Stripping and waxing, or refinishing services, are one of the most sought-after bids in the contract cleaning industry.
Everyone, from the customers to the commercial space owner, loves the look of a freshly refinished floor shining with the results of your hard work.
As a stripping and waxing service professional, there is a great responsibility placed on you to exceed the expectations of excellence in your industry.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking a thorough walkthrough and a good resume of experience is enough to make you the number one choice for stripping and waxing services.
To be outstanding in your field, you need to be able to write a strip and wax proposal that is as clean and polished as the commercial floors you refinish.
This article will walk you through the steps of drafting an exceptional proposal. We will cover several topics, including suggestions for how to introduce your proposal, style guides for choosing the right language to use in your bid, and proposal drafting tips that will make the contract portion of your proposal simple and streamlined.
If you are ready to improve your communication skills and write better strip and wax proposals, let’s get started by introducing your company.
Introducing Yourself
The way you present your strip and wax floor proposal will make a huge difference in the final outcome of your bid. One big mistake you want to avoid is jumping straight into the contract without introducing yourself or your company.
The cleaning service industry is one where your personality matters in your proposal. Think of it this way; your prospect isn’t going to see you every day. They aren’t going to be able to get to know you while you’re on the job. The service proposal is one of the only times you have to make an impression on your prospect about who you are.
If you don’t introduce yourself and sound like you’re invested in the emotional side of the prospect’s business, how will they know if you’re someone they want to do business with?
The best way to introduce yourself is to write a mission statement, a cover letter, or both.
A cover letter is simply a letter of application that explains your credentials as a contractor.
A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, or, simply put, why you do what you do.
If you’ve never given thought to how either of these things sound, don’t worry! It doesn’t mean you aren’t a good contractor, it just means you need to sit down and really think about why you love your job.
Let’s work through an example of a mission statement together.
The easiest way to write your own is to start by telling the prospect why you do what you do, then tell them how you plan to do it, and close with a promise of satisfaction. See the example below.
“A+ Plus Refinishing Services exists to make the floors you walk on beautiful and bright with our knowledge and expertise in the floor care industry. Our experienced staff of employees use only the highest quality materials to deliver exceptional stripping and waxing services. You will see our passion for quality and customer service with every step you take.”
We started by telling our prospect our goal- to make the floors beautiful with our expertise. We moved on to tell them how we will do that- with our experienced staff and quality materials. We finished by reiterating our satisfaction guarantee and commitment to customer service.
Follow this model and write your own mission statement or cover letter. When writing a cover letter, keep it no more than one page in length and include things like your mission statement, some of your past clients, and happy customer testimonials.
Reviews are very important! If you are using Route's job proposal software, you can pull up past reviews and incorporate them into your introduction.
You may also add before and after photos of past jobs. This is again something that you can easily incorporate into your service proposal if you’re using an app like Route that has all your walkthroughs and past jobs saved. Your prospect is much more likely to take you seriously if you have happy customers to back you up.
Strip And Wax Job Specifications
The next part of your strip and wax floor proposal is to outline the job specifications.
Get out your walkthrough notes, as these specs are typically gathered during a walkthrough of the prospect's space. If you are using Route, all your walkthrough data is saved in the Walkthrough Builder™. Pull it up and read through your notes in each room.
What you want to do next is define the flooring areas that need to be stripped and waxed.
If you are working in a large commercial space, each room is going to be different. Some rooms might not need to be done, and some may have areas of special concern. Because foot traffic is both dirty and damaging, entryways, hallways, and large gathering spaces are usually going to need more attention.
There are several ways to organize this information to present to your prospect.
One nice way to do it is to give each room in its own separate write-up. You will want to include the square footage of the room (you should have that in your Walkthrough Builder™ notes), the area that is to be serviced (are you doing just the room, or is there a hallway, too?), and when you plan to perform your work (is it nighttime, when no people can walk on the floors?)
You may also include what supplies you will use to complete the task, such as the kind of stripping fluid and the machinery you will implement.
This needs to be done for every room in the facility.
Note that this is not the contract, this is an overview of the services you will be doing. The last section is where we will re-state these specifications and give the final cost to strip and wax floors.
Once you have created a job specification write-up for every room, it’s time to draft the actual contract.
Drafting The Contract
Since you’ve already written up what services you are going to perform, the next part of the process should be fairly simple.
Get out your phone and open the Route app. Then navigate to the Proposal Generator.
The Proposal Generator is an intuitive contract building tool that makes attaching a price point your job specifications easier.
Although there is still some re-typing involved from the previous section, you can save time by selecting the cleaning services and service frequencies for each room from drop down menus in the app. You can also add any areas of special interest in each section and import photos straight from your walkthrough.
Having everything in one place on your phone is a major timesaver and will also help your proposal look more polished and cohesive; When everything is following the same format, your business looks organized and well-managed.
The contract itself is a restatement of the job specs you already delivered with the final price attached. If you’re wondering how much to charge for stripping and waxing floors, you can use Route’s Estimator to help you come up with an accurate bid for strip and wax services you are performing. However, be sure to do research on your own to make sure the price you are charging is reflective of the industry. You don’t want to underbid and lose money on strip and wax contracts.
Once you’ve finished adding your services with the final cost, all you need to do is import your company’s standard legal verbiage and any safety permits or permissions. This can be done within the Proposal Generator, as well.
When you’re done, hit save, and you will have a full legal contract ready to be signed by your prospect. Your .pdf contract can easily be shared with anyone straight from your phone.
To add it to your proposal package, send a copy of the contract to yourself via email from the Route app. Then open it on a desktop computer and save it to your documents (or wherever you can find it again).
When you are ready to put together your final strip and wax service proposal, you can print or email the service contract along with your cover letter and your job specifications. Ideally, you want your proposal to arrive as a neat package of information.
Strip And Wax Floor Proposal Wrap Up
Throughout this process, you have an opportunity to outshine the competition by putting extra care and attention into your writing.
The art of writing a great proposal will take you far; after all, the proposal is one of the only times your prospect will “get to know you”.
Take time in constructing a mission statement that reflects your passion for your job and your commitment to customer satisfaction. Include it with a cover letter that features actual reviews from real clients. Having people who will vouch for your business is very beneficial to landing the bid.
Outline the jobs you will perform on a separate page. Go through each room in your walkthrough and figure out how you plan to service it.
When writing the contract itself, use the Proposal Generator on Route to take your pre-existing data and drop it into a simple format you and your prospect will both understand. Use the estimator tool on Route if you need help coming up with the right price for your services. Once you’ve added in your final costs, save the contract as a .pdf and send it to anyone straight from your phone.
Follow these tips and with time and patience, your strip and wax proposals are going to make an impression as good as the services you offer. Best of luck to all the floor care contractors who are about to land their next big bid.