Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In A Month
All Year
By
Joe Polish
ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informational
storage or retrieval system without express written permission from the publisher.
Published by:
Piranha Marketing, Inc.
2318 S. McClintock Drive
Tempe, AZ 85282
480-858-0008 Phone
480-858-0004 Fax
While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this book, neither the Authors nor
the Publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or
organizations are unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a
qualified professional should be sought. This book is not intended for use as a source of legal or
accounting advice. Also, some suggestions made in this book concerning marketing, product sales, or
referral fees, etc., may have inadvertently introduced practices deemed unlawful in certain states and
municipalities. You should be aware of the various laws governing business transactions or other
business practices in your particular geographic location.
Any references to any persons or businesses, whether living or dead, existing or defunct, is purely
coincidental.
Important Note: Portions of the material on pages 8, 27, 28, 29, 55, 179 and 180 are based on or
were inspired by speeches, seminar presentations and published materials by Dan S. Kennedy, an
internationally recognized direct marketing expert, consultant, author and speaker. Dan has been of great
help to us in our own businesses and in preparing this Course. Elsewhere in this Course, we recommend
some of Dan’s materials we believe you need and should have.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
To get the most out of this manual, you will have to read it over at least 7 times. You don’t have to
do it right away but within the first 12 months of owning this, you should read it at least 7 times. This
will insure that you are getting the absolute most out of it.
If you follow these guides, you will easily double, triple or even increase your business tenfold.
These strategies are proven. If you have trouble with any of them, call our office and we’ll help you.
Good Luck!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
#1 Marketing Plan.........................................................................................Pg-1
#2 Clients Not Customers .............................................................................Pg-4
#3 Learn Direct Response Marketing ...........................................................Pg-5
#4 Unique Selling Point (USP) .....................................................................Pg-8
#5 A Cash Flow Surge ..................................................................................Pg-11
#6 Always Make Your Client Feel Important ..............................................Pg-15
#7 Up sell Your Clients ................................................................................Pg-16
#8 Model Marketing Ideas............................................................................Pg-25
#9 Direct Mail ...............................................................................................Pg-26
#10 WOW Your Client ...................................................................................Pg-29
#11 Be a Professional .....................................................................................Pg-31
#12 Constantly Learn Marketing ....................................................................Pg-32
#13 Do Something ..........................................................................................Pg-33
#14 Never Use Bait and Switch Advertising ..................................................Pg-34
#15 Marketing System ....................................................................................Pg-35
#16 Hold Yourself Accountable .....................................................................Pg-36
#17 Stay On Top Of Things............................................................................Pg-37
#18 Raise Your Prices.....................................................................................Pg-38
#19 Live By Price, Die By Price.....................................................................Pg-40
#20 Have A Big, Bold, Solid Guarantee.........................................................Pg-42
#21 A Wealth Of Knowledge In Your Mailbox .............................................Pg-44
#22 Get In The Newspaper .............................................................................Pg-45
#23 Stop Giving Estimates & Start Giving Carpet Audits™ .........................Pg-47
#24 Track Your Results ..................................................................................Pg-54
#25 Consistency - The Key To Success..........................................................Pg-57
#26 Use Letters Not Brochures.......................................................................Pg-58
#27 3 Step Letter.............................................................................................Pg-60
#28 The Longer The Better.............................................................................Pg-74
#29 Form Letters.............................................................................................Pg-76
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
List Of Examples
“I Miss You Letter” ...........................................................................................Pg 12
Gift Certificates..................................................................................................Pg 14
Vacuum Letter ...................................................................................................Pg 19
Carpet Audit Forms............................................................................................Pg 50
Post Card............................................................................................................Pg 55
Tracking Sheet 1 ................................................................................................Pg 56
Three Letter sequence ........................................................................................Pg 63
Thank You Letter...............................................................................................Pg 81
Tracking Chart 2 ................................................................................................Pg 83
Confirmation Answering Machine Script ..........................................................Pg 86
Confirmation Letter ...........................................................................................Pg 87
Complaint Response Letter................................................................................Pg 91
Lifetime Value Of A Client Worksheet .............................................................Pg 93
Yellow Page Examples .....................................................................................Pg 116
Tracking/Referral Form .....................................................................................Pg 135
Employee Contract.............................................................................................Pg 142
Embarrassed By Your Carpets letter..................................................................Pg 144
Call Script 1 .......................................................................................................Pg 151
Call Script 2 .......................................................................................................Pg 152
Telemarketing Call Sheet...................................................................................Pg 155
Script For Answering Machines (or Voice Mail) ..............................................Pg 164
Letter If Couldn’t Reach For Follow-up Call ....................................................Pg 165
Reschedule Next Appt Letter.............................................................................Pg 166
Val Pak...............................................................................................................Pg 170
Testimonial Forms .............................................................................................Pg 179
Such A Great Client! Letter ...............................................................................Pg 214
Dollar Bill Letter................................................................................................Pg 215
Evaluation Form ................................................................................................Pg 231
Business Cards ...................................................................................................Pg 238
Newspaper Ad....................................................................................................Pg 241
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Once I received your package, I was so excited about the things you
teach, I immediately changed all my advertising to direct response
marketing, I took immediate “action” to put your tools to work for me. I
was just listening to your interview with Ken Kerr where you talked about
following through and not doing things halfway and I have to say this:
Fifty percent of one of your marketing tools is a heck of a lot more
effective than the one tenth of one percent effectiveness many cleaners
struggle with now. I do a lot of your strategies half way, and they still
have doubled my income. Just your suggestion to sell vacuums paid for the
cost of the membership many times over. I got the dust mite letters all put
together and ready to be sent out for when my business got slow, but it
never got slow.
Thanks Joe!
Randee Machell
PS. Many years ago like everybody else I changed my title from carpet
cleaner to carpet technician, but now I refer to myself as an Environmental
Technician, specializing in Indoor Air Quality.
PPS. Like Dan Kennedy says, “every customer should get a customer,” it’s
important to have a referral program. This referral program has been the
single biggest boost to our business. I’ve had a number of clients refer
seven or eight new clients to us with this program. Using this strategy, we
went from getting a referral every couple of months to three or four a week.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Marketing Plan
More carpet cleaning businesses fail because they don’t have a plan or goals. You should
have a detailed marketing plan of what you want to accomplish and how you are going to
accomplish it.
Don’t be vague either. Things like ‘I want to make more money than I can ever spend’ and ‘I
want to be rich’ and ‘I want to make $10,000.00 a month’ - these are not plans. They’re too
vague and they won’t help you get there.
Be specific. As you go through this book pick at least 5 ideas to start with. Write them down.
Write how much you are going to make from each idea this week and this month. Then do a 3-
month plan and a 6-month plan.
Once you start using the first 5 ideas then add another 5. Then another. Soon you should be
using almost all of the money making marketing strategies in this book. (I say most because
there might be one or two that just aren’t you. That’s OK. Use the ones that you are most excited
about to begin with then branch out.)
Your plan should include money goals. Try to put your money goals in net to you, not gross.
I know gross is what you are used to thinking in but net is obviously more important. I know one
carpet cleaner owner who does $500,000.00 in gross. It sounds impressive and that’s why he
does it. He only nets $35,000.00 - yeah that’s right, not very impressive at all.
First examine your current numbers. More than 80% of all carpet cleaners don’t know how
many clients they get a month. That’s a deadly sin. You must know how you are currently doing.
You should know how many new clients you get each month, how much you make from
each client and how much it costs you to acquire a new client.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
John is a fictitious cleaner. John owns a carpet cleaning business. He’s been in business for 2
years. He gets his clients from low price, coupon advertising and a few here and there from his
yellow page’s ad.
John wants to double his net income in 2 months, triple in 4 months. (I don’t blame him.)
Considering that John doesn’t know any of my marketing secrets, he will have to get twice as
many jobs to double his business.
He currently gets 8-9 jobs from his coupon advertising and 2-3 from his yellow pages ads.
But he gets 18 calls a week from his coupon advertising and 5 from his yellow pages. So he
currently ‘closes’ 50% of his prospects.
If he doesn’t learn any of my methods to improve his 50% close ratio, then he’ll have to get
44 prospects to do 22 jobs.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should have a weekly plan. Schedule 15 min. out of one day to make up your weekly
plan and to see how you did the last week. Schedule this time and keep to it. Don’t do any
appointments during this time, keep it strictly for planning. If you do this and not one other of
my secrets, you will easily double your income in 12 months.
Of course, John didn’t know any of my secrets to double the profit from all his jobs. If he did
both - double his profits from each job and double the amount of jobs, he’d quadruple his
business in less than 2 months.
Your plan doesn’t need to be typed or put into a computer. It can be handwritten on paper.
The important part is that you do a plan every single week and keep on top of things.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is a subtle point that can make a big difference. Stop using the word ‘customer’ and start
using ‘client’.
Why?
Because the word customer implies that they buy things from you. But the word ‘client’
implies a close relationship in which you help the ‘client’.
It changes the way you see your clients. You will respect them more. After all, your clients
are your most valuable assets in business. Without them, you’d be up a creek.
Start calling them clients to your employees, to them, in all your letters. Make your
employees start using the word client. Clients are people you care about, that you help.
Customers are just people who buy from you, who may or may not ever buy from you again.
I put it at the beginning so you would understand why I always use the term clients
throughout this manual. Knowing this strategy at the beginning will help you through the whole
manual.
I’ve noticed that business people tend to think of ‘customers’ as nuisances. But ‘clients’ are
important and treated that way.
Start using the term ‘clients’. You’ll see that your ‘clients’ will like this too.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
1. A headline
2. Creates interest in the service or product
3. Creates desire in the prospect
4. Has a specific offer
5. Has a deadline or cut off date
Most advertising in magazines, newspapers, on radio and TV are not direct response. They
are institutional advertising (also called “image” advertising). There is no way of accurately
tracking the response since there is no specific offer.
They can’t be held responsible for zero results. If an ad campaign doesn’t increase sales they
blame it on one of the following:
A. The economy
B. They tell you that you need to run these ads that didn’t work over again and suddenly
they will work.
Out of the two, the second is by far the worst. Advertising agencies are notorious for saying
‘well the public just needs to see your ads more often and then you’ll start to get more sales’.
Many people then waste a lot more money and still don’t get results.
This theory is flawed. If an ad doesn’t work at all once, it’s not suddenly going to bring in
lots of money. It doesn’t work that way. There is a tiny bit of truth to it. A very, very small
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Advertising agencies are interested in being creative and ‘cutesy’. That’s what wins
advertising awards. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. The advertising field gives awards based
on creativity not results. Many ads that have won top awards didn’t produce any substantial
increase in sales. They have forgotten that advertising is meant to do one thing and one thing
only:
That’s the only reason I advertise. I don’t care about name recognition - I just want more
clients.
Building name recognition is only possible with a huge, huge advertising budget. There is a
lot of waste in that type of advertising but some really big businesses can survive with that
waste. Businesses like McDonalds, Dominoes, and Budweiser - they can afford this massive
waste. Of course if they used savvy direct response techniques they’d cut the waste out of their
advertising and their sales and profits would dramatically improve.
Small, local businesses do not have that option. We can’t afford to waste marketing dollars
on ads that don’t pull in immediate cash.
Direct response is results oriented. You know exactly how much money you made from jobs
that come from each direct response method.
Emotional direct response marketing gives your prospects something they want and tells
them exactly what to do to get it. It gives them compelling reasons to use you. It gets response.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is a common mistake for people first starting out with direct marketing. An ad is only
good if it gets results. Period. Don’t fall in love with any ad until you have tested it and know
that it pulls.
Become a student of direct marketing. Learn everything you can about it. The more you learn
about marketing, the more money you’ll make. If you’d like to know about other books and
tapes that can teach you more about direct marketing, give us a call at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-
275-2643. And if you are not currently a subscriber to my Interview of The Month Series (called
The Genius Network) then call my office or visit my website at www.joepolish.com.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Your unique selling point is a precise statement of why your company is special.
It should answer the question:
‘Why should I do business with you versus any or all of your competitors?’
Don’t worry if you can’t answer that question now. We’ll go over how to formulate your
Unique Selling Point.
In 1960 there was a college student named Tom. He and his brother Jim had to pay their way
through college somehow. So they decided to borrow $900 to buy a pizzeria named Dominick’s
in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Brother 1 would run the place during the day and go to school at night. Brother 2 would go to
school during the day and run the place at night.
After a year, they were losing more money than they were making and Brother 2, Jim,
wanted to get out. In exchange for an old beat-up Volkswagen Beetle, Brother 1, Tom, owned
the entire business.
Not long after, Tom developed a USP that turned his company into a multi-billion dollar
company in a very short time.
Of course, that’s the story of the Dominoes and that’s how Tom Monaghan’s fortune was made.
And now they don’t even guarantee the 30 minutes but that’s irrelevant. They’re so huge now
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
It doesn’t promise all things to all people. It never mentions a homemade sauce from the ‘old
country’ or even good taste!
What it did was hit an opportunity gap in the pizza delivery business. No one was quick. It
used to take at least an hour or longer.
Most people hate to wait around all day or even 4 hours. They are annoyed but no one is
offering them a different alternative.
You should think this over for a while. Don’t rush it.
Your USP is very important. You should mention it in all your marketing materials, even
your business card. My business card is my expanded USP (Strategy #100).
Talk to your clients. See what they really like about you. Why they chose you. What else
they want from you? What they hate most about doing business with you?
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
When you meet someone new, they almost always ask ‘What do you do?’
Stop saying ‘I’m a carpet cleaner.’ The conversation usually ends there. They never ask ‘Oh,
how do you do that?’ This is what you want them to ask so then you can start ‘selling’.
Your USP should convey one or two major benefits and create interest.
I cut all the fat and waste out of businesses’ advertising and marketing and make them 10
times more profitable without spending another dollar!
I’ve heard him tell people this at all sorts of places - at conferences, at dinner parties, even on
the street. Everyone always asks more questions after that. He’s gotten so much business from
this; it’s hard to believe.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
It targets existing clients. You should mail this letter to all your clients who you haven’t done
any work for in the past 12 months.
Since the mailing is to your current clients, you don’t need to stick to the direct mail rules for
prospects. (You’ll learn the rules later in this manual).
This is a real money maker. I get at least a 20% response from this letter - that’s 20 out of
every 100 I mail. This is incredible and always gives me more work than I can handle!
And keep in mind, this letter works for almost every Piranha Member that uses it. This letter
alone is responsible for compelling thousands of consumers to have their carpets cleaned again
by the cleaner that did it last time. (In this case that will be you). As long as you have good
rapport with the client and they were happy with the quality of your work, then this letter will
work like gangbusters.
Don’t question what I say. Put it to the test and just mail this letter. If you do, I’m sure you’ll
make many times more then what you invested in my marketing materials.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is [your name], owner of [company name]. You’ve won one room up
to 200 SF of carpet cleaning absolutely free. No strings attached. No
teeny, tiny little print. One room FREE. A coupon is enclosed for you
to redeem.
I Miss You!
Don’t you remember how your carpet looked when we cleaned it last
time?
It’s been quite a while since you’ve gotten your carpet cleaned. Too
long. You know you should but...
I know, you’ve been meaning to get your carpet cleaned but you just
haven’t gotten the time. I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons why
you haven’t done it.
You are busy. Preoccupied with work and the kids. You’re being
pulled in 63 different directions at once. Tired. Who has time or the
energy to even think about the “carpet”. By the time you get the
crisis of the day fixed, you just want to relax. Just a moment of
peace. You deserve it. And weekends, well they go by so fast it seems
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Thank you for being so concerned about me. The truth is that some of
my clients will choose to have all of their carpets cleaned. Not all,
but some. Enough so that I can afford to give this away to a few
select clients.
Like I said my busy season is coming up, so this offer won’t last
long. After [date not more than 45 days away] it’s all over. The
coupon enclosed will be expired after that.
Call me now at [your number] to schedule your free carpet cleaning
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Company name]
P.S. Don’t miss out - you’ve won one room of carpet cleaning up to
200 SF. No strings attached. That’s up to a $46.00 value. You
must claim your prize by [date]!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
GIFT CERTIFICATE
Good for one FREE room of carpet Cleaning up to 200 sq. ft.
This certificate is good for up to $46.00 worth of cleaning!
Absolutely no cost or obligation to buy additional services
Cleaning Provided by
YOUR NAME HERE
Professional Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning
To Schedule your free cleaning
Call (Your Phone Number)
To hear more about this offer call (Your Company’s) Consumer Awareness Message at 111-2222
This is a free recording that will teach you 6 costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning
Call anytime – 24 hours a day
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is very, very important. You should always, always, make every one of your clients feel
like they are your most important client. It doesn’t matter how big or small the job, make every
client feel like they are number 1.
She will:
1. Respond to their calls, questions, whatever immediately. Don’t make people wait, answer
their questions that day or at the latest the next day.
2. Always treat your clients with respect.
3. Always help them with their problem, even if its something they should do themselves.
They’ll appreciate it very much and pay you back ten fold.
Never underestimate your client. If you treat every client like your most important client,
you’ll have more business than you can handle.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
By this I don’t mean ‘bait and switch’ advertising - telling them a low price and then hitting
with a much higher price when you get there.
By upselling I mean selling your clients more stuff. The first upsell you should go after is
carpet protection. This practically doubles your profit for not that much more work.
I used to think carpet protection was just an up sell; a way to squeeze more money out of
clients. I was wrong.
I’ve seen too much evidence that carpet protection really works. I’ve seen virtually the same
carpet with and without carpet protection. The one with carpet protection always wears better
and looks better - even when that family has more children and pets. Carpet protection is a good
value to your clients. (But I don’t have to convince you!)
I’ve learned that most carpet cleaners hate selling. Don’t think of it as selling; think of it as
educating. Educate your clients so that they can decide for themselves what is best.
Give them a preponderance of proof - tons and tons of proof. It’s always better to have too
much than not enough. Overwhelm them with the benefits of using carpet protection. If you do,
most will buy.
Don’t rely on your techs to sell. Most people hate selling. They’re afraid of it. Unless you put
in a lot of time and effort to properly train your employees, they will do a poor job of it.
Make a video. Once you’ve mastered the art of selling carpet protection, make a video.
Record yourself telling all the great benefits of it - just like you were actually talking to a client.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you aren’t comfortable with making a video yourself, use the one we have made available.
(If you have invested in the Gold package or above you already have this video). This video
convinces prospects that they need to get their carpets cleaned every 12 months and that carpet
protection is a must. This closes the sale for you. Just ask the prospect if she has a VCR and to
watch it while you measure the carpet. Always make sure she shows you around first and tells
you the areas she wants cleaned and tells you of any problem areas. Then have her watch the
video. This works like a charm. Call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 for details.
If you have any other services at all, make sure to tell your clients about them.
For example if you do emergency fire and water damage, tell your client. You also need to
leave them information to file in case of an emergency. Refrigerator or phone magnets are great
for this. That way if there ever is an emergency they can find your number fast. It will also insure
that you get the business.
If you have a service that your client can use right away, like blind cleaning, air duct
cleaning, etc., make an offer when you’re there. Offer them a special deal if they get their carpets
and blinds cleaned all at once.
If they don’t want to, give them something telling them more information about your
services. Make sure its direct response. Don’t do a boring brochure or pamphlet. It should be a
sales letter about your service.
Plenty. However they should be somewhat related to carpet cleaning. I’ve sold my clients
tons of other things, including vacuum cleaners.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Preferably, mail a letter like the one that follows with something you are already
mailing to your Clients. This way your postage is minimal to none and all the sales are
profits.
This letter sold quite a few vacuums. Plus, after receiving it many people called to get their
carpets re-cleaned. I made as much money from the re-cleans as I did from the vacuums.
Note:
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Hi, I’m [your name] and if you’ll give me just a few moments of
your time I’ll tell you how you can relieve irritating allergies that
cause itchy eyes, endlessly runny noses and basically ruin perfectly
good days.
Does this sound familiar? You get home from work and you’re in a
hurry to make dinner. Then it starts up. Sneeze after sneeze after
sneeze. Your nose starts running. And itching. A tissue is nowhere to
be found! (They never are when you really need one!) Your eyes start
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You thought you were safe in your own home. You thought out there
with all the pollen and other stuff, your allergies might act up but
not in your own home. The truth is that your own home may have more
allergy causing things than outside. Especially lurking in your
carpet.
You can’t see the things that cause allergies - they’re way too
small. Your vacuum doesn’t see them either and leaves them in your
carpet to cause you countless sneezes and other irritations. In fact
not only does your vacuum leave these agents behind, it distributes
them into the air. Instead of capturing them, your vacuum stirs up
these bad things and they linger in the air. That’s why some extreme
allergy suffers can’t vacuum.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You can’t buy one of these at your local vacuum cleaner store.
No, only certified technicians can sell them. I found out about these
amazing vacuum cleaners a few months ago. But I was skeptical. I
surely wasn’t going to rush out and put my reputation at stake if I
wasn’t completely, 100% sure that these vacuums did everything they
said they did and more. So I got one.
