What about the prospect who insists that someone who’s not a buying party be there for the presentation? The experienced counsel that flexibility is almost always the best policy. “The prospect may be a single person who has never done anything like this before, so it’s important for someone they trust and have confidence in to be there,” Moeslein says.

This can be especially true when dealing with older homeowners living alone, he adds, or in a situation where it could be construed as inappropriate for the salesperson to be alone in the house with a prospect. In such cases, he advises that companies work to accommodate callers.

One-leggers can be time-consuming and frustrating for salespeople, but few contractors feel they can afford to ignore their sales potential. “One-leggers are still a lead and a potential buyer,” Blake says. “We may be shooting ourselves in the foot if we refuse to run them, and I don’t think the closing ratio for one-legs is much different from two-legs,” he adds.

START WITH LEAD-SETTING You can reduce the number of one-leg appointments by having clear policies when it comes to setting leads. And you can reduce the negatives associated with calling on one-leg appointments by training reps to manage situations that unexpectedly turn out to be one-legs. When setting appointments:

• Explain your reasons for requiring all parties to be present. Point out that it’s company policy, but don’t leave it at that. Explain why your company has such a policy. Having both parties present allows for common agreement about key aspects of a project. Without that, many projects simply can’t go forward. “We explain that we have to ask questions about style, design, color, and budget that both parties must answer. We will lay out all the variables,” Moeslein says.
• Use the right words. Use a script with specific language that avoids words that might offend (“spouse,” “wife”) and instead uses neutral terms such as “homeowners,” “decision-makers,” or “interested parties.”
• Don’t push. If the female head of household insists that she is empowered to decide on a roofing, siding, or window contractor, how far are you willing to go in challenging that assertion? Go too far and you’ve given offense. “You don’t want to get off on the wrong foot,” Blake says, “so if she says she can make those decisions, then away we go.”
• Sell the appointment. “There are two parts to setting an appointment. The first is selling the need for the visit, the second is the timing,” Rott says. “Most people think you’re just going to measure something and quote a price. They have to understand that you need to spend some time with them and all the owners, or at least the interested parties.” Your job in setting the appointment is to get them excited enough that they’ll both want to be there.
• Confirm both parties. Confirming before the sales call presents another opportunity to nip potential one-leggers in the bud. Rick Edwards, president of Custom Patio Rooms in Pittsburgh, uses a technique he calls, “cross-confirming.” That is, the company’s appointment setter tries to get the names of both parties, usually husband and wife. “If we speak to the wife, for example, then when we call to confirm, we ask for the husband,” Edwards says. That prevents the person who answers the door from saying they didn’t know someone was coming.

One-leg appointments run from 5% to 20% at many home improvement companies, generally running higher in the summer and in urban areas. “It can be more difficult when both husband and wife work and people are working longer and odd hours,” Blake says. “Fortunately we also see more people working from home now, and that has helped in some cases,” he adds.
MANAGING ONE-LEGS Say your appointment setter does everything right and the sales rep arrives at the home only to discover a one-leg call in the making. Now what? The worst thing you can do is to tell the homeowner that presenting the product under such circumstances is against company policy. “If you want to lose the opportunity,” Moeslein says, “give them the impression that it’s all or nothing. They’ll just say, ‘See you later.’”

Again, the key to turning such situations into solid leads is flexibility. How promising is the situation, and the potential for making a sale?

“If the salesman knows how to do it, a one-leg will turn into a sale most of the time,” asserts sales and marketing consultant, and REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR columnist, Chuck Anton. He advises that since one-leggers can rarely be closed on one call, schedule a second visit. In such situations, Anton suggests that salesmen walk around the house, ask plenty of questions, gather information, and then explain: “Normally I go back to the office and work up a price down to the penny — not a ‘guesstimate’ — then come back and talk to you and your husband. Does that sound fair?”

In fact, many companies regularly re-set appointments that turn out to be one-legs when the salesman visits. “We will take some measurements and warm up with whoever is at home, explaining that we like both homeowners to be present because there are so many options that can affect the estimate, and we want them to pick and choose so we can give them an accurate estimate,” says Chad Hanson, sales manager at Budget Exteriors, in Bloomington, Minn. “We call our marketing department while we are sitting there with the homeowner and set a time when both parties will be home. If you don’t do that, the chances of getting the appointment again are slim to none.”

Arranging for a second call is an excellent strategy, and companies that employ it advise that the key is to provide information, such as company story and needs assessment, but not a price. That way you don’t get shopped, and you give prospects an incentive and a reason for the second call. “No price, no harm, no foul,” Anton says. “I can do everything up to the price and still get back in because they want to know the cost.”

One-leggers will never be easy, and they aren’t going away. They take more time, require training for marketers and salespeople, and demand a flexible response and a positive attitude. Put all that together and you can far more readily sell one-leggers.

Every prospect isn’t going to be present and ready to buy. “That’s not the real world,” Pagano says. “The salesperson has to expect that they’re going to have to turn these leads into better leads at the door. It’s up to the salesman. If the appointment setter is building all that interest, why do you need salesmen?” —Jay Holtzman is a freelance writer based in Jamestown, R.I.