LeePemberton.com

“Marketing is not about how much you spend, it’s about how you spend it!”

How are you and your business doing, as we move full bore into spring, 2012?
Can’t see your way clear to spend on marketing during this current economic slog?

A frugal, budget conscious behavior is totally understandable, but you have more options than just spending a lot of your marketing budget on printing, postage and other costly mainline promotions!

KEY MANTRA FOR TODAY:
Marketing is not about how much you spend, it’s about how you spend it!

Here is a chart that gives you some options. The left column focuses on marketing tactics that you can use which require more of your time, but far less money.

Click Image to Enlarge

If this is your busy season, start your day early and schedule a business breakfast before your regular production day starts with a commercial or institutional contact. If your business (and cash flow) is slower, you might want to do a simple coffee & danish. One or two breakfasts and / or several coffee & danish contacts a month will probably run no more than $100.00 per month, and look what you’ll accomplish! Four or five one-on-one sit-downs, away from their work environments will do a lot to create and maintain relationships. Where can you purchase advertising for that amount?

There really are dozens of categories of people you touch as you move through your personal and business life every week. How many of these people know who you are or what you do? How much business are you missing by ignoring the opportunity to just share your message?

Marketing really isn’t about expensive advertising or glitzy direct mail campaigns. It’s about belly-to-belly, face-to-face and voice-to-voice communication, while you build confidence, comfort levels and trust with people who are either prospects or centers of influence.

Don’t know what to talk about? I guarantee you that reading the CleanTip each week will give you more new subjects of interest for discussion over a breakfast or coffee & danish than you will ever need!

And this is a great time of year to do just that. Pick up the phone and invite somebody now!

Have you tried the S.A.F.E. – - ” Simple, Affordable, Fast & Effective” Urine Odor Control Services concept yet?

One of my readers just told me: “No, I just dabbled with it a bit, but nothing really seemed to quite work for me.”

Dabbled? Hey, Guys!, nothing will ever work if all you do is “dabble” in it. In fact, dabbling is just another word for “fear.” You are saying, “I am afraid to commit myself to something, so I will just dabble. This way, if it doesn’t work, I didn’t really fail!”

Here is the problem with Dabbling

When you dabble, you don’t give 100%. In fact, you most likely only just do a poor or “half a_ _ ed job” Guess what that gets you? — Poor Results (at best)!

In fact in todays service environment, when you do a “good job,” it’s still not enough! Even being committed to “excellent quality” only yields “average” results today as far as customers are concerned.

HERE IS THE KEY!
Because so much of the results today depend on attitude and communication, you have to push your standards higher to a level of “OUTSTANDING,” or “REMARKABLE”.

Here is a rough drawing that describes what I’m saying:

****NOTE: in the drawing, there is a giant leap from Good to Excellence, but “outstanding”or “remarkable” takes just a fraction more effort and caring!

Again I ask, “Have you tried the S.A.F.E. – - Simple, Affordable, Fast & Effective Urine Odor Control Services concept yet? — Give a good trial – don’t “DABBLE!”

Click here for the complete article and download

Bedbugs, by their very nature are an upsetting subject, but it turns out that anyone, no matter how clean they are, or how clean their home, can pick up bedbugs and infest their home!

BUT . . .
You (or your customers) can greatly reduce the chances of a costly bedbug infestation by catching them early!

Here is a link to a great, down-to-earth article that you can use or share with your customers . . .
Scroll down the page, this article is a “keeper”

It’s from The Housekeepingchannel.com
http://tinyurl.com/tipbbgs

P.S. I have listed a great Bedbug resource book link in the CleanTip Resource Corner.

This is a media and political game and you as a small business person must not buy into it!
Don’t start thinking about fuel surcharges and such – it will only hurt your business!

Yes, what you pay for a gallon of gas is important, but what is really important is your overall costs of producing and delivering your service, or what is called your “Breakeven” which I will refer to as your “B/E”. You must be able to know what it costs us you to clean an average square foot of carpet in your business.

The truth is that gas at $5.00 per gallon vs at $3.75 will have only a negligible effect on your “B/E”.

