When you upsell your cleaning services to your existing clients (rather than constantly spending money to win new ones), you're able to more easily and quickly increase your profit.
Did you know it’s 5-25X more expensive to get a new client than it is to keep an existing one?
Plus, existing clients are more likely to spend more money with you more frequently.
The point is: if you aren’t upselling, you’re losing money.
Let me show you the two BEST ways to upsell your cleaning services.
Upselling is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to make more money and grow your cleaning business.
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It’s so much harder to turn a lead INTO a client, than it is to turn a client into a higher-paying one.
After all, it costs money to find leads. You have to spend time, money and resources marketing to them.
Even then, there’s still a good chance they won’t convert (AKA convert into a client).
A client already knows and trusts you, so they’ll be more willing to drop a few extra dollars.
Upselling will actually add value to your clients’ lives. They love when you can figure out their problems, and make a promise to solve them.
Here are the two best ways to start upselling your cleaning services today:
Whether you’re new to the cleaning industry… or you’re just looking for an easy way to upsell your clients - this is the easiest way to upsell your cleaning customers.
Target your happiest clients first.
Pick the ones you have the closest relationship with. You know them better, they trust you, and you’re way more likely to win the upsell with them.
Every time you’re at a client’s house, ask yourself:
Questions like these are the golden tickets to winning your upsells.
Once you know who you’re going to upsell, find the right moment to approach your client.
A few examples of these moments are…
You can upsell them by either calling or talking to them face-to-face (which is my personal favorite).
Whether you call or talk in person - when you talk to your customer, simply ask them how their day is going and how they’re liking your service.
If both answers are positive, just tell them why you enjoy cleaning their house and let them know you’re looking to make their experience better. Then, simply present a problem you’ve noticed and provided your solution.
Here’s an example of an upsell email you can send out this week:
By running an upsell campaign to the right clients, you’ll be able to see immediate growth of your cleaning business.
To figure out what you should offer, you need to know your IDEAL client.
Here’s a hypothetical scenario…
You’ve been cleaning Jane’s house for 2 years, and she’s VERY happy with your services. And you know this, because she tells you every time. Plus, she’s always leaving tips here and there.
As you’re doing your weekly cleaning, you see Jane could use a window cleaning. And you feel comfortable providing her with a solution. You let her know you provide window cleanings and offer to clean her windows every 6 months.
Jane is your IDEAL client.
In order to determine your ideal client, all you have to do is think about your happiest clients that love you. You know… the ones who give you referrals and tips all the time. These are the right people to upsell.
Fill out our cleaning client persona to really get inside your client’s mindset.
So here’s the good news: coming up with a great offer is half the battle of creating an upsell campaign, so it’s okay to spend extra time on this one.
Have you ever heard this quote from The Godfather?
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Well, that’s what we’re trying to do here.
You want to create an offer that’s so good… so juicy that your customers can’t refuse.
Think about your own buying process.
Let’s say you’re buying a new roof for your home. You tell them you want something that’s budget-friendly, so the roofing company knows you’re looking to save money.
Then, once you’re comfortable, they let you know about how much money you throw away every month on electricity. All because your roof traps heat… costing you more money in electric bills. They’ve now told you about a problem you didn’t even know existed.
They then tell you how you’ll save on electricity if you add proper ventilation to the new roof. They’ve now told you about a solution to your problem.
Then, they offer to provide you that service at a reasonable cost. They’ve now give you a specific solution to your problem - them.
You say yes, because it’s literally paying for itself.
Why?
Because they gave you an offer you couldn’t refuse. An offer you didn’t even know you needed.
This is why it’s so important to come up with a great offer. No matter how good you are at selling, not many people will say yes to a bad offer.
You can offer a wide variety of different things to your customers, but you should always consider customizing your offers.
What you offer depends on the customer you’re trying to upsell…
What do they want? What do they need? What do they care about? How can YOU make their life easier by adding value to their cleaning service?
These are ALL questions you should be asking yourself before you come up with an offer.
Think about offering cleanings for windows, fridges, baseboards, ceilings, kids rooms, garages, and etc…
For more ideas, take a look at this list of cleaning services you can easily upsell.
Also, don’t forget to offer this as a recurring service! If you win a recurring cleaning service, it’ll give you this new revenue more consistently.
Now that you’ve found the right customer to upsell and created a great offer - it’s time to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
You already know you’re giving your cleaning customer a great offer that they want. You also know the value it’s going to add value to their life. Now, all you have to do is properly relay it to them.
As we discussed a little earlier, it’s a lot about how you approach your customer.
Are they in a good mood? Are they happy with your cleaning services? Has your team been doing a good job lately?
As you get to know your customers, you’ll be able to gauge this more easily.
The #1 thing to remember is to just be yourself. Don’t be too much of a salesperson. Keep being their friend! Just have a conversation and let them know how you want to help them.
The better mood your customer is in, the more likely they are to say yes. Because once you’ve chosen the right customer and offer, all there’s left to do is say “YES!”
If you’re new to marketing, creating an email campaign might seem a little intimidating at first. That’s why I’m going to give you step-by-step instructions to make this process as easy as possible.
Establish the outcome you want from this email campaign.
Do you want to promote a new service you’re offering? Are you trying to get more recurring services? Are you trying to increase profits from your lowest paying customers? Are you trying to increase profits from your highest paying customers?
