Following up on estimates

[Tucker943]

Let me elaborate, and take the assholish tone out of my last post. I have, and will most certainly cold call someone I know well if I know they have a pending ideas or something that I asked them to put on hold at the time. That's mostly limited to friends, family, neighbors, and customers Ive become friends with. Calling Joe Blow and letting him know, indirectly, that I have no work, and am looking to solicit him, isn't for me. I don't ever claim to run the perfect company, or have all the answers, but one thing I believe is that it isn't wise to blatantly allow a customer to know you are dead in the water. It doesn't look good. As one tree worker to another, we all know the drill. This work is full of highs and lows. But ehy don't know that. They don't have industry experience to understand that treework can be a real bitch and can be prone to dead spots. They easily interpret cold calling as being down on your luck and begging for a days work. I've asked people, many people, their take on that. I was hot on that idea earlier on in the game and have asked scores of people how they would interpret cold calling. Most answers weren't positive.
Now, I've explained my feelings on not letting the customer know you are dead in the water. But, Im not ashamed to let a customer know that "I'm not swamped" or "We have a lot of flexibility in our schedule right now and can move you up if you need" or "Look, we are working close to here and can roll right over into this job if you'd like". Those are my ways of hurrying a job onto the schedule when I get the go ahead and need the work.

 

[MasterBlaster]

If you don't ask for something, you'll never get it.

 

[Tucker943]

Would it be wise to ask customers to pay you cash only?

 

[MasterBlaster]

It wouldn't sound professional, but...

Every job has it's own peculiarities...

 

[Burnham]

Cold calls is a completely different animal than a follow up call to a bid given.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

YUP!

 

[woodworkingboy]

I was wondering about that myself. When is there ever the need to tell a potential customer that you are out of work? Cold calls give that impression? I can see how they might draw that conclusion, but there are ways of language around that if it turns into a conversation.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Are cold calls even legal? I know you can't (solicitation) knock on doors.

 

[Tucker943]

I was wondering about that myself. When is there ever the need to tell a potential customer that you are out of work? Cold calls give that impression? I can see how they might draw that conclusion, but there are ways of language around that if it turns into a conversation.

Yes, cold calls do give that impression. Ive asked scores of people their take on being cold called. People outside the business. As I said, years ago, I was very curious about it and wanted to gather a general feel for the practice. You don't use the words "Im hungry", but that's what they get from it. You go to the truck dealer, deal with a salesman that does you right. Buy a truck and go on your way. Down the road some, he calls you out of nowhere, wondering if the truck is running alright and if maybe you want to stop down and see him....... It screams, "I've got to meet my quota, and the customers don't have me occupied"......

Only reason I speak of cold calling is it was mentioned in a positive light in one of Nick's posts. If I was a paid salesman for Bartlett or Davey, I wouldn't mind it at all. In that case you aare just an anonymous Joe with little skin in the game and no personal attachment to the situation. As a business owner, with pride in my business, and a personal reputation in my local tree industry, eff no. I wont be called a telemarketer.

 

[rangerdanger]

A friend of mine in Missouri who owns a tree care company was booked 8 weeks out all through summer. Come winter time he stayed booked out 4 weeks, all through winter. He said the fact that they were booked out like that actually sold work. He'd do a bid and tell people if they confirmed right there, then it'd be a 4 week wait and they'd get put right on the list. When people heard that he said they were always anxious too confirm then, where as other tree companies in his area, who were dead in the water most of winter, would be telling people they could have a crew there the next day, and basically saying they were dead and desperate for work. That says a lot right there.

 

[treetx]

Any quoted opportunity deserves a follow up call. It shows you care about their business and will in every case increase your close rate. The thing that you must avoid doing is closing people. A close is important, but more important is remembering that no one likes to be closed.

"We have free time on Friday, should I put you on the calendar?" this could be a good close but used with the wrong timing, it is simply annoying.

