Sales, bidding, estimating: what's your style?

oceans said:
Having a very restful day today, and kept thinking about this thread. My brain made an analogy that might hold true for the smaller outfits that aren’t necessarily bean counting closure rates (nothing wrong with that)…

But I started thinking of sales as a living, breathing algorithm. If you just be you, it would logically lead to working for folks like you in some way, and then they refer you to their friends that might be like you in some way. Just musing off the dome here, but I can never ever ever discount how important word-of-mouth referrals are for smaller companies in smaller towns, or even networks of like minded people in more densely populated areas.

I gotta say, the idea of poo poo the art of climbing is 100% BS! In some cases, climbing an unstable tree is definitely unsafe, but I definitely recall defending the act with people that heard otherwise. I would go on and on about daily gear Inspection, following the Z133, explaining CODIT in regard to an issue present, and even as far as comparing us to industrial rope access technicians.

But that was all before our massive mortality event effecting primarily Oak trees. For the first year or so following the event, I could still be found accessing and rigging by rope, but after the second year rolled around, the Spider Lift was truly the only safe option in most cases.
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what was this massive mortality event?
 
oceans said:
3 to 5 years of Winter Moth pressure followed by the 7 year Gypsy Moth bloom cycle, then drought. Literally 1/2 of our Oak population was standing dead iby early summer that year.
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Perfect storm…. Seeing much more of this complex spirals here too..
 
oceans said:
3 to 5 years of Winter Moth pressure followed by the 7 year Gypsy Moth bloom cycle, then drought. Literally 1/2 of our Oak population was standing dead iby early summer that year.
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Yeah that was devastating, visiting the folks in rehoboth and just jaw dropping what the mortality rate was.
 
Stumpsprouts said:
Yeah that was devastating, visiting the folks in rehoboth and just jaw dropping what the mortality rate was.
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For sure. I don’t know how far you got from the Rehoboth area, but the coastal woodlands and properties were slammed the worst. We’re still dealing with them, and it started back in 2016, coming up on 7 years ago. They even hit Pines. Just awful.
 
oceans said:
For sure. I don’t know how far you got from the Rehoboth area, but the coastal woodlands and properties were slammed the worst. We’re still dealing with them, and it started back in 2016, coming up on 7 years ago. They even hit Pines. Just awful.
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That is horrible. Thought it was the oak wilt, not gypsy moth.
 
islandarb said:
That is horrible. Thought it was the oak wilt, not gypsy moth.
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All insect defoliation. We’re a little bit too cold to support Oak Wilt.

As far as sales and bidding for those trees, I was the only arb in my market at the time with a Spider Lift. I was getting tons of referrals from other tree services and word of mouth through town. I was the only option for a few years, so sales were almost too easy.
 
L3VI said:
It took me at least 5 years to figure this out. I was so confused when I first struck out on my own, I thought I had to front like I was a straight laced Johnny on the spot. Once I finally realized that people don't mind their tree guy being a little rough around the edges and actually might like it or expect it things got a lot more real and casual. Part of that is/was constantly changing myself but at the core I've always been a little... weird? Lol. It turns out that a lot of clients revel in the interaction with people like me, kinda like a bartender maybe, all the sudden they're dropping f-bombs and spitting on the lawn. :)
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Hell yes! I can even get the little ole lady to drop the f-bombs.
I’ve even let loose at city council meetings regarding the tree ordnance, raising my hand after the city planner spoke, saying something like ‘well that’s f-en stupid, trees don’t work like that’. Somehow I have a collection of deposited checks the city has written to me over the years. I reflect upon them during tax season as a reminder to get some of my $ back from the man
 
I did 15 bids on Tuesday, maybe 10 yesterday. I'm exhausted. It's more tiring than doing the actual work in some instances. Brevity was my main focus. Just quoting what people ask for, not sticking my nose in. It worked out okay, got a lot of approvals already. Re-reading this thread helped a ton. Good luck bidding this year folks, it seems like the little market here is bouncing back biggly!
 
That’s too many in one go! Interacting doing multiple quotes and consults is so fucking taxing. I’ve moved to putting the bulk of visits on Tuesdays for ease of schedule and I just want a dark corner end of the day. I started burning out in early April after walloping storms and it got to an uncomfortable place. Re-read the thread, good stuff!
 
Serf Life said:
That’s too many in one go! Interacting doing multiple quotes and consults is so fucking taxing. I’ve moved to putting the bulk of visits on Tuesdays for ease of schedule and I just want a dark corner end of the day. I started burning out in early April after walloping storms and it got to an uncomfortable place. Re-read the thread, good stuff!
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Hang in there. There isn’t a better time to be in a service industry. You might be in the position to say “yes” only to the type of thing you really like doing.
 
Thanks bud, it’s panned out well so far for sure and went self employed 2015-16 slow to start. Mostly working on the mental side of work/life, high functioning toiler.
 
ATH said:
I never upsell. That doesn't mean I don't point out something that i see that I think would benefit them. Almost apologeticly "before we go, I noticed this...I know nobody likes to take their car in for an oil change and be told there is another $1000 worth of work. But I wouldn't think much of my mechanic if my brakes failed 2 days after I left and he said "yeah, I noticed that, but didn't want to scare you away with the price"".

The difference is: I am not going to the property looking to extract more money from a client...I am looking to best serve them by making their trees better.

As to the "science" I'll tell them this is the best way to do something. If they seem interested, I will explain the why. That is probably a 50/50 mix. Some just trust the expert and frankly don't care. Not that the other 50% doesn't trust (though some don't), most of the time, they are just curious. Satisfy that curiosity with knowledge and they will certainly remember the arborist to shows them a branch collar, or why treatment A is more effective than treatment B, etc...
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I actually don't mind someone pointing out I need something else at an oil change if I really need whatever they point out.
 
"I know it's outside what you're looking to have done, but you should also consider having X done in the future for Y reasons".

Always explain why you're recommending something needs done too. It makes you sound knowledgeable and professional, plus also gives the client something to remember you by.

Make sure your why comes from a place of honesty and ethical consideration though. If a customer complains about trivial things like leaves or too much shade/not enough sun don't be the jackass trying to sell them on removing every tree on the property.
 
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