Cleaning Up the Competition: Data-Driven Prospecting vs. Traditional Lead Generation for Commercial Cleaning Sales Teams

Introduction

Winning contracts for your commercial cleaning business isn’t always easy. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of opportunities in the market—it’s that your prospects are seeing the same 20 sales messages from competitors on a daily basis. 

Competition is fierce in the commercial cleaning market, and at times, it can feel like you’re spinning your wheels trying to win new contracts.

Your sales team probably spends hours canvassing, prospecting, doing lead research, and browsing LinkedIn for insights, just trying to find new clients. And, while those methods have worked in the past, they struggle to meet sales quotas and quarterly goals today.

But here’s the good news: there is a smarter, faster way to find high-value leads in your local market. It’s called data-driven prospecting. With data-driven prospecting, you can target the right leads and connect with key decision-makers in a matter of minutes.

No more aimless canvassing or guesswork.

Ready to step up your prospecting game and leave the competition behind? Let’s get started.

Traditional Methods of Lead Generation in Commercial Cleaning

For years, commercial cleaning companies have relied on traditional methods to find new leads. Some of these methods still work but often take more time and effort than they’re worth. Let’s break traditional lead generation methods down into two categories: online and offline methods:

Online Methods

• Local SEO – When people search online for cleaning services nearby, you want your business to show up at the top of Google Search Results. Local SEO makes sure your business is easy to find by people in your area who need your services right now.
• Pay-Per-Click Ads (PPC) – PPC ads are those little sponsored posts that pop up when you Google something. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay a fee. Yes, it can sometimes get pricey, and you end up with clicks that don’t lead to actual business, but if your ads are well-targeted, they can drive traffic to your website.

• Email Marketing – Email marketing works by getting people to sign up for your email list and then sending them helpful content. It’s a way to stay in touch with potential customers but requires them to sign up first—which means they need to go to your website and fill out a form.
• Social Media Marketing – Social media marketing is the process of posting on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to connect with people and gather more leads but social media takes time, writing scripts, and editing—something sales teams don’t often like to do.

These methods are far easier than offline methods, but they often take time to generate results.

Offline Methods

• “Driving for Dollars” (Canvassing) – Driving around commercial areas—office parks, manufacturing hubs, and all around the city—spotting properties that seem like they need cleaning services. And while canvassing can be a way to discover new opportunities for your business, it’s time-consuming and offers no guarantee that a lead will convert to a sale.
• Print Advertising – This is a form of marketing that uses print media and ads in local newspapers or magazines to reach potential customers. However, it can be costly and may not always lead to successful conversions.
• Direct Mail – In the same way, direct mail—sending out mail, brochures, and flyers—is a simple way to introduce your brand and services to your target customers. Especially those who have no idea about your business. However, with the rise of digital communication, most people open their mail over a trash can and ditch any irrelevant advertising that’s not immediately relevant to them- making it harder to grab attention with this method.
• Networking Events – Going to trade shows, industry meetups, and local events can be a great way to meet potential clients face-to-face. These events give you a chance to showcase your expertise and start building relationships in person that could turn into “long-term” business, but they’re often hit or miss, and you never know who you’ll meet.

• Referral Programs – Happy customers can turn into your best salespeople. A referral program encourages them to share the business with friends, family, and colleagues—and you can reward them for doing so.
• Vehicle Branding – Wrapping your company vehicles with your logo is a simple way to turn your car or van into a moving billboard. It’s a great way to get your name out there—especially in your local area. But the average vehicle wrap today costs more than $5000.
• Community Involvement – Being active in your local community and partnering with other businesses can help you build trust and gain exposure. It’s also a great way to make connections with other local businesses and potential clients who appreciate companies that give back. However, spending money in your local community (while great for publicity and for building relationships) doesn’t offer a trackable ROI- so it’s hard to know what you’re getting in return for these costs.

These traditional methods have proven effective in the past and can generate high-quality leads for cleaning and janitorial services. However, each of these requires time and effort and offers little in the way of predictable results.

Challenges with Traditional Lead Generation Methods

For many commercial cleaning businesses, traditional lead generation methods feel familiar, but they’re not without their challenges. Here are three challenges to keep in mind as you consider some of the methods we’re going to uncover in the next section:

Time and Resource Investment

Think of traditional lead generation as hunting for a needle in a haystack. It involves cold calling, prospecting, and manually searching for leads—time-consuming tasks that eat up your team’s time and require a lot of guesswork.

