Lost major contract?..need advice

K

krisp23

New member
Last year was my first year in business and by some stroke of luck I landed a contract with a major sit-down food chain. I was given 13 locations. I only pressure wash part time, so this was a big deal for me. I always received positive feedback after we completed a job. This year I found out that the regional manager that I dealt with left the company. I immediately contacted the new manager, who happended to be the manager of one of the locations I cleaned last year. He was excited to talk to me and actually told me that they were going to give me 7 more stores. This was back in March. I have not heard from him since then and despite leaving him a message every week, I cannot get a return phone call. I have a pretty good relationship with some of the restaurant managers, and they don't really have any info for me. This past week, I was talking to one of the local managers and he told me where the regional manager was that day. I called that restaurant and the person who answered the phone said he was in and asked who was calling. A minute later he came back on the phone and said that the regional manager was busy and that he would call me back...of course I did not receive a return call. I have never experienced this before, so I don't know if I lost the contract, if they have cut it out of the budget, etc. Anyone ever run into a similar situation? Any advice on how to get a return phone call without pissing the guy off by calling every week?
 
Ok here is where I think you are bugging him, you call every week and leave messages, to much of that gets on the guys nerves.

When you learned what store he was at you should have gone there to talk to him in person.

Face to face always is best way to talk with someone in that position.

Are you still cleaning the restaurants?

Are you still getting paid?

Are you still getting good feed back?

Do you have a customer survey sheet to mail with a self address STAMPED envelope?

Go meet the regional manager face to face but don't ask am I still cleaning your locations? Assume you are, your meeting to tell him CONGRATS on his promotion and do your normal PR thing.

Then try to find out where the former regional manager went and contact him personally, he is a good lead to the company he now works for.

Jon
 
Ditto, Do the work and stop bothering the guy.

If the check does not come, hit the next guy up in teh Chain of command.

Scott
 
And it could be embarassing for him that you have called and he has forgotten to call you back. Just let it lye and do the work for a while. No dubt you will get called by an underling to schedule the other stuff.

Scott
 
Anonymity in this biz is a good thing. Let your work do your talking for you!!
 
Go through each store manager individually. Have them sign a contract for your services. Let them deal the regional guy themselves. Don't do it with out a contract.

Charlie
 
I am not currently doing any work for the company. In Chicago, this is only an 8 month a year job and I am just starting up again for 2003. When I was talking to the regional manager originally, we were trying to set up a schedule for this spring. Nothing was ever finalized and I never received any go ahead to do any work. The individual store managers always refer me to the regional manager and won't authorize any work. I agree, the phone call every week would annoy me too, but I would have enough consideration to call someone back and tell them if I didn't need their services anymore or if we were not ready to do any work. Part of the problem is that the only phone number I have for him is a corporate number and I am 100% guaranteed to get a voice mail. It is also not possible to just find out where he is at and go meet him. I work 45+ hours a week for IBM and that limits my daytime travels. I have pretty much come to the realization that I won't be doing the work this year, but I was just wondering if that is typical in the business.
 
One rule of thumb I have is always have work in the fire so if something doesn't work out with a customer I move on.

Charlie
 
Your barking up the wrong tree.
Find out the name of his secratary, send her a friendly bouquet of flowers with your biz. card attached. Then ask for her, not him when calling.
She is the real workhorse anyway.
 
I will have to go with Charlie on this one, about 8 years ago i lost a big account , that was a real eye opener , I would reather have 10 small accounts then 1 big account , if you lose one it dosent matter , plus every one is after the big account !

Mel
 
Kris have any of the managers said don't come back to clean anymore?

What I would do is just continue as you have, go clean them as you normally would and bill them as you always do, then if they say hey we are not using your service anymore so stop the cleaning you know you lost it.

If you get paid or they call and say sure looks nice and clean just keep on cleaning them.

No news is good news.

Now what Charlie said about going to each manager to get a signed contract might work but if it is a large corporation more then likely they do not have the authority to sign one.

You could call a couple days in advance to let them know it is "that time of year again to clean and I will be there on _ _ __ day to clean your store.

If they say great it sure needs it there you go, your still in, go work and don't worry so much about losing an account.

Jon
 
The economy is bad, and it was a hard winter. This behavior is not to far from the norm for a restaurant chain. Your contact has probably been trying to squeeze every penny since he took over.
The one thing you can count on when dealing with a
Restaurant chain is constant change, it would be a good bet that your contact today won't be around in a year.
I just had a multi million-dollar hotel/restaurant want to negotiate payments on a $400.00 bill! I said no since it was 6 months over do and they had been giving me the run around any way, three days later I got a check for $200.00. I guess I'll get the rest eventually.
I think you need to move on, stay busy getting other work, they may still call you back to do the work, just don't plan on it.
 
I'm assuming you have his direct number and if so, keep calling him, but forego the messages. I would call as many times a day as your schedule permits (between 7-8 am.m are usually best), but DO NOT leave a message if you get his VM. Do this for about a week. Sooner or later he will answer the phone. If not, you'll have to cut your losses and move on

If you have to go through a secretary or receptionist, just level with her and apologize for calling incessantly, but it is extremely urgent that you talk to him.

I sold business to business for 6 years and trust me when I say that he may not be avoiding you. It might just seem that way. Remember, this guy just got a HUGE promotion and is swamped with new responsibilities and you may be near the bottom of his list of priorities, which is important to not take personally.
 
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