Sell company not the job

[Avery]

We got a call last week from a company that just purchased a large hotel in our area. They wanted a bid on a one time clean up of the grounds as the previous owner had negelected them somewhat. Well we do not do one time clean ups but have sold numerous year round contracts from this type of call. I meet with the CEO this past Monday to go over what he wants done. Usual stuff...prune/remove dead material/weed/etc... Today I sent him the bid for the clean up. I also included a bid for year round maintenance even though he did not ask for one and did not seem interested in one at the time of our meeting. I pointed out the numerous advantages to having us do his work year round such as the hotel not having to store or maintain equipment, license requirements for pesticides and their storage, liability if one of his per hour summer employees causes and injury or damage to a guests property. I put the package together plus a contract for him to sign and faxed it to his office. My phone rang several minutes later. The CEO said "I had several companies by here this week. You were the one with the uniforms and trucks with logos weren't you?". I said yes I was. He said "Great! When can you start the work? I am faxing the signed yearly contract back to you now." Just thought I would pass this along. Sell yourself and the contracts will take care of themselves.

[cantoo]

Avery, you got it right, ask and yea shall receive..
One important thing when meeting a customer or giving a bid is that the person remember who you are later. You were lucky he remembered your professional manner and looks.
I include pictures of our outfits with all bids and in our advertising, that way they remember who gave which bid. We have the same layout on our cube van as we use in our advertising materials, lots of people know us by sight rather than by name. Keep it consistant.

[RMDoyon]

Congratulations.
The message is always in the marketing.

[Lawn DOG]

Avery,
We must think alike.
Keep up the great job. You are what gives us a good name.

[Avery]

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys! I wish this post would show up whenever someone did a search on how to get started in business. We have never had to use fliers or newpaper ads to get accounts. A simple yellow page ad to get our number out there works just fine. Once you get the call it is pretty easy to sell the job to someone looking for quality service. We actually turn down as much work as we take.