Trial Talk, how are we? Happy Monday everybody, hope you're keeping well. I want to talk about
getting ghosted by your customers after you've put a price in, after you've parted with your
time, you've gone round to their property, you've had a look at the job, you've come home, you've
put the price together, you've emailed it off or sent it on messenger, whatever you do. And now
days are going by, weeks are going by, you've not heard anything, you're getting ghosted. Why?
Okay, so this issue used to really frustrate me and now and again it still does if I'm
completely honest. But what I've learnt to do in recent years is turn that frustration
into fascination and I'll tell you why. Because when you're frustrated by something, you'll
write it off, you'll say it's not my fault, it's them, they're there to blame. But if
you can get fascinated by it, then we can analyse it, we can try and understand it, we can try
and, you know, strip it back and see what are the real reasons why I'm getting ghosted, what's
this all about. So, it's often to do with something's misfitting somewhere, there's a misfit going on.
So, what I mean by that is, we have to determine where we are in the marketplace as spreads. And what
I mean is, if we have a price bracket, for example, and this means that we have to be quite honest with
ourselves about our capability, how competent we are and how good we are really. Not just on the tools,
but how good are we at running our businesses. So, are we bang on with our communication? Are we bang
on with our reliability? And of course, we have to be bang on with our workmanship as well. But
if we determine that we're sort of top rated, if you would consider yourself as a top rated plasterer
in your area, then that's going to come with a top rated price. If you're somewhere in the middle,
if you're average, if you're an average plasterer, then you're going to have an average price,
you're going to have average communication, you know, your work's going to be average,
and the way you run things is just going to be just average. And of course, if you're a beginner
or a budding plasterer, then you're going to be below average to start with. And the goal is always
to become top rated. So, we have to be honest with ourselves. Where are we? Honestly, where are we
in the marketplace? And if you're unsure, then just look for feedback. Make sure you're getting
feedback all the time. But we kind of know where we are, to be honest, don't we? We kind of know.
How much knowledge have you got within your trade in the services that you provide? You know,
you don't need to be an encyclopedia of plastering, but you do need to have an in-depth knowledge of all
the services that you provide. Is your knowledge in-depth or is it just surface level?
How, again, how competent are you? How knowledgeable are you? All this stuff will affect,
you know, your price range, and there will be a range in the market. Now, if you're getting ghosted,
if you're pricing up jobs and you're getting ghosted, what that would say to me, in my opinion, is
if you're a top rated spread and you're getting ghosted, that means that you've attracted in
average customers or below average customers. So these people, they're not looking for a top
quality job and they're not going to be willing to pay top money. So they're better off suited to
either an average spread or a budding spread. The attracting process, something's broken within
that process. And that'll come down to branding and your marketing. Who are you attracting into your
business? Because not everybody that lands on your website or picks up the phone and calls you
or drops you a Facebook message. Not everybody is your customer. Some people are better suited to
people that are on somewhere else on the spectrum. So determine where you think you are in the market.
Ask yourself if you're attracting the right people into your business to start with,
because that'll be a starting point to understanding why you're getting ghosted.
So that's the first thing. Now we'll talk about the solution. An easy fix that we can do as
tradesmen and women to weed out these people that are time vampires. They're coming in and they're
killing our time. They're sucking our time away. And you know, being self-employed, our time is like
gold dust. We need to hold onto it. So you might have seen already on Trial Talk Plaster's help group on
Facebook that there's a number of posts where lads are coming on and saying, I'll put my price in
and they can't even be bothered to come back to me. What's going on? You know, it's so frustrating,
et cetera. Some of the comments, some guys are talking about using photos and videos to screen
and to vet customers. So that's what I'm going to talk about today, because it really does work.
It really does work, guys. Technology today, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, or even email,
you can request that the customer send you either a short video or a number of photos of the job.
And the idea isn't to price the job and give a fixed quote. It's to have a look at the job to see
whether it's a good fit for yourself, whether you want to take this job on. What kind of job is it?
Get a feel for the customer. Get a feel for what's involved. By looking at the images and maybe having
a telephone conversation with the customer, you can give them an idea of cost, an estimate.
So this is what I suggest we start doing, guys. Rather than doing what I used to do,
which was the phone rings, you pick it up. I'll be there tonight at 6pm when I finished work,
race around there, spend half an hour tap dancing for them. Yes, I'll get the quote to you within 24
hours. And then you go home and you're thinking, bloody hell, I've got to bath the kids. I've got to
have dinner. I've got to do this. I've got to take my lad to football practice. And then you're trying
to shoehorn in this email that you keep thinking, I've got to send this quote, I've got to send this
quote. And there's just not enough, there's not enough hours in the day most of the time. You know
exactly what I'm talking about if you're self-employed. So rather than going through that whole process
only to get ghosted or only to be told, sorry, you're too expensive, what we can do is we can
test the waters by using images and videos of the project, getting the customer on the phone.
