Business Tips - Grey Book on the Black Bookshelf between white ones.

Contributed By AFFLINK

As we enter year two of the pandemic, we see that last year was like Charles Dicken's novel, "A Tale of Two Cities," for many professional cleaning industry members. Some in the industry did very well. Others, not so well.

"One way industry members can do better in the second year of the pandemic is to offer products and services in bundles," says Michael Wilson, vice president of marketing for AFFLINK, a 300-member sales and marketing organization.

According to Wilson, a good example of bundling deal is when an internet service company provides a bundle of separate products – web hosting, email, security, malware protection, and even search engine optimization – all as one bundled package.  

"The consumer could purchase each service separately, but it would likely cost more. For the web hosting company, the more bundled services offered, the more value they provide their customers, building brand loyalty."

How can the professional cleaning industry members bundle their products, service offerings, and bring more value to their customers?  

Wilson's offers the following suggestions:

For cleaning contractors and facility managers, Wilson suggests bundling services such as cleaning, hard floor maintenance, carpet care, window cleaning, even light building engineering. 

 "As part of a package, this can be a cost-saving for the customer, set you apart from your competitors, and make you the customers' go-to' person for all their facility needs," he says.

Instead of selling a disinfectant or a ready-to-use (RTU) antimicrobial, Wilson suggests distributors "turn them into a bundle of products including disinfectants, RTUs, electrostatic sprayers, and even hand sanitizer." 

"Now the distributor is the client's 'go-to' person for all these products, which should improve the distributor's revenue stream," he says. 

Wilson adds that the key to effective bundling is pricing each product or service right and letting the client know they can purchase each product or service separately, but at a higher cost.

"This makes bundling a 'good deal' for the customer, and profitable for you, too."