You’ve done your inspection, written up your list of recommendations (Paper Towel Close), rehearsed what you’re going to say, brought products and tools in with you, done some price conditioning, and showed them what you’re recommending they buy. You’ve established the need and the sense of urgency for everything on the list.
That’s called “presenting,” and anyone can do that. Now you’ve got to close it: get a decision. A good closer is someone who is good at helping people make decisions.
When you go to close, have your pen and your calculator in your hand, have the service invoice ready for their signature to approve the work, and have your pricing guide with you in the event they want to see it. After you’ve made your recommendations, ask, “So, you wanna know how much all this is gonna cost?”
The ‘Done Deal’ Close
“As far as the pricing goes, everything comes out of our standardized price guide. This is your assurance that I’m not looking at you and trying to determine how much money you’ve got, making prices up as I go along, or charging different prices by the neighborhood. With the exception of our service agreement customers, everyone pays the same rate, regardless of who they are, where they live, or which tech does the job. Service agreement customers get a discount.
“And as far as I’m concerned, my job is to charge you the least amount of money possible.
“I’ll be happy to show you all the prices straight out of the book, but what I normally do is write them down on a sheet of paper to make it easier for you to read.”
(Pull out your Paper Towel Close.)
“As you can see, there are two prices for everything. That’s because we do have a service agreement, and service agreement customers get a discount.” (Place your finger right next to the price of the agreement.)
“You pay for the agreement, but the discounts offset the price of the agreement.
“As a courtesy, and with your permission, I can go ahead and make you a service agreement customer as if you were already one before I got here. That way I can give you all the discounts and keep your bill as low as possible.”
(It’s not necessary to go over each line on this list. Just run your finger down to the first subtotal.) Say, “These are the things that are mandatory. You don’t really get a choice on them, so that’s a done deal.”
(Run your finger down to the next subtotal.) Say, “These are things that don’t need to be done today, but will need to be done in the very near future, and because of the way our pricing structure works — where the more we do for you on each trip, the more discounts you get — you’d save money by having me do them for you today.”
(Run your finger down to the final total.) Say, “And these are the enhancements I mentioned to you earlier, that again, because of the way our pricing structure works, if you think you might want to get them some at time in the future, and you’ve got the money, they’ll never be any cheaper than they are today.
“So, what do you want to do? You want to go with the bare minimum, go part way, or go all the way?”
After asking a “closing question” — Shut up! Don’t say a word. He who talks first buys — either the prospect buys from you, or you buy the objection. Don’t think you have to keep talking when the homeowner becomes quiet. The longer they silently stare at your Paper Towel Close, the more likely they are to make a favorable decision.
Getting the Signature
Once they give you the verbal “go ahead,” pull your service invoice out from under your “Paper Towel Close,” say, “Okay Mr(s). Customer. We always get written authorization before we proceed. So what I’m going to do for now is just ‘bottom-line’ it right here (and write the price down somewhere on the form). I’ll fill out the rest later, when I’m done with the work and can give you a full report. For right now, you just sign here stating that you want the work done, you want me to dispose of the old parts and you’re going to pay me when I’m done. Then you’ll sign it again when the work is completed.”
Of course, it’s not always that easy. Beginning next month, I’ll start covering how to handle all the objections.