of your attention to detail until you complete a job for them. EXCEPT there is one easy way you can change that. Instead of sending a standard bid or just giving them a price, send them a bid that makes you stand out. Sending a bid that isn’t just the numbers but includes their logo, the name of the project or personalize it with the address of the property. Take it a step further and include a page in your bid that covers all the ways that you are different than your competitors. As an example, we have laid out the sequence of pages we include in every bid. It doesn’t matter how big or small the job we ALWAYS send the same impressive bid format.
- 1st Page Cover Page and it includes our logo, their logo, the project name or address of the project
- 2nd Page- Scope of Work we lay out all the tasks they outlined they want to be included based upon the walk-through we did to determine the scope of work.
- 3rd Page- Why Choose Us- We talk about the objections we may get right up front. We mention right up front that we are not the cheapest. We talk about why we charge more and talk about the equipment we use and how we guarantee our work.
- 4th Page- Pricing- this is always saved for last. We want to demonstrate to them why we are charging what we are and there are a few jobs we have not won at this point there have been two bids we submitted that we did not get.
Take the time to impress your prospects with a bid it will make a bid difference.. If you feel overwhelmed and not sure how to design an impressive bid proposal then reach out to us, we are happy to help give you some help.
How to Charge More for Your Services - Step 3
Your follow-up is really important. It also justifies in the customer's mind, “wow, they're on top of it. I bet their work is worth what they charge based upon the bid they sent over AND their impressive follow-up.” Follow-up can be as easy as a quick email to check in a few days after you sent the bid. In some situations, a phone call or text may get you a quicker response. The bottom line is follow-up stands out. A lot of your competitors are missing out because they aren’t following up. And just like we have talked about the follow-up is just one more touch that provides confidence in the prospect's mind that you are worth what you are charging.
We know all of this can feel overwhelming and don’t feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. If you found these tips to be helpful you will want to check out our blog about Three Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW to Get More Clients.
