Why (and How To) Ask ‘Valid Business Questions’

Kick START: Nudge your caller to ‘invest time’ with you by interviewing them about their home. (Your ‘booking ratio’ will skyrocket!)

sad empty pockets

Most Home Service Professional’s leads (potential customers) contact them in ever-so-many ways. (Texts, emails, Facebook Messenger, Yelp, website chats, Angies, Whatsapp, etc.) But nothing got my blood racing faster than my business phone ringing! You too?🤔 GREAT!👍

BUT a warning! Fail to ‘convert’ this nervous and skeptical first-time caller into a booked job? Your ‘downstream income’ loss will be HUGE!😥 Plus even more urgently? You need to cover payroll THIS Friday!😲

RESOURCE: You’ll learn 100’s of ‘Lead Conversion’ ideas (with step-by-step procedures) in my 3-hour, online SFS: Winning over your caller! LIVE seminar. Click HERE to learn more and/or easily book online…

First-time callers usually open with a question (usually “How much do you charge…?) before they even think about booking. (Everyone wants to be a ‘cautious shopper’ and pricing is the only question they can think of!)

TRAP ALERT: Reply with an estimated price and (almost always) you’ll hear, “I’m just calling around. Let me get back to you…” CLICK! You must break this vicious ‘Give them a price/ CLICK/ never hear from them again’ cycle!

Instead, ‘detour’ a ‘price shopping’ caller by responding, “I can help you with that. (Very slight pause.) May I ask you a few questions?” Callers almost always reply, “Sure”.

REMEMBER: Your (impatient) caller doesn’t want to chit-chat about the weather, the local baseball team OR (especially) listen to your canned spiel on what great work you do! So it’s essential to get their ‘Permission to Proceed’ and then move quickly to…

valid questions make customer feel specialInterviewing your prospective client by asking ‘Valid Business Questions’ (VBQ’s) focused on THEM and THEIR upcoming project in THEIR home! NEWS FLASH: For all of us our favorite subject is… OURSELVES!💖

Here’s WHY this ‘VBQ Interview’ works so well. Sales psychologists tell us that…

The more time and effort a prospect ‘invests’ in the phone conversation the more they’ll desire a ‘return’ on their invested time.

HOW do you gently force a prospect to ‘invest time’ with you? By interviewing them with Valid Business Questions! Here’s my ‘secret sauce’…

The only way a caller can get this ‘return’ on their ‘invested time’? Take the next step in the process… with YOU! (Which many times means to BOOK THE JOB!)

HINT: Start your VBQ Interview with the easiest-to-answer questions and then work your way up to more complex issues. My Phone Formats always start out by tactfully qualifying the caller…book the job success

1. “Have we worked for you before?” (If they reply “Yes” warmly reply, “Welcome back!” and just look up their last work order.)

2. “Is this work in or near (your market area)?” If not just gently refer your caller to someone near them.

After these first two qualifying questions get more specific on their needs…

3. “Are there any special concerns I should make a note of? Why do you need this work done?” Comiserate with your prospect as appropriate but also tactfully ask additional questions. (Your goal? To display Personal Interest in them and their home while building a professional relationship.)

4. “Are we working with a special time frame? Do you need this completed by a certain date?” NOTE: I loved desperate “I gotta have it done right away” prospects because my (usually much higher) pricing became a non-issue!👌

BONUS: Based on your caller’s answers you’ve been deciding how you plan to treat their original price question. You can a) explain that “Given your (insert their answer to question #3 above)we’ll need to do a pre-inspection…”or b) “Let’s do a Remote Video Pre-inspection right now…” or…

c) Just give them a price! BUT your booking ratio will be DRAMATICALLY higher because your caller will now want a ROI on their time and effort they’ve invested nswering your VBQ’s!

Folks, this Valid Business Question concept works! Implement it and then let me know your results! BEST WISHES!

Steve 

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