Friday, May 9, 2008

Question of the Week - 2

Better late than never! Since it's Friday, we'll do another Question of the Week! This week's question comes from Casey Putnam from Serv-Pro:

How do I convince people to spend a little more money for our services with the guarantee
the job is done right versus them choosing another company that has cheaper rates but
poorer service?


You'll never convince everyone to spend more. There are just some people who want the lowest price, no matter what the outcome is. It's also a matter of sales skill. Are you asking the right questions? "How many rooms do you need cleaned" versus probing a little deeper before you get to the usual sales questions, for example... asking about specific problem areas, specific stains they are concerned about and offering the solutions your team can provide. Example "Ohhh little Muffy had an accident? We've gotten that out plenty of times with _____" no problem at all Mr / Mrs....

The other key to cutting down on price shopping is GET OUT OF THE YELLOW PAGES! How much are you spending per month on the YP? Many of the calls you get form there have called your competitors and will call more looking for the lowest price. If you were to take the amount you spend per month in the YP and direct that towards branding you would see a world of difference. A few years ago we worked with a client that was in your same industry. We took their YP budget and executed a 12 month radio campaign with a consistant branding messages. The number of sales stayed about even, maybe with a small drop but their profit went up. They were getting better qualified leads and better jobs and contracts.

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