Immediately Follow up with the Homeowner (and Other Tips for Making Initial Contact)
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
- Wayne Gretsky
While making a sale is always your ultimate goal, it’s important to keep in mind that your initial goal is to set up an appointment because you can’t get a sale without it. Best practices dictate that you never let a referral go cold and that you always follow up with any and all homeowners interested in your service- expeditiously. While this really is a no-brainer, there are many businesses out there that do not follow this simple guideline. In fact, in a lead management study conducted by James Olyroyd and David Elkington, found nearly a quarter (23%) of sales representatives neglected to call their prospects.
We are always baffled when homeowners who use our service tell us they cannot get a builder to call them back! If you are lucky enough to be too busy to set an appointment now, you should not ignore any homeowner’s request. A simple follow up call (and voicemail) or email can let them know when you expect to be able to set your next appointment.
Some companies may not place a high enough priority on this obvious practice, or maybe they do not have an efficient follow up system in place. Suffice it to say, whatever the reasons are, if you just follow up with the homeowner, promptly, you are putting your company in the running and leaving a lot of others behind. Making one phone call is rarely enough to get a hold of the homeowner. Be prepared to make multiple phone calls, send emails and texts.
Get the Most out of Contacting Your Prospects
Treat Each Interaction and Communication Point as an Opportunity
Each point of contact can make or break the homeowner’s impression of you, your team, and ultimately, your company.
Although it may be frustrating to leave voicemails, texts, emails, etc. it is a necessary part of the process. Contractors who treat each interaction as an opportunity to build good rapport as well as grow awareness about their business, understand the importance of increased visibility and making a good impression. Oftentimes, the impressions you make before you ever meet the homeowner can determine if they want to meet with you at all. This is why each interaction you make with the homeowner, even if it’s a voicemail, is vital to your next opportunity. Winning a sale usually requires some level of rapport and trust.
Some things to keep in mind about building rapport
The homeowner has a duty to be selective. If you are feeling rushed, hungry, or find yourself in a bad mood, let someone else return the phone call and do the outreach. Each time you interact with a referral, you are speaking to someone interested in building, remodeling or repairing a swimming pool or another home renovation. Put another way, it’s important to give each homeowner enough time and attention so they know you value their business. If the homeowner is not 100% convinced, there are a lot of easier ways for them to spend (or just keep) their hard earned money. Contractors who are mindful of the homeowner’s perspective, are more likely to build good rapport.Good rapport, like business goodwill are hard to quantify but invaluable to your reputation and can lead to an eventual sale.
Another thing about good rapport and good first impressions is that they can lead to word of mouth recommendations. It’s important to remember that even if the homeowner you are currently trying to reach does not hire you for a project, the impression you leave behind can inform their choice for recommending your business to other people they know who are looking for your services.
What About Tire Kickers?
Unfortunately tire kickers are unavoidable. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize a tire kicker from a discerning customer. Occasionally the ones who look and act like tire kickers are just apprehensive about the scope and price of the project and need to get more information before they are comfortable moving forward. That’s why we recommend giving each customer a fair chance and keep the customer in your cycle of outreach (drip marketing) instead of writing them off completely. We encourage builders to remember that a homeowner who is not ready to build now might be in the near future. They will remember if their interaction with you was a negative one; and they may not keep this information to themselves.
Three Things to Keep in Mind when Writing an Email
Short, Clear, and Compelling Messages are Best.
When you are unable to make immediate contact, you will want to leave short, clear, and compelling emails because they get more responses. Don’t forget to always be friendly, courteous, and professional. Keep reading for specific tips on leaving voicemails.
Make it short
Your emails should be concise. Their length will depend on your natural writing style, but it’s best not to exceed 300 words. You are looking to leave a straight forward, “to the point” message that tells the customer all they need to know about who you are, what you are offering, and how to contact you.
If you have a website and multiple pages you want the homeowner to visit (e.g. Facebook page, Yelp page, Instagram page, etc.) avoid cluttering up your email with multiple links. To keep your word count below 300, just include one link. When you are selecting the link to include in your email, you want to choose the one that best showcases your work. If this link goes to a page that does not contain the additional information you want the homeowner to know about your business, Ideally the page will contain a link to pages that do contain that information. For example, if your Facebook page shows more of your current work than your website, you’d want to include your Facebook URL. Your Facebook page should also include a link to your website where the homeowner can find out additional information about your company.
If you want to highlight information that is not available online, you might consider creating a professional looking PDF to attach to your email after you are sure the homeowner is receiving your emails (and they are not accidentally going to spam). You don’t want to load your email down with a lot of images or multiple attachments as this can be overwhelming for the reader and might not get past your referral’s spam filters. If you are interested in learning more about sending your prospects a professional looking PDF about your business, contact us.
