One of the most common complaints I hear from my renovation contractor clients is that they spend so much time quoting jobs. They go see a homeowner, measure up the job, clarify what the homeowner is looking for, when they want to do the project, how much they want to spend etc. They do all that work and then the homeowner chooses another contractor to complete the work. All that time is wasted.
What should happen? Well, let’s assume that all the work up to preparing the quote is the same. We will cover that process in another newsletter. Before you leave the homeowner to go and prepare your quote, book an appointment to go back and present your quote to the homeowner. That’s right, book the appointment right then and there. That way you know if the homeowner is serious. If they say “Just send me the quote” then they are more likely to be price shopping and all they really care about is how much will this cost and who is the lowest price. Stop sending quotes to prospects.
If you are going to spend hours visiting their home, measuring the job, researching your cost for the various components, writing a scope of work and figuring out the price, then you want to give yourself the best chance of winning the job. Hand delivering your proposals and going through it face to face with the client, will increase your chances of success. It will give you and the homeowner more time to be comfortable with each other and to build a relationship. This relationship building will help to separate you from the other “quotes” that they receive via email or fax. You will have elevated yourself above the other contractors.
I know that this increases the amount of time that you spend on a quote but how many times have you sent a quote to a homeowner and then you can’t reach them afterwards to find out what they thought of it? Sound familiar? That is an even bigger time waster.
If the homeowner doesn’t want to meet with you, to go over your proposal, then you have to really assess whether you should spend the time doing all that work when your chance of winning is reduced.
So go meet with your homeowner, go through your proposal, and ask them for the business. You will win more jobs!
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