Customers Buy You!
Have you ever asked yourself?
“Why do people hire me?”
“What qualities are they looking for in a painter?”
“Why should they choose me instead of a competitor?”
We all want to be in demand. But how can you be in demand if you’re not sure what 'in demand' really means?
Persuading your prospects to say “yes” to do business with you is the single most overlooked part of contracting. It’s also the most important if you want to be successful.
You can have a solid business plan; a healthy marketing budget, even exceptional technical skills but they won’t do you much good if you don’t know how to land the job. I realized from the beginning my level of success ultimately depended upon how good I could become at getting hired by customers.
I became obsessed with studying my prospective customers. Carefully watching for buying signals, I learned to recognize their purchasing 'hot buttons'. For me, it’s been a process of endless field testing. Combine that with an ongoing survey of 1000s of past customers I’ve grilled for valuable information over the years about why they hired me. Finally, I can say with absolute certainty I know what specific qualities people look for when choosing a painting contractor.
People hire me because they like and trust me. That’s it!
Here’s the challenging part, how do you become liked and trusted in the short time it takes to make a sales call?
A lifetime of research has helped me zero in on three key practices that provide extraordinary results.
Find common ground. The first thing I do on sales calls is quickly looking around their home and yard for what I call 'conversation starters'. Golf clubs, pets, toys, even a swing set in the backyard all provide excellent opportunities to share common interests. If they have kids or pets I tell them about mine. If they apologize for a messy house I reply, “You should see mine.” My wife would kill me if she knew I said that (she’s a very neat housekeeper). Building a bond by sharing common interests with your prospects helps them realize you’re just a regular guy or gal providing a needed service. You’re not some con artist trying to bilk them out of their kids’ college fund.
It’s all about them. Listen carefully and pay close attention when your potential customer explains the scope of the work. It’s important you don’t talk about yourself or your company before your prospect has had all the time they need to tell you exactly what they want. If you talk about yourself or your company too soon, people get the sense you have your own best interests at heart and don’t care. Even if it’s not true. Then unpleasant sales resistance will rear its ugly head. Keeping the focus on their needs is the best way to avoid it in the first place.
Explain clearly. After I’m sure my customer has finished talking and I understand their vision, I clearly convey exactly what I’ll do for them both verbally and in writing. Be sure they understand the benefits that you provide. After all, people don’t buy just your services; they buy solutions to their problems. Become a problem solver, customers want you to tell them what you’re going to do, and what it will cost if they hire you. Clarity implies expertise.
These three simple, but critical practices are your building blocks to selling success. They’ve enabled me to consistently close eight out of every ten jobs I bid. They will set you apart in a good way. They’ll also give prospective customers much stronger reasons to do business with you than the other painting contractor who showed up and didn’t know that customers actually buy you.
Remember, people don’t always buy how good you are at what you do; they buy how good you are at who you are.