Why Cleaning Businesses Should Treat Customers… Like Prospects

Willem Flach

2021-11-02 20:25:42

Hi Dan We have all heard the saying, “A bird in the hand, is worth two in the bush”. However, in the cleaning business we are always looking for that next great contract. We all seem to spend our time prospecting and marketing when most of our time should be spent in client retention. Here is a good story that complements your excellent video. Russell Conwell, the founder of Temple University, once gave a well known speech titled Acres of Diamonds. The supposedly true story is about an African farmer named Ali Hafed who heard stories of fortune by other farmers. These farmers discovered diamonds on their land and became rich beyond their wildest imagination. Ali Hafed became discontented with his own life and desperately desired the same fortune. He eventually sold his farm and left his family to begin a quest for land that would lead him to riches. He searched through many lands far and wide. Eventually as an old man he became depressed and despondent. He threw himself into a great tidal wave to his death, never to be seen again. The successor of his land, another farmer, one day strolled along a creek that ran through the property. He noticed a blue flash from the creek bed, knelt down and sifted through the water until he pulled a crystal object from the mud of the creek. He wiped it off, took it home and left it on his mantel above the fireplace, where he quickly forgot about it. Several weeks later, a visitor stopped by the farmer and noticing the crystal on the mantle picked it up. Instantly he became excited, he was holding a diamond in his hand. The farmer protested at first and the visitor reassured him that it was indeed a diamond. That farm eventually became one of the largest diamond-mines in the world. Had Ali Hafed simply known how to identify and look for diamonds, he would have had the fortune he so desperately wanted. We’re all standing among our own acres of diamonds and opportunities. We need the skills and ability to recognise what a diamond or “good luck” looks like in its rough state. Remember, “challenges beget opportunities”. Or rather, we need to see the challenges all around us as diamonds ready to be cut and polished.