Reader Question – I Don’t Have Time To Sell, But Don’t Have The Money To Hire Someone

I was recently asked a question by one of our BSC Mastermind Group members that went something like this: “My janitorial company is small but we are anxious to grow. However, I find myself in somewhat of a dilemma. Due to our size, I need to be involved in the day-to-day operations, which limits my time to devote to selling. I’d love to hire someone to sell or outsource certain parts of the sales process, but I don’t have the budget for that right now. So how can I grow even though I feel a bit stuck?” Here are 3 tips to help overcome this early stage growth struggle that most businesses encounter.

 

Tip #1 – Consistently devote time to sales

This sounds really simple, but it is often overlooked. In the janitorial industry, the sales cycle is typically very long, sometimes stretching two or three years. You rarely pick up new cleaning accounts by making a phone call or stopping by a prospect location. Because the cycle is long, you need to devote regular time to the process. If you are stretched thin, devote five or six hours per week to sales. Make sure this is a weekly effort. Carve out a specific time each week that you will devote to selling. Protect that time, not letting any other urgent, non-critical tasks get in the way. In the BSC selling world, the tortoise always wins the race.

 

Tip #2 – Use cheap resources

There is NO NEED to spend buckets of cash on things like CRM platforms, Google Ads, telemarketing firms, web designers, etc. The name of the game in janitorial selling is consistency, professionalism, reliability, and credibility. You don’t need a big budget to make that happen. During the early growth phases of our business, we rarely spent more than $2k-$3k per year on sales/marketing related expenses. It just isn’t necessary. Here are some cheap tools I’d recommend.

  • CRM – Microsoft Excel or a web-based tool like Nutshell
  • Marketing/Graphic Design – Fiverr.com
  • Website Design – DIY w/ Wix.com or Fiverr.com
  • Email campaigns – Mailchimp.com

 

Tip #3 – Only target ideal prospects

If your time is limited, why waste it going after prospects you wouldn’t even be excited to land? If you only have 5 hours per week to spend on selling, identify the top 100 or 200 prospects you’d love to have, and then pour all your energy into landing some of them. In this instance, less is more. Trust me, it can be painful to intentionally shorten your prospect list. But what is more painful is having a giant list and securing ZERO business. If you want some help learning how to build a prospect list, check out this free video series on the topic.

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