 Marty Grunder |
Last month we received a request for a proposal from our website. The lead was from a homeowner in a neighborhood of smaller homes; they are nice homes, just smaller, and frankly we don’t do much work in the neighborhood. Since the request was for a clean-up and it was close to my daughter’s school, I decided I would stop by when I picked her up from school the next afternoon. I called the prospect to say thanks, acknowledge the request and say I’d stop by that day. Normally, we charge a consultation fee, but since it was on my way and it was just a clean-up, I didn’t. I explained that to the prospect and he was glad to hear it. He also said, “I’m glad you’re going to come by; we’ve received several estimates, but the lowest is $600 and the highest is $900 and we can’t figure out why there is such a discrepancy.” Urgh, I thought, what am I doing? This is going nowhere; I should have asked more questions and used my normal screening process and not been in such a hurry on the phone. But I already told him I was coming, so I couldn’t back out now. I can count on my hand the number of clean-ups we’ve done in the last five years that were less than $1,000. We can’t make money on most $1,000 jobs; we know who we are and who we aren’t and we try to stick to that. But the economy’s struggling, right? When I pulled up to the house I quickly measured it up and recorded how many yards of mulch it needed, how much fertilizer, how much Snapshot, how many dump fees and, of course, how much labor it was going to take. I figured in a pre-spray with Roundup, as there were weeds and grass everywhere. Later, I put together an estimate that came up to $2,100. I e-mailed the prospect what all we’d do, explained the price and said we’d love to do the work. When I opened my e-mail the next day, the first one was from that prospect. Surprisingly, it said that even though we were more than twice what the next highest bid was, they were going to go with us. I was shocked. I said “thank you” and asked if I could come by and pick up the contract and walk around to make sure we’re all on the same page. When I met with the homeowners I pointed out a few more things we could do; they agreed to them and then before I left, I noticed their front walk was crumbling to pieces and suggested we install a paver sidewalk. They were excited to hear about that idea and asked for a price. Two days later I returned with two options for a front paver sidewalk. One version was $2,100 and the other version was $3,700. You will not be surprised to learn they bought the $3,700 version. In signing them up for this addition, I asked them why they picked Grunder Landscaping Co. over all the others. Here’s what they said, “Marty, you were the only company that came out here that seemed to want our business. No one else took the time you did, nor made any of the suggestions you did. And there was only one other company that we even met. The others just mailed or phoned in estimates.” Just think: I almost let a bad attitude get hold of me. I had quickly and automatically assumed we would not get the job, so why was I bothering to use my time for this? I was so close to trying to get out of this estimate but I pushed on. I’m glad I did. While $5,800 worth of work isn’t a big job for us; it is a job. I’m going to make new friends once this job is done; who knows how much work we’ll do with them in the future? It’s important that we approach our prospects in a positive way. To be able to do so, you have to believe you can win. Even in bad economic times there are people who are setting records making sales despite all the turmoil and uncertainty. All of these successful folks have many ways that enable them to win. There are selling techniques, tricks, new methods and the like, but one thing is for sure – no one finds success by sitting on their posterior waiting for things to get better. They win because they have decided to take action and work to win. They put their minds to it and go to work. We all have the choice of waiting for something to happen or making it happen. Why don’t you go out and make it happen – starting today. |
Explore the June 2010 Issue
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