Also, don’t forget to set outcome goals. For instance, how many upsells do you want or need in order for this email campaign to be successful?
Answering these questions will help you determine: what to send, who to send them to and whether your campaign is successful.
Obviously, it’d be next to impossible to manually send out mass emails for your campaign. This is where an ESP comes in handy.
You’ll need to create campaigns based on your different goals. Plus, you’ll need to segment your audience (this just means you’re sending emails to the right groups of people).
Service Autopilot members create workflows for these campaigns. These workflows allow them to choose what emails are sent and when.
Basically, this just means when a customer buys your upsell, they won’t get anymore emails. However, if they don’t buy your upsell, they’ll continue with the campaign and getting your emails.
The best part is that Service Autopilot does everything you need to create your email campaigns.
Instant invoicing
Better scheduling
Manage your clients and employees all in one system
This is a simple step that you’ve already somewhat started.
All you have to do is choose which segmented audiences you want to be included in your campaign.
Do you only want to include customers who’ve been with you for 1+ years? 2+ years? 3? Are you only targeting cleaning clients who’ve bought into other upsells? Are you adding a new service and including all of your clients?
In order to determine who you’re targeting, these are just a few of the questions you’ll want to ask yourself.
Now that you know the purpose of your email campaign and who you’re sending it to, you might already have your campaign type in mind…
Are you creating a newsletter that’ll send emails about new services and company updates every once in a while? Are you starting a promotion that’s going to end in two weeks? Are you sending a marketing offer? An announcement?
Once you decide on your campaign type, that’s when the fun campaign creation begins.
Now that you know what your campaign is going to do and how long it’ll run, all you have to do is start creating it.
Think about who you’re writing to. All customers? Customers you’ve been servicing for a while (and know well)?
This part is important, because it sets the tone for your campaign.
If you’re writing to everyone, then you’re also writing to people you don’t know very well. So you’re going to be a bit more formal. However, if you’re writing to people you know, then you’re going to be a lot more friendly.
Here are a few pro tips to make your emails even juicier…
Be sure to create powerful subject lines that force them to open your emails. These types of subject lines are short (35 characters or less) and have a sense of urgency… without being too “salesy”.
Make your emails as actionable as possible. You want to lay out your Call To Action (the next action you want them to take) as clearly as possible.
Your emails should sound just like you’re talking to a friend in person that you’re trying to help. So make the tone very conversational. Treat them like they’re in the same room with you.
Whether or not you set up automated replies is totally up to you and the branding of your business. Either option is great, but this is a nice little extra touch for those who want to go above and beyond to “wow” your clients.
If you have a software that’s capable of email marketing, like Service Autopilot, then this should be a rather simple step.
If your cleaning customer takes your desired action, you can choose to send them a response. In this response, you’ll thank them for taking that step and give them further instructions on any future actions they need to take.
The automated reply is only meant to be a quick email, so there’s no need to stress over writing some lengthy email. It’s just an added assurance that your customers are taking the actions you want them to.
Oh how sweet it is to start your morning and see your high open and click-through rates.
These stats will tell you everything you need to know about the success of your cleaning business’ upsell campaign.
By the way, you can access all of these statistics from Service Autopilot. All you have to do is set it up!
The numbers and percentages provided by your email tracking will help you to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns. This way, if you have a high number of unopens, you can split test by sending different emails out at the same time (and see which one gets higher opens).
So no matter what ESP you choose, be sure to set up that email tracking!
Once you input your campaign into an email marketing software, like Service Autopilot, all you have to do is start sending out the campaign.
In Service Autopilot, you can set up workflows which allow you to easily send your cleaning customers a variety of emails based on their actions. You can even have it set to stop sending emails once they’ve bought into your upsell.
I can’t stress how important it is to review your tracked results.
By doing this one simple action, you’ll know EXACTLY how your emails are doing and how you can improve your sales.
Speaking of email statistics: If you’re new to marketing, you might want to take a quick look at these email stat terms.
At any point, if you’re not getting the results you’re wanting, try split testing.
This way, you can test two different emails at the same time and see which one works better.
And just remember, you can always make your emails better by reviewing your tracked results!
This is a continuous process that should be frequently reviewed and improved.
No matter what, keep perfecting your email campaigns to continue to increasingly generate more sales.
Through trial and error, you’ll find yourself changing and updating your campaigns. After all, the only way to optimize your emails is by finding out what works and doesn’t work for your cleaning customers.
Keep repeating these steps to maximize your sales impact.
When you start upselling your cleaning services, you’re instantly increasing your profit by saving yourself from spending money on finding new clients.
As you implement Upsell Strategy #1 (offering solutions to your clients), you can begin planning Upsell Strategy #2 (your email campaign).
By far, the easiest way to implement your email campaign is by utilizing Service Autopilot Automations.
Based on your needs, set up the workflow in your software to send and stop emails as the desired courses of action are taken (Service Autopilot will do the Automations for you and more).
Start upselling your cleaning services today, and I promise you’re going to see an immediate, huge jump in your profits.
Related: 7 Cleaning Services You Can Easily Upsell
Originally published June 13, 2019 7:00 AM, updated March 9, 2021 2:13 PM
Tags: Business Operation
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