9 Tips For a Successful Prospect Walkthrough

Ok, leads have come in. You're reaching out and connecting with some of them. It's time to book the walkthrough. Below are 9 simple tips you can take away to help win your next bid.

Tip 1: Prepare before the Walkthrough

When I show up to a prospect's building I want to know a few things about them beforehand. I'll use this knowledge to help guide my tone and gives me the opportunity to ask more questions within the walkthrough. I want to know:

• The address and where we would meet at specifically. If I feel there could be some confusion I'll ask my contact when I book the walkthrough where and how they'd like to meet. Do I ask a receptionist for them? Do I call their cell phone? If there are multiple buildings, do we meet in a parking lot or are we meeting at that building? If the facility is secured, am I meeting with security first? All of this may seem obvious but I can't tell you how many times I showed up on site only to not know how to reach my contact. Don't assume your cell will always work. Oh, and this can be big...sometimes your contact wants you to meet incognito, in that they don't want to tip off the cleaner on site they're looking, so initial communication can be key.
• Research the size of property. Take a look at the property online if you haven't done so. Does it fit your ideal client? Are there trees or shrubs next to the property's windows which could indicate a pest issue? Can you see a dumpster on site? Is the property well-maintained? If not, then budget may be a big consideration for them when you meet. 
• Look on their website. Look for clues they may be expanding. Maybe they have a capital building campaign going. Bid a school recently that was too small for us to target, but they had a plan in place to 3X the size of their building. Worth bidding? Heck yea. Look on their site for a dirty facility. We bid a commercial test kitchen recently and clearly on their site you can see dust bunnies hanging from their HVAC vents. It allowed me to bring that up and learned that's one reason why they wanted to change. Also look on their website for other locations. Do they have other locations that you can serve?
• Look at 3rd party sites. Check out sites like Yelp to see reviews of that business. Look for any keywords in the reviews citing the cleanliness. This helps open your door on a sore spot for them.
• Look at real estate sites like LoopNet and CoStar. LoopNet will show when it was leased. Sometimes they'll show a promotional flyer from the broker and will actually show the layout of the inside of the property. This is huge in helping you learn the property.
• Figure out the WHY? Why did they reach out to request a bid? What pain point are they potentially looking to solve?

Tip 2: Show Up 5 minutes Early

Ever hear of "time is money"? If you're meeting with a Type A contact, and you're late, that'll reflect very poorly on you. Give yourself extra time to park, sign in, and it'll take a couple of minutes for the office staff to alert your contact in a bigger office.

Tip 3: Have a well-defined Plan for the Walkthrough. 

Step 1: Show up on time.

Step 2: I spend 2 minutes tops on pleasantries. I ask them about their weekend, about the big game if they're wearing a sports shirt, or even about fishing if I see a trophy bass on the wall.

Step 3: I let them lead the walkthrough and I ask questions (see Tip 4).

Step 4: At the end of the walkthrough, I summarize everything they told me in 2 minutes or less. Why? Check out this study on tipping. TLDR: 68% more tips just by repeating what the customer said. Think that works similarly to your walkthrough? Heck yea!

Step 5: I deliver a 30 second elevator pitch about us and our services.

Step 6: I wrap up confirming their email and I tell them I'll send a proposal 1-2 days later.

Tip 4: I ask questions during the walkthrough. Below are some examples:

• How did you find us?
• What do you like best about the cleaning services you have here now?
• What do you like least about the cleaning services you have here now?
• If we could change one thing about the cleaning today, what would that be?
• As we walk through, you have a need for toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, and liners. Do you need us to provide any of these items?
• If their property seems secured, I'll ask "Do you have any special security requirements or background check requirements for our team?"
• How often do you need cleaning services?
• When's the earliest we can begin services here?
• What start date were you looking for?

Tip 5: Never critique the cleaning services that are there now

Let me start with a story...I did a walkthrough at a Catholic school near Triangle, VA. Everything was going well. The facilities manager and I were clicking. We were on track to win our next big bid. We walked into a common area. It was a multi-purpose room for activities, meetings, etc. The floor was freshly waxed VCT. It looked terrible. It was one of the worst wax jobs I had ever seen. In fact, the facilities manager complained about the cleaning service throughout the walkthrough. So, I said, "Oh, there did an awful job here too" while pointing to the wax job. The facilities manager stopped and turned to me and said, "I waxed that floor". Wooops. We lost the bid. Foot in mouth. Don't critique or complain about the other cleaning company because you never know.

Tip 6: Never ever never ever price during the walkthrough

We never give a price in the walkthrough. It's too easy to make a mistake. It's too easy to slip and say something you should not say. Also, if you give a price and they don't see any value in your service up to that point, they will judge you on price alone and you won't win (unless you're underbidding).

Tip 7: Take plenty of notes

When I do the walkthrough, I take a ton of notes on a legal pad. 90%+ of any given niche is the same in the walkthrough. I'm not writing down that common denominator. I'm writing down what's different. If there's an elevator, I'll notate that. If there are water fountains, I note that. If there are special floors, like bamboo, I'm notating that. I'm also writing down rooms or areas they don't want us to clean. Or if there's emphasis on a particular area, I'll write that too. 

I also spend time on guesstimating time. I'll create mental sections around the property. So if I'm bidding a school and the classrooms are generally the same size, I'll simply write a time estimate for one (e.g. 10 minutes) and then I'll count the classrooms. For the restrooms I'm adding up the figures and using the 3X rule by ISSA (take each urinal, toilet and sink and multiple it by 3...that's the total time needed to clean the entire restroom. More about pricing in a later post.

Tip 8: Don't be rigid. Relax.

Ok, I'm an introvert. Put me in a room filled with people and I get nervous. Ask me to speak to people and I may faint. I couldn't lead 2 people in silent prayer. So when I was asked to do sales for our cleaning company, I thought I would pass out. I asked for help from my then-employer: Pay for professional sales training so at least I'll have a leg up. And that's what we did. I signed up for public speaking and I did sales training, like Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage. I created a very polished sales presentation and I was ready to wow everyone. Well, when I did my first walkthrough, I was nervous. I forgot everything I learned. But I also rolled with it. I learned that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason: so we can listed 2X more than we talk. From that point forward, all I do is ask questions and listen. Take a look at Tip 3 for the structure...it's designed to speak less and listen more. I'm a man of few words up to repeating what they told me.

Tip 9: Don't Try to Win Them All

Don't try to win them all (save some for me...just kidding). You're not meant to win them all. You don't want to win them all (because your prices are too low if you are winning them all). Use that time to build relationships. Learn from your prospect. Have fun with it. I've done about 1000 walkthroughs over my last 25 years. I think they're fun and I learn more about people with each one. And besides, I've bid and lost on some and came back years later only to win it with the same contact. If you carry this belief, you won't put pressure on yourself. You'll be relaxed. Your prospect likes it when you're relaxed vs. rigid and tense.