I deserve to lose!

Marketing
1

I lost a post construction bid for $979.00.

The worst part…

I got what I deserved.

I went to the house totally unprepared that this place would be a gigantic lake home owned by a multi-millionaire businessman from Chicago. I brought no sales material except a business card that I just happened to have and I forgot to bring my camera. I wasn’t dressed professionally, wearing jeans and a company t-shirt and sneakers. My Jeep was filthy and looked like a cash for clunkers reject next to his Lexus. I gave the homeowner a hand written quote instead of suggesting that I email it to him later. I failed to take control of the sales call so I never asked him any of the important questions. All I had to offer was a stupid sounding “uhhh, you can check out our website to learn more about us.” Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I knew he was getting another bid the next day from the friend of one of the sub-contractors who came in $275 less than me. Honestly, I don’t blame the homeowner, since I did NOTHING to distinguish myself and we were both “average joe” window cleaners, then why not save some dough?

Bye thousand dollars :frowning: I sure will miss you… and all your friends that I would have collected in the coming years.

//youtu.be/you get nothing - YouTube

Thanks for letting me vent. I’m going to go take a nap in my trash dumpster now.

2

Ease up on your self a little. The good thing is, that you will be better prepared for the next opportunity. It can be a challenge to be on your A game 100% of the time. I can remember a couple of times leaving a meeting with a customer and driving home in my truck and asking myself just what the heck were you thinking!
P.S. Wash the Jeep!:smiley:

3

Ehh. Don’t loose too much sleep over it. Like George said, I’m sure you’ll be better prepared for the next one.

4

Cheer up bud…you win some you lose some. You’ll be better prepared the next time, and maybe it will be a $2000 job! Think positive!

5

I was thinking more of Cheer up Charlie…:smiley:

//youtu.be/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95P1P6t9dAw

sounds like you learned from this one. I’ve done it before…

6

It’s a process bud. Beat yourself up, vent about it, learn from it, then apply that to your always growing approach to delivering consistent quality. :cool:

7

I feel your pain, thx for sharing :slight_smile:

8

I have a Jeep.

9

Quit now why you still can! Just kidding. Well really it wouldn’t have been $1000 as you would have to deduct the $275, why would you want to work for $275 less? So really you came out ahead, instead of having a client who wont pay you what you want to make per job or hour, you still have a open slot for a client that will pay you what you want!

10

Think of it this way. You actually realize that your sales call was blown. For most window cleaners that’s their sales call, and price is the only differentiating factor.

11

that’s an interesting point Mike. Cause Steve could have just chalked this up at being beaten by the low-baller. Instead he has chose to look at his approach. That’s something few window cleaners look at, and something I’m quite sure he will be more than equipped in the future.

12

DUDE!!!
Whats up with the singing?:stuck_out_tongue:

13

I know that money would be nice, but it is what it is.

Anytime a job goes to the lowest bidder, I walk. Rich
guy does not mean he is not a cheap on certain things.

I am not saying the cheaper guy sucks either. He might
do a great job.

Yesterday is over Steve, what are you doing today?

go get some, that’s what :smiley:

14

I just remembered something that happened to me when I started
out. I was called to give billionaire Tom Petters a bid on his estate. I
was shocked to have them be concerned about the quote.

They actually told me the other quote they got. No doubt for me
to beat it.

I worked out of a car at that time. Had a t-shirt with logo and gave
them nothing in writing. I left to go “crunch some numbers” and called
them 30 minutes later and got the job.

I happily beat out the other guy knowing that getting this fish on my
bragging list would be worth thousands.

Sadly back then I was not very astute at marketing and did not play
it up as well as I could have.

The point to the story? Lowest price won

15

Don’t beat yourself up too bad. It happens to everyone at some point. I’ve walked away from meetings thinking, “What the hell just happened in there?” a few times. Just learn from it and go forward from here. Nobody is perfect and you can always slip away from your A game sometimes.

16

And you’re right to say that lowest price may have only won because you gave them nothing else to make a decision on.

People often buy based on price (even if they are NOT price shoppers) if that is the only differentiation.

You correctly identified that as a possible huge part of the problem. If you had used all your marketing strategy, tools, etc, there is a chance you could have landed them, at YOUR price point, for a few hundred bucks more than they paid the other guys.

Great point, Steve.

17

Hey guys, thanks for the encouragement. Yesterday I wanted to drive off a cliff, but yesterday is ancient history and this guy is dead to me. However I am trying to learn from this very painful mistake. Painful because I never should have made it to begin with. I have a background in sales and sales training. I was a corporate business consultant in my previous life for crying out loud.

I am just disgusted with myself for allowing this to happen because I believe that if I had presented myself professionally and distinguished myself as the consummate professional I would have overcome the price gap. Heck, I’ve done more to wow customers in the $200 range than I did for this prospect.

Secondly this hurts because it is a brand new huge lakeside sub division that I didn’t even know was being developed and now I have a competitor with a foothold, not smart.

So, I purchased a portable file box that I’m filling with marketing material and my camera, setting up a mobile printer, washing my jeep and keeping a fresh change of clothes in it. This WONT happen again, I assure you.

18

I like that!

19

If you are ever stuck in the future, too, without clean clothes (for some reason) or your marketing stuff (for some reason), you could try this approach:

“Bill, that sounds great, I’d be happy to come and prepare an estimate for you asap. You’re probably looking to get this as soon as possible, right?”

(he’ll say yes)

“Okay, because right now, as I speak, I’m just wrapping up a huge job across town, and I’m pretty filthy…I feel like I haven’t stopped working for 3 weeks straight!”

OR “I’m actually not working today, I’ve just been running around”

(he’ll laugh or say “okay” or something)

“But if this is something you need right away, I’ll come straight over, as long as you don’t mind me being a bit raggedy looking…”

(he’ll express appreciation, thank you repeatedly, and be expecting you to look pretty rough when you arrive)

If you can combine that with at least a quick rinse of the vehicle, you should be good to go.

If you want, you could even apologize for your appearance the moment you meet, and HE will excuse it away for you, and thank you again for coming with such short notice. Talk about defusing a potential problem!

I’ve used this approach many times and showed up in torn jeans, weird t-shirts, and the like, with good results.

The impression you leave them with is that you are a committed professional who is responsive to their needs.

Try it, it’ll work. Even with the guys that live in the big houses by the lake.

[SIZE=“1”]The secret reason they will like it: They are the same way.[/SIZE]