Being a small contractor on your own is a tough business. I will guarantee if you follow my simple tips you will double your sales. If you already follow these tips you are already on your way to success. As you will see these are simple tips that may seem like common sense, but as Frank Papoochie says “sense is common, pretty much everyone has a common sense of smell, even my hound dog smells.”’
1. ANSWER YOUR PHONE
During normal business hours is your phone always answered? As Insurance agents, we call contractors all the time. Without fail the contractor that is easy to get a hold of has a growing business. Conversely, contractors that are hard to get a hold of seem to struggle year after year. Just look back from your own experience. If you are trying to purchase something and gave that business a call and no one answers, you most likely call someone else. Your prospective customers will call someone else if you do not answer. Try your best to answer all your calls, nobody is perfect but if you try your best you will definitely see increased sales.
2. SET UP YOUR VOICE MAIL
We call contractors all day long and the amount of contractors that have just the phone company repeating the phone number is appalling. Setting up a proper professional sounding greeting is a simple way to give a good impression to potential clients in the event you are unable to answer a phone. I certainly hope you are not one of those contractors when the call goes into voicemail the automated voice prompt say you have reached a voice mailbox that has not been set up. If this is your situation just go out of business now. This way you can get started on doing something else quicker.
3. NEVER EVER LET YOUR VOICE MAILBOX BE FULL
When we run across this is almost certainly a contractor that is on his way to being out of business. Customers calling with complaints, suppliers calling to be paid and subcontractors looking for their money. The mailbox is full of messages like these.
4. RETURN CALLS PROMPTLY
In the off chance, you are unable to answer a call return calls promptly. Even if there is a problem a returned call has a good chance of fixing the problem before things can escalate. This will save you many headaches in the future.
5. DEVELOP A WEB PRESENCE
Get a website on the internet. This can be done cheaply. You will look better with your email ending in your custom domain name rather than Gmail.com or Yahoo.com.
6. GET POSITIVE REVIEWS FROM YOUR HAPPY CUSTOMERS
When people are looking to buy something nowadays positive reviews are a major factor in purchasing decisions. Separate yourself from your competitors by having positive reviews your prospective customers can see.
By following these simple tips your business sales will explode.
