As the competition in the remodeling and custom home building industry continues to grow, it’s more important than ever to make sure that your sales techniques are up-to-date and as effective as possible.

Unfortunately, many remodelers fail to adapt their tactics or implement features needed for staying ahead of the competition – and lose potential business in the process.

In this part five of the series “Why Remodelers Lose Sales to Competitors and What They Can Do About It”, we’re going to talk about some common mistakes made by remodelers that result in lost sales – why they happen and how you can avoid them!

Stay tuned! Read/Watch/Listen as we delve into specific techniques to help you compete while ensuring your company stays at the top of its game!

Builder Lead Converter ATTRACTS, CAPTURES & CONVERTS high-quality leads for builders so they can pick & choose their clients & jobs. Find out how at https://www.builderleadconverter.com

 

Transcript:

Rick:  Today on Conversations That Convert, we’re gonna be talking about why builders lose sales and what they can do about it, specifically when it comes to the sales process. So let’s get started.

Welcome to conversations that convert every week, we’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation, marketing, and sales topics for remodelers home improvement companies, and home builders, Conversions that convert are brought to you by builder lead converter, perfect sales assistant.

And now here’s Rick and Daiana. 

Rick: Welcome to Conversations That Convert. Hello, Daiana. 

Daiana: Hello and welcome everybody.

Rick: And we are in our new office backgrounds today, so…

Daiana: It’s very nice. 

Rick: No more virtual backgrounds. We’re just, we’re, we’re gonna be, we’re just going real today. Right? Right, Daiana? Nothing full. It’s all, it’s just about reality.

Daiana: Yes, our, our reality. 

Rick: Our reality. Yeah. So what’s our topic today? 

Daiana: So today we’ll find out Why Remodelers Lose Sales again and again and again to competitors and what they can do about it. So this is part five of our sales process. 

Rick: Right, talking about our sales process. So we’re gonna specifically focus on remodelers and then we’ll be switching over to home builders. So this is all part of our series Why Builders Lose Sales. And if you haven’t caught up in the previous series, make sure you go back and watch from the beginning. We just finished the conversion process of taking that online lead into a phone call.

So where we’re at right now is you have converted a lead into a phone appointment, and now the reason this came up is that the Association of Professional Builders just finished their annual State of the residential construction industry survey, which will be coming out here in I think about 10 days. You’ll be able to get access to a copy, but what we found out from that survey is over 50%, like literally 55% of home builders and remodelers do not have a written sales process, which boggles my mind but that is the reality.

Self-professed. They do not have a written sales process. So we thought, Hey, let you know what, let’s take some time here. Let’s walk through a sales process, beginning with remodelers and then shifting over to home builders. We’ll differentiate when we get to home builders between design-build and semi-custom. But today we’re going to focus on remodeling and we’re gonna walk you through what that sales process looks like. So what do you think, Daiana? Should we jump in? 

Daiana: Yes, let’s go ahead and get started. 

Rick: All right, so here is the five-step sales process that I recommend for remodelers and a lot of my clients have recommended it to me as well. So this is something that’s been developed over the past 20 years. Not just cutting off the wall here, but this is a sales process that has led to hundreds of millions of dollars in remodeling sales.

So we have five steps. So it’s pretty simple but we will begin with a phone qualification. That’s where we’re at right now. So we got an online lead. We scheduled an appointment. Now we are going to call that lead on the phone. We’re gonna have approximately a 10-minute phone conversation, so that’s step one, we’ll get into more of the details for it here in just a second.

Now, if that lead is viable, then we’re gonna go out and take a look at their house. If the house visit goes well if the site visit goes well, we will then move into a feasibility study, and this is where the pay-to-play comes in. So this is where you as a remodeler will be collecting a fee to actually put together a feasibility study, which is simply just a preliminary scope of work with a preliminary budget.

From there, we’ll go to a proposal preparation agreement, and if needed, a design agreement. These are really two separate things, not one. So a separate fee and a separate contract for each one of those. And the finals, the construction, and finally the construction contract. So Daiana, do any thoughts on this here before we take a look at some of these sample questions?

Daiana: Sounds very complex, so it should be very easy to implement, right? 

Rick: Well, it should be, it is easy to implement. And you know, the complex part about it is, is when you’re not prepared.

Daiana: Right. Yeah. 

Rick: So, if you are prepared, it’s quite simple. And once you get a process down, you understand where, why you’re doing that process, and what the ultimate goal is, which is to find out if this, is this lead a good. So that’s all, that’s really where we’re gonna start getting on the phone call today, trying to learn as much about their project as possible, what we’re looking for, what I call the four Ps.

So is it the right project? Is it the right place? Meaning is it in my service area? Is it the right price as far as the project, the scope, and the size of the project? And then finally, the fourth p is, is it the right personality? I’m looking for red flags here. Remember, the whole idea is we want to be able to say no when we have the wrong project, the wrong price, the wrong place, or the wrong personality.

