Being the Lowest-Priced Quote Doesn't Close Jobs-This Does

Being the lowest-priced job doesn’t close jobs

Yes, don’t get me wrong. Price is a factor. But it won’t guarantee anything. In fact, handing in the lowest-priced quote could lose you jobs not help you close jobs. 

Quick story to highlight how that can happen:

When I was working as a foreman for Tussey Landscaping, we sold and installed a beautiful backyard makeover that consisted of 2 patios, a fire feature, a water feature, an outdoor kitchen, and landscaping.

Derek Matthews was the designer and salesperson, and here’s how closing that job went down.

The homeowner got 3 bids.

The cheapest came in at $6,500.

The next one was at $30,000.

Ours was over $70,000.

We won the job.

How?

The homeowner’s line of reasoning was simple.

There was no way that the other two bids could achieve what his vision for his backyard was with a budget like that.

He wanted to be frugal and save money as much as any of the rest of us.

But he’d had enough experience to know that the pain of spending what is still a lot of money, and then ending up with something that disappointed you, was far worse than just paying the high price of quality and the assurance that it would actually achieve his end vision.

Notice the key element that helped us close this job?

Trust and credibility.

Not the price.

Core to best way to close jobs

But that’s just a teaser, let’s get to the core of what I see as the best way to close jobs.

The most effective thing you can do to close more jobs is to speed up your quote turn-around time.

Having a quick quote turn-around time will win you more jobs than being the lowest price ever will.

Not to mention that when you quickly, efficiently, and accurately produce a professional quote, it goes a long way in establishing that trust and credibility.

You want to produce the reaction that “Wow! These guys know their stuff! They’re professionals!”

When you come out to visit a client on a consultation, gather info about what they want, then wave as you go out the door and say “I’m really busy right now, I’ll try to have your quote back in a week or two….”

And then you get busy, urgent items pop up, and it goes beyond 3 weeks, you miss a few calls from the client…

That’s working against you.

You’re not going to establish trust and credibility that way.

In fact, that behavior is why contractors get a bad rap.

The top thing you hear from homeowners is “The contractor never called me back.”

The point I’m making is the bar is low. It’s easy to exceed and put yourself head and shoulders above your competition.

If you focus on doing what it takes to speed up your quote turnaround time, you will win.

At prices that allow you to be profitable.

How do you do it?

Well,

• ensure you have quick access to your vendor’s pricing (don’t be calling them to price every quote)
• use templates (saves so much manual work)
• use production rates (saves tons of manual calculations on every quote)
• use software to present, sign, and pay the down payment (Look professional. Be the easiest to do business with.)

Listen to what DJ Fouce from Indiana has to say about speeding up quote turnaround time.