How Shaking a Stranger's Hand Can Make You Millions In Your Cleaning Business

In this episode, we talk about ways you can grow your business through networking and referrals. Your network is your net worth.

Referrals...build a list of people you know. These include friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers. As you add to that list, figure out who on that list is a decision-maker for a property that you'd like to clean. You can also use that list to ask for referrals to grow your business. Referrals brought in millions in extra revenue for Universal just by asking. Most of the time we're offered a referral without any sort of compensation. But sometimes we'll offer a percentage of any new contract in exchange for a bonus referral. It's a great way to grow your janitorial business.

Networking...this form of marketing has brought in more revenue than all of our other sources. We'll join networking groups, chamber of commerces, associations, and others to get around decision-makers and to grow our business. We never go in trying to sell our business. Instead, we go with the expectation of making friends.  Friendship first and business later. It's those long-lasting relationships that led to growth within our company.

Resource mentioned:
https://academy.hubspot.com

This episode has been brought to you by Universal Janitorial Services. If you ever need cleaning in the DC area, we're here to help you. www.ujsinc.com

Transcript

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What's the easiest way to say hi to a stranger? Just say hi. Do you realize that doing so enough times can make you a millionaire? Hey, I'm Mark Lineberry from beyond the mob podcast, and today I'm going to talk about how shaking a stranger's hand can make a million dollars in your cleaning business. But first, like with every episode, I offer a tip or a resource, a full cup, something that can help your business grow. Let me ask you this. Do you wish you can have an ongoing flow of new leads coming into your business but you don't know marketing well enough to get there? Are you looking for a free resource to get marketing training and even be certified? Do you wish you could clean up your competition and outgrow them? Hey, look no further than HubSpot Academy. HubSpot as a CRM, customer relationship management software that helps keep tabs of your opportunities leads and even clients. As a value add they created a platform called HubSpot Academy. Years ago, I switched from Salesforce over to HubSpot. And I had no idea that HubSpot Academy existed. And I was tinkering around looking around in there trying to get familiar to software and I see this section where they're offering tons of free courses, courses like well, using LinkedIn to grow your business or SEO to grow your cleaning business, social media marketing, sales, management, business blogging, and so so many more. In fact, there are dozens and dozens of free courses available with hundreds or even 1000s of hours of training to help keep your business growing to that next level. There's no need for an empty pipeline with HubSpot Academy definitely check them out. Academy hubspot.com Completely free totally underrated. People. Don't check it out enough for talk about enough incredible information. It'll help your business grow. Well, back to shaking a stranger's hand well ever hear the term your network? Is your net worth right Grant Cardone says that all the time, back in the day, in the Rolodex days, I think we you say your Rolodex as your net worth. That's still from Jim Rohn, you're the average of the five people you hang around with the most. So having that network around you having those folks around you people that you could tap into for guidance and so forth is so key. So critical. And this is why you want to do it. I'm covering two concepts here, networking, and referrals. Let's jump to referrals first, here's what I want you to do. Take out three sheets of paper, on one sheet, write list a at the top, and then write friends and family. At the very top. Make a list of every buddy you know, who are his friends and family folks that know you know you by name. Know your family probably been to your house multiple times. Best friends, neighbors, what have you make that list? And I'm going to tell you what to do with in a second. Don't panic. I know some of you guys are panicking that's like, oh, no, he's gonna ask me to call this list. No, no, no, make the list. I just want you to make the list. And then on the second sheet of paper, put list B these are people that you know, but are just merely acquaintances. Maybe you don't even know their full name, maybe it's dry cleaning lady or maybe it's painter or maybe it's landscape guy, or what have you. These are people that you know, you see all the time, maybe even pay them use them for services, what have you. But they're not friends and family. So make a list of everyone you know, in that category, and this list would be pretty long for you. I challenge you to do this, this is extra credit. Go to google google something like occupation list. I haven't done this, I'm assuming a list of occupations would come up if you were to Google that. So as you see different occupations like