The General Contractor

ServusXchange, LLC, an emerging provider of software-as-a-service to the home repair, remodeling, construction, and related real estate industries, announced that it has been selected by Dell as one of the nation’s most innovative companies for small business.

Brian Javeline, president and CEO of ServusXchange, LLC, said, “We are extremely honored to be getting such an acknowledgment from one of the most prestigious corporations in America. Dell is known for its innovation within the personal computer marketplace. Our product, MyOnlineToolbox, is a community platform that is bringing innovation to some rather important people in America – the contractors who repair and remodel our homes.”

“The No. 1 reason small businesses use technology is to better serve customers, and no one is doing that better than this year’s 10 finalists,” said Frank Muehleman, vice president and general manager of Dell Small and Medium Business.“ Muehleman further stated, “These companies are applying technology in innovative ways to break new ground and raise the bar. We’re proud to recognize their success and help tell their stories.”
Javeline further commented, “Modern contractors are realizing that automation and collaboration are the keys to efficiency, survival, profit and success in growth. MyOnlineToolbox provides the most innovative methods for handling requests, scheduling, estimating, managing jobs and invoicing. MyOnlineToolbox also provides innovative ways to connect to other contractors, homeowners and suppliers – all this just by having access to the Internet. We look forward to thousands joining us, making the community and solution even stronger.”

The full story can be found by visiting www.MyOnlineToolbox.com

Construction companies, contractors, businesses and homeowners can often avoid disputes with proper planning and comprehensive contracts.

You can prevent problems before they occur. Tune in and listen to an industry expert discuss the basics. View this video below:

TheContractorShow is sponsored by MyOnlineToolbox.com
This episode is sponored by: The Law Office of Adrea Goldman

By Joe Crisara - www.ContractorSelling.Com

Words generate images and images translate into actions. So salespeople need to be especially careful to talk in ways that create value, not reduce it. Many words common to sales and selling situations place fearful negative images in a client’s mind. This issue is so important to the art of selling that the experience of hundreds of thousands of salespeople confirms that there are certain words and phrases that must be dropped or changed in the successful salesperson’s lexicon.

The first of these are two of the most common words in any salesman’s vocabulary–sell and sold. Experts suggest that these words remind people of high-pressured sales tactics that turn them off. Client’s can envision the salesman bragging about having just ’sold’ them something. Suggested replacements are three less offensive phrases, helped them acquire, helped them to own and got them involved. These are phrases that suggest a helpful salesperson and a receptive customer who are working together through the same process.

Contract or agreement is another institutional-sounding word that today’s sales professional can do without. These words conjure up the kind of mental image of courts and lawyers. The very places and people you need to get OUT of a contract. Plus anyone who sells for a living has a deep desire to stay as far away from the legal system as they can. Here again there are softer suggestions that create a more pleasant ambiance. Try replacing contract or agreement with a phrase like paperwork.

Another good example are two other harsh-sounding words–cost and price. Try investment or value. It’s not a high price, just a high value investment. The idea as you’ve probably guessed by now, is to verbally package and take the edge off the harsh sounding words or phrases and to soften them up to they’re more palatable for the customer.

Here’s another good example. How many times have you been asked to sign something? Remember the feeling you got in that moment when you had the pen in your hand that was hovering just above the page? It sounded ominous when a salesman asked you to sign on the dotted line, didn’t it? It was as if you were signing something away or giving something up. A better way ties in with the concept of getting the customer involved and helping them to think they’re involved in the process. Ask them in a friendly manner to okay it or okay the paperwork. The term is a lot less formal and draws the prospect into thinking they’re part of the whole sales procedure.

On the front line of good selling techniques, the words you use and how you choose them, can be the difference between sounding like your solutions are generously priced or if you are a rip-off. Choose your words carefully and make your higher investment services create the value that they bring to your customer.

About the author: Joe Crisara is CEO of www.ContractorSelling.com a website that helps sales professionals present their solutions to create high value that result in more income, better service and higher closing rates.

