Cleaning companies have a variety of marketing methods open to them for gaining new clients.

' TelesalesYellow pages advertisingThompson's Local DirectoryMailing listsLeaflet dropsNewspaper advertisingJournal advertisingDirect sellingInternet advertising

In my own experience cold calling on companies has not met with any success. Most companies who want cleaning carried out already have cleaners in place and they will only change them if they think they can get it done cheaper or if they are dissatisfied with the cleaning. Managing to locate a company who are in the process of making a decision about their cleaning and telephoning them at that moment in time is a very long shot. You must make the decision as to whether it is cost effective to tie somebody up on the telephone for long hours for possibly little return. If for example your cleaning covers a very wide area such as a whole region of the UK then it may be worth it, but if you are restricted to a small area then probably not. What you may end up with are a lot of calls to give quotes simply because the company wants to see if they get their cleaning done cheaper than at present. Even in these circumstances and you submit a quote which is cheaper they still may not have the impetus to change if they are happy with their present regime. However you do end up on their files for that day when they do finally decide to change. So you could get a call one two or even three years down the line.

Advertising in the yellow pages is probably a must, as despite the advent of the Internet people do still use yellow pages to find services they require. At least this way the company are calling you for a quote so are more likely to actually require cleaners. From the point of view of closing a sale it is better if the client has chosen you rather than the other way round. The only problem with advertising in the yellow pages is one of cost. There are probably a large number of firms advertising their services that you are in direct competition with. Consequently you have to make your advertisement stand out from the others. To do this is a very costly exercise but ultimately should be worth it for the amount of new business it brings in.

Advertising in Thompson's directories I find difficult to comment on. Whilst being cheaper than Yellow Pages in my own experience it has brought in very little new business.

Using a Mailing list and contacting companies with a sales letter, like telesales is a matter of chance. Again you have the time factor to pay for plus the postage plus the cost of buying in a mailing list if you do not put one together yourself. Putting a mailing list together is a very time consuming business. I know because I have done it, and again in our experience it brings in very little new business. If you have a high advertising budget then it may be something that you consider worthwhile.

As far as advertising in local newspapers is concerned this can become very costly for little or no return so I would not recommend this to any new cleaning business. Possibly with carpet cleaning and window cleaning you will have more success. However the take up from your advertisement will mainly be domestic customers not commercial concerns. Likewise advertising in specialist journals is a costly exercise but possibly worthwhile if your budget is large enough. However you have to research the journals carefully to make sure that the companies you are trying to target actually subscribe to these and more importantly read them.

Leaflet drops, direct marketing and Internet advertising will be covered in part two of the article