It is no different than being with a pretty gal. Closing the deal is important but if you try to close at the wrong time, it can be disasterous. (uh, err, umm, so I'm told)

 

[Tucker943]

It does say a lot. IMO, people often want the comfort of hiring what is considered to be a company of high demand. Lousy companies aren't in high demand. Good companies get slow at some point, typically, but that's in house business. In the dead of winter, I don't lie and put on a show that Im on fire with work. Its not true, and I wont sit on a pending job to give anyone that idea. I like to simply tell them "Im not overly busy so there isn't a huge wait time this time of year". It lets them know I can get to it quickly, but Im not begging to back up to the chipper the instant they give me the go ahead.

Ive decided to do a follow up call on a particular job. Customer wanted a sugar maple reduced so his satellite dish would work. When the tree leafed out this year, he lost his satellite. The tree is right against the house. I was upfront with him and felt that in this situation, the tree should be removed. Why? I couldn't stay within the 25% rule on material removed and even if I went outside that rule and did the work, I was going to mobilize heavy growth right into the side of the house. I basically laid out the fact that this was going to become a money pit of repeated directional pruning and reduction. My logic was also that he had a really nice lilac, and several cedars under this tree, that would serve to take over the void of the missing tree in due time. Now, my price was competitive, but not dirt cheap, and because he was without TV, I offered to move him to the front of the line if he wanted the work handled. Tree is still standing, untouched, a week later. I was also highly recommended from a close friend of his and his wife's. Im going to follow up. Maybe I shouldn't, but I am curious.

 

[Tucker943]

Made the call. One other estimate to be had. Spoke to wife, who I did not meet with at the estimate. We discussed options and reasons why I am leaving away from height reduction. She has been doing research online and my logic and reasoning coincided with the facts she has gathered about basic rules of tree care. Im glad to have spoken with her. She broke her arm over the weekend, and that's why the job went on the back burner for a few days and they said screw the tv. She also pointed out that they are considering going with cable, and in that case, can we do anything about the limbs touching the roof. I took the opportunity to say "absolutely, and while we are at it, I'd recommend pruning the tree to let a little light in on the roof as moss is just starting to develop".

Point is, this was a follow up call that kept me in the loop, regardless of which avenue they take. Glad I made it. I wont be making any on my day to day run of the mill estimates, but in the case that the issue needed urgent attention, and I had gotten a positive vibe from interacting with the husband, I felt this one was appropriate for me to figure out if I need to keep a day open in the immediate future.

 

[woodworkingboy]

We still have friggen telemarketing here. Am I wanting to get rid of my truck (?), is a recent one. Either they saw my shop name on some map and figured truck likelihood, or they must ask random people that don't have a truck as well. When an individual calls, I mean that I hear silence in the background, I think to myself, now here is a person that needs to make a living, just like myself, and maybe their kid needs a new pair of shoes, so I try to be curious even though more often that not I am in the middle of something holding my attention, let them speak a bit then apologize for not being interested. I might even explain why I am not interested, let them know it isn't their voice or anything like that. I don't want to be short tempered and dissuade them from calling the next guy where they may make a good connection and do well for themselves. When I get a call that sounds like it is coming from a huge room with a zillion callers in the background all asking the same question to unfortunate bothered people like myself, i get very irritated. Sometimes I have to ask of such a rude thing with all the noise, are you calling from a chicken coup? I have a hard tine respecting anyone that works in a place like that...awk awk awk all day long! It's sick....

 

[CurSedVoyce]

A friend of mine in Missouri who owns a tree care company was booked 8 weeks out all through summer. Come winter time he stayed booked out 4 weeks, all through winter. He said the fact that they were booked out like that actually sold work. He'd do a bid and tell people if they confirmed right there, then it'd be a 4 week wait and they'd get put right on the list. When people heard that he said they were always anxious too confirm then, where as other tree companies in his area, who were dead in the water most of winter, would be telling people they could have a crew there the next day, and basically saying they were dead and desperate for work. That says a lot right there.

Smart money spends smartly... You always want the smartly spent money.. Always.