You can go to the site and receive Joe’s FREE SECRET sales tip of the week. Of you can contact Joe by emailing him at joe@contractorselling.com

How many calls have you gone on over the past years? The average sales person has over 800 interactions with potential clients each year. Multiply that number times the amount of years you have been selling, and the figures are daunting. Think about how many times in your years of selling that you have heard that age old objection? You know it so well, “Your price is too high.”

But alas, if people have told you your price is too high during all these years you must have surely heard also from time to time that your price was too LOW right? What’s that you say? You have never heard this? Is it possible that your price IS NEVER too low?

Although, it’s never been said to you, wouldn’t you love to hear it? The truth is your price can never be too high as long as you increase your value of what you are selling to simply match the price. Nothing is too expensive, but you may have made the mistake of not describing or packaging what you are selling so that it is worth the cost.

Do people always go cheap when they purchase things? Thankfully, the answer to that is overwhelmingly NO! This is played out everyday by everyone we know. When you bought a wedding ring for your wife, did you by the cheapest one? How about where you live? It is the cheapest place? How about your last vacation? Was it the least expensive?

Why would one person pay $3,000 for a car and another pay $100,000? After all they are both transportation and will serve the same purpose. However, imagine pulling up in front of your friend with a rusty car that leaks oil in their driveway. For some this blow to the ego would be too great. Our need to “look good” over-rules our need to be frugal.

The problem starts with always trying to make a logical case to allow people to purchase. People buy emotionally not logically. Give them an emotional reason to own the best you have to offer and you will be shocked at how many times your buyer will choose it. Do you know why? Because they deserve it and so do you.

About the author: Joe Crisara is CEO of www.ContractorSelling.com a website that helps sales professionals present their solutions to create high value that result in more income, better service and higher closing rates. You can go to the site and receive Joe’s FREE SECRET sales tip of the week. Of you can contact Joe by emailing him at joe@contractorselling.com

Copyright 2008, ContractorSelling.com - May be reproduced without change, with proper attribution and brief bio. Notice of when and where article is to appear to joe@contractorselling.com

You’ve no doubt heard the term that describes a person that keeps doing the same thing but expects a different result. In sales we are more prone to living out this axiom because we often try to find a “groove” or comfort zone from which to operate.

I will state right her and now than a successful sales person is NEVER really very comfortable. Even when they succeed they keeping looking for ways to improve. Getting the sale is not enough for a real pro. It is equally important that they are on top of their game and ready for anything. And so it goes with objections. How many times do you hear objections that are repetitive?

You know it seems like a broken record. It’s like the top 40 countdown. The hits keep coming. Favorites like, “Your price is too high.” or “We need to get some other prices.” or “I have to ask my spouse.” How many times will you hear the same objections and NOT have an answer for them?

The first step in handling objections is to create an objection log. That’s right. Start creating a list of objections you have heard and keep adding to it. If you can identify that you hit a roadblock at this juncture then you can begin to work on changing your response.

In order to improve your skills and ability to close a sale you must know how to respond to almost every situation that you can think of. Once you have identified the most common objections then start to create at least six responses to each one of them and you will be on your way to true success.

About the author: Joe Crisara is CEO of www.ContractorSelling.com a website that helps sales professionals present their solutions to create high value that result in more income, better service and higher closing rates. You can go to the site and receive Joe’s FREE SECRET sales tip of the week. Of you can contact Joe by emailing him at joe@contractorselling.com

Provided by ContractorSelling.com

The average sales person or tech spends about 60% of their call doing all the talking, 30% of the call being silent and only 10% actually listening to want customers want. See if you can improve your listening skills by following some of the strategies below:

Maintain eye contact with the customer. Stop fiddling with tools, notebooks and work orders and by all means shut up and listen. Eye contact is one of the secrets that keep you focused on the job at hand and keeps the customer involved in the importance of solving problems and in generating solutions.

Focus on content, not delivery. Stop looking around the house for something nice to say about their belongings. Focus on the content of what the customer is saying not the way they look or act. Did you leave the house when the customer said they want to think it over? If so, you weren’t focusing on content. After all, they didn’t say they wanted to think about it without you right?

Avoid emotional involvement. When you are too emotionally involved in listening, you tend to hear what you want to hear–not what is actually being said. Leave your problems at home and at work behind and focus on the situation instead. Also leave your mother in the truck and your beliefs about money and how much someone will spend as well. Don’t profile people or “mind read” them. Try to remain objective and open-minded.

