You arrived on time and completed your calculations. You worked up a presentation of all the things you’re going to do and items included, going over each item carefully. You’ve just given the customer the price. They look at each other. He says, “Okay. Thanks for the quote. Well get back to you. Of course, we need time to think about it. It looks good. I’ve heard good things about you. So there’s no need to worry. We never make a decision without thinking it over first.”

You probably just lost the sale. Unless, of course, you se-verely underbid the job. Which all of your competitors will try to do, especially if your clients reveal your bid to them? Where did you go wrong? What could you have done to have a better shot at getting the ink on the contract?

Let’s go back to Marketing 101: What makes you better than others in your business? If we made a survey of your past customers, what would they say about you? Your knowledge/skill level? Your Professionalism? Your quality of work? Your creativeness? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you’re losing business and money (by not generating more profit per sale). By taking the time to answer these and other similar questions, you can start improving your presentations, more sales and a better bottom line.

Put it another way: People have no way of knowing how good you are without your telling them. They’re afraid to make a wrong decision. They have made bad decisions. Their friends and relatives and coworkers have made bad decisions and, miracu-lously, they become “experts”. They’ll tell your clients why doing business with you (or any tradesman they select) are just no good because they know better. The world is full of nay-sayers. Your presentation will over-come those objections—if it is well thought out.

So what can you do? As we mentioned above, you need to answer certain questions. Having answered them, you can put that knowledge to work right from the get go. Your are now ready to create your own personal ‘VALUE STORY”. The more valuable you seem, the more people will trust you to do work for them and the more they will pay. It’s just that simple.