An important part of gaining new customers for your cleaning business is to walk through your prospect's place of business in order get the information you need to put together a cleaning proposal. It is also an opportunity to get to know the prospect and to show him or her the value of doing business with your company. During this walk-through you've probably come across areas of the office where the cleaning was obviously lacking - dust and debris behind the doors, cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, fingerprints on light switches, etc. Isn't it tempting to run your hand across across a dusty desk, look at your fingers and say something like, "No wonder you want to change cleaning companies! The dusting in here is pretty bad..." Yes, it's tempting, but STOP! Don't do it! You'd be doing yourself a dis-service by bashing your competition. First, it's unprofessional. As you walk through the space, take notes on the areas that need extra attention and keep your comments to yourself. Second, you could embarrass yourself and the prospect. What if he was the one who hired the current cleaning company? How do you think it would make him feel if you criticized his choice? He already knows he has issues, so there's no need to point out every little problem area. What do you do if the customer makes comments about the cleaning? They may say something like, "this area is filthy...see what I mean?" In this situation, you might just smile and nod your head, but don't join in the conversation by making negative comments about the current cleaning company. Or you might say something like, "these things usually happen either because of a lack of training or inconsistency with supervisor follow up. Here is how we follow up with our employees to make sure things like this don't get missed..." As you can see, bashing your competition serves no useful purpose. The key to doing a successful walk-through is to let the prospect know the training programs and systems you have in place to make sure they get the kind of service they expect and deserve.

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Copyright TheJanitorialStore.com. All Rights Reserved. Jean Hanson helps owners of commercial cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through her online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Jean is also the host of the popular Web TV show CleaningBiz.tv and author of the newsletter Trash Talk - sign up today!