Good Cleaning at a Cheap Price

The Ask a House Cleaner Show and Podcast with Angela Brown

It seems everybody wants good cleaning at a cheap price. But before you go discounting your residential cleaning services here’s what everybody ought to know about the price of cleaning. Most clients don’t know what type of services your cleaning business offers or what they need. Your job estimate needs to solve the customers cleaning challenges – and they will pay good money if you can provide that value.

Listen: Good Cleaning at a Cheap Price

Watch: Good Cleaning at a Cheap Price

Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.

Good Cleaning Services at a Cheap Price

Good cleaning services at a cheap price, how do you sell your services and stay in business? Somebody wrote in to the show and they asked this question. “People around this area expect a good cleaning done for a cheap price, and they don’t really want to spend the money. My pricing is based on the house size, the type of cleaning, and other factors such as, do they have pets that shed, et cetera. I’ve talked to other cleaners and they seem to have this issue also. So my main concern is, how do I draw in consumers who are willing to pay a decent price for a good cleaning?”

So the answer to the question is, as long as you’re selling on price, you’re going to have an uphill battle because the entire world that we live in right now is cost-conscious.

Everyone is Looking for a Deal

And so everywhere you go, there are value menus, there are discounts, there are savings, there are value vouchers, there are clearance racks. Everything is on sale. Everybody wants the buy one, get one, buy one today and get a deal later, that kind of a deal. Everybody’s looking for deals and discounts. And so what you have to do is sell value, not price.

Now, I want to stop for just a second and tell you about when I started my podcast. My podcast needs a microphone. That’s the lapel microphone that I’m wearing right now.

When I started my podcast, I didn’t know about the lapel microphone, so I thought what I needed was a great big room in my house that had padding on the walls that had a great big microphone setup. And then there would be a great big microphone in front of my face and that’s how I was going to record my podcast that you’re listening to right now.

I Had Never Done a Podcast Before

So I did a whole bunch of research based on my limited experience, and I say limited experience because I’d never done a podcast before and I didn’t know what a good microphone was and I didn’t know what I was looking for. In my mind, I figured out that I needed an $89 microphone and they sold it at Sam Ash, which is a music store near where I live.

So I got in my car and drove down to Sam Ash, and I got my $89. I’m all ready to go buy the microphone that I thought I needed. So I go inside and this guy comes up to me and he says, “Hi, can I help you?” And I said, “Yes, I’m looking for this microphone.” And he says, “Sure, let me show you the way.”

So he takes me over to the rack where they sell all of the microphones and he let me browse. As he let me browse, he said, “What is the microphone for?” And he started a series of questions that took interest in my personal situation.

Your Customers Might Not Know Exactly What They Need

And I said, “Oh, well, I’m going to start a podcast.” And he said, “Oh, that’s fantastic.” He said, “Who are your listeners? How important is it to your listeners that you have good audio quality?” And I said, “Well, it’s pretty important. If the audio is bad, they’re not going to listen.” And so what happened is I started selling myself on a high-quality microphone.

Well, what I thought I needed was a cheap microphone. I want to stop for a second and go back to cleaning the house. When people call you on the telephone and they ask you to come over to the house so that you can give them a bid, it’s like me getting in the car, going down to the Sam Ash.

They already know that they need house cleaning. They are already willing to pay money for house cleaning. But what they think they need is maybe different from what they actually need.

I Didn’t Know a Lot on How to Make a Podcast

Now, when I got to the Sam Ash, the guy showed me the microphones. He was kind, he was considerate to my price structure, but then as he asked a series of questions, there were questions like, “How often do you expect to upgrade your microphone?” Well, I’d never thought of that before. “I don’t hope to upgrade it at all. I’m hoping I can buy one microphone and it lasts me for many years.” And he said, “Oh, I understand.”

And he said, “How are you going to mix the sound?” “Well, I don’t know. I’ve never mixed the sound before. I don’t even know what that means.” So, he said, “Before you decide on a microphone, let me show you some of our mixing boards.”

So he took me over to where the mixing boards are. This is a mixing board and it mixes the sound.

A Lot of Clients Haven’t Researched Cheap Cleaning

As he started breaking down different elements of how I was going to build the podcast, it uncovered a bunch of stuff I didn’t know, and I hadn’t done my research. And he said, “Let’s get the microphone that you want,” because he had it and it was on sale. It was, in fact, $89. He took me into a soundproof room after I explained that I was going to build a soundproof room.

