[8weekly]

Why don't you just use Mark at Whizz Bizz and be done with it?? its value for money and you get guarantee for your buck! he lives less than 20 miles from you, could realy transform your business??. no decent door to door salesman are hourly paid, you will be paying someone to doodle up and down roads and not giving it there all! door to door canvassers all thrive on commission!. The tried and tested 1 clean value of job works a treat.
You seem to like over complicating things that are realy straight forward. If your not prepared to do it yourself or pay commission to 1 you take on then give Mark a call! you wont go far wrong!.

Canvassers are only interested in charging peanuts.

[Mick Kent]

Why would a canvasser charge peanuts if on a X1 value?
if Vin wanted £500 of work then any canvasser with half a brain cell would get the best price possible so they hit Vins target in the least amount of time.

[8weekly]

Why would a canvasser charge peanuts if on a X1 value?
if Vin wanted £500 of work then any canvasser with half a brain cell would get the best price possible so they hit Vins target in the less amount of time.

Because it's easier to get two at a tenner than one at £18. Whizzbiz won't canvass at £27 for a three bed semi.

[Mick Kent]

but he could get 6 on 1 street at £15-£20 meaning a much better hourly rate.

[Katy]

8 weekly can you read what you just said honey "canvassers are only interested in charging peanuts"

[8weekly]

but he could get 6 on 1 street at £15-£20 meaning a much better hourly rate.

Perfect Windows has fixed prices. In my experience, going for compact work at a lower cost per unit is a bad strategy long term.

[8weekly]

8 weekly can you read what you just said honey "canvassers are only interested in charging peanuts"

Phrases I have heard from canvassers on here include "you've got to be realistic" and "beggars can't be choosers".

[Mick Kent]

but he could get 6 on 1 street at £15-£20 meaning a much better hourly rate.

Perfect Windows has fixed prices. In my experience, going for compact work at a lower cost per unit is a bad strategy long term.

Well i'm glad i don't have your strategy, why would you want 1 or 2 on a streat for £27 every 12 weeks when you can have 8 or 9 for£15 to £20 4 weekly?? who in a normal world wouldn't want compact work? only a busy fool maybe!.

[ChumBucket]

I'm prepared to try anything if it works.  Leaflets work well for us but if we can get customers of the same quality for a similar or lower amount by canvassing I'd be happy. 

You can guess what my take is on this, Vin

I stopped canvassing for my man on the 9th October (he has to have another operation, hopefully only minor with a couple of weeks recuperation) Between end of August and 9th October I got him up to £500 per week and the majority of those were 8-weekly jobs.  I canvassed for an hour and a half max each day in the early evening.

Unless you're going to price your time the same as you would for cleaning (and why should you? - you're not canvassing during cleaning hours) this is by far the most cost effective way to do it.  Plus you choose the area you want to work, you present your company in the best possible light and you are the best person to sell your service.

With all that energy you've got it should be a doddle

There you go, employ Ian Lancaster for a few hours. Got to be worth travel & boarding expenses too.

[8weekly]

but he could get 6 on 1 street at £15-£20 meaning a much better hourly rate.

Perfect Windows has fixed prices. In my experience, going for compact work at a lower cost per unit is a bad strategy long term.

Well i'm glad i don't have your strategy, why would you want 1 or 2 on a streat for £27 every 12 weeks when you can have 8 or 9 for£15 to £20 4 weekly?? who in a normal world wouldn't want compact work? only a busy fool maybe!.

Leaving aside that the £15-£20 is more likely to be £10-£12, the reason is hourly rate. If you don't have a decent hourly rate you can only pay employees peanuts and you get monkeys. If you are a sole trader you can work less hours and less hard for more money.  It's about NOT being a busy fool.

[johnwillan]

Hi Vin

Without doubt I would follow Ian's advice regardless of how many times I've tried but failed to prove him wrong LOL!

My next option would be to use  a respected canvasser.

If I did decide to recruit/manage my own then it would be self employed at x1 clean paid promptly with drop outs replaced free of charge. I think this would suit all types especially those looking for flexible hours such as mum's, retiree's etc, etc. I would try a card in the local shops, put the word out amongst operators, clients, friends, all literature, website etc, etc.

Spoke recently to a chap who did exactly this, had three operators a student, a mum & a retiree, excellent results.

Keep it simple.

Hope it helps

John 

[8weekly]

Hi Vin

Without doubt I would follow Ian's advice regardless of how many times I've tried but failed to prove him wrong LOL!

My next option would be to use  a respected canvasser.

If I did decide to recruit/manage my own then it would be self employed at x1 clean paid promptly with drop outs replaced free of charge.

John

I can't imagine anyone with any intelligence being willing to work for commission only that may be taken away if the wc does a poor job. the only way in my opinion is hourly rate with a bonus of a fiver or tenner each house signed up.

