E191: What a ‘Hell Yes’ Meet-and-Greet Looks Like in Construction & Trade Sales

In this episode, we will unpack what a hell yes meet and greet looks like in construction and trade sales industries. Welcome to Sales Growth Made Simple, the show helping 7 to 8 figure trade, construction and industry sales and business leaders finally end the stress of inconsistent sales by simplifying your sales systems so your team can close more deals and grow faster. I'm your host, Ben Wright, a leader who has been building businesses and sales teams just like you for the last 20 years. In this episode, we're going to unpack why it is possible to get a yes in a meet and greet meeting before you've even quoted. And what are the 3 criteria or the 3 hacks that you can use as a trade and construction leader to actually make the yes happen before you've even quoted. So welcome to the last in the episode of a real focus around our meet and greet, our quoting meetings that we have with customers, our quoting processes that we have with customers. We've really zeroed in on these over the first 6 weeks or so of this year. However, this is going to be the last in that series today because for me, it is such an impactful part of any sales process that it's, it's been actually really enjoyable to deep dive into it because I've really been able to think through some of the great examples we've had with our customers. And of course, at a personal level, the more you talk about things, the more you focus on them. And it's been able to help me deliver even greater results to our customers. So Yes, selfish moment there for a moment. But for me today, I think the really important first message that I'm going to have for you listening is that it really is possible to have customers choosing us before we even quote. And what I mean by that is generally if we're meeting customers quickly in a meet and greet process, nice and early, not too long after they've inquired, we have a level of excitement that's quite significant around whatever the product is, be that a home renovation, a home build, home improvements, home repairs, maintenance, be it a commercial property with the same type of criteria or commercial expansion, changes to ways of commercial working or even just new equipment. Generally though, the excitement and the interest is really high when we first meet with those people. And for a lot of people, they're looking for someone to align with. So who's going to come with me on this journey? Who's going to be the person or the business that I can really trust to deliver a great result? For us at the moment, we are well and truly looking into fencing. And for me, I actually chose the fencing contractor that I would prefer to use through the first meeting because of a number of things that we went through. And now their quotes come through and there's a few quotes that are quite tight, but I'm actually working with this contractor to try and get their pricing and their scope of works to the point where I can then choose them or formally choose them because unofficially I did so in that first meeting. So I want you to think back again to that first meeting when we are engaging with customers. There's a level of excitement. They're looking for someone to pair with. If we're able to put ourselves in their scope as the most trusted, the most reliable, the most valuable supplier that they can work with, then what we can often receive is an unofficial, not necessarily verbalized, yes, or I'd like to work with you. And from the rest of that process forward, we shift from a competitive engagement or a competitive process that compares people that are doing quotes. So Contractor A, Contractor B, Contractor C, Supplier A, Supplier B, Supplier C, comparing, this one's got great benefits here, this one's slightly cheaper, this one's more expensive, this one has a longer warranty, these guys can do it a little bit faster. We move from that approach where features and benefits are compared quite significantly between each of the providers to a process where the customer's chosen Contractor A and then spends the rest of that time Justifying the decision. Yes, I like their speed. Yes, I like the quality of the product. Yes, I like the pricing. It's a little bit more expensive than here, but I can justify it by the speed they're doing it with or the quality focus or the different types of colors or that they've found some areas that are really impactful to me. And they're the types of processes where we want to aim for a hell yes in the meet and greet. They're the types of customers where we want to be making sure if we create the best first impression, that we've essentially been chosen before we quote and the win or the deal or the project is ours to lose. Of course, this doesn't happen with all customers. Not everyone's going to shop like this, but it certainly happens regularly. And across the hundreds and hundreds of leaders and salespeople that I've worked with over the last few years, I have seen it happen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. Because when you put your best foot forward and when you really engage with your customer in that meet and greet process, The hell yes can happen and then it is ticked off once that quote comes through. So the 3 areas that I've seen trade and construction and industry businesses in particular do really well here, I'm going to run through those quickly now and leave you with something to ponder today. So the first one is, and this one's very obvious, but so often overlooked in how to go about it, and that's actually building a sense of connection. Rapport is the word often used. I prefer a sense of connection where you meet with a customer and you actually feel like you're on the same page. Now to get to that state requires a few things to happen, a clear head, no distractions, having spent a minute or two, and that's all it often takes, thinking about this project or this customer or this business before you go in to see them, allowing yourself to be ready to give them your full attention when you walk in the door, and smaller things like presenting well. So number 1 is building a sense of connection. Number 2 comes down to creating value. Now this is a word that's thrown around so often, value, right? And often it's interchanged with we're customer focused, we create value, we're customer focused. But those businesses and those leaders that really create value to get a hell yes in that meet and greet process are the ones who have the questions ready to ask. And we'll go through that over the coming series of podcasts, what some of these great questions look like. But today, the message here is if you go in looking for value and you go in ready with a set of questions that will uncover and unpack or draw out that value from your customer, that's when we start to get the sweet spot appear. Over and over and over again. Because what we're looking for here is your ability or your team's ability to consistently get the same results and consistently create value with your customers. So that's number 2 there. And number 3 is before you leave the meeting, having a really clear yes or no criteria. I.e., what are you making a decision on? Work out the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 things that they're actually going to be making that decision on. What are the showstoppers? What are the things they just must have in that project. For us, in our fence, we simply need height. It is all about stopping people jumping over the back of our house and into our property. So for me, the number one criteria here is height. That's the one I cannot make compromises on. And then from there, I've had some other criteria around how long it's going to last, whether we're coating the posts, the direction it runs in, if it's a little bit windy or perfectly straight, do we remove trees, right? There's a few other things in there that are important. But the number one for me was the height. And those that got that right from a fencing point of view are the ones that I'm straight away leaning in towards. So where we're really clear on what the yes/no criteria are, that then allows us to simply tailor our proposal and tailor what we come back with and even tailor the meeting that we're having with our customers now around what those criteria are. So to recap what a hell yes in a meet and greet for a construction or trade sale looks like, it's essentially having the customer choose you informally before you even quote.. And that's done by 3 areas that we've gone through today. Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but it's something that you can use as a really good starting point to help you get more early yeses. Number 1 is finding that sense of connection, that rapport building, making sure that you actually get on with that customer early. And a number of ways we went through to be able to do that. Number 2 is to be always looking at how you can create value because when you're looking or when you have your focus on something, it gets done. So having teams or yourself ready to go in and consistently create value for your customers. And number 3 was being really clear on what the yes or the no is going to be based around. What are the non-negotiables? What is really important? What perhaps may seem as important but isn't as important to getting a yes to move forward. So they're the 3 things today. Thank you for listening in. Request from today, this is a very common one, it's to ponder what we've gone through. I'd suggest finding one of those three things that you think you can do better. Start on it this week, pick another one for next week, and a third one for the week after. We're dropping podcasts three times a week. Thank you very much for listening today. Very much a 1% better approach that we have, like with every single episode. But until we catch up later this week, bye for now. Are you frustrated spending hours of wasted time on sales quotes that you keep losing? Without changing something now, you'll continue to to get these same stressful results over and over again. My free quote audit will pinpoint exactly why you're not winning more jobs and what you need to do to increase your close rates quickly. Click the free quote audit link in the show notes to get started now.