A couple years ago I wrote this advertisement for my fellow skirt-wearing pressure washing contractors to try out. I am not sure how it did for people because no one got back to me. A couple tried it but changed everything about it like putting their logo on top – which completely destroys it’s effectiveness! – and other things.
I’m now offering it to you to try out. The only thing I ask is DO NOT CHANGE IT by putting your logo on it or anything else that talks about how wonderful your company is. Nobody cares! Every contractor out there has horrible, altruistic advertisements that may look pretty cool, but in reality bring them no business.
So, if you would like to use this letter, feel free. Just let me know how it goes. If you don’t clean dumpster pads then figure out something else to demo. Something with REAL VALUE to people on the receiving end.
Also, it is very important to target the right customers for this. You don’t want to go out and do demos for people that have nothing else to clean. If you can’t get enough business to recoup your investment then don’t send them this letter.
Good luck and let me know how it goes if you try it.
See Letter Below:
P.S. If you can’t alter it yourself, let me know and I’ll send it to you in doc. format if that helps.
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In economic times such as we’re in, we can lose a substantial amount of business to low-balling companies who are willing to work for nothing. Unless you are fine with taking a pay-cut, you must find a way to make up the loss of revenue.
I’m not a particularly smart person but I do have a knack for thinking outside the box. (Been inhaling too much caustic over the years, I guess)
Before I tell you about my latest brain fart that can make you some money, let me first tell you a couple things you will need to pull this off.
1). A pressure washer – gas powered w/ a tank for water. You need to be mobile.
2). Some concrete cleaning experience. You don’t have to wear a skirt, but if you don’t know what you’re doing and go blasting sidewalks @ 4000 psi one night, you are going to hate life in the morning when you are usually getting your much needed beauty rest. Wouldn’t hurt to get one of those fancy surface cleaners either.. you know, the ones that look like a lawn mower.
3). Stencils. A few companies sell pressure washing stencils. Find a good one and order some, but WAIT!!! Before you pick up the phone to order one, read the rest of the article and see which ones to buy.
OK, here’s the idea.
Use stencils to advertise… for other people. All the pressure washing guys are using them to advertise their own businesses (which is really smart), but what about using them to advertise for other folks who have no kind of connection to the pressure washing/hood cleaning business?
There are a lot of companies that would love to use this in their arsenal of advertising, but don’t have pressure washers, or even have a clue on how to do this. There are tons of possibilities in different markets and I’m going to leave that up to you guys to figure out, but I will give you one: Real Estate!!!
Be sure to include the cost of the stencil into your price. Some companies have HUGE advertising budgets and are willing to pay for some good guerrilla marketing. You are just the person to help them out.
How do I know this will work, you ask? Because a real estate agency approached me about it. Before I even thought of doing it for other people, they saw one of my custom stencils somewhere and thought it was a genius idea. They were willing to pay BIG money for me to put some stenciled lettering in some strategic places. I was willing to help.
Are you?
Let me give one more hint if you are going to do this. Don’t go with the boring “company name” or “website address” when you order your stencils. Think outside the box people.
As a matter of fact, let’s make this a little more interesting. If you do this, send me a picture of it, with you standing next to it. If you are a hood cleaning contractor, I will send you your very own Hood Cleaning Helper version Pute` for free. If you don’t know what that is, watch the video below.
If you are a pressure washing contractor, how about we do an interview with you about your company and I’ll put it on the website? It will give you some exposure and help spread the word about your company.
Are You Missing The Boat If You Aren’t Advertising Via Text Messages? Here Are 2 BIG Reasons You May Want To Consider It…
Texting is for the youngsters only, isn’t it? Not hardly.
According to one PEW study 90% of phone owners send and receive text messages on a daily basis. One-third of those people text over 100 messages per day. Texting has actually overtaken every other form of communication including face-to-face, email and instant messaging!
So what excuse do you give when your customers ask why you don’t text them for business? Do you want to run the risk of looking outdated, behind the times?
There has never been a better, more instant way of communicating with all of your clients at once, than now. There are a few things to consider when using texting for business, however. For one, people that opt-in to be advertised to by you must be able to opt-out at any time.
