By Carl

free painting leads, How to get painting leads, painter website

5 Tips to sell when you’re more expensive

This post features 5 ways to get your customer off of how much the paint job will cost, and focused on why they should spend more money to hire you to do their paint, stain, floor or exterior project.

  1. Don’t Talk about What You do

If you’re a quality contractor, you offer good high – quality work. Guess what? everyone thinks their work is quality. But here the other reason, people don’t care about what you do, they only care about what THEY GET.

This is something I’ve been preaching for years. Customers don’t buy what you do- They buy what they get. If you’re talking about what you do, then you’re missing the big picture.

Take what you do and translate it into what the customer gets. Here is a perfect example:

The average contract actor says, “We have highly trained quality craftsmen on staff…..”  No translation.

Instead- “We have highly trained quality craftsmen on staff, which means you get a nicer looking, longer lasting paint job and you’re going to feel great about it, for years to come.”  Better you must put it in terms of what the customer gets

  1. Slow Down

Ask more questions

The key to selling more jobs at higher price points, is to take the time to get a better understanding of what your customer wants. When you slow down and ask more questions about what you customers wants in a painting contractor, you put yourself in position to help your customer see that you’re the right contractor to give the customer exactly what they want.

The use of questions

The best way to do this is skillful questioning skills. The power of questions is undeniable. Power questions sell like no other selling technique.  (See chapter 9 in The Painting Contractors Guide to Doubling Slaes Even If You’re Twice the Price)

Don’t be in a hurry to tell – The way shortens your sales cycle is slow down and very methodically go through a check list. Step by step. Be patient, don’t feel like you need to rush the process.

  1. Find the Pain

Ask about Past Experiences.

Anyone who has hired a contractor in the past knows this can be a very difficult and painful experience. When you take the time to understand what your customers experiences have been like, you position yourself as the person who truly understand their needs.

Contractor problems

Problems with other contractors range from poor quality and workmanship to lousy communicators. Contractors frustrate homeowners by being unorganized, slow to return calls and not addressing issues on the job when they arise. Take the time to learn about these and I guarantee they will pay you more to paint their home.

Find out what they don’t want

You not only want to find out what they want in a contractor, but also what they do want.  This is accomplished by asking.

People will pay you more to avoid

People will pay a lot more to avoid problems they’ve had in the past. It’s just worth it to them to spend the money and get the job done right, done right the first time by a professional painter who has a great reputation. But that’s not enough. You must get your customer to share the things they want to avoid.

  1. How can you be different

 Ask – Let the customer tell you

Don’t assume anything. Ask the question “How are you hoping we can be different?” It is important to have the customer share this in their own words how you can best serve them. Use active listening, and really hear what they are saying.  Repeat back what they tell you, to verify and clarify what the customer actually means.

Don’t jump to quick solutions

Armatures always want to jump in here and start sharing how they will solve this problem. Hold off trying to sell. Instead, really be present with you customer in the moment, let the conversation sink in. Let them lead you to the solution they want, not the one you think they should want, or the one you feel strongly about.

Use story’s

Want to be different, tell stories. When it’s time to tell use stories. Stories are the single best tool for selling. Storys allow you to make a point in a way that doesn’t seem like you’re selling. All great communicators use story’s because they are the most effective means to communicate a concept or idea. If you need to over come buyer resistance, story’s gives you the fastest and easiest way to accomplish what you want, with a customer.

Build a Killer Creditability statement

What is a creditability statement?

A creditability statement is a high impact totally engaging way to talk about what you do. A creditability statement is a very quick and powerful wow moment for your customer when they realize how professional you really are.

It’s not a resume or a feature and benefit dump. It is quack and hard hitting and dome properly is very impactful. I get a chuckle when I get a new client. Most of the time new clients come from referrals from other painting contractors, and they always ask “When do I get my creditability statement like what you did for ABC painting.

Here is a link to a video that has an example

Once you create your creditability statement the right way, you never try and sell without it.

Review

There you have it. 5 ways to have a high converting conversation.

  1. Don’t talk about what you do with customers. Talk about what they want.
  2. Slow Down and ask more questions. The way to shorten your sales cycle is slow your estimate down. Take your time with customers.
  3. Find the pain. Customers buy for their reasons not yours. Find out about the problems your customers have had with other contractors in the past.
  4. Ask how you can be different.
  5. Develop a killer creditability statement

See you two weeks with another edition of Double your Sales at Twice the Price.

Carl Utter

About the author

Carl’s sales career spans almost 30 years in all phases of sales management, sales training, sales coaching, and consulting. He founded The Training Group Inc. in 2000 where he trained and developed some of the largest Painting Contractors in the Country.

In 2017 he made a major decision to narrow his focus on Painting and Remodeling contractors who struggle to get customer to pay more for premium services. Today he is the founder of Contractor Growth Strategy, and his mission is to transform the sales and estimating industry by teaching his world re-known client- Centric Selling System. Carl Believes that premium contractors deserve to charge a premium price. The Client Centric selling system was designed for premium contractors, so they had a systematic way to sell and close projects when the price they charge is higher than the majority of competitors.

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