UPDATED 10/19/2021: Everything you do is marketing. What exactly does that mean?
Well it means that the world in general, which includes your customers and potential customers, take in and consider every last thing they know about you (and they know more about you than you think).
Where do they get all this information? It could be from the direct mail sales letter you sent them, word of mouth on the street, your business card, your brochure, your website, and some other ways I’ll mention later.
They take all this information and start piecing it all together to form an opinion of your company. Then that opinion forms the foundation of whether or not they ever use your company again (provided they are a customer) or call you in the first place because they want to do business with you.
So obviously you want to put your best foot forward right? This means making sure your literature does you justice. The result of not looking at and paying attention to the details is that you will drop the ball, and lose customers.
Many businesses don’t even know how much business they are losing out on because of this. They just keep on continuing down the the path of oblivion. Turning a blind eye to it all.
Business is a game of inches, just like sports can be a game of inches. If you come up just one inch short on fourth down in football, you lose the ball. If you come up one inch short in business, you lose the customer.
So what are you to do? Well…what do they do in football. They execute plays. The better they execute the better the play works. If the quarterback makes a good throw, they gain yardage, if he makes a poor one because one of his offensive line missed a block, then they gain nothing, or maybe he throws an interception.
It makes sense right? You need to execute the plays better than your competition! Well the game of business is no different. Except your play book contains business cards, brochures, sales letters, flyers, and every other detail of your business. Basically this means all these items need to be superior and more engaging than your competition.
Earlier I mentioned there was other ways that you market yourself that you aren’t even aware of. Consider some of the ways people form opinions about you.
- How clean your vehicle is.
- How neat and clean your clothes are.
- Your road manners while driving the company vehicle.
- The way you smiled when first meeting a potential client.
- How you listened to all their concerns when they called on the phone.
And I could go on and on. Each facet of your business has a marketing component because each facet is being judged by the consumer. You want to score as high as possible on every part of your business.
Lets use the clean vehicle example I just mentioned. You will be judged by that. You may not believe me, but you will. Lets say Pat, the office manager of a large doctors office is on her way to lunch.
She is thinking about how dirty her office is and how her current company is under-performing. Then she notices your truck directly in front of her at the light. What does she see at this critical moment?
A clean truck, with a courteous driver or a truck that hasn’t had a wash since it was new, and a driver that looked as miserable and unhappy as one could look. Which vehicle made the better impression? Well that’s pretty obvious in this example. The clean truck scores higher.
Now lets compare business cards, then brochures, then sales letters, then phone manners. The one who scores higher is the one who is better at marketing. Because the person who scored the highest knows that everything you do is marketing. And they also know that the one who scores the highest gets the prize, which is a new customer or a better relationship with the one they already had.
The moral of today’s lesson is pay attention to the details. Marketing is much more than most people realize. If you want to make a fortune in the cleaning business, pay attention to the details. If you do, the sky is the limit.
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Tom,
I already have a carpet and floor care company, but I am looking into expanding into janitorial. Your site is a great resource. You’ve put together a ton of useful information here.
Thanks.
Thanks Paul, I appreciate the kind words!
Very well said. The information about the marketing the business and lots of other information is available great work. As i have a business in same field i can see the detailed work. Good.
Thank you. I appreciate you stopping by.
Tom
Very well said. Most people think of marketing as a separate function that they have to spend money on. They forget the crucial aspect of marketing which is how you present yourself in every transaction with your customers. In my mind this is even more important than what people think of as marketing. And the best part is you don’t even need to spend money to do this other form of marketing. Just keep doing what you are already, but do it the best.
I had written a similar article on how every customer contact is an opportunity to sell for small businesses. Would love to hear your opinion on that. Here is the article – http://www.smallbizviewpoints.com/2011/05/29/every-customer-contact-is-an-opportunity-to-sell/
Hi Harry! I Agree. I really try to drive these points home in my blog because they are SO IMPORTANT and so easy to make work in your favor.
I’ll take a look at your post!
Thanks for commenting.
Hi,
I came across your blog by chance. I’m involved in small business marketing, rather than cleaning. Tom, I just wanted to say you are exactly right. So few businesses (both small and large) really get this.
The only thing I would add is that planning at the start can make all the difference. You don’t have to go crazy with detail, but a simple marketing strategy and plan will really help.
A couple of tips: Follow up. If someone gets you in and you don’t hear from them again. Call them, even if it’s 6 months later. Another one is to make sure you have a simple clear logo and use it everywhere. This help make your business easier to remember.
Hi Steve! Thanks for stopping by and commenting, I appreciate it. Anyway.. I think that last tip is FANTASTIC. It takes but a minute or two to reach out to someone who was a past prospect. A simple contact (phone, email, direct mail) could bring them back into the fold.