Following up on estimates

Tucker943

Bamboo Plantation Owner
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
8,713
Location
Northeast PA
Who does it? How well is it received? Does it close more deals?

I don't do it. But Im curious about the flip side of the coin, and how it all works.
 
Though I don't do it very often, a few times I have with moderate succes. Second meeting after other bids were received... without downing the other companies I explained how and why we would go about the job... maybe someone else was gonna do it as pull tree where I didn't think it was a pull untill the top and limbs were off...
 
I think you're better off doing it than not doing it. Just be super nice/polite and be quick about it. You don't want them to get the feel that you're bugging them.

It can't hurt.
 
I follow up once and not to soon to state that I had them on my open estimate book and do not wish to push them down the list should they still be needing my services. Often if they went with someone else they were in unimpressed with they call us the next time!
 
I've landed quite a few jobs like this. Work that I didn't think I had a snowballs chance in hell getting! If you spend your time going out to the bid and making a formal proposal, you owe yourself that simple follow up call,email or text.
 
From the customer's perspective, if they are considering a couple of bids and the contact is handled without them feeling pressured, it may well tip the balance to you. Allows for follow-up questions and shows your interest in their business. I think I'd be doing it unless I had more work than I needed. It does take some time to do, but seems likely to pay off on average.
 
I was thinking there was a similar subject taken up in the not so distant past. Good of you to bring it forward, Brendon.
 
Well, there you have it, laid out for you at the TH, Chris.

I'm in the boat of usually too busy to do it but when I do it, the worst that comes out is neutral, usually good on some level results.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12
I know its been spoken of before, nut didn't know how to find the thread. Wanted to spark fresh discussion and get some chiming in from newer members.
 
if you need the work, do it, there's no down side.
 
I find that the best follow up to an estimate is when the wind picks up and a big limb breaks off, especially one that could have killed somebody. :roll:
 
... right Jay ... the day after the storm, a month after the sales call, with large breakout on the lawn or driveway .... truck pulls up and we say, "Hi, remember us... we talked about this Tree? "
 
I used to follow up more, but I stopped recent. Almost every bid I did not hear back from went with a lower bid. I close 90 percent of my deals at the estimate face 2 face. If I was hungrier, I would probably do more hard sale. I am better at the soft sale.
 
On the "remember that talk we had" subject, our highway supervisor stopped and asked if he could trim our Red Oak limbs that go out over the road. I told him I would trim the ones that needed it and he really didn't have to worry about them coming down. I told him if he was looking for tree work that needed doing there was an Elm that was dead with a lean towards the road on a curve that needed to come down. Did he do it? No. Not till it fell in the road in the middle of the night. duhh. I felt like asking him if he remembered the tip i gave him.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #24
I don't do follow ups. Not because Im against them. Ive tracked my leads and these days Im running on close to 85% repeat work/strong referrals. Im operating on an additional 5% volume of referrals from other tree companies. I could go and follow up with my random estimates from joe schmoe but most of the time I have found they want to go with the cheapest bid. I cant and wont offer that typically. It leaves me broke. If I was finding that my lost jobs were going to other companies for other reasons, I think id step up my salesmanship and follow up. I did do some follow ups here and there and what I pretty much got was "Well, we liked you and all, and were grateful for the time you spent teaching us, but you came in at a grand, and another company was willing to do it for 650. Can you match that? If so we would love to have you do it"........
 
Back
Top