So that’s the whole point of developing, a client acquisition system is to say no one doesn’t work out right. And hopefully, that will save us a lot of headaches and you know, emotional baggage as we get down the road for some of these projects that we shouldn’t be taking on. So what do you say? Should we, should we take a look at the sample phone qualification and questions?

Daiana: Yes. I’m, I’m so curious about it. 

Rick: Yeah. Well, you are going to be my assistant here today. We’re gonna go ahead and I’m gonna share my screen. We’re gonna take a look at, really a sample list of questions that I put together. And I put together a little role play here ahead of time. Daiana will be my, you’ll, you will be my guest or my, my lead.

I’ll be the salesperson. And this is just a little bit of upfront conversation to lead us into more, of the Q and A facet of this. So the important thing to remember as the remodeler when you’re asking these questions is that you want, your lead to be doing the majority of the talking. So as you walk through this script, you’re gonna see some things here that say L6-1, L6-2, and so on and so forth.

This is something in sales called, called the Law of Six. I’m gonna ask some close-ended questions to elicit a yes from Daiana. Daiana, the more times that you say yes, the more you will open up to sharing. And I’m gonna ask you some specific questions here related to your budget. And a lot of times people do not want to give us a budget or they will, they’ll say something like, Hey, I was hoping you would tell me.

So you as the remodeler, will be giving them some budget, but you first and foremost wanna find out what do they have in mind and we’ll go, we’ll walk through how you go about that here in the second part of this. So to start off with, I’m gonna go ahead and I’m gonna greet Daiana here and we’ll, and we’ll walk through this. 

Daiana: Okay.

Rick: So, hello, I’m Rick from Builder Lead Converter. 

Daiana: Hi. Hello. 

Rick: And, hi. And your name is?

Daiana: Hi, my name is Jane. Or you can call me Daiana. My friends call me Daiana. 

Rick: I’ll call you Daiana. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daiana. What, a beautiful day today, isn’t it? 

Daiana: Yes, it is. I can hear some birds here around me, so it is.

Rick: I love it. Spring is coming. But it sounds like you’re looking for information about home remodeling today. Is that right? 

Daiana: Yes. Yes, we are. 

Rick: Well, great. I’ll be happy to share some ideas and get you the information you are looking for. So, Daiana, do you have about 10 minutes to talk about your project today? 

Daiana: Yes, I have actually. 

Rick: Well, great. Well, in that amount of time, I’d like to learn as much as I can about your current situation, and your current project. Would it be all right if I ask you a few questions to help me do just that? 

Daiana: Sure.

Rick: Okay, so what I got her to say, I got you to say yes four times in that. Just that brief interaction there. 

Daiana: I didn’t realize that. 

Rick: Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And so now what I’ve done is I’ve used a technique called Socratic questioning. I’ve used the law of six to get you to open up and say yes. So now I’m gonna get into the nitty-gritty of the questions right here. So the first thing I will do is I will confirm the contact information if I don’t already have it.

So I’m not gonna go through these questions specifically, but I’m gonna make sure I have the spelling of your name correctly. If, if you were a phone lead or a referral lead. Make sure I get your phone number. If you have a home phone or just a cell phone. I wanna find out how you heard about us.

That’s very, very, important to find that out upfront. Cause if, if you were a referral then I wanna find out again who did refer you. And I wanna make sure I reach out to that person. Thank them. And that person might give me a little bit more background on you as well. Hey, it’s a coworker of mine, it’s a neighbor of mine.

It’s a relative of mine. It’s you know, somebody I met at church, you know, whatever it is, but get a little bit more background on you. Then we’re gonna move into the project information here. So I’m gonna focus on what is the type of project you are considering. Okay, so I’m gonna start there because if the project is not something that we provide, I’m gonna end the conversation right here immediately.

So this might be a three-minute conversation, assuming that the project is something that we do. Then we’re gonna a, I’m gonna ask how many people will be joining your remodeled space here. I want to find out decision-makers. How many decision-makers are there? Are there children? If there are children? How old are the children?

Remember older children if you are doing a modeling project, they will have some input, but more, more importantly, if there’s another decision maker here that I don’t, that I’m not aware of, I wanna make sure I get their name. So if you have a husband, if you have a wife, Whoever else will be making the ultimate decision. I wanna make sure I get their name, and also if they are a good fit, I wanna make sure that they will be at the site visit.

The last thing I want to do is come out to the house and only have you there, Daiana, if there’s another decision-maker. Have you remodeled before? Big one. Big question. This will tie into as we get into more that site visit, the questions we ask there. I wanna know, have you had any experience with this? And also if you’re considering other remodelers, who are they? I’m gonna go ahead and I’m gonna ask you that time. So who else besides? ABC Remodeling, are you considering going with?

