If you are running a trade type business where you have to provide quotes to your customers and then win them, then this video is definitely for you.
I will give you some tips in this video, which can help you to increase your job success rate quite significantly, even if your quotes are generally higher than your competitors.
A lot of the trade business owners believe that the price that they quote is the only reason why customers choose them versus competition.
And of course the price that you quote is a huge factor in making a decision whether the customer will choose you or not. But It’s definitely not the only reason, so let’s start with tip number 1.
1. Notify your customers the day prior to your quote date that you are coming.
If you have agreed with your prospect to do an onsite quote. Make sure that you arrive on time. Ideally send a text 1 day before the quote, confirming the time and the fact that you are definitely coming. If you provide a few quotes a day you can sometimes be running late so your text message can be something like: Hi Maria thanks for the opportunity to quote on your job, I will see you tomorrow for an onsite quote between 10.00 -10.30 am (depending on the traffic). Regards John Smith from Your Company Name.
Firstly, it gives your client the assurance that he will not be wasting his time waiting for you. Secondly, it helps you stand out from your competition who didn’t take time to do this. Thirdly, it gives you an opportunity to mention your brand one more time which will then more likely be remembered when it comes to making a decision by the customer. And finally, if your prospect for some reason forgot about your appointment and cannot make it anymore, this will save your travelling time.
2nd tip Present yourself well during the onsite quotation.
Let’s say you have to provide an onsite quote where you have to enter the customers house and walk around the area to do some measurements.
Instead of asking whether you should take your shoes off, you can put some shoe covers on before entering the house. The client will notice this but might not comment, however, you will definitely make a great impression especially on women, because in general they do really care about the cleanliness of their home.
The second advice is your appearance and smell. It might sound strange but once again, it does affect the customer’s first impression about you.
Try to wear a clean, neatly pressed uniform and stay fresh. And just before you arrive have a mint handy so your breath is fresh as well. I would avoid chewing gums as it does not make a good impression if you are chewing during your conversation with the client.
3rd tip Leave proper marketing materials for your customers.
Remember, if you are dealing with a client for the first time, they are most probably getting quotes from other companies as well. So you have to make sure your marketing materials are well designed and contain an attractive offer for your new client, so they will choose your company over any competition. If you want to learn how to create an offer your customers cannot refuse, please watch my other videos specifically dedicated to this topic on our YouTube channel. And one more thing, within your marketing materials brochures, you should have a section with previous customer reviews. During your conversation with the client try to point their attention to that section. Your reviews can be taken from your Google My Business profile if you have any. Otherwise try to collect as many positive reviews as you can. Reading positive reviews about your company plays a big role in the decision making process by your potential client.
4th Use a reciprocity effect
People tend to remember and appreciate valuable gifts and gestures. If you think about it, when somebody gives you a free gift or advice, which is valuable to you, you normally feel grateful and want to return the favour.
It always surprises me why local business owners don’t use this tool to increase their sales.
So think about including a little gift during your onsite quote for your potential client worth $5-$10 dollars. It can be as simple as a box of chocolates with your business card attached or local coffee card.
Actually, one of our clients who is a painter, was very creative and he was giving away little cans presented as paint cans, but filled them with jelly beans. This proved a huge success.
This kind of simple gift can leave that “warm and fuzzy feeling” with the client, definitely placing you apart from your competition and in a way encouraging the client to return the favour, such as a positive review for example.
Adding this mere $5-$10 on top of your existing spend to acquire this client, will not make much difference to your overall client acquisition cost, but it will increase the chance dramatically of you winning the job.
One more little tip here. Even if you did not win the job. You can then always ask this customer, who you gave your professional advice to during the visit, to leave a positive review for your business on Google Maps or Facebook. Because of the good impression and positive experience, they have received from start to finish, they are more inclined to then leave the positive review.
4th Follow-up calls and emails
Making follow-up calls after providing your quotes is a must if you want to increase your sales and win more jobs.
One thing to keep in mind here.
The purpose of the follow-up call is not to push for a sale. All you are doing is just reminding a client about yourself or your company, showing them that you are definitely interested in their project. It will give you a chance to answer customer questions, if any and maybe agree on the next step.
The script for the follow-up call can be something like:
Hi John, this is Bill from “Your Company Name”. I just wanted to make sure you received our quote via email and to see if you have any questions.
If the customer has no questions at this stage. You can simply say thanks for the opportunity to quote for your job and when is the best time to touch base with you again?
Another purpose of the follow-up call is to find out the reason that your offer has been refused and whether your customer decided to go with another company. Feedback whether good or bad is always valuable.
Remember, you’ve spent your valuable time providing your quote, so there is no reason why you are not eligible to ask your client for a reason as to why you did not win the job.
Keeping accurate statistics about your rejected quotes and their reasons, will help you to understand better, the areas you need to improve upon.
I hope this video was helpful. You can also download a checklist with all the points covered in this video, so you can make sure you apply them within your business. I will leave a link to the PDF file inside the description section under this video.
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My name Is Max Shubin.
Have a great day!
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