[Mick Kent]

'Triggers broom'!!
8 weekly! Why do all canvassers charge x1/ x2/ x3??
Because its a simple system that works!.
An inteligent canvasser would only work for an established professional window cleaner anyway unless desperate for work! If the cleaner does a poor job then the canvasser still gets paid as no fault of his own!
Find me a window cleaning canvasser who works for an hourly rate who gets good results that has veen going for at least a year??
If you can then ill give £20 to a charity of your choice!
If not you can give to a charity of mine!

[8weekly]

'Triggers broom'!!
8 weekly! Why do all canvassers charge x1/ x2/ x3??
Because its a simple system that works!.
An inteligent canvasser would only work for an established professional window cleaner anyway unless desperate for work! If the cleaner does a poor job then the canvasser still gets paid as no fault of his own!
Find me a window cleaning canvasser who works for an hourly rate who gets good results that has veen going for at least a year??
If you can then ill give £20 to a charity of your choice!
If not you can give to a charity of mine!

The thread is about employing a canvasser. Not taking on someone like Bizwiz.

[Katy]

This is soooooooo difficult.  I have been asked by many companies to work on commission only, I just wont do it (not window cleaning, several other industries) What Whizzbizz does seem to work for many people, I think he has a good business model going there, not heard any complaints.  But thats the way HE works.  Canvassing, cold calling, new business is so very hard for the salesperson....... its all about risk, and sometimes the business owner dosent want to take the risk, and the salesperson has to. 

[Smurf]

Knock up a few thousand flyers, train them and pay a basic rate then extra on results if door knocking after the first clean is completed.

If just leaflet dropping and no sales are involved just pay a basic rate on how many flyers they push through ppls doors.

What pay structure you decide is down to you

[Stoots]

If they are supervised, pay them hourly]
If they are unsuoervised pay them comission

[colin bird]

This is soooooooo difficult.  I have been asked by many companies to work on commission only, I just wont do it (not window cleaning, several other industries) What Whizzbizz does seem to work for many people, I think he has a good business model going there, not heard any complaints.  But thats the way HE works.  Canvassing, cold calling, new business is so very hard for the salesperson....... its all about risk, and sometimes the business owner dosent want to take the risk, and the salesperson has to.
[/quote

Personally I can't see any risk in canvassing,if you knok on doors you will get jobs,it's a numbers game,if I was going to canvass for a window cleaner,other than myself I would want to be paid on results ant not an hourly rate due to I think  canvassers charge  twice or three times the value of the job gained,
Well that's my opinion  some will agree some will diagree

[Walter Mitty]

When I first started, I did all my own canvassing;  I don't have a problem with knocking on people's doors.  However, when working fuller days, going out again became more tiring so I got someone to do it for me.  It might have worked if they had followed instructions.  The problem is that (usually) a canvasser will maximise the number of properties where they call without consideration for the quality of the property regarding things like access and parking restrictions etc. The canvasser got their money.  I got work that was (mostly) impractical.
Solution:  If you want it done properly, do it yourself.

[capn sparkle]

Vin I did this for a year before starting out on my own in 2011.

Worked on a self employed basis for a company with 6 shiners out on the tools most trad but one WFP van.

Pay structure as below.

Monthly cleans gained paid at 100% per unit.
2 Monthly at 50%
3 Monthly at 33%
Add ons (F/S/G) at 10%

Example : £20 job quote on monthly schedule was worth £20, 2 monthly only £10 and so on.
                       £20 job with £120 F/S/G on monthly was worth £32 (£20 windows + £12 for F/S/G).

Obviously from my point of view the shortest frequency was best and trying up up sell every job made me (and the company) more money. Every house I visited got a leaflet even if no one in, so more targeted flyers. The only stipulation was that the custie must complete (and pay for) two cleans or I had the money knocked off future wages.

Another scenario was doing the F/S/G cleans myself in the mornings as the company paid 50 % - 50% to it's workforce (I now know that's a criminal rate but hey ho!) Using the above example it works out as below.

£20 - 100% monthly quote
£12 - 10% selling the F/S/G job
£60 - 50% cleaning the F/S/G job
Now worth £92 and if I tradded the windows myself £102 (extra £10 - 50% of £20) Company makes only £38 but has a new £20 monthly custie at 'no cost' to themselves and the 1st clean has been done so no extra time in future.

One other scenario that cropped up during my tenure for which I was paid a flat day rate of £80 as follows:

Boss bought a list of names and addresses from a retired windys nephew (18 months and they'd only been cleaned once by the nephew) and I had to knock each one with a view to converting them. Got roughly 50% of them back in two weeks solid canvassing then spent a month with another windy doing 160+ new cleans.

Why did I leave after 12 months? He got greedy and changed the rules! Now if 'I' canvassed a custie still 100% of price but if a prospective new custie rang the office (even if the leaflet had been left by me) only 10% because they were 'his' custie so a £20 job became a £2 job so sometimes not even worth the squirt to get there!

A nice Hollywood ending tho!
Now I could sell window cleaning, do window cleaning and needed a job. So went and borrowed a ladder bought some cloths and a blade and got cracking. 5 yrs later fully WFP and a compact profitable 8 weekly round.

HTH a bit