Another thing is there must be a disclaimer informing your client of the potential charges that may apply on their cell phone plan. Those are the biggies. Other than that, this is one of the best advertising methods to come around in a long time and this is why:
* The open rate of text messages exceeds any other form of advertisement known to man
Even the best marketers in the world can only hope for an email open rate of around 35%. The first challenge to winning over your client to buy from you is getting them to actually OPEN your advertisement! If they don’t open it, the close ratio will hover right around 0% even if it’s the greatest ad you’ve ever written.
The open rate with a direct mail piece in an envelope is somewhere around 3% if you’re lucky. If you send out 100 pieces of mail – 3 people might open it!!!
Texting, on the other hand has a 95% open rate. When people get texts, they open them. Your first hurdle is cleared.
* Texting is INSTANT
Let’s just say that you have a full week of work scheduled and it’s going to be one of your best weeks since you started your company. The phone rings Monday evening and the hood cleaning job you had scheduled for Tuesday afternoon fell through because the owner got hit by a bus or something. You don’t have time to send out postcards, you can’t hop on the phone and call managers because they probably left earlier that day so what do you do?
With text messaging you can send out a broadcast text to all the people on your list who may be due for a cleaning and offer a discount if they schedule for tomorrow afternoon. Heck, even if they aren’t really due yet, they may jump on it just for the discount! [Feel free to use my text in the picture above if you want 
]
Now you don’t have to worry about losing that work on Tuesday afternoon just because one of your clients got hit by a bus. It’s still going to be the best week you’ve had since you started and it’s all because you do this new-fangled thing called texting.
There are quite a few companies out there that handle this stuff for you. Here is one of them. Whatever company you choose, just make sure that they include the legal stuff so you don’t get in trouble. The company I just linked to does.
If this article has helped you at all, please leave a comment below.
Do you use pump up sprayers to apply your chemical? Do you get tired of pumping them after a couple seconds of spraying? Here is a simple solution for you, make your own keg sprayer. The kegs can be a little difficult to find sometimes, but will save you tons of money in the long run.
After you have the keg.. you need 1 of these
and one of these
One is for gas (or air) and the other is for liquid.
¼” ID hose as long as you want. I wouldn’t go any further than 100’ though. Get some hose clamps, teflon tape and wrap the teflon around the hose barb a few times, then hose clamp your ¼” hose to it.
Next, You will need something like this
, but a chem gun like this works good too.
I just like the pressure washing gun because of the versatility after the gun. You can use different length wands, angled wands, etc.
Then you will need some of these.
Play around with the size of the orifice (that sounds dirty, doesn’t it?) and see what kind of pressure works best for your needs.
That takes care of the liquid side.
For the air side, I made a little pig-tail for it. I clamped a short ¼” piece of hose to the fitting just like the liquid side then put a quick connect fitting on the other side to connect to an air compressor.
Note: you may want to put a check valve on the air side so no liquid can backflush into your air compressor as a just in case!
Be sure to disconnect from the stainless steel fitting after filling with air. Always clean all fittings and hoses after each job and they should last for a very long time. Something else to consider is only putting about 3-4 gallons of chemical in the tank before you fill the rest with air. That way, you will be able to dispense the entire contents of the keg without having to fill it again with air.
Always wear proper PPO when using these because they can take up to about 110 psi of pressure from your air compressor. Having something like that blow up in your face isn’t fun. Be careful.
Hope this helps a little.
“How do you apply chemical for hood cleaning” is a question I get asked often. Most people have seen my foam videos and most people think I am some foaming maniac. As much as I use to be, it’s just not true anymore. As a matter of fact, downstreaming is my preferred method of chemical application just about 100% of the time.
If you don’t know what downstreaming is, let me know and I will help you. But, basically it’s using a special injector that sucks your chemical from a bucket beside your pressure washer (usually) and is pushed through your pressure washing hose out your gun.
The chemical is injected into the stream “after” the pressure washer pump so there is no damage to your pump; that’s the good news.
The bad news is it’s still going through your hoses and I’ve heard many people tell me that it shortens the life of your hoses and all that crap, but I haven’t had a problem and it wouldn’t matter that much to me anyway because it saves so much time and is so simple and effective.
