0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts , where we cover

0:03

the good , the bad and the ugly of

0:05

growing a successful contracting company

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.

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Welcome to Contractor Cuts . My name is Clark Turner , I'm

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Jarrah Flo . Thank you for joining us again

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. Today we are talking about how

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to write estimates faster and how

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to have a higher conversion rate

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on those estimates . Right , it's not

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difficult , it's just you have to do

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it the right way . We're going to walk through A

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how to get them out faster , more

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accurately and looking better , and

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how to get those to convert at

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a higher conversion rate with your

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clients . As we're jumping into that

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, we do want to say we have launched

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the ProStruck360 software for all

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levels for anyone . If you are interested

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in software , go to prostruck360.com

0:52

, Check it out . We have four different

0:54

levels on it . Really , we've built it and I'm

0:56

going to start talking about this first

0:59

, because this has to do with estimates . We've

1:01

built this software to where you can do

1:03

estimates and invoicing , online

1:05

payments . All of that's free . We

1:07

have a free level of the software . The goal is

1:09

hey , listen , if you're a guy out there running

1:11

, you're a one-man show . You're trying

1:13

to get some sort of traction in the industry

1:15

.

1:15

Yeah , trying to get better organized . You

1:18

probably don't have a lot of money for software .

1:20

We have a free version for that level of

1:22

person that wants to write estimates , send

1:24

voices , get

1:26

all of their baseline stuff

1:28

covered software-wise

1:31

. Then we have up

1:33

the ladder a few different other options . As

1:35

your company grows , we've built this to where we're

1:38

going to give it to you for free because we know with this

1:40

software you're going to succeed as you

1:42

grow your company . You can start paying us something

1:44

. The next level up is $89

1:47

a month . That allows work orders . You

1:49

can pay vendors . All sorts

1:51

of the vendor management side is

1:53

added on at the $89 level . You

1:55

can customize with your logos

1:58

and colors on your invoices and estimates

2:00

. There's really a ton

2:02

of value at the $89 level . The next

2:05

level up is the complete . It's $199

2:07

. It allows you to have our full suite of everything you

2:09

add in emails integrated emails

2:11

with AI sort to where it scans

2:14

the email and puts it on the right job card as you're

2:16

conversing with clients . Also

2:20

, quick books integration . At that level you

2:22

can add a secondary team member

2:24

because the way we've laid it out , when

2:26

you're hiring your first project manager , that's

2:29

when you need that complete level . You're

2:32

hiring that first employee , whether it's an office

2:35

manager . Okay , I've got a little cash flow

2:37

going Great $199

2:40

for the software . That's equal to other people at $1,000

2:42

a month Other software companies are

2:45

$1,000 for the same level that ours is $200

2:47

. That's the $199 and

2:49

the other level is $499 . That's for a larger company

2:51

. That's got really unlimited

2:53

seats . It's our limited level . Anyone can get

2:56

on that . It's got a couple other features on

2:58

it . If you want to talk to us , go to the website

3:00

, set up a demo . You can chat with

3:02

either me , jared , or one of our team members . We

3:05

say that and we start this out first to announce

3:07

that it's live . Secondly

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, no matter what level you get

3:11

on , you can write faster estimates

3:13

and increase your conversion rate by getting

3:15

on our software . Absolutely Starting

3:18

on the free version included . Everything

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we talk about today can be done on the free

3:23

version . All right , so getting

3:25

into it when we're writing the way

3:27

to write faster estimates and have

3:29

a higher conversion rate . We're going to start with

3:31

pain points . Why

3:34

are they not ? Why is it taking you so long

3:36

? As well as how do

3:38

we expedite without losing the

3:41

value in the details

3:43

? What are

3:45

the pain points that most contractors are feeling

3:47

in terms of not turning

3:49

out estimates quick enough and losing

3:51

estimates when they do send them ?

