28. Use this 5-Step Research Workflow to Craft a Better Offer for your Cleaning Business
Build your prospecting list as well.
I hosted the first in a series of weekly lives with an update on The Commercial Cleaning OS course yesterday.
You can watch the re-run here.
Every week between now and the launch of the course I’ll be hosting a live on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook around 4.30pm GMT/12.30 ET/9.30 PT.
The idea is to give you guys a real-time update as I’m creating the course and to get feedback on the content and what else you’d like to see included.
Provisional launch date for the course is 1st May.
You can join the waitlist here.
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been researching new markets - private education, manufacturing and data centres.
I’m currently working with two commercial cleaning businesses who want more contracts in these markets.
As part of onboarding, I help them develop their ICP and identify the key decision makers that we will target as part of our prospecting campaigns.
This workflow helps me learn about new markets, find information for crafting the right offers and know who to send the emails to.
Agenda
Wikipedia
Trade Associations
Regulatory Bodies
Competition
Job Vacancies
Wikipedia
I start all of my research on Wikipedia. I picked this tip up from Tim Urban on the Tim Ferriss podcast.
Urban writes detailed well researched long form blog posts and Ferriss asked him what is starting point is for research. Wikipedia.
“Wikipedia is good at telling you where the walls are. Just letting you even understand the topic, in general. And Wikipedia has a lot of good knowledge on it.”
Wikipedia also provides lots of reference links to content related to your search.
Trade Associations
Wikipedia will often refer to trade associations related to the market that you’re searching.
If not, jump onto Google or ChatGPT and find the associations related to your market.
Trade associations are a goldmine.
They normally have a member’s directory aka a verified list of the ICPs you’re looking to target. Some directories are free to access, others you need to join as a member before getting access.
Joining as a member gets you access to the members directory. You’ll also become an “industry partner” on the association website - a recommendation that generates leads.
Regulatory + Professional Bodies
Most industries will have a government watchdog or a professional association that regulates members.
You can learn more about the standards required within a market or industry.
This is where I look for information related to cleaning - health & safety requirements, mandatory inspections, sustainability protocols etc.
It helps me understand industry challenges which I can use when crafting an offer.
These bodies also have an open access list of businesses they regulate.
Bingo.
Competition
During our Onboarding process we ask clients to provide a list of other cleaning companies that are their competitors.
We look at their testimonials, case studies and reviews to find out:
What they are doing well;
What challenges they helped clients overcome;
What benefits they provide to clients;
What issues were highlighted by negative reviews; and
Who gave the testimonials and their job title.
All useful information for crafting an offer.
You also learn about the different job titles the key decision makers have at businesses similar to your ICP.
Job Vacancies
Now that I have a list of job titles, I use Glassdoor or Indeed to search for vacancies of similar roles.
I look at their duties and responsibilities, KPIs and who they might have to report to.
It helps me develop a key decision maker avatar and get a better understanding of their day to day role.
I take a look at their LinkedIn profile to find any other useful information.
LinkedIn will recommend people similar to the profile you’re searching. Add those contacts to your prospecting list.
Before you start prospecting for your cleaning business, spend some time learning about your ICP. Find out who the key decision makers are and their biggest challenges.
It will help you craft a better offer and position your cleaning business as THE business to solve your prospects problems.
Content to check out
In this week’s episode of The Growth Lab podcast, I have a chat with Avin Rabheru MBE, CEO of Housekeep about growing a £100m Cleaning Business. Listen here.
Prefer watching over listening? Check out The Growth Lab podcast on YouTube.
Watch The Commercial Cleaning OS course intro here and follow on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook for weekly lives.
Need More Help?
If you’re struggling to generate sales leads that grow your cleaning business, I offer help in 3 ways:
Email me with your current prospecting strategy. The more detailed you provide, the more personal I can make my response.
Get manually verified, hyper-personalised B2B contact lists for your cleaning business delivered straight to your inbox - within 48 hours.
Turn 100% cold prospects into 5-10 sales leads and booked appointments every month for your commercial cleaning business.
Thanks for reading!
Matt @ The Growth Lab
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