You Can Have My Cake and Eat it!

I’d like to share with you a brilliant marketing idea that I picked up recently.

Attending a networking breakfast at 4Networking Chippenham, I met Darren Clarke from Spotless Spaces, who specialises in contract cleaning. It’s the sort of service that all large companies need – it’s important to keep your office clean and tidy, but no one really wants to do it themselves. When did you last see a CEO rolling up his sleeves and polishing the boardroom table?! So it makes sense to bring in a company that can do the cleaning for you -quickly and unobtrusively. Many companies probably resent spending a lot of money on cleaning. Although a clean office will probably boost morale and give visiting clients a good impression, it’s still difficult to measure the effect it has on your bottom line. (If staff start refusing to come into work or visitors faint in the doorway, however, you know your lack of cleanliness is affecting your profits!)

So if you run a cleaning company, how do you persuade prospective clients to consider you? How do you encourage them to look at the costs and benefits of cleaning and in particular, of using your company?

You could print out a letter to the MD and post it, along with your brochure, hoping that he or she will take the time to read it. However, that letter might not get past the PA, who knows how busy the boss is, so will ‘file’ your material in the recycling bin.

Or you could do what Darren does. He finds out the name of the person he wants to speak to and has a cake made for them.   He also has a mug made with the prospect’s name on it. Then he delivers both, inviting his potential client to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, while reading through his brochure. And no surprise – Darren got the contract!

So what could you send someone? It doesn’t have to be a cake – just get creative and think about how you can really grab the attention of your top prospects.

If you need Darren’s team to clean your office, have a look at www.SpotlessSpaces.co.uk. If you need a great cake, check out Cakey Pigg Originals, from whom we’ve just ordered a cake for our 13th Birthday Party.

What could you send, to get the deal you really want?