Is it TABOO for Cleaning Businesses to Ask THIS Question?

Yep, owners or salespeople in cleaning businesses can feel compelled to ask a question some may consider ‘off limits’, that’s right – taboo.

And what is this unspoken ‘thing’?

To ask building owners or managers how long the current cleaning company spends cleaning each visit?

So, should they ask – or is this ‘thing’, in fact, taboo and better left unasked?

Taboo? No.

Inappropriate? Maybe, maybe not.

The question isn’t whether it’s taboo – it’s why your asking them in the first place.

Here’s the thing…

If you know how to determine your cleaning time for a job based on work loading and experience,

then it may be perfectly acceptable to ask how long the current cleaning service is spending each visit – especially it if helps you:

1) make an important point about the relationship between time spent cleaning and the quality of that cleaning.

2) make a clear comparison, showing the contrast of your time commitment to the job compared to the competition

On the other hand, if you’re asking because you don’t have any idea how long it would take you or your team to clean…

– so, you’re thought is to throw up a ‘hail Mary’ pass – and simply bid based on the hours the current cleaning business is spending, well, then –

You’re taking a risk.

Think about it.

You may end up with a cost and price that ‘wins you the job’ but based on time estimate that won’t allow you to ‘get and keep’ the building clean. Ugh.

Sure, there can be many reasons why the building owner or manager is unhappy with and therefore replacing the current cleaning business.

But, what if – the reason does come right back to the fact that the cleaning is lousy because the time allotted is completely inadequate?

Plus, decision makers can very often ‘feel’ your indecision and inexperience when they sense you desperately try to figure out how to get the job by pricing it simply based on – what the ‘last guy’ did.

So, that’s not good.

Better to step back and find ways to effectively determine times, costs, profits and prices FIRST, then, if appropriate,

be able to ask about the competition from a position of strength to make important points… rather than from a position of weakness to simply land a job.

You Can Do This – You Really Can, Dan
CleanGuru LLC