I used it so much; I thought I was going to wear it out. Then I
found out that the Powr-Flite was designed for commercial use. They
made it so you can vacuum 8 to 10 hours a day and it will last and
last. (I wouldn’t wish that on anyone! - But its good to know.) After
four days my skepticism vanished. This darn thing worked so well. I
don’t even have many allergies and I noticed a difference! I’m a tough
cookie and I’m impressed.
Flite has 8 different pile positions so that you can set it at the
absolute best height. Plus it only weighs 14 lbs. It’s light and easy
to handle.
Do you find it hard to vacuum under your bed because your vacuum
is too big and bulky? I’ve found that the Powr-Flite easily glides
under mine. It lays flat, down to a 4 1/2” clearance. This makes it a
breeze to get under furniture instead of moving it around and breaking
your back.
The Powr-Flite is just loaded with great features like the soft
handle grip and the convenient on/off switch right at your fingertips.
The cord has a quick release so you don’t have to unwrap it - just
flip the hook down. Flip it back when you’re done. The 17” vacuum has
a Quadro-Brush Agitator. That’s a four brush and beater strip that
gets out even the deepest embedded dirt, pollen, dust-mites and other
allergy causing things.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
1.The 13-inch. It has a 13” cleaning path with all the features
I’ve described: the headlamp, the soft grip handle, the easy on/off
switch, the 8 position pile adjuster, 3 handy handle positions
including laying perfectly flat, and the furniture guard that will
save your furniture from those bumps and bruises. It comes with a 35
ft. cord for a 70 ft. cleaning diameter. Its perfect for a smaller
house.
2.The 17-inch. It has a 17” cleaning path with a bigger front and
built-in corners so you can easily vacuum those hard-to-get corners.
It has all the great features that the 13” has plus the Quadro-Brush
agitator for even the deepest of the grime-ies! It comes with 50 feet
of cord for a 100 foot cleaning diameter. It’s ideal for a moderate to
large house.
Your carpet will look better and feel better but more importantly
you can say good-bye to those terrible allergy symptoms. Be safe in
your own home and breathe easy.
[Your name]
P.S. Call [your number] within 3 days to get your 2 free bonuses!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
What I do mean is learn from others. Take their good ideas and put them to use in your own
business.
This doesn’t necessarily mean from different carpet cleaners. It can though. Especially when
you attend industry meetings (Strategy #67). Use the ideas that are working for others. There
isn’t any reason they won’t work for you too. (Unless they are lying, but testing something out
inexpensively doesn’t hurt anything.)
Model good ideas from other successful businesses; most ideas can be applied in some way
to your business.
For example, do you think the fast food industry invented the drive-thru window?
One day a guy from McDonalds was sitting at the bank drive-thru and it occurred to him. He
said ‘I’m not sure how the drinks will fit but otherwise its perfect!’ And the course of fast food
was changed forever!
So you see you can get great ideas from any kind of business. Keep your eyes peeled and
always think ‘Now how can I apply this to my business?’
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Direct mail is one of the most powerful ways to market your company that there is. Here are
some figures that demonstrate how powerful direct mail is.
• Direct mail advertising was $44.6 billion in 2000 -- or 23.3 percent of total direct
marketing expenditures.
• Direct response television is ranked next with $21.9 billion being spent in 2000 (11.4
percent of total "dm" expenditures.) Next, is newspaper spending at $18.4 billion, or 9.6
percent of all 2000 direct marketing spending.
• The "other" media category, which includes interactive marketing, (Internet) is next
ranked with $16 billion spent in 2000. Other media represent 8.4 percent of all direct
marketing media spending.
• The two media ranked at the bottom are magazine direct response advertising at $9.8
billion and radio at $7.7 billion. Combined, they make up 9.1 percent of total direct
marketing spending.
The DMA's economic model reports data on interactive/online marketing. In 2000, $2.8
billion is forecast in expenditures for interactive marketing. That number is expected to grow by
38.0 percent annually to reach $13.8 billion in 2005.
There wouldn’t be that much money spent on direct mail if it didn’t work.
So why do most small businesses, especially carpet cleaners, think of direct mail as a waste?
1. They don’t know how to use it. They’ve never had any instruction on how to use it.
2. They send a flier - as you know by now, fliers don’t cut it. (I’ll cover more on this later in
this manual).
3. They send it to a ‘bad’ list. The list, the people who you send your letter to, is just as
important as the letter itself.
Many people overlook this.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
He was getting zero response, not low, not one but zero. Zilch. Nada.
Who was he sending his letters to?
A good two-word description would be: “Run-down”. They were tiny houses with broken
porches-at least one plank of wood was missing. Junk strewn across the front yard. In the
driveway there was a car on cement blocks with half the engine removed. Both the husband and
the wife were wearing stained t-shirts.
Are these the types of people most likely to buy your services?
If they ever clean their carpet (which is highly doubtful), they’ll rent a cheap machine.
3. Interest- create interest. The first paragraph should emphasize the benefit to the reader, this
gets your prospect interested enough to read the rest of the letter.
6. Must have a deadline. If you don’t have an expiration date you don’t have direct response.
I’ve provided you with lots of ready to use direct mail letters. Use them as-is or modify them.
Learn from them and start writing your own!
And remember to never underestimate the power of a well-written sales letter. For many
carpet cleaners the difference between being rich and being broke could be one good sales letter.
And I’ve provided you with many proven sales letters that have made many cleaners a lot of
money.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You want your client to be in ‘awe’ after doing business with you.
It’s easy because most businesses do a lousy job. They don’t even do what they are supposed
to do. Of course they don’t do anything ‘extra’. So it’s easy for you to stand out!
One carpet cleaner gives all his clients a free bottle of spotter with unlimited refills forever!
Before you think he is crazy, let’s analyze this:
He gives this to his clients after their first job. Let’s say it costs him $2.55 per bottle. He puts
a label on it with his company information. He tells them this is the only spotter that they’ll ever
need and to throw every other spotter they have away.
Then he says if they ever run out to give him a call and he’ll come back and refill it for free -
forever!
Rarely does any one ever call for the free refill. So it costs him $2.55 to give his client an
extraordinary feeling. That’s pretty cheap!
He also gives his client a free MEMO board to go on her refrigerator. It has his company
name and number on it. On the back there is carpet maintenance information.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Do you think they ever go anywhere else to get their carpets cleaned?
38.4% of his business is repeat business. That means he spent $4.50 to get a client and each
time they come back its cheaper and cheaper. This is brilliant.
Not only does he get nearly 40% repeat business but he gets 18.3% of his business from
referrals!
If you keep splitting that $4.50 by all the clients it generates, you’ll realize why this is so
powerful.
Most companies look at it as an expense. This is stupid. It is the cheapest and easiest way to
get repeat business and lots of referrals.
But most don’t look at the whole picture. They just look at the cost. This is ridiculous but
you and I can really benefit from their shortsightedness!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
2. Have everyone wear uniforms - black pants or shorts with a clean logo t-shirt is fine.
The public is skeptical about carpet cleaners. Let’s face it we don’t have a very good
reputation. The reason is because there are a lot of sleazy carpet cleaners out there who rip
people off. We must overcompensate for their bad reputation. Granted this is unfair, but it’s the
way it is.
I’ve seen many carpet cleaners go to homes with dirty trucks. I’ve even seen a technician
who didn’t have on a uniform at all. He had on dirty jeans and an old ripped t-shirt. His hair was
a mess and he hadn’t shaved in about a week.
You must look clean, neat and be organized. This earns people’s trust and respect. It
probably is no surprise to you that the carpet cleaner above only closed about 10% of his
prospects. No one wants someone looking like that to come in to their house for anything.
Clean trucks are important. I get quite a few calls from people who saw my truck in their
neighborhood and need their carpets cleaned. Do you think they’d call if the truck had been
dirty? Absolutely not.
I’m not saying you have to have a brand new truck but I am saying that your company needs
to look good.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The trick is spaced, repetitive learning. That’s to say go over things many times with a
certain amount of time in between.
Have you ever listened or watched something for the second time and realized you missed a
major point the first time? We all have. The way to beat this is to constantly learn.
To get the most out of this powerful manual, you are going to have to read it over 5 to 7
times. Not at once but over a period of about 12 months. Each time you read it you’ll get more
and more out of it. More and more moneymaking strategies.
Repetition is the key to learning. That’s why we have a series of newsletters, a monthly
interview series of the month called The Genius Network, (which is available on audiotape and
CD), and a Coaching and Mentoring Program. So every month you can learn more and more
about marketing and how to make money. Call us at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 for
information or visit my website at www.joepolish.com
Learn all you can about marketing. Get books, tapes, newsletters, and videos - everything
you can get your hands on. You are in the marketing business. We all are, whether you own an
appliance store or are a carpet cleaner. The truth is that we all need new clients so whether we
like it or not, we are in the marketing business.
Once you know great marketing strategies that make gobs of money (which you now own),
marketing is great fun.
But don’t stop with this manual; keep learning more and more about marketing.
The number one reason people fail in direct response marketing is because they never do a
darn thing. They learn all these money making marketing strategies and then they don’t use
them.
It is better to do something, which isn’t quite perfect then to not do anything at all.
Don’t worry if you don’t have every little thing you need. For instance, if you do a letter
giving away free spotter kits, don’t worry if you only have 2 in stock. Test the method, if you get
a huge response just tell your clients that you were overwhelmed with the response and are
currently out of spotting kits. As soon as you get them in, you’ll get it to them. This is much,
much better than not doing anything at all.
Once you try something then you have a place to go from. Even if your method didn’t work
as well as you’d like, you’ll be able to improve it and get more response.
The only reason that an owner of a carpet cleaning company will not dramatically improve
their business with my marketing strategies is because they don’t do something!
Stop worrying about all the little details and just do something!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The same old stuff that everyone is using, which is advertising price, just doesn’t work.
Bait And Switch Doesn’t Cut It
The old bait and switch method of advertising a low, low price is ridiculous. It does get
people to call sometimes but it backfires. When you try to ‘up-sell’ these Clients they get mad.
You can’t blame them, they were told one price and now if they want a good job they’ll have to
pay more. As you probably know, a high percentage of these people decide against anything at
all. The ones that do go ahead and have the service performed, feel cheated. Rarely do they ever
have you clean their carpets again. And they NEVER refer any business to you.
You CAN’T build up a $125,000.00+ per truck business (that you can someday sell
ethically) with this type of advertising. You burn too many bridges. In the long run this is the
worst type of advertising you can do!
Bait and switch advertising is unethical. It’s not down to earth (Strategy #35). It’s not
building a good relationship with clients. You can’t successfully implement a referral program
(Strategy #55) if you use it. You certainly can’t have the WOW effect (Strategy #10).
And if you want more information on this subject I have an Attack On Bait & Switch
Publicity Kit that features press releases that you can use in your area and a video of 3 different
news stories I’ve appeared on (including ABC’s 20/20) exposing these unethical cleaning
companies. Call 480-858-0008 for more information.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
All of these strategies in this manual are systems. They are strategic ways of getting new
clients.
You can’t just do part of one and expect to get results. It just doesn’t happen that way. You
have to do all parts of the system to get it to work.
For example if you do the 3-letter sequence (Strategy #27) that goes to cold prospects, you
can’t just give out the first letter. You have to do all 3. And they need to be 15 days apart.
But you have to do every part of the system, not just the first step. This is true of any system.
Think of making coffee. The first step is to put in a new filter and add coffee. But if you stop
there, you’ll never get coffee. You need to follow the rest of the steps in the system to get coffee.
That is you have to add water, turn it on and put the pot under the drip. Then you’ll have coffee.
Stopping after the first few steps in a marketing strategy will give you the same results as with
your coffee maker. NONE.
So follow through on everything.
Complete the system and you’ll soon be making $10,000.00 a month and more!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
No excuses. No lies.
You have to hold yourself accountable for everything - the good and the bad.
Everything that happens in your business is the result of your work or lack thereof.
Everything.
Stop blaming the economy or the season or whatever. With this manual you have all the tools
you need to be hugely successful.
If you want to become part of a program that I promise will allow you to be held accountable
for results in your business, then call my office at 480-858-0008 or 800-275-2643 and request an
application to become part of The Piranha Mastermind Coaching Program.
This is set up for cleaners that want an on-going super intensive coaching and mentoring
program that gives them access to group participation with successful cleaners from all over the
world via live workshops and monthly conference calls and teleseminars. These are programs
that are only available to active Piranha Members.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You can easily stay on top of things if you schedule a specific time each week to see how
you are doing and make new goals.
Monday morning between 8 and 8:30 works very well. Keep this meeting; don’t schedule a
cleaning or anything else during this time. Keep this appointment with yourself every week.
Look over your marketing goals for last week. How did you do? If you didn’t do as well as
you wanted to do, then change some things so you’ll do better this week.
If you did better than you had expected then keep on doing what you are doing.
It is very important to keep track of how you are doing. Know your numbers (Strategy #51).
During this time you should decide what new strategies you are going to implement over the
next week.
One of my favorite places to just focus, plan and think is the public library. It’s free, it’s
quiet, it’s got thousands of books and knowledge resources and it’s very conducive to Executive
Thinking™! So try it.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Don’t be afraid. Everyone wants to raise their prices but is afraid to.
Any person only buys on price when they think all other aspects are equal or nearly equal.
What I mean by this is that no one would ever buy a Mercedes if they thought the only
difference between a Yugo and a Mercedes was the price.
To overcome price shopping, you have to educate your prospect so that they realize what
they are getting.
To most people, carpet cleaning is carpet cleaning. They think it’s all the same. They think
every method and every company does the same thing. That’s why they price shop.
Why would anyone want to pay more for the same thing?
Your job is to convince them that all carpet cleaners are not the same. You know this; you
just have to convince them.
Everyone wants a good value. They don’t want a low price if they get crummy service. They
want value.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Don’t wait for your client to say that you are expensive or out of their budget. It’s almost
always too late at this point.
You should educate them right from the beginning. Your clients are not accustomed to
buying the cheapest products. They live in nice houses. They have nice cars. They wear nice
clothes. Why?
Because they know the difference between price and value. You just have to make them look
at carpet cleaning the same way that they look at other things. This is easy when you have
middle class and above clients.
Raise your prices. Get paid for what you do. You deserve it.
If you are convinced you are worth it, your clients will be too.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You can charge anything you want as long as you can convince people you are worth it.
That’s not that hard to do.
What I mean by this is that if you are the cheapest in town, you will probably go out of
business.
Being the cheapest is terrifying to me. I would never want to be the cheapest.
I’d much rather explain price once then apologize for inferior service forever.
I’d much rather do three jobs and make $1,000.00 than 10 jobs and make the same amount!
It’s the same work.
There are a few big national stores that live on low prices by having a huge turn-over.
You are not huge. You can’t make up in quantity - its just too much work cleaning carpets
and there are only so many hours in a day!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
It’s only a matter of time before the cheapest company goes out of business.
Of course there will always be another company to replace the one that went out of business.
Just don’t let it be you!
Do you want to know what the formula is for how much you charge for your services?
Ok…here it is…This is something that 99% of all business owners do not understand.
The formula for how much to charge is simply your ability to sell it!
This is why marketing is the most important focus and study you can ever invest your time
in. And the exact reason you are reading my marketing course at the moment.
For more information on this subject listen to my Genius Network Interview with one of the
world’s leading pricing experts Larry Steinmetz (he wrote the book How To Sell At Prices
Higher Then Your Competitors) call my office at 480-858-0008 or 800-275-2643.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should guarantee every job you do. Your first reaction might be: I can’t afford to do
that. I’ll get people calling me all the time to do retouches or they’ll want their money back and
rip me off.
Competence in business starts with guaranteeing your work. If you cannot guarantee your
work then you shouldn’t be in this business. This will make more sense to you as you learn
more of my philosophies on business.
This is my guarantee:
As the owner, I want you to be super-pleased — in fact, absolutely delighted — with every
carpet and upholstery job we do. So every job comes with our ironclad, risk-free guarantee.
What does that mean? Simply this: If you aren’t happy with our work, we’ll reclean the area for
free. Or you can have your money back. It’s your choice. Many companies don’t guarantee their
work. But I do, nothing is more important than your complete and total satisfaction. We stand
behind every job 100%. If you ever have any questions or concerns about our work, please call
me right away.
Is this bold? Yes. Is this strong? Yes. Is this risky? Not at all. Think about it this way:
I only get 2 calls per year that want me to come back and redo their carpet. That’s not very
many and no one has ever asked me for their money back. BUT do you know how many people
who were hesitant went ahead with me because of it? Tons.
Because I have such a strong guarantee, people think I am completely confident in my work
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I don’t think anyone should be in business if they don’t guarantee their work. If you aren’t
confident in what you do, do something you can be confident about.
The numbers work in your favor to offer a guarantee. Its very rare that anyone will take you
up on it BUT lots of people will be convinced to use you if you have one.
This is a pretty simple idea but far too underused. You have to eliminate the risk to the
prospect if you want to sell more.
Frankly, if you can’t offer some type of guarantee on your product or service you
probably ought to rethink your role as a businessperson.
When all else is equal, he who has the strongest guarantee wins!
What ever you decide to do, the most crucial element is to reverse the risk. Once you take the
fear out of doing business with you, you’ve eliminated a major stumbling block from a person’s
ability to buy from you.
Once you develop a guarantee, use it. Use it in all your marketing and advertising. Tell all
your clients. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
To learn how to write direct mail that gets lots of new clients, you need to see a lot of it that
is successful.
You have a wealth of information that you probably throw away every day. You think of it as
‘junk mail’. But this junk mail can give you a wealth of knowledge. Don’t underestimate it.
More money is spent on direct mail advertising than on any other medium. That’s right -
more businesses spend money on direct mail than on TV or Internet advertising. Why?
Because it works.
And you don’t have to spend a fortune to find out if your piece works or not. In other media,
you have to spend a lot of money just to find out if it works. That’s another reason why direct
mail is so great.
Stop throwing away that junk mail and start reading it. Separate your junk mail into two
piles. Ones that you think are good and ones that you think are bad.
Try rewriting the bad ones to get some practice. Think of things that can improve the good
ones. Pretty soon you’ll be a marketing maniac.
If you are not currently a subscriber to our newsletter ‘The Piranha Marketing Letter’, you
should definitely subscribe now. Call the office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 and we’ll
set you up.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Whenever you make a change in your business or do a charity function (Strategy #87) or
have a Client Dinner (Strategy #97), you should try to get an article in one of the local papers
about it.
The purpose of this is not to create a flood of prospects. This won’t happen, believe me.
But what it does do is build your credibility. Then when you send out any sales information
to a prospect, you include reprints of these articles in the paper.
When a prospect sees an article about you that was printed in the paper, they automatically
think you are for real; that your company is a good company and trustworthy. This is very
important.
Once a prospect thinks that you are ‘legitimate’, they will be much more likely to obtain your
services.
Remember people are skeptical these days. They are afraid of getting ripped off or getting
poor service. Anything that you do to prove to them that you are trustworthy will definitely pay
off.
Most newspaper editors call them ‘press releases’. Press releases rarely get in the newspaper.
You can send them in but the newspaper gets tons and tons of press releases. If you want to get
something in the newspaper you need to do more than send a press release.
1. Call the newspaper and find out who is in charge of press releases.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
3. Tell that person that you are sending them some very exciting information. Tell them who
you are and what you do. Tell them why they’ll benefit and/or how their readers will benefit.
(Here is a great way to offer your Free Carpet Audit™.)
4. Send the information. Make sure you spell out that you talked to him/her on the phone and
told them you were sending this. Also make it crystal clear what they’ll gets out of this. (That
probably will be something valuable to give to their readers like a Free Carpet Audit™.)
5. Follow-up. Call them back and see if he received your information. Ask them when is
him/her going to put it in. If they won’t give you a direct answer, ask them when they’ll know
for sure. Then call them back then.
6. Be persistent.
This strategy takes quite a bit of effort but it’s worth it. If you really want to get in the paper
you’ll have to do this.
Be very enthusiastic on the phone. Be friendly and cheerful. This will help you out a lot.
Always expect that the newspaper will run your information. If you expect it, they will!
For more information on free publicity get my Attack On Bait and Switch Publicity Kit by
calling 480-858-0008 or 800-275-2643.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
When someone calls up and asks me for an estimate I say we don’t give estimates we give
Free Carpet Audit™ s. Then I explain exactly what a Free Carpet Audit™ entails.
This works beautifully. Prospects become much more interested and they place much more
value on a Carpet Audit™ than they do on an ‘estimate’.
I personally don’t like the word ‘estimate’. Estimate implies that you aren’t exactly sure how
much it is going to be. It may be higher, it may be lower. A ‘quote’ however is precise. This is
exactly how much it will be for these services.
Of course a quote to clean carpets comes with the Free Carpet Audit™ but the prospect gets
a lot more.
Prospects that you give Free Carpet Audits™ to are much more likely first to become clients.
And then they are much more likely to become repeat clients. After the audit they understand the
importance of cleaning their carpets on a regular basis.
A Carpet Audit™ is a simple procedure. You go in and analyze someone’s carpet. Here’s
exactly what to do:
1. First cover all the problems your prospect’s carpet has. Check for ‘unwanted’ stains. Tell
her whether or not they can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult
stains.
