Selling Local Services

[SirLouen]

I've been discussing this topic with one of my colleagues and we cannot get to a consensus on this topic

For those who sell local services, project based local services specially that need a series of specifications by the clients to get to a budget, many people contact via GMB chat or Social Media and they ask for price straight.

For example: I need a custom wood house for my dog. How much does it cost?.

How may you approach this?

Personally, I always suggest going asking to have a phone call to comment on the specific requirements for the project (how is the wood house, the quality of the wood, the approximate size needed, the size of the dog, whatever) and I prefer to keep in phone-exclusive information

My colleague thinks that nowadays, millennials (not even gen-z) prefer to get all the info via chat. I'm very hesitant for Local Services to have a full conversation and give prices via chat, for two reasons

1. You cannot take the pulse of the client. You cannot know if he is just screening you or he is willing to buy. Inside those screeners, I find that the competence is very pesky and might try to also easily screen you via the obscurity of the chats.
2. I find that via chat, the commitment is virtually 0. When a call is processed, the probabilities of increasing the sale go from 5% to 50% (considering is not a cold call)

But my colleague thinks that by asking for phone contacts, he is losing a ton of people that prefer not to call or be called, that millennials like to keep it chat 100% or almost 100% that they feel so pressured up when they call that they prefer to postpone the anxiety of calling and closing the deal to the very last second when they are 100% decided.

What is your opinion? Probably, the experience is entirely unique in different cultures. I'm talking mostly from a European Union country. Most likely, in India or Colombia, things are 500% different. Maybe in the United States, Canada or UK is somewhat similar with little nuances.

 

[INCC]

I don't sell any local services but I have contacted different businesses via chat or email and once they insist on getting on a call then I basically rage quit immediately.

Personally, this pisses me so off. Just give me the price, not a run-around.

If they need to collect my email for a pricing sheet, that's fine, but getting on a call is something that I am not willing to do for a damn quote. This is just so inconvenient and uncomfortable.

 

[tazarbm]

2. I find that via chat, the commitment is virtually 0

and that's why I will agree with your colleague. If I contact you via chat it means that I'm not comfortable talking on the phone and I don't give a shit about you talking my pulse or whatever other idiocy. If I contact you via chat / email and you ask for my phone number I instantly find another seller, I do the project myself, or I lose interest in the project altogether.

No offense intended towards you, don't worry! I just imagined that you're one of those companies that I don't like

When a call is processed, the probabilities of increasing the sale go from 5% to 50% (considering is not a cold call)

from your point of view, sure! You are spot on with everything you're describing, but if most customers nowadays are like me you're screwed

But my colleague thinks that by asking for phone contacts, he is losing a ton of people that prefer not to call or be called

this colleague of yours... I already like him / her without even knowing them

 

[Salamouna]

You can't avoid competitor from spying on what you do
but in general it's always better so ask the clients if you want to get details here or just put your number and we call you and explain everything
also in case like that giving the client too much details won't help and just let him frustrated
as someone want that for his dog he don't have much knowledge about type of woods and idk what

so just give him 3 option
1 basic house that will cost you x
2 premuim that will cost you .....

and when client will ask about the difference than you can mention that 2 is better than 1 in type of wood
and 2 is better than 3
but if the client have specific budget he will select the one that he need

 

[SirLouen]

I think you are not understanding the question.

I'm not asking for users as individual customers, but for local retailers (or marketing players that work with local retails and are researching on this topic). It's true that some people do some market research asking the potential customers, but this is not the case.

If they need to collect my email for a pricing sheet, that's fine, but getting on a call is something that I am not willing to do for a damn quote. This is just so inconvenient and uncomfortable.

This has always amazed me because some services are the other way around: contact them via chat or email and they will 100% ignore you
Contact them via phone, and you may get barely their attention

And then a ton of millennials think: fuck them: the real problem is that they are the real deal. The ones that give you all via chat, are going to provide shit like 90% of the times.

Still, this kind of service has good demand and low offer, so I assume that top pros can have this advantage.

For the rest of services that are the purpose of this thread, could be around what you mention.

from your point of view, sure! You are spot on with everything you're describing, but if most customers nowadays are like me you're screwed

Yep, this is the thing, many clients nowadays seem to have steered towards this (from my perspective, wrongly, because it's a very lazy position that some vendors take advantage from just sticking to low prices and extremely low quality)

Still, I don't see how a client with your mindset may be convertible, and this is what I'm asking here. How would you be satisfied with a message? First information must be retrieved for budget, may the service provider ask you all the questions via chat? Isn't having to write this a massive inconvenience? It's not just like asking for the price of a branded dog house that you have seen on the site.

It's a very customized wood dog house with two bedrooms and one toilet on cedar and floor on marble worth $1560. Would you be comfortable discussing all these details via chat?

so just give him 3 option
1 basic house that will cost you x
2 premuim that will cost you .....

Excellent idea. I'm thinking of the classic 3-option CPA price table. The cheap shit, the overpriced shit, and the medium popular right priced option that you intend the person to purchase. Still have not figured out yet how to put this on a chat and do not look to saley

You can't avoid competitor from spying on what you do

Yep, I understand. But I've found that sometimes you can spot an honeypot, still things are changing very rapidly online with new gens.

 

[tazarbm]

Yep, this is the thing, many clients nowadays seem to have steered towards this

good! I like this heading...

(from my perspective, wrongly, because it's a very lazy position that some vendors take advantage from just sticking to low prices and extremely low quality)

so, it's us, the customers that will suffer then. Good, again! If we are stupid we must suffer, but if we are right we will change the world to behave the way we want. I see absolutely nothing wrong here

Still, I don't see how a client with your mindset may be convertible, and this is what I'm asking here.

you don't see because you don't think like us, but at the end of the day, we are still people and we have needs, just like you. It's just that we prefer not to talk to others but instead get what we want in any other way. Even if you don't / can't understand it's no problem, as long as you deliver what we ask for in the way we want everyone's happy: you get our money and we get your product without feeling spied on or coerced into buying

How would you be satisfied with a message?

because I'm introvert and non-social, I don't like interacting with people and being dragged into meaningless discussions. If I ask for a quote it means that I want to hear the damn quote from you and nothing else, if I'll ever need to discuss any details with you - and you'll probably struggle believing this, but it's true - I will pick up the phone and call you.... after days of mental preparations first, of course

But in order for me to pick up the phone and call you, you will have to win my trust and by trying shady sale tactics on me in order to get me in the mindset that you need me to be so you can sell more garbage to me than I'm interested in you're going to achieve anything but winning my trust. We are introverts, non-social, lazy or whatever you want to call us, yes. We know this. But we're not stupid (which is something that most social, extrovert people seem to fail to understand about introverts) and we smell bullshit from miles away

A bit unrelated, I know (and I apologize in advance if you don't find any value in this clip) but it could help you understand introverts a little better, which might help you customize your future sale pitches specifically for my type of customer:

First information must be retrieved for budget, may the service provider ask you all the questions via chat?

ideally, yes. The less interaction between me and a company the better for me

Isn't having to write this a massive inconvenience?

for an introvert / non-social guy direct, face to face interaction, or even over the phone interaction is WAY worse than having to write / type words... and I don't like writing, so go figure how much worse it will be for me to have to see the bullshit in your gaze as I know beforehand that you're looking at me like your next big sale instead of a person. Nah, I'd write entire novels if I had to instead of having a marketer / salesman try to convince me to buy the elixir of Gods

It's not just like asking for the price of a branded dog house that you have seen on the site.

we don't care, man! If I ask you for something and - for whichever reason - you don't give us what we want you can go to hell with all of your mind games and salