Dealing with rejection and how to sell the product

Filip_Matic

I'm sure if you're reading this you have gone through many struggles as an entrepreneur. There's no question that we all deal with rejection all the time, and it can definitely take a toll on us as humans.

I know when I first started in 2018 I dealt with rejection like no other. I did 42 estimates and didn't book a single job. It took a lot of grit and perseverance to keep going. I thought maybe my prices were too high so I started dropping the prices of my work. NEVER DO THAT, never lower your prices. This is something that will start to demoralize you. You start thinking of your self as less worth than what you know you're actually worth. "It doesn't matter if you get knocked down, it matters if you'll get back up and keep going."

I found that homeowners 9/10 don't care what the price is, they care about you, your company, and the product/service that you can provide to them. This all is in the sales process.

Find the lead.

This is pretty easy to do. I mean thumbtack does all the work for you, so this is a pretty self explanatory part. Otherwise, in the beginning, i was knocking on doors asking people if they're interested in getting a free painting estimate. haha stone age i know, but it worked! Flyers, and signs never really worked for me, or anyone else really for that matter. Something like 1% will even call you.

Schedule the date

Always always always call or text the lead as soon as you get it. Never let a lead sit. I always try to respond within the first 10min of me getting the lead. I recommend staying within the first 5-10min. I always make sure to set a date as well to meet up as soon as possible. If you're door knocking, set the estimate up as soon as they say they're interested. Set it at the door, make it seem like your schedule is packed even if its not (fake it till you make it baby) lol. Make sure to always contact them the day before and then 4 hours before to confirm this appointment with them. Going to meet up with someone and then them forgetting about it is always the worst.

Build rapport

Building rapport is extremely important. Relate to the customer, get them talking. Have them start talking more than you about stuff. If they don't like you and don't find you interesting they wont book with you. Why would they? At that point you're just another contractor looking to score a job. In their head you don't care just as much as the next guy. So always always get them talking. You see a cool boat in the driveway? Ask them about that. You see a cool car in the garage? ask them about that. Do they have dogs, kids? ask them about that. You see they have car stickers of local schools or alumni tags, ask them about that!!!! They don't care about the job nearly as much as they care about you. Your presentation is everything. If you're a relatable nice person that is able to communicate well and keep in touch thats what they care about and people WILL pay extra for that! Believe me I was booking painting jobs and I never even painted a house before!

Develop the need.

This is a pretty easy thing to do with thumbtack. If the people are contacting you for an estimate, that means that they're interested and wanting to do something about the project. There is some interest there, and what's awesome is that homeowners will usually put what they need and how fast they want it done in the lead that you receive. You can gauge how to go about it from there. Now I mainly do painting and carpentry, so translate this stuff over to your trade(which i will be happy to help you out with if you message me). Start talking about the project and how it needs to get done. Obviously if they're contacting you they need it, so reiterate that they need it. Every year materials get more expensive and labor get more expensive. If you look at wood prices two years ago versus today you would think you're buying gold now when you go to the lumber yard. Also make sure that you are foreshadowing the whole time that you already got the job. Thing like "When we come out here to do the work" or "We can make sure to leave our stuff here when we come out here next week to get this done." In their head psychologically you're planting a seed that they're going to go with you. But one thing you need to make sure you don't do is don't sell the product to someone who doesn't need it. You want to build long lasting relationships and record to the point that people wont even think on who to call, they WILL know who to call. There is obviously people out there who want things done that don't need it, but thats something they want, don't look the other way in that situation. You're just providing your product/service to someone who wants something done. Example: I have gone to peoples houses who don't need a paint job at all and they just want a color change done to their house. I told them flat out that they don't need a paint job, but we can do a color change. That's exactly what they were looking for, just a simple color change. You need to be as knowledgeable as possible in the product/service you're offering. Make sure there's not a single question they could ask you that you wouldn't know the answer to. If for some chance you don't know it, tell them flat out. You're not sure and you'd be happy to look into it for them, but you don't want to be giving them bad info or recommendations on something which could come back to bite you at a later time. The last thing you need to hear from a client is "Well you told me". That's never a good look for anyone, not to mention embarrassing.

Find objections

I always like to ask the customer if there is any reason they wouldn't want to book with me. If there's any reason they wouldn't want to sign today? You're able to get objections out of people that way, and figure out how to handle them. Find out why they might not book with you, what's holding them back? You'll never know unless you ask, worst they can say is no. The last thing you want is going to bed at night wondering why you did 15 estimates today and not a single person booked with you. Be upfront and transparent.

Ask for the job and close, close, close!

This is something for someone thats able to produce and estimate on the same day. Ask for the job at the end. If you're able to follow all these steps there's no reason for them not to go with you. You contacted them quick, you stayed in contact communication with them, they like you as a person, you offered them a quote with reasonable pricing, with amazing quality of work, AND they're looking for someone to do the work that they NEED.

This was a very brief (lol i know) rundown on how to sell a job, but ill be happy to answer any questions anyone has down in the comments. I have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work using this technique and I'm very confident in my skills to be able to help anyone out.

Cheers

PomeranzLaw

Great post! What have you learned from those deals that you did not close and how have you adjusted your approach?

Willturner673

Very informative post. Nice to know I'm not the only one on this journey.

Filip_Matic

@PomeranzLaw This is everything i've learned from doing hundreds and hundreds of estimates. Ive been doing this since 2018 (not full established till 2019) and obviously theres a lot more to it than just what i posted, but you have anything specifically you would like to know just let me know! I've tailored this to more than just painting and contracting estimates before for people.

@Willturner673 Dont give up! Just keep going and adjust your sales based on how the person and or situation is feeling! You wont get all of them, but you'll get the hang of it soon. Sooner or later you'll just walk up to a referral or word of mouth estimate and you'll name a price and they won't even think about it, they'll just end up booking it.

perrysto

This is a great, detailed post. I am certainly learning that the most important thing is to do the work...the results will follow.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

ycc

You stated "I thought maybe my prices were too high so I started dropping the prices of my work. NEVER DO THAT, never lower your prices....." -- I can't emphasize how important this is -- anyone, no matter what size their business or what stage they are in, should know what their profit margin is. If you don't know this (or how to calculate / estimate this), reach out to someone / some entity that can assist you (CPAs and tax folks are usually a good resource). This single number will help frame your perspective on how much (if any) room you have to negotiate a rate, and, will give you a red line below which you should never go other3ise you are essentially operating for free / at a loss. One additional thing I learned early on, lower rates sometime are self-defeating - meaning that for all businesses, there is a perceived value below which the item for sale is deemed by the consumer to be "too cheap to be any good" / "too cheap, must be a fake" / "too good to be true". I found it's best to be in the 75% percentile (meaning you also should know what your competition is charging -- easy to find out on the Internet). And the last suggestion I recommend, is follow up particularly if you didn't close the initial deal -- I estimate a good 3-5% of my new business comes from folks that initially selected another provider first.

CurlyBartender

Thank you for posting your tips ! Definitely helpful information for all of us :)

maria

Such a great info related to dealing. Here I have learned about how can we deal with other to sell our