Follow up calls

C

Cameron

Location
NJ
I was wondering if any of you do follow up calls after giving an estimate? I had been against this til I learned I lost a job last year for $12,500 simply because the other guy was staying in touch so to speak. I found he gave the same price I did. You hate to be a pain and bother the people but how do you do this without coming across as desperate?

I Have another big job coming up to bid and wanted to make sure this doesn't happen again. When's the best to call back. In a day, two or three. I thought the longer you wait the more probablity they may have awarded the work. Or the next day to see if they had talked it over with their better half. Again not trying to come across as desperate.
 
I do follow up sometimes. It will depend on how the bid was left. If there is no face to face contact, I would expect that the follow up would be more important. If there was a more lengthy interaction, or with both homeowners, then less likely.

I will sometimes just call, introduce myself, and say, "I just was calling to touch base with you on the XXXX we were looking at a few days ago, and to see if you had any additional questions."

Let them take it from there, initially. If they say that they are still deciding, I suggest again that they can get references off of my website's guestbook.

You can "sell" it a little more by saying something like, "Please let us know if we can help you with this. We will be able to take care of that properly, thoroughly, and safely, leaving you with no worries."
 
If you have ever had the pleasure of hearing, or reading for that matter, Zig Ziglar you no doubt have heard him say that selling has everything to do with meeting the customer's needs and should never be confused with foisting something on them they do not want.

Since our customers call us first (rather than the other way around) They have implied the desire for us to follow up and through. Basically follow up is obligatory.

Look at it this way, when a customer calls us for a bid they are in essence "hiring" us to present a solution <u>and</u> come to some sort of conclusion with the customer in that regards.

That means not only preparing the numbers but to deliver them and help them come to a decision. All customers expect this, even if only on a subconscious level. If we drop the ball on this process then we have damaged our credibility in their eyes.

Now, In actual practice though, I agree. I don't want to appear to be a "pest."

But the truth of the matter is that usually when I follow up I can convert at least half of the proposals I have hanging out there in limbo. Of the remaining half I either lost the job outright for other reasons or they decided to defer the work until later.

There are a many reasons that folks don't get back to us and that makes it all the more important to follow up.

Here are some examples:

<ul type="square">[*] They are too busy and the project is not at the forefront of their thoughts.
[*] They want to see which provider is more "hungry"
[*] They want to see which provider is reliable enough to follow through
[*] They are on the fence and just need that little extra reminder or reassurance
[*] They have already hired someone else
[*] They have changed their minds and are too embarrassed to call us back.
[*] They are afraid to say "No" and would rather let the conversation wither on the vine
[/list]

I'll be the first to admit that I am terrible at follow up. I usually only do it when we are short work or I am pressured to meet certain goals.

For certain, I don't want to call a customer every day. But staying in touch means keeping the conversation fresh and alive.

Usually I'll deliver the proposal and check back with in a couple days: "Do you have any questions, concerns, clarifications? When would you like to schedule the work?"

If we still get no decision I try to check back every couple of weeks. Until I get a deferral or outright refusal.

If you can, read Zig's book "The Secrets of Closing the Sale." It will give you tools to help you bring closure to all open proposals. And that is what we want, really, closure one way or the other., preferably with an order but firm "no's" are just as important.

What about stuff that has been open for months? Even after common sense said the proposal was dead I have often cound customers saying, "OH My! Yes, lets get that scheduled!"

It happens far more frequently than I care to admit.

It also serves as a reminder that it isn't "NO" until they say "No!" (or until I see that the work has been done)

All this said, though, follow up is still my weak point and although I eventually follow up on almost all of them, I don't follow up soon enough on most of them.

Look at it this way too. How often have you called a customer back within a couple of hours of their initial call only to find they have already hired the first person to call them back?

Sales is about building relationships. Relationships dictate we stay in touch.

Ultimate Success, then, hinges on doing such things consistently and well.

Anyhoo, That's my two pennies worth.
 
The way I found that worked wonders when I did sales. After I presented the quote I ask if they would like to go ahead. If they said they would need to think about it or something to that effect, I ask how long they need to make a decision. Once they give me a time frame I then say, "Great! So, I should hear from you by - a specific date based on their time frame-? I know how busy things can get so if I don't hear from you by then I'll give you a call on- the next day."

I specify the date so they will know by which day I'll call them. If you're dealing with a business person they will often check the dates in their agenda and make a note that you will call. I've had clients do this to see if I will in fact do as I say. If I do it is often the thing that closes the deal.

Have the discussion in a matter of fact tone as if this is just the normal way to do business. You'll make a positive impression on people for being organized and professional. This never comes across as desperate.

If a decision is still pending then you set another follow up date. Acknowledge and empathize with them for whatever may be holding back the decision, ask them if their is anything else they may need from you to help in the decision making process then set the next date for you to follow up with them. Always let them know you will follow up since you need to keep on top of your scheduling and that's your job.

I've beaten out many competitors simply by being the one to follow up in a way that allowed the client to be included in the scheduling of those calls. The other advantage is you can say they are expecting your call!
 
Rick. Nice post.

I believe the next business day is great. It isn't despiration when you simply call them to find out if they have any questions about the bid and the way you'd approach the job.

I have found that I used to follow up and lead with a question pointed to closing a sale. I'd say; "I'm just following up to see if you'd like to schedule the work with me. Would you like to?"

I found that people would say, "Great. I'm glad you called. But, before we make a decision, we had some questions..." (Then they'd give me their questions).

If I had not followed up, they'd be still wondering the details of the work plan, does the bid include clean up, etc... Following up gives them more information to make a decision.

