Features and benefits. Of all the benefits of doing business with your company, consultant Grosso contends, the product you offer is “the real major.”
Break a product and your installation process down into segments or components and be prepared to sell those that are the strongest or are unique. “Convince the customer that they need to have it to go ahead with the job,” Grosso says. And while doing so, employ frequent trial closes — “Is this something you’d want if we went ahead with the project?” — to get clients price-conditioned and prepared to spend the money you’re asking.
A beginning and an end. When does the job start and when does it end? If your prospect is considering a low-ball contractor, that’s definitely something he or she would want to know. Otherwise they risk having a one- or two-day roofing or four-day siding job drag on for a month or more, since the low-ball contractor is only able to work on weekends or days off.
“We tell them that our job will be done in five to 14 days, give or take rain,” Brown says. “Those low-ball guys could take a month or a month and a half.” Prospects, he relates, have rarely thought about that, let alone the disruption it would cause them.
Follow up in writing. Yes, it’s great to close on the first call. But suppose you don’t. What if you leave behind a prospect who is seriously weighing your proposal against, say, four others? Smith says that in such circumstances he always sends a follow-up letter. “Many times I’m the only one who followed up in writing,” he points out.
He also sends prospects a checklist asking them to specify the reasons why they didn’t go with J.N. Davis Roofing. “The computer spits out the checklists,” he says. “It’s painless. When those prospects get a letter from me, they know I’m serious about serving my customer.”
