// CASE-001 · FEATURED
Todd Knight
BLINK COMMERCIAL CLEANING · NORTH CAROLINA · SOUTH CAROLINA
14+ DEALS CLOSED // $380K+ PIPELINE GENERATED
Read case study →// CASE-008 · COLD EMAIL · COMMERCIAL CLEANING
BrightPath Cleaning · $170K Closed in 30 Days
MICHAEL BUHRMAN · BRIGHTPATH CLEANING · WHEATON, ILLINOIS
// COLD EMAIL
VIDEO // CLIENT INTERVIEW · CASE-008
INTERVIEW
“It was by far the highest return on our investments. We tried different avenues, different channels. Door to door, walk-ins, cold calling. But I saw the greatest returns with the email marketing.”
MICHAEL BUHRMAN · CEO AND FOUNDER, BRIGHTPATH CLEANING
// THE CHALLENGE
Where they were starting from.
BrightPath Cleaning is a Wheaton, Illinois operator that had been in business roughly six months when Michael Buhrman came to us. Commercial cleaning is the primary focus, with a residential division running alongside it. Michael was already doing what most new operators do to fill a pipeline: door to door, walk-ins, and cold calling with sales staff on the team. Those efforts closed accounts, but small ones. A car dealership. A law office. Restaurants. Enough to keep the company moving, not enough to change its trajectory. The constraint was not activity, it was deal size. A six month old cleaning company has no referral base and no brand recognition to put in front of the buyers who sign large recurring contracts, and those buyers are not the ones who answer a walk-in. Michael found us through YouTube. He watched the channel, reviewed the other client interviews on this site, did his own research, and reached out.
// OUR APPROACH
What we built.
We launched a commercial cleaning cold email campaign into facility-side decision-makers across his Illinois market. Inside the first 30 days BrightPath closed a large church and a portfolio of schools. The schools portfolio alone carries annual contracts running just under $10,000 per month. Total closed in that first month was approximately $170,000 in annual contract value, from a company that was half a year old. The two deals closed very differently, and the contrast is the useful part. The schools portfolio moved fast because the timing lined up with what the buyer already needed. The church took weeks of back and forth including a walkthrough, which is exactly what a six month old company should expect from a buyer that size. Trust has to be built before a contract like that gets signed, and the walkthrough is where it gets built. Speed to lead was the operational difference. Michael's team responded to every inbound lead immediately rather than batching replies, and in his words responding right away is what let them get a foot in the door ahead of whoever else the buyer was talking to. His close rate on email-generated leads runs 40 to 50 percent. He caveats that number himself: he has a sales background and personally handles the larger deals, so it sits well above what a typical operator should plan for. Our own guidance to clients is to budget around 20 percent and treat anything above it as upside. At the time of the interview he was still receiving leads from that first month's campaign. On onboarding, his description was smooth, clear, and streamlined, run through the client portal with no issues.
// RESULTS
What we delivered.
Annual contract value · first 30 days
$170K
Schools portfolio contracts
<$10K/mo
Company age at campaign launch
6 months
// RELATED SERVICES
Services behind this campaign.
COLD EMAIL
Cold email that books real meetings.
10K+ emails per week per client on whitelabeled inboxes. Real lists, real replies.
Learn more →
COLD CALLING
Trained callers. Live transfers.
Manila-based callers, custom scripts, recordings. 1,200+ campaigns since 2023.
Learn more →
FOR CLEANING
Built for commercial cleaning.
Eight named cleaning case studies. The same playbook, scaled to your geography and offer.
Learn more →
// PLAYBOOKS
Read more about this approach.
CLEANING INDUSTRY
How Todd Knight Built a $14M Commercial Cleaning Business
Todd Knight runs Blink Facility Solutions, a $14M commercial cleaning company across two states. From Goldman Sachs in 2008 to 315 retail bank locations and a near-zero-churn client list. Here is the playbook.
May 9, 2026 · 11 MIN READ
Read article →
CLEANING INDUSTRY
How a Commercial Cleaning Company Generated $1.8M from LinkedIn
Edwin Eaton runs IPro Building Services across six states. Last year he generated $1.8M in commercial cleaning sales from LinkedIn alone. Not toilet photos. Employee anniversary posts. Here is exactly how it worked.
May 9, 2026 · 10 MIN READ
Read article →
// MORE CASE STUDIES
Other operators we've worked with.
// CASE-002 · FEATURED
Luke Bennett
866SANI CLEAN · LAS VEGAS · NV · ORANGE COUNTY · CA · ST. GEORGE · UT
6 DEALS CLOSED IN FIRST 30 DAYS // $252K ARR ADDED IN 6 MONTHS
Read case study →// CASE-003
Justin Lee
ELITE COMMERCIAL CLEANING · MONTANA
5 DEALS CLOSED // 3 weeks TIMEFRAME
Read case study →// CURRENTLY ONBOARDING NEW CLIENTS
Want to be the next case study?
Book a strategy call. We’ll review your current outbound and tell your cleaning company exactly what’s broken. No pitch, no nonsense.
(713) 913-0379 // hello@elevateclientsinc.com