Once upon a time, in my younger years, I spent two days putting together an estimate for a customer for a bathroom renovation. I knew before I even entered the house that the standard bathroom renovation was going between $8,000 and $10,000. However, I was not savvy at qualifying potential customers at that time.
I called the potential customer back three days after my visit and gave him the price of $7,500 for his bathroom job. The potential customer laughed in my face on the phone. “Why hell son,” he said. “I didn’t pay that much for my house.”
This may sound strange, but I will bet a number of you have had the same experience. And that is why you should spend more time qualifying your potential customer upfront.
Most of us rush right out to the caller’s house as quickly as possible, but with the high price of gasoline and the value of your time, is this prudent for your bottom line? Let’s investigate a way to keep your drive-time down and save a few dollars. Let’s look at ways to pinpoint your marketing efforts.
The first step is to know and understand who your customer is when it comes to home remodeling. This involves not only the who, the what, the when and the where, but more importantly the why. You want to understand their attitudes and motivations toward remodeling.
How do you know who your customer is? You gain this information through a call/lead tracking system. Record some information about every potential customer that calls your company.
Why do I keep referring to a call/lead? That is because not all requests or calls for work are qualified leads for your company. You need to spend the necessary time on the phone to find out more about the potential customer.
Start with the basics. Where do they live? What is their age? Are they married? What kind of car do they drive? When was the house built? Who is actually making the decisions? What does the potential customer want to accomplish? These are all questions that you should be asking the potential customer before you spend your time and money to give he/she a bid.
The potential customer has called you because he/she heard that you are a great remodeling contractor. Now you must determine if the potential customer meets your criteria.There is only one way to find out. Talk to them and ask them the right questions. Be sure about who is interviewing whom. The perspective should be yours. You are the one that has to drive to the house, put together the estimate and then track them down to deliver the quote. All the potential customer is doing is placing one phone call to your company.
After you set up a call/lead tracking system, review it, study it. Know who the best potential customer is for your company and personality. It will result in less money spent,more calls closed. What is wrong with that?
Besides, it will give you a lot more time to accomplish a number of other things that have been weighing on your shoulders.