3:53

I think off the top of the head . There's a couple

3:56

of things that come to me . In

3:58

fact , I talked to a guy this week that

4:01

he was like I have eight estimates

4:03

that I've got to get done today . The

4:06

clients are waiting on them . I know they need them

4:08

. I've got a ton of work already

4:11

and I also I got

4:13

to be on site . There's a couple of different things that I've

4:15

got to be on site for and I just

4:17

don't have time to sit down and spend

4:19

the couple of hours per

4:22

estimate to get these done well

4:24

and out the door . So

4:27

I think that's one of them is just having

4:29

the time and space to do it , especially

4:32

early on when you don't have a lot of other

4:34

employees and other people that kind of

4:36

this can be delegated out to . But

4:38

you're the main

4:40

cog in the company , you wear all the

4:42

hats , you have to be on site , you have to be dealing

4:45

with clients and you also , if you're doing

4:47

any kind of decent job , you've

4:49

got people knocking on your door , saying , hey , I want you

4:51

to work with me too , and asking and requesting

4:54

and you're saying yes , and

4:56

then you're all of a sudden you've got this

4:58

pipeline of need that you don't

5:00

have any capacity to get to and

5:03

you're having to either not

5:05

go on site and get those done

5:07

, or you're having to do the onsite stuff

5:10

during the day and then you're taking your family

5:12

time to sit down and write out these estimates

5:14

. One of the problems that

5:16

happens with that is that when you go down that road

5:18

, you're trying to make it happen so

5:21

fast that you're just trying to knock

5:23

them out because you don't have time and you

5:25

miss details . And then all of a sudden

5:27

, this guy in particular was like I

5:29

just don't like every job

5:31

right now , almost all of them on breaking

5:33

even . I'm not even making money . I'm

5:36

getting jobs done , I'm just not making

5:38

any money . I need help with the estimating process

5:41

. Yeah , so that's one of the major ones . It's just time

5:43

.

5:43

Well , and it's you have to choose . Am I

5:45

gonna take two to four hours to write this estimate ? Where

5:48

am I gonna churn it out ? And it's gonna be unprofessional

5:50

, without detail on it , and it's just

5:52

gonna be a factory of churning these out . I got four to

5:54

write . I've got an hour and a half to write them . I'm just gonna

5:56

give some some random and I'm just gonna

5:58

send them out , right ? So I

6:01

think , to get started on getting

6:03

the estimates faster as well as increasing

6:05

the conversion rate , you have to

6:07

understand . If you understand one thing today , it's

6:09

this one sentence you are selling

6:11

an experience . You're not selling

6:14

the work you're doing . Yeah , absolutely you from and

6:16

we teach this from start of anything you

6:18

do , from when someone visits your website until

6:20

the final invoice , you are building

6:23

a story of your company in this person's

6:25

head , and so when you're

6:27

sending an estimate and you're taking four hours

6:30

and you're supposed to get it on Tuesday , it turns

6:32

into Wednesday I'm almost done Thursday . All

6:35

their experience in is this guy can't do

6:37

what he says he's gonna do , right , and so we're

6:40

killing our conversion rate by trying

6:42

to get the high detail level , or

6:44

I'm churning it out , just sending it to you with

6:46

low detail , and so my experience at

6:48

that point is like this says paint

6:50

house $8,000 . What does

6:53

that mean ? Yeah , what is he ?

6:54

talking about ? I mean , I've seen people do this

6:56

in three different ways . They Tell

6:59

the client on site , you know . Or

7:01

on the phone yes , I'll get this done for

7:04

you , I'll have it back on Thursday , yeah . And

7:06

then Thursday they're like hey , mr Klein , I'll

7:08

have it to you tomorrow . And then hey

7:10

, I'll have it to you on Monday . And then , you know . Or

7:12

the other guy that says when

7:14

can you have this back to you as soon as I can get it done

7:17

? Yeah , and you , you're not gonna , you're not

7:19

gonna settled in on , I'll have it on Thursday

7:21

, because you know , there's no way .

7:23

There's no way to close a loop in that client's head until they

7:25

get it . So two , three , four days are like he said

7:27

he was going to he said it . Where is it ? Where

7:29

is it ?

7:29

I'm check my email , right , yeah , right you

7:31

know , or or the guy that just is

7:33

there . They're

7:35

constantly , you know , overwhelmed

7:38

with this thing and they're just , they've got so many

7:40

clients . It's just bear in their head , you know that's

7:42

right .

7:42

So how do we expedite writing it

7:44

, getting that faster yet

7:46

capturing the detail we need to give

7:48

the client a good experience . So the first

7:50

thing you need to be doing is creating

7:53

what we call job item presets

7:55

and the approach to 360 software

7:58

. You can create a job item and

8:00

a job item is simply a single line

8:02

item on your quote and in that job item

8:04

you can say , okay , this is interior

8:06

paint , and In the description I'm

8:08

gonna write walls , ceiling trim

8:10

, this is what's included , this is what's not included , this

8:12

blah , blah , blah , blah . And then I'm gonna put a materials

8:15

in there if I'm using , if I'm including

8:17

materials in that line item , and I'm gonna

8:19

go ahead and put in the description we

8:22

use bear ultra blah , blah

8:24

, blah , blah , blah . We use , sure , when Williams pro mart

8:26

, whatever ones that you normally use

8:28

, right or similar , and so that's in my description

8:31

. And then I'm gonna save that

8:33

as a preset and what that's doing is building

8:36

and creating a template for every single

8:38

time I'm writing an estimate .

