I stumbled across a contractor’s promotion the other day that made me stop in my tracks. It was advertising a $29 tune-up special. That’s right, twenty-nine US dollars for a complete HVAC tune-up. I jokingly commented to another marketing coach that they must call that their “Spring, tech gets fired if they leave the house without an upsell, Special.”

Kidding aside, if you’ve been around Hudson,Ink for any amount of time you know we don’t suggest bottom of the barrel pricing. If you market strictly on price you will, no doubt, attract an undesirable breed… the price shoppers. Throw out $29 dollars and inevitably you’ll get the phone call from a guy asking if you can do it for $27. Give it to them free and some guy will want you to pay him for the privilege of working on his pipes. People are fun, but that’s not the main lesson here. This ad was not from a one-truck contractor trying to make a name for himself or someone who has a weak brand. Quite the contrary, the piece was put out by a well-established company who should know better, right?

Why does a piece like this automatically set off alarm bells in our mind signaling us to discredit the contractor, assuming he’s doing something underhanded? And are customers assuming this too or are we just assuming they are? That’s a lot of assuming, and you know what they say that makes us both…

Let’s get this out in the open quickly. Bait and switch tactics or high-pressure sales forcing a homeowner into a decision that benefits only the contractor are always wrong. But are “foot in the door,” “let me take a look under the hood,” free diagnosis types of advertising always wrong, or can they be ridiculously productive when handled well? I lean toward the latter, with emphasis on the when handled well part.

Pretty often I hear contractors say things like, “We don’t use those types of tactics here. We’re an honest company and I want my customers to trust me.” 99% of the time what’s got them on their soapbox is an offer the competition put into the marketplace, usually one they are cleaning up with. Contractors, I appreciate the moral high-ground and no one here will ever suggest you do anything that lessens your integrity, but please don’t let your preconceived notions of sales etiquette keep you from making money.

Marketing truth: You CAN upsell your customers and run campaigns with that aim in mind without being a sleaze-bag (yes, that’s the technical term). So, let’s say through whatever means you choose, you have gotten into the home and now have the golden opportunity to push for the upsell. Remember, sometimes upselling a customer is the right move for THEM and for YOU, sometimes it’s not.

People Love to Buy, but Hate Being Sold

Never ever make it seem like your first intention of being in their home is to sell something. One of my favorite marketing quotes is, “Sell the problem you solve, not the product you have.” You’re there to make them more comfortable, make their bills go down, and to make their lives stress free, right? That may seem obvious, but it’s a mistake that salespeople make all the time. Remember to be genuine, and if the prospect feels like you have their best interest at heart in suggesting an additional expense (equipment upgrade, an additional repair, or even a maintenance agreement), they’ll be a lot more open to it. If you make it make sense to them, show proof it benefits their family (and not just your wallet)… they’ll soon be signing checks. Take the time to invest in the relationship and learn their needs first. If you launch into some canned and scripted sales pitch used at every household, the answer is probably no before you ever had a chance.

Since my ’07 Jeep Cherokee just passed the 200k odometer mark, I’m in the market for a new vehicle. So, I pulled onto a car lot the other day to look around. Before I could even get my vehicle parked there was an overly aggressive salesman already walking my way. I know he works on commission, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he almost sprinted my way, but here’s where he lost me. He asked one question, “So, you in the market for a new vehicle?” When I said yes, he immediately took off on a 10-minute pitch about the brand-new turbo-charged Mustang GTs that had just rolled on the lot. 420 horsepower, my choice of color, and only $40k. It looked like he was about to bring out the papers before I had spoken a word, and that’s when I finally got a word in to stop him. “Man, I have two small children and a two-hour round-trip commute to work every day. The 15 miles per gallon and two square feet of room in the backseat is not really what I’m looking for.” He acted like I had wasted his time not telling him that sooner, when in fact he’d wasted his own time by not caring what I wanted.

It was quickly apparent this guy’s only interest was trying to smooth talk me into an expensive and impractical car, not finding the right car for me. I thanked him for his time, and he missed out on the opportunity to possibly sell me any one of the right options that were on his lot. Every single household that you walk into will have a unique story and situation. Every single one. Your goal entering the house should not be new unit or bust, because simply, not every house needs a new water heater or HVAC system. Your job as the trusted expert they’ve allowed into their home is to find their needs and help them address them. The maintenance plan, the follow-up visit, them choosing you to do the work for needed repairs vs. price shopping the competition, etc. are all upsells too, albeit smaller ones than a full system replacement. We all want the big sale, but if that means you send a married man home with his new Mustang to show his soon-to-be ex-wife, you’ve done him a disservice even if you did convince him to sign on the dotted line. That’s not what he came for or what he truly needed. When we get too pushy or greedy with a sale, feelings get hurt and reputations go down the drain, so that’s why this next point is so important.

Remember You’re in it for the Long Haul

The reason I say we can’t assume the $29 example I started off with is a high-pressure ploy is because that contractor might have a healthy, long-term outlook. The response should be much higher with that price point, but he is no doubt losing money on every call he fields. $20 in gas, $50 an hour labor, $20 hard costs, etc. and a $29 invoice… you don’t stay in business long like that. But if this contractor is looking long term and can establish each of these calls to his base as an active customer, he will make up his loss on their next call, which is not on special. The average customer in a contractor’s database is worth $600 yearly, so even though taking an $80 loss on the first call might be hard to swallow, that’s still $520 average gained on the year in that scenario IF the customer becomes a fan of yours.

If you are in the financial shape where you can do this and can truly bank on the future, you could even try a little reverse psychology on any skeptical customer who is expecting you to try the upsell. “Ma’am, we are just wanting to offer a low price to your neighborhood to get out and meet some new families. Think of it as a handshake and a good faith attempt to earn your future business.” You’ve let them off the hook and released the pressure valve, and that’s an interaction they are sure to remember. Yes, you went in the hole to establish the connection, but if you keep them active and invest in the relationship, you’ll get the replacement call soon enough. You are taking the risk on the front end versus the customer, and that’s a great way to build trust. So, this type of campaign could be just used to find new customers or reactivate stagnant ones.

Also, you can simply play the math. One in every 12 tune-up calls reveals a significant repair need and one out of every 24 reveals a serious replacement need. We aren’t talking about having to be high pressure and sell every door that opens anymore, now you are opening a lot of doors to improve your odds of finding the best candidate for an upsell. Close the ones with the highest percentage of closing.

So, maybe there’s a time and place for a little bit of “shock and awe” pricing if you’re using it selectively and using it as a long-term investment in growth. It doesn’t always mean you are trying to pull a scam. Once we step out of our world we find that the average homeowner has no clue what it actually costs you to do business anyway, so low pricing doesn’t throw up nearly as many red flags for them as we think.

The main thing to remember is this: Be honest, give every point of service that you advertise, and the long-term relationship with the customer is always more important than a quick upsell.