Getting Shot Down!

[Aaron Sullivan 14]

ok,

you aren't going to hurt my feelings here, but i want to know what ya'll would have charged for this job. i got hungup on when i gave her the prices for this project. i feel like they are very fair prices, but you never know your customer.

anyways, here is what it was...

a deck, one half story off the ground, easy access all the way around...1800 sq ft of floor and 270 linear feet of your typical railing.

a house, one story on two sides (138 linear feet) and one and a half on the other two (62 linear feet). overall on this project is about 1820 square feet.

i bid the following...

deck - clean, strip and stain with ready seal - $2565

house - clean, strip and stain with ready seal - $3640

let me know what ya'll think.

thanks,

aaron

[carbs 14]

I love sales. Did I ever mention that?

Profiling is risky business. My best car sale ever was made to a guy that drove into the lot in a 1975 4 door green Chevy Nova. I sold Lotus and Corvettes in a large Chevy distributorship circa 1993. The seasoned sales guys looked at me like "Fenner, you're up on this one".

The guy was very low key and when I ran his credit his FICO was 780 and his annual income was 750k per year verifiable. He probably made three times that as CEO of a very popular east coast based lawn chemical company. He bought his and her Espirit S4's and a covertible 'Vette for his college graduating son. After I got the sale and knew the guy pretty well I asked him what was up with the Nova. He told me it belonged to his aunt who wouldn't trade it in for any of the new "junk that was made nowadays" He borrowed the car so he could get the greenest salesman and an honest deal. I ate steak that month and the other sharks ate beans.

It all comes down to this, once you develop a system for weeding out price shoppers and you get the opportunity to bid a job you know you can bid fairly on, you have to pull the trigger and make the sale. If you don't have the gonads to ask for the sale directly, use an alternate close. Get them to commit to a color. Start directing the sale like you already own it. Today I sold a pretty nice sized deck and front porch both made of mahogany. The people were very gunshy and skeptical so I started asking them what color they envisioned. Did they want something that matched the siding or would they like a stark contrast to make the deck look stand out. etc etc Keep 'em talking and eventually you will close.

Had to chime in on this one since I am generally a lurker...

I have sold cars in the past and I had the same thing happen to me (albeit not as profitable as Ken's). Guy drove in a Mustang II (remember them?) and all the sales guys disappeared, leaving me to take him. Less than two hours later, he was driving his brand new Celica home.

[Chappy 138]

I envy you guys who say you could make $1000.00 more on the deck. I would have been maybe $300.00 higher on the deck, but still would have come away with at least $100.00 an hour after direct expenses, maybe more considering how fast Ready-Seal goes on.

I can't comment on the house price, that's not my thing.

Gees Larry, Get a haircut and that awful hawiian shirt and youll sell more.

Just kidding.

Another thing to take into consideration is that they do have the money but are not ready to spend it yet. or that the price was higher than they budgeted for and need to work out the extra . Im amazed how many calls I get that say, 'remember the estimate you gave me 4 months ago'? 'we'd like to do it now, when can you schedule'?

I knew my pitch was good, my professionalism was there, my enthusiam showed. But when they ignore my follow up call, I figure I was undercut, so I move on and dont loose sleep over it. By the time they call sometimes I cant remember the details at all.

When I was in sales, some of my best accounts were the ones I had to force myself to go into, because I profiled them from outward appearances. I learned just to do the estimate and sell the job, you never know who will buy.

[Deck Guy 14]

Gees Larry, Get a haircut and that awful hawiian shirt and youll sell more.

Just kidding.

Here's what I looked like before my makeover...Thanks Clinton and Stacey!

[PressurePros 249]

Admitting you know whom Clinton and Stacey are takes guts. The fact that I am admitting I know whom they are is just stupid.

[Barry M 73]

Never heard of them.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Deck alone would have been $4500. House another $5000. If I was desperate for work maybe $8500 for both.

Silly question.. why were you quoting a job of that magnitude over the phone?

That's not a silly question. We never quote wood over the phone sight unseen.

Beth

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Well said Rod!! Selling is so cool---my grandpa (successful retired bank president) will only deal with a good salesperson. Few years ago he bought five Rainbow vacuums from a woman on a DTD to his home. I/we do DTD for log home stuff, but I don't view it as selling, but as marketing. It all goes in a database.

I agree. It's all in how you aproach it. Attitude means everything if it is the right one. I think you have this one down pat.

Rod!~

[Ron Musgraves 240]

In marketing 079 it’s qualifying not profiling. This is a fundamental strategy in almost any sales strategy.

When we are talking about a store front people usually qualify themselves. Outside sales things get a little different. Funny you guys mention a car dealer. They usually want to see a credit report to find out if they are wasting time looking at something you cannot afford.

I pre-qualify most customers; I think this is smart business. You should choose who you want to do business with and those you do not. I myself stay away from mom and pops and franchisees. I do make exceptions is the payment and profit margins are better.