8:39

I've got a drop down of all my templates and I

8:42

mean our construction company has hundreds of

8:44

Prebuilt templates and

8:46

some we've had to go through and delete because they've gotten

8:48

old and you know so we're constantly

8:50

updating Yep and so what ?

8:52

what we do , even what you're just saying , is

8:54

we will name a template

8:56

. Either We'll put a crew name beside

8:58

it , if there , if we're using a specific vendor

9:00

first , let's say flooring , yeah , we'll put the flooring

9:03

vendors name in the name in it and

9:05

we'll delete it every time we use it . Right , so the client

9:07

doesn't see it . But that way I know . Hey , I'm

9:09

using Tom , he's our flooring supplier

9:11

, his pricing is preset

9:13

and we talked about it , so it's all preset in my

9:15

software .

9:16

That's right .

9:16

And so I can say I'm using Tom for

9:18

carpet , we're using the 38 ounce

9:21

. Great , that's all set up . It pre fills everything

9:23

, and then I just have to put in my the number

9:25

of yards I'm doing for the carpet , right , and so

9:27

you just got to deal with the quantity at that point . So

9:29

that is the first way to expedite

9:31

this . If you're handwriting estimates , if you're building

9:34

out a specific Estimates every

9:36

single time , with handwriting every single line item , you

9:38

are wasting your time Recreating

9:41

the wheel . You've already built it , bid that item

9:43

78 other times in the last year

9:45

, preset it , put it in

9:47

as a template and use it every single

9:49

time .

9:49

Well , and you know , guys coming into our

9:52

software , there's a couple of different ways that it's

9:54

the opportunities

9:56

for you to do this . A lot of guys have a

9:58

spreadsheet , right that

10:00

they've got . They've built out their line items

10:02

, they know their cost and all the different stuff . All

10:05

you have to do is you go into the preset line item

10:07

under your my Company and you can input every

10:09

single one of those all in one , just click

10:11

, you know , and add them in , customize

10:14

them , make sure that they've got the information that you want , and

10:16

you can add 10 , 1200 all at one time , right

10:18

, you know , all in one setting . Or

10:21

, if you are inside of a job

10:23

, there's also if you have a line item that you're

10:25

like , I really like this , I like the way I detailed it out

10:27

and I'm going to reuse this . I can reuse this

10:29

. You just click a button and creating the line item

10:31

and it automatically creates it .

10:33

So there's a checkbox on the bottom of every line item that says save

10:35

this as a template .

10:36

Yeah , so you can what you already have

10:38

and know you can add in there . But

10:40

then it's that list is going to grow

10:43

naturally as you use

10:45

the software , as you build estimates . It's

10:47

going to continue to get more in depth so

10:49

that you have the ability to expedite

10:52

how fast you can get estimates out . That's

10:54

right .

10:55

So having a standard description that

10:57

you put in that template is great , and

11:00

what we usually do is I'll put a description

11:02

that's going to be on every single job . But

11:04

then when I select that as my

11:06

template , I then have the option to edit that line

11:09

. So I will then say , going

11:11

back to the paint example , it's the paint

11:13

, it's got the full description , the materials that I'm going

11:15

to use . And then I'm going to say in

11:17

it I'm going to click into the box and say this

11:20

includes all of upstairs and the main

11:22

level does not include the basement right , so

11:24

I'm going to customize it every single time

11:27

. But then I'm writing one sentence

11:29

putting in the square footage and I'm done

11:31

with that line item and it's high detail and

11:33

it looks like I spent a lot of time where it really

11:35

took me about 15 seconds to make

11:37

that line item and that's the

11:39

type of thing that , if I have

11:41

that preset in there , that is

11:43

, has a space for me

11:46

to fill out the type of paint

11:48

, the you know the sheen , the

11:50

color , the color code .

11:52

if it has a space for me to fill that out , naturally

11:54

I'm going to you know want to fill that out . That's

11:57

the type of thing that saves you on the back

11:59

end when the client goes in and this is

12:01

not the color I chose . Well

12:03

, that's here's the code you gave me , it's

12:06

in your estimate , it's in the you know invoice

12:08

, that's

12:10

you know versus . I have no record of that

12:12

. I just said paint color , the client , what

12:15

the client wants . Then you

12:17

you're end up in a situation where you're having to cover

12:19

the cost of paint .