2. Calculate the wear age™ of your prospect’s carpet. Her carpet may be 10 years old but
only have a wear age™ of 2 years. However her carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear
age™ of 10 years. Explain how long it will be before she will need to get new carpet and give
her a ‘prescription’ to make her carpet last as long as possible.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
3. Determine if her carpet is in good health. Healthy carpets are great for healthy wallets and
for healthy people.
Explain that her carpet’s health can affect her and her family’s health. Just like she tracks in
dirt from the outside, she also tracks in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust,
germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into her carpet just like
dirt.
Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from her carpet. She drags them in and they get
lodged in her carpet. Then when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into her air and
she and her family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than
outdoor air.
There is a way out of this vicious cycle. Getting her carpets cleaned thoroughly and regularly
gets rid of these pollutants in her carpet.
4. You’ll also test her traffic areas. Explain that traffic areas are the main spots that get
walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more worn and dirtier. Tell her how you can
make her traffic areas look as good as the rest of her carpet (or close).
5. After analyzing her carpet, give her a complete written report of the condition of her
carpet. Tell her what her carpets needs are. If her carpet needs any of the services you provide, if
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Normally you should give her this right at her house, don’t have her wait days or weeks.
Following this section is the form to fill out when doing a Free Carpet
Audit™.
As you can see by the trademark symbol the Carpet Audit™ is a process of presenting yourself and
your cleaning services. It is a process that I have spent tens of thousands of dollars testing, retesting,
creating, using and continually improving. This process works and has been proven by hundreds of
Piranha Members to be the most effective way to educate and present cleaning services to consumers in
the most ethical and compelling way. If you start using it to the point where you become very skilled at it
you will reap huge rewards. I promise you without a doubt the implementation of this process alone will
pay for your investment in my marketing strategies many times over.
I’ve also gone to great measures to legally protect this very powerful selling process. As a Piranha
Member you have the rights to use this process and profit from it as long as you stay a current Piranha
Member. The more you use this process, the more money you will make. You’ll also find that your
conversion rate will go up, your client satisfaction rate will improve. The understanding of the value of
your services will increase; your complaints of your service and of your techs will go down. Your
average sale will increase as much as 25% - 50% even 200% almost instantly and your repeat and referral
business will improve. Not bad for implement my Carpet Audit™ process.
I have videos and forms available for continued training and understanding of this process.
Visit my website at www.joepolish.com or call 800-275-2643.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Client Name________________________________________________________
Address______________________________________________________
City_____________________State______________Zip_______________
Phone (Home)______________________(Work)____________________
Source________________________________________________________________________
______
Referred
By_________________________________________________________________________
Directions_____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________
Client Needs:
Carpet
Cleaning______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____
Furniture Cleaning
____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______
Fabric
Protection_____________________________________________________________________
_
Notes_________________________________________________________________________
______
Wear Age
Age___________________________Color_________________________
Maintenance
Are walk off mats being used? _______YES _______NO
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________
Additional Notes:
____________________________________________________________________
Cleaning
What methods have been used and how many times? ______Dry Foam
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If yes, what
type:_____________________________________________________________________
_______Yes _______No
Existent problems (list all problems including unwanted spots & stains)
Pet Stains
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________
Dye or Bleach
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Wear Age
______________________________________________________________________________
______
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________
Prescription
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________
After completing your carpet audit I’ve discovered a few key things that will help you keep your carpet
lasting as long as possible. The carpet is ten years old as you told me, the wear age is different in the
living room and the hallway then it is for the rest of the house. Because of your husbands wear areas in
front of the recliner in the living room and the cats’ running back and forth to the guest bathroom litter
box, you have a wear age in the living room and hallway of 4 years. The rest of the house has a wear age
of 6-8 years. The spots in your couch will be able to be removed but the red stains on the carpet are
permanent unless we use a dye transfer process. To maintain your carpets from here on in, I suggest you
do three things. First get more walk off matting near your entrances so more of the particulate soil is
removed from the feet of anyone coming into the house, invest in a high filtration vacuum, I can suggest
one for you if you’d like, and have your carpets cleaned two to three times a year. Two through cleanings
and one maintenance cleaning each year is best. Apply protection to the hallway and traffic areas in the
living room each time. Whether you protect the rest of the rooms is up to you. If you’d like me to book
the first cleaning for you today it’ll will be …
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
1. If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, you’ll have no way to increase your
business.
Things aren’t always as they seem. You can’t guess whether something is working or not.
You must keep track of the numbers and let them tell you.
Ad A: This is a Val-Pak type ad. For our example lets say it costs about $350.00 to run it. It
goes to 10,000 prospects. You get 12 clients from it.
Ad B: This is a direct mail piece. It costs about $120.00 to send it to 400 prospects. You get
3 new clients.
Which is better? At first it may seem that A is better, but look at the rest of the numbers.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Ad B: The 3 clients generated had an average job of $311.00. Zero of them complained about
the price. One of them rescheduled in 10 months and 1 of them rescheduled in 3 months. One of
them referred 2 clients to you within 2 months of doing their job.
As you can see, you made $804.00 ($67.00 x 12) off the front end of A.
A cost you $350.00. That’s $454.00 left. The backend isn’t very big, one job in 12 months -
another $67.00 if they keep the appointment.
Ad B on the other hand generated $933.00 on the front end. The back end is even bigger!
The cost of Ad B was $120.00, so that’s $813.00 left - that’s more than Ad A generated all
together!
I hope now you can see why you must keep close track of your numbers. Some methods may
be misleading where you think you are doing great but really you aren’t.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Strategy Tracker/Project
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
On again off again, it’s a bad habit. And a very costly one for businesses. If you truly want to
succeed and make 125K+ per truck every year, you will have to be consistent.
I know one carpet cleaner who has OK marketing strategies, OK letters and OK ads. He does
not have exceptional marketing strategies or ads. In fact you are way ahead of him in that
category with this manual. But he consistently makes $100,000 a year. He is consistent with his
marketing strategies and his follow up. Yes it could be better, a lot better, but consistency is
extremely important.
I also know another carpet cleaner who has some sensational ads, and some sensational
letters. He barely makes $45,000 a year.
Why?
Simply because he is inconsistent. He doesn’t track his results (Strategy #24) so he doesn’t
really know what is working and what isn’t.
A lot people will tell you this is working for me and then when you analyze the numbers, you
find out its not. The same is true for things people don’t think are working. Unless you know
your numbers, you don’t know what’s working and what’s not.
Every time I talk to this carpet cleaner, he tells me how he is too busy to send “thank you’s”.
And every time I say to myself “well, he won’t be too busy in a few months.” Then the next time
I talk to him, it’s the same old story - ‘It’s dead, I don’t have any customers’.
He can’t figure out why that happens. It’s quite simple but he won’t take the time and effort
to be consistent.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Fancy, 4- color brochures are very expensive. You have to get at least 1,000 printed at once.
Then you have your money tied up in inventory.
1. They immediately yell out ‘This is a sales message’. Once someone thinks you are trying
to sell them something, they are much less receptive.
Patton is in the middle of a huge battle and a man comes up to him with a box full of guns.
Patton says ‘I don’t have time for a salesman right now, I’m in the middle of a war.’
You see, even if you have exactly what a prospect needs if they think you are a salesman it
will be difficult to get through to them.
It’s the same thing with your sales message. A brochure is immediately recognized as a sales
message. It’s fancy but boring.
2. With brochures, you can’t cheaply and easily change your message. Things can change
quickly. Maybe you decide to offer or worse discontinue a particular service, like water damage.
You can’t change your brochure so you either have inaccurate information or you have to spend
a ton of money all over again to get it redone.
3. You can’t cheaply test it. You should always test, test, test (Strategy #33). With brochures
you have to get a lot printed at once then if it doesn’t work, you have wasted a lot of money.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
1. Letters look and feel personal. People think of letters as personal and brochures as sales.
2. Letters are very inexpensive. You can get as few done at a time, as you need. Your money
won’t be tied up in ‘inventory’. All of your marketing dollars will be out there working for you.
3. Letters are easily changed. If something about your business changes you can quickly,
easily and inexpensively change your sales message.
4. If your letter didn’t work as well as you’d like, you can easily improve it. Letters have no
waste.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Most carpet cleaners that even attempt direct mail make a huge mistake (among others).
They get a list and then mail them information once. You need to send out your message at least
three times.
Sending your message out three times will generally double your response. For example if
you get a 5% response on your first mailing, you’ll get a 10% response from all 3 letters. If you
don’t mail your second and third letters, you are leaving half of your profits behind - just
walking away from them.
Sometimes it can even be worse. I know of one business owner who gets 80% of his
response from his third mailing. If he didn’t mail 3 times, he’d barely be making any money at
all. Since he does, he makes over $100,000 every year.
Start off with at least a three-letter sequence. Later you should test to see if it’s profitable to
do a four, five or six letter sequence. To see if it’s profitable:
When you profit less than it costs to mail, that’s when you stop mailing.
Profit
From
Mailing Cost Of
Mailing
1 2 3 4 5
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The reason is because it isn’t costing you anything to acquire that client. It’s free. That is on
the front-end. The front end is any sales that immediately result from a marketing method. The
back end is subsequent sales, like a client getting their carpets cleaned again in 11 months -
that’s backend.
If you break even on the front end then every time that client has you do their carpets again,
or uses your other services or refers someone to you - this is all pure profit. Use the lifetime
value of a client (Strategy #38) to see just how much you are making.
Following this strategy is a 3-letter sequence that is ready for you to use. You can use it as-is
or modify it. This is also included in your ‘Quick Start-Up Guide To Fast Cash’.
This 3-letter sequence was designed to be distributed to up-scale neighborhoods. Put the first
letter in a white envelope with nothing on the cover. Seal the envelope and place them on the
doorstep or wedged in the door. This will insure that your letter gets opened because people will
think that this is from a friend or neighbor.
Then the headline will catch their attention and force them to read it. Deliver at least 100 at a
time and keep track of which houses you delivered them to. Since using this method since 1994
our average response is five calls from the first 100. From these five calls you should make five
appointments for Free Carpet Audit™ s. Out of those five, you should get at least three jobs. The
jobs should be about $250.00 - $350.00 each (if you use my Strategy #7 and Strategy #98).
That’s $750.00 to $1,050.00 from a $30.00 investment and about an hour’s worth of time to
deliver it.
But don’t stop there. You’d be leaving 50% of your profits behind.
15 days after you delivered the first letter, deliver the second letter to everyone who did NOT
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
From these two letters (the second and third) you will receive another five calls, which will
lead to another 5 appointments, which will lead to another three jobs. That’s another $750.00 to
$1,050.00 from a $60.00 investment (the investment is doubled because you have to get twice as
much printing done) and 2 hours worth of work!
That’s a total of $1,500.00 to $2,100.00 from a $90.00 investment and three hours! Not bad
at all.
You will have to have a current client in that neighborhood. Ask her if she wouldn’t mind
helping you out.
Then tell her about the letters. Let her read them and make sure she’s ‘OK’ with it.
When She says ‘OK’ plug in her name and you’re ready to go!
And before you question the validity of what I say and talk yourself out of using this proven
strategy – or worse you let someone else talk you out of it, just know that these three letters
alone have built some of the most successful cleaning companies throughout the world.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Since I don’t know you yet, I’d like to get to know you by
giving you another Free Gift.
1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll
check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may
be 10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your
carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll
explain how long it will be before you will need to get new
carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet
last as long as possible.
Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s
health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also
track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust,
germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get
lodged into your carpet just like dirt.
You’ve heard the hype about indoor air being more polluted
than outdoor air. Well, it’s true. The main reason is because
indoor air is trapped. Rarely does it get completely replaced.
Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new cleaner air
replaces it. Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from your
carpet. You drag them in; they get lodged in your carpet. Then
when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into your air
and you and your family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why
indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
After your Free Carpet Audit™, I’ll give you your prize:
This will just give both you and me a way to get to know each
other. You’ll get to see how we turn tired, old carpet into
plush, new-looking, luxurious carpet - the kind you bought!
If you totally fall in love with your one clean room, I’ll
give you a written quote of how much it’d be to make your whole
house look that good! But only if you choose.
You see, my company is going to be here for a long, long time.
If I were ‘pushy’ or rude, I just wouldn’t make it. Plus that’s
just not me! I make friends not enemies.
And if you ever use my services, I’ll be thrilled (and so will
you). But if you don’t, that’s fine. There won’t be any hard
feelings.
You better hurry though. I can only hold your prize until
[date]. After that I’ll have to give it to someone else.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Company name]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Hi, its me, [your name], again. About 2 weeks ago I dropped
off a letter to you telling you that you had won.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
and
1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll
check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they
can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other
difficult stains.
2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may
be 10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your
carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll
explain how long it will be before you will need to get new
carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet
last as long as possible.
Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s
health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also
track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust,
germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get
lodged into your carpet just like dirt.
4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the
main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly
look more worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your
traffic areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.
This will just give both you and me a way to get to know each
other. You’ll get to see how we turn tired, old carpet into
plush, new-looking, luxurious carpet - the kind you bought!
If you totally fall in love with your one clean room, I’ll
give you a written quote of how much it’d be to make your whole
house look that good! But only if you choose.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Company name]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Run Over.
I’ve dropped off 2 letter for you telling you about the prize
you’ve won -
You have until [date] to call to claim your one room of free
carpet cleaning and get a Free 15 Min. Carpet Audit™.
I will come to your house and audit your carpet for free.
That’s right there’s no cost and no obligation of any kind.
Here’s exactly what I’ll do:
1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll
check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they
can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other
difficult stains.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s
health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also
track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust,
germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get
lodged into your carpet just like dirt.
4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the
main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly
look more worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your
traffic areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.
After your Free Carpet Audit™, I’ll give you your prize:
This will just give both you and me a way to get to know each
other. You’ll get to see how we turn tired, old carpet into
plush, new-looking, luxurious carpet - the kind you bought!
If you totally fall in love with your one clean room, I’ll
give you a written quote of how much it’d be to make your whole
house look that good! But only if you choose.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Company name]
P.S. You’ve Won! There is NO catch! Call today to claim your
prize!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Initially almost everyone thinks the opposite is true. You may think ‘but that’s too long, who
will read all that?’
If someone is truly interested in something, they want as much information as they can get so
they can make a good decision. If someone isn’t interested, it doesn’t matter how short or long
your letter, voice mail, etc. is - they still won’t be interested.
For example, if Jane Brown just had her carpets cleaned last Thursday and she receives a
letter from you on Monday - she probably won’t be interested. It wouldn’t matter if your sales
message were 2 words, she still wouldn’t be interested.
Don’t worry about the ones that aren’t interested. Worry about the ones who are!
The ones who are interested aren’t going to be convinced in 2 words or 2 paragraphs. You
need to give them tons of reasons how they’ll benefit from using you. You should answer every
objection that they might have. If you do all this, you’ll get lots of response.
The more you tell ‘em, the more you sell ‘em!
Would you send one of your techs (or you) out to give a quote and say ‘We really need this
job, but whatever you do DON’T say more than 250 words.’ That would be ridiculous and
wouldn’t work. Its the same thing with letters.
I’ve talked to many other direct response experts around the country and they all say the
same thing. The longer, the better.
To be boring.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I’ve heard many; many people tell me that they were good at follow-up. When I inquired
what procedures they had to follow up, this is what I found out:
They considered following up, calling someone when they owed them money. This is not
follow up, anyone can do that. Even a rank amateur!
4. Reminder when they need their carpets cleaned again (for example letter in Strategy #5)
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I’ve given you many, many form letters in this kit. All you need to do is plug them into your
computer once and they’re all set. When you need to use one, plug in the client’s name and print.
It’s that easy.
It makes it much, much tougher but it can be done. You’ll have to type the letters up when
you need them. You’ll also have to keep very close track of when you need to contact a
particular client again.
You’ll need to make many ‘tickler’ files to remind a client 2 weeks before an appointment,
for example (Strategy #34).
If you still don’t have a computer, get one. They’ll save you that money. Computers make it
so much easier to be a money machine.
If you can’t afford a computer, use my marketing strategies until you can. Then buy one.
I use the best program on the market for carpet cleaners. It keeps track of everything. If
you’d like more information about it, call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 or fax
us at 480-858-0004.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Boring. This is the cardinal sin in marketing. Longer copy always out-pulls shorter copy as
long as it is not boring.
Of course, you could mail out a couple hundred letters and see what kind of response you get
but that can be expensive, especially if it is boring.
When you’re done with your letter or ad or whatever, let 10 people that you know (who
aren’t your clients) read your letter.
If they say ‘Yeah, that was good.’ It’s back to the drawing board.
When it’s really good they’ll start asking you more questions about how they can get what
you are offering.
If 5 people out of 10 ask you more questions, then it’s good enough to mail. If more
do…great. If less do - back to the drawing board.
For more strategies on how to write good copy see Strategy #73.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
What’s a new client kit? A new client kit is a package of information you send to every new
client. This package includes your thank you letter, information about your other services
(Strategy #32), any of your client programs (Strategy #93 and Strategy #97) and your referral
program (Strategy #55).
2. It makes your client think that she is getting a lot more than just a carpet cleaner.
The new client kit is a cheap and easy way to get more business from each client and to get
more referrals. This is a moneymaker.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Thank you letters are very important and often overlooked by carpet cleaners. Thank you
letters create a positive feeling about your company.
When was the last time you received a thank-you from anyone you did business with? Most
businesses just don’t bother.
For the cost of a first class stamp you create a good feeling for your company. This is one of
the cheapest ways that you can build loyalty, trust and a chance to get more referrals.
You should use a form ‘thank-you’ and send it out the day after the cleaning. This is very
easy. You just put the form into your computer and then add the persons name and print. Simple.
Cheap. Easy. And very effective.
Although a good idea…A thank-you card left at the home when you finish the job just
doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t look or feel as personal as a thank-you letter. In order for it to have any
impact, the client must feel special.
You’ll find a form ‘thank-you’ letter that you can use as is or modify on the next page of this
section. This thank you reinforces that you are a wonderful company and that your clients need
to get their carpets cleaned regularly.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you. We, [company name], cleaned your carpets a
few days ago. As you probably know, cleaning your carpets every 6 to 12 months greatly
extends the life of your carpet. That means that you save a lot of money because you don’t have
to buy new expensive carpet as often.
Plus, cleaning your carpet greatly reduces indoor air pollution. You know you track in dirt
from the outside. Well, you also track in cigarette smoke, car exhaust, tar, chemicals and all
other outdoor pollutants. These pollutants get lodged in your carpet and then when you walk on
it, they get redistributed into the air. You and your family breathe these pollutants over and over
again. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air. (I’m sure you’ve heard about this
on TV.) Cleaning your carpets regularly cleans your air!
Now you have great looking carpets and cleaner air! I sincerely appreciate your business.
Thank you.
If for some reason, you have any questions or are not happy in any way with our work,
please, please call me immediately. I’ll take care of it right away.
[Owner]
[Optional]
P.S. I’ve also enclosed some information about our client dinner, referral program and other
services.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Always, always test your marketing methods small. Then if they work and only if they work,
test a little bigger. Keep getting bigger and bigger if it works.
I’ve known many people to lose their shirts by not following this rule.
No matter how wonderful you think your idea or plan is, test small. Let the response tell you
if it’s good or not.
One guy I know bought 500 names from a mailing list broker. He mailed the 500 names and
got a tremendous response. It was unbelievable. Then he did it.
He made a huge mistake. He decided to mail to the rest of the list - which was 125,000
names. He spent $12,500.00 to buy the list (10¢ a name) and spent $36,250.00 on postage. That
was when stamps were only 29¢ each (remember those days?). Guess what his results were?
$2,158.00 in sales.
Mailing brokers always give you the best part of the list first. The most responsive buyers.
This guy lost $46,592.00. This is a common mistake. Many, many people have made it.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Confirming all your appointments is very important. Let me tell you why.
You have four jobs scheduled for the day. You think today is going to be a good day. You
need one after last week. You or your tech does the first job and it’s a teeny, tiny house. Not
what you expected but that’s OK, you think to yourself. You still have three jobs left. And then
you get to the second job and no one is there. You (or your tech) call back to the office but the
person can’t be located. You’ve been stood up.
You (or worse your tech) take a nice long lunch and goes to the third job. Its only an $80.00
job and the woman complains about the price. So it’s not a good day after all. Then to top it all
off, the fourth job isn’t there either. You call her at work and she says ‘Oh sorry I completely
forgot. I’m not sure when I’ll have time, I’ll get back with you.’ Now you’re really fed-up. Who
does she think she is? She has no respect for your time. You wonder if she’ll ever call back.
Probably not.
That good day just went down the drain. Maybe things will turn around tomorrow.
_______
I had that happen so many times I became sick. I’m sure you realize how much money this
costs you. Between wasted hours (I still have to pay my tech) and wasted gas (some jobs are 45
minutes away), I figured out that when days like the above occur you lose more money than you
make.