astronaut or teacher, or painter, or musician, what have you. Let that jog your memory of all the people that you know within that category. So whether it be a butcher, a baker, or even a candlestick maker, list that in there, make a list of all those folks that you know that fill in those categories. And then take the third sheet of paper, this is going to be the easiest one of all this is lists. See, this is the list of people that you do not know. Well, who do you not know? Well, there's like 7 billion people. You'll know them so why even put them on the list? You haven't met them yet. Right? What's the definition of a friend a friend is a stranger waiting to be met. So I challenge you to take these three lists. And I'm not saying call them right and I'm gonna dive into this. reason you want to do this. You want to use this list to start jogging in your brain Who do you know on this list is an authority figure who can make a decision for a building or property? For you residential cleaners out there, everyone on these lists can be your potential client, assuming during your service area, right. But if you're going after commercial, maybe some of them serve on board of a school, or work within a church or volunteer at such and such organization that needs their space clean, make that list or go through the list that you just made, and figure out who are those decision makers. And here's what I want you to do next, consider just just consider the possibility of asking, Hey, who do you know, is a decision maker for property or billing that I can possibly clean for? And then they'll volunteered people like to help other people, if you went to some of these folks on your list and say, Hey, I need help growing my business, who do you know, needs cleaning services? Someone will respond and someone will say yes, I promise you on that. So I want you to go in, take a look at that. And then dive in a little deeper. Consider this. The think those folks on your list wouldn't mind getting paid just for referring your business to someone else. If I paid you$100 to provide me a list of folks who might be interested in having their property cleaned, do you think you could come up with list if I paid you like 20 bucks a person? Do you think he'd come up with 10 names? 20 names 30 names for universal janitorial services here in the Washington DC area to clean in those areas? I bet he could write for Money, Money Talks, it's a good motivator, right? So he considered this take that list these these lists I told you to create? What if you were to offer them a percentage of every new contract that they help you bring in? And what I mean by how well, just by making the connection, just say, Hey, Mr. Stone, so my buddy here owns a commercial cleaning business. And I think they'd be a good fit for your organization and pair the two just through email or through a phone call or through a letter or what have you. So imagine that score that location reaching out to the cleaning company signing the contract, wouldn't it be cool if the one doing the referring got paid a percentage back as a referral fee? Well, we do it all the time here, universal will pay you a percentage back for every time you bring in business to us. And that new business signs a contract and they pay every payment that comes in, we pay a percentage back to the one doing the referring for up to two years. And so years ago, I mentioned last episode, we Hey, we worked with a uniform supply person. And they had, they were going after clients we were going after and namely they worked with a school that we really wanted. So we formed the partnership, we say hey, if you make that connection, we win the contract will pay a percentage of that contract back to you every single month, and is only like 2%. But the contract was$8,000 a month. So that's $160 a month, do you think it's worth it for that guy to refer business to our future client for 160 bucks a month, you think is worth his time for doing that? Five minutes worth of effort. And now you're getting paid 160 bucks a month and we paid him for two years? Pretty good deal. Hmm. So consider doing that go through your back to your list. Think through there. Hey, who on this list would love some money? Who on this list is the decision maker for properties that we could potentially clean? And so there you go two sources right there where you can bring in new revenue just through referrals. Well, the other section I'm going to talk about is networking. This is my favorite of all time. And before I dive in, I I'm sitting here behind a microphone. Earlier my dog walked out on me he probably looking for food on the floor, something like that, that the kids may have spilled. Who knows. But as I'm sitting here talking to the microphone, I'm introverted and I confess that I'm not seeing you guys. So I'm not nervous speaking into a microphone. But if you were to say Hey Mark, here's the 1000 people in this room, go meet 20 or 20 new friends or 50 new friends and get their name and number. I'd be terrified I'd be absolutely scared. I'd my palms would get sweaty, my heart would palpitate right. I get all nervous and disheveled and probably trip up on my words every other sentence because I'm introverted