12:20

A great example of what you're talking about . In

12:23

our software , before we had this , I

12:26

would quote carpet right , Install carpet

12:28

X , Y and Z . We go out and

12:30

pick it out . That's fine . And every single

12:32

time we're installing carpet in a spot that

12:34

wasn't previously carpeted , I'd always missed

12:36

the tax trip . Yeah Right , it's a small

12:38

charge . It's going to

12:41

cost me a hundred bucks on this job , 200 bucks on the next job . I just

12:43

eat it because the client's , like you , should know

12:45

that it needed a tax trip . Now our preset

12:47

line item says this includes

12:49

carpet , eight pound pad

12:51

installation of these locations

12:53

and , most importantly , this does not

12:56

include include tax trip If

12:58

it's blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . So you can say this does

13:00

include and this doesn't include . I think half our line

13:02

items have that in there .

13:04

Those are does not include .

13:06

That way I'm being very detailed , without me having to type

13:08

it out every time and say oh yeah , no , sorry client

13:10

, you got to pay for that . Yeah , it's in writing already

13:12

on the quote .

13:13

Well , and you know , estimating a

13:16

really good estimator is incredibly

13:19

good at thinking through all the variables

13:21

of details and

13:23

you can't hire that over

13:25

and over and over and over and over . It's impossible

13:28

to find , every time you hire a project

13:30

manager , somebody who doesn't miss details

13:32

. Most of the time , people that don't miss

13:35

details really stink with clients . You

13:37

know , I mean , that's just kind of the way that

13:39

it goes . So if you've built presets

13:41

that help people auto think

13:43

about the details

13:46

you're going to , you're going to miss last

13:48

of them . If you're a one man show and you find

13:50

yourself ah , every job , I forget

13:52

these little details . I forget to add the cleaning

13:54

line item at the bottom . You know , whatever it is

13:56

, if you create line items that have

13:59

those reminders in it , you're going to have more

14:01

robust estimates , you're

14:03

going to not miss details and you're going to save

14:05

yourself money .

14:06

And here's a bonus on that If you are

14:08

using our software currently or if you're

14:10

about to start using it , Create

14:13

two presets right now

14:15

that I want you to do that we have . We have

14:17

to . It's called assumptions Unpermitted , assumptions

14:20

permitted yeah , and those are two line

14:22

items that are pre-filled that we put on the top

14:24

of every single Estimate . There's a zero

14:26

dollar charge of the client , but what I , what

14:28

I have in those assumptions boxes

14:31

is , if it's like assumptions unpermitted

14:33

, this job is is

14:35

a job that doesn't require a permit . If , for

14:37

some reason , there's a stop work but that

14:39

requires a permit , at that time

14:42

there is this cost that the client's gonna pay . Blah

14:44

, blah , blah , blah . It's all my CYA

14:46

stuff clarity of expectations . It's

14:48

. I'm assuming that there will be a lockbox

14:50

on the house . If you take the a lot of different

14:52

things that we put in that first box , it's probably

14:55

eight , nine , ten lines , but it's

14:57

all these stuff that I want to put on the

14:59

quote as an assumption that the client

15:01

needs to know . This is all that I'm assuming as

15:03

I'm building this . Yeah , it's very simple , very

15:06

easy . It's one click to add it and what's on top

15:08

of every single estimate ? Yeah , you're clarifying

15:10

with the client on the very first go

15:12

. If you go back to what we said in the beginning of this

15:15

podcast , yeah , we are selling

15:17

an experience with us for the client

15:19

. We're not selling them the project Right

15:21

, and so , if they can , they that can build that trust

15:24

and like this dude is high detail they're

15:26

gonna go with us every single time . Yeah

15:28

. Next , what we

15:30

want to cover when we're talking faster

15:33

estimates about higher conversion rate is High

15:36

detail from 30,000 foot , mm-hmm

15:38

. So it's . I don't want to

15:40

be in the weeds with my details , I want to be

15:42

a 30,000 foot detail . So what is the difference

15:44

? Let me give you some examples of that . In

15:46

the weeds Not in 30,000

15:48

foot , but down in the weeds , high detail

15:50

is I'm gonna use this

15:53

type of Carpet

15:56

. It's gonna be this , this , this

15:58

, this and this . We're gonna do this . These are the

16:00

three colors that we're gonna choose from . I'm not

16:02

putting all your selections detail . I'm

16:04

not putting color detail . I'm not

16:06

putting any sort of Material

16:09

that I've got a research detail in there , right

16:11

, I'm , all I'm doing is

16:14

putting a 30,000 foot view detail

16:16

. So I'm saying we're going to paint

16:18

the entire house . We're gonna do this . We're gonna do this

16:20

outside of the detail that's pre-filled on

16:23

maybe some materials that I am using , but

16:25

I'm not gonna go into hey

16:27

, this light fixture , this , this , the

16:30

type of granite that you said that you wanted . I'm

16:32

not gonna go into any of that detail . That's . That's unnecessary

16:34

, right , trying to get to a price point and

16:36

then to understand the scope of work for

16:39

that price point . Now , on the other end of that

16:41

, the 30,000 foot without detail

16:43

is paint interior paint house .

