[the red carpet]

What do you reckon?



Hi there,
Daniel McPharlane, owner/operator of “The Red Carpet” here.

Is There any chance we could please clean your carpet’s FOR FREE!
No strings attached.

It would be easy for me to print a couple of thousand leaflets, listing all the reasons why my company is the best or I could spend a couple of thousand pounds on a great big yellow pages advertisement to get your attention.

But to be honest I haven’t got the patience for this type of approach and I don’t believe in small talk, and so I would rather show you than tell you.

Me and my team would be more than happy to come and clean the dirtiest area of carpeting you can find “up to 100 square feet” as a free demo with no strings attached.

All we ask in return is that you let us submit a quote to clean the whole building and you bear us in mind next time you require the services of a professional carpet cleaning company.

Yes we are insured, yes we are fully trained, yes we use the best equipment and chemicals blah blah blah, but as I say I would rather show you than tell you.

Sound fair?
Call 01992 619 469 to book your free clean now.
Ps, at no time will you be subjected to any pressure or sales tactics we genuinely just want the opertunity to show people what we can do.

[AquaMagic]

I like it apart from the blah blah blah bit it gives the impression you cannot be bothered to list the things that people check and also trivialises them a little, other than that its worth ago, id put a deadline on there just to get them to act as soon as they see the letter, other than that i quite like the honest approach, quite refreshing.

[Damian]

Dene read between the lines pal.

Damian.

[Perry]

It is not bad. How you plan to distribute it as if you going to do it as a leaflet distribution then you will make double effort. Once going door to door, and second to go and demonstrate.

I think such letter is best to be direct mailed.

Regards,
Perry

[Mike Halliday]

a better title would be 'full-of-bull salesletter'

I've done 1000s of sales letter and you cannot make a generic salesletter to send to all business.

Different business have different needs. A hotel needs quite, in-obtrusive carpet cleaning, a nursing home needs an answer to their odour problems etc.etc.

A sales letter must address these needs.

the basic Idea of offering an amount of free carpet cleaning is a tried & proven sales technique but it needs to be used as a attention grabber to lure the reader into the letter then hit them with answers to their problems.

Mike

[carpetguy]

The idea is not new and it's one of "Little Joe's" marketing ideas. I tried it some years ago and it had two major drawbacks

 Took up a lot of time to service the callers

 Got very little return from it

Most people did the obvious.........they selected the dirtiest area they could find  and were very happy to have it cleaned free

FREE offers always work, but tend to attract the wrong type of work.

Nonetheless, any marketing, is better than, no marketing

robbie

 

[craigp]

i've also been told by someone who tried the free demo that people had there 200 sqft cleaned free and nothing else after that, that was domestic though.

does anyone find it different with commercial. as the above puts me off doing it.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

Another point I have heard customers make is that 'they can't be very confident if they have to offer a free trial'.

Cheers

Doug

[cleaning co]

one thing i cant get me head round  why would anyone who recons they are booked solid for next month or so would want to fit in free work ?  or do any free work !! :

[carpetclean]

i've also been told by someone who tried the free demo that people had there 200 sqft cleaned free and nothing else after that, that was domestic though.

does anyone find it different with commercial. as the above puts me off doing it.

graig forget it  i tried it last year gave demos and even though they was knocked out with the clean and one company sacked the cleaners who cleaned the carpet still did not use me as i was too expensive. as spmone pointed out freebies attract the wrong clents on the whole

[carpetguy]

Commercials are even less likely to give out work on the strength of FREE demos, they are in 99% of cases, price driven.

robbie

[AquaMagic]

Damian i dont get you mate?

Free Demo's

We offer free demo's or the first clean half price on all Direct letters i send out and yes you will get the occassional time waster that why you 1. Limit the area you will clean, 2. Only go when its convenient for you so as not to get in the way of other work. Ive sent out about 400-500 letters over the last few months and allready im working for A Letting Agency, Two Hotels and a Massive Nursing home, all on a regular basis, the trick is to follow up, once you have done the demo and given them a quote dont just wait for the phone to ring, call your contact a week later ask them for thier thoughs and if they were impressed with your demo then slip in the question, "So when are you going to book us in?"

Dont wait for it to come to you be pro-active.

Dene

[Mike Osbourne]

one thing i cant get me head round  why would anyone who recons they are booked solid for next month or so would want to fit in free work ?  or do any free work !! :

Maybe he's a forward thinking person, always looking for new, more effective marketing methods.

[cleaning co]

hi mike if u really thought u had it craked with work coming in con would u really want to turn down paid work to go and giv someone a freebie ?   please tell me what other trades do freebies ?  if they want carpets cleaned they gooner pay for it like every thing esle in life  lol      next time i want a pizza iam gooner phone cab to take me to get it and ask taxi for trial run c what his driving is like and tell him if i think he is ok i might just phone him next week and pay him for his services this time !!! and i ask the pizza firm the same  !!! lol think they might tell me to -iss off lol  i think this sort off offer givs your firm bad image , like u crap and begging for work lol

[Mike Osbourne]

Gary,

I think that is the difference. Some people will be that busy and yet still be pushing for more. I don't know what he's thinking, but seems like he's after commercial work there. Also it's just an idea he hasn't done it yet.

Gary, you obviously have been very successful in achieving your own aims- a nice paying business that gives you plenty of time to do other things. That may not be what's important to Red in his business.

I do demos for businesses except I just go straight in and introduce myself and offer a free demo. It's just a way of suggesting you can walk the talk, not many take you up on a demo but give you the business cos they believe you can deliver.

It's like the 100% satifaction or your money back for domestic. However I just can't come to terms with this one despite the positive statistics, as the thought of someone taking me for a ride would lead to GBH with a wand.

 

 

[the red carpet]

Just to clarify guys,
This is to get me in large commercial places, not domestic.

Gary, there is reason behind my madness mate, 3 in fact

1, i am reaching the vat barrier with my domestic work, so it seems sensible to go for some commercial work as the added vat wont bother them weras a 17.5% increase to my domestic customers might be a little hard.

2, i have just brought a 2man truckmount so this will obviously be more productive on large areas, plus i still have the portable and theres 3 seats in the van so theres no reason why i cant have a couple guys with me.

3, iv just took on some help and on the couple of empty rentalls we have done i have noticed how  we have really flown through the work i done a 4bed house the other day in just two hours £225. But on most of the domestics he is just sitting there looking pretty

[Neil Grainger]

Red

Why is he just sitting their, get him out delivering leaflets.

[Fintan_Coll]

Target the peple you want to work for. Do not send it out to everyone, just pick potential good customers. Do not send it out in large numbers either, just about ten or twenty a week and monitor your response carefully.

[the red carpet]

He's done a few, but in my experience its hard getting people to do anything without standing over them, and iv got a great leaflet guy allready who charges £15 a thousand wich works out at about £1.50 a hour

So its gotta be better for me to try and find some large open areas to clean imo.

Also my new guy is more than happy to go in places or go door knocking wich is something im not comftable doing, so thats good i was thinking of sending him in places to ask for the owner or decission maker and if there not available leave this letter.

[ianharper]

hi guys

another example of a joe polish idea not being used how its ment

the idea is that when you go and do the clean you measure all carpets in the house and then you do the full audit which will then give them three prices to choose from, the aim is to get them to sign a maintance plan for all the carpets.

think about it would look cheaper to clean all the carpets on a maintance plan or just pay say for one room there and then.

When ever you copy you need to know what the reasons are and what the plan was when what every you are copy was invented. it might be a "loss leader" link super markets do with some poplar lines

Respect

Ian Harper