Make it Clear
Make sure your email message is concise and your words are carefully selected to keep your message simple. Use a template to streamline your follow up process and maintain your professionalism. Be sure to include your complete contact information, including your office number, direct line, and cell phone.
Make it Compelling
It is important to remember that behind each referral is a person with multiple commitments and responsibilities outside of trying to find the right contractor to build their pool or other renovation. If you offer the customer a compelling reason to promptly get back to you, you are giving each customer incentive to quickly follow up with your company.
This is the time to briefly mention if you are running any limited-time offers. If you are not running any specials, think about what information the homeowner probably wants to know and how you will mention it. You don’t want to go into anything elaborate at the initial outreach stage but you want the homeowner to know that you are aware of what they might find helpful and that you can provide that for them. One thing most homeowners want to know is what is involved in the at-home visit (e.g. the amount of time an estimate typically takes and why you need to visit the build site) and what they can expect to get from the visit (e.g. a drawing of their project with the estimate, brochures, etc.). Providing valuable and honest information can go a long way in building trust with the homeowner and motivating the buyer to want to work with you.
Five Tips for Leaving a Great Voicemail
You want your voicemails to encourage the homeowner to call you back. Doing these five things can help:
Slow down.
The last thing you want is that your message is hard to understand and the listener has to replay it several times. Don't speak too fast, especially if you have an accent or inflection that may be difficult to understand. Slow down even more when you leave your phone number. Say it twice in your message.The second (and last) time say it at the end of your message. If you know you are calling a homeowner’s mobile number, you don’t need to leave your phone number unless the it will appear as unlisted or the number they see will not be your direct line.
Speak clearly.
At the very least, be absolutely sure the caller will understand the name of the company you work with, your name, and phone number. Spell your name if it is hard to pronounce or is uncommon.
Be personable, professional, and natural.
It’s important you use your natural voice and sound professional. We recommend creating a script and practicing it multiple times before using it. Some recommend smiling while speaking to help convey an upbeat, friendly tone. Others recommend standing to give your voice a lift and vitality. Use the homeowner’s name and repeat it at least twice in your message.
This is not the time to get chatty.
Save your conversation for when you speak to the homeowner either on the phone or during your face-to-face appointment. You want your voicemail to be brief, no more than 30 seconds.
Do not play hard to get. But do leave them wanting more.
Like emails, you want your voicemail to tell the homeowner all they need to know about who you are, what you are offering, and how to contact you. Remind the homeowner why you are calling them (they filled out your form, they were referred to you by someone, etc.) and politely let the homeowner know what they need to do (e.g. call you back, reply to your email, etc.) to set up their appointment or to speak with you about their project.
Avoid being vague by providing a good time and day for the homeowner to reach you in person and make sure you are available to speak to the homeowner when you say you will be. If they cannot get a hold of you during this initial stage, it is likely they will not pursue your services any longer. If you will be in the field during office hours, make sure you let the homeowner know and give them an alternate phone number, like your office, so that they will have the opportunity to speak with someone in person.
Your voicemails should encourage the homeowner to reply to your call. This is the time to mention if you are running specials. Be sure to be specific and brief. For example, instead of saying “we’re running specials right now” you’ll want to say “right now we’re offering 10-20% off our regular pricing.” If you are not running any specials, you may want to pique their interest in their estimate. For example, you might say something like, “I’ll be available tomorrow from 1 to 3 and would love to discuss what’s included in our estimate and answer any of your questions.”
How to Be Persistent (but not Annoying)
Persistence is a key ingredient to success in general, and initially reaching referrals in particular. You need to be prepared to contact the customer multiple times via various methods (call, voicemail, email, text) over a period of days.
As previously mentioned, contacting the customer immediately, creates the best outcomes. If you can’t contact the homeowner right away, do not wait more than 2 business days. Use the project you anticipate to bid on as a guide to how long you may need to keep a referral in your initial round of outreach. The more expensive the project, the longer this initial cycle may be. Do not give up after five days. You may need 10-12 days, or longer. During this initial outreach cycle, you should make at least 10 attempts to reach the homeowner, including calling the referral at least six times. You may not want to leave a voicemail every time you call but you should leave at least three. Using more than one method of communication is more effective than relying on just one. In other words, you’ll want to email, leave voicemails, and texts. If you treat each attempt as an opportunity to build rapport, your outreach will have the right sentiment and be more effective.
While we stress persistence, there is a caveat: stop before you become a pest. You’ll want to space your outreach attempts during this initial cycle. Please do not call, email, and text the homeowner for 12 consecutive days (that would be annoying). Take the time to thoughtfully and strategically create a follow up system that your company can test and tweak, to ultimately develop the mixture of communication types and messages that will generate the best results.
To streamline your company’s efforts we recommend voicemail scripts and email templates. You might consider creating a simple checklist so that your team focuses on the information most important to your company. Here are some ways to be prepared when your prospect calls you back and you speak to her.