16:45

Mm-hmm .

16:46

What does that include ? What does that not include ? That is so

16:48

vague . Install carpet upstairs . What

16:50

does that mean ? Yeah , they're upstairs . Which

16:53

rooms that ? Those sort of things . So that's , you're

16:55

inevitably gonna get into an argument with

16:57

your client of what they paid for and what they

16:59

didn't pay for it , knowing exactly

17:01

what you're quoting , is the detail level in

17:04

terms of $3,000

17:06

includes this stuff and not this stuff

17:08

, as opposed to $3,000 includes

17:11

this stuff , not this stuff . And

17:13

Also , inside the stuff it includes

17:15

, are these , these , these , these , these , these

17:17

? You don't need all that . All you need is

17:19

we're gonna install in four rooms upstairs

17:21

. We are not installing in the basement or the main

17:23

level . We're doing blah , blah , blah and the

17:26

high detail , but from a 30,000 foot

17:28

view to where it's a summary of

17:30

the work right right next

17:32

, when now , moving on

17:34

from getting the estimate faster

17:36

, we're gonna go to conversion

17:38

of that estimate right . So instead of just

17:41

churning out these , this is something that we coach every

17:43

single guy on when you are

17:45

sending someone an estimate . Especially

17:48

recently , as prices have skyrocketed

17:50

since pre-COVID till now

17:52

. Everyone has an expectation

17:55

that feels like these days of a lower cost

17:57

than what we're pricing . Even

18:00

more than ever , homeowners have

18:02

an unrealistic expectation of what something's

18:04

gonna cost . Now there's some odds the

18:06

odd ones that actually say , oh

18:08

, that's within my budget , but a lot of the time we're

18:10

running against customers that are like whoa

18:12

, I thought that'd be $30,000 . Why is it

18:14

42 ? And say , well , three

18:17

years ago , four years ago . Last time you got it quoted

18:19

it would have been $30,000 . But labor

18:22

and materials have all gone up and I gotta do it at

18:24

42 . And so having that

18:26

conversation and them understanding

18:28

the difference might be the

18:30

difference of a conversion and

18:33

a loss of a client . So what we want you

18:35

to do is , when I'm getting ready to send

18:37

you an estimate , I wanna call

18:39

you up and say hey , jared , I got your estimate

18:41

ready . It's for $42,000

18:43

. I'm gonna send it over to you and I

18:46

want to be on the phone with Jared to hear

18:48

his reaction to my number . And

18:50

he says whoa , 42, . That's way

18:52

blah , blah , blah . I just got a quote for 28

18:55

. And so at that point I

18:57

can either do maintenance

18:59

on Jared and say hey , listen , man , I understand

19:02

that it's $15,000

19:04

over your other quote . Let's sit down and look

19:06

at the maples and apples , because I'm pretty high detail

19:08

on this and I've got everything that

19:10

I think is gonna be on here . So I'm minimizing your change

19:12

order .

19:13

Again . You want to manage that experience

19:15

versus just dropping it in their inbox

19:17

and then you never hear from them again and you don't

19:19

know why . Did they get it , did they

19:21

not get it ? Did they see it ? And go no

19:23

way ? That's way too . I wanna

19:26

be able to manage that . And the great thing about our software

19:28

is that you can place that

19:30

phone call and say , hey , mr Bob , I've

19:32

got your estimate ready , boop , and

19:34

you can click a button , send the estimate while

19:36

you're on the phone with one click , very simple

19:39

. And while you're on the phone , say

19:41

, hey , I just sent it over to you . If you check your email

19:43

box and you have a couple of minutes , I would love

19:45

to go over it with you because I wanna make sure that if

19:47

you have any questions , I can answer them for you . That

19:50

it makes it super simple . There's also

19:52

a note box in the software that

19:55

while you're on there , if you wanna take

19:57

some notes of that conversation , you can do that . It's

19:59

a great spot to kind of manage that

20:01

conversation , get the information to

20:03

the client and you've also got the information

20:06

in front of you that you can review as

20:08

you're going over it . So it's

20:10

a great tool to use to

20:12

be able to manage that conversation with the client

20:14

, Increase in that conversion .

