How are you qualifying new clients?
This is something we’ve struggled with for a few years. How and when to really qualify clients before you do the estimate. Right now our flow is typically people will call and speak to my Admin and she will book them in for a video call with myself. They can also book and schedule this online through the AI receptionist or online booking. Now because we’re just doing a video call we’re not driving all over. I don’t really have a whole lot of skin in the game. I’m wondering, should I not qualify them too hard? These are the qualifying questions that we’ve been trying to ask. 1. When would you like to get this project done? 2. Do you have a budget for this project? 3. Have you got other estimates that we need to be aware of? Who is hard-core when you do this? If you didn’t like the responses you were getting would you literally stop the video call and say sorry we can’t give you an estimate for this? I would love to hear how hard-core others are doing this? Thanks for your time.Should small businesses stop answering every phone call immediately?
This one is tricky because speed-to-lead matters. If a new prospect calls and you don’t answer, there’s a good chance they call the next company. But answering every call the second it comes in can train customers to expect instant access to you forever. That gets hard once you’re in the field, managing employees, driving, handling payroll, doing estimates, or trying to focus on higher-level work. I’ve had to think about this a lot because missed calls can cost money, but constant interruptions also cost money. There’s a difference between being responsive and being constantly available. A business can still have a strong response system without the owner personally answering every call in real time. That might mean: a call answering service a trained admin or CSR voicemail with a fast callback window text-back automation online booking or quote forms clear office hours different rules for new leads vs current customers The goal is to protect lead response without letting the phone run the entire day. For us, I still care a lot about speed. But I also don’t want every phone call to interrupt routes, training, customer issues, or focused work that moves the business forward. Do you answer every call immediately, or have you built a system around when and how calls get handled?Is a Salesperson Different from the Person Who Makes The Quotes?
I had an interesting discussion with my mentor lately. Some background: I promoted a team member from carpenter to operations manager. I gave a base salary plus a percentage of gross profit above a certain mark. We didn't hit that mark so he basically just got his base salary for the quarter and was really disappointed, came in and just asked for a really high base instead. I was talking to my mentor about how our sales flow is structured and he mentioned I need to be thinking of the sales person as a lead generator, then the person who would be managing the execution as the person who needs to put the estimates together. That kind of blew my mind a little bit but the more he talked about it, the more it made sense. Keep in mind our projects are all custom essentially so there's different details for everyone, even if it's kind of the same thing. If I go and make the job walk, make the estimate then sell to the team, but then try to incentivize it based on a budget, it's not necessarily fair because the production staff had no part in making that budget. BUT if I'm able to create the "at bats", the foreman walks it with the client then assigns the amount of time and material it will take. Then there's less opportunity to miss details or something get lost in communication. I can give him a plaud unit to make sure to summarize everything. This would also solve the problem of clients treating me like the project manager even though I'm not supposed to be the project manager. I was the one that shook their hand and took their deposit so why wouldn't they send me the grout selections right? Anyway, if you read through all that - I'm curious what your opinion on this is.What's one sales habit that helped you win more jobs?
Maybe it's asking better questions, listening more, or changing the way you showcase your pricing. What's made the biggest difference for you? In this Masters of Home Service episode, Kevin Valle (Pink's Windows) shares how focusing on serving instead of selling helped grow his business from roughly $3,000 a month to more than $80,000 a month. He explains why listening builds trust, how to make pricing conversations feel natural, and how to train a team to sell without relying on scripts. Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Are You Selling Your Service… or Selling the Experience?
Customers have more choices than ever. Sometimes the difference isn’t just the service you provide, but how you make people feel from the first interaction to the final follow-up. What are some ways your business creates an experience that keeps customers coming back?What's one small change that helped you book more jobs?
Have you made a change that's helped you book more jobs? Maybe it was responding faster, offering text messaging, or changing how you send estimates. What's worked well for you? In this Masters of Home Service episode, Brandon Downer of Pink's Windows breaks down the systems behind a frictionless sales process, from simplifying online quote requests and speeding up follow-up to making estimates easier for customers to accept. Want to put these tips into action? Download our free frictionless selling playbook for this episode. Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
For those who offer monthly services, do you ever start with a trial period?
I have recently been pushing my monthly exterior rodent control services to my customers and wonder if trying to get them set up for a whole year right away is a good tactic. I created a Checklist in Jobber for the service so I can document and show the client the amount of feeding in each station monthly. Rather than getting pushback right away when I propose the service, I have had success in telling a customer I will leave the stations today, then check the activity next month. Then they can see the feeding level and get an idea of how many rodents are actually around their home. I feel like this has worked really well for me and wonder if anyone else has tried this approach at selling ongoing services?When did you hire your first sales person?
I think a lot of us owners, if we aren't in the field, we are doing the sales and marketing. For you larger businesses, when did you get your first sales person? What support positions did you hire first? Would you do it any different? I've never worked a sales job (other than owning my company) so I don't know what compensation structure would need to be in place to get a good sales person. How much meat needs to be on the bone for this hypothetical sales guy? This is what the ol AI told me - My honest estimate: a home service business usually needs to be around $1.2M–$1.5M/year in revenue before a true salesperson makes sense, assuming the company already has consistent lead flow, clean estimating, production capacity, and gross margins around 50%+. Below that, you can maybe afford a salesperson on paper, but you probably cannot give them enough opportunity to make the role attractive without crushing cash flow or starving them of leads. A good salesperson is likely going to need a believable path to $75k–$110k+ total comp, which means they need enough leads and deal volume to sell roughly $600k–$1M+ per year, depending on average ticket and margin.
