Cutting Price Isn't the Solution

pricing sweeping services

Especially when people first get into a business the question becomes “how do I get customers?” Unfortunately, many take the route of undercutting whatever the current contractor is charging. That's why, at the World Sweeping Association's website (www.worldsweepingpros.org) we offer a pamphlet entitled "Introduction to Parking Lot Sweeping." The contents provide a number of best practices designed to help newbies avoid this pitfall.

As a contractor, you need to realize that if your prospect needs your product but isn't buying — and continues to focus on the money — they have other concerns. It’s up to you, through your questioning and listening, to find out what those are. You will find that when all of their other questions have been answered the price will become much less of an issue.

One way you might accomplish this is to discuss more expensive options you can offer. In the case of parking area sweeping, this might include trash bag change-out, day porter services or an increased frequency of sweeping.  The relatively higher investment needed for those will serve to make a lesser amount of services seem more reasonable to them.

In any event, always keep in mind that, with parking Lot sweeping especially, they will also need to buy into trusting you and/or your employees to be on their property at night, when they will not be there. This means you must establish a level of trust in order to get the account in the first place. Then, your job #1 will be to work to maintain that trust over the course of time.

Instead of being cheaper, it’s much better to key in on what you can do for your future customer that is not being done by their current contractor. If you try to get accounts by proposing unrealistically low pricing, chances are your credibility will be damaged before you ever have an opportunity to prove your outstanding level of performance.


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