Sales How-to:
Avoiding the 'Cardinal Sin.'

Confessions of A House Cleaner

by Rashid Kotwal

When Barbara and I started our consultancy business, we started from scratch. No clients, no track record etc. The early period was difficult, (as is any business that is starting up), and money was tight.

As we didn’t want to just eat soup and the bills had to be paid, we decided to go and clean houses part time...

Most of our cleaning work came through a particular agency, and we were considered to be their best current cleaning team (their words). We thought about what it was we were doing and paid a lot of attention to detail. We were proud of our reputation and if the truth be known, we were probably somewhat arrogant...

It was a hot day in summer, and we’d been asked to spend four hours doing a "spring clean". We got to the place and the lady of the house gave us our instructions.

She wanted us to clean the crayon marks off walls in the living areas, clean the main bathroom, move the furniture and vacuum the living areas etc. She specifically did *not* want us to touch the master bedroom, ensuite or kitchen.

As was our custom, we walked through the house to do a "scoping" exercise. I looked at the kitchen and thought "oooh, this could do with a bit of a clean".

The kitchen cupboards didn’t go all the way to the ceiling, and there were ornamental plates on top. Naturally, there’s normally quite a bit of dirt up here, so I got up on a ladder and found the grime was about half an inch thick.

Well, I was the "best", so I couldn’t let this go, could I?

So I started to clean up top. About an hour into the four, the client came back and muttered something about not wanting the kitchen cleaned, but I’d already gone so far, so I "ignored" the comment and continued.

I finished the top and then started on the rest of the kitchen. The client came in and out of the kitchen, making noises about how she really didn’t want more done here.

Finally I got the message...

So, I started doing the living area.

While all this was going on, Barbara saw the state of the master bedroom and thought it warranted some attention. I was the bathroom specialist (only a plumber has had his hands down more toilets), so she pointed out that the ensuite could do with a going over.

Remember, the client had explicitly asked that we not clean the bedroom or ensuite, but "we were professionals" and how could we live with ourselves if we left the place looking like this?...

By now, the client was fairly clucking away - and we figured we’d better get the rest of the house done.

At the four hour mark, we had cleaned the other things she’d requested, but we could see that she wasn’t particularly happy. Barbara convinced me that we should give her another hour each (on the house). Bear in mind that cleaning is sheer hard physical work, it's a blazing hot day, and we were only paid $20/hr each.

The client grudgingly accepted our offer and we went over some more stuff and left feeling reasonably satisfied with the job done.

We got home and Barbara insisted on calling the agency and letting them know what happened. The agency had already been contacted by the client, complaining that we didn’t do what she wanted. The agency agreed that they would send another person for four extra hours, and asked if we would pick up half the cost.

I was seething with anger. "How dare this ungrateful client demand more, and why wasn’t she satisfied with what we’d so generously done - after all, did she really want to live in a pigsty?"...

Anyway, I sullenly agreed and gave up $40 of our hard earned money.

Barbara convinced me that this was a valuable lesson and after I’d cooled down, I grudgingly agreed.

We had committed the cardinal sin of thinking we knew better than our client and we gave the client what we thought she’d need, not what she wanted. What arrogance!

How many of you do that in your business? Maybe you think you know better, and maybe sometimes you do. But it’s the delivery that counts. You must cater to someone’s wants first and then their needs.

All sales hinge around emotional desires, even if they are cloaked in so called logic.

Your role as a salesperson is to elicit or create desire and then fill it.

We learned a valuable (and frankly, inexpensive) lesson that day. It could have been a major corporate client where thousands of dollars are at stake. Maybe someday you’ll find yourself in a similar situation, and you now have the opportunity to learn the easy way - from someone else’s experience.

Rashid Kotwal is the Director and Principal Consultant of Revealed Resources, an Australian consulting company. He works with business owners and entrepreneurs to help them create "outrageous results" by building their version of an "ideal business" and helping them achieve the balance, fulfilment and other results they desire in an ideal life. For more information or to subscribe to Rashid's free "Practical Tips" newsletter, go to: http://www.revealedresources.com