Estimate blues.... can you relate?

B

Beth & Rod

SR Wood Geek / Moderator
It's that time of year. The phones ring off the hook. You have more estimate requests than you can handle. You're working seven days straight. Happiness is seeing a fast food place somewhere along your route so you can grab a bite to eat or use the bathroom. (sorry, but it's true) Some potential customers don't want to let you in the house so you stand in the rain to explain things to them on the deck. One spouse didn't tell the other they called and so one of the two is not happy to see you and it wrecks the sale. (hubby not taking care of deck fast enough to suit wife, he gets offended) You mention a product and they had a bad experience with it. You finish your work, but the evil eye doesn't go away and you know they won't go with you. Then there are the ones where there is no discount big enough to suit them, and your time and efforts are not worth anything. In other words, you should be working for free!


Share yours too!!!!

Beth & Rod
:) :)
 
one of the reasons my focus isnt 100% on residential is the time spent getting a job versus monetary return.
i assume there is very good money in the residential market once you get a closing program that works.
my problem is the time i spend marketing to the homeowner,estimating the job,and following up,for a 20% success rate,get 1 job in 5 and never see the customer again,i could have spent the same amount landing a commercial account that provides steady work year after year.

keep in mind when i say this my experience dealing with homeowners was in the home improvement side of the industry.

maybe pressure washing side is different,also when i am bidding on commercial work i am on a level playing field with other legitimate buissnesses with whom my prices are competitive.

i do have yellow page ads coming out in june and i think i may just hire someone to handle all the calls and estimating.
 
I too do an awful lot of estimates, however, I have started to take a more hands off approach. I realize that you can sell better in person, but, I have begun to more less just run around and do data collection whenever I can, then process the information at home, when its convienent for me, and send them a written proposal.

I have been spending less time actually talking to customers.........and I make no attempt to be sure they are home when I'm there...........I'd rather they weren't. I don't have the time to speak to each one at length.

Of course if they are home, I take a few minutes to explain our process and products...........however, I don't go nuts with it. It doesnt take too many sentences out of my mouth for them to realize that I'm more on top of my game then most of the other people they have spoken to. Many people have also been remarking about other contractors that simply never returned their phone calls...................so, I feel my method is better then spending huge amounts of time with some customers and leaving others out hanging. Also, if there is a job I really want, I devote extra time to it and go after it........

As time goes on, your reputation will precede you. I don't have to try as hard as I used to.

Good luck to you all.
 
Hi Beth,
I too used to spend way to much time talking to customers and always trying to fix my scedule so I could meet the customer and try to sell myself on the spot,no more it is just to much time that I don't have,I would not have time to meet everyone becouse of answering the same 20 questions for most to be undecided or I'll get back with you or i'll talk to my spouse and on and on.and when you put a customer off becouse you told them you would be there at 4:00 and at 3:00 thay are still 3 down on the list and 20 miles away.My approach is more along the lines of Mike.If I can get info. over the phone sometimes I can save myself time and weed out the ones looking for the lo bid.You are able to after a few hundred calls.I will get data on most,talk to a few,and send est. out the following morning.between all this you have to get some work done on the Labor side of the business as well.Your time is what is going to make you or break you.
 
Beth, It sounds like you have been going everywhere with me. I had to tell one woman over the phone to please not waste my time. She thought I should wash her house , clean her front porch and the floor of her deck for $100.00!. She said she thought she could do it herself in a couple of hours and I said that is what she should do. Said if she could not cet it clean enough she would call me. I thought to myself FAT CHANCE, so you are not alone!
 
Most of the time I can tell if a person is shopping price. I come out and ask them and then I give some benefits of my service and then I tell them to get all the bids in a pile and take the highest bid and add $50. I will not take my time to go out and bid a $300 job and have it shot down for ten bucks. Then I tell them once your restaurant has been serviced by the other company, give us a call and we will be happy to service the system as it should have been in the first place.

One way that I probe the account for information is ask who has serviced the system in the past and why are you looking for another company. If the customer fails this test I consider him a poor customer to have. He would treat me in the same manner-and do I need his issue of price control-poor money risk.

David
 
Well, for us when the phones went nuts, the prices went UP.... And neither of us is batting an eye when we propose the prices either. And yesterday people couldn't write checks or whip out credit cards fast enough. It was an AWSOME day. We're booked out until JUNE 10th!!!!!!!!!!!! Now as crews train that will move up, but not by more than a few weeks. This is amazing. If someone doesn't like the price I don't bat an eye, because there will be someone else in a little while throwing another check at us.

I love this work.
Beth :)
 
I find it interesting what Mike H. and Don Y. say about not meeting in person. Do you guys happen to have a percentage on the sales you close not meeting customers vs. closings when you meet customers?? I always go out of my way to meet the person, and my closing rate is around 75%. I may try it for a couple months mailing out estimates, and see how many i close.


I will tell you guys what my favorite jobs to close are. I go through my estimates at the end of the year, and pull out the ones that i really wanted. I will call them and if they have not had it done, i keep calling. I got called back on a $2500 deck last week from an estimate i gave last year, and they want it done. I bet i've left 4 messages on their machine in the last year and never got a response. Persistance pays!!
 
Jon,
I am no where near the 75% closing rate that you are,more like 30-40% at best and I never get to all on them,sometimes I could get so busy by the time I made it to the site the Deck would already have a finish on it. Oh well I get what I can.sometimes I will give an est. to 3-4 things I see dirty,but you will find that some people just don't have anything better to do than call people for est. whether thay want something done or not.sometimes your biggest compediter will be the customer themselves trying to decide if thay want there deck refinished or new carpet in there den,you feel me......
 
I use to like to meet the homeowners and try to sell them the job when I'm doing an estimate. But now I rather they not be home also as others have said and the reason for this is the TIME it takes.

If it is for a $4000+ potential job then of course I would rather meet the homeowners but for most other estimates I just go there between jobs take a look at what they want done and then write up the estimate slide it under there front door and out I go. This only takes about the most 10 minutes.

I hardly ever call them to see if they want the job done because my reason for this is if they do then they will call.

My day is to short to chit chat with potential customers. The bigger your operation gets the less time you have...

Oh by the way I've been closing about 50% of my estimates which tells me I need to raise my prices even higher then I already have. My magic # is 33% which tells me My prices are where I want them to be.
 
Reputation, reputation!
Being in Kitchen Exhaust that is almost as important as doing a good job, I am busy enough that I cannot fit in any more customers unless they can work with me and allow me to do the work at off hours around my current customers. Which means they may have to close down early or hang around and wait. I explain this over the phone before I even go look. We don't advertise anymore nor do any cold calling, get about 3 or 4 calls a week, the last 12 in a row are now my customers.
Years ago I remember cold calling, going out getting about 15 or 20 bids and getting maybe 2 or 3 of them after repeated follow up calls and doing the work a rock bottom prices, just to keep cash flow. You learn real quick, after you get taken a few times who to deal with and who you should just let slip away in the wind.
 
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