One of my best sales lessons was learned aged 13 years old. Deciding we needed some extra pocket money, my friend Andy and I decided to knock on some doors in the neighborhood in the autumn asking homeowners if they would like us to rake up the fallen leaves.
It was about the second door we knocked on that the gentleman said yes, maybe , how much do we charge? Being very inexperienced we had not discussed what our pricing policy would be and how much we would settle for. We got a bit excited and blurted out a price without even seeing the size of the lawn. You can probably work out where this is going!
After giving our grossly under priced quote, the gentlemen immediately consented and walked us through his entrance hall, living room , conservatory room to the the garden, which was at least an acre!
The look on our faces must have been priceless as the 'penny' dropped we would be spending the next 2-3 hours of our lives working for the princely sum of ￡5 (not much in those days either, even when taking into account inflation). So many lessons to learn, including:
- Prepare your pricing well in advance . Will you make a profit , once your operational expenses are taken into account (average 10% net profit, depending on the sector)?
- Have you understood the scope of works (size of the problem/s) first before quoting? For a tradesman this would follow the form of some initial pre-qualification questions followed by a survey. Certain tradespeople now charge for carrying out initial surveys and as a result have drastically improved their 'close' rate (survey to job booking ratio). If it is an 'intangible' service, you are selling your skills , knowledge and expertise and it will take the form of some simple pre-qualification questions , followed by more in depth discovery questions to uncover needs and wants. Often your prospect won't even know the scope of the problem. This is a 'process' comprising well rehearsed steps, with the early steps establishing a relationship on an equal footing, with the sales person in control, rather than the traditional 'they say jump, you ask, how high?'
- Does the job fall in your 'sweet' spot? For us rakers ,yes it did but too often we are taking on work without knowing what differentiates us from our competitors and/or makes us better. We end up competing on price and racing to the bottom. In this current market, that's an ongoing, essential question to keep asking yourself and your customers. This particular lesson did turn out to be one of the best learned!