My observation with following up is also this; When I do follow up, there seems to be this in common. People will say sometimes, "Well, you're a little higher than the other guy. But, we really trust you." And it is once again my chance to reassure them that they are going to get a quality package with me. --They will hire me!
 
I usually like to do a follow up call. And for a couple different reasons. I have often thought of doing my own survey of why people hire the person they did hire or conversely why they didn't hire someone. Its easy enough to give an estimate, walk away, not get the job later and then be "totally clueless" as to why not.

We have all had annoying,persistent salespeople to deal with so I try to avoid that. I will flat out ask someone, if you don't mind, in a few days I would like to do a follow up call, using the words "follow-up" so that its not a surprise for them to get that recall. I try to explain that it helps me with better estimating etc. But also as stated, it gives the chance to persuade those owners on the fence.

Most are receptive and if I lost the job say why. An example of losing a job was... well the other guy drove a brand new pickup so we chose him. I think only one homeowner who was getting a bunch of estimates called me back.Said our price was the same but going with someone who had worked for them before. I thought that was classy to not be left hanging and wondering.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I had given the homeowner the price by phone on Friday, I hate doing that but didn't have a choice. I followed up on Saturday. I got her voicemail and I was prepared for that. I said "This is Cameron from Lyon and Son Tree Service. I was just making a follow up call to you to see if I could answer any questions or concerns about the project. Also if you had made a decision. I look forward to hearing from you, have a nice day."

She called me on Sunday on my cell phone, she was suprised she got me on the phone. She wanted a written proposal emailed to her to review and said I would hear from her on Monday. Well I sent the email off and about and hour later recaived it back signed.

This was a job I didn't want to get away because it is a week of work. So I'm glad it worked out and think I will do more follow up calls in the future.
wink.gif
 
Good info and congrats on landing the job. There sure is more to this than just providing good service. Don't be shy about asking for referals at the end of the job either.
 
How is that suppose to work? I guess I should be keeping a list. More often I have the client tell me I can use them as a referral anytime. I don't though I should. It just lets me know what a great job we did and that's enough for me.
 
A friend of mine would, when a client said he did a great job, ask for a letter of reference for his files. Virtually everyone gave him one and it works wonders with sales.

At the end of the job if they are happy with the work give them some extra business cards so they can give them to anyone who asks them about who did the work for them.
 
On your follow up if you find out that someone else got the job do you guys inquire about what the winning bid was and who bid it. I am often tempted to ask but I'm not sure it's appropriate. I think it's good info to know but people are sometimes reluctant to provide it.
 
I will ask if they would be willing to share why we didn't get the bid. Depending upon the tone of the conversation I may ask for specific details but don't push too hard.

Quite often the customer will give tons of info including prices, who the other bidders were and what not.

All good info to have.

Even better, and we've done this a couple of times but with no serious consistency, is to set up a survey of questions to ask a customer when you do get rejected. find out what info would be important to you, ask them if you could ask a few questions to help you improve your bidding process and the ask.

Satisfaction surveys from customers and lost prospects are very much worthwhile.
 
Ya that's what I meant by referals. Like treehumper said leave a couple business cards. We may forget the clients because we see so many, they don't forget us. Sometimes they are blown away by what we do and really put in the effort to make sales for us. Often if you don't ask and they are super satisfied they wouldn't think to drum up more business for you. I learned that earlier on treebuzz, no ceus hmmpf.
 
References/ referrals are great to get from people. I'll ask people, and if emailing them after the job I'll give them easy hyperlink to our website, for feedback on our website's guestbook, for potential customers to see what we've done for others. If someone tells me that they would serve as a reference, I catalogue that in my head. I'd rather send along a potential customer's email to a past customer, than vice versa.

During the follow-up, I'll remind them that they can access our online references to reinforce our value/ quality.

My website is only about $100/ year and easy to build oneself (if you have the time, the inputting of content is easy--a previous supervisor told me about a similar website builder and said that if he can do it, a monkey can. Granted, its not the best, but is a hundred times better than nothing).

http://www.webs.com you can even start out for free if you select an address such as www.mytreecompany.webs.com, and probably convert it to www.mytreecompany.com.


Rarely people will call me to say that they awarded the job to another company. I am always very positive and polite, thanking them for the call. These people usually don't mind sharing if they got it done cheaper or for another reason. I always want to leave them with a good parting impression on the phone call, so they don't kick themselves for calling.



I'll follow-up more on tree care/ preservation/ pruning jobs and high-end country club jobs, as I feel I have more qualifications than some of the companies around here, and those are more of the people on the fence that I can persuade.
I guess my point is that I don't follow-up on all jobs equally. Put my energy more toward my goals, than equally spread across the board.

Along the idea of landing more jobs, I'll always try to give the customer two business cards at the end. I was just thinking that I could put a customer's name on the card, for a referral discount on their next job , based on the revenue generated from them passing cards along.
 
Definitely ask in a professional and courteous manner about what made them chose the competition. Again, preface it with the statement that it is to help you improve your bidding.

I tend to shy away from a policy of offering discounts or referral fees since it can become the driving force behind the referral instead of the quality of your work. Though a gift for someone who did give you many referrals wouldn't be inappropriate. That wouldn't be expected and would be interpreted as a thank you.
 
I've heard varied reports on Angie's list. Namely that there appears to be no verification that a company ever did work for the person posting the review.

Dunno if that is truly a problem or not but have heard anecdotal reports of people firing off negative reviews simply because they did not like a company's bid.
 
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