And after all that effort? It still doesn’t guarantee you’ll find quality leads.

Unqualified Leads and Missed Opportunities

One of the biggest challenges with traditional lead generation methods is that you’re guessing. This guesswork requires you to cast a wide net, cold calling, emailing, mailing, and sending sales and marketing messaging to your entire territory in the hopes that you’ll generate a reply.

Eventually, this results in small wins, but you could be missing huge opportunities. Opportunities like entire portfolios of properties, high-value clients, and untapped niches- all because you don’t know those specific opportunities exist.

This is where data-driven strategies can help you focus on the quality of leads coming in without spreading your team so thin that they miss things.

Inconsistent Results

With traditional lead generation methods, it’s hard to have a predictable sales pipeline. The results are often inconsistent, making it challenging for businesses to grow at a steady pace. When you rely on guesswork, chance, or manually search for leads, your business will experience highs and lows in customer acquisition and revenue growth.

Data-driven tools can help you see opportunities in your market and take advantage of them quickly and easily.

Difficulty in Targeting and Personalization

When it comes to traditional lead generation, one-size-fits-all sales pitches often miss the mark. It’s easy to fall into the trap of sending out generic outreach to everyone, but the truth is, it rarely works (and it irritates your prospects).

Why? Because every business has its own needs, budgets, and compliance requirements. In today’s world, most commercial cleaning clients expect customized solutions tailored specifically to their business.

For example, let’s say you’re reaching out to a healthcare facility. This sector demands specialized cleaning and disinfecting services, like a focus on surface sterilization, to adhere to strict health compliance guidelines. If you approach them with a personalized message that speaks to their specific needs, you’re far more likely to land a meeting than if you send a generic pitch.

The Rise of Data-Driven Prospecting: A Game-Changer for Commercial Cleaning Sales

Now that you understand the challenges of traditional lead generation in commercial cleaning let’s talk about an alternative that delivers much better results: data-driven prospecting and lead generation.

Instead of relying on manual, time-consuming methods, sales intelligence tools like Convex leverage large-scale data and advanced analytics to help you find quality leads faster. This means you spend less time chasing unqualified prospects and more time engaging with high-potential ones.

What Does Convex Do?

Convex isn’t just another tool—it’s like having a personal sales assistant that works 24/7, 365, finding new leads and helping you convert them into sales. Instead of spending hours chasing cold leads, Convex helps your team zero in on decision-makers who’ve already indicated an interest in your services. Here’s how it works:

1. Log in and Check Signals: Start by logging into Convex and going to the “Signals” tab—our proprietary buyer intent data—to immediately see which prospects are in the market for your services. With this data, you can prioritize leads that show the strongest buying intent, saving your sales team valuable time and effort.

2. Search for Properties and Decision Makers: Finding the right decision-maker to talk to can often feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. Convex makes this process a lot easier for you. You can search for properties, accounts, or specific decision-makers with Convex’s property and sales intelligence data. Whether you’re targeting hospitals, industrial buildings, or commercial properties, Convex gives you access to a gold mine of data like permit histories, building size, transaction details, and many more. This helps you find the right lead that fits your services.

3. Use Generative AI for Outreach: After identifying a potential lead, Convex’s Generative AI tool will then create a customized outreach email for you. With just a couple of clicks, you can send a personalized email or draft a phone call script specific to your prospect’s needs. By using property data, intent data, and firmographic details, Convex can craft a message that resonates with your audience, giving you more chances of getting a positive response.

4. Streamline Follow-Ups and CRM Integration: Convex also offers CRM functionality, but if you already have a CRM tool that works for you, you can also sync follow-up reminders directly from the platform into CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot to keep the pipeline updated and organized.

With just a few clicks and maybe 5 minutes of your time, Convex transforms your sales process and helps your sales team close more deals faster. Convex sets the foundation for a smarter sales process, paving the way for a modern data-driven lead generation approach.

