The sales lifecycle of a commercial cleaner is an ongoing process that requires multiple layers of business expertise. From finding leads to performing a walkthrough to writing the final contract, mastering this rigorous practice takes time and patience.

However, taking a step back and reviewing the entire process can be extremely helpful in assessing your commercial cleaning business.

In this article, we will go over all the steps in the commercial cleaning sales lifecycle and talk about why each one is important to the ultimate success of your business.

What Is A Sales Lifecycle?

Before we jump into the physical elements of the sales lifecycle, let’s review exactly what we mean by this phrase.

A sales lifecycle, or sales process, is a set of repeatable steps that a sales person takes to get a prospective buyer from the early stage of awareness to a closed sale.

The goal of the sales process is to take the customer from realizing they have an initial need for your product or service to the final sale when your service is complete.

The article goes on to state that many independent contractors, regardless of industry, don’t follow a detailed and consistent plan when it comes to forming new business relationships.

This can make your business look unprofessional and cause you to have gaps in between jobs or projects.

Setting an organized routine for yourself that you follow for every new lead and prospect will greatly improve the overall structure of your business.

In the next section, we will discuss where the sales lifecycle begins for commercial cleaners.

Commercial Cleaning Sales: Finding Leads

The first step in the commercial cleaning sales lifecycle is to find customers. This can be done a number of ways. Word of mouth is extremely important in this industry so get people talking about your business online.

Make a social media presence for your company. It’s free, it’s easy, and it doesn’t require a development team to maintain.

Don’t feel pressured to make your account over-the-top; remember, social media can be used as a business tool. Use any social media account as a way to get happy customers to quickly spread the word about your cleaning business to their friends. People can quickly share links to your website or easily contact you when you have a presence online.

Another way to find customers is by building your own client referral list. There’s no better marketing than a happy customer, so this strategy is sure to improve your lead generation.

If you have the budget for outside marketing, consider hiring a lead generation company to help fill the sales pipeline with quality prospects in need of your commercial cleaning services.

Advertising is a broad topic to put it lightly, but if you want to do paid advertisements, start thinking about what kind of ad you want to run; radio, print, online paid media, Google search words, social media, etc. The best ads engage prospects at a time and place where they’re most attentive to advertising for your commercial cleaning services.

These are just a few thought-starters on how to get leads and generate new business. Do research online to learn more about introductory approaches in the cleaning sales lifecycle.

Commercial Cleaning Sales: The Walkthrough

Let’s suppose your leads are going great and you have some potential new clients who want to meet with you. The next step in the cleaning sales lifecycle is to schedule a time for a walkthrough.

Talk with your prospect and find a time that works for you both. In scheduling the walkthrough, make sure to get a clear picture of what service the prospect is looking to hire for.

Remember, every facility needs to be cleaned - they also need all kinds of other building services your business may or may not provide. Understanding the prospect’s building service needs can land you multiple service contracts if you’re able to perform them.

The walkthrough is the first tour you do on a potential job site where you get a good picture of the work that needs to be done.

We have a great content series about different walkthroughs for various BSC jobs here at Route Nation, including how to perform a janitorial cleaning service walkthrough.

For the sake of time, we will go over a brief synopsis of the walkthrough in this article.

While you conduct the walkthrough, remember that you are trying to determine how much time it will take you to do the job well.

It is extremely important to take good notes on the walkthrough. Tools such as Route’s Walkthrough Builder™ are fantastic help.

In it, you can organize all your walkthroughs easily and save all your notes in one place with pictures and videos. You want to be able to recall as much information about the space as possible later when writing the contract.

When you finish the walkthrough, thank your client and give them an expected time to hear back from you.

The next part of the cleaning sales lifecycle is the estimate and proposal.

Commercial Cleaning Sales: The Proposal

After you’ve completed the walkthrough, you need to review your notes back at your main office and determine what the scope of work will cost.

If you’re working with a team, this is a good time to bring them in to discuss the project.

For a commercial cleaning job, you may want to write up a service plan that includes all the services you’ll be doing and the frequency. Later you will transfer this to your contract.

This is also a good time to write a cover letter or introductory statement to include with your estimate. The style and best design practices are covered extensively in our proposal writing content series, but the general idea is that you want to introduce your company before jumping straight into cost.

For a more comprehensive look at proposal writing, check out our article on writing proposals for janitorial cleaning services.

After you’ve determined the best way to do the job, it is time to write the actual contract.

There are many ways to do this, but we like using Route's Estimator and Proposal Generator. We designed this software to be user-friendly and professional. It’s a great way to make your proposals stand out.

In the Proposal Generator, you will see an editor on the left side of the screen and a preview on the right.

In the editor, you can draft your entire contract based on the data you collected during your walkthrough.

You will see a box in the editor for service charges where you can input the services you will be performing and the price.

Below that is a box that allows you to select service frequency.

You can add a task schedule below the frequency menu if desired.

Finally, you can easily complete your service agreement simply by pressing, “import legal”, and the standard legal verbiage for your contract will be imported below your tasks.

Now you have a full contract that can be saved as a .pdf and sent to your team or prospect.

Commercial Cleaning Sales: Fostering a Good Client Relationship

After you’ve presented your proposal to your prospect, the next step is arguably the hardest—waiting.

Hopefully your prospect will see what a good fit you are for their commercial cleaning job and

contact you to start immediately.

When that happens, the final step in the commercial cleaning sales lifecycle is to do the job and build the relationship.

Obviously this takes time and in-person experience to do, but here are a few tips to make sure the relationship starts on the right foot:

• Always be prompt when showing up for a cleaning job
• Wear a clean uniform or nice, comfortable clothing so you look professional
• Spend 10 minutes talking to your client to get to know them if they are on-site
• Call your client to follow up with them after your visit
• Stay in touch and get feedback from your client as you continue the business relationship

Commercial Cleaning Sales: Review And Conclusion

The commercial cleaning sales lifecycle is a highly detailed process that takes time, energy, and patience to master. Reviewing the steps of this market strategy is key to developing a greater understanding of your business and how it operates.

The phrase “sales lifecycle” refers to the series of steps a contractor takes to take a prospect from the initial awareness they need a service to making a closed sale.

When you find yourself asking, “how can I grow my cleaning company", know that the commercial cleaning sales lifecycle begins with finding leads. There are many ways to do this as referenced in this article, but ultimately you’ll want to compile a list of contacts that could be potential clients.

When you find a good lead, the next step is to perform a walkthrough. The walkthrough is the first tour you do of a space to assess the scope of work. We have an extensive collection of walkthrough articles in our Ultimate Building Services Walkthrough Guide.

During the walkthrough, you’ll be capturing notes to use later in the estimate.

When you’ve finished the walkthrough, the next step in the commercial cleaning sales lifecycle is to calculate your bid and write a good proposal.

Based on the notes and data from your walkthrough, come up with a price for your services in the Estimator, then use them in the Proposal Generator to make a customized contract in minutes.

This begins by writing an introduction or cover letter. Read our Ultimate Guide To Writing Proposals for Building Services to see multiple examples of how to do this.

Now you will need to write the actual service contract, which can be done by using Route.

When you’re done, save your contract as a .pdf and send it to your team or prospect.

After you’ve landed the bid, ensure you are taking measures to build a good relationship. Show exemplary customer service skills as you do the job and get feedback from your client often.

This sales process is necessary for every job you complete. Understanding every step will help you stand out even more in the world of commercial cleaning services.

Reference this article anytime you need help getting your company noticed or when you need a refresher on marketing sales 101. With every job you complete, your knowledge of the commercial cleaning sales lifecycle will grow along with your business.