Often franchise operations get upset because I have different pricing for them. Sorry, they have proven over time to be high maint. And don’t pay on time.

In the PM world qualifying is a large part of the success. Choosing company and operations that run poorly can affect your business. Dunn numbers are very helpful and often can give you a fundamental insight. How large the portfolio is and how much money they make.

Qualifying home owners would be a lot more difficult. I have friends that live in shacks that have more money than GOD. I have a friend that lives in a palace without furniture and drives 200 G cars. (Broke always)

Telephone quotes can be given, many companies give telephone quotes. That’s why we call them quotes. It’s merrily a ball park figure depending on the shape of your job and type. A visual for a solid proposal is required in most circumstance.

I have to give tele quotes and this all comes back down too qualifying the customers. Reality is that as a smaller or one man show you can only visit so many locations. If as and individual you get 16 calls in one day and you cannot possibly get to all getting one the phone and qualifying by giving a ball park figure and then determining the ones you want to visit first. Feeling out the customer or choosing the easier jobs always means you’re happier and the customer will most likely be also. I often get call for things I do not even want to do. I also like to know the customers reasons for wanting my service and what they expect. If they want to pay cash or they expect 30 day terms. All these things affect the way I do business.

I used to live in fairytale land. When I first started I thought I would treat all customers the same. I was wrong; people that pay me well promptly get my attention. Customers that are pains and don’t pay get charged more for being problems. Don’t get me wrong all get high quality service. I’m just not going to jump through fire hoops for specific ones.

I look for people to be fair; if they are fair then we will have a good relationship. If you try to take advantage I note that you’re not a fair person and I will give no freebees or go the extra mile.

Example of a sale today, fast food customer calls for a one time cleaning. She’s now operating a franchise location. She wants the corporate price agreement. Past customer for 10 or more years. I tell her a ball park on the phone; I let her know that I will need to have a tech look at her store while out that way last night. I call her today and tell her reality and she says lets go. She was going to go with the other company because my price was too high. I told her I needed time to look at the job to get to the best price. The price was higher than my competition and she appreciated the truth was disappointed with guy they had been using. She knows that we will actually clean the place and that I will spend the time I said it will take to complete the job correctly. If she was not a past customer that had been to one of our corporate training meetings in the past and now working for a independent location I would not have made time to educate her.

Another reason for tele quotes what if it’s a location you’re familiar with. What if you had restored the deck or cleaned the location many times over the years.

Customers and potential customers receive bids no later than 48 hours. We try for the day they call if possible.

Food for thought on this whole thread, what if you had just gotten disconnected? Maybe the woman is saying the same thing about you. What a jerk for hanging up. I would have called back, believe me it’s happened when I have given the price I was accidentally disconnected.

One more note: it’s really not a big deal if she did hang up. Do you really want a customer like that???????????????????????

[Ron Musgraves 240]

I recommend that if you can take a personal selling class at the local university or community college.

[HotShot 34]

Ron...your last sentence said it all....:)

[PressurePros 249]

A great salesperson can take any business, any product and be succesful with it. Taking classes and seminars is excellent advice.

[PLD 14]

I recommend that if you can take a personal selling class at the local university or community college.

Darn fine advice! Once upon a time, I was the student body president of a community college. As such, I was keenly aware the vast multitude of nearly free offerings they had on campus and at satellite locations. Over the past 20 years, I had completely forgotten about that resource. Thanks for reminding me!

For everyone else: If you don't have the local college extracurricular/extended credit (non-enrolled) catalog, call and get one. You'll be amazed what you find. Selling, QuickBooks, Marketing, Welding, Small Engine repair, Small business finance, MS office, OutLook, and a whole lot more. and most courses are only $49-69 for 3-20 hours of instruction. And most courses are nights and weekends offerings.

[James A. Lewis 14]

here is some good sales advice as well "bury that one and move on to the next" quit wasting time worrying over why you didn't get that job. If you are a good salesman you will figure that out anyway, you just dont win them all.I also believe a good salesman cant sell any product to anybody, thats a con artist not a salesman. If you truly believe in what you sell you will sell more of it than the person who doesn't thats the bottom line. would you buy what you are selling? if not why would anyone else? Buy the product from yourself and then you will sell it with ease.

[Deck Guy 14]

Admitting you know whom Clinton and Stacey are takes guts. The fact that I am admitting I know whom they are is just stupid.

I can't name any of the "Queer Eye" guys though...and I can name the starting line of the 1965 Green Bay Packers!

You're not questioning my manhood are you?

[PressurePros 249]

Larry, those pants look fabulous on you.

I got caught in watching one of those episodes where the chick was well, lets put it this way..

1984 called and it said to send back its hair and Jordache.

I ended up watching the whole makeover and now I know whom Clinton and Stacey are. I have sinced blocked that channel from my TV to avoid further temptation.