How to Close More Deals

In this segment, we are going to discuss a very hot topic. How to close more deals.

This will be a four-part series, so keep coming back for more valuable information.

Now, let's get started.

Being a successful contractor requires two parallel mind setting processes. Getting Sales, and getting them at a price that makes you money (see my eBook – “How to Calculate Your Money-Making Markup!”).

One does not work without the other.

Now here is the problem.

Too many contractors are following a single and dangerous mindset. Getting the job.

Unfortunately, this throws them into the coliseum of rabid dogs who are also fighting to get the job.

The result?

Low pricing! 

The real question you need to ask yourself is this.

Are you selling low price or … are you selling value?

If you are selling low price, you really don’t care about making money. Instead, you just want the job and hope for the best.

However …

If you know you provide vale and a uniqueness with your service that the prospective client cannot get from the competition, you need to develop an approach that will accomplish just that. I cover this in more detail in my book: “How to Market & Sell Your Construction Services like Magic!”

In the next three blog articles I will lead you through the steps one at a time.

I am not going to discuss marketing or developing your promotional materials. If you want more on that, you can get my eBook: “The Contractor’s Magical Marketing Tool Belt!” which is loaded which is loaded with examples and information.

In this blog, I am going to discuss the first step. The one you must accomplish first.

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Qualifying Leads

This starts the minute you have first contact with the prospective client. The cornerstone in this system consists of two things:

1.      The questions you ask

2.      The record of the answers.

By designing the questions, your goal is to uncover enough information to validate the value of expending your time with this prospective client. You are trying to uncover whether they are serious, or fit your needs.

Let me give you an example.

I had a high-end roofing contractor who only did slate roofs. To make it even better, he only worked in three specific towns. His qualifying questions was: “In which town is the home located?” If you didn’t live in one of his three towns, you weren’t one of his customers.

Another contractor did high-end kitchens. His average job size was $150k. This made his qualifying question simple. “How much do you expect to spend?”

In my own construction business, my best customers were waterfront facilities. That made my niche and qualifying customer question very easy. “Is this a waterfront facility, and if so, on what body of water is it located?”

Once you have qualified the client as an ideal prospective customer, you can move onto the next series of questions that allow you to drill down for more information on your qualifying sheet.

Qualifying Lead Sheet

Today we have different forms of media that we can keep and track information. It can be on paper, spreadsheet or a good CRM software.

How you keep it doesn’t matter, it is just important to keep it.

The qualifying lead sheet stays in the process for the customer from initial contact, to sales person, to estimator, to job supervisor. It has all the pertinent information gathered on the client from their first call to the end of the job.

By having this information and correlating it, you can develop the profile of your best customers from the psychographics, demographics and geographic. This will help also reduce your advertising costs and focus your marketing dollars with accuracy.

This is important.

When you qualifying your prospective clients, you will reduce the wasted time on clients who will never buy from you, and increase your capture rate. All at higher dollars!

Next week I will talk a little more on the type of drill-down questions you need to ask. Until then, happy hunting!