When Jason Barnes purchased A-Vac Sweeping, Knoxville, TN, a little more than three years ago, he brought a background unlike just about anyone in the sweeping business. As owner and valuator of Priority Business Brokers, Barnes has regular contact with property managers as well as with many of the tenants on properties. He says that when a property changes hands, it falls to him as the broker to reaffirm existing leases with tenants or to negotiate a new lease agreement between the tenant and the new owner. So he had – and continues to have – extensive contacts with potential sweeping customers.
So when the opportunity arose to buy A-Vac Sweeping, Seymour, TN, Barnes bought.
“I like service industries because if you provide a great service you can charge what you want – within reason,” he says, adding that it’s rare that A-Vac is the less-expensive option when bids are compared. “But we provide more service and people are willing to pay if the service is good. We take the time needed, we communicate with our customers, and we take pictures of the job if they need them. But the biggest thing is communication.”
Service and Communication
He says A-Vac is structured so much of the responsibility falls on A-Vac’s account managers who handle new sales, customer service, route management, drivers, and time sheets. They also follow behind the driver the next day to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to, and when they take pictures of the properties and send them off to the property managers, many of whom aren’t local.
Barnes says A-Vac is a parking lot sweeping company, but because they’ve established relationships with contractors of all specialties throughout the Knoxville region, they’ve set themselves up as a one-stop- shop for property managers.
“We have subs for striping, concrete, pavement repair, tenant cleanout – you name it. So if they need any other work done they can call us and we’ll get them the two or three bids they need before awarding the contract. Then once the job is done we’ll pay the subcontractor and bill the property manager and they can pay us. They don’t have to deal with a separate, new account,” he says.
Once he acquired the company, Barnes had all the sweepers and pickup trucks wrapped with a new logo and all the trucks cleaned and detailed. Detailing is also done on a monthly basis. A cell phone number is available 24 hours, and any call is returned – either by Barnes or the account manager – within 15 minutes.
“The biggest thing we hear from our customers is that we’re responsive and we respond quickly,” he says. “If we get a call that there’s a problem we’ll have someone out there solving it within the hour, 90 minutes tops. We don’t wait until the next day -- we’re there.”
A Competitive Approach
“I’m a very competitive guy and the people who work here know that and they are competitive too,” says Barnes, who honed his competitive nature in college athletics.
But he won’t compete on price.
“That doesn’t do anyone any good,” he says. “Our biggest plus, and what we sell on, is that we communicate with our customers and we are responsive to their needs.
“If someone calls and wants a bid, the first thing I ask them is ‘why are you interested in changing companies?’ If they say they’re trying to get their costs down I ask them if they are getting good service. If they say ‘yes,’ then I just tell them we’re probably not going to be their guy because we’re not going to be lower than whomever they’re using.”
But that doesn’t mean A-Vac’s account managers don’t pursue work. They do, they pursue it aggressively, and account managers are held to specific and aggressive goals. For 2018, for example, one account manager is required to make 150 calls a week on existing and prospective customers. Those calls are all tracked in the A-Vac CRM system. Those 150 calls are expected to result in at least two new bids a week. In addition, each account manager is required to add 50 new prospects to the CRM each quarter.
“Those goals will dwindle in the future as we get greater saturation in the markets, but for now they are realistic and it’s essential the managers meet them,” Barnes says.
Once A-Vac has identified a new prospect, the account manager reaches out to them and offers to send over some introductory information. “We basically tell them what we offer and let them know we’d like the opportunity to have their business or at least compete for it,” Barnes says.
To assist its sales efforts A-Vac sends out quarterly gifts to current customers and the top 10 prospects for each account manager. “All that’s saying is ‘Here’s a touch from us. Keep us in mind and give us a call when it comes time to bid your property’,” Barnes says.
Pursuing Growth
In three years Barnes has grown the small two-truck, local operation to a nine-person, regional business running seven sweepers and two day porters – and he’s looking to grow more. And while organic growth will always be part of the plan the company is looking to acquire more sweeping companies to grow its market.
“I like to buy an existing customer base,” he says. “If we’re going to expand into a new area on our own we need a big anchor customer to build around. If we get that then we can expand that way but it’s easier to expand that way than just by finding new customers in a new area.”
