Hi all,
I have a proposal for you.
I recently posted about my canvassing for you. I have since just committed myself to a good guy not far from me, so my own time is now taken up at the moment. He is paying me double for all jobs, to be canvassed and quoted by myself. But after receiving lots of requests - especially from areas too far from me - for my canvassing services, I have since decided to take people on in these areas to canvass on my behalf.
As some of these places are too far afield for me to be able to travel to train people how to price up a job, I have an idea.
First, you give me details on what kind of work you're after. Ie:
- minimum job/house price
- rear access needed
- traditional/wfp
- when 1st clean will be
- areas wanted
- what days/times you clean
- do you wipe sills/frames
I will then find and send out a canvasser or 2 in those areas armed with this info. They will knock doors, and since they don't know how to price jobs, they will simply get the name, phone number and address of potential custies who have requested a clean. They will then tell the potential custie that they will be contacted shortly for a quote and clean. I will also email the canvasser, before they go knocking, some simple slips with your name and company details on that the canvasser will pass to those folks that want to think it over. When they decide they do want a clean, they will contact you directly and you get that job for free.
The canvasser will then give me all the customer details he has just got that day, and then either:
a) I can phone up all the leads and quote/estimate them over the phone, handing over to you jobs ready to clean - for which I'll charge double for every job price. Eg, if a job is £14, you pay me £28. I will let the customer know that it is an estimate, and that you will personally verify the price when you visit. I expect that you will visit some of these jobs and find I may have under/over-priced them, as I have estimated them over the phone. You can adjust the price and pay me accordingly. You won't pay me anything for jobs that blow out.
Or:
b) I can pass the leads straight to you, and you can quote them and pay me double whatever the minimum house price you wanted (stated prior to canvassing) for each lead that confirms as a certified job for you. This way, you will never pay more than your double minimum house price. For example, if you tell me the minimum house you want is £12, for every job that confirms, you pay me £24 - double the minimum. What this means is, if I get you jobs that are £13, £15, £20, £25, £30, etc - you will only ever pay £24 for each one. You won't pay me anything for jobs that blow out.
So what's the catch?
I'm an honest bloke, and I would preferably like to take a deposit as a commitment from you before I and anyone else goes knocking. But I know that times are hard and some haven't got the cashflow for that. So instead, as a small commitment from you, and so me and the gang aren't waiting too long to be paid, here's the catch.
In scenario a) above, you pay half before the clean (I pay this to the canvasser), and the other half after the clean (this goes to me).
In scenario b) above, you pay your minimum house price (eg £12) before the clean (I pay this to the canvasser), and your minimum house price (eg £12) after the clean (this goes to me).
Also, as part of the catch, we use this forum as a medium to report how things are going, to let others know if either one of us falls short on the agreement. That way, we're more likely to help each other out, since neither one of us wants our reputations attacked on this forum ;-)
For me, I just want to make some cash while I work on my career.
What do you think?
Scotty
