Is A Contractor Really a Salesperson If He or She Hits Send?

April 25 2016

Shawn McCadden

If as a contractor you take the time to go out and meeting with a prospect, then you simply email or snail mail your proposal to the prospect, I don’t think you are really a sales person. If you do this I think you are an order taker. Now there may be a few exceptions to this, but before you rationalize why your situation is an exception ask yourself this question first. Is your justification for emailing your proposals really a reason or an excuse?

I will offer one exception.

If you are a contractor who gets his or her work by being the lowest price, then emailing is okay. Essentially you are a commodity. You are no different than any of the other contractors the prospects has met with. People who buy on price only need to know about your price, not about your value.
Is being too busy to properly sell an excuse or the reason you are not earning enough money?

Are you selling your price or your value?

Let me be blunt and right to my point. If you email your proposal (price) to a prospect you are probably confirming with your prospect that you and your business are simply a commodity. By not presenting your proposal you have lost the opportunity to accomplish these very important sales goals:

• another opportunity to differentiate yourself, your business and your solution and become a trusted advisor
• the ability to address objections, questions and concerns
• the ability to make changes or clarifications so your prospect can buy with confidence
• the ability to ask for their business

I am sure you could add a few more here yourself if you really think about it.

Let me offer a simple analogy

Let’s pretend you are an electrician who needs a job so you can pay your bills and feed your family. Let’s also pretend I just happen to have a job opening right now for a good electrician. You call me up to ask about the job. I tell you I’ll be in my office this afternoon and suggest you can either email me your résumé or come on down with it and we can chat. What would you do? If it were me, and I needed to feed my family, I’d ask what time I could come by.

Summary

If you are having challenges selling jobs and or getting the price you need to earn a good living and save for retirement, and you have been hitting send, I suggest you start presenting your proposal and price. In fact, I suggest that before you commit to do the estimate and prepare a proposal you schedule a specific date and time with your prospect to come back and present it. That way you will save yourself a lot of time doing estimates and proposal for people who only see you as a commodity.

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Read more in EIN from Shawn McCadden:

3 Ways To Get Fewer Leads But Close More Remodeling Sales
Don’t Underestimate Your Estimating System’s Potential
Tips on Ball Park Pricing and Charging for Estimates
Is A Contractor Really a Salesperson If He or She Hits Send?
3 Ways To Get Fewer Leads But Close More Remodeling Sales
3 Simple Steps to Covering an Employee’s Non-Productive Time
Setting the Example: Getting Employees to Think Like Owners
Comparing Contractor Mark-ups Can Be Pointless and Very Risky
Don’t Put Your Business At Risk By Guessing At What Mark-up
Simple Profit Sharing Plan for Contractors

Check out Shawn’s website http://www.shawnmccadden.com/ and blog www.shawnmccadden.com/Subscribe-to-The-Design-Builders-Blog.

* “Understanding what impacts your construction company’s reputation,”

http://www.pn-projectmanagement.com/construction-management-tips/understanding-what-impacts-your-construction-companys-reputation