No More No Shows
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This strategy may be obvious but less than 3% of all carpet cleaners actually do it. It’s easy:
You call your appointment two to three days before your scheduled day. You just tell them
you’re calling to make sure that they remembered and that you would be there at whatever time.
You will hear over and over again ‘Gee I completely forgot, thanks for calling.’ If you
implement this strategy, you will virtually eliminate no shows.
I also suggest having the caller check the directions with the client to make sure they are
clear. Getting lost and not finding the house is another big money waster. This kills two birds
with one stone.
First call in the afternoon. If she can’t be reached then call in the evening between 5:30 and
7:30. If you still can’t reach her, leave a voicemail message and/or send a letter or email if you
have the clients email address. Samples are after this section.
Remember to give yourself enough time to send a letter if you can’t reach the client by
phone.
Confirming appointments also helps build trust and confidence in your clients. Since very
few companies bother to confirm appointments, when one does people perceive that company as
very efficient. Clients want to do business with successful companies that have got it together.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
been unsuccessful. I was just calling to remind you that you scheduled an appointment for us to
come clean your carpets on [day] at [time]. If for any reason you can’t keep your scheduled
appointment please call our office right away at [office number]. We look forward to cleaning
your carpets. I’ll also be sending you a letter with the appointment information. Thanks.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Dear [client],
Hi, this is [caller name] from [company name]. I’ve tried to reach you a couple of times on
the phone but I’ve been unsuccessful. I was just reminding you of the appointment you made to
have your carpets cleaned on:
[Day] at [Time]
If for any reason you can’t make your scheduled appointment please call our office at [your
number] right away.
Sincerely,
[Caller name]
[Company name]
PS I’ve included some useful information about our cleaning services so you’ll know what to
expect when we show up.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The down to earth strategy greatly increases sales. People want to do business with other
people. They don’t want to do business with a big, huge business.
Tell it like it is. Don’t ever ‘exaggerate’ how good something is because sooner or later your
client is going to find out the truth. Never promise more than you can deliver.
Being down to earth lets people get to know you. When people get to know you, they
develop trust. When they develop trust they are much more likely to keep using your services
and refer others to you.
You should always be down to earth. Be honest when you are face to face with your clients
and in your sales letters. When someone uses your services, they should get to know you. Let
them in on your personal side.
When someone reads one of your sales letters, they should feel like they know you too. This
is all part of the down to earth approach.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Once you educate your employees why you deliver such a great service, you’ll be surprised
at the rewards.
1. Your employees will start upselling a lot more. If they don’t know why carpet protection
for example is necessary or how it helps then they won’t sell it. But if you educate your
employees they’ll know and be much more likely to try to sell it.
2. Your employees can be a wealth of referrals. If they don’t think your company is
exceptional, they won’t refer anyone. But if you’ve taught them why and they truly believe it,
they will tell lots and lots of people.
3. An educated employee is much better suited to help or answer questions from a client.
Clients get annoyed when employees don’t know anything.
Educate your employees on a regular basis. Get them excited about working for such a
wonderful company. Education and motivation are the keys to super great employees.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The key to keeping and even enhancing client relations is to respond to complaints quickly
and efficiently. Never leave a client unhappy. Even if they are a "bad apple" and you want to get
rid of them (Strategy #47), give them their money back.
If you give them their money back, they can’t say bad things about you. If you don’t, they’ll
go to all ends to tell everyone they know what a terrible company you are. Think of it as money
well spent to save you from bad publicity.
For clients who are good clients and something just went wrong, correct it in a hurry.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Dear [client].
Thank you for your recent telephone call telling us about the problem with your recent carpet
cleaning service. I am committed to providing exceptional service to you. Unfortunately, I fell
short of my goal this time. I’m glad that you brought this matter to my attention, so I can get it
corrected right away.
I spoke with the technician that performed the service and he will be more than happy to redo
the problem area. If you are not completely satisfied, I definitely want to know. Tell me how we
are doing and what else we might do to be of service to you.
I truly value you as a client and thank you for taking the time to help us continually improve
our service.
Sincerely,
[You]
[Your company]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The name gives the concept away, and its so simple that I remain dumbfounded that so many
people in business never consider it.
Here’s what its all about. By definition the LVC is the total profit produced by an average
client over his or her lifetime association with you.
Once you know your average client’s lifetime value you are then in a position to make a
judgment on how much you can afford to spend to convert a prospect into a client.
For example, let’s say that the first time your average new client does business with you she
spends $250.00. She has you clean every 12 months and is going to be your client for 4 years. In
4 years, she will have spent a minimum of $1,000.00 with you.
Now you have to figure out how much of that is profit to you. Let’s say its 50%. So you
(theoretically) will make $500.00 profit on your average client over the next 4 years.
How much are you willing to pay to get a client? You could spend up to $500.00 and still
break even in 4 years. I don’t suggest that. But up to $50.00 seems reasonable. Wouldn’t you
invest $50.00 to get $500.00 back in 4 years? But you don’t even have to wait the full 4 years to
start getting it back. On the first sale you make money, more than enough to recover the $50.00.
Let’s say that your average client refers at least one other client to you. Now your profit from
that client is $1,000.00. $500.00 from the client, and $500.00 from the referral. Referrals are
even more profitable than clients gotten through advertising (Strategy #55).
Start calculating the lifetime value of your average client. One of your goals should be to
increase this value by getting your clients to refer more often, increasing the average sale;
making repeat cleans more often, and selling them more products (Strategy #7).
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
When you are selling, it is a big mistake to only have one offer.
When you only have one offer, it often makes the consumer choose between you and your
competition. You don’t want this.
The first trick is to get them to choose between you, you and you. Not between you and your
competition.
Of course they’re going to choose you between you, you and you. The only question left is
which option.
You should have 3 different forms to fill out. Fill in the price for all 3 then lay them out in
front of the prospect.
Once the prospect sees all 3 different options, most likely (90% of the time) she’ll choose
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Make sure you mention that #2 is your most popular one. Most people will choose #2 - about
70%. The others will probably be split equally between 1 and 3.
I prefer 2 to 3. As you probably know sometimes moving furniture isn’t worth it. It takes too
long and eats up your profits. You can’t charge enough to make it worthwhile in some cases. So
I usually encourage my clients to save money and do it themselves.
On your quote sheet you should have a lengthy description of the services included in that
package. So they can see they are getting a lot for their money.
Don’t limit yourself to these 3 basic options. If you have other services, you can easily add
them in. For instance if you have upholstery cleaning you might make #3 carpet cleaning, carpet
protection and upholstery cleaning (no moving furniture).
Three options are great. More than 5 will only confuse your prospect. I think 3 is the perfect
number of choices. Of course if they want part of one and part of another, you can easily do that
‘special’ one for them.
This is also a great way to increase your profits. A carpet cleaner in rural Alabama offers 3
choices and averages .33 per square foot! Not bad for his area.
If you aren’t making this much per square foot, implement this strategy right away and see
your average skyrocket. Also see Strategy #7 and Strategy # 92 and #98.
On the next page, I have listed three samples of how you might package your services. This
is just a sample, be creative and think of what you might add or do differently.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Hot Water Extraction Cleaning Pre Treat Heavily Soiled Areas (as needed)
Option #3
Premium Package Carpet Cleaning
Pre Vacuum Carpet
Move Furniture
Application of Deodorizer
1Y S tF W t ( t )
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Some people are better at networking than others. When they go to meetings, parties, etc.
they interact. They talk to strangers and get to know them. They make contacts and many of the
contacts become clients.
Others go to these same things and only talk to people they already know. They don’t
interact with strangers. They’re shy. Timid. Whatever you want to call it.
If you are in group-two then don’t. Don’t feel bad about it. That’s just the way you are. Don’t
fight it and don’t waste your time trying to network.
Of course. But it takes work. And frankly with all these great strategies you now have, you
don’t need to network.
Learning how to network takes time and effort. The rewards are great. You can get a lot of
business by networking but it takes effort.
If you are interested in learning more about networking, call our office and we’ll direct you
in the right direction. The number is 1-800-275-2643 or visit my website at www.joepolish.com.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
What I mean by this is learn marketing for you. Getting this manual was the best thing you
ever did for your business.
Unfortunately you have to learn it all for yourself. You can’t trust yellow page reps, or any
other advertising reps.
I listened to all of them at one time. I tried everything. The only thing I learned was:
I Hired An Ad Agency -
The Biggest Mistake Of My Life
I even decided to hire an advertising agency. I thought that was going to be the end of my
troubles. I couldn’t really afford it but I thought I ‘d get a ton of business.
The advertising agency was great - Great at making pretty looking ads and building my
‘image’. After 3 months I was losing so much money I thought about getting out of this business.
I realized advertising agencies don’t have any idea about how to actually get new clients. I
learned one very important lesson:
I fell for the old ‘if you just run it again, this time people will respond’. The theory behind it
is that people need to see ads more than once before they’ll respond. There is some minor truth
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Finally, I starting using emotional direct response marketing. What an exciting thing in my
life and business. Soon I had 5 good jobs a day.
So you have to do it yourself. You’ve made a great start with this manual, but keep on
learning for yourself. Don’t trust any of those ‘image’ building types.
When you do try something new, track your numbers carefully so you know whether its
working or not (Strategy #24).
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Niche marketing is targeting a specific group, like certain neighborhoods or doctors. The
group has to have something in common with each other.
It’s much easier to target certain niches than it is to target everyone. You’ll get more
response.
People feel important if you specialize in them. This is very true. Think about it. Which
would you be more likely to use a regular printer or a printer who specializes in servicing carpet
cleaners. Would you have bought this program if it were just a generic marketing program for
any business? Probably not.
Specializing is good.
Pick 2 to 3 niche markets that you’d like to get in to. These could be any of the following:
* A wealthy neighborhood
* Lawyers
* Doctors
* Country Club members
* Golfers
* Mercedes owners
Pick 2 to 3 and start really targeting them. For instance if its a particular neighborhood, do a
3 letter sequence to them (Strategy #27). Then do a Val-Pak type ad (Strategy #65) that goes to
that neighborhood. Then do your telemarketing (Strategy #59) to the same people.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
a few of them, start using testimonials from them in all your promotions. You can dominate this
niche in a very short time.
You can specialize in a million different niches. Being the carpet cleaner for doctors doesn’t
not mean you can’t be the carpet cleaner for printers too!
If you want to target a professional, any profession, an easy way to do that is with a
champion letter.
Say you want to target doctors and you have one doctor as a client. This doctor really likes
you. She thinks you are the greatest carpet cleaner on earth.
You ask her if she would be willing to endorse you. She will.
You write a letter from her to all the other doctors in your area. This letter should tell how
wonderful she thinks you are and that since “we, doctors are so busy - we don’t have any spare
time to waste” and that’s why she’s telling them about you - so they don’t waste their time with
any of those terrible cleaners.
Also enclose a sales letter of yours, offering a free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23).
Send this letter from the doctor on her letterhead and her envelopes. Also staple to her letter
her business card. Pay for all of the letterhead, envelopes and business cards and of course the
postage.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
What this will do is insure that your letter gets opened and read. All doctors read mail from
other doctors. Just like if you got a letter from another carpet cleaner you’d read it. You’d be
curious as to why another carpet cleaner was writing to you.
Don’t forget to follow up with a second and third letter from just you, not the doctor.
It’s also a lot easier to get referrals when you niche market because all your clients will know
others in their same niche. And they think you specialize in their niche so they know others will
want to use you too.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Voice mail is a way you can save time and let you sell more.
Every day you repeat the same information over and over to prospects. About how they
should get their carpets cleaned regularly and the consequences if they don’t. Information on
indoor air quality. The services you offer. You explain carpet protection.
One day I counted every minute that I spent with prospects or clients selling them on
something. It added up to over 2 hours! That’s 2 hours every single day.
I realized that 90% of this information was the same for everybody.
It covers why my cleaning method is best, how to choose a good carpet cleaner, why a
certified cleaner is best - all the things I use to ‘sell’ my company.
I call it my ‘Consumer Awareness Message’. Anyone can call in 24 hours a day and hear my
sales pitch. See my Consumer Awareness Package that came with this manual.
It not only saves me two hours a day but it also gets people to call who otherwise wouldn’t
have.
The voice mail message is non-threatening. When someone calls it, they know they don’t
have to talk to anyone. They don’t have to be afraid of being ‘pressured’ into anything. It’s risk-
free so anyone who is even slightly interested will call.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I’d much rather spend my time and my tech’s time with qualified, interested leads. It is much
more productive.
You can use voice mail for all sorts of things. All your different services. It’s cheap. Plus, it’s
a selling tool that sells 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can’t beat it.
It also eliminates those bad days. You just have to do the voice mail good once and you can
use it forever. There aren’t any bad days.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The front end is what most of us think about. It’s making the first sale with a prospect. That’s
it the first sale. The subsequent sales are the back end.
We all think we need more clients and that’s what we concentrate on. Obviously getting new
clients is very important but there is another very important profit center - the back end (Strategy
#45).
The front end has to carry all of our advertising costs. For example, if you run a Val-Pak ad
and it costs $300.00 and you get 3 new clients from it. It cost you $100.00 to get each of those
clients.
If your average job for those three clients was $275.00 then you probably made out OK. But
if your average job was $47.00, you lost money.
Some companies lose money on the first sale. This may sound ridiculous but it’s not. They
know they can afford to ‘buy’ a customer. That means they are willing to lose money on the first
sale just to get that person as a customer. They know that most of their new customers go on to
buy more products from them. It’s not until the second or third sale that a customer is profitable.
They know this and market this way. That’s fine and it works.
We don’t have to go that far. We can make money on the front end and make even more
money on the back end.
The whole point of spending advertising dollars is to obtain a new client. But not a one time
only client, a client who is going to use your services over and over again. That’s the purpose of
the front end.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is where the real profits are. The back end is any sale after the first sale. It’s a repeat
sale.
So, in other words, there aren’t any advertising dollars spent in getting these repeat sales.
That means that all the profit is really profit.
It is much, much easier to get a client to buy a second time than it is to get a non-client to
buy the first time. People are skeptical. They’re afraid you are going to rip them off or do a poor
job.
Once they’ve used your services once, that fear is gone. They know of you and trust you
(hopefully).
I don’t want a client who only gets their carpets cleaned once. I want a client who gets their
carpets cleaned by me at least once a year.
I even have quite a few clients who get their carpets cleaned every three months. I love these
clients. I aim my marketing at trying to get more of them.
The more a client buys from me, the more likely she will be to buy from me. That means that
a client who gets her carpets cleaned every three months will be much more likely to buy a
vacuum cleaner from me than one who only gets their carpets cleaned once a year.
Always create more things to sell to your current clients (Strategy #7).
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Business contracts.
You may have some contracts for businesses already. If you do, I’ll teach you how to make
more money from them.
1. They are mainly at night. So your van isn’t making any money during this time anyway.
1. They are mainly at night. Some people hate to work after hours.
Unless you really hate the idea of having someone work after hours in your business, you
should consider getting business contracts.
You don’t need to buy any more equipment. You have it sitting around doing nothing all
night long so you might as well make some money from it.
Although you don’t make as much money from businesses as you do from consumers, it is a
steady cash flow. You can depend on it. When you get business contracts, you know exactly how
much you’ll make for the next year. There are some major benefits of stability.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Getting to the right person is half the battle. With secretaries and receptionists screening
calls, it’s harder to get to the decision maker.
First pick five businesses that you would really like to have as clients. Call them and find out
who would be in charge of this decision. Make sure that the building owner doesn’t have the
carpets cleaned for the tenants. If they are cleaned for the tenant (which is the business you were
thinking of), go after the building owner. Find out their exact address.
Then have a courier hand deliver a package from you to the decision maker. The courier
must give the package to the decision maker not the secretary.
2. A letter from you explaining that you just wanted to get your foot in the door. Then go on
to explain who you are. Offer to clean their carpets for free the first time. Then if the decision
maker is happy, you can put together a contract. You should have many, many testimonials
especially ones from business owners.
3. An exact day and time when you are going to call. Let the decision maker have the choice
of having the secretary reschedule the call.
Make sure you call the decision maker at the exact time and date you specified. 9 times out
of 10 you will get an immediate appointment to see the decision maker. The appointment should
only take 10 minutes. Then schedule a time to do the trial, free cleaning.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This letter should refer to the package. The headline ‘I Want My Shoe Back’ works very
well. This system will get you business contracts. Once you have a business contract you have a
whole new list of prospects - the employees.
Most all of the employees will own homes. They are perfect prospects.
The day you clean the carpets for the first time is the day you want your sales letter to arrive
at all the employee homes.
Tell the business owner that you will offer a discount to all carpet cleaning for the
employees. You should get a list of names and addresses then.
Your letter should have the headline “Didn’t The Office Carpet Look Amazing Today”. Then
go on to explain that you were the amazing carpet cleaner and that you worked a deal with the
business owner to give all the employees a discount.
Tell them the exact discount if they use your services. Tell them how they’ll benefit - i.e.
superbly clean carpets, reduced allergies, cleaner air, etc.. Then offer a Free Carpet Audit™.
This works very well. Everyone will be shocked to get a letter at home that mentions that the
office had clean carpets. They’ll read your letter and respond. You’ll make sure of that by
sending a 3-letter sequence of course!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
There is a very well, well known business theory called the “80/20 theory”. What this theory
says is that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. Another little sidekick to this
theory is that 80% of your problems come from 20% of your clients. Hopefully that’s not the
same 20%!
Seriously, clients who are problems all the time should be fired. That’s right - fire your bad
clients.
What do you mean, you are saying to fire bad clients, you keep preaching about client
service and client satisfaction.
If a client is not satisfied with anything and always complains, she isn’t worth the headache -
no matter how much business she gives you.
Long ago, I decided I wouldn’t give superior service and cleaning to the bad apples. Bad
apples can ruin the whole lot and you. They aren’t worth it. If I feel I’ve done more than what is
expected and have done a great job, if someone complains I just fire him or her. I’ll even give
them their money back just to get rid of them. If you don’t, these bad apples have very big
mouths. Even though they are being completely unreasonable, others won’t perceive it that way.
So I gladly give them their money back and get rid of them.
Life is too short and there are too many good people out there to waste your time on bad
apples.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should never leave a client empty handed. Your techs shouldn’t ever leave a client
empty handed either.
If you do you are wasting an opportunity to make more money. You can easily give them
information on your other services that they aren’t using.
Here is a partial list of things you can leave with your client:
1. Referral Program
2. Why she should get her carpets cleaned at least every 12 months
3. Your maintenance plan
4. Indoor Air Quality
5. Your other services including but not limited to:
* Blind Cleaning
* Maid Service
* Upholstery Cleaning
* Oriental Rug Cleaning
* Flood and Fire Damage Service
* Duct Cleaning
No matter what else you give your client, you should always give her your referral program
information. You always want your clients to refer so you should encourage them to do so.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Since you don’t get to see your clients very often, don’t waste an opportunity to educate and
sell.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Carpet cleaners tell me all the time that yellow pages don’t work. This is absurd.
If they aren’t working for you now, I’ll teach you how to make yellow pages very, very
profitable.
Have you ever taken a good look at the yellow page ads in your city? Do it now. Pull out
your yellow pages and look at all the carpet cleaner ads.
Try to be objective. Don’t fall in love with your ad unless it is pulling in tons of new clients!
They all look pretty much alike and say the same things. You could easily change the
business names on all of them. None of them stand out.
None of them give any compelling reasons why you should use a certain company.
Yellow pages reps don’t know anything about getting new clients. Stop listening to your
yellow pages rep. He sells everyone else their yellow pages and gives them the same advice.
That’s why all the ads look the same.
After I teach you how to get a yellow pages ad that really works, the last thing you want to
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Tell him that they are doing ‘OK’. Don’t sound excited at all! Then hopefully none of your
competitors will do the same thing you are doing.
Yellow pages advertising isn’t any different than any other type of advertising. You need all
the same things:
The number one mistake that all carpet cleaners make is using their company name as a
headline.
6 out of 10 people who look up a carpet cleaner in the phone book have no company in mind.
And out of the remaining 4, half of them are willing to be swayed to a different company. That’s
8 out of 10!
Practically no one is looking for your name! It is a huge waste of space to make your name
the biggest thing!
Instead create an attention getting headline. Anything would be better than your company
name that no one is looking for or will recognize.
A. Certified Technicians - only we carpet cleaners know what this is. If you want to use
this you must explain what kind of certification and how this benefits the client
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
C. Hot Water Extraction (or any other kind of method) - only carpet cleaners have any
idea what this means. You must explain it and tell them why it’s the best method
(which should be how the client benefits from it).
Remember why should any one do business with you versus any or all of your competitors?
Answer this question in your yellow pages ad and you will get tons of calls!
Extremely.
One carpet cleaner that purchased my program gets 242 calls a month! No exaggeration.
Some months are a little higher, some a little lower. That’s the average!
Extraordinary!
He uses an ad I created. It’s at the end of this strategy. You can use it as is or create one of
your own. It’s the warning ad.
His ad drives people to his voice mail message, which is the ‘Consumer Awareness Line’.
