Show Off Your Most Dramatic Work Results
Build trust fast with a photo album for sales. Show real before-and-afters, clean trucks, and pro crews to boost confidence and increase job approvals.
KickStart: It’s true: A picture really is worth 1,000 words! Photos of your company and completed jobs will “kick start” (sorry) your in-home sales! Read on for the why and how…
When it comes to face-to-face selling our residential services to homeowners, my (and your) biggest challenge is simple… and yet so complex. Here’s the deal…🫣
Unlike buying a new pair of jeans, a new car, or even a new puppy🐶, homeowners can’t see, touch, “try on” and/or test our service(s) before they give us the go-ahead to work on their home.😦
Sure, my sales reps could talk all day about how great the client’s home would look or how fresh it would feel, but all the prospect would hear was, “blah-blah-blah”! 🙄
💡 Folks, when selling your residential services, “talk really is cheap” and a serious turn-off for most homeowners. So how did I not only survive but create a thriving residential services business that let me retire at age 38?
What would actually build my credibility and, more importantly, win a suspicious homeowner’s trust? After a lot of internal agony and mental brainstorming, I had an epiphany! 🌄
We started showing our prospect photos and/or videos of local, real jobs that we had successfully completed! BRILLIANT! 👍👍
ProTIP: “Before and after” photos of the property and/or job are powerful!
These photos of our work built homeowner confidence in us —a simple, visual strategy that worked BEFORE we would quote a price or try to close the sale.
Here’s the step-by-step system I built—and yes, you can stea… I mean, “borrow” this stuff from me TODAY:
Pre-orient the client. During the initial booking call, our CSR’s would explain that our techs document the job with periodic “progress photos” or even short videos. We told the homeowner that we’ll email them copies at the end of the job. (A great excuse to get their email!)
ProTIP: If the client won’t be home during the work, ask if they would like us to send these photos to them in “real time” so they can see our progress on the job. (Clients LOVE being involved like this.)Take “progress photos”. All techs carried company cell phones with quality cameras. We suggested a photo or two of set-up and then periodic “before and after contrast” shots during the work. (Bonus points for including our logo in the photo!)
NOTE: Avoid “customer identifying items” such as mailboxes, house numbers, or even clients’ license plates in your photos.Crew chief takes a quick selfie video at the end of the job. This is even better if you get the entire crew yelling out, “Thanks, Mrs. Smith! We appreciate your business!” Best practice is to take the video in front of the completed work. Keep it short and sweet.
ProTIP: If the client isn’t home during the job, the crew chief should send it to the customer.
Send photos to the office at the end of each job. (Multi-day work gets sent daily.) Most CRM’s offer an easy way to attach work photos.
Office staff reviews photos. Review for quality and delete ones that don’t make the grade. Make sure there are no “customer identifying marks” (See NOTE in #2) and crop/ edit if needed.
Office attaches the photos to the emailed Job Quality Survey. Include a brief statement explaining that their job came out so well, we’d like to show other clients the results. If they agree, please check the box! (Most do!)
NOTE: To sweeten the pot, some of my clients offer a $25.00 gift card to clients that give permission that they can use on the next service or give to a friend.
These on-the-job photos give you and your salespeople a HUGE “closing the sale” resource. Here’s how to use it!
ProTIP: These visual aids were even more effective if they were in the homeowner’s neighborhood! So, give your sales team a library of photos geo-tagged to search nearby clients before the pre-inspection.
A. Each salesperson has a dedicated client tablet. (Cleaned and sealed in a bag between homes.) Your salesperson should have already made up a “mini-album” for the homeowner with photos of the same work being done for other clients.
B. Turn it on and hand it to the prospect. We would usually wait till we needed to measure the job or when working up the quote. “Mrs. Jones, while I’m finishing up you might want to review other nearby homes that we’ve done the same work that you just showed me. Just swipe the screen to the left…”
C. Homeowners flip through real-life examples. Remember, these photos are of local people just like them. Some of them are probably their neighbors! Guess what? Your prospects’ guard will drop. They’ll ask better questions. They’ll trust you! And they will say “YES” a whole lot more!😁
NOTE: In a future KickStart, I’ll share how to “double dip” from all these wonderful photos you are banking away!
Now, don’t you have some techs to train on taking photos? Let’s “git ‘er done”!
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