Anyway, enough with the layman’s down streaming lesson as best as I know to explain it.
Although the injectors are usually somewhere between $12-$65, they usually only seem to last about 3 or 4 months. However, I just got an email from my good friend, Alexy on his find and solution. Check it out.
Just wanted to share a way to clear up downstreaming issues we have had and a simple fix. We have been downstreaming for 95% of our jobs for the last year and a half. In that time we found that the regular general downsreamer would last about 3-4 months before the valve seat went and the Adams injector would get about 6 months out of it before the same thing happened.
We switched about a year ago to the check valve downstreamer made by Bob at Pressure Tek and since then we have not had any stoppages because the downstreamer valve failed. We have however had alot of cases where after about 4-5 months the same downstreamer would not flow as much chem or stop flowing at all with the valve working.
After scratching our heads trying to figure out what was happening I found that the chem was collecting immediately downstream of the injector at the fitting and building up in the inside of the hose end to where it goes into the hose to the point that it was restricting the flow to the point that the downstreamer would not work. The solution was to take a 15/64″ drill bit that has from 6″ to 8″ and use it to ream out the hose end past the end of the metal ( you will not pull any metal off but will pull a bunch of dried, caked SH out that looks like chalk) We had two, 100 foot sections and one, 50 foot section we did this to and were amazed at how much dried SH had collected in the fitting.
Hope this helps.
Alexy
Washington DC Hood Cleaning Specialists
This is something that I’ve never considered and it’s a great tip. Thanks for the permission to use your email Alexy. I’m sure my readers will appreciate this tip.
If you have a tip you would like to share, feel free to put it in the comments below, or email me if you would like to go into more detail.
If you have been to my “Gear” page, you’ve probably seen a link to the Bidslot Program. This cold calling sales program WORKS! Here is some proof:
As Josh and April’s 1st KEC customer (I think), I wanted to give some honest feedback to any of you who are interested in their BidSlot program. I bought a 10 slot package in January, and April made her calls and set up many, many appointments through the latter half of February through the middle of March. I did not realize this, as you may not also, but a 10 slot package will actually get you 30 bids to do.
April will go to bat for you like nobody else, and get you into many places that you wouldn’t even know about or be getting into to give them a bid. I was very surprised with all the new locations she found for me. 99% of the time they were good places to bid. The few that didn’t work out were not April’s fault, but rather, an owner who canceled our appointment for one reason or another. Whenever that happened, I would call April and explain what happened. She always replaced those bid slots that crapped out on us, and I’m sure she would do the same for any of you as well.
I took so long to share this information with you all because I wanted enough time to go by for more of my bids to go through and be accepted. A lot of times, when you give a bid, the restaurant isn’t ready to make a switch at that moment and you need to touch base with them every so often or just wait until they become due again for a cleaning to remind them about your bid. So far, many of my bids are still out. Some places said we were “too high”, some places want to use us but don’t have the money, and some places have hired us to take over and care for their cleanings. I have been working with a new pizza chain that is growing here in Portland, which I never heard of until April got me the bid slot with them. I also now have my foot in the door with a large grocery store chain here, due to April’s hard work calling in our behalf and tracking down the right person who makes the decisions to put me in contact with. And lastly, I have a verbal agreement with a pretty cool historic location that April found for us. They want to replace their current cleaning company with us.
Bottom line… if you need to pick up accounts, Josh and April’s BidSlot program is the best thing out there, waaaaaay better than Service Magic or any other one of those “warm lead” companies, because BidSlot is tailored for the KEC industry in particular and I know that April will give you 110% effort to get you into locations to bid. All you have to do is show up on time and give them your price. If you only picked up just one account out of the 30 you will bid, you will have made your money back from your initial BidSlot purchase.
Much thanks to April for all the hard work she did for Silver Lining and helping us to succeed!
Letter from Scott with Silver Lining Hood Cleaning, Portland OR
Scott is just one of the many people that BidSlot has helped since opening just a few short months ago. If you have a problem getting accounts for your business, or you’re just too busy to cold call, give them a shot.
