I’m giving an estimate to a house on a cul de sac, 6 houses, this evening for driveway and sidewalks and some mold spots on viynl. While I’m there I’m going to knock of each door and sell my services. Any ideas on how I can close multiple houses of this cul de sac.
Do a great job on the first one you get & hopefully the neighbors will want the same.
You just never know what people will do though. I have had people seek me out for a quote, & after I gave them a very fair price they declined.
Good Luck!
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Schedule one job first. Early as possible. Then when you go door to door you can tell them that you have their neighbor on the schedule ( which helps build trust right off the bat) and that if you can schedule them for the same day you can give them a great deal.
As I have said in a previous post I primarily stain fences but I do my bids on a tablet, email them etc. Prominently displayed in the comments section it says “Ask us about our referral program.” Many people do and if they refer someone that takes my bid I give both parties 10% off. I tell the original customer that if they get me one more then they (original) get 15% off and the other two get 10%. The most I have ever one person refer was 5 contiguous neighbors. It’s nice to roll in and do 5 jobs without ever moving the truck. If you are trying to do the jobs on the spot, I’d tell/ask (situation dependent) your first customer that if any of the other neighbors want work done that you’ll give them both 10% as long as that customer calls the other one. It gives you a warm call verses a cold call and your first customer will tell the other that they can both get the discount etc.I have had a pretty fair amount of success getting two neighbors on board, getting more is just gravy. Good Luck
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This is great advice! Practically the same words have come from a good friend of mine that has multiple successful and lucrative small businesses. You CAN turn current and prospective customers into a very powerful “unpaid” sales force. I say unpaid because you can factor in the discount and up charge the service anyway
Great ideas. I like the warm call idea.
I used the sales pitch that I’ll be working for your neighbor on Saturday cleaning her home. May I provide you an estimate as well. I can provide a discount if I can serve you as well.
Unfortunately I could not close the original estimate, she wanted to discuss with her husband.
Two of the other homes clean their own and the other two weren’t interested. So much for leaving the cul de sac with a wad of cash.
You never know. They might call in the future.
Schedule it for a Saturday when everyone is home and will be out mowing lawns, playing with kids, etc. and can see what you’re doing.
Also, if they’re already outside there’s something less intrusive about walking up to the curb to chat versus banging on the door. Plus, one neighbor sees you talking to another neighbor and working on a neighbor’s house it’s called social proof and builds trust.
I’d ask my client for the names of the neighbors so you can say, “Mrs. Jones?” or “Bill?”. People love hearing their own name. That’s sales 101.
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