Paul Riddle
Contributing Writer
Success Group International
Asking Your Customers One Simple Question Could Add $1,000 in Sales Per Technician, Per Week… if Not Much More!
When you arrive at a client’s home, they are entrusting you with a very important task – improving their lives and protecting their home and family. Assuming everyone reading this is in contracting, that mission takes the form of making a repair or doing some type of maintenance. But to go beyond the realm of the ordinary company, you have to go beyond providing ordinary service. You’re out there in the home to improve people’s lives and safety. Don’t you have more than a few items in your truck that would help you do just that?
The only problem is that the homeowner often doesn’t know these additional products and services exist or that you offer them. And they usually never will know. Why? Because most technicians don’t want to be perceived as pushy salespeople. In fact, in the minds of your team members the words technician and salesman should probably never cross.
I can appreciate that feeling but is it really being pushy if you’re asking your clients what else you can do for them? That’s a simple way to approach the subject. Ask the client if there are any other problems they’ve been having with their home that you can help them with while you’re there today. Ask them if there is anything they would like to change about their home! That question can open up the door to all types of service opportunities to improve their comfort and safety.
However, as the old adage goes, “You’ll never know unless you ask.” When you do ask, that homeowner may be glad that you did, or your question may prompt them to remember something they kept meaning to call you about.
So, that’s the first step to providing service that goes beyond the ordinary. Ask how you can improve their home. Those simple questions are your entry into the world of “add-on”. When you can enter a clients’ homes and add-on a products or services they didn’t initially request, you’re enhancing both their comfort and your revenue.
And it can add up fast. Just think, if you added on a $49 product or service to every service call. If you ran four calls a day, that would be an extra $200 a day. That’s an extra $1,000 a week.
The best part is that not only have you boosted your revenue totals dramatically, but your clients are more satisfied too!
So, what are some of the products you have available to you that the average homeowner may not know are available? Want some help? Go over some old invoices. What products and services do people seem to need the most or ask for the most? Look for five common products and services. Odds are if many other people enjoy them, you can offer them to future clients, and they’ll invest in them, as well.
Your next step is to have those common products on your truck at all times so that when a homeowner is interested, you have it available right there for them.
Plus, since many of your clients may be interested in these types of products, it might make sense to let them know about them even when you aren’t in their home. It’s fairly simple to develop an email campaign highlighting one of these products and its benefits. You could also develop a weekly special that your technicians offer on any calls they run that week. The marketing options are limitless.
Be sure to offer additional products and services to your clients that will boost their comfort and your revenue, and remember to ask, “Is there anything you would change about your home?”
About the Author: Paul Riddle, Vice President, Success Group International
Paul Riddle has over 25 years of hands‐on experience as GM, COO, CEO, and owner of service companies specifically in the mechanical and restoration segments. Throughout his career, he has personally trained the owners and employees of hundreds of businesses, including several turnaround situations. His hands‐on training for owners and their employees has been in the areas of business planning, sales & marketing, and company culture. Paul enjoys applying his knowledge and experience working directly with business owners and their employees to increase profits, improve the company’s present value, and unlock the intrinsic value of the business when sold. Paul joined SGI in 2009 as the VP of Operations.