"Sell Or Be
Sold"
This is a catch
phrase tossed around often in the sales oriented world of the corporate cleaning industry.
Don’t get caught in the “crosshairs” of polished presentations of the
professional salesman. Our answer to the sales call. We don’t have any
salesmen! The person representing our business to you--will be involved from start to
finish.
The Sales Call
I have been told
by several corporate regional and national managers that tall, well groomed, “good
looking” men are most often chosen for janitorial service sales positions. This
certainly wasn’t true in my case, but then I wasn’t originally hired for sales.
It has been my observation that there may be some trends in that regard. The idea is that
most property managers are women; consequently, they will respond better to young, good
looking men. This is the logic and mentality that you will be dealing with in at least
some of your encounters with janitorial sales people. They are often more image than
substance. When they do interest someone in a possible sale; they call in the
“grunts” like me to put it together and bid the job.
Many businesses
concentrate on “the sale” and there is a reason for that concentration. It
works! A slick sales presentation carried out by a knowledgeable sales staff is the most
productive use of expense in a company’s business.
Most corporate
sales programs pay their sales staff initially with a percentage bonus, then follow up
with a lesser percentage for several months thereafter. Get a good look at you
salesperson, you probably won’t be seeing them again until the contract is in
jeopardy. Our sales commissions are based on what we call the Managed Account Process.
This process rewards our personnel for every aspect of the contract cleaning relationship.
The more involved they are with your account, the more money they make.
"Commitment to
quality must begin at the point of sale!"
Although many
corporations and companies embrace the principles of Total Quality Management, the
companies truly committed to customer
satisfaction must demonstrate their commitment at the point to sale. There is an
understandable tendency within the
cleaning service industry to underestimate labor in order to procure sales. Since sales commissions are structured more
towards "closing" sales and achieving profit goals, the commitment to quality is
often subverted before the first mop hits the floor.
Service industry bidders use formulae based on: square foot rates, time
studies, and guesswork to predict labor cost. It is extremely difficult for them to
anticipate the unique requirements of a large facility.
Management tends to "preach" TQM during the sales presentation,
but they quickly abandon the process once they find out they are losing money.
Our company
is owned by the employees and majority stock holders, Bobby Blain and Scott Patterson. Mr.
Blain prepares most of the bids. He has more than twenty years of experience in the
property service business. He managed the four million square foot Baylor University
janitorial service for twelve years, before becoming the property manager for the Houston
Baptist University System. Mr. Blain has served as a consultant for Greenway Plaza in
Houston, Williams Square in Las Colinas, and most recently he designed and directed the
janitorial specifications and operations for the City of Austin, Bergstrom International
Airport. Scott Patterson is a Baylor University graduate who has owned and operated
janitorial services for more than fifteen years. These owner/managers have developed a
unique system of management based on proven Total Quality Management principles.
