Closing Rate

[Russell Cissell 65]

Of the actual bids that you give to potential customers, what percentage do you close? What percentage hire you for the work you bid?

In your comments, let us know if you are happy with your percentage or if it is something you are working to improve. Also, if you know are you usually the high bid, low bid or somewhere in the middle?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Our closing rate depends upon the budget of the clientele were are proposing to.

Its higher with those that can afford the services than those who cannot.

We are not always the highest bidder.

For example-Overall when doing a comparison of the two, the math comes out to around 62.50% close rate but that number is low because of the less affluent proposals that are looking for a low price that are included in the formula.

If we were to look at the affluent demographic proposals we close around 85% in relation to around 35% close rate of the lower affluent demographical areas. As you can see, it will provide an overall rate that unless taking in all the factors that skew it, will look low.

Rod!~

[Larry B 55]

When I get the call, my closing rate is pretty high. On cold calls or prospecting, it is very low.

[PowerWashofVa 14]

I have to agree with Larry B. It depends on the type of marketing that I am doing. I tried calling homeowners from a HOA directory. I offered a free estimate. I and several told me to do it if it was free!

When I attempted to close they really were not intrested or had some other excuse. When I put out flyers in the same area I closed the majority of homes. I feel I'm in the ball park with my prices (Charlottesville Virginia). When I do a estimate I look at SQ FT and the difficulty of the job. I average close to $100 a hour most of the time, that is for washing vinyl house or deck work. Sometimes $70 a hour but that's my fault (under estimated the time.)

I was told by a marketing person from a major lawn care company "it's a numbers game". The more estimates you do the better chances you have.

I found that to be true but area has a lot to do with it.

In the spring I'm moving the business to Greater Richmond Virginia and the Northern Neck of Virginia (Chessapeake Bay) two different markets. One has thousands of vinyl homes and 100+ PW's and the other high end homes on the water with only 4 PW'in the phone book. I have been business a little over a year now and I am still in the learning curve, time will tell!

[newlook 265]

The short answer is usually between 80-90%. There are many factors that influence our success. A few of them are: lack of competitive competition, great sales pitch, reasonable pricing, solid reputation, great service.

The above are just a few points that play into whether or not we are awarded a contract.

[paul-uk 500]

When I get the call, my closing rate is pretty high. On cold calls or prospecting, it is very low.

i am the same as larry..cold can be hell :lgmoneyey

[John T 744]

Wow you guys have some high closing rates. Maybe you should raise your prices some. 80% seems very high unless your talking about referral jobs. I'd say that all of my estimates together I close about 40%. Now I know that my prices are on the higher side because I've been told by many potential clients but I I try to get the highest price that I can get. Then again I do have my other job to fall back to if I don't get the job so I'm sure that figures into another reason why my prices are pretty high.

If I was doing Powerwashing as my sole job then maybe I would have to lower my prices a bit to close at a higher % rate but I don't know the answer to this because as long as I've been powerwashing(10 yrs) I always had my other job....

This is part of the reason that some times a part timer at this which I may be considered because of my two jobs can never be classified as a lowballer if he runs his business like I do.......

[newlook 265]

That is referals and everything. This is approximately our rate today but it wasn't like that when we first started in this business. Many doors were shut on our faces and were told many times that we could never make it.

For us it was all about determination and not giving up. Kept customer service in the forefront, offered a great service and kept our price scheme fair. These three principles have kept us going early on when our close rate was not even half of what it is today.

[Jeff 232]

That is referals and everything. This is approximately our rate today but it wasn't like that when we first started in this business. Many doors were shut on our faces and were told many times that we could never make it.

For us it was all about determination and not giving up. Kept customer service in the forefront, offered a great service and kept our price scheme fair. These three principles have kept us going early on when our close rate was not even half of what it is today.

I agree with Carlos, determination, quality work, competitive rate and ON TIME SERVICE are why I get a good close rate

Residential is about 75% my prices do need to go up this year on residential

Commercial Id say 70-80% Now. This is everything, referall, new calls & exsisting clients. Im lucky many of my proprty managers only call me or if they had to take other bids per the property, they will call me and see if I can adjust my bid a lttle lower, so I have the inside track on alot of work. Most of the time its a few hundred dollars I may be off, So Ill shave off a few hundred to get a job thats say 4k, 5k or more. Also finding out what my compitition charges has helped me on other bids. Ill tell my property managers, I want the work, show me a lower bid and let me see what Ican do

Now sometimes I cant/wont go as low as my compitition and I lose some bu I still get some of them, I tell them the bids just way to low and cant be done properly at that rate. I have a gutter job that I do twice a year $2500 each time a total of $5000, well the guy who was doing it, was doing it 4 times a year $1250 each time. I actually bid it for more , but the property manager asked me if I could stay with in their annual budget of $5000, I said sure at twice a year instead of 4 times. I got it and its easy money. Having a good working relationship with my customers and doing great work pays off & trust goes a long way.

JL

[Craig 111]

70% Power washing

80% Restoration services

30% Concrete Coatings

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Jeff,

I agree with Carlos, determination, quality work, competitive rate and ON TIME SERVICE are why I get a good close rate

I am just curious how you can make that claim of 'on time' and if you might elaborate a little further.

The reason I am asking is that our company cannot keep a scheduled arrival any tighter than a 2 hour window for most service scheduling due to the various landscaping issues and common yard clutter (for lack of a better word) that can be found around many homes we service which contribute to the time variances we experience.

