How Do You Sound Experienced?

How do you sound experienced when bidding a job if you’re new to house cleaning? Can you market the skills you already have as a house cleaner with no experience?

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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.

How Do You Sound Experienced?

How Do You Sound Experienced, Two Women TalkingHow do you sound experienced when you’re new and you go to bid a job? What that comes down to are your credentials. And so, when you go to a customer’s house and you’re bidding a job, what they’re looking for is, are you the right person for cleaning their house?

And so, what you want to make sure that you do is create comfort in that they will feel comfortable hiring you. So you might be new to house cleaning, but what can you say that will show your experience?

Make an Inventory of Your Life

How Do You Sound Experienced, Kids Bothering Mother Trying to WorkSo the first thing to do is sit down and make an inventory of your life because you’re 18, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years old right now when you go to the customer’s house. You’re not born today. If you were, you would not be cleaning houses.

So, you have some experience. What experience do you have? Do you have experience with kids, with pets, with people, with cleaning, with other jobs? What are your skills? Because a lot of skills will translate. So, for example, let’s say that you are a stay at home mom, and you have been raising kids for the last 17 years.

Now you’re going back into the workforce and you’re a little unsure of what to say because you’re new to house cleaning. So what you do is you go in and you say, “Hey, listen, I am new to house cleaning, but I raised four children and I’ve been cleaning up sandwiches and crumbs for the last 17 years. I’ve been cleaning up clothes and doing laundry and tidying up every single day for the last 17 years. I know what it’s like to have a house full of children. I can make your house shine.”

Bring in Your Experience to Clients

How Do You Sound Experienced, Two Women Talking on CouchBy doing this you bring in your experience that you have to the client.  You did not say you were a professional house cleaner with years of experience. You said you were a mom working around kids. Now, when you were talking to another mom with kids, she’s going to say, “Oh, you totally get me.”

She’s going to know that you understand her pain. Now, if you are in a home with animals and you have pets yourself, you can say something to the effect of, “I know what it’s like to clean up after four dogs every single day, and the dog hair that they leave lying around and how to get that off your furniture, and how to make sure it’s not floating around your hardwood floors.” And so, the person is going to go, “Oh, she totally gets me. She wants to have seen my house.”

Connect With Your Clients to Sound Experienced

How Do You Sound Experienced, House Cleaner Pointing at Self, I've Cleaned UpYou’re going to want to connect with them on the level where they are based on what you know.  Now you can always double back, and you can say, “I joined the Chamber of Commerce. I’m a member of the Better Business Bureau. We don’t have any ratings yet because we’re fairly new. And so, I would love ratings and reviews from you so that I can boost my visibility with the Better Business Bureau, and I will work for your business so that can happen.”

Be honest with people. Don’t pretend like you’ve been cleaning for years if you haven’t. And if you’ve been cleaning at your own home, don’t tell them that you’ve been cleaning houses, making it sound like you’re a professional for years because you aren’t. There are differences in the systems that you create that you will learn as you go along.

Let Them Know That You’re New to Cleaning

How Do You Sound Experienced, Two Women Talking in KitchenSo, if  you let them know that you’re new to cleaning, they’re more willing to work with you than if they think that you’ve had 15 years of professional house cleaning experience. Because then they’re going to want a specific thing, and although they’re willing to pay a little bit more for that, if they don’t get it, they’re going to be very upset.

Then you’re going to get bad ratings and reviews and they’re going to want their money back. And then you’re going to be terribly frustrated. So, be honest about your situation and about the experience that you bring to the table.

There are Lots of Ways to Get Training

How Do You Sound Experienced, House Cleaner ThinkingNow, as far as the training goes, there are lots of ways to get it.  There is paid training and free training out there.  You can get training. Training is not the problem, but you will want to list what training you’ve had.

“I’ve gone through this course. I’ve learned this and this. I’m eager to put this into practice. I would love to have the experience. And so please can I work with you?” And then you have to ask for the sale. Even though you are new to house cleaning, you’re not new to life. And so as you bring in all these other experiences and you are confident about your presentation, lots of people will give you a chance, and they’ll say, “Sure, let’s give it a try.”

And you can always come in and say, “Listen, I offer a 100% money-back guarantee. If for any reason you’re not satisfied, I will happily grant your money back. But I would love the experience. Are you willing to give it a try?” And you have to ask for the close. Then, if they say, “Yeah, I’m willing to give it a try.” great.

Make Sure Clients Know What They’re Getting Into

How Do You Sound Experienced, Surprised Man on ComputerThey know what they’re getting into. So it’s not that you’re new and you’re scared, but if you are new and scared, then you don’t bring anything to the table of any value, life experience or anything else.  Then the client is going to be frustrated and they’re going to be not sure of you either. And then they’re going to walk away.

The goal is to make them comfortable in hiring you and to give you a chance. Because, once they’ve hired you and you have a chance, you can now get referrals and you can build other businesses off of that.

Every single house cleaner today started from somewhere. And that somewhere was, “I don’t have any customers or any clients and I’m just getting started.” Every single person that has a successful cleaning business today started with zero clients.

You Have to Start From Somewhere

How Do You Sound Experienced, Woman Looking in MirrorSo, you have to start somewhere. Get in front of the mirror and practice your sales pitch every day. Practice with pride all the stuff that you bring to the table. What do you know?

“Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ve never worked in house cleaning before, but I ran a team of 32 people in corporate America. I know how to manage a team, and I’m hiring people right now to run my cleaning team. I promise you; we’re going to have the best team that you’ve ever had because I’m that kind of a leader.” People are going to go, “Whoa, all right, let’s do this.”

Actors practice their lines before they get on stage or before they get in front of a camera. This is no different. You’re going to be practicing your skills in front of the person that’s going to hire you and give you money, which is the person that you’re doing the walkthrough to.

Use Your Whole Inventory on Your Walkthrough

How Do You Sound Experienced, Woman Writing in NotebookSo make an inventory of the things that you know, the skills that you have, the things that you learned from other jobs that you had, or other life experiences. As stated, raising the kids, bring that all together, and get in front of the bathroom mirror and practice saying those lines.

Practice rehearsing it so that it just flows seamlessly off the tip of your tongue. If you’re stammering and you’re like, “Well, I, I, I had four kids.” They’re going to go, “Really? It doesn’t sound like you’re a mom.” You’re going to go, “Boy, did I have four kids.” You want to make it sound real.

So, practice it until you’re comfortable in front of other people.000 Savvy Cleaner Spacer Bar 2020Resources

 

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