And as soon as that lead comes in and you've had a look, talk money early on, pushing past that
discomfort of talking money upfront on the phone. And that's the trouble I had. So I had a kind of
old school belief where I used to think I have to get in front of the customer so that I can charm them
and build rapport and build trust, show them that I'm the real deal, show them how courteous and
how I can take my shoes off and do all the things that traditionally we as tradesmen would do to show
the customer that we walk our talk and that we can be trusted and things like that. But what I've
learned recently is guys, we can do all that kind of stuff over the phone and via video and we can build
our trust and rapport and build our brand and build our reputation virtually. So you don't have to actually
go round to this customer's home, tap dancing as I call it, until you've got what I call an amber light.
So if you think of a traffic light system, the red, they're a no go. They're not going to be spending
money with you. They're not going to be doing business with you. Amber, they're warming to you.
You know, they might. And of course, green is the green light, which we all want. So what I suggest we
start doing, and this is what I've been doing recently, we need the amber light before we drive
round to their house and look at this job. We need the amber light. Now, of course, this don't apply to
every single job. I mean, you might have a job, you know, for a neighbour up the road and it's not
going to cause you too much grief to go round there and have a quick look. But if these jobs are like
20 minutes, 30 minutes away from your house and they're quite high spec jobs and, you know, you're
going to have to be spending half an hour round there, for example, all to be told, no, you're too
expensive or just to get ghosted, which is even worse, then it's important that we start to protect
our time and vet these customers. So we understand that number one, they've got the means and the
budget to afford us. They can afford us. And two, our time scales and our diary matches up with
where they're at and when they want the job doing. So those are the two things we need to sort out
before we race round there in the van. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, you can use a contact form
on your website, which is what I've started doing recently. I've always had a contact form. Most
websites will have a contact form, but the contact form, I wasn't utilising it as well as I could.
So what I've done, I've introduced a budget drop down menu on my contact form, guys. And that's the
first wall of defence against these tyre kickers and time wasters. Because if you can get a rough idea,
now I know that not all customers are going to know how much their project is going to cost,
but if you can get a rough idea and they don't flinch at some of these figures, then that will
indicate to you, okay, they've saved up some cash for this job. They've got some means to pay for it.
And they're looking to invest in their property. They're not looking for a cheap, quick fix.
They're looking to invest. So that will give you the first sort of notification that they might be a
good fit for you. But then it's a case of getting some images, some pictures and getting them on the
phone. You've got to get them on the phone and talk to them. Even if you don't know exactly how much
it's going to cost by looking at some videos and images and having a conversation with them,
getting a description from them about the job. You could even get them to jump on a Zoom or a video
call on Messenger, for example, and get them to show you the actual walls. You can get them to tap the
walls. So you could even see whether the plaster needs to come off, things like that via video.
Don't be put off by leveraging this technology, guys, because it's going to save you hours and
hours. Think of all the times you've looked at a job last year, say. Think of all the times you've
gone out and looked at a job and they ain't got back to you. Now, if you were to add all them hours up,
you'd be looking at, what, a couple of days wasted? How many hours are really being wasted by these
ghosters? It's a lot of time, isn't it? So if we can shrink that down. I've just had one last week.
It was a lady that wanted a load-bearing wall removed and she wanted a load of plastering
doing and a stud wall built right. Now, my initial instinct was to race around there because it's
my kind of job. I thought, yeah, I like the sounds of this. This is my sort of cup of tea. It'll keep
me busy for a while. I had to stop myself and instead I implemented this vetting process that
I've just spoke about and I asked her to provide some images and a description and a budget.
Now, the first thing was the budget didn't match. We were playing, you know, Facebook Messenger ping
pong right up until I put my estimate in. So I'd send her a text. She'd send me one back four minutes
later and again and again. And it was like to and fro, everyone's friends. Okay, put my estimate in,
bang, silence. Now, I've not heard from her for about four or five days. So that just goes to show
because if I would have gone round there last week, raced round there, spent half an hour looking at
this bloody job, come home, typed it up, sent it off, you know, sitting, typing up quotes when I'm
supposed to be eating my dinner with my family, wasting my time. Now, this woman never had any
intention of doing business with me because the price bracket was all wrong. So the fact that I've
sent an estimate off with a rough idea of cost, which took me 10 minutes, that could have took me
two hours and it's took me 10 minutes. That's the message that I want to get across on this video,
guys. So if you're not already doing it, consider doing it and let me know in the comments what your
thoughts are on getting ghosted by customers and what do you do to prevent it. And do you quote off
images and videos? Let me know in the comments. Cheers, guys. Take care.