Ant
Are You Tired Of Decision Makers Not Returning Your Calls? Here’s What You Can Do About It…
I’ve been reading a great book by Jeffrey Gitomer called The Sales Bible. It’s full of good information but one idea that really piqued my interest was what to do when you finally get through to the decision maker of an account you are trying to get and you leave voice mail after voice mail only to leave you wondering if they will ever call you back.
It’s not an easy task to get in touch with busy people and when you finally do, you want it to count. This is your chance!
So, you have the number in front of you. Your palms are a little sweaty.
You have in the back of your mind that all you are trying to sell on this first call is an appointment to meet with this person, nothing more. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? You pump yourself up a little and make the call.
Ring…Ring…
“Hi, You’ve reached Mr. Johnson and I’m out of the office right now, please leave your name and number and I will return your call as soon as possible”
Beep…
Crap… What do you say now? You didn’t really plan for this.. “Uh.. Uh.. Hi, Mr. Johnson, this is Anthony from Hood Cleaning Helper and I wanted to see if I could swing by to give you a proposal on your kitchen exhaust system”, you say.
BIG MISTAKE!
Mr. Johnson will probably never return that call and you have just blown a great opportunity. So, what is the right thing to say?
We all know that technology has it’s glitches, right? Let’s use this to our advantage. If Mr. Johnson is screening our calls, he will probably pick up instantly. If your message is in fact going to his voice mail, chances are he will get back to you ASAP.
Let’s try this:
Ring… Ring…
“Hi, this is Mr. Johnson…”
Beep…
Hi, Mr. Johnson, My name is Anthony and it’s important you return my call at 555-5555. I just got out of a meeting with the fire marshal and – Then just hang up!
As a restaurant owner or manager what thoughts will be racing through his mind? Of course, you will need a great presentation or some educational info that he will be asking about when he does call you back. Of course, you don’t want to lie either. If you haven’t met with your local fire marshal, go meet them. Ask them questions, get to know them. Do your research. Gather all kinds of market data that will impress or wow Mr. Johnson.
Hope this helps, please leave comments below of how you’ve used this technique and if it worked for you or not.
Ant
Anthony here from Hood Cleaning Helper.com 
This week’s hood cleaning tip I want to deal with filters. If you do clean the filters for your customer, I hope his tip helps you get those filters sparkling so your customer will think you are the greatest thing sense sliced bread.
The first thing you want to do is pull the filters out of the hood before you get it wrapped.
I use an 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub that I got from Walmart for like $4. I actually have a couple of them in case there are a lot of filters. What you want to do is put about a cup – 8 oz – of dry caustic in the bottom of the tub. Using a hose, start filling the tub with COLD water until it’s about 3/4 of the way full. I sometimes put a little bit of Dawn or other surfactant in just before I turn off the hose. It will help separate the grease from the surface a little better.
Note: Your mixture for this does NOT have to be strong. Dwell time will be on your side, so you don’t have to have really strong chemicals for this.
Next, put in the filters all the same way. Now, leave them sitting for at least 10-15 minutes before their first rotation. Then every time you walk by them, just rotate them a quarter turn until you have gotten all sides. When you take them out to rinse, the grease should come off easily and save you tons of time with a pressure washer.
Now, be sure to neutralize your dirty water before you dispose of it properly. Another thing to consider for this is if the filters are galvanized, the chems will turn them black. If the filters are aluminum, there may not be filters left when you go to take them out of the tub. Caustic eats aluminum!!! Be careful.
Hope this tip helps, be on the lookout for next week’s tip. If you have any suggestions for tips, feel free to email or just post them in the comments below.
Alrighty guys, I’m going to try something for you: Weekly hood cleaning tips!
It will be very hard because I’m extremely busy most of the time, but I will try my best to give a weekly tip to help you become better hood cleaning contractors. Feel free to submit your own via email and I will feature yours and give you the credit and link juice from this site if it’s a good one.
On the video below, I’m going to show you how to use magnets to hang your plastic even when the hood is stainless steel and the magnets don’t stick. It’s kind of a common sense tip, but if you’re new, you will appreciate it.
The magnets that I recommend to everyone are the magnets sold my Driploc. They are a bit pricey, but they are well worth the money. They are light, and strong. I hope you enjoyed the video, please leave comments below.