Here is a real life example: Let’s take a one TMT operation grossing about $100,000 per year – we will use the operations real numbers here -

With $3.75 gas, and productivity is 700 sq ft per hour – your Sq ft “B/E” is 10 1/5¢

With $5.00 gas, and productivity is 700 sq ft per hour – your Sq ft “B/E” is  11¢

This information has been calculated using real data from a real company, but yours will be different. If you would like to plug your figures into this calculator, just let me know and I will look into setting up a webinar for that purpose.

We all hate cold calls, especially me! On the other hand, I have developed many strong business relationships by overcoming my fear of such a simple (but devastating) action as cold calls. Every restoration contractor will need this ability if he intends to grow the business!

Last week I read a delightfully simple article in the INC newsletter that is really worth passing on . . .

It is titled:
How to Make a Successful Cold Call
by Geoffrey James

There’s a quick and easy way to get a potential customer interested.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to the conversation…

Read more here…
http://tinyurl.com/tip1-20a

Every once in a while I run across a memorable quote that I share with you, and this week I came across one written by John Braun (Hitman Advertising) that is so down to earth and sensible that I want to share it with you.

John says: “The bitter truth that no one ever tells you about marketing is that everything doesn’t always work every time. So if you want to stay busy, you MUST take action with several items.“

Go to his blog for more than 20 tactics that can boost you winter volume, (the last five are restorer specific! Print out his list and do something!

Here is the link -
http://tinyurl.com/tiphitman

And, while you are at it, plan to join us February 1st here at the spacious Boston Spectrum at the “Restoration BootCamp”.

For more details, follow the link below -
http://www.pembertons.com/bootcamp

In a tough marketplace, restoration contractors need a new angle, a different approach to increasing profits and building their business.

An every-increasing “good fit” for them is green, and this doesn’t mean the color of money. Disinfecting and deodorizing services for clients who may already have a contract cleaning or in-house cleaning staff is proving to be a popular option for restoration contractors.

For complete article, please visit…
http://www.ecleanadvisor.com/public/875.cfm

My cellphone always looks disgusting, but this article really gave me a different perspective on cellphones and sanitation! Check it out!
- Lee

Nasty Bugs Lurking on Your Cell Phone
By Tim Locke
WebMD Health News

Study: E. coli Found on Cell Phones the Result of Poor Hand Washing
Oct. 14, 2011 — The next time you reach for your cell phone, consider this: A new study found that 92% of cell phones in the U.K. have bacteria on them – including E. coli — because people aren’t washing their hands after going to the bathroom.

Read more:
http://tinyurl.com/tip1028

I love this article! When it comes to disinfection, there is so much mis-information put out as fact that it is really disgusting!
- Lee

The Fantasy Of Disinfection
according to Dr. Steven Spivak,…chairman of the Cleaning Industry Research Institute International’s (CIRI) Science Advisory Council, efficacy in principle is rarely reached when disinfecting is practiced.

“Because of … the time demands of cleaning services, some in the industry have dubbed the practice of attempting to remove harmful pathogens from surfaces “the fantasy of disinfection.”

Read more:
http://tinyurl.com/tip1029

Thoughts From Lee

Educators today teach that what we hear – we forget – what we see – we forget, but what we see and hear, we remember.

And since we all certainly rely on good communication to build our businesses, the following little tidbit of information should be of great interest to you. . .

FACT:
Like it or not, print media, television, on-line, plus mobile and social media are all now vital components of any marketing program.

When it comes to making an impact, seeing certainly is better than hearing but not being seen at all is even worse.

The problem with using electronic media today is that most of it is never seen at all by the prospects we are looking for! It is relatively inexpensive and in some cases even free, but if it is not seen, it’s worthless!

Also, there is a general misconception or myth in the business world that customers are tech savvy. Unfortunately, that is just not true! In fact, only a small percentage of the population actually is tech savvy. Just because they have a cell phone doesn’t make them a “techie”.

On the other hand, almost everyone can read and understand a postcard.

Print still has power and don’t forget it!

Consistent profit growth in a service business such as in the cleaning services industry absolutely depends on the development of  strong relationships with their customer base.

So, why don’t more professional cleaning services make it a priority to build strong relationships with their customers?

For complete article, please visit…
http://www.ecleanadvisor.com/public/866.cfm