Marketing Questions & Answers

Here are questions from carpet cleaners around the world and answers to them. If you'd like to have your carpet cleaning related question answered, drop me a line!. I'll send a personal answer directly to you and also place it on these pages for the benefit of other carpet cleaning technicians. Check back often, these pages will be changing frequently...

Hi Ron,

My name is John & I have been in the carpet cleaning business in Orlando for several years now, and would like to know what kind of marketing brings the best results? I usually advertise with direct mail agencies, and sometimes the response is not that good. What do you think about telemarketers? I don't know much about telemarketing, or what kind of sales pitch to present. Could you please give me some advice on the best, and most cost efficient ways to market my service? There's alot of competition here.

Thanks a lot,

John from Orlando, Florida

Hi John,

Well, you've asked me a very good, encompassing question, one that isn't easy to answer thoroughly in this forum because the subject is so broad, but I'll do my best to help.

You mentioned that you advertise with direct mail agencies. I would rate direct mail, as a whole, a real viable, profitable method of marketing if it's done right. In general, most technicians struggle with direct mail because they:

1) Promote generic offers that don't illustrate compelling, attractive benefits to the consumer
2) Spend too much money on sending out the mailing

I talk about #1 in great detail in the February, 1997 issue of my free 'Smart Carpet Cleaners Profit Newsletter'. If you haven't subscribed yet, I encourage you to do it now.

Go to http://cleaningsuccess.com/newsletr.htm and follow the directions for subscribing.

When you read that newsletter, you'll have a greater understanding of how to illustrate real attractive benefits in your offers that'll get a surge of customers to pick up the phone and call you. You'll be able to preempt your competition and grab a whole heap of the available business in your marketplace, simply by doing a better job of depicting the benefits of your service to your prospects.

#2 is a big problem for technicians, especially direct mail novices. Time and time again I hear carpet cleaners cry and moan 'bout how their direct mail doesn't make 'em any money. Invariably, it's because they paid too much to send out the mailing.

What's too much? Well, in many areas of the country, carpet cleaners pay $40.00 per thousand pieces of mail, printed and delivered. Here in California that is suicidal. Many technicians overpay for direct mail 'cause they don't know any better. They often pay 'rate-card'. The carpet cleaners who have been doing direct mail for a while usually pay a lot less than rate card. In fact, I know of carpet cleaning companies paying 1/4th of the advertisers established rate card. Obviously, being able to pay much less than your competition for your advertising is going to give you a huge, inconquerable, competitive edge.

One of the problems with mass direct mail, of course, is that it goes to a lot of prospects who just aren't interested in what you have to offer. In addition, you wind up paying for advertising that ends up in the mailbox of prospects who probably aren't real good candidates for a quality oriented, professional carpet cleaning service. Low income apartment dwellers, for example.

On the plus side is the fact that direct mail is extremely cheap. Where else can you have a message printed and delivered in the mailbox of a prospect for as low as a penny a piece? Certainly can't do it yourself, it would cost nearly 20 cents for the delivery alone.

The key to success in mass direct mail is in the appeal of your offer, and the cost of delivering your offer to the marketplace. If you have an alluring, attractive offer that illustrates truly compelling benefits, and you are able to negotiate, haggle, and grind your direct mail rep to give you the lowest, rock-bottom price to send out your mailing, you will be a winner marketing in the mass direct mail arena.

Of course, there are other, much more targeted direct mail approaches one can implement as well. You can target specific, high end neighborhoods with direct response sales letters. You can do the same with property managers, commercial accounts, professional classifications (i.e. doctors, lawyers) insurance agents, adjusters, well...the list is endless. Direct response sales letters cost a lot per piece, but since they are so highly targeted, and since you are able to give a really persuasive sales presentation through a well-written letter, the overall 'cost per lead' is very low. In fact, I've generated as much as a 15% response with direct response sales letters.

This is an entire subject all by itself, unfortunately there's isn't enough room here to talk about this. If you'd like to discover how to get a flood of customers through this method you'll have to get your hands on my book "How To Attract All The Customers You'll Ever Need For Your Carpet Cleaning Business...Guaranteed!". In it, I spill the beans and give you everything (including prewritten sales letters and ads you can use immediately) you need to efficiently and effectively gain a steady stream of customers to clean for.

You asked about telemarketing; if that is an efficient method of marketing. The answer is absolutely yes. I personally don't base my carpet cleaning operation on this one method of getting customers. But I have a competitor, client, friend, 2 hours away from me that uses telemarketing as his ONLY method of getting customers, and he is wildly successful at it. In fact, he's had months where he did over $40,000.00 in business, keeping nearly half as profit.

I'm convinced that an operation like this can be successfully modeled by anyone, but it demands a truly professional approach. Can't have a bunch of high school kids working part-time for you and expect success. They have a full time, very professional, very meticulous manager who manages 8 to 10 telemarketers. He gets paid based on performance and can earn $1,000.00 in a week. The telemarketers make about $8.00 an hour. And they receive performance incentives as well.

I asked my friend why he pays everyone so well. His reaction?

"If you want results, you have to pay for quality people. Minimum wage gets you high-turnover type people. I want people who stick with me. They have to make a living too, so I pay them so they can. Of course, I demand results, and if they don't produce, they probably aren't going to last very long."

An important key in telemarketing is constant, consistent dialing. No screwing around. Telemarketing, unfortunately involves a lot of grunt work...you have to do a lot of digging and sorting through dirt and mud before you discover a gold nugget. Gotta hear a bunch of no's before you get a 'yes'. Not many people have the stomach for this, including myself. A good telemarketer can generally expect a job an hour.

This is their basic presentation...

"Hello Mr/Mrs. ____? This is (your name) with the carpet cleaners, (your company name) We're having some great specials on our carpet and upholstery cleaning and I thought I would check in with you and see if there was anything we can do for you at this time."

That's it. Nothing special. If the prospect says 'no', on to the next one they go. If you dial, dial, and dial you should be able to generate a job an hour. But you gotta hammer the phone. And if you hire people to do it for you, remember, you get what you pay for.

So to answer your question, which is the most effective way of marketing your service...the answer is, there are many methods that are effective if they're done right. All can be profitable means of getting jobs. I wish there were a hard and fast rule and be able to tell you that A method is the best, B is second best, but that just isn't the case. There are too many variables that influence the success of any promotion to be able to say that one is better than the other. Unfortunately, it's going to take a little work to discover what is best for you in your marketplace.

Ron Meyer

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Hi Ron,

I am starting my own carpet care business. I now own a US product heated portable system. I recently became certified with the IICRC and I have a minor level of experience cleaning carpet. Any advice?

John B. from Pensacola, Florida

Hi John,

The best advice I can give is to devote as much time as you can to learning how to effectively advertise, market, and promote your service. The guys making the most money in this business are the best at marketing and effectively advertising. A great book I've found quite useful is called "Tested Advertising Methods" by John Caples. Also, "How To Make Your Advertising Make Money" by John Caples is good. I ordered them both through Amazon.com.

Good luck,

Ron Meyer

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