The Benefits of a Modern Data-driven Approach

To reiterate, here’s how data-driven prospecting streamlines the sales process by identifying local opportunities you’d miss using traditional lead-generation methods:

1. Speed

Eliminate the endless hours spent sifting through websites or cold calling. With data-driven tools, you get immediate access to contacts who are already actively looking for your services. This frees you up to focus on what matters most—building relationships and growing your business.

2. Accuracy

How many times have you chased a lead only to find out it wasn’t a good fit? With data-driven prospecting, you can target leads that match your ideal client profile. That means more qualified prospects and fewer dead ends.

Convex regularly updates data, so the leads you’ll have access to are best-in-class. You can use specific filters—industry, business size, location, budget—and identify leads that align with your business. No more trial and error, dead-ends, and guessing games when looking for potential customers.

3. Efficiency

Data-driven lead generation streamlines the sales process, allowing your sales reps to spend less time on prospecting and research and more time engaging with high-value leads.

This will reduce resource waste and bring more efficiency and productivity to your team. Imagine how much you can save by letting your sales team engage only on leads that are most likely to convert.

Case Study: How Data-Driven Prospecting Boosted Sales for a Commercial Cleaning Company

When JAN-PRO created the vision for the growth of its commercial cleaning business, it faced a challenge that may sound all too familiar: finding quality leads that convert efficiently. 

Traditional lead-generation methods, such as cold calling from lists of local businesses, made it hard for their business to keep up with competitors and resulted in many missed opportunities.

Through Convex’s data-driven insights and decision-maker contact information, JAN-PRO went from “dialing for dollars” to directly contacting property owners, managers, and facilities directors already in the market for their services.

Today, JAN-PRO is thriving and hitting growth goals, proving that data-driven methods can turn your vision for your business into a compelling success story.

With a data-driven lead generation approach, you streamline your sales process and boost sales by targeting the right prospects and personalizing your outreach to cut through the noise and drive results.

Actionable Steps to Transition from Traditional to Data-Driven Prospecting

Understanding how data-driven prospecting can improve your success is the first step. But let’s dive into what really matters: making the transition.

Here are four steps to shifting to a more data-focused lead generation:

Step 1: Assess Current Lead Generation and Identify Gaps

Start by taking a good look at your current lead generation methods. Are your sales reps relying on manual prospecting, cold calls, or social media? Evaluate where leads are slipping through the cracks. Check metrics like conversion rates, response time, and lead quality. You’ll want to pinpoint the weak spots in your process.

Step 2: Explore Data-Driven Tools and Software

Research software that fits your industry and ideal customer profile. There are a lot of lead generation tools out there, and it’s easy to get lost in the sea of information. That’s why it’s important to do your homework and find the software that fits your industry and ideal customer profile (ICP).

Think about how well it integrates with your existing systems to make the switch smoother. Sales intelligence and property data platforms like Convex, for instance, are great at streamlining processes for commercial cleaning businesses, helping you target the best leads, and they integrate directly with the other tools that you’re using: Hubspot, Salesforce, Aspire, and others. 

Step 3: Equip Your Sales Teams With the Right Tools and Show them How to Get Results.

Next, equip your sales team with the right tools and training. This will greatly depend on the platforms you use to drive business, but it’s important to show your team how to properly use data-driven lead-generation tools. They should have standard operating procedures (SOPs) and workflows for efficient usage, have scheduled times for weekly or quarterly challenges with other members of their team, and understand the value of specific filters, sales intelligence, and other key features they need to use.

Step 4: Continuously Review and Optimize Prospecting Strategies Based on Data Feedback

Finally, don’t “set it and forget it.” These tools are constantly improving, and your processes should be improving as well.

Schedule regular reviews to track how well your data-driven strategies are working. Look at metrics like lead conversion rates, engagement, and ROI to see what’s clicking and where tweaks are needed. Keeping your strategies in sync with your business goals and market changes will ensure long-term success.

Conclusion

Data-driven prospecting is the new and improved version of the traditional lead generation process commercial cleaning businesses are used to doing. Gone are the days when your sales team spends hours looking for leads that may or may not lead to a closed contract.

Sales intelligence helps you optimize lead targeting, personalize outreach, and improve the accuracy of your sales efforts.

With Convex, you can access real-time, high-quality data, focus on the right prospects, personalize your approach, and improve the overall quality of your sales efforts. 

Ready to streamline your process and close deals faster? Schedule a free demo of Convex today!