We all need sales to keep our businesses afloat, but we talk to very few contractors who are confident or enjoy trying to sell products and services to their prospects. It gives many of us that icky, slimy feeling just to bring up an add-on or suggest a big-ticket item, and we’re careful not to come off as too pushy or predatory. So, we dance around, hint and hope… which very rarely leads to a sale. Due to more advanced scams, pyramid schemes, and high pressure techniques, the public has grown increasingly skeptical of being sold by manipulative measures. So, how can you close more sales and present your product in a way that assures your prospects you can be trusted?
Be confident – Confidence is vital to your success. If you don’t believe your services are a good choice for a prospect, why would they believe they are? You are the expert who has been trained and certified to do what you do. Find a way to relay that information in a form that homeowners can understand. They don’t need a week of classes, but make sure they completely understand the problem and why you’re suggesting the best course of action, especially if it’s an expensive one. Fight the urge to talk over anyone’s head just to try and sound impressive. That sounds sneakily familiar to the fine-print legal jargon on the bottom of contracts – intentionally vague and misleading – and throws up immediate red flags. Assert yourself as an expert that knows and understands their home equipment issues intimately and is willing to take the time to help them understand them; then they’ll value your opinion as a trusted advisor.
Be transparent – Don’t be afraid to level with your prospects and relate to them homeowner to homeowner. Use phrases like, “At my house…,” “If it were me…,” and “This is why I would…,” as much as possible. Honest statements like, “Yes, you can keep putting a Band-Aid on it and hope it makes it a few more years, but here’s what it’s costing you to put it off,” are much more trustworthy than a feeling of high pressure. If you’re bold enough, you can even show the most hesitant of people your cost, commission structure, or whatever else they’d like to see. Be an open book. They know you’ve got a business to run and money has to be made to keep providing the services you do, so don’t be afraid to lay all the cards on the table at times. People are much more upset by charges they don’t understand than ones they do.
Care – This one could have really been at the top of the list, because you will get nowhere without it. We all go to work every day for other reasons than just loving what we do and having an absolute passion for it. But if it’s just a paycheck, just a commission, just a dollar-in that you’re looking for, people will see right through that. Do you care more about doing a customer right than you do an immediate sale? Can you give honest advice on addressing their problem even if it means the ticket may be lower? To be completely transparent, the answers to those questions might depend on who is reading this right now – if you’re the owner of the company and all things reflect on what you’ve built, or you’re just an employee that may or may not be in this long term. In order to take care of your company, you need to be willing to put the customers’ needs above a quick sale; it’s also fantastic to see how this pays off in the long run.
The home services industry is a special market and there’s a reason why trust and reputation weigh so heavily in success and failure. There are so many tactics out there that might lead to a quick buck but sacrifice the confidence your area’s prospects have in your company. Be willing to put your name, face, and reputation behind everything you do with confidence: “This is what I do, this is who I am, and I promise I’ll do you right.”