You received the script with this kit. It’s in the Consumer Awareness Manual. I’ve also included
an ad, which I re-did. The first one is a typical ad. The second version is how I re-vamped it. I’ll
let you guess which one out pulls the other!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Nothing productive.
Stop wasting time in your car and start learning more about marketing and other things.
There are many marketing programs on tape to listen to while you drive. Turn your
unproductive time into super productive learning time. This works very well.
I always listen to educational tapes when I drive. Giving up listening to music is a small price
to pay to learn valuable information that you can make millions with.
If you are at a loss as to what tapes are available or what tapes have really good information,
give us a call at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 and we’ll point you in the right direction.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you don’t know your numbers, you have no idea what’s working and what’s not.
If you don’t know what’s working, you can’t possibly do more of what is working.
You can’t just have ‘a good idea’. You need to know for sure.
More carpet cleaners have been wrong about what is working and what isn’t working. They
think something is working and it turns out it’s barely breaking even. Or they think it’s doing
awful and stop doing it. When in reality it was actually doing 5 to 1 against cost - which is great!
Once you calculate these numbers you compare it to your average numbers. That way you
can see which methods are working better for you.
This is the only way to get ahead. Know your numbers or its not worth doing.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
We sell every day of our lives. Not just at work but at home.
You sell your spouse on all sorts of things - going out to dinner where you want to go,
rubbing your back, etc.
Maybe you never thought of it that way but it’s true. Your spouse may be harder to sell than
any of your clients! But you aren’t ‘afraid’ of doing it. You aren’t shy.
You do it with your spouse, friends and employees because you want it your way. It’s the
same things with clients. (Of course, you can’t insist with them!)
Don’t confuse selling with pressuring. No one wants to be pressured. They hate it. Never
pressure your clients - that’s a good way to lose them!
Your response most likely will be ‘How much is it?’ or ‘What is it’ followed by ‘How much
is it?’
What you should say is ‘We offer a carpet protector which does...’ and explain exactly what
it does and why it’s important.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Explain the different options (Strategy #39) and ask ‘Which do you want?’
In the first part the client feels like they are being given something that is totally optional and
just costs more money.
In the second part, the client realizes what carpet protection is, why they need it, and then
were asked which option they wanted to go with.
I hope so because it means doubling your average job and therefore doubling your profits!
Handle possible objections before they come up. That way you’ve covered all your bases by
educating, not by ‘pressuring’.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is a mistake that many, many business owners make, especially carpet cleaners. What
this means is that you do not know what your clients will want or how they will react.
I’ve heard lots of carpet cleaners tell me that ‘Well, my clients won’t like that or respond to
it’. This is a huge mistake. You are not your client. You don’t know what your client will or
won’t do until you try it.
Please don’t call us up and say this will never work with my clients. First of all, that’s very
foolish. You don’t know what will or won’t work with your clients. Second of all, these
marketing strategies have been tested all over the country. They work. Period.
If you can’t get something to work, call us and we’ll help you get it to work.
I had one carpet cleaner tell me, ‘I tried this and it doesn’t work.’ This would be like
questioning the laws of aerodynamics every time a plane crashed. No one does that. They ask
what was wrong with the plane or what mistake the pilot made.
What he should have said was, ‘I tried this and I couldn’t get it to work.’ Or even better yet,
‘I tried this, I couldn’t get it to work, do you know how I can get it to work.’ Then I would have
explained what he was doing wrong so he could correct it. He ended up losing thousands and
thousands of dollars because he was so sure this didn’t work!
If you are trying a new product, like a vacuum cleaner for example, ask your clients if they
would be interested in buying one. See what features they want and see what types (like upright)
then give them what they want. If you don’t do that, then you need to test small.
For example if you find a vacuum cleaner that you think is fantastic and you think your
clients will buy two each - don’t buy 1,000 of these things and then find out that your clients hate
them. Buy one or two and see if you can sell them. If you do, then buy 5. Start small and work
your way up. Always remember that you aren’t your own client!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you have one marketing strategy, which is pulling in $10,000.00 a month (which is entirely
possible), it can be tempting to not do anything else.
This is a mistake.
If for some reason that strategy starts only pulling in half as much, only $5,000,00, you’re in
trouble.
I know, I know, I keep telling you that these strategies are systems that they get consistent
results. This is all true but...
There could always be some sort of change in one system. Over time these things are bound
to happen.
If you have 10 different strategies to get new clients each month, that’s better than 1. The
more reliable systems you have bringing in a steady flow of new clients, the more stable you will
be.
For example if you have 10 different strategies bringing in $10,000.00 a month and one stops
working, you’ll still be fine.
But if you only have one and it stops working, you have BIG trouble.
I’m telling you this because these strategies are extremely powerful. One strategy could
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Diversify.
Your company will be bigger, better and much more stable. You might be interested to know
that we also have the absolute best marketing programs on the planet, specifically tailored for air
duct and window cleaning, as well as a complete program for the janitorial business.
If you already provide any of those services, call our office for more information on any or
all of those programs.
Notes:
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Referrals are the fastest, easiest way to double you business. Get all your current clients to
refer one person to you.
You may think that this is impossible - you rarely get a referral now.
But believe me, its not that difficult. However, you have to make it happen. It won’t happen
by itself.
Why?
1. They cost less to acquire. This is very important. Anything you can do to get your cost per
client down is great.
2. They are much less price resistant. Because someone they trust referred them, they really
want your service.
3. They are more likely to refer, since someone else referred them.
4. They are less likely to complain and are easy to please. Even if something does go wrong,
referred clients are more understanding. On the whole they are much easier to please.
For all of these reasons, you should make getting referrals your number one priority.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
When a client calls in to say what a wonderful job you did, thank them and ask for a referral.
It’s easy and you’ll get results.
To maximize your referrals, you must have a referral program in place. It can be the Reward
Program (Strategy #56) or the Recognition Program (Strategy #57). You must use one.
To explain this even further, I’ve included a reprint of an article I was recently asked to write
for Cleanfax Magazine
If you currently don’t have a referral system up and running, the information
in this article will help you create your own system. If you’re already
getting a majority of your business from referrals, you’ll find tips that will
allow you to provide a further boost to your referral business.
There are many tools and techniques you can use to generate referrals: a
referral tracking form, a telephone script, a referral request letter, thank
you cards, a refrigerator magnet, a vacuum sticker, or a combination of any of
these. But before committing resources to generating referrals, you need to
ask yourself, “Do I have a business that is worthy of receiving referrals?”
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you want clients that refer you, you’ve got to make sure you do everything
humanly possible to have every client go from just a satisfied customer to a
loyal client. Because if they are not impressed enough with your service to
where they’d want to use you again, then they certainly aren’t going to want
to refer you to other people.
Dan Sullivan, founder of The Strategic Coach Inc., Toronto, has identified
four habits he calls the “Refer ability Habits.” He says that in order for you
to have a business that generates referrals and for you to be the type of
person a client would want to refer, you need to follow these four simple but
oft-neglected habits:
1) Show up on time.
2) Finish what you start.
3) Do what you say you’re going to do.
4) Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’
No matter how good your product or service is, no matter how great your
technicians are, no matter how honest you are, no matter how highly skilled
and trained you are — if you break just one of these refer ability habits you
have dropped the ball. When you break one, you’re saying to your clients and
to your employees and to everyone you associate with that you don’t respect
them and that you’re not dependable.
The bottom line is this: If you don’t show people respect and dependability,
they’re not going to refer you.
9 Send clients pre-confirmation letters before the job via mail or e-mail.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
At the end of the job, after you’ve educated your clients, you’ve provided a
great service and they’re happy with the cleaning, it is the perfect time to
ask for a referral. This is the point when they are the most happy with the
cleaning you just performed.
Educate the client as to why they should give you referrals. If you don’t ask
them and let them know the way you build your business is through referrals,
don’t expect them to really think about it for you. You’ve got to plant a seed
in their mind.
Use a referral tracking form (see “Referral tracking form” page XXX). In my
experience, cleaners who use a referral tracking form seem to consistently
generate an average of three referrals for every job.
Add a space for an e-mail address to the tracking form. E-mail is a great way
for you to contact people and to also ask people to refer you. It makes it
easy for clients to forward your message to others (and it doesn’t cost you a
dime to send). You can also use email addresses for sending pre-confirmation
letters, thank you letters, endorsement letters, offers, tips on cleaning and
all kinds of things.
Follow up with the newly referred prospects. Anytime you are given the name
and contact information of someone who may be interested in your service,
follow up promptly if you expect the referral to turn into a job.
Offer a reward
You need to thank and reward those who refer you. If you are receiving
referrals and you’re not doing anything at this point to get referrals,
they’re just telling people about you because they’re happy with the job!
Imagine what would happen if you not only started going out of your way to
thank them for sending you business, but you also started rewarding them with
gifts or perks.
(Reward systems works very well with your technicians too, so don’t forget to
thank them when they come back with a completed customer referral tracking
form.)
One gift to consider is rewarding clients with cash. Cash works. It does not
have to be a large amount. Hundreds of cleaners all over the world use small
cash rewards as a token of appreciation and to entice people to give them
referrals. It’s more cost effective to give small cash rewards for a referral
than pay for expensive advertising or other forms of promotions.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
As an alternative to cash, you could also give a bonus such as a spotting kit,
free deodorization, free carpet protection on certain areas in response to a
You are trying to get it in the clients mind to remember you as a spectacular
carpet cleaning company. People have busy lives, so if you don’t actively
thank them and let them know you appreciate their referrals (and reward them),
they’re not going to be thinking about your company for long after the job is
completed.
Give clients a reason to remember you. Go out of your way to identify the
people in your database that refer you and treat those people like gold.
That’s one of the most important things to understand about building and
growing your business. Ω
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The reward referral program is based on monetary compensation or giving away gifts.
Money
For every referral that becomes a client, you pay the client who referred $10.00. You can
write a check or drop it off. I even know of one carpet cleaner who sends it in the mail.
To help generate more than one referral from each client, you can have an increasing value
for each referral.
For instance for referrals 1 to 3, you pay $10.00. But on referrals 4 on you pay $20.00. I like
this because it rewards clients who refer more people, more money.
I know one carpet cleaner who pays $10.00 for referrals one through three and then $20.00
for referral four then he starts all over. So referral five is equal to referral one. He says he is
getting amazing results from this.
Rewards that are cash tend to do better than ones that only offer money off on the next
purchase.
Gifts
The other type of reward referral program is based on giving away items instead of money.
You can offer free movie tickets, free facial, free massage, free month at gym, free manicure.
The list is endless.
Give your clients a choice of at least three different things they can win if one of their
referrals becomes a client.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
For instance you can have a choice of three things for one referrals five things for two
referrals, seven things for three referrals, etc. Each category should have increasing values of
gifts.
If you choose gifts that your clients really want, you’ll get better results with gifts than
money.
But on the other hand if you don’t know want your clients would really want, stick to money.
Either way, make sure you recognize your clients who referred you new clients in your
newsletter (Strategy #68).
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The recognition referral program is based on recognizing your clients, not on paying them.
One very large multi-level marketing company is built almost solely on recognition. This
company is Mary Kay. The majority of the women, who are involved in this company, don’t
make big money. In fact, lots of them make very little. Like less than $2,000.00 all year!
Perhaps a typical woman in Mary Kay got compliments twice 18 years ago when she first got
married. Since then her husband hasn’t complimented her at all.
Maybe her boss said she was doing a great job after reading some management book a few
years back but hasn’t said anything since.
In some companies recognition is more important than pay. You get an award for everything
and a round of applause for every other thing. People like this. Not all, of course, but many do.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Once a month (or once a quarter) have a lunch for all your clients who have referred. Plus
they can bring any guests that they choose. Its important to have these lunches only for ‘special
clients’ (ones that have referred) not all your clients. You can use the same strategy to get others
to pay for it as in Strategy #97, Client Dinner.
For the first referral from a client, give them a gold pin.
After that start stringing diamonds down off the gold pin.
At each lunch is when you give out the gold pins and upgrade the jewels. Call each client up
that is getting a pin or jewel, shake their hand and give them their new item.
Then you should talk about one of your services for about 15 minutes. Then have your
speakers if you decide to have any.
Make sure you have everyone fill out a form, like the one that follows.
For the price of a lunch, you get a new client. Not to mention all the prospects that you’ll
convert from the lunch that are a guest of your client.
As for the cost of the gold pin and jewels, actually they aren’t that expensive at all. You
don’t need to get ‘extravagant’ it should just look nice. The jewels are quite small and very
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You have to remember that this money is money well spent. These clients will be more
excited to refer after every lunch. Plus you’ll get a whole bunch of new clients from the
prospects.
And remember not every client who referred will even come to the lunch.
Always mention this lunch in your newsletter. Mention all your clients who received awards.
Tell exactly which award they received. This will encourage your non-referring clients to refer.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should know where every client comes from BEFORE your initial appointment (Carpet
Audit™). This is to confirm that the new client actually came from the same source that you
thought.
Plus, it gives you an easy way to get referrals right off the bat. All your clients should feel
that giving you referrals is natural and expected of them. If they feel this way and you ask them
frequently, you’ll get tons of referrals.
This form alone averages 3 referrals per client! WOW! Even when my tech uses it, he
averages this!
Here is a form to have your first time client fill out after you finished the job.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Name ________________________________________________________
A. I am a previous client
B. Saw the ad in the newspaper__________________________________
C. Was referred by a friend (Name Of Friend)______________________
D. Saw the ad in the yellow pages________________________________
E. Received a letter __________________________________________
F. Other ___________________________________________________
Dear Client,
I hope you are fabulously thrilled with our services. (If there is some reason you are not,
please notify the technician or call me immediately.)
As you probably know advertising is very expensive. Instead of paying the newspaper or
other place to advertise I’d rather pay you. So if you’d take a few minutes to jot down 5 or 6
friends or relatives who would love our service too, I’ll reward you.
For every referral you give me that becomes a client, I’ll give you $10.00 in cash. It’s that
simple and frankly I’d much rather pay you than those advertising media.
Remember - your referrals will be offered a free Carpet Audit™. They will learn valuable
information about their carpet whether or not they use us at all. And remember - they are not
under any obligation to use our services even if they get the Free Carpet Audit™.
Name Phone/Address/E-Mail
1. __________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________
6. __________________________________________________________
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Telemarketing can be very profitable if done correctly. I admit it is a lot of work but the
benefits are wonderful.
Most people who try telemarketing or cold calling fail. They don’t implement it correctly.
First of all, it is usually a waste of time to try to ‘close’ anyone on the phone. People don’t
like it and it is very hard on telemarketers.
What I’ve found to be 10 times more efficient is to just offer to send information. Then only
mail to interested prospects. The key to making this successful is to ONLY mail to truly
interested prospects.
2. It makes the telemarketer the rejecter not the rejected. Most telemarketers quit because
they get tired of being rejected. But with this system, they get to choose whom they are going to
mail to. It is extremely important that they only mail to interested prospects.
Since telephoning is free if you already have a phone, this is a very cost effective way to
‘qualify’ your leads before you mail to them.
This telemarketing program is one of the most powerful ways you can ‘jump-start’ your
business.
The main reason this works is that it is non-threatening. There is no pressure or objection
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This system is solid. It works. You just have to implement it, as is.
Carpet cleaners make lousy telemarketers. You will not be able to keep up with this rigorous
schedule. The key to making this work is to do it consistently. You just won’t do it so hire
someone to do it.
If you try to do this yourself, you’ll be making up a million and one reasons why you can’t
do it. You’re too busy. You’re too tired. You have to get ready for your daughter’s Birthday
party. I know I couldn’t do it.
Hire someone as soon as possible. Each telemarketer will be working part time - three hours,
four days a week. This will cost you $500.00 a month for each caller. That includes everything -
their pay, printing and postage.
You should administer the program only. Eventually you’ll want to have the best
telemarketer become the ‘head telemarketer’. When this happens you’ll have forgotten what it
was like to worry about money!
Who To Call?
You don’t need to go to a list broker to get a list but you do need to do a little bit of research.
Use a phone book that has a criss-cross directory. This is a phone book organized by streets.
Pick specific areas that you want to target. Break them up into 3 or 4 large groups. The first
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The areas you want to target should be middle to upper class homeowners. If you don’t know
your city well, a few drives should cure that problem.
This makes sure you don’t ‘burn out’ an area. By hitting them again in 4 to 5 months, you
will increase response.
Make sure each telemarketer is calling different people in the group that you are targeting
that month.
HIRING
Place an ad in the help-wanted classifieds under telemarketing. If there isn’t a telemarketing
section then add TELEMARKETING to your ad.
NO SELLING
Easy, non-threatening
Non-sales calls.
Part time, early evenings
Earn up to $11.00 per hour
With bonuses and no selling.
Call [your number].
1. Enthusiastic.
2. Hard Working.
3. Money Motivated.
4. Positive Attitude.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
PAY
1. Hourly Wage (Must Make Quota)
Plus
2. Appointment Bonus
Plus
3. Client Bonus
1. Hourly Wage
Each telemarketer will make $8-$9/hour. If the telemarketer doesn’t make quota then a
written warning is made. If the telemarketer doesn’t make quota two months in a row or gets any
3 warnings, she/he is fired.
QUOTA:
Month# Of Appts.
1 Hours divided by 6
2 Hours divided by 4
3+ Hours divided by 2
For example if telemarketer A works 50 hours this month then she/he should have made 25
appointments if she/he has been there 3 months or longer.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
For every kept appointment a telemarketer makes, she/he gets a $2.00 bonus. Try having
competitions every month if you have more than one telemarketer. One for the most
appointments per month. The telemarketer who achieves this wins a $10.00 bonus. The other
program should be for a certain level of appointments. Since they have to get 25, anything higher
will work. 30 is a good goal. Every one who gets 30 appointments receives an extra $10.00.
3. Client Bonus
For every appointment that turns into a client, the telemarketer receives a $5.00 bonus.
You can alter the pay schedule to fit your area. Some areas you can’t hire anyone for this
amount and in other areas this may seem high. Adjust for your area if necessary.
TRAINING
The supervisor or the ‘head caller’ should spend an hour with each new telemarketer to go
over everything including the following:
A. Pay schedule
B. Bonuses
C. Quota
D. Employment contract
E. Company background
F. What telemarketing is trying to achieve
G. Mailings
H. How to get a good mailing
I. Call scripts
J. Mailing card
K. Call sheet.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Go over this with each telemarketer and make sure she/he understands everything. The
telemarketer should be excited to obtain the different bonuses!
Make sure the telemarketer initializes two copies of the pay schedule. One for you to keep
and one for the telemarketer.
D. Employment Contract
Make each telemarketer sign two copies, one for you and one for the telemarketer.
The contract should be read aloud to the telemarketer and make sure she/he understands
everything.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Each telemarketer will be paid an hourly wage. The hours are Monday through Thursday
from _______ to _________.
When you are at work, you will be expected to work. Each day you will be allowed a 10-
minute break, not 15 minutes. Personal calls are prohibited, unless there is an emergency.
If you, the telemarketer, need a day off you must give at least 3 days notice in advance. Only
2 days a month are allowed for sickness or personal days. Your pay schedule is described on the
Pay Schedule Sheet.
You, the telemarketer, have a quota each month, which is also described in the Pay Schedule
Sheet. If you do not make your quota, termination will result.
Bonuses may take a few months to achieve, such as ones for appointments who become
clients. You are only eligible for the bonus if you are still working for
_____________________________________ at the time the appointment is kept, when the
appointment becomes a client, or when the contest is over.
Signing below indicates that you have read and completely understand and agree to all of the
above.
_________________________________________
Signature Date
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Each telemarketer should receive a list of all of the services you provide. For example carpet
cleaning, carpet protection, blind cleaning, fire and water damage repair, upholstery cleaning.
It is very important that every telemarketer know that everyone needs their carpets cleaned.
Don’t assume they think this, educate them.
Your telemarketers are very important to your business. You should make them feel this
way.
Explain that the key to getting good results is to mail only to interested prospects. Don’t mail
to everyone or you’ll fail.
G. Mailings
Show the telemarketer the information you mail if someone is truly interested. Make each
telemarketer read it over carefully and ask any questions if she/he is unsure about anything.
Here is the mailing. You may also enclose a copy of ‘Consumers Guide To Carpet Cleaning’.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You vacuum your carpet one day and before you know it, it’s
completely dirty again. It doesn’t seem to matter what you say (or
threaten) to the other members of your family or how much you clean -
it’s the same old story, a dirty carpet. Do you keep putting off
having friends over because you’re embarrassed of your carpet?
I know, I know you’ve been meaning to get your carpet cleaned but
you just haven’t gotten the time. I’m sure there are plenty of good
reasons why you haven’t done it. You are busy. Preoccupied with work
and the kids. You’re being pulled in 63 different directions at once.
Tired. Who has time or the energy to even think about the “carpet”.
By the time you get the crisis of the day fixed, you just want to
relax. Just a moment of peace. You deserve it. And weekends, well
they go by so fast it seems like Monday morning is there moments
after Friday night left.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll check
for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they can be
removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult stains.
2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may be
10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your carpet
may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll explain how
long it will be before you will need to get new carpet and I’ll give
you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet last as long as possible.
Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s
health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also track
in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust, germs,
pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into
your carpet just like dirt.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the main
spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more
worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your traffic areas
look as good as the rest of your carpet.
You may be asking yourself this question. The truth is some of the
people who get this free Carpet Audit™ and free cleaning will use my
services. Some won’t. But there are enough who will that makes this
profitable for me. So take full advantage of it!
1. Your carpet will look its absolute best - almost like new! Your
friends will mention how wonderfully clean your carpet is.
What To Do Next?
Just for scheduling your Free Carpet Audit™, I’m going to give you
a copy of the ‘Consumer Guide To Carpet Cleaning’. In it you’ll learn
6 costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning, 7 questions to ask a
carpet cleaner before you hire one and 4 recommendations about how
you can enjoy a fresh, clean, healthy carpet.
[Your name]
Owner, [company name]
PS Call [your number] today to get your FREE Carpet Audit™ plus one
room cleaned for free plus the free Consumer’s Guide To Carpet
Cleaning! This offer expires in 15 days!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The key to a good mailing is only to mail to people who are interested. Not someone who is
skeptical or just says ‘OK’ to get off the phone.
Explain in detail how the telemarketer is the rejecter, he needs to reject the prospects so he only
mails to interested ones!
I. Call scripts
There are two call scripts. One for the initial call and one to schedule an appointment.
You’ll notice that the first script refers to an invitation to a workshop. Having a workshop
(Strategy #86) is a great marketing strategy.
Plus referring to this invitation helps get your foot in the door.
You’ll notice that the supervisor makes the appointments. This is very important. Don’t let the
telemarketers make the appointments themselves. It would be too inviting to lie even though they don’t
get a bonus unless the appointment is kept.
For the second call, the telemarketer must ‘expect’ the prospect to make an appointment. There
isn’t any reason why she shouldn’t, so expect it. This will increase the results.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I’m calling because we sent you an invitation to attend our carpet care workshop on how to take
care of your carpet so that it looks its best and lasts the longest. I noticed you were unable to attend.
The seminar covered information on how to get out unwanted stains, which type of vacuuming is best
and on the best method to clean your carpet. It covered information on how to make your carpet last
twice as long. If you’re really interested in reading more about this I’d be happy to send you some free
information.
If:
Prospect says OK buy doesn’t really mean it - If you’re not interested now that’s fine, but please
YES (make sure they mean it) - I’ll send the information tomorrow, and I’ll call you next week to
see if you have any questions. Thank you and have a wonderful day.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Hi, this is [whole name] from [company name] in [city]. I’m calling again to see if you received the
If ‘YES’:
As you probably know our FREE 15 Minute Carpet Audit™ will prescribe the best ways to make
your carpet last as long as possible. You’ll find out how to get out the stains in your carpet, how long
your carpet will last and how to improve the look and health of your carpet. Would you like to set up
Your carpet is probably one of your biggest investments. In 15 minutes you can find out valuable
information on how to best vacuum it, how to decrease allergic reactions, how to make it last as long
as possible and how to make it look like new. You will be under no pressure. There is absolutely no
obligation to use our services at any time. Would you like to set up a risk-free appointment at this
time?
If ‘Not Interested’:
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Great! If you’ll just hold one minute, I’ll put on my supervisor to make the appointment.
J. Mailing card
When the telemarketer has someone who is truly interested in receiving more information he must
fill out the following form.
Mailing Card
Date _____________
After the telemarketer fills out the card, she places it in the mail bin. You or someone in administration
(not a telemarketer) sends out the packet of information.
The date the package was sent out is placed in the upper right hand corner of the card. The card is
returned to the telemarketer who made the call. She then ‘tickles’ it so she calls them back in one
week.
Each telemarketer is given a plastic box (index card box) with 2 sets of indexes each going from 1
to 31. This covers two months. For example if the package was mailed the 7th. The telemarketer would
‘tickle’ the index card for the 14th. If a telemarketer quits or gets fired, give her leads to another
telemarketer.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Each time the telemarketer works, she must fill in the top of the call sheet.
Every time the telemarketer dials, she should indicate that on her call sheet. A slash (\) through the
number indicates a call. An x through the number indicates that the telemarketer spoke with the correct
person.
Then if the telemarketer finds a good prospect to mail to, he circles the number.
The telemarketer fills out the totals for each time she/he works. If the totals are not filled in, send it
back to the telemarketer.
The second part is for callbacks. This is when the telemarketer calls back the prospect that has
received the mail package. The telemarketer must total this part also. An X indicates not interested and
a circle indicates made an appointment.
These sheets are placed in the Filled Out Call Sheets box at the end of each telemarketers shift.
The supervisor collects these sheets and uses them to make weekly and monthly totals.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Telemarketer
_______________ ________________ ________________________
Time Start Time Finish Date and Day
Hour 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
Hour 2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
Hour 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
CODE:
\ = Dialed
X = talked to decision maker
O = needs to mail
CALL BACKS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73
CODE:
\ = Call Back Later
X = Not Interested
O = Made Appointment
TOTAL DIALS ___
TOTAL NOT INTERESTED ____ TOTAL APPTS ___
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
A. Making Appointment
When a telemarketer has a person who wants to make an appointment on the line, the telemarketer
places the person on hold.
Then the supervisor gets on the line to schedule the appointment. The procedure that the supervisor
should use is below. This procedure lets the supervisor schedule quickly and efficiently.
Before each telemarketing shift, the supervisor must go through the schedule and see which trucks
have appointment openings. Then she/he should schedule the available times.
Supervisor Procedure:
G. Which telemarketer
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
At the end of each shift, the supervisor must enter all the scheduled appointments into the schedule
book.
B. Confirming Appointment
All appointments should be confirmed whether they come from telemarketing or not (Strategy
#59).
C. Cancellations
If someone cancels:
1. If they cancel when they are called to confirm or if they call to cancel, try to ‘re-schedule’.
a. If they reschedule, note it in the schedule book and note it on the telemarketer’s record. It’s
important to note it on the telemarketer’s record so that the telemarketer does not receive the ‘kept
appointment’ bonus until the appointment was actually kept.
b. If they don’t want to reschedule, erase it from the schedule book and from the telemarketer’s
record.
(These people can be called back by you to ‘re-schedule’ an appointment.)
It is very helpful to re-confirm the appointment the day of. That’s why it’s important to get both
home and work numbers. This only needs to be done with telemarketing appointments.
C. Actual Appointment
The actual appointment should be conducted like any other Free Carpet Audit™. See Carpet
Audit™ Strategy #23.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You can’t possibly build a big, strong company if you are not ethical.
Most businesses that are unethical are so because they think it saves them money. This is
absolutely ridiculous! Insane.
Maybe in the short run it saves them money but in the long run, it’s a big mistake. Fatal.
Why?
First of all, an unhappy client will tell the world how you were unfair and unethical. They will
gripe to everyone they know, even to people they don’t know. A few clients who are unhappy can
easily destroy a business.
If they are truly a ‘jerk’ and you don’t want to do business with them, give them their money back.
I don’t care if you’ve already done the work.
Believe me, it’s much cheaper to give them their money back than to let them tell the world how
you ripped them off.
So many businesses just don’t live up to their promises, its sad and very bad business.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
For instance, if you promise a client that you’ll get out that 3 year old Kool-Aid stain in her carpet
and you don’t she’ll be mad. She has a right to be mad.
On the other hand if you tell her that there is a very good chance that it won’t come out and it
doesn’t, she won’t be angry with you.
If you can’t arrive at a client’s house within a half hour window then don’t promise that. Or
promise if you don’t, she’ll get $50.00 off her bill. But don’t flat out promise something you can’t
deliver or something you are not positive you can deliver.
Explain why you can’t deliver something a client would like. Educating your client is a million
times better than breaking a promise.
Being ethical won’t just help you sleep better at night; it just makes good business sense.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You need to constantly educate them about your company, indoor air quality, carpet protection,
maintenance, etc.
After the first time a carpet cleaner does a client’s home, he usually never educates his clients
anymore. That’s if he did it at all.
It takes time to learn. If you saw a client every 12 months and even if you did a great job at
educating them (which is doubtful), they still wouldn’t remember much.
Remember - just because carpets are your life, doesn’t mean it’s everyone else’s.
And if by chance one of them says, ‘Yeah, I know that’ and goes on to explain it then say ‘Oh,
sorry _________, most of my clients don’t have a great memory like you do.’ This rarely happens but
even when it does, people smile. They feel special, smarter. That’s great.
Your goal should be to get all of your clients to say that. Then you’d be doing a good job. And
believe me, your bank account would be over-flowing!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should have information packets explaining all of these. You don’t need to ‘bombard’ your
clients with everything at once.
A constant flow of information to them from you is best. How do you accomplish this?
Through your:
Every one of your clients should know all the services you offer. It’s silly to get all different clients
for each of your services. It’s much cheaper and much more profitable if most of your clients use most
of your services. This only happens through constant education.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you think you can’t write emotional direct response copy then begin by tape-recording yourself.
When most people start writing emotional direct response copy, they feel a little overwhelmed.
This is natural.
You have to ‘unlearn’ years and years of learning. What I mean by this is all through school we
were taught to write in this terribly boring, grammatically correct method. Although it may have
worked to please your teachers, it doesn’t work here.
What I’ve found is most people do a pretty good job of selling their service face to face. You’ve
closed many, many sales in homes when you go out for a quote. You know what to say to make people
want your service.
Instead of trying to painstakingly write a letter from scratch, tape record yourself in action.
(Remember to get the permission of the person(s) you are tape recording.) Do this several times so you
get used to it and forget that it’s even there.
Then write exactly what you have recorded. Leave in all the one-word sentences. That’s fine for
writing. Don’t worry about grammar or all those other rules. They don’t make one bit of difference
when you’re selling.
By tape recording yourself, then putting it on paper you will make the whole process of writing
much, much easier.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Follow-up calls are made one to three days after you’ve cleaned some one’s home. Have someone
in your office call and ‘check-up’ on the satisfaction of the client.
The number one reason businesses lose clients is because the client doesn’t feel wanted. They think
the business doesn’t care about them. Sure some clients leave because they move or they die. But
many more leave because they are unhappy or they don’t feel important. Out of these two, the latter is
by far the larger.
Follow-up calls don’t take much time to make sure your client is happy. I’ve seen many clients that
were unhappy over something very minor become happy because of the follow-up call.
It is much cheaper to keep an existing client happy than it is to get a new client. That’s why client
service is so important.
For other ways to keep your clients happy see Client Appreciation (Strategy #93), Lending Library
(Strategy #94), New Client Kit (Strategy #31) and Client Dinner (Strategy #97) Strategies.
Because it is more and more difficult to catch people at home, here is the sequence to take for
follow-up calls:
1. Call in afternoon.
3. If still no answer, leave a message. [A script is included at the end of this section.]
This strategy can recover a lot of business that otherwise would have been lost. And also makes
people happy to see that you really care and they’ll be more likely to refer you to others.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Hello [client name]. This is [caller’s name] from [company name]. Last [day of cleaning] we
cleaned your carpets and I’ve tried to reach you but have been unable to do so. I was just checking to
see if everything was OK. If for any reason at all you aren’t thrilled, please call us at [your number]
right away.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This is [caller name] from [company name]. Last [day of cleaning], we cleaned your carpets and
I’ve tried to reach by phone but I have been able to catch you.
I was just checking to see if everything was OK. If for any reason at all you aren’t thrilled, please
call us at [your number] right away. Remember all of our work is backed by our 100%, MONEY
BACK GUARANTEE.
Sincerely,
[Caller name]
[Company name]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
For every job you do, you should reschedule the next appointment in 3, 6, 8 or 12 months. You
leave too much to chance if you expect the client to call you back in 8 months to reschedule.
Some people fight this, but it works if you make it work. I know one carpet cleaner who thinks it is
ridiculous to have someone schedule so far in advance. So when he asks them to, they perceive this
and say ‘no’.
I also know several carpet cleaners who do this and it works like a charm. You can easily double
your business by doing this one technique.
When the job is completed, you (or your tech) take the owner through the house and see if she is
happy with it. If she is then explain to her how important it is to have her carpets cleaned regularly.
(We have a video for prospects that convinces them that they need to have their carpets cleaned at least
every 12 months and convinces them that carpet protection is a good value. If you are interested in
this, please call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643).
If she is happy then explain to her that although you fit her in this time, normally you schedule
appointments 8 to 12 months in advance. Tell her that she can reschedule her next appointment in 3 to
12 months now. Explain that you will send a notice 2 weeks before the appointment to remind her. If
she needs to reschedule then, that’s fine. Make sure you explain there is no obligation. Tell her that she
can cancel the appointment at any time.
This technique is simply amazing. It creates lots of profit for you. You profit from this technique in
many ways:
1. You will get a lot more repeat business. Since you don’t leave it up to the client to remember
who you are and to call in to schedule an appointment in 3 to 12 months, you get many more clients
coming back.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This technique is easy. You can start today. You should start seeing the profits roll in within 3 to
12 months.
Don’t forget to send a ‘reminder’ letter letting your client know that you will be coming to clean
the carpets. A sample reminder letter is at the end of this section. You can use it as-is or modify it.
I also recommend calling 3 days in advance to remind the client of the appointment (Strategy #34).
If you are using this technique, you need to do this. Even if you have to hire a part timer to get all the
calls in, it’s worth it. To have a no-show is very expensive. The amount that a part-timer costs to make
these calls is definitely a good investment.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Hello. This is [your name] with [company name]. I just wanted to remind you of our upcoming
appointment. We scheduled this quite a while ago and I just wanted to make sure you remembered.
If for some reason you cannot make this appointment, please call our office at [your number] to
reschedule.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Val-Pak or similar mailers to consumers are what most carpet cleaners use to get new business.
Unfortunately most use the ‘bait and switch’ tactic of advertising.
They advertise low, low prices and then try to switch the prospect to a much more expensive
service. The problem with this is that even though many consumers haven’t called the ‘bait and switch’
ads, they believe that they can get their carpets cleaned for $6.99 a room. This is a problem but you can
overcome it.
First of all only advertise in high-end areas. Know where these ads are being delivered. One carpet
cleaner wasn’t getting any response and wondered why. Come to find out he was advertising in the
ghetto. The people in those neighborhoods didn’t even think about cleaning their carpets. The few who
did rented a cheap machine from the store down the street.
Advertising price isn’t enough. It may work for huge companies where everyone in America has
heard of them but not for you. These companies have had 10 years of multi-million dollar TV
campaigns behind them. So they can advertise 2 cheese pizzas for $9.99 and get response.
The same rules apply for creating a good Val-Pak ad as does for any direct response ad.
On the following page is an example of a good ad. You’ll notice how this drastically differs from
the typical $6.99 a room ad. You’ll also notice how this one will make you money and a typical one
won’t.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The very first thing you’ve got to realize when you’re in a slump is:
The reason you’re in a slump is because of you. Period. It’s not your spouse or the economy, Its
simply you.
Although that may be disappointing to hear, it is also great news. It means that you and only you can
get you out of a slump. You don’t have to wait for the economy to turn around (good thing because who
knows when that’ll happen) and you don’t have to wait for your spouse or associates to do something.
It’s usually because you are depressed. You just aren’t excited about your business anymore.
With all the marketing knowledge you now own, you’ll never run out of new, exciting marketing
ideas.
1. Hang out with successful people. This is the easiest and fastest way to get back your excitement
and motivation. Stop hanging around with losers - people who constantly complain. Attitudes are
contagious and you can determine yours by the people you hang out with.
2. Get educated. Get books, tapes. Go to seminars and workshops. Learning is exciting. The more
you learn, the more excited you’ll be.
When you are bored and depressed, you can’t possibly get new clients. They see your attitude and
don’t want to do business with you.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Remember success breed’s success. Its true. If you want to be successful, start hanging around
successful people.
Once you get out of your slump, keep doing new things. Keep learning and keep up your excitement.
You can control whether or not you go into another slump.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I have gotten a lot out of the associations I belong to. Granted sometimes they are a drag, but I really
meet some interesting carpet cleaners.
I get a lot of new and exciting methods to try from carpet cleaners I meet at these meetings. I learn
new methods to try. I learn new and better ways to get certain stains out.
I also get new ideas of different products and services to offer to my clients.
Granted, some of these carpet cleaners aren’t willing to share any of their ideas and some don’t have
any worthwhile ones to share, but some do. Those are the ones I form relationships with.
I think carpet cleaning associations keep me on top of things. I come back more inspired than before.
I learn a lot and teach a lot. I strongly suggest trying one out.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
A monthly newsletter is a very easy, cheap way of keeping in constant contact with your clients.
Every month you don’t contact a client she/he loses 10% of the value of your relationship. So if you
don’t contact your client for 10 months, it’s all over. That’s why so many businesses lose clients.
A monthly newsletter is one of the best ways of keeping your relationship with your clients in tact
and even strengthening it.
2. It keeps you and your company at the top of your clients’ consciousness.
3. It gives you a chance to sell some more things. A monthly newsletter is a great way to introduce
new products, like a new vacuum cleaner.
5. You can recognize clients who have referred others to you. This will increase the number of
referrals you get. Since one client sees that others refer you, she will too.
I highly recommend that you write your own newsletter. Let your personality shine through.
However, I realize that there are many of you out there who just can’t or won’t find time. So I write
a monthly newsletter, which is generic for all carpet cleaners. Its always-on time and you just have to
plug in your name and add your client labels. I’ll send this to you each month on disk. It’s ready for you
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Doing your own newsletter is better but if you aren’t going to, get ours. It’s much, much better than
doing nothing at all.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Testimonials are what your current clients have to say about you. Testimonials are very important
because:
Think about it. Would you be more likely to try a new restaurant if your neighbor told you how
wonderful it is or if you saw an ad in the newspaper for it?
Of course you’d be more likely to try it if your neighbor couldn’t stop bragging about it. That’s
another marketing strategy to make people so thrilled with your service that they can’t help telling
others about you. See WOW Your Client Strategy.
Sure maybe your prospects won’t read every one but they will read enough to be convinced. They’ll
assume that the others are just as good.
To show you the power of testimonials, let me tell you about a public speaker:
As you may know, public speaking is a tough business. There are lots and lots of speakers out there.
It’s fierce competition.
One public speaker doesn’t write any letters or any marketing materials to send to prospects. This is
all he does:
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
That’s OK. You can go out and get them. First talks to your clients who you know just love you. The
ones that think you are the best thing since sliced bread. Ask them for testimonials but don’t leave it up
to them to write it from scratch. Most people don’t like to write and second of all, they don’t write in an
emotional compelling style.
Make it easy for them. Give them a sheet to answer questions and make sure it is OK to use them as
testimonials in your marketing materials.
Following this section you’ll find an example you can use to get clients to fill out.
Then turn those answers into sentences. Make them compelling. Don’t forget to get their permission
to use their name otherwise you could be sued.
I like to offer them a box to check if they aren’t willing to let me use their name in promotional
material.
Start taking these forms to every job. Ask every client to please take a few minutes and fill it out.
Ask them after they’ve seen the results (nice, clean carpet) and while you are picking up. Most clients
will be more than happy to do this for you.
Just because you don’t have testimonials, don’t put off doing something. Do it. You can always add
in testimonials. But if you have them use them.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Describe the one or two benefits that you have gotten from us that you value the most. Explain
specifically what you’ve gotten out of them.
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
I do NOT mind if you use my name in any or all of your promotional material(s).
___________________________________________________________
Signature Date
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Another rule of thumb for testimonials is to have at least one testimonial for each benefit.
For example: if one of your benefits is a charming personality then have one testimonial that says
how great you are when you come to the home.
If another point is that the carpet dries in 4 hours then have another person say how convenient it
was to have their carpets dry within 4 hours.
So for every benefit, you should have at least one testimonial. Two is better. You can’t have too
many testimonials.
The purpose of testimonials is to create credibility so prospects believe that what you are saying
about you is true. The best way to do that is to give the persons name, occupation, city and state.
For example:
Jane Friday
Nurse
Aurora, Colorado
Don’t worry if some of your testimonials are housewives (or whatever you want to call it). That’s
fine because if large portions of your clients are housewives then you will want to target more
housewives.
This only becomes a problem when you are trying to sell something to janitors and all your
testimonials are from upper management employees. The testimonials should be similar to your actual
prospects.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This can be a 3-ring notebook or nice leather bound one. It doesn’t matter as long as you have one.
You should take this testimonial book to every job or Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23) that you do.
Let your prospects look through it. Encourage them to look at it.
When a prospect sees how many clients are thrilled with your services, they will want to do business
with you.
What other people say about you is infinitely more believable than what you say about you.
Your prospect may even recognize some of your client’s names. They may know them as neighbors,
friends, in the same association, from work, etc. This is very, very powerful.
Having all those testimonials is the equivalent of lots and lots of referrals saying how wonderful you
and your company are.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Writing good ads and sales letters isn’t really that complicated.
First of all forget everything that your high school English teacher taught you. If you are like most
people, you were taught to write boring, complete sentences. Maybe they are grammatically correct but
they sure don’t sell anything.
One-word sentences are great. They really get the point across.
