What do you get when you buy Cleanevent??

Great question and more importantly how do we tell our prospects?

Whilst there is no doubt that we have been very successful in gaining the confidence of the market in which we supply cleaning and waste management services, it is both difficult to explain and frustrating that we have often been unsuccessful at the bid table.

Even as arrogant as you all believe I am, I understand only too well that we cannot win every bid. In fact if we have been unable to make clear presentation of our "wares and bonafides" and along the way build rapport and relationship, then the chances are we may not succeed in the supply of services.

Our understanding of the needs of the venue and event market place is second to none. It is displayed not only by the market share we have, but also by the fact that we constantly maintain our clients for longer and longer terms. But why?

It seems that we are constantly associated with winners. For example, the recent Banksia Award for the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix, (an event that has been selected Worlds Best Grand Prix on numerous occasions), the Victorian Tourism Award for the Australian Open Tennis and the Melbourne Cup Carnival, as well as the Tourism Award for the Royal Sydney Show. This has been followed by the recent announcement that the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre was voted by its peers as "Worlds Best in 1999". We are connected with all of them.

Back to the arrogance…..I am not suggesting for a minute that those accolades have only been achieved because of the Cleanevent involvement, but I am stating as fact that we, in every instance were part of the Team that achieved. We constantly go beyond "just cleaning" and go to greats lengths when allowed, to partner in a true sense with the facilities that we service to achieve uncommon results. These results must add strengths to the overall feel of the facility, and as such assist in the perception.

How much is this worth??? Again I have no idea. The process of tender is not inexpensive, and even though necessary at times, how often is often enough?

I am of the belief that with many of the unsuccessful bids we have experienced, the prospect quite often never delves into the world of Cleanevent clients, and in this regard I believe we have become our own worst enemy.

We are recognised as achievers in our market place, and this often results in a tender review team not even making contact with some of the venues and events that we show as referees, on the assessors belief that "they can obviously do the job." But if they do not call or follow up, how do they know what we are providing as partners rather than just as cleaners?

Quite often this seems to occur at the same venues year in, year out, and most of the time price is stated to be at fault, but which price? Is it the price on paper at the bid where we consistently tell the whole story, or is it price at the end of a twelve month period after a myriad of "variational invoices" for work outside of scope are tallied?

Cost, not price should be the question to ask should it not? There is a marked difference.

We must stay focussed on the partnership approach if it is where we are to be a point of difference in this market place. It is this approach that measures true cost including all value adds along the way, rather than price at a point in time.