So he takes me into the soundproof room with the microphone I picked, and then he said, “Let’s plug this in and have you listen to the sound and then I’ll show you the mixing board and show you how that works.”So he plugged in my cheap microphone against a $500 microphone, and he said, “Let’s listen to the sound.”

And before we mixed anything, immediately, I went to the place of, “Oh, I want that microphone instead. That’s a way, way, way better sound. That makes my voice sound so much better. I want that microphone. How much is that?”

Show Your Customers the Value in Your Service

So I started seeing value in what he was showing me. Then he started showing me the mixing boards and how the mixing boards work. And I was like, “Oh, I’ve got to have that one.” And he said, “Let me ask how you’re going to use it.”

He said, “Do you need a USB connector so that your microphone and or your mixing board plugs in via USB so you can plug it into a computer just in case you happen to go to a conference and you decide to do a show on the road?” I hadn’t thought of that either. And so what happened is, by the time I got out of the Sam Ash, not only had I bought the more expensive microphone and the mixing board. But I had also bought some soundproofing for the walls of my house.

And I bought a desktop microphone that was going to be used in portable situations, and a travel carry case, and a padded container that would fit inside my suitcase.

Many Customers Want a Deal But Need More

The reason I bring up this story is this. When we go to a customer’s house, sometimes in their mind, they’re ready to buy an $89 microphone, but they don’t know what they need is an entire studio. That guy made a fortune off of me that day. My story is when you go to a customer’s house and you have to go to the customer’s house, because like you said, people want a good cleaning for cheap, what does that mean?

So when you get to their house and you do a walkthrough, you can ask a series of questions that uncover the needs of that particular family. And every family is a little bit different.

We Have Programs for Pricing Your Services

At Savvy Cleaner, we have three programs that I recommend you go through. If you’re a member of our network, all three programs are included in the price of your membership. One is Course 12, which is How To Ace A Walkthrough, and it will teach you the words to say and the questions to ask, and what to look for on a walkthrough.

The second one is Course 13, and that is The Difference Between Maintenance and Deep Cleaning, and we sell them as two separate packages because, like a microphone and a mixing board, while they work together, they’re two separate things.

The third course that I recommend is Course 14, which is the Upsells and Special Projects. That would be like the room that you’re building where you need the extra padding on the walls. It’s the portable cases and the travel cases and the microphone for the desktop, for your Zoom recording, and all that other stuff.

Sell on Value, Not Price

It’s all the other stuff he sold me, and so my suggestion is, don’t sell on price but sell on value. Because I was on a budget, and as I’m standing in the store and I want all this other stuff, because I planned to do the podcast long-term, I planned to do that, and we are 1,150 episodes in, so boo-yah, but the reason I tell you this is because when I got started, I had a long-term plan in mind and I had the money and I was prepared.

Now, when people call you, they have the money and they too are prepared, but it is a long-term program for them as well. If they have a house, it needs to be cleaned. It doesn’t need to just be cleaned this week, boom, we’re done right. It’s an ongoing process from here for as long as they’re a homeowner or as long as they have a house.

And so what you need to do is go in and sell them value with the separate packages so that they don’t have to keep upgrading and keep finding new house cleaners and keep price shopping and all that stuff.

Pricing is Not About the Price

It’s not about price. It’s about the value that is perceived to the price they are paying. So if you sell the value and the price is like, “Oh, you know what? That makes more sense for me,” people buy on emotions, not price.

But if you can sell them on value, you’re going to have a much longer-term relationship with your client and you’re going to triple or quadruple your income. So that, my friend, is how you sell a good cleaning service at a cheap price. You break it down month by month, but it’s part of a much, much bigger package and you sell the value, not the price.

We’re not selling a discounted service. We’re selling a quality product that is going to upgrade the level of people’s lifestyles and their homes. And it’s what they get in exchange for not cleaning the house themself, so that’s what we’re selling.

Resources

Package, Price, Profit: The Essential Guide to Packaging and Pricing Your MSP Plans – https://amzn.to/365rbBQ

Impact Pricing: Your Blueprint for Driving Profits – https://amzn.to/3dz6bI1

Pricing for Profit: How to Command Higher Prices for Your Products and Services – https://amzn.to/2Tv6Q6l

Handyman Pricing Handbook: Be confident about your pricing and start making money – https://amzn.to/3watcHL

Define and Deliver Exceptional Customer Service: Proven strategies to maximize your profits – https://amzn.to/3yfMc92

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