Sometimes people will tell you. Sometimes they’ll be like, oh, I’d rather not say, but either way, you want to know who you’re, if you have competition, and if possible, who is your competition. Remember, when we’re speaking about our competition, we never want to talk down about them, but we want to clearly differentiate ourselves from our competition.

Have you thought about your investment amount financing source? Okay. Is this something that will you be taking out a loan for this? Do you have cash on hand? Do you will you be borrowing against the equity in your home? I need to use those sorts of things. Now, what I’ve done here is I, if they say in this case that they want to remodel a kitchen or a bathroom, or do an addition, or perhaps finish a basement if you have basements in your particular market area.

They want to do a sunroom or porch or whatever other projects they have that, that you offer, you want to have sort of a low, too high for this. Now, I made a note here, used the Hanley Wood cost versus value report to fill in low versus high amounts. I always recommend that you did not come up with the information, but use a third-party source like Hanley Wood.

So every year, Hanley Wood tracks remodeling costs from around the United States, and they will give you more of an entry-level type price, a mid-range, and a high-end price. So in other words, if the kitchen, Hanley Wood says, well, kitchens in your area start at $50,000, and they go up to $200,000. That’s the same range that you will give your lead.

So Daiana, you mentioned you wanna remodel your kitchens. According to Hanley Wood, which is a third-party provider of remodeling data in wherever your location area is, kitchen remodel, kitchens range from 50,000 to $200,000. Does that fit into your investment range? You know, and I’m gonna stop, because if Daiana says, oh, well my budget’s $15,000, I would say, okay, Daiana that does not work to remodel a kitchen. Are you able to increase your budget to get to at least $50,000?

If she says, no, 15,000 is our max end of the call, we’re done and we moved forward. However, if she does say, yes, 50,000 to $200,000 you know, would fit in, she might say, I’d, we wanna be closer to 75,000 versus 50,000. She might give you that information, but you have to set the parameters and then you ask her, does it fit your parameters?

Because if I just say, Daiana, how much do you wanna invest in your kitchen? She’s gonna think, well geez, I want a $200,000 kitchen and I wanna pay $15,000 for it. So I have to give you the parameters. Cause we’d all would like a $200,000 kitchen for 15,000. Right? Hear that? 

Daiana: Yes, absolutely. I confirm. 

Rick: This goes the next question goes to schedule. So when would you like to have your project completed? I never asked them when they wanna start. I want to ask ’em when they wanna have it done. So another way to ask this question is, how soon would you like to be enjoying your newly remodeled kitchen?

Daiana: Yes.

Rick: Yeah. They will often tell you, oh, we have a graduation party coming up. We have some sort of an event coming up and they know. So nobody is in a hurry to get started. So if I ask ’em, when do you wanna start? They’ll say, oh, oftentimes we’re in no hurry. But they’ll all have an idea of when they want to be done.

So based on when they tell you they wanna be completed, you compare that against your construction schedule and you will be able to tell them if it’s realistic to be able to do the work for them. So this is just for you to be able to find out, circle here when they wanna have that project completed. How long have they been considering remodeling?

And do you have an ideal start date? Now, you will most likely have to give them the ideal start date. But again, you want to do this by working from the back to the beginning. So again, everyone wants to be enjoying their newly remodeled space. Nobody wants to go through the mess and of construction and having their home ripped apart.

They want to be done with it. But if you find out when they wanna be completed, you know how long it takes to actually do the work. Do the permitting if you have to make engineering selections, and so on and so forth. You know when slots you have available on your production schedule, so you would be able to tell them here would be the ideal start date.

Would that work for you? Yes or no? Okay. How long have you considered remodeling? Again, the reason we do this is that, if they have been thinking about this project for a long time, that means that they are probably ready to make a decision if it’s something they have just started. Most likely I’m going to be competing with somebody else.

They’re gonna go out and get multiple things, or they still might be thinking they want to quote-unquote, get their project bid. So that means I’m going to have to take some time to have that conversation with them of why you would want to go with your process versus going, you know, getting multiple. Is this project being completed to help sell the home?

Sometimes that is, you know, how long do you, how much longer do you plan on living in this home? Now, that might come down to budget as well. I only want to spend 75, but you know what? We’re gonna stay in this home for a long time. So if we can’t get what we want for 75, we’re willing to spend more money. So then, once I get done with all this, I want to go back and summarize the project. So Daiana, it sounds like you would like to remodel your kitchen.

You would like to stay in that budget range of around $75,000. Ideally, you’d like to have the project finished in about six months, and you don’t plan on selling your home anytime soon. Does that sound right? And then Daiana would say, yes. That sounds about, that sounds about right. And if at that point you are going to say, Daiana, you know what, you sound like a good fit for what we do.