and raise your hand if if you identify that with that you're introvert too well, hey, welcome to The Club. You're awesome. So extroverted people man You guys rock to now I want to leave you guys out but it's it's okay to be nervous. It's okay to worry about it Bama and give A technique that will help you in your networking question and here's what I do. When I go to a networking event, I'm going to describe the process here in a minute. But when I go, I typically bring just business cards, sometimes I even live, leave business cards at home on purpose. My goal is to go there, smile, listen, hear other people's needs, learn about other people's businesses and industries. I'll give maybe a 32nd elevator pitch if they asked me what I do. But that's it, I don't even talk about my business, I'm definitely not selling my business. Because I have tons of opportunities on the flip side to sell to them, I'll need to sell to them that. So that takes the pressure off of me, I'm not there to produce or to win new clients. When I'm there, I'm just there just to listen, and get to know these folks, right. So if I do that, if you do that, you don't have to worry as much, it's it just takes the stress off, he makes it so much easier. But here's what networking does for you. Number one, it does boost your self confidence, right? Because the more times you talk about someone or talk to someone, you get more confident, you're more at ease as you go through this also makes you more noticeable. So when you're networking, and you're there meeting after meeting, and sometimes they'll have multiple meetings each month, and they see you there every single time. Guess what, next time they think of a cleaning service, they're gonna think of you first because you're always there. Also, as to your available resources, right? We don't know what we don't know. And within the chamber or all these different networking groups, you have different folks coming in at different perspectives, different industries that could help your business grow, and gives you a chance to learn more about other people. Another thing you could do is develop long lasting relationships. I'm going to describe that here in a second. But it's a great way to develop long lasting relationships, because again, you're there all the time, and they'll think of you first and finally improves creative intellect. Right? When you're around a group of people back to that gym room for quote, you're, you're the average of the five people you hang around with the most if you're in a room full of successful business owners. Do you think you'll be successful too, just by being a product of all that? Heck, yeah. Right, because you're an average. And if you're the average inside a roomful of successful people, you're going to be successful to no doubt. So where do we network at? Well, I love to network at the our local Chamber of Commerce. It's my favorite, right? They'll have networking breakfasts, and lunches and evening events. And I know COVID Kind of doing this weird stuff. But that parts of the country are kind of opening back up to that even on Zoom, it's great, because you still have a chance to communicate back channel and chat with people and so forth. But it's a good way to meet people. Another way to do it is through associations. I talked last episode about building owners and Management Association, Private Property Managers Association, all these different associations where your potential clients are at, go hang around and join those associations to it may be geared towards a particular niche. But sometimes they'll bring on vendors or vendor partners to come in. So now you have access to your potential clients there. within that organization. You could do meetup groups, if you go to sites like meetup, calm, there's tons of free networking events, business and otherwise. So you could go there and just join and hang out and say, Hey, how you doing and get to know people that way. Another thing you could do is join a structured referral based networking group like BNI. With BNI, we join, they only allow it's broken down in smaller groups, right? Only one of each industry or business type is allowed in. So it could only be one lawyer, one accountant or one cleaner, so forth. So when you're trading referrals, and so forth, you're gonna be the go to guy where they're gonna sing you those leads. Another way is to join civic groups outside the chamber of commerce, like Rotary Club, another similar concept where they just bring in industry specific, or you could create a strategic alliance. I mentioned in some of my goals going forward that I'm gonna do more strategic alliances this year. It's where you get someone you like, know and trust, sit down over a cup of coffee or a zoom call. I like doing this with my clients. And I say, hey, what resources do I have at my disposal that I could help your business with? Whether it be marketing or legal or what have you. So I tap into all the available resources that I have to help them and so it gives you a chance to trade leads, trade, referrals and so forth, and gives you a chance to help your business grow. Both businesses grow mutually. And lastly, you could join a local mastermind that's near you, maybe