What you want to concentrate on is connecting with the reader. (The reader of your letter or ad).
Make them feel like you know them.
If you don’t know what they want, ask your current clients. They’ll tell you. After all, you just want
more clients like the ones you already have (the good ones that is). See Strategy #53 - You’re Not Your
Own Client.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Do you ever remember when you had to read something for a class? You opened the book and there
were just pages and pages of solid text. Long paragraphs. Boring copy. Discouraging, wasn’t it?
You don’t want your reader to be discouraged or she/he won’t read it. (Just like you didn’t in
school!)
Just write.
If you are really having problems see Strategy #62, Tape Record Yourself.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
There are some down sides to each of them. If you offer water and fire damage restoration then you
have to have someone on call 24 hours a day. If you offer blind cleaning, you have to buy more
equipment.
All of them have their ups and downs. Think about this before you expand.
Other services can be profitable because you can ‘piggy-back’ them on to your current services. The
additional service doesn’t have to advertise to get new clients.
Of course you can advertise it but it could easily live on the clients you get from carpet cleaning.
That means that this extra service gets clients without the expense of advertising. That’s why this
can be very profitable.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Don’t Do Anything.
They can’t.
I think it’s because they are afraid to fail. They think if they try something, they’re going to fail.
Most people are afraid of failure.
Even now sometimes when I try something new, it fails. It doesn’t bother me. Most of what I do
succeeds. I definitely make a lot of money from the successes. But I learn more from the failures.
If I had never failed, I would have never succeeded. It’s that simple.
If you need any help call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 and we’ll be glad to help
you out! The main reason Cleaners join our Piranha Mastermind Coaching Program is to help them
“Do Something”.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Do Everything Half-Way.
They get all excited about all the different marketing strategies and start a whole bunch of them at
once. They never give enough time to each one. They do all of them half-way.
If you have your hand in too many things, none of them will be profitable.
Pick 5 strategies to start with. Concentrate on one marketing strategy at a time. Get that one working
and then start another. Once you have all 5 of those going, and then pick another 5.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Aren’t Consistent.
One of the reasons these marketing strategies work so well is that you apply them consistently. They
are systems. You need to do every part of the system to get it to run correctly.
People are shocked when they just do the first step and it doesn’t work as well as they wanted.
Would you be surprised if you put a tape in your VCR and nothing happened? Of course not. You
know you have to plug it in, hook it up to the TV, put the TV on the correct channel then press play.
Then (usually) it plays. Not before.
Well, it’s the same way with any system, including a marketing system. There are several parts to
make the systems work.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Have No Plan.
Success never happens by accident. Not once. You have to have a plan.
If you don’t have a plan, any road will take you there. But you’ll never achieve success that’s for
sure.
You must plan success. Plan how much you want to make and what strategies you are going to use
to make that much. Planning isn’t a big secret; it just takes time and commitment.
I’ve heard people say they didn’t want to plan because they might change their minds.
This is absurd. You can always alter your plan. Make your goals higher or lower. Pick a completely
different goal, but if you don’t have a plan, you’ll never get anywhere.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the results that you’ve always
gotten.
PLAN!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Procrastinate.
‘I’ll get around to it tomorrow’ has destroyed more businesses than you can imagine.
•I don’t have these Carpet Audit™ forms made up so I can’t send out a letter
•I don’t know which neighborhoods are good so I’ll just wait
•I don’t know exactly how to do this
So what if everything isn’t perfect. It’s much more important to do something than to wait for
everything to be perfect. It won’t happen.
Procrastination is deadly.
Don’t wait.
Do it today!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Mental garbage is ideas and thoughts that we have been fed since we were born. These thoughts and
ideas are wrong. Dead wrong. But we’ve heard them over and over and we believe them.
Thoughts like:
Do you ever remember that ‘smart’ kid in school who never studied buy always got A’s? He didn’t
work hard. Then there was that kid who studied all the time and only got B’s. Now, he worked hard.
Working hard does not insure success.
Before I started using direct response strategies - when I was broke - I worked hard! Much, much
harder than I work now. I didn’t know what to do so I worked on a lot of things that didn’t get me any
clients.
Now that I know these powerful strategies, I don’t have to work hard.
Yeah, right! This is bogus. I used to do just as good of a job cleaning carpets as I do now. But I had
very little business. I didn’t know what to do to get repeat business or referrals or new clients. I was
good but nobody beat a path to my door!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
But when I use creative, down to earth, easy to understand language in my letters, I get tons of
response.
Uneducated carpet cleaners laugh at my marketing. I don’t care. I’m the one with the big fat bank
account, not any of them!
To be successful you have to get rid of this mental garbage. All it is doing is keeping you from
success!
Once you unload it, you’ll be free to make as much money as you want!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should have weekly and monthly contests. You can have the same contest every week and then
have others that change.
For instance you can have a contest for the technician that gets the most referrals. This is a great one.
Then give the winner a bonus - $25.00 or $50.00. This makes your technicians compete against each
other. No longer will they ‘forget’ to ask for referrals. No more days of complaining about it. They’ll be
happy to do it.
You also should have a contest where anyone can win. Offer $20.00 to everyone who gets at least 30
referrals a week.
You can also have ‘Employee of the Month’ awards based on referrals, compliments, hard work, etc.
You can have a competition for the greatest number of ‘outside’ jobs. An ‘outside’ job is a job that
the employee gets himself. His friends, relatives, associates, etc. Make the award big enough to motivate
your employees. Even if it is $200.00, if you get your employees to get 10 jobs that didn’t cost you any
advertising money, you did very well.
Put all these contests up on the bulletin board. Track everyone’s results on the board daily if it’s a
weekly contest or weekly if it’s a monthly contest.
It’s natural for people to be competitive and motivated by money. Take advantage of this to really
get your technicians to work!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You already know all the information; you just have to put it into words. That’s easy. See Strategy
#73, How To Write Copy That Sells.
When someone writes a book or report on a subject, it puts them in a different light.
No longer will you be just a carpet cleaner, you’ll be a carpet cleaning ‘expert’.
A carpet cleaning ‘expert’ is looked at as the person with the solution to a prospect’s problem.
If you are thought of as a sales person, prospects will back away from you. They will take what you
say with a ‘grain of salt’. Even if you have the perfect solution to their needs, it’ll be difficult to
convince them of that.
But if you’re seen as an ‘expert’, you’re trusted. A prospect is coming to you with a problem and
thinks you are the person that can help her. She will take your advice seriously and will do what you tell
her to do.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
These should be what your title is like. Indoor Air Quality doesn’t cut it. The title has to create
interest on the part of your prospect. The title is really the headline for the book or report.
Of course at the end of the book or report, you make an offer like a Free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy
#23). Tell them exactly what you want them to do.
You can offer this report or book for free in all sorts of places. For example:
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
To stay motivated and interested you have to keep learning new things about your business.
New marketing strategies, new techniques, new equipment, new products, etc.
A good source of information is trade journals. They are an easy way to stay on the cutting edge of
the industry.
Always keep learning and improving. That is what makes carpet cleaning fun.
Once you stop, you start to ‘stagnate’. You just sit there. Pretty soon that booming business isn’t
booming anymore. Don’t let this happen.
The trade journals are a great source to see what others are doing. To see what new chemicals and
products are out there to make your job easier.
Trade journals are an easy and inexpensive way to keep up with the times.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You bet.
Well you can. For instance, if you don’t do blind cleaning but one of your clients want her blinds
cleaned, you can still make money.
You can ‘sub’ it out to someone who does blinds. You pay them. She pays you. And you keep the
difference.
Or you can just refer her to the other company and make a ‘referral fee’. Check to make sure that’s
legal in your area.
Here’s how you can promote that you do all these services:
- Carpet cleaning
- Blind cleaning
- Duct cleaning
- Fire and water damage
- Wood floors
- Maid service
You can offer all of these things and only actually do the carpet cleaning.
What you have to do is find a good company that does one of the other services you offer. Make sure
that company does a good job and is polite to your clients.
You can either collect a ‘referral fee’ or ‘sub’ it out to them. If you choose to collect the ‘referral
fee’, you’ll have to stay on top of the other business. Make them send you a weekly report of all the
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Remember if you do this, you still have to take responsibility for the other company’s work. It’s
your client and you want them to be happy.
If you refer a bad company, the client will hold you responsible. And so should you. Take
responsibility. Offer a guarantee even if the other company doesn’t. This is a way to make extra profits
with little or no work, but you have to do it right.
It may take some time to find good companies but it’s worth the effort.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Every business says they have a slow season. This may be true if you let it happen.
In Phoenix where I have my company, the slow season is summer. This happens to almost every
business in Phoenix, not just carpet cleaners.
You see, during the summer, it’s hot. If you’ve heard of what they call ‘dry heat’, don’t fall for it.
Sure its dry heat, like a blowtorch. Believe me when it hits 115°F every day, it doesn’t matter whether
it’s dry or not. It’s just hot.
Almost 1/3 of the population of Phoenix (the intelligent part) leaves for the summer. So you see why
everyone has their slow season.
For 2 years I had a slow season in the summer. I believed it. I didn’t think I had a choice.
I was wrong.
I hated the slow season. Just because it was blistering hot didn’t mean that I didn’t like to make
money. So I started brainstorming.
The first thing is - you have to start planning 2 months before your slow season starts. This is
critical. You have to start doing things before you are in the middle of the slow time.
WHY?
If you wait until you are in the peak of the slow season, you’ve already wasted a lot of time. Plus, all
of the strategies you need to use to overcome the slow season take a bit of time. Nothing is instant.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I’ve seen too many people who were too busy to plan. Next thing you know, they have more than
enough time to plan and they are in big trouble.
You’re going to have to ‘beef up’ your regular marketing and advertising. This will compensate for
the slow season.
I usually find out if my clients leave for the summer or not. If you are in an area where some of your
clients leave for a season, you’ll have to do the same. Most of you are probably in an area where people
don’t leave. This makes it a bit easier for you.
1. I usually double whatever method is making me the most money that I can double. For instance, if
I’m making the most money from yellow pages, there is no way for me to double that so I go to the next
one.
If I’m making the most (or next most) money from my 3-letter sequence that I give to cold prospects
(Strategy #27) then I double the amount I give out.
For example: If I’m making $1,100.00 from 100 letters per week then I step it up to 200 letters per
week.
If I’m making the most money from Val-Pak type ads then I usually put my ad in 2 different zones
or 2 different types like Val-Pak and Money Mailer.
2. I emphasize referrals even more. Usually I increase the value if someone sends me a referral. If
you normally pay $10.00 for every referral that becomes a client then start offering $20.00 for a limited
time.
I send out a letter to all of my clients telling them about the increased value of a referral for a limited
time. I explain to them it’s because normally I have a slow season at this time but if they’d help me out,
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This letter really eliminates my slow season. I get a 20% response from it and almost everyone has
me clean their entire house or use one of my other services.
When I do all these things, my slow season isn’t slow at all! Of course, my cost per client raises
slightly but it is still very, very profitable. And 20 times better than having a slow season.
Remember - start planning 2 months before your slow season starts. Take the proper steps and you
can laugh at your slow season!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You want to have prospects attend. But, the problem is getting prospects to attend. You can NOT
advertise in the newspaper for a Free Workshop. This doesn’t work. Its too expensive and barely anyone
will show up.
You go through organizations, clubs and associations. You give a workshop especially designed for
them. This gets their members interested in your services and many of the attendees will become clients.
This won’t cost you much. The organization will supply the meeting room. They should tell all their
members through meetings and newsletters. Since this doesn’t cost them anything, they shouldn’t mind
doing it.
But you should give them the material. For example, if they are going to put an article in their
monthly newsletter, you should write it and give it to them. If they are going to announce it at a meeting,
you should write the announcement. Don’t count on them to do it.
If you let them do it, you will get little response. People won’t show up. You have to present it in an
interesting way so that the members are interested.
You can either have the organization take reservations or you can. Usually the organization is
willing to do this but not always. Just ask them. Make sure you have a deadline at least one week in
advance for them to sign up. This way you’ll be able to prepare the right amount of handouts, etc.
Call the organization and ask for the person in charge of educational programs. You must tell them
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The best way is to donate to the organization a certain percentage of all the work you get because of
the workshop, like 5%. Then also offer a discount to all their members, $25.00 off or 10% - something
like that. This way the organization can see that they will be making money and be offering something
valuable to their members.
Ask the person if you could come over and discuss a workshop with them. On the phone just tell
them that you have a way to help them make money for the organization. Most people will be more than
happy to give you a few minutes of their time.
Explain the whole thing to them. And tell them what exactly their members will learn even if they
don’t use any of your services.
Some of the best organizations to go to are Churches and Synagogues. Other ones that have a high
senior citizen membership are good too. Senior citizens usually have to hire someone to clean their
carpets and they are more worried about indoor air quality. They usually can afford your services, too.
One extra service that you can offer and even give away to senior citizens is cleaning the
baseboards. This is very, very easy if you use a wand. Just spray the baseboards and wipe them clean.
That’s it.
At the actual workshop, you can focus on different things for different organizations - whatever they
are most interested in.
Obviously your presentation should really emphasize getting their carpets cleaned regularly. If you
give them the information they are going to use your services - not someone else’s.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
It’s important that you get everyone to fill out an evaluation form. Ask the same questions as the one
for the Client Dinner (Strategy #97) but make them up special for each group. Make sure you get
everyone’s name and address.
For just an hour of your time, think how much business you will generate. You should get at least 4
new clients, with an average job of $250.00. That’s $1,000.00 for an hour’s worth of work! Not bad.
Plus, everyone who doesn’t sign up immediately for a Free Carpet Audit™ will be sent a 3-letter
sequence (Strategy #27).
And you should average at least 3 referrals per client. That’s 12 referrals! You see why this is so
very profitable. Your out of pocket cost is virtually zero!
You can also do workshops for carpet retailers. They have lots of clients who purchased carpet but
don’t know how to take care of it. You offer to give the carpet retailer a percentage of the sales from the
workshop and offer his clients a discount.
Because this is a valuable gift he is giving his clients, he should be willing to tell them for free. You
must convince him that his clients will love him for giving them a valuable workshop and they’ll refer
lots of new clients to him. Plus they’ll buy carpet from him again not go to one of his competitors when
they want new carpet.
Otherwise you can split the cost of mailing with him. You will still make a lot of money from this
workshop so you can afford to do this.
Make sure you write all the information just like any other sales letter. Don’t let the carpet retailer
do it.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
There are many things you can do with charities to generate business.
However, only do them if you are truly interested in helping the charity. Do NOT do this solely to
get new business. If you do, it will probably backfire. People are very cautious of others who want to
use the charity to help their own business out solely. This will be detected and ruin your whole program.
So only do it if you are sincere.
OK. There are many different things you can do for the charity. Including:
1. Workshop
You can do a regular workshop, but just with a charity. All of the same concepts apply. The only
difference is the organization is a charity.
2. Event
You can sponsor a charity event. It doesn’t have to cost you much either.
For example you can sponsor a golf tournament with proceeds going to the charity. You charge each
golfer around $50.00 to $100.00 to be in the event. You get the charity to pay to promote it. Make sure
that you write the actual ads, letters, announcements, etc.
Then you get other local merchants to buy advertising during the golf event. You put up boards with
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Make sure there is plenty of media coverage. Newspaper, TV, radio, etc. Since the proceeds go to
the charity the media won’t mind giving out a number to get more information. This is another way you
get golfers.
In a short period your business will get a lot of recognition. This is super since it shouldn’t cost you
much. You could even make money on it.
Get every golfers name and address and of course they’ll receive a letter in the mail thanking them
for golfing, telling them how much you and the golfer raised for the charity, and (most importantly)
offering them a Free Carpet Audit™.
Of course to all the people who don’t respond to the first letter, get letter number two. And all those
who don’t respond to the first two letters get letter number three.
Then you also send letters to every person that is part of the charity. The charity will have a list you
can mail to. You tell them how you sponsored the golf tournament and how much you raised for the
charity and what the charity is going to do with that money. Then you tell them you’re going to help
them out since they’ve helped out the charity too. Offer them a Free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23) and
a discount if they use your services.
To do a charity event is a lot of work. But you will make money for the charity and for your
business.
3. Promotion
A promotion is just sending a sales letter to all the charity members (donators). Of course you use a
3-letter sequence.
You’ll have to call the charity and find the person in charge of promotions. Meet with her. Explain
that you want to send a letter to all of the charity members offering them a Free Carpet Audit™.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Sometimes you can convince the charity to pay for the postage. Sometimes the charity will split it
with you. And once in a while the charity will insist that you pay for all of the postage. If they do, you
can take that amount out of the amount being donated to the charity.
Make sure the letters go on the charity’s letterhead and envelopes. It helps to get the coordinator to
write a cover letter endorsing your company.
You can even offer to clean the charity offices for free. This definitely helps. That way the charity is
confident in your work and they get something out of it right away.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
It doesn’t matter if you have lots of employees or are by yourself. You still have to have weekly
meetings.
The purpose of these meetings is to see how you are doing. To see how close you are to your goals.
Then after you see how you are doing, you need to plan for the next week.
Schedule an hour a week for this meeting. It has to be the same time every week. Like Tuesdays
from 8AM - 9AM. No exceptions. Do not schedule a job during the time you planned for the meeting.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you will do the meeting some other time. It won’t happen.
These weekly meetings will help you implement more strategies and do more of the ones that are
making you tons of money.
This isn’t difficult. You just have to make a commitment and stick to it.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Realtors can be the key to many jobs from one client, the Realtor. Realtors work with both the
buyers and the sellers. Usually at some point in the transaction, the carpets get cleaned.
Often the Realtor suggests to the seller that he should get the carpets cleaned. This puts the Realtor
in a perfect position to recommend a good carpet cleaner. If the seller doesn’t get the carpets cleaned
then usually the buyer will. The Realtor is in a great position to recommend a carpet cleaner (you) to the
buyer.
The best thing about Realtors is that once you get one to recommend you, they’ll give you many,
many jobs. You won’t have to wait 3 to 12 months to get a repeat job. A good Realtor should give you 2
jobs a month. If you get 10 or 20 Realtors recommending you - that’s 20 to 40 extra jobs.
Getting your first Realtor is the hardest. Once you get one, getting others is much easier. Realtors
hang out with other Realtors. So once you get one who is happy with you, you can get her to help you
get other Realtors.
If you know a Realtor, start with him. If you don’t you still can get into this niche.
Most Realtors work for a broker, like Century 21 or Re/Max. All of these brokers have weekly
meetings. Usually they have some one come in and give a talk for 10-15 minutes. The Realtor that is in
charge of these meetings has a very, very difficult time getting enough speakers. It is very easy to get to
speak at one of these meetings.
Contact a company; ask for the person in charge of the weekly sales meeting for the Realtors. Call
this person and tell them who you are, what you want to do and ask when can he fit you in. These people
are usually desperate. You will be an angel to them. They should schedule within 3 or 4 weeks.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
1. Explain that Realtors are in the perfect position to recommend a carpet cleaner since usually either
the seller or the buyer gets the carpet cleaned anyway.
2. Explain that you are a very good carpet cleaner. Use your USP (Strategy #4).
3. Give the Realtors a reason to use you. You can give them $10.00 for every job, or a certain
percentage, or you can say after they’ve given you so many jobs, you’ll clean their house for free.
Whatever you choose, make it crystal clear what they get.
For example, if you use 3% of every job then tell them how much your average job is and tell them
how much they’d make from referring you for an average job.
You should have at least twenty Realtors at this meeting. If you follow up by sending them a letter
re-explaining your offer then you can expect to get one or two Realtors who continually recommend
your services. These one or two gems will refer a lot of business to you.
Explain to them exactly what a referral is. It is not just saying ‘Oh by the way, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, if
you get your carpets cleaned use ABC Company.’ This leads too much to chance.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
After a Realtor has given you a referral and you clean the carpets - this puts you in a perfect position
to get another client.
Whether the buyers of the house hired you or not, you should get them as new clients. They’ve seen
your work and know you are good.
If the buyer was the one who hired you then it’s easy. Convert him to a repeat client. Set up the next
appointment. This is just the same as any first time client.
But if the seller hired you, you still can get a new client or two. First of all, lots of times the sellers
are moving but not very far. If this is the case you can get the seller to get the carpets cleaned in his new
house. And turn him into a regular client.
If the seller is moving out of town, you can’t do this. Don’t worry about it; you still can get the
buyer.
Even though the buyer didn’t actually hire you, you can send him a letter (of course) telling him that
you were the one who cleaned his carpets. At the end of this section there is a sample letter that I started
for you. See if you can finish it. Be creative!
You’ve already done their carpets. They know your work. This puts you in a great position to get
them as a client.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Of course it was, I was the one who cleaned it! Hi, I’m [your name] and I own [company]. As a
house-warming gift I’d like to give you a bottle of spotter. This spotter is great for everyday stains like
ketchup, blood, animal waste, juice and soda.
You say - How could anyone be so nice, there must be some sort of catch. Well there is one teeny,
tiny little catch - all you have to do is schedule an appointment to reclean your carpet any time in the
next 12 months.
Now you finish this letter and get some new clients!