Avoid distractions. Don’t let your “monkey mind” wander by what is playing on TV in the background or be distracted by the customer’s demeanor. Also don’t allow people like your wife, kids or others to interrupt you in the middle of your call. A new phenomenon is the text message and the interruption that this brings. Leave the phone in the truck.

Treat listening as a challenging mental task. Listening to a customer is not a passive act–at least it shouldn’t be. You need to concentrate on what is said so that you can process the information to arrive and the best diagnosis, solution and options that will be a fit for your customer.

Stay active by asking mental questions. Active listening keeps you on your toes. Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you listen. What key point is the customer making? How does this fit with what I know from previous calls I have done? Why is the customer saying this right now? Who else has been to this call and failed? How can I stop from repeating the same mistake?

Use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought. You can think faster than the customer can talk. That’s one reason your mind may tend to wander. All the above suggestions will help you keep your mind occupied and focused on what being said. You can actually begin to anticipate what the customer is going to say. Be careful at that point to keep listening completely as opposed to prejudging what point they are trying to make. Your mind has the capacity to listen, think, write and reflect at the same time, but it does take practice.

One of the things people who get the best results always remember to not reveal problems too soon during the call. In fact they just shut up until they find both the problem and a solution before they talk about any issues their customer may have regarding what is wrong, how lack of maintenance has played a part and how the problem has been neglected.

Many techs and sales people run from problem to problem with the customer like “Chicken Little” telling them basically that the sky is falling and about everything else that is wrong. Basically they are doing free consulting or educating with the customer giving away years and years of knowledge that took many hours to accumulate. Your job is to fix the problem not run a technical class at the customer’s home.

Most customers either get bored or angry when a tech reveals problems too soon in the call. Why? It is because the tech is creating dissonance or trouble in the customers mind about the seriousness of the problem without having a perceived solution. Heavy hitters know that you must never talk about the problem unless you have different options with prices to show the customer first.

The longer the gap in time that goes by after you have talked about the problem and the time that you come up with a solution the less competent you are perceived by a customer to be. Basically you look a lot smarter when you have a solution and a lot dumber when you only talk about problems.

BY ContractorSelling.com

Have you ever wondered why you feel a connection with some customers, while with others there seems to be a wall between you? That’s because we feel a natural chemistry, good or bad, between the individual value system that both the customer and you bring to this call. Our values not only make us behave a certain way, they also determine our body language and our “selling style.” It ultimately influences how compatible we are with others. If our values match we have harmony. If they don’t we feel uneasy with the customer.

Today we have never been more connected then we are with our cell phones, pda’s, laptops, the internet and faxes. We should all be more effective and functional than ever before. However, despite all of these advances, we fail at creating relationships and just being able to communicate with others more than at any time in history. Lost sales are a mirror that reflects this back to you the realization that none of us are as effective at understanding others as we would like to think we are.

For example, what happened the last time a customer said they want to “think it over?” did they ever call you back? How many times did you leave a voice mail or send a fax or email? Did you fool yourself into thinking they just didn’t buy at all? Or were you honest with yourself at least, and realize that they just didn’t buy from you?

Chances are, that you lost the job because of your lacked the ability to see your prospect’s difference from you in how they valued your services and then to also act to do something about it and adjust to become more of what they wanted BEFORE you made your presentation.

In the study of human psychology tells us that we are born and raised with different value systems that are like a template that pulls us different directions. You may value a more aggressive, expressive, passive, or analytical nature. Your customer has one of these same value systems as well. Each system requires a different approach and strategy. If your income is dependent upon your ability to identify your prospect’s buying system and adjust your presentation accordingly, you better do so or you will fall to the level of mediocrity or worse unemployed.

Remember in selling, one size does not fit all. Routine or doing things the same way on every call is your enemy. Have patience, listen and respond to each and every thing the customer is saying or doing. High level selling is customizing your approach and presentation differently for every customer.

