Marketing and promotion discussion

Rick:  If you are charging  a fair market price you do not need add ons to make a profit on the job. It is when you use the carpet cleaning as just an oportunity to sell it comes back to bite you.

doug wrote: Rick:  If you are charging  a fair market price you do not need add ons to make a profit on the job. It is when you use the carpet cleaning as just an oportunity to sell it comes back to bite you.

I agree 100% doug.... I look at my reservice rate... very very low.. I tell people the truth... I don't promise them the moon and I don't sell them to the moon...

if I see a carpet that doesn't need the gard I don't sell the gard...

sometimes I'm a little to honest, when it would have been a few easy bucks

Doug the customers love me......I clean most with no complaints and a lot of referral and return business.

For a big name my sales are way to low... 50% up sell is the min....they would love to fire me.... but it's hard to get rid of someone that can clean and is a crowd pleaser

it's been about 10 years doug....

I'm a man that is willing to work for the devil... thats the only way one can be intoduced to true evil

 couldn't have said it better myself

It's great to work for yourself... but it's also great to get all that experience with all the calls the big guys get

I make a nice profit without having to upsell. If I don't think they need protectant then I don't try and sell it to them. One of the major problems with this industry today is high pressure sales. People call companies because they offer a good job at a fair price and then when they show up to clean all they want to do is sell you extra stuff. That leaves a VERY BAD taste in a customers mouth and gives the overall industry a bad reputation. Kinda like a used car salesman......not all of them are golddiggers and not all are out to cheat you but the stigma that has followed the profession has haunted them for many years. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to upsell a little but don't try and take the person to the "cleaners" (no pun intended) with the charges. Rather than sell them something they don't really need....try selling them something they DO need. Like a service plan!