Mastering Commercial Sales in Home Services: Strategies for Long-Term Success
To transform your home service business, stepping into the commercial market is crucial. Commercial contracts, known for their higher ticket sizes and stability, are essential goals for ambitious entrepreneurs.
Understanding the Commercial Sales Landscape
Securing commercial contracts is pivotal for home service businesses. These contracts bring higher average tickets, strong margins, and more consistent work. The journey to building a profitable portfolio of commercial clients is challenging, requiring time, dedication, and strategic execution.
Tools for Building Your Commercial Sales Machine
- Define Your Target Audience
Start by identifying the audience you wish to serve. This includes property managers, real estate agencies, apartment complexes, HOA communities, and building management companies. Russell Brunson teaches an interesting concept called the Dream 100. Use this tactic to find your best and biggest opportunities.
- Compile a Prospect List
Develop a comprehensive list of prospects. Gather crucial details like names, emails, and industry-specific information to ensure a robust database for outreach. If you want to buy it, I’ve used and recommended Data Axle. Other options are LinkedIn scraping, mining your existing database, or joining public organizations such as BOMA membership.
- Gather Detailed Property Insights
Collect information about each property, including measurements and condition assessments, to better position your services within their budgetary constraints. If your service is performed on the exterior of buildings, Google Earth can be an incredible tool as it can take measurements of any flat exterior surface.
- Create Tailored Sales/Marketing Kits
For each property, develop sales and marketing materials that highlight the unique value your services offer.
Pro Tip: If a group manages multiple properties. Measure one or a couple and use the sales pipeline as a way to provide more data on other properties only.
- Launch Targeted Email Campaigns
Use targeted email campaigns to reach out to your prospect list, employing tracking tools to monitor engagement and effectiveness. The best software I’ve seen small businesses use are Proposify and Better Proposals.
- Prompt Follow-Up
Leverage email interactions as triggers for immediate follow-up, ensuring you connect with engaged prospects promptly. Choose to be notified once a proposal has been opened or viewed to instantly contact the prospect while they have it open.
- Engage Top Properties Regularly
Identify and visit your top properties regularly to maintain visibility and foster relationships. Set a fixed schedule for these visits to maintain visibility and rapport. The number of properties depends on the size of your sales team and the time it takes to build rapport. Start with a commercial salesperson doing in-person visits for 3 hours per day, 3 days per week.
- Add Value with Every Interaction
Incorporate thoughtful gestures such as small gifts during visits to build goodwill. Consider how you can stack value with every interaction without giving away too much. What does your client care about and how can you make yourself and your business an asset they can’t live without?
- Meet with Decision-Makers
Strive to secure meetings with key decision-makers. Use your marketing packets as a conversation starter to present package pricing and tailored solutions. Once the front office/gatekeepers trust you, it’s easier to get connected!
- Build Continuous Relationships
Focus on understanding timelines, budget constraints, and your prospects’ specific needs to enhance your chances of securing contracts.
The Road to Commercial Success
Maintain Consistent Effort:
The biggest challenge in executing the Commercial Sales Machine strategy is maintaining consistent effort. It requires persistent follow-ups and a customer-centric approach.
A Structured Plan for Growth:
Comprehensive Property Assessment and Measurements
Offer a detailed assessment and measurement service for one property under their management. Once contact is made, craft an offer (Free or Paid, Paid is better.) to measure and create a sales/marketing kit for one or all of the properties under their management. This service should be designed to provide a clear and comprehensive overview of the cleaning and maintenance needs specific to each property. Conduct a virtual assessment, and meticulously measure the following aspects:
- Exterior Cleaning: Roof sq ft, vertical surface sq ft, concrete surface sq ft, gutters linear ft, number of windows and dryer vents, number of patios and decks
- Painting: Total sq ft of paintable surfaces, exterior walls, document material type(wood, stucco, brick, etc.), number of doors & windows, conditional assessment, linear ft. trim of baseboards linear ft of fencing.
After the assessment, provide a detailed report for each property under their management, itemizing each surface type for easy reference. This report will include:
- Easy Access to Square Footage and Area: A breakdown of measurements for quick reference and planning.
- Baseline Price for Each Surface: An estimated cost for cleaning each surface based on the measurements taken, offering a clear starting point for budgeting and scheduling services.
- Condition Assessment: A rating of how dirty each area is, providing insight into the urgency and type of cleaning required.
- Date of Assessment: To track when the last evaluation was made, helping in planning regular maintenance schedules.
Embracing the Long Game
Embracing Commercial Sales is about building enduring relationships that propel your business forward. With a strategic, step-by-step approach, you can transform the landscape of your operations and ensure sustainable growth. Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact us today to explore how our expertise in crafting successful Commercial Sales Machines can make a definitive difference in your commercial venture.
Don’t miss the opportunity to revolutionize how you engage with commercial clients. Our team is here to guide you through building a customized Commercial Sales Machine that not only meets but exceeds your expectations.
Let’s make your commercial success story a reality. Together, we’ll craft a plan tailored specifically to your needs, helping you secure lucrative contracts and forge lasting relationships that propel your business to new heights.
