At every SFS seminar I encounter two “warring factions”. There are the “We price EVERYTHING over the phone” cleaners versus the “No way! We ALWAYS make a separate trip to pre-inspect/ price the job” cleaners.
I calm things down by saying “BOTH sides are correct”…
Keep BOTH options open by asking your prospect “Qualifying Questions”. (Q/Q)
IMPORTANT NOTE: More and more prospective customers are not CALLING you on the phone. Instead, for at least their INITIAL CONTACT prospects prefer the more efficient (for them!) anonymous texting, Facebook messaging, emails, Whatsapp, etc. The Q/Q procedure below will work with any ‘Lead Channel’…
After your prospect asks their initial question (usually some variation of “how much do you charge?”) simply reply:
You: “I can help you with that. May I ask you a few questions?” (Here you A) “take ownership of the conversation” and B) receive “permission to proceed”.)
Prospect: “OK.”
Q/Q #1: “Have we worked for you before?” (Sometimes I would waste a lot of time ‘selling a prospect’ and then discover we had worked for them before! No ‘selling’ required!)
Q/Q #2: “Do you live in or near (your service area)?” (Too often I’d convince a prospect that I needed to perform a pre-inspection on their home and then discover it was over an hour away!)
Q/Q #3: “Now are there any ‘special concerns’ I should note down?” (OF COURSE they have “concerns”! That’s why they are contacting you!)
Q/Q #4: “Are we working with any special time frame? Do you need this work down by a certain date?”
With these four “Qualifying Questions” you will now have the information to shunt the prospect into your 1) Immediate Pricing/Booking Format OR 2) your “We’ll need to make a quick pre-inspection…” Format OR 3) a Remote Video Pre-Inspection Format ‘walk-through’. (#3 is a ‘blended approach’ that gives you the advantages of ding a physical pre-inspection’ but from your office! No drive time required!)
NOTE: You receive all three of these Booking Formats in my 3-hour online SFS: ‘Winning over your caller’! LIVE seminar. CLICK HERE to learn more…
We priced (and scheduled) using our Immediate Pricing/Booking Format:
- Previous clients. (These folks knew us and we knew the job.)
- “It has to be cleaned today!” (I loved “urgent callers” because the price issue just melted away!)
- Small jobs. (I would quote “minimum charge work” on the initial contact.)
- Rental move-outs. (We worked closely with property managers who trusted us on charging.)
- Work located further than 30-40 minutes driving time. (IF it appeared the job was worth sending techs out on we would give an estimated price with our Immediate Pricing/Booking Format.)
- Emergency water losses OBVIOUSLY didn’t get a separate pre-inspection. I wanted a truck there with techs working in less than one hour!
The six above “price and book it right then” categories accounted for 85% of our residential contacts. The other 15% we almost always made a separate pre-inspection that gave us a huge return. CLICK HERE for my 5-Step Pre-inspection Format! (These steps apply to both a physical pre-inspection or a Remote Video Pre-Inspection Format ‘walk-through’.)
Steve