I spent a little time on the phone with a remodeler down south this morning.
He went to a home show last week – generated 24 leads – and is struggling to qualify them and have control of the initial phone call with a new prospect.
Here’s a list of some initial phone call best practices I shared with him that he found helpful – I hope you find them helpful as well:
- First things first – pull out your Project Discovery Sheet. Have a process. Have the questions you want to ask in front of you. Not so that you sound scripted at all, but so that you have a process to follow.
- Be 100% focused on the call. Don’t be multi-tasking. Don’t be driving. Be 100% into it. Smile (yes – you can ‘see’ that smile through the phone.) Be friendly and up-beat.
- Set the expectation of how long the call will last. ‘Do you have 10-15 minutes to talk about your project?’ If your initial phone call is lasting 5 minutes – you aren’t asking enough questions.
- Ask a lot of questions about their project – enough so that you have a clear picture of the project in your head. And, in turn, have some other projects you have completed that are very comparable in size and scope.
- Later in the phone call – and if/when you have a clear picture of the project in your mind – ask them, ‘How much are you looking to invest in this project?’
- Most likely they will say ‘I don’t know.’ You can reply with, ‘based on my experience and projects that are very similar to yours – depending on a lot of factors and selections – you are going to looking at investing between $________ and $________. How does that sound to you?’ (and then be quiet)
- If you are still feeling like it is a good project for you – lay out your process for them. Let me know that you’d love to come out and meet them and see the space that needs to be remodeled.
- And then explain the next few steps of ‘This is how we work‘ to them. Explain what you’ll do in the initial in-person meeting… that you will book the second in-person meeting before you leave the first meeting. Explain your design agreement if you do that. Educate them on the process.
- Add this lead to your Remodelers AutoPilot account or CRM system or spreadsheet or whiteboard – whatever you use. Track how they found you. Keep your pipeline up-to-date.
- Send a nice professional email between the initial phone call and first in-person meeting.
- Always seek to improve this initial phone call! This is an extremely important part of your process. The better you get at it – the more success you will have with turning that lead into a paid project.
- At the end of the phone call – write down a quick ‘What worked? What didn’t work? Always be improving, trying new things, and learning.
These are some of the topics that I work with you on during the process of setting up Remodelers AutoPilot for your business.
