contractor success Marketing To By: Michael Schaffer Different Markets Targeting specific accounts uniquely will increase your likelihood of success. S Selling to different vertical markets, such as schools, governments, health care facilities or retail operations, can vary considerably. Some, such as school districts and many government facilities, tend to have a buying season, usually in the spring or at the end of summer. For JanSan distributors, it is during this buying season that these types of facilities consider making larger purchases, for exam-ple, floor machines and carpet extractors. After the season is over, the JanSan dis-tributor may provide them with small prod-ucts — cleaning chemicals, paper goods and the like — but will typically have to wait a year to market the bigger goods again, unless the district needs to replace equip-ment or experiences significant growth. For building service contractors (BSCs) in these markets, the same buying season will likely apply. What usually happens first is the school district selects BSCs who have asked to bid on the district’s cleaning needs and who meet the district’s specific require-ments for such items as insurance and workers’ compensation. The district may also ask for financial statements from the BSCs to verify the financial strength of the contractors. Why would they do this? In some cases, the school district may take 45 to 60 days to pay its bills. School districts want to make sure the BSC has sufficient funds to meet payroll and operating expenses during this time. In addition, more and more facilities are requiring BSCs to be Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) certified, which serves to help ensure that the con-tractor is structured to deliver consistent, quality services that are designed to meet the customer’s needs and expectations. Once this step is done, many school districts will actually take all the approved vendors on a group bus tour, visiting each building they will maintain if selected. This means that, for a couple of hours, you will be sitting next to your competition. Contractors are then provided with bid-ding packages that include square foot-age, cleaning needs and other details that may affect a bid. The same or a very similar process is carried out in many state and local govern-ment facilities as well. Typically, bids are due on a specific date and none will be considered after that date. The winning bid is usually announced one to three months after the due date. The Prized Vendors List For the health care and retail industries, as well as many other markets such as Touting an offering such as drapery vacuuming might appeal to a hospitality client but would not be so relevant to a retail location. 34 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • January 2012 Image courtesy of Tornado Industries Inc.
CMM – Archives Jan 2012: 34
