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Screening your calls

6K views 59 replies 13 participants last post by  daren 
#1 ·
I have been thinking about this for a couple weeks...

I know for every lead that comes through the phone can have a varying range of questions to be asked and are asked of us. So with that, I would like to get a better grip on my phone call screening process and ask of others here what kinds of questions do you entertain in general?

Some questions I consider after doing my homework of the property:

Primarily Exterior homes:

If the home is older than 1978 I ask:
~ Has the home been resided since 1978?
~ Has any lead abasement ever been done to the home?

Any other thoughts here?

Please do entertain screening calls for Interiors and post your questions to the customer here. Exteriors is relevant to the time of year but soon winter is coming and it would be good to get a fix on this for interiors too.
 
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#38 ·
Plain

Thats why I suggested you take a look at things (costs, production, efficiency, etc). By your own words, you are comparing to what guys were doing years ago...you have to look also at what people can do today with motivation. There was a lot of complacency in years past.

Honestly, if I priced things as if I was going to go out and do them myself alone, I would get no jobs. Kelly is on the rise and motivated. He is cranking out good work, like you and I did 10-15 years ago pretty much alone. Try not to condemn the industry, but maybe adjust your approach.
 
#47 ·
You are right - I reached my limit with lead homes. I no longer take them anymore - not to mention I think enforcements will get stricter with time. I know most guys power wash homes to remove paint - and I think that practice is on it's way out. Sure everyone may pretend they are doing stuff legit on these forums - but I drive by teams breaking every rule in the books. I also think you are coming from the commercial side of things - which I am learning, commercial guys that have a system figured out seem to have a much steadier flow of income and only grab the occasional residential project as gravy money. When you don't incorporate commerical work and have to fight with other low balling teams and clueless homeowners - it's tough. And I have been branching out of this line of work.
 
#48 ·
You are right - I reached my limit with lead homes. I no longer take them anymore - not to mention I think enforcements will get stricter with time. I know most guys power wash homes to remove paint - and I think that practice is on it's way out. Sure everyone may pretend they are doing stuff legit on these forums - but I drive by teams breaking every rule in the books. I also think you are coming from the commercial side of things - which I am learning, commercial guys that have a system figured out seem to have a much steadier flow of income and only grab the occasional residential project as gravy money. When you don't incorporate commerical work and have to fight with other low balling teams and clueless homeowners - it's tough. And I have been branching out of this line of work.
Good for you Plain ...if I can give you any help on the subject shoot me a email....good luck.
 
#49 ·
I kind of feel like plain here (except I do like painting) but we take our sweet time, do things very carefully and methodically (it doesn't seem methodical but when I tally the total hours at the end . . . ) I think my bids are coming in at the higher end of things because we do things this way. I feel like we need to adjust how we are doing things to keep up. Not really sure where to begin though.
 
#50 ·
One thing that saves a lot of time is ladder moves, very important to use your ladders effieciently. When I did new work, I would have ladders lined up all the way around the house, my spray man (me) would never touch the ground, I had one guy his job was to move my ladders, and fill the paint. Sometimes we would have two spray men (got love speed flow) Then the ladder mover would really have a work out.
This was production painting, with a crew of five we could knock out a entire exterior in one day windows and all(usually not the doors), prime caulk everyting, even back brush the primer. You learn a lot from working like that. I remember I used to go to the gym every morning with one of the super's of the development, and the builders got togeather and said I was making to much money and they all needed to get me to cut my price, got to love new work.
 
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