20:15

First thing I'm doing I'm on the phone when

20:17

they get the first number and when I get any

20:19

revisions that are higher than the

20:21

previous number , I wanna be on the phone

20:23

. I wanna be the one to verbally tell you the

20:25

price and talk through it . Secondly

20:28

, I've got that . It looks good . I'm

20:31

sending them the estimate . And

20:33

maybe I didn't get to them , Maybe I don't have time for

20:35

a phone call . I'm gonna send them an estimate . There

20:37

are four paragraphs you need in every

20:39

estimate email . Every estimate email

20:42

needs these four paragraphs . Follow this

20:44

and you will increase your conversion rate .

20:46

Here's your estimate that you requested . Thanks , let

20:48

me know if you wanna do the work .

20:49

Yep , that's most guys right . Every

20:52

single one of my emails that

20:54

have an estimate on it go like

20:56

this first paragraph excitement

20:58

. I want you to know that I'm excited about

21:00

this job . It becomes very

21:03

mundane often for us as contractors

21:05

when we do this day in and day out

21:07

Like , yeah , I'm gonna paint your house , yeah , I'm gonna do that kitchen what

21:09

? But for you

21:11

as the clients , it is a huge

21:14

spend and this huge thing that I'm super excited

21:16

about and you're a buzzkill as a contractor

21:19

. And so I'm gonna start with hey

21:21

, I'm so excited about getting the opportunity to

21:23

bid this . It was great meeting you and your wife out

21:25

at your job site . The

21:28

kitchen's going to look great after the renovations

21:30

, Really going to increase the value of your

21:33

property . I think you're going to love

21:35

the final result from what

21:37

we've estimated . That's

21:40

it . Four , three sentences of excitement

21:42

. Knowing talking about the project

21:45

, Second paragraph , I'm going to

21:47

do the estimate description . In

21:49

that paragraph I'm saying here's the

21:51

estimate . I did this , I did this . I'm

21:53

talking about any variation from what we talked about on

21:55

site . I'm saying , hey , I

21:57

remember you saying that you might want custom

21:59

built cabinets versus RTA

22:02

cabinets . I've got a separate

22:04

line item of the difference of

22:06

the RTA versus the custom built cabinets . It's

22:10

a large $12,000 difference

22:12

between those two . I've itemized that separately

22:14

so you can include that or we can just

22:16

delete that off there and we'll do the RTA

22:19

cabinets .

22:20

Well , it's a space where you can . If

22:22

you're not able to get them on the phone , it's

22:24

a space where you can help guide their

22:27

experience when they're viewing

22:29

your estimate . Where are the spots

22:31

that naturally they're going to ask a question ? Wait

22:33

a minute , I thought we talked about blah

22:36

. Just take a second and explain

22:38

those few things that , as they're reading

22:40

through it , they go oh yeah , he said that's because

22:42

of the plumbing . That's why I added that in

22:44

there . So keeping them . You're

22:47

managing that experience via

22:49

the details you put in there .

22:51

Or I think another one that I always

22:53

do is when I put budgeted selections

22:55

. I like to broadly

23:42

talk about that , so I'll say , hey , if

23:45

it's a heavy tile job . Before doing a bathroom

23:47

I budgeted $2 a square foot for

23:49

your tile selections

23:51

. That will be a variable cost depending

23:53

on which tile you select . Just some sort

23:55

of detail about the estimate and why

23:57

you priced it , what you did , what's included , what's

24:00

not included . That's paragraph two . Paragraph

24:02

three that you're going into is going to be next

24:04

steps . This people misses so much . Next

24:07

steps if you're ready to move forward

24:10

, the next thing we're going to do is I need you to sign

24:12

this estimate , send it back and we're going to bring our

24:14

vendors out . We're

24:16

going to refine it to

24:18

where if I need to have my HVAC

24:21

vendor come and do a full bid on it

24:23

because I've just given an estimate or

24:25

maybe the next steps is I need you to come into the office . We're

24:27

going to sit down , we're going to do our CEA and talk through

24:30

. I want to let you know the full experience

24:32

of what you're going to experience with us before

24:35

you sign anything . That's a great line

24:37

, because everyone wants that information

24:39

and once they sit down with you , they're going to sign

24:42

with you In the sales world .

