I have been in business for a couple of years and would like to grow our business by getting some Class A accounts such as 50,000~200,000 sq.ft office buildings from property managers and building owners. I have tried cold calling leasing companies and property managers that are on the yellow pages and/or Black's guide, etc... However, it doesn't seem like a good approach when dealing with these busy people. Can anybody share their tactics on getting large property leads?

Also, some of my collegues say that the cleaning industry is very competitive so that sometimes you need to give some kickbacks to the property managers after building a close relationship, is that true? really only the "bid guys" in the industry get the "bid accounts" and the rest of it is shared by the small ones?

Clough

I don't know about the kickback thing. But, this is just a thought. Do you advertise on the Internet? If not, then you might want to do so by utilizing some of the many free sites on which to advertise that are available out there. Most of the best ones where you can advertise for free are listed on the following link.

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/music/m...ng-103010.html

HeidiS2008

try using craigslist.com you can post in the "small biz" catagory craigslist is free to advertise on and gets tons of traffic

Clough

Yes, craigslist.org is great to use! It is one of the sites that I referenced if someone clicks on the link in my first answer above. You can also post differently titled and worded ads in multiple sections of that site in order to get better exposure.

I agree that posting in the Small Biz category would be good. But, a person doesn't have to just stick to that category to advertise a business.

Fr_Chuck

On the bids, you have to wine and dine the people often, How many of the cleints do you take to lunch, do you follow up.

But again with some it is always the lowest bid, so make sure your costs are in line.

I will give you a good example, lets say for example my company normally makes 30 percent on a sale, on some of the higly bid jobs we may only make 5 to 10 percnet on the larger jobs to get it.

Also if you are a small business, you really want alot of smaller contracts since if you lose a few noting bad happens, but if you have too many large contracts, you end up out of business fast.

Clough

It's true especially about having too many large contracts. I have a neighbor who had some major cleaning contracts in our city, and he has now lost several of them for various reasons, not because he was doing a bad job, but because they were looking to cut corners in some way. And, this really hurt him financially. So, sometimes it can be very easy to lose a job, even though you may have been doing a good job.