There's a mastermind and they happen to know other property business owners or what have you that need services. It's a great way to get referrals that way. So, again, my strategy when I'm doing these networking groups is just to make friends. Okay? I can still be the introvert, I can still be the nervous guy there in the corner. But all I got to do is give a 32nd elevator pitch from time to time and hone that craft. But then just ask a ton of questions about them. People love talking about themselves. They love it, they love it, they love it. And this gives me a chance to do that for him. So he gives you the chance to make them shine. Here's some success stories around referrals and networking. So referrals. This is key. I mentioned that our very first client, we got 1978. We still have it today. I don't know how much longer we'll have it. They just got acquired by CBRE. So we'll see where this goes. But our very first client that we got 1978 referred us. Well let me back up. There's a member of the board within that client who's no longer alive, but he is member of the board. And he also served as a board member for local school procedure school, actually. And so they said, Hey, since you're cleaning our building here, can you clean our school over here? It's like heck, yeah. Right. And so back in the early 80s, we got that. Well, that school referred us to another school. And we serve that school from the early 80s. Really up until a couple years ago. And so the peak of revenue for all this is probably between these two referees, referrals, I should say. Probably brought in for us. Today's dollars, about$60,000 a month. So do you think is worth it to do a great job for that first client and get that free referral? And go to the next and go to the next and go to the next? Heck yeah, right. So referrals are key. Never discount referrals. Never, never, never. Here's another example. Again, going back to that very first client 1978. We got building after building after building after building waters one building we clean we no longer clean. But catty corner to that building. There's another building? Well, that building called up the facilities manager, that building called up our Building Network cleaning, they say hey, who cleans your building? Well, it's universal, right? It's like, okay, great. They call us we go out there we do a bid, we win a contract. It's like 10 grand a month. I think it was at the time. Well, a brother to that facilities manager served within a union A union property located just downtown. And within that union property, they needed cleaning services were not unionized, but they were okay about hiring us. So we end up working and cleaning that property. And that's like five or $6,000 a month at the time. And then they that guy just happened to serve on board for the local boy scouts headquarters. And so we got that headquarters, just because of referral after referral after referral. So you don't know. You don't know who you don't know, right. So the more you go out and more you reach out more you shake hands. You can become a millionaire, no doubt about. Here's some success stories with networking. Our local chamber I mentioned, I started with the company in 1978. I did sells really up until about 2002 or so give or take says a five year period I left came back bought the company in 2010 2011. But in that five year period, before when I was doing sales, here's what our local Chamber of Commerce brought to us in new business. It brought us a TV station, it Protestant massage place, an insurance agency, a property management company, which led the four different buildings in the area, a church, a school and many others. In fact, one we still cleaned today. I signed it is a networking event through the chamber inside that networking events actually hosted by the local credit union, the president of that credit union, we shook hands and just by shaking hands, he called me up and said, Hey, I'd like you to come out and do a walkthrough as in the year 2000. We're still cleaning today. 22 years later. At the peak, we had about six different locations going by I did the math, we earned over$1.5 million in revenue just off that one client alone. So do you think it's worth it to shake a stranger's hand? Well, you answer me. It definitely is worth it. I can tell you that. So that's all I have for you today. Man. I hope this information is useful hope that helped. This episode is brought to you by Universal janitorial services if you need any cleaning in Washington, DC We provide four different distinct services, janitorial Porter, specialty floor work and also disinfecting. So if there's anything we can do for you in that realm, be more than happy to help you out. If you like this show and you'd like more information about the resources mentioned, definitely check out beyond the mop show.com. And if you felt this episode was worth five stars, or review, or even subscribe, I truly appreciate that you could check it out on any platform, Apple podcast, Spotify, Google or wherever you listen to this podcast. Again, this episode is brought to you by Universal and thank you for your time I really appreciate if there's anything I can do for you. Never hesitate to reach out