24:43

This is called the call to action . If

24:47

they don't know , if you haven't guided

24:49

them to the steps of what's next , there's

24:52

an opportunity for them to off ramp . That's right . Right

24:54

, but just because of a lack of clarity

24:56

. If I put that clarity in there , people

24:59

tend to take steps based on

25:01

being guided that direction . Yep .

25:03

So that , whatever the next step

25:05

that you want them to take , spell out that

25:07

one , and maybe one more . I'm not going to lay out every

25:10

step of the way . I'm going to say hey , if you're ready

25:12

, we're going to do that . I want to reserve a spot

25:14

on our calendar for you . I know you said you wanted to get started

25:16

in the next month . Whatever that is , I

25:19

want to go and get you reserved on our calendar

25:22

. So let me know as soon as possible and

25:24

we'll get the process started for

25:26

you . So that's paragraph three

25:28

and paragraph four . Let's hit him .

25:30

Excitement , again Excitement sandwich

25:32

. Hey , I really hope we can do this Excitement sandwich

25:35

. That's great .

25:35

Yeah , I really hope we can do this together . I

25:37

really hope that . I'm

25:40

excited about this project and I think

25:42

this would be a really good fit for our company

25:45

. I think you'd be really happy at the end of it with

25:48

the vision that we've talked through together . Yeah , Let

25:50

me know . Blah , blah , blah blah . So that's

25:52

your email . You need those four paragraphs . You

25:54

can get that done . You're going to take two to three extra

25:57

minutes writing that than your normal email . That's

25:59

okay , because now you're not going back and forth

26:01

about a lot of questions

26:03

.

26:04

But , clark , we already talked about we don't have enough

26:06

time to handle detailed

26:08

estimates . We don't have time to . You know

26:10

how am I going to spend an extra five

26:12

minutes or so on it ? I'm just going to send the regular

26:15

email . How do I have time to build

26:17

that estimate ?

26:18

Yeah , well , first off , when I go out and

26:20

I'm doing an estimate and I I you know I'm going to send the regular email I'm going to

26:22

send the regular email . The client calls me says hey

26:24

, clark , can you come out on Wednesday and give me an estimate on

26:26

this kitchen ? Yeah , I'm gonna budget Wednesday

26:29

on my calendar for that estimate and

26:31

then I'm also gonna go on my calendar and budget Thursday

26:33

, yeah , to write the estimate at my office

26:36

, right ? We always forget that second one . Oh , yeah , so now

26:38

that I've got time budgeted . Secondly

26:40

, it is more . It is a waste

26:42

of an hour to write an estimate . If you don't

26:44

take the five minutes to try and increase

26:47

your conversion , right , you're wasting your time . Like

26:49

, do it ? The customer

26:51

experience is more important than

26:53

the accuracy of the estimate . Right really is , and so

26:55

if you're gonna sacrifice somewhere , don't

26:58

sacrifice on the customer's experience of you . Sacrifice

27:01

on the time spent in high detail . Yeah right

27:03

and try to expedite that , and if they

27:05

want to move to the next steps , then we're gonna refine it

27:07

a little bit more .

27:08

Yeah , well , and when you , when

27:10

you do have the time in space , yeah , you

27:13

utilize the tool in the software of

27:15

email templates . Yep , build this

27:17

for four paragraph estimate

27:20

out , email out and

27:22

then have in there some custom

27:25

spots that Put in the specific

27:27

detail about this job . Right ? So you've got

27:29

a template that you're working off of and now

27:31

, instead of spending the five , eight minutes to build

27:34

it from scratch , you're spending a couple

27:36

minutes adding in some specific .