Joe Crisara
ContractorSelling.com

Let’s face it the answer to all questions is really a question. What I mean is that somewhere inside the customer already knows the answer to the question they are asking you. They just want to see what you take on it is. Basically they are testing you to see what you know and ho good your are. If you are like me, you prefer to take that kind of test after you have already looked at the answers.

This is a foreign concept to some. For instance, do you always read the directions first before assembling something as simple as a child’s toy? Or do you plough ahead first, get stuck in the middle, scratch your head a few times and then go look through the pile of stuff for the directions? The concept you may be missing is one of LEARNING first before you take action and give your answer.

Questions are the key to good selling. Good questions will get you the right answer before you take the test. Good answers help you sell and sell more. Here are some great questions that you simply must bring with you.

The Who Questions
Find out where they got the information in the first place. When asked about a product, ask who told them about it.

“John it sounds like you did your homework. Who told you about that product?”

Also never assume that the person you are taking to is the decision-maker. Ask who else could influence the sale. Know the who all the players are so you can create a good strategy.

“John, aside from you is there anyone else we need to consult with about this decision?”

The When Question
It’s amazing at how many people forget to ask to question:

“Jim, when are you hoping to go forward with the project?”

“When are you hoping to make the final decision on who you will have do the work?”

These questions help you to create urgency. It show’s that you will not move forward until it is time to do so. Knowing this answer to this helps you to create a presentation strategy as well.

The Why Question
Asking why your client really wants and desires your service helps to assess the net impact of your solution. The first question is always just a surface question while the second and third ones one’s help to clarify the “real net impact” of your service.

“So why have you decided to replace the equipment when you could just repair it?”

“I know it’s getting old, but that doesn’t address why you think replacement is the answer. Besides age, what other reason do you have for purchasing a new one?”

“What if you didn’t replace it and just kept the old one. What would happen then?”

The net impact makes your customer think about the “butterfly or rippling effect” of the problem. It gets them to think further than the conscious and logical reason they buy.

Basically you want them to say, “Yeah, I didn’t really think about how bad this problem has been.” It makes their emotional need to get rid of their pain present front and center.

Suddenly, minor problems are more serious. Or, you may discover that the problem is really not that serious and you could just sell another one of your services that they really need.

So what are the answers to your customers test? The answers are always a Question of course. Use just some of these questions to ask you client before you make your presentation of solutions to your customer. Remember that your presentation is like the final exam for you with your customer. You will find it very easy to take and pass this test when you have the correct answers right in front of you.

Joe Crisara
ContractorSelling.com

One of the reasons that sales has such a bad image in the contracting industry is the vision of the slippery, slicked down, silver tongued devil who beguiles customers and co-workers alike with their seemingly magic “Svengouli” like techniques.

Many, in fact got into the contracting trades just to work and so they would never have to face behaving like that. So as you can imagine, trying to inspire contracting professional to actually enjoy sales in difficult.

Thank goodness that it doesn’t take a slick approach to win over customers. Here are some key to communicating with your customers to inspire them to do business with you.

1. Visualize how you should communicate. Try to practice at least in your mind how each interaction has gone recently and work to visualize a better ending. If you can see in your mind how a professional would do it then you may be on your way to improving.

2. Slow down, be patient and be understood/ if you are not sure if you have communicated properly then “check in” with the customer to see if they understand you correctly.

3. Try to paint pictures with your words. Be more descriptive of what the system does and use less parts talk in your description. In fact try not to mention parts when describing the work that you will do.

4. Be aware of repetitive speech patterns. Record yourself and listen to how you sound in conversation. Although this will be painful, it will help you improve rapidly.

5. When given the chance learn how to speak in front of groups. Again one of the most painful exercises you will ever undertake but when you come out the other end you will be a master communicator.

6. Use Silence as you ally. Many times the best way to communicate is to say nothing or very little. Remember to listen twice and talk once.

7. Learn how to ask questions. When face with a challenging customer interaction use a question to disarm them. Ask for clarification or ask them why they are asking the question. Buy time until you can come up with an intelligent response.

Let’s face it. Communication is the cornerstone of great service and sales results. At the very least think about your skill level of communication and work to improve.

You may communicate your value to those who need your services and in the meantime have more fun and make a few friends.

Joe Crisara
www.contractorselling.com