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(Mistake #1) Not Selling Aggressively

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The biggest mistake you can make is assuming that no matter what you say, people will always take the lowest price. Huge mistake. HUGE!

People choose the lowest price until you convince them your services are worth more. That's selling - getting paid for what you're worth.

Selling is helping a prospect choose the right course of action, even if it comes at a higher price.

Selling Is Absolutely Key To Your Business' Survival!

When you DON'T sell: You struggle to make money.

You work for bad clients.

You lose to keep good people.

When you sell:

You set your own price…and profits

You pick and choose your clients.

You can hire the best workers who help you maintain your competitive advantage.

The simple truth is; commercial contractors have been trained to offer the lowest price they can.

You are told that someone offered to do the work for less.

You are told that your price is over budget and the job will not go forward until you lower it.

Your clients expect a volume discount .

Why Clients Will Pay You More Than The Next Guy

Clients pay to have problems solved. It's that simple. You must convince your prospect that you will solve his problem better than the next guy, and the solution that works costs more.

Selling Made Easy With 5 Simple Steps

Ask questions.

Identify your client's primary pains and concerns.

Quantify the value of eliminating his pains and concerns.

Prove your company will eliminate those pains and concerns.

Bond with your client.

The first four steps convince your client you will solve the problems he cares most about. The last step closes the deal.

Step #1: Ask Questions

What's the greatest challenge for a salesman?

Keeping his mouth shut.

Salesmen love to talk about themselves, talk about their company, and talk about how their client would be a fool not to use their product or service. They never shut up long enough to find out what their client needs.

Get your client talking. When you think you're done asking questions, ask some more (and take notes).

Step #2: Uncover Your Client's Concerns and Pains

You will need to bring your clients' pains and concerns to the surface and into focus. Believe it or not, they may be completely clueless about their real pains and concerns.

Educate Your Clients About the Headaches Commonly Experienced During Construction

A new developer may not have a clue about the headaches involved with construction. Many think the process is going to be fun…until they go through it.

Remind clients of past headaches they experienced by going with the low-priced contractor. It brings up memories they had forgotten and suddenly realize “Oh, I hated that. You mean that could happen again?” W ord as many of your explanations as possible as questions.

They Need You

Fear not, they have a problem or you wouldn't be meeting with them. Allow me to share a personal story.

While working as the General Manager of a commercial general contractor, I sat through a free sales seminar. The host of the seminar called me shortly thereafter and requested a meeting. I happily accepted his offer and we scheduled a time for him to drive out to my office.

He arrived on time, we went to the conference room, joked around for a couple of minutes, and then we began:

“How much time have you set aside for our meeting?”

“1 hour.” I answered.

“Great. That's more than enough time." he replied. Now, what is your sales problem?”

I was caught off guard.

“What makes you think we have a sales problem?”

He explained “Ron, you didn't take this meeting just to be nice, did you?. Didn't you take this meeting because your company needs to increase sales?”

He was right. No one takes a sales call just to be nice.

They meet with you because they have a problem and believe you may be able to solve it. Ask them about it directly, professionally and politely and they'll probably open up about it and thank you for getting right to the matter.

Step #3: Have Your Client Quantify ($$$) His Pain

Your client is now ready for the key question, which may be worded a couple of different ways:

“How much is it worth to you to avoid that?”

or

“How much is that problem costing you?”

You can not move forward with your sales call until he has answered the question. If you can't get your client to assign a cost to his problem, he is not ready to buy.

You will often be SHOCKED to discover that the price he places on relieving the pain is far higher than you would charge for the work.

Until he admits to himself the cost of hiring you is far less than the cost of choosing the wrong contractor, he will not be ready to pay for your higher priced services.

Some Clients Place A Higher Value On Your ServicesThan You'd Have The Guts To Charge!

What a break! You can RAISE your price. How great is that?

Step #4: Back Up Your Claims With Proof

Your client is not quite ready to say “yes” yet.

