5 Qualifying Questions Every Contractor should ask

5 Qualifying Questions you should ask everyone that contacts you about a new Tile Project

Stop Wasting your Time Meeting with the Wrong People!

Are you handing out bids for free to anyone that calls?

Are you tired of not getting called back once you’ve turned in your estimate? How frustrating is it to simply lose to the next lower bid?

Too many times, contractors are working for free chasing after the next job. Oh, and doing it on their weekends and evenings, too.

This post is going to give you 5 questions to ask your next lead BEFORE you go out to their house and BEFORE you write up an estimate.

Applied correctly, this post will get you your weekends and free time back.

The 5 Qualifying Questions Contractors Should Ask

1. How did you hear about me?
2. What area do you live in?
3. What are you looking to have done?
4. When do they need this project done?
5. Why did you call ME?
6. What is your budget? (more on this below)

Let’s dive a little deeper into each one.

1. How did you hear about me?

This question is the very first question that you should ask and it’s important for two reasons.

One is that you need to find out where people are finding you. Website? Word of mouth? If so, who? Neighborhood group? Google? What did they type into Google?

You need to know what is working for you. For example, if you are thinking of running ads in the future should you run them on Facebook or Google? If no one mentions they saw your website- why not?

The other reason you need to know this is to find out how much work they have put into finding you. More on this in #5.

2. What area do you live in?

If they live too far away then you can save yourself a trip out.

If they are local you might be more inclined to visit them. If they are on the way to a supply trip you are doing later in the week then you can schedule a trip at that time.

3. What are you looking to have done?

This is another question that will generate multiple pieces of useful information.

Firstly, it gets them talking. Just getting them talking will give you clues, subconsciously, as to who it is that you are dealing with.

Secondly, is what they want to do even something that you do?

I had someone call me the other day wanting their shower door hinge tightened up. I passed on the name of a local shower glass installer and saved myself the time of running over there.

Did they start the prep work already? Did they fire another contractor?

Do they repeatedly tell you how incredibly simple the project is and how quickly it will be done? Are they putting their home on the market?

Listen to what they tell you and trust your gut.

4. When do they need this project completed?

Here is another simple question that can save you a boat load of time.

If they need the project done by the end of the month and you are two months out then it simply isn’t going to work out.

5. Why did you call ME?

How much work did they put into finding your name and dialing your number (or sending you an email)?

If all that they did was Google “tile installer near me” and contact the top 3 people that came up then they really aren’t putting very much effort into this process.

It’s not something that they put a high value on.

If they were looking at purchasing a new Corvette then they will probably spend hours researching all the different options, prices, and other data before making this purchase.

You want them to do the same with you.

Did they look at your website? What SPECIFICALLY did they see that made them contact you? They should have an answer to this.

As mentioned in #2, did your name come from a simple Google search or was it a well-qualified referral and they saw the bathroom you did when they visited this person?

You need to find out how much work they put in before calling your number. If they aren’t invested in you then why are you going to invest a disproportionate amount of your time in them?

The Purpose of this Call is to QUALIFY the Prospect

The mindset that you need to have is that they have to earn your time. They have to earn a visit from you. You don’t want to go out there.

This call is to weed out the real prospects from the fakers.

This isn’t the sales call. This is them trying to convince you to invest your time in the next step.

By the way, did you notice that none of the questions were budgeting questions?

Budgeting questions are for the sales call. You should never ask about budget at this stage.

More on this another day.