Rod!~

[Jeff 232]

Rod around here it is horrible for reliability, Contrators dont show up. forget about within in a couple hours, they dont show up the day they say they will, this is for estimates and/or doing the job. I give residential customers a time frame with in 2-4 hours depending on the work load for the day. I have people thanking me all the time for just showing up , its sad around here

Commercial is just as bad around here. I have property managers tell me all the time how unreliable other contractors are. They know if I tell them a start date or a time I'll be there. I know its helped my reputation and keeps getting me more work & referalls

On the rare occaision I may be late or have to postpone work, I call the customer way ahead of time. Most dont!

Rod so basically On Time Service just means getting the job done when it should be done. Without the hassles many customers go through with other contractors in Myrtle Beach

JL

[John T 744]

JL,

That is some Property Management company you deal with. To let you clean for half the amount of time and to pay you the same money the other guy was getting for twice the cleanings. The Prop. Companies I deal with try to do the exact opposite here in NY. I've lost a few accounts that I had due to the Prop. man. Co. trying to get others to clean my accounts for half the price they pay me and you guessed it they found someone.

If your Prop. Management Company happens to have accounts up in NY put in a good word for me:)

[PressurePros 248]

Referrals = 100%

Deck work (non-referral) = 60%

Housewashes (non referral) = 90% (using multi-tiered pricing approach)

Upsell % on all = 65%

[Jeff 232]

JL,

That is some Property Management company you deal with. To let you clean for half the amount of time and to pay you the same money the other guy was getting for twice the cleanings. The Prop. Companies I deal with try to do the exact opposite here in NY. I've lost a few accounts that I had due to the Prop. man. Co. trying to get others to clean my accounts for half the price they pay me and you guessed it they found someone.

If your Prop. Management Company happens to have accounts up in NY put in a good word for me:)

Hey John, You get what you pay for. The reason they asked me to give them a price to do it in the first place was because the other company wasnt doing a good job. The main problem with the other company they would just blow out the gutters and the HOA & Prop Manager found out that they werent cleaning out the downspouts, they'd do the job and it would rain the next day or 2 and and the downspouts were clogged. So the other company could do it 10 times a year what would it matter if they do a half assed job.

We fish every downspout and unclog any blockage or dismantle any major clog and the property has no problem with clogged downspouts anymore. This same property I PW all the buildings every 18 months also, its a large property.

As for The Property Management Co, It is a great company. I do all thier PWing & Gutter Cleaning we work real well together. This month alone Ive cleaned the gutters of 47 buildings, Pw'ed 4 2story condos, this week we are PWing 12, 3 story condo buildings and friday we will clean the gutters of 14 more buildings and the week after Xmas we do 8, 3 story buildings. All for this one Prop. Management company. Got to love it, This company make me the $$$. They know they get a great job everytime with JL

JL

Like I said you get what you pay for

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Bump....

[Tegrey 121]

Our closing rate is 80-90%, due to History and Service. We have 10 years behind us and do the job as requested. 80%+ are referals. Thank You.

[plainpainter 217]

Ken - what happened to the 'you shouldn't be winning more than 35% of your estimates' philosopy?

Referrals = 100%

Deck work (non-referral) = 60%

Housewashes (non referral) = 90% (using multi-tiered pricing approach)

Upsell % on all = 65%

[Tegrey 121]

plainpainter,

That would be a national average on calls that are not previous customers and old customer referals. 30% would be new calls from the advertisement you do. Thank You.

[DAVID V 22]

Kens post is almost 2 1/2 years old.

[Thad 135]

Kens post is almost 2 1/2 years old.

So?

That doesn't mean we couldn't argue about it now.

;)

[KC Deck 14]

Referrals 100%

Non-Referrals 70%

Most of my work is done off of referrals. I've been with a builder for about 3 years now and he recommends me after every job he does. I also put an add in the local newspaper which gets me about 1/4 of my work. I bid alot from the newspaper, but the closing rate is less because of competition.

[JumpFeetFirst 14]

This is where my problem is:

I get 100% from referals. If I can say so without being cocky. I feel I am the best at what I do when it comes to painting.

When leads come from other sources I am way low. Below 50%. I am in a dilema of what I m doing wrong besides the obvious "I suck at sales"

As I spoke with someone from this board last week. I have a hard time it seems from when I deliver the price to asking for the sale. Someone give me some tips. emember I am moving up North, so price might not be as king as it is here. It seems that it is the only factor here.

Jimmy

[Greg R 82]

Man you guys should all be rich by now :lgmoneyey

Our close ratio is probably running in the 35% to 37% range. If we closed 80% of the bids we've completed already (and we haven't even started the year yet!) we would be 8 crews deep already.

For kicks I just counted things up and out of 142 bids this year so far we've closed 52 jobs. The one difference I'm certain that plays a part is we dont always meet with the customer though. We try too but with fuel costs and time it's not always economical to make appointments for the bulk of them so if they are there great... if not we leave it or mail it and make a call to follow up. At that time we setup a time to meet if requested.

80% is alot!

[SawtoothLogRestoration 14]

I was told by a corporate counselor that if you close more than 30% of bids (non-referrals) you need to raise rates. When I started charging to do my bids (local $50 and up $50 per half hour beyond) my closing rates went up by quite a bit. Keeps the shoppers at bay. I run $1000 a day to stain, plus materials. My log replacement is $1800 a day plus materials. My closing rate has gone up since I started charging more.

[FLORIN 21]

Referrals = 100%

Deck work (non-referral) = 60%

Housewashes (non referral) = 90% (using multi-tiered pricing approach)

Upsell % on all = 65%

I know this post was a couple years ago. Also I remember you going into detail on a thread on what tierr level pricing you do with your silver,gold,and platinum packages but I cant find it anymore. I would like to implement something like this in my service. Can you please go over what you offer in what packages again. I feel this aproach has great potential in my area. Thanks Ken.