What I’d like to do next is come out and I would like to take a, meet you at your home, take a look at your kitchen, and talk about the next steps. And then I’m gonna collect her address information if I don’t already have it, I’m gonna find out who is the primary contact. It may not be Daiana, it might be her husband.

What’s your preferred communication method? Text, email, phone call. What preferred times do you want to talk? I’m gonna go ahead and set that initial consultation schedule or that site visit. If there are any send-ahead things I wanna do, which I do highly recommend sending ahead like a needs, wants, and wishlist.

So I wanna have my client break down what they need, want, and wish for in that project. And I’m gonna ask ’em to complete that before I get to the home. Are there any special articles or links I want to send them? Perhaps, they’re looking for information, on financing.

And then as far as confirming the meeting, add them to your CRM if you haven’t already. And then property record details I can look up the assessed value of their home when it was year built when it was purchased, and what the purchase amount was. Get an idea of how much equity they might have in their home and or the total value of the project.

The last thing here, this is just something you can do internally as a lead source. Okay. Former client, client referral. Obviously, that’s a very high-value lead versus is this, a realtor referring to this person. Did it come through the internet? Was it a sign call? You let that sort of thing and then project information. Here, you may value certain types of projects higher than projects. Zip codes, obviously you can score those.

And as far as what are your most desirable zip codes as far as proximity to your office, and so on and so forth. I can add any notes here. Now, ideally, you would just put this all right into a CRM program, so you don’t have to do duplicate entries here, but this sheet essentially will just walk you through what those questions look like. So, Daiana, final thoughts from you?

Daiana: That’s very interesting exercise, and if you keep the structure and you integrate it so it comes like automatically in your day-to-day conversation with potential leads, with leads, I think it’s very helpful too, to keep the structure and to, to gather all the information in CRM.

Rick: Why? So here’s a question. Why is it important to have a sales process? And the follow-up question is, why is it important to follow a sales process?  And this is, I don’t know if you have a, a thought on that but I assured you, so what, what do you think, why is it important to have a sales process and to follow it?

Daiana: Because it’s, it’s easier if you have a sales process and you’ll not lose sales and the follow-up. I think the fortune is in the follow-up because people, tend to forget. And if you just, just call them and say, Hey, that’s me.

Oh, that’s so good that you call me. I just wanted to call you but never had the opportunity. So you can actually win some, some cells if you stick to the process and if you follow up. So, those easy, easy steps. 

Rick: The, yeah, and the importance of, you’re exactly right. The importance of having a process and following that process is so you can replicate and duplicate it at will. In other words, if you’re going to put something together, say, assemble something, you have instructions on how to assemble it, or you can disassemble it willy-nilly.

Well, if I don’t follow instructions, I’m assembling something, usually, I assemble something wrong. And the product will break if I assemble it correctly from start to finish. It goes, everything has to be done in a certain order, and it has to be done like that in order for the final product to be a good final product.

Well, sales are no different. If I do not follow the same process every single time, regardless if it’s a customer I sold to before, or if it’s somebody I’ve just met for the first time that was maybe a website lead. If I don’t follow the same process, oftentimes I will miss a key component of how I’m building up to this sale, and that will cause the sale to fail down the line.

So one of the things I noticed, I, I was huge on checklists and when I would, I’ll go through and ask these questions because I noticed that if I ever tried to wing it, I would always go back and I would forget something. I would be replaying the conversation in my head and then I’d be like, oh, why didn’t I ask that?

Or I should have said this, or I should have asked this. And so like, Hey, you know what? Let’s not wing it. I used to use the analogy of an airline pilot. Airline pilots, excuse me, have thousands of hours of experience flying planes. But before they take off, what do they do?

They pull out a checklist and they go through line by line, by line in that checklist because they know if they wanna land that plane safely, they need to make sure every, all the system are in working order before they take off. So the sale is no different if you want to land this sale, you have to make sure everything is in place and in good working order before you take off. Final thoughts, Daiana? 

Daiana: That’s, I, I like the metaphor with the plane. So that’s true because there is no, there, there’s a very strict checklist and there is no other way. So no one is thinking about doing it in a different way. So maybe we should adopt that in sales and just stick to the process and follow those checklists like there is no other option. 

Rick: Stick to the process. It’s right. You have to be disciplined, with the process. So this was fun. This was something I used to do a lot back in the day when in my sales training days. So I still have, all this great information in our learning portal, which our client, clients use.

It was fun to pull these questions out again, but if you would like to find out how we can attract, capture, and convert high-quality leads. So you can pick and choose your clients and jobs. Go ahead and just click on that schedule a call strategy, call link below, and be happy to learn more about your business and see if we might be able to help you do the same thing.

My brothers and sisters in Christ made the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all always. Thanks so much for your time, everybody. Thanks, Daiana. We’ll see you next time.