Four Ways To Improve Your Follow-Up Process

Let’s face it, when it comes to following up with leads, not all contractors are as diligent as they should be. Often times contractors loose jobs to other contractors with stronger follow-up processes, throwing away thousands of dollars of potential revenue.

Here are four ways contractors can improve their follow-up process to schedule more estimates and close more leads:

1. Call your leads faster
One of the main reasons home improvement contractors lose leads is because they are too slow to make the first call. When a homeowner is looking to start a home improvement project they typically reach out to a number of contractors for answers to their questions and estimates for their project.

Even though the homeowner may fill out forms on 3-4 different contractor websites, they’re likely not interested in speaking to all of them. Often times the first one or two contractors to call the homeowner are able to establish a rapport and the homeowner no longer wishes to speak to anyone else.

Ideally, you want to call a lead within an hour of them filling out a form on your website. This is a problem for some smaller contractors who don’t have a call center. That’s why you should use a service that will send you a text message when a person fills out a form on your website. That way you can call right away and be one of the first to establish a relationship with the homeowner.

2. Follow up with prospects more often
You just gave a homeowner an estimate for repainting a newly purchased home. What next? Too many contractors think that the ball is now in the homeowner’s court. But that’s not true. The ball is ALWAYS in your court.

There’s no reason to stop following up with a prospect until they explicitly tell you they are not going to hire you or have you estimate their project. That does not mean that you need to call the lead every day. But you should set up a follow-up schedule that you are comfortable with and stick to it until you hear the words “I am not interested” or “We hired someone else.”

People have busy lives. Just because they didn’t call you back does not mean they are not interested. It just means they got busy and their project may not be their top priority. But if you don’t follow up, someone else will, and there goes the job.

3. Don’t be afraid to use the phone
Many contractors are great at following up by email, but they are too scared to pick up the phone and call.

When you rely on email you are relying on a third-party technology. You are relying on the fact that your email won’t get sent to the junk-folder, where the homeowner will never see it. You’re relying on the fact that the homeowner will even open to read what you have to say.

When you pick up the phone and call you can be quite certain the homeowner will hear what you have to say (in your own voice). It also allows you to gauge their responses and answer their questions.

4. Mix it up
Most contractors do their follow-ups during work hours and wonder why they can never reach the homeowner. Well if you’re at work, where do you think the homeowner is? Work!

Try following up on evening or weekends. It may mean a little extra effort from you, but you will reach more people and close more jobs, so the extra effort should pay off.