To get a few complete promotions for Realtors go to the Members Only section of my website at
www.joepolish.com.
Read your Piranha Marketing Letter Monthly for the pass code.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The host and beneficiary is an excellent marketing strategy. You are the beneficiary and you get a
new client through the host.
One of my hosts is a retail carpet store. Whenever they sell carpet, they give their clients a free gift.
This free gift is one room, up to 200 SF, of carpet cleaned by my company. I don’t charge the carpet
retailer anything. They are basically giving me a new client.
The client calls and asks for their free room cleaned. We explain that the technician will give him a
quote for cleaning the whole house but he is under no obligation to get even one more room cleaned.
1. First of all, the company that gave him the free gift is a company he knows and trusts. He has
already done business with them. They are recommending me.
2. I’ve given the client something for free. He now feels obligated to reciprocate. This is the law of
reciprocity. It says that whenever you give someone something, he feels obligated to give something
back.
Here are some examples of some host beneficiary letters I’ve done. The first is what you write for
the host. The second is a letter that is used to get hosts. This example is decorators but you can change it
to practically anybody.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Dear Client,
The company is [your company] and the owner is [you]. His company
is outstanding. I had them clean my carpets a few months ago and I was
very impressed. They were honest. The total was the exact same price
they gave me for a quote. They were clean and professional. They even
offer a money-back guarantee on their work! This is unheard of in the
carpet cleaning industry.
Sincerely,
[Owner]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Dear Friend,
As you can see, I have attached a nice, crisp $1.00 bill to the top
of this letter. Why have I done this? Actually for three reasons:
I’m sorry to admit this but there are many carpet cleaners out
here who are less than ethical. These are the ones that run all those
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Or, if you prefer, you can use them toward a carpet or upholstery
cleaning for a good customer as a gift or for yourself. So you risk
nothing — and you have everything to gain! And to get started I’ve
enclosed your first $10.00 in carpet bucks on the house!
I’ve been in the carpet cleaning industry for [number] years. I’m
the [Arizona Director of the Carpet and carpet bucks Institute -
something similar or edit this part out]. [This Institute is designed
to improve carpet cleaning standards and to help eliminate unethical
carpet cleaning advertisements.] We don’t allow any members to use
unethical ‘bait and switch’ advertising. This is also against the law
but very few carpet cleaners get prosecuted. That’s why we fight them.
That’s why I need your help.
You may not know this but not all carpet cleaners are the same. Not
only because some of them use deplorable advertising but also there is
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
In order for you to see how good we are I’m going to make you an
unbelievable offer -
You may be wondering what will happen after I’ve cleaned your
carpets. That’s a fair question.
The next thing for you to do is to call me and schedule your free
carpet cleaning. I’ll come to your house and clean your entire house
just to prove to you that I’m the best carpet cleaner. My number is
[your number]. I’ll be expecting your call. If by chance I’m not at my
desk, please leave a message and I’ll call you right back.
Your clients are going to love you for giving them a valuable free
gift! This alone will create more business for you by making your
clients so happy that they refer other business to you.
Every way you look at it - you benefit. Call [your number] now
before it’s too late.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
P.S. This offer expires [date (15 days away)] so hurry up and call me!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The maintenance program is a brilliant idea. It helps generate stability in your business.
Ever have a client rave about how wonderful her carpet is and how she wishes that it could look like
that all the time?
That’s when you should tell her about the maintenance program. Tell her that her carpet can look
that good all the time.
This is the schedule if she just had all her carpet cleaned.
You can charge them in advance - all now. You can charge them monthly. You can charge them 2
weeks before each cleaning. You can charge them the day of cleaning. There are plenty of options.
Obviously the sooner you get your money the better. Anytime you can create a cash float, you will
be doing well!
American Express lives on ‘float’. At any point in time they have 15 million in float. That’s with
their traveler’s checks. Some of them never get cashed! About 15%! That’s a lot of money. In the
summer their float goes up to 1 billion because everyone buys them for their upcoming vacations.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You can add extra services like upholstery cleaning. Just like when you sold the original job with 3
options (Strategy #39 see examples of ideas following strategy #39), you should have 3 options for
the maintenance plan.
The one I gave you is the bare bones minimum. Make two other packages with different services
added.
Of course you still can customize a package if one of your clients wants something other than the 3
you have.
For instance one of my clients gets all her carpets cleaned every 3 months. Not just the traffic areas.
Everything.
I certainly didn’t turn her away when she asked me if she could do this!
Develop a maintenance plan. Not all of your clients will want it but probably 15 to 20% will. This is
a real money maker.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Client appreciation is just what it sounds like. It’s giving your clients something to show that you
really appreciate their business. They are the most important thing to your company (you’d be out of
business without them) so let them know that.
One easy thing to do is having a Backyard BBQ at your house and invite all your clients and any
guests they want to bring. Make sure you tell them that this is not a public thing; only they and their
guests are invited.
You should have games and contests and give prizes as awards.
The contests should have something to do with carpet cleaning, a little quiz.
For example:
You get the idea. Make it a fun contest but educational. This drives home all the things you’ve been
telling them.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should have your event based on a holiday, like July 4th but not on the exact day. Good ones
are July 4th, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.
You don’t have to have a Backyard BBQ; you can have any kind of party. I personally like Backyard
BBQ because they are informal.
How Does This Work?
This works like gangbusters. People love it. They feel like they are getting a lot more than just a
carpet cleaner - they are! Think how many of the guests become your clients - almost all of them!
Plus this generates a lot of business! After the party a lot of your clients will just need to get their
carpets cleaned sooner than planned!
Your costs are the food, beverages and the gifts (if you don’t get local merchants to donate them). It
shouldn’t be too expensive. The amount of money that you’ll make from it will be enormous!
There is an insurance agent in Phoenix. The only marketing he does all year is to hold a big party on
his Birthday. He has it catered for all his clients and whoever they want to bring. They all bring him a
‘gag’ gift and he opens them. That’s all he does and he has more clients than he can handle! He’s in the
top 5% of all insurance salespeople in the U.S.A. This is very powerful!
When you plan your client appreciation event, tell all your clients. Mention it in your newsletter for
several months before. Tell all the clients that you see.
You have to get excited about this or it won’t work. Even tell a few newspaper reporters and invite
them. Make sure the word gets out.
Have all your clients RSVP. You need to know how many people there are going to be, so you can
prepare. Plan ahead and you’ll get great results!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
A lending library is another thing you give to your clients. It’s another way to WOW them (Strategy
#10). It is a list of books you have that you are willing to lend to your client. Now these books should
relate to carpet and your other services.
Books that will help them choose new carpet, pick a brand of carpet, and decide between extra-plush
and standard. Books about carpet cleaning methods. Books about your other services. Books on indoor
air quality. Books on cleaning the environmental way (only if you do).
Any information that could be helpful to them. In other words not your running a carpet cleaning
business manuals which would have no value to your clients.
You can also stress that you are really into consumer education and offer all sorts of books like:
Anything that is designed to educate consumers. Stick to things that most of your clients have or do.
For example they all have to do taxes.
Inform your clients that you have a lending library in your new client kit (Strategy #31). An example
of what to say about your lending library follows, but you’ll have to choose your own books, reports,
tapes, etc.
Make sure that all the books in your library agree with the way you do things. For example if you
use hot water extraction, you don’t want anything that tells how steam shrinks up carpet! (Of course
that’s not true, but there are some books out there that say that!)
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
The items in the lending library are designed to help educate in consumer awareness for carpet,
carpet buying, carpet cleaning and in other services. I’ve expanded my lending library to include other
consumer information on taxes, buying a home, etc. Only clients have the privilege of the lending
library. Here is a partial list of contents. Call for a specific topic or further details. Call to check one of
the items out!
[List]
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
NO.
The purpose of advertising is to get new clients to give you referrals. Then those referrals will give
you referrals.
But you need to get clients and to get new clients you need to advertise.
You should advertise consistently. So you are always bringing in new clients that refer others to you.
But you have to keep new ones coming in.
In theory you could eventually just live off referrals. But this is a dreamland. No one ever gets to the
point of working only from referrals.
So you have to keep those new clients coming in. If you stop or take a break, you’ll get fewer new
clients, you’ll get fewer referrals and pretty soon you won’t have any work!
Keep advertising.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
An advertising victim is someone who has no plan and makes advertising decisions based upon
whichever advertising rep catches him that day.
Even if you do good direct response ads, not those boring old ‘image’ building or price driven ads.
Even if you do have good ads that get response, you need to have a plan (Strategy #1).
You can’t just wait for the next advertising rep to come sell you advertising. You have to plan and
budget.
The other part of being an advertising victim is listening to the advertising reps about how to
advertise.
They’ll tell you that you should do what everybody else is doing. That stuff doesn’t work. I’ve done
it over and over and it never worked.
Then they get really nervous if you want to use a good direct response ad. It’s different and it makes
them nervous. They will try to convince you not to do it. They’ll tell you it won’t work. They’ll tell you
its too ‘non-traditional’. They’ll tell you anything so you won’t use it.
One time I ran an ad in a Val-Pak type mailer. It was full of copy, no white space. You almost had to
squint to read it. But it did fantastic. I did this ad for a client. His previous ads were like everyone else’s
and it was losing money.
This ad made money, lots of it. But this advertising rep didn’t want me to run it. When he saw my ad
he offered to write the ad over for me. He told me time after time that it wouldn’t work in his mailer.
And that he knew the types of people it went out to and that they just wouldn’t respond. He went on and
on. I didn’t listen to him - Thank Goodness! And don’t you either.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you keep running the ad because it’s doing great, they still won’t figure it out. They’ll assume that
you’re crazy and wasting your money. Let ‘em think that!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
A client dinner is a dinner for all your current clients plus their guests. To your clients this looks like
a free gift from you. You get all the guests as prospects. I’ll even teach you how to get someone else to
pick up most or all of the tab.
This dinner makes you a real hero. You will get a lot of the guests as your new clients. When they
see a room full of people all talking about how wonderful you are, they are easy closes.
You have a very valuable resource - 50 to 300 upscale consumers. Many business people will pay
you to get the chance to talk to these people.
I suggest ones that have the same prospect as you and who do not compete with you or the other
speaker(s). Some good ones are:
* Tax Advisors
* Certified Financial Planners
* Dentists
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You have to explain in detail to these professionals why this will be a good investment for them. Let
them talk for 30 minutes just giving information and then let them give a 10 to 15 minute pitch. You can
also offer to supply them with everyone’s names and addresses.
You can have 2 to 3 of these speakers at your dinner but not more than 3.
If you have 3 speakers you will need to shorten up the length of time you give to each speaker.
You must have everyone fill out an evaluation form. Have them fill it out at the end and then collect
them on the way out. A sample evaluation form is at the end of this section.
I like to give away some free gifts at these dinners. It makes things more exciting. I usually get the
speakers to donate something or buy inexpensive gifts, which I get the speakers to pay for also.
You should have this dinner in a nice hotel or restaurant. The most you should have client dinners is
4 times a year. But you should have it at least once a year.
After the client dinner, really play it up in your monthly newsletter. Make all your clients who didn’t
come, wish that they had. Report all the people who won free gifts.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Name_______________________________________________________________________________
What did you like most about the information presented?
___________________________________________________________________________________________
What did you like least about the information presented
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Clients Only:
Are you interested in discussing?
[Topic of speaker #1] Y N
[Topic of speaker #2] Y N
Do you want to make an appointment to have your carpets cleaned? Y N
Would you be interested in a free initial consultation with (Speaker 1)? Y N
Would you be interested in a free initial consultation with (Speaker 2)? Y N
Comments:__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Name_________________________________________________________
Address________________________________________________________
City_________________________________State______Zip_____________
Home Phone______________________Work Phone____________________________
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Videos can be a powerful selling tool. Even if you are a great salesperson, you can’t rely on your
employees to be great salespeople.
Most carpet cleaners are not great salesmen. You may be an exception but most are not.
In fact most hate selling. And some days are worse than others.
That’s why videos can be very, very powerful at selling. You only have to be good once on video.
Then you can have all your clients play it while you or your tech are measuring the client’s carpet.
If your tech uses this video, it doesn’t matter whether he is good at selling or not. You see, the video
does all the selling.
And it doesn’t matter if you are having a bad day, the video still works just as well.
First of all, write down your best sales presentation. Tell all the reasons why your company is
special. Don’t forget to use your USP (Strategy #4).
Tell all the compelling reasons why people need to get their carpets cleaned at least every 12
months:
You know all these reasons. Tell them in a compelling way that convinces your client.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This does not and shouldn’t be expensive. You should get someone locally to do it for around
$500.00.
The only thing your video should do is sell your client on using you, getting their carpets cleaned
regularly, and on carpet protection.
In fact, the more expensive the video, the less likely it is to ‘sell’ your client on anything. That’s
because expensive videos worry about all the wrong things.
We have a video that convinces the watcher that carpet cleaning is a necessity, that they should have
their carpets cleaned every 12 months and that carpet protection is a must.
It’s not fancy but it does the job. Who cares if it doesn’t look like a $10,000.00 production, if it sells
the client?
You should take this option if you can’t afford to do it yourself or if you are a lousy salesperson.
Our video sells for $297.00 and is well worth it. You and all your techs can use it every time you
give a Carpet Audit™ (or a quote if you’re still doing those! - See Strategy #23, Stop Giving Estimates
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You’ll sell many more jobs and you’ll increase the average amount of each job. That’s because the
video sells carpet protection.
In the long run this is great because people are much more willing to get their carpets cleaned again
in 12 months or less! Your repeat business will go through the roof!
To order the video call 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 or if you have any questions.
One is that you will be able to sell your company better with your own video.
The other side is that an outside ‘expert’ does our video so your clients believe it more. Some feel
that someone outside of your company is more believable.
My advice:
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This can be a local celebrity but it should be someone who is pretty well known in your area. It’s
better if the celebrity has used your services and really likes you. You can pay the celebrity for
endorsing you but it’s better if she or he is willing to do it. You can pay them in trade - give them a
certain amount of free services.
If you aren’t there are many, more cost effective ways to get new clients.
Anyone who is on TV becomes a mini-celebrity. People will recognize you. Especially if your TV
advertisement is effective, it will run often. For many people they don’t want this. For others they live
for it.
If you hit all 3 of these categories then you may be ready to put an ad on TV.
There are different lengths of commercials. The most common ones are 30-second spots, 60-second
spots and 1/2 hour ‘infomercials’.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You should be able to produce either spot for less than $1,800.00. ‘Infomercials’ are a bit more
expensive $15,000.00 to $30,000.00.
To run the commercials on TV, you can pay anywhere from $20.00 to $500.00. You probably don’t
want to buy time that is more expensive than that.
You should have an offer and a way for people to respond. A number to call is best for response.
If you are interested in doing a TV ad, call our office and we’ll give you more information.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Most business cards say nothing. They don’t do anything to cause someone to call you.
The only reason to spend money is so that you can make more money. Most business cards don’t fall
into this category. They are just a waste of money.
If you don’t have a business card, that’s fine. If you ever get one, make it ‘pay’ it’s own way.
If you already have one when you get more, redo it.
Look at mine at the end of this section. Then look at a ‘typical’ business card.
Big difference. Mine says something important. It tells why my company is different. How it’s better
than the competition. It gives someone a reason to call. Yours should do the same.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Inside
Typical Generic
“Boring” Card
Company Name
PROFESSIONAL CARPET AND UPHOLSTERY CLEANING
Cleaners Name
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Newspaper advertising is one of the hardest mediums to make-work for you. It won’t make you a
fortune but it will do this:
These new clients will at least cover the cost of the ad. But the real key is to get referrals from these
new clients.
Referrals are much cheaper and where the real profits are (Strategy #55).
So if you don’t have a system for getting referrals from clients, than don’t advertise. Take the time to
create a referral system then advertise.
Editorial content is read 500% more than ads are. So it only makes sense that if your ad looks like a
genuine article, it will get read more.
Your content should have a very strong headline or you won’t get any response. The article should
address something that people will be interested in.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Bigger ads pull much better than smaller ads even if they are more expensive.
Alternatives to paying for newspaper advertising are Getting Your Own Column (Strategy #103) and
Getting an article in (Strategy #22).
Here is a newspaper ad on the following page. You can use it as-is or modify.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I’ve given you tons of sales letters that you can use ‘as is’. They work. They are money makers.
But once you ‘get the hang’ of it, develop your own sales letters.
After all, you and your company are special and unique. My company is different from yours.
Maybe your USP (Strategy #4) is aimed at speedy service. Whatever it is, you should create sales letters
and copy that reflect you.
It may seem a little hard to start. Start off by ‘modeling’ my letters. Change certain parts that aren’t
quite compatible with your company.
Remember you have those valuable ‘critique coupons’ for me to review your sales letter. Believe
me, I won’t let you put something out that is horrible.
I’ll guide you. Tell you how you can improve. In no time writing copy will be a ‘cinch’. Remember
to keep learning marketing (Strategy #12). If you do, you’ll keep seeing your profits soar!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
You could have a newspaper column of your own. You’ve seen doctors and mechanics have them,
why not a carpet cleaner?
In your column you would answer questions that have been written in. Of course you have tons of
time to write a brilliant answer.
First of all when you have your own column, you are considered the ‘expert’ in your area.
For years I’ve seen a mechanic have his own column. He answers ‘tricky’ problems. But everyone
thinks he is the brightest and best mechanic there is. He gets tons of business from this.
Whenever someone has a difficult car problem, they immediately think of him.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you were thought of when anyone in your area wanted to get their carpets
cleaned?
Plus you could use this in all your marketing materials. Do you think this would help you establish
credibility? Absolutely.
What about the people who write in for answers? Who do you think they are going to look to for
carpet cleaning? You, of course.
It’s not easy but it’s not all that hard either. First you have to really want one - that’s the important
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Then send him a powerful sales letter explaining all that. Remember to really establish your
credibility. If you’ve done anything with charities or other organizations include that.
Be persistent.
If you’re persistent and don’t give up, you’ll get a column. Let me know when you do!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
If you have celebrities as clients, even local celebrities, you can really use this to your advantage.
If you don’t have any, I’ll teach you how to get some. But first, I’ll tell you why they are important:
Fame seems to rub off by association. I don’t know why but it does. If you tell someone that
Harrison Ford is your best friend, you are seen in a different light.
If you say you clean for a celebrity, people will be drawn to you. They’ll think that you must be
great if you work for so-and-so.
People want to be close to celebrities and using the same carpet cleaner is a way to do that.
• Local TV Newsperson
• Sports players
• Movie Stars
• TV Stars
• Music Stars
• Olympic Athletes
A local celebrity that everyone in your area knows can be more powerful than a national celebrity
that everyone may or may not know.
If a celebrity is using your services, this is an endorsement. Get a testimonial from the celebrity and
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
First of all, they need their carpets cleaned. Second of all, they have enough money to easily afford
your services.
You have to target them. You have to let them know who you are. A great way to accomplish this is
to send them a series of sales letters. I suggest doing more than 3 in this sequence.
Some think it’s worth cleaning their carpets for free. And if the celebrity is well known, I agree. This
gives you a way in. Even if you always cleaned their carpets for free, it’d definitely be worth it just so
you could say you clean their carpet.
It’s worth that huge expense just to say that. Because so many people choose Tylenol because they
think that’s what hospitals choose!
This works.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
Remember, most companies don’t do anything special for their clients. Make all your clients feel
special (Strategy #6), especially celebrities.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
This means:
Working in your business means going out and cleaning carpets, scheduling jobs, managing
employees. Any of those things are working in your business.
Working on your business is planning what service you want to expand into, what new niche do you
want to target, how many new trucks will you expand into and implementing the many strategies in this
manual so you can increase your revenue and profits of your business.
You probably work in your business now. That’s OK. But you also need to work on your business. If
you don’t, no one else will. You need to plan to be successful.
As you grow and get bigger, you should work less and less in your business. You can hire others to
do that. You can’t hire anyone to work on your business - you have to do that!
This strategy is what Walt Disney used to create the huge Disney Empire - Disney World, Disney
Land, all the Disney characters, Disney movies, etc. Disney is one of the most successful companies in
America. One of the reasons for this is that the people at the top work on the business not in the
business.
Work less and less in and more and more on your business. You’ll see great results!
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.
I suggest you sit down, right now, and make a list of your ideas. Then go back and re-read the
manual. Each time you read the manual you will get more ideas. Some of my clients have a lot of
success keeping a notepad by their bedside. That way when you are thinking, just before going to sleep
or just before waking up, you can write down any new ideas that come to mind.
If you have questions or comments about the material in my manual or any Piranha Marketing
materials, please call my office. My number is 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643.
This manual contains quite a few forms and letters. I have a way you can get professionally prepared
copies of all my time tested forms and letters. We can even do the printing for you. My friends at our
printing service have typeset all of the forms and letters including invoices, business cards, Consumer
Guides, and all of the other forms. We can even provide you prices for a full trade show package and
many other promotional items. If you would like more information call my office at 1-480-858-0008 or
1-800-275-2643.
Thanks again,
Joe Polish
President
Piranha Marketing Inc.
© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.