Most cleaning business owners have a hard time truly differentiating themselves from the competition through their marketing messages. So they end up saying things like,

That's great, but guess what? "We provide better..." is not a differentiator.

Why? Because your competitors are saying the same things, whether it's true or not!

Here is a sampling of responses that we received in the survey.

• We provide better quality cleaning
• We provide more consistent cleaning than our competitors
• We care about our clients
• We respond quickly when our customers call
• We give personalized service
• We are locally owned and operated
• We are very detail oriented
• We are very professional
• Our staff is very friendly
• We go above and beyond for our customers
• We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee
• We provide green cleaning
• We are woman owned

Keep in mind that in order to differentiate your business, you must do it in a way that clearly shows the value to your clients. What is the benefit to your clients of being a woman owned business? It might be a benefit for YOU, but exactly how does it benefit your clients?

Our winner, Jerry Thomas owns an environmentally friendly cleaning business. That's not a differentiator in and of itself because green cleaning is now the norm in our industry. However, we chose Jerry because of the way he differentiates his business throughout his marketing strategy and throughout his website.

Rather than just saying "we provide environmentally friendly" cleaning services, he goes into greater detail about exactly what that means and how it all benefit his clients. In fact he has a separate web page that thoroughly explains his "difference".

It starts with the name of his business and tagline.

The name is very descriptive of what the business is about. And one of Enviroclean's missions is to offer 100% LEED Compliance in client buildings. So the tagline is very fitting for his mission - LEEDer in Green Cleaning.

On the "Differentiators" page, he not only explains the importance of their green program, but other benefits to the customer such as:

• Sense of Urgency. Yes, many of you said the same thing in your survey, but I didn't see how you backed up your claims. Enviroclean goes into detail about the technology they use that enables them to respond quickly from the time the communication comes in, to the confirmation with the client that the task has been completed.
• Technology. Many companies say they use the latest technology, but here again, do not explain it in a way that shows the true benefit to the client. Enviroclean does a good job of explaining the various technologies used and exactly what the true benefit is to the customer.

I challenge you all to think about what it truly is that makes you different and better from your competition. And if it truly is "We provide a better quality cleaning service", then find a way to back up your claims with proof in the form of case studies, strong testimonials and videos from clients telling about the great quality service. 

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