following up on bids.......

[budroe69moni]

i put out 6 different bids last week and i havent had anyone bite yet. they were all super anxious to get me over to their houses to look at their trees but i havent heard word one from any of them. the bids range from 60 bucks up to 350. what's the best way to follow up?????? any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
budroe

 

[seanlarkin]

A polite phone call is an acceptable way to follow up. See if they have any further questions they'd like to ask. If they're putting it off for some reason (probably $), then ask if they'd like you to follow up in 6 months. Just make sure to identify yourself from the start, so they don't go into telemarketer mode. Good luck.
-Sean

 

[DDM]

You could also drive by and see if the work has been done yet.

 

[Toddppm]

I personally never call back after giving a proposal. If I'm near a place I gave one while driving around I'll take a look sometimes. Usually don't have time to call back and they got the info. so I don't feel comfortable calling again. I am curious to see how many of you guys do follow ups though, maybe I'm missing the boat

 

[DDM]

I used to do followups but got the feeling when speaking to them i was bothering them and if they wanted it done BY ME they would have called.
Ive been suprised though that ive had a call 4 months after giving a estimate to begin work when i thought i had lost the bid. so dont get to impatient.

 

[Treeman14]

I always try to follow-up bids with a phone call. If no one was home when I left the bid, I will call later that day or the following day just to make sure they received it and to ask if they have any questions or concerns. If I deliver a bid in person, I'll usually follow up after a few days or sometimes weeks if we're busy. Slow times are when we go through ALL of the old bids to try and drum up some work. This past winter, we offered a discount to customers who hadn't yet done work that we bid on. It kept us going through a slow time. Even the ones who already had the work done by someone else will often give you valuable feedback; "Oh, you're price was way too high", or, "we had to have it done right away and your company had a backlog."

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

When I was selling my work I always followed up on the bids I made. I had some high dollar jobs that took me months to finaly contact the client, only to have them say "Oh I've been wanting to talk to you forever! But I've never had the time!" One lady it took me over a year to get a hold of, but I closed a $1400, one day job. Think we got her on the annual shurb program too.

If you do not talk to them you have no way to sell yourself. Gotta explain your apples to the other guys lemons. A buddy I do a lot of work for had a recent sale where he was the high bidder, he called back, she asked "Why are you so much more?" "Quality work ma'am. I climb to the tips and thin the whole tree. Many cheeper companines will just trim out the inside of the tree, I work in the whole tree and do it...."

You get to read a persons attitude towards you. Do they want know what is being done? If you have a map and good feild notes you can talk about the specific plants and what they are doing, this is especialy usefull if you inventory the property and gave an itemized price more then they asked for a number of plants on the property, this that and the ther thing for x, y, and Z... or W if we did it all at once.

If you can increase your average job price by say $50 what would it do for you bottom line? or 150?

 

[Frans]

calling back bids

Great advice John Paul,
calling back to check up is normal business. If you are a responsible service you are concerned that the home owners project gets done to their satisfaction. Even to the point of providing referrals to other projects. So following up on a bid you submitted is just part of good business. The problem comes when they the home owner plays around and is not clear to you.
Even so you still must be responsible to your work and efforts and follow up.
Remember you are the bench mark. Your business sets the standard for excellance, responsible service provider, etc.etc. Every customer is important. The trees you work on will be around for years and yearrs to come.
It is the other guy who may not follow up or comes in with the low bid (the kind of bid that is so low they must be dumping by the side of the road or on a empty lot).
Frans

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

leave the wood in the yard with a spray painted sign "Free Firewood!". Geez at least move it to the curb and stack neatly. (Unless that is the negotiated bid! "I'll work with you MR Smith, but for me to come down means you take up some of the work.)