Here's what is going through his mind.

“Sure, your price is a bargain, IF you live up to your promises. Salesmen have lied to me before. How do I know you'll keep your word?”

Time to back up your claims with proof. That usually requires providing testimonials, references, case histories, or unconditional money back guarantees.

Nothing YOU say will be believed. But your REFERENCES will be, especially if your client talks to them.

When You Say “Trust Me” It's IGNORED.

When Your Past Client Says “Trust Him” ~ IT'S GOSPEL ~

This is why you must aggressively collect testimonials and references.

Every time I get ready to hire a new contractor, I ask for a list of the names and phone numbers of their last 20 clients. Depending on the cost of the work and how I found out about the contractor, I'll chat with up to five of them. If they green flag the contractor, I sign the proposal.

Word of caution: Don't give out references until you have a standing agreement in place pending approval of your references.

All salesmen say “Trust me.”

Do you trust a salesman who says “Trust Me.”?

Don't expect your clients to either.

Step #5: Bond With Your Client

Despite having perfectly executed the first four steps, if the client takes a disliking to you, the job is still going to someone else. Emotion trumps logic.

If The Client Doesn't Like You, You Will Not Get The Work

People buy from individuals they like and respect (friends and authorities). It's really that simple.

Every project involves interaction between client and contractor. If your client believes those interactions are going to be unpleasant, he is going to avoid you.

Let's Review The Steps 

Ask questions.

Help your client identify his primary pain and concern.

Help your client quantify the value of eliminating his pain.

Provide social proof.

Get him to like or respect you.

Selling is the only thing that will separate you from your price-cutting competition.

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(Mistake #2) Not Having an Effective Lead Generation System

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Contractors who truly thrive do so by generating negotiated work. Contractors who never land negotiated work have broken lead generation systems. It's that simple. Negotiated work is the acid test of your lead generation system.

Commercial trade contractors often rely on general contractors to track down work opportunities. General Contractors often get in the habit of chasing government projects and other open bid projects. Tracking down low-price wins bid opportunities is not really a lead generation system.

If your lead generation system is not producing ample opportunity for negotiated work, you need to install one of more of the following lead generation systems.

Lead Generation Systems

Referral

Networking

Web based w/ email

Mass advertising

Joint venturing/strategic alliances

Telemarketing

Direct mail

Publicity

Seminars

Trade shows

To create a flow of leads you will need to deploy one or more of the systems and work it hard. Many commercial contractors don't stay on top of their lead generation systems. Once their backlog fills, they stop prompting leads.

Marketing Efforts Fail When They Are Not Performed Consistently

What If Your Lead Generation Isn't Working?

Okay, so you've committed yourself to generating good leads, you deployed your favorite two lead generation systems, and worked them hard, but the leads aren't coming in. You're growing very frustrated. You've spent all that money and time on lead generation and it's BOMBED.

What went wrong?

Your message isn't hitting your prospects' hot buttons!

If your marketing message isn't hitting your prospects' emotional hot button - YOU'RE FLUSHING $$$$ DOWN THE TOILET!

This is the reason lead generation is so tough to get right. Whatever you are saying, in writing or in person, must be phrased nearly perfectly.

A legendary marketing expert (Jay Abraham) tells a story of a furniture store that demonstrates this point quite clearly.

Jay told his client's greeters to test 40 different greetings over 40 days. As customers walked through the door, the greeters used the script Jay had written for that day.

Turns out one greeting generated three times the sales of all the others!

Imagine that. Just saying the right thing to a customer walking through the door increased sales by 200%!

That's how fickle marketing can be. That's why you must keep testing your message until you find the one that produces breakthrough results.

By the way, the incredibly persuasive greeting was “What ad brought you into the store today?”

Check that out. Can you imagine an advertising agency coming up with that? Neither can I.

Test your marketing message. Consistently work your lead generation systems. Reap the rewards.