How To Prepare A Janitorial Proposal Cover Letter

Many cleaning business owners treat the cover letter of a janitorial bid as a necessary but essentially meaningless part of the proposal; simply a formality.

Don’t you believe it; it couldn”t be further from the truth!

In fact, put together the right way, and your bid cover letter can become one of your most powerful selling tools.

However, as we’ve said, most commercial cleaning companies put very little thought, and even less effort, into preparing one. They feel compelled to include it, if for no other reason, than they think it makes them look “professional”.

The result is most janitorial proposal cover letters are filled with the same ‘safe’, but boring stuff that has been putting building owners and property managers to sleep for years such as:

“Thanks for allowing us to bid”
“We’re bonded, licensed and insured”
“We’ve been in business since 1997”
“We appreciate your interest… blah, blah, blah.”

But, if it bores you, you can pretty safely assume…it’s boring your prospects too!

It’s not the just what the cover letter says that’s the problem; it’s what it says about you, the cleaning contractor, that””s the real problem.

And what’s that?

It says you didn””t think it was necessary to take the time to highlight the important details, issues and areas of concern the customer told you and showed you during the bid walkthrough, as well as your plan for addressing them.

And it’s those details, hotspots and special areas of concern that get mentioned in the walkthrough and during your initial meeting with your prospect that hold the key to your chances of creating a powerful cover letter; one that proves, not just that you were listening, but that you understand what they want and have a plan for doing it.

You need to begin to see the cover letter as a powerful tool to attract your prospect to WANT to do business with you by clearly describing how you and your company are uniquely aware of exactly what they need done and know exactly how to do it.

The bid cover letter gives you that opportunity.

By the way, don”t misunderstand; it’s perfectly ok to use some of the standard language you”re used to seeing in professional bid cover letters such as “Thanks for taking the time to show us your facility” or “As you review the bid, feel free to call us with any questions.”

But that”s just the beginning. Written properly, the cover letter to a janitorial proposal can be the place to:

1. Clearly show that you have heard your prospects complaints, concerns and issues loud and clear.

2. Understand them, care about them and

3. Have a definite plan for solving them… and keeping them solved.

For example, let’s say your prospect points out they’re unhappy with the condition or appearance of the following:

- the grease marks on the painted doors leading to the plant
- the amount of dust on top of the office cubicle dividers
- the debris accumulating along the carpeted edges of the office

You should use this list as a fantastic opportunity to highlight one or all of them in your cover letter along with the specifics of your plan to get them clean and keep them clean.

When a prospective client reads through a bid cover letter with MUSCLE; one that lists not only their main concerns but the detailed plan of action, systems and procedures to correct them as well- they’ll be impressed, not bored!

Dan Liebrecht is co-founder of Clean Guru LLC, Copyright Clean Guru LLC, All Rights Reserved
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