27:37

All you're doing is editing the second paragraph which

27:40

is the description of the estimate . So yeah

27:42

, that that estimate template is Absolutely

27:44

the the game changer in terms of saving

27:46

you 15 minutes on every estimate , of having to

27:48

detail it out . So I said , you got

27:50

a drop down on your email page of all the

27:52

different templates you want and you have Estimate template

27:55

. We have , I think , small estimate , large estimate

27:57

, because they're kind of different depending on you're sending

27:59

them , right , you select it . It says dear client

28:02

, and I delete the client , I put their name in and

28:04

then I go in and I edit that second

28:06

paragraph and I hit send that's right attached

28:08

already . It's super easy . So

28:10

I've got that email . I use the

28:12

template . I send it out to them . The

28:15

next thing I'm gonna do when we're gonna increase

28:17

customer experience conversion rates yeah

28:19

. I'm going to set my

28:22

next client contact in the software

28:24

on the job page . It says right there next

28:26

client contact . I click on it and I'm setting

28:28

up to all my to-do list for a future

28:31

date to contact this client . Mm-hmm for

28:33

me . I'm gonna contact it tomorrow . I'm gonna

28:35

set it for tomorrow . I said it , forget it , I don't

28:37

think about it . If they tell me , hey , I'm out of town

28:39

for a week , I'll look at this next , next

28:41

Monday . Mm-hmm , I'm gonna set it for next Monday

28:43

and forget about it and not have to look at

28:45

it until pops up on my screen saying hey , today's

28:47

the day you got a follow-up with the client about

28:50

this estimate . That's right , I'm gonna go in shoot

28:52

them a follow-up and I can also put there

28:54

.

28:54

There's a note spot in there so you

28:56

know for for me , if there's so

28:58

much stuff that I do in a week or two weeks , yeah

29:00

, that by the time that thing pops up I'm like who is

29:02

this client ? I don't even remember him right . So

29:05

I can type in the notes this is the guy blah blah

29:07

blah . He was on vacation . It took his

29:09

kids to Disney . He's just coming back

29:11

touch based with him first thing in the morning

29:13

so that you can see if you can schedule

29:15

a phone call with it .

29:16

Yeah , right off where has a to-do list , a task list

29:18

on the on the dashboard . And so

29:20

you get , when you set these next

29:23

client contacts up , it automatically puts it

29:25

as a task to do on that date . Also

29:27

, there's other automations for it to where it will automatically

29:29

set those . But then you can also add as many To-do

29:31

lists as you want onto that task board , rearrange

29:34

them , push them another date . But if I set

29:36

up the next client contact on this one estimate

29:39

, when I go in there and click the task , it's

29:41

gonna direct me right to that estimate . It's got it

29:43

written in there . It's got the notes on what the task

29:45

was supposed to be , what I want to follow

29:47

up on . So Super easy , super

29:49

simple , and there's no waking up at midnight saying

29:51

oh wrap .

29:52

I never emailed her right yeah , well , and

29:54

the other thing you know we talked about this very at

29:57

the at the beginning we are selling

29:59

the experience . So every aspect

30:01

of every contact point that you've got

30:03

is is Selling to

30:05

the client what this experience

30:07

is gonna be like . So when that guy comes back

30:09

from Disney and he doesn't hear from you

30:11

and he reaches out to you , he

30:14

subconsciously is thinking , if I go with

30:16

this guy , I'm gonna have to be contact

30:18

in this guy .

30:19

I'm gonna have to be the guy spirit having this right

30:21

. It's got too busy to think about me .

30:22

But if on that Monday morning you've got

30:25

an email or a phone call or a text

30:27

, or however you communicate with that client saying

30:29

, hey , how was Disney , I hope it was great , let's

30:31

connect . You've initiated

30:33

that and now that client is going

30:35

to Instinctually see

30:38

you in the driver's seat of this

30:40

job Yep , it's gonna . And

30:42

and there there's a level of trust that

30:44

happens there . And even if another

30:46

person comes through that they've , you know , contacted

30:49

another jail blow . You know contracting company

30:51

. Your company is

30:53

gonna be seen by them , either consciously

30:55

or subconsciously , as more

30:57

efficient and Somebody more trustworthy

31:00

, just because you were in the forefront

31:02

of communication .

31:03

The more trust you build , the more valuable you

31:05

are and the more they'll pay for you over the

31:07

cheaper guy . That's right , right , because this guy follows

31:09

up . It's always like , well , you know , I get underbid

31:12

by these other dudes and my , my work

31:14

is so much better , mm-hmm , how do they

31:16

know that ? How would their client know that your work

31:18

is better ? They're experiences all they're

31:20

betting on , and you got to show them my

31:23

Communication and customer service

31:25

is as good as how

31:27

I install a new kitchen . That's right , right

31:29

. And so is showing them that , on the front end

31:31

, what you're talking about utilizing the software

31:33

to do that is Game

31:35

changer in your conversion . Yeah , yeah so if

31:37

you want to build estimates like this , if you want

31:39

that at the job item templates

31:41

, the email templates on it , it's free

31:44

in our software Go to pro struct 360 comm

31:46

. You can use it there . But get on

31:48

, get on something , whether it's one of our paid ones

31:50

or the free ones , so where you can expedite

31:53

the , the , the estimate Creation

31:56

process with the high detail , but at

31:58

the same time increase your conversion

32:00

rate while doing it . Yeah , that's right . All right , thank

32:02

you so much for listening . We'll talk to you guys next week

32:04

. See you next time .