I still have a clunky old laptop but to your second paragraph...yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,and yes

 

i use both, 17 " laptop on a vehicle mount in cab of van with hotspot and a 10" tablet running windows 8 also w/hotspot

i find the laptop good 80% of my daily use and the tablet worth its weight in gold for estimates, photos, ect

 

Surface Pro 3 is what we are currently looking at to run operations beyond the phones. Reason? Live time connectivity to ALL phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Remote access across the board and the ability to text (coming soon) from the Surface. The list goes on and on but these are the highlights. Basically, it is a modern and powerful mobile desktop that will allow us to run anything our company needs on the go.

You can even leave one device (any) and pick up on another right where you left off on the other.

IMO, Windows has it going on in the near future for business technology and ease of use.

We currently have the Surface and it is not recommended as a mobile command center. Selling it soon, as it is basically worthless to do the hard stuff necessary for business.

Professional Painter

 

I am thinking of using my Ipad to help close sales.
I have had great luck with the following system in closing and now want to see if I can put it on the Ipad.

Here is what I do on a sales call:
I will always ask a new potential customer what 3 things they are looking for in a painter. (Sometimes I might give them some help if they can't think of any.)
There usual answers are:
Price
Quality
Timeliness
Cleanliness
Insurance
Referrals...
You get my idea.

Once they picked 3 I will then speak to them on those 3 topics. I don't talk about insurance or anything else except for what they mentioned.
Example:
I would go over "quality" and talk about how we pride ourselves on quality, describe what that would mean for their particular project and then go onto show them testimonials of past customers that spoke specifically about quality. I would also have some pictures of quality jobs that match once again the type of project they want done. (Don't show them exterior pictures if they want a interior job.)

Next area "Cleanliness" I would explain to them how much time we spend on prep and taping. I sometimes will go quickly on what type of tape I use because I feel it leaves cleaner edges. (I want them to know we know our stuff, but don't spend much time on it, just enough to let them see we are serious about cleanliness.) I would also show them pictures of jobs that we preped with drop cloths...)

Next "refferals" I would have a list of all my referrals. I would high lite ones that had similar jobs and ask them to call them.

Before I give them my price I would ask them if I answered their 3 most important questions to their satisfaction. They always say yes. If for some reason they don't ask them for clarification and readdress. Now ask again.

Finally "Price" I would give them my written price quote and ask for the order.
(I have found a lot of people are afarid to ask for the order, just do it!)

Most times I get the job. We are not the cheapest.
I can tell you on the jobs we didn't get they wanted to hire us but price was their biggest concern. That's ok. You can't get all of the jobs you quote.
If you don't lower your price to try and get the job you will make more money at the end of the year and have more free time to spend with the kids.
I probably close 60% of my estimates and we are usually 10, sometimes 20 percent hire then everyone else. I would rather spend the time perfecting my sales skills them working longer at a lower price.

By the way you can't do any of the following or you will always struggle getting sales.
Show up late for the appointment
Come with work clothes with paint all over you
Have a van that looks unprofessional (Get some graphics on it!)
Not have a business card to hand them.
Thanks them for their time.
Not follow up again and ask for the order.

You get the point. You need to become the total package so that everyone that you give an estimate to wants to you. However some people might not be able to afford your services, that ok. I you got most all the jobs you quote you probably are not estimating high enough.

I am thinking of recreating this so I can do the who presentation on my Ipad. Does anyone have comments.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share what works for me.

 

Thanks Lakewood for posting that, I now know what I'm doing wrong. In general if the potential customer is a lady, I will ask her what she looks like, if it's a man, I will ask him if he has any sisters.

So again, thanks for posting that...

Pat

 

Jeepers creepers. I talk with them about their project.

 

Yeah man I feel like your doing a great job at establishing trust & bonding yourself to the clients but your brand should do the talking about all of that & assume it is rhettorical if they are contacting you for a estimate already. I feel like you would close more doing less, people might get put off more than you think with all the Q&A format up front.
All the best, Jon

 

Lakewood, sorry man, but you keep setting your self up.

I sure hope you don't show your potential customers this picture when you are estimating an interior job.

I saw this picture on your website under photos.

Can you point out any thing that might a little off here?

Pat

 

I thought it was all about the presentation rather then the actual hands on. But if the orange pants is included in the hands on, Lakewood may want to revisit appropriate uniform for trade classification. I'm slightly shocked.

 

Lakewood, sorry man, but you keep setting your self up.

I sure hope you don't show your potential customers this picture when you are estimating an interior job.

I saw this picture on your website under photos.

Can you point out any thing that might a little off here?

Pat

I'm guessing that's a split wall. Maybe the bottom is going blue or something. The little painter guy is using the A ladder in an......interesting fashion, and keeping a wet edge.

Did I miss something?

 

Ok, assuming it's casual Friday and that explains the Orange pants, assuming that the bottom is going a different color, you don't see anything else?

Pat

 

Thanks for picking on me!
It is a new site and have not had time to take photos! I will ASAP.

 

Btw what's wrong with orange pants!!!

 

Nothing if your in prison or something :blink:

Pat

 

BTW Lakewood, just messing with ya. I imagine you will get your site all fixed up soon.

Pat

 

We use quick office with spreadsheets loaded up on the pads to do estimates. Take photos of the project as we measure on the pad. Of course use SwatchDeck to do on the spot color consulting with the potential customer, and email there colors off before we leave. It's all about being different than the company that shows up with a clip board or spiral.


Brad Bolinger
Painting Oregon Inc.
SwatchDeckapp.com

 

Wow. That comment from LakewoodPainting is something I've gotta right-click and save, it's just that good. But I think PatsPainting wins the thread. Getting back to the topics of tablets, if you're going to buy one for business, buy one that has a camera and is easy to read text on, because you'll use it as an e-reader a LOT and you will need to take pictures of jobs etc. I work at Mhelpdesk, which provides software solutions for service techs, shop owners, and painters too, and our most forward-thinking customers use their tablets a lot, so we had to include tablet and phone accessibility in our design. They're doing things like getting work orders signed digitally, getting the customer to pay by clicking the button, that kind of thing. I personally wasn't a believer in tablets but it's like a smartphone: once you get one, you'll wonder how you lived without it. And hey, you can write it off, right?

 

Hi,
Working with Ipad is great experience to me. Tab makes my work very much easier to me. Easy and speedy notes can be taken very easily. Also, it is very handy Device. I love Ipad with my work.