Book Excerpts: Chapter 4 – Selling

[Steve]

Beginner Mistakes from our friend Jim of promower.net Excerpts from "Earn $300 a Day Mowing Lawns" From Chapter 4 – Selling Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]“Selling property maintenance services is probably the easiest selling job in the world. When you think about it, most prospects actively seek you – they called you up, didn’t they? And you’re seeking them. So you’ve got desire on both sides. That being the case, turning contacts into customers often amounts to nothing more than working out the details – price, specific service, frequency, and so on. Further to the same point, when closing the sale, you don’t need a death-do-us-part commitment. People can try your service for a week or two or three while risking virtually nothing. That makes for very easy selling.” .... On estimating prices: “Many beginners rightly perceive the importance of accurate estimates. If you bid jobs too high, you won’t get many, and those you do get may soon be lost to lower bidders. On the other hand, if you bid too low you could wind up working hard for little money. So it’s important to get it right. “What is the correct price for a job? The correct price is a number that is satisfactory to both you and your customer for at least one season. Your are making reasonable money, and the customer perceives that she is not being ripped off. That’s the correct price. “Please don’t write to me asking for a universal scale of correct prices, or a nationwide scale, or a citywide scale, or even a block-wide scale. Except as you set it yourself, there is no scale. This deal is between you and your customer – one on one. “How do you begin [to set your price scale]? Start by setting a minimum price per stop. I don't know where you live and can’t tell you what this number should be, but it’s hard to see how you can make out mowing lawns these days for less than $10 to $15 each. This applies even to tiny lots in rundown neighborhoods. If an area won’t pay even this little bit, advertise somewhere else. “Most lawns today, especially in suburban areas, are large enough to pay far more than your minimum price. You can set your scale for these lawns in either of two ways. One method is based on time.... Another method is based on area....” [Both methods are detailed.] .... On negotiations: “Suppose you quoted $30 a week to mow the lawn. Mrs. Smith says $25. You can almost certainly compromise at $27, which should be within your wiggle room. If even that’s too much for her, you might point out to that $27 is only $2 difference ... only about $50 total for the entire season. If she’s too cheap to go for that, you might not want this job so much after all. “Salesman that I’m not, I’ve resolved lots of price objections with a ‘try it’ close that seems to work very well. ‘Mrs. Smith, I don’t know how I’ll come out at $27 a week. It seems low. But if it’s agreeable with you, let’s try it for a couple of weeks and see. I’ll keep time on the job, and we can talk about it later. Okay?’ “There is nothing to talk about later. Do a good job on her lawn. Charge $27 this season, $30 next season, $33 the next....” .... “As your business matures, you’ll probably have jobs you no longer want – distant, difficult, poor-paying. So too with equipment: The stuff you started with is probably slow and weary. What to do? Surprise, surprise! Worn out equipment plus bad customers equals a lawn mowing business to sell! Try not to buy one of these turkeys.” Remember this section is only a small part of chapter 3, to read more please visit promower.net and order Jim's book!

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