Blacksheep,
I don’t do it personally, but as far as I know my brilliant, ace, fantastic, superb sales person(s)….. leave/s it a few days after the quote has gone in, then telephones this person to ask if they received the quote and was it satisfactory, most replies are yes but it wasn’t the lowest, then you give it all the c##p of the cheapest isn’t always the best and all that… then always offer a discount on the original price, whether it be a 2.5% - 5% early payment, or a straight discount, larger companies expect to get it cheaper than the original price, we always add a margin on the quote to allow for this discount.
If your talking about just trying to get your foot in the door to quote…. You need to catch the client at the right time (bad cleaning day/current company’s contract due for renewal)
Your best tool is your sales person/s, if the point of contact is a man, send in a good looking lady, if its a lady, send in a good looking man…..
This is the basics of sales…. if you build a rapport with the point of contact your half way there to that job/contract.
When you get the job/s keep that point of contact happy, pop in, telephone, stay in touch, show you care about the work being done, the majority of the major cleaning companies get the work signed up for a year, then forget about them, don’t get me wrong they do have the fantastic sales people that win clients, but its up to smaller cleaning companies like you and me to take the contracts from them.
Go for the large contracts where the staff are already there (tupe), most of the time they just need regular visits to keep them on their toes, if you have someone that can pop in unexpectedly to check on the work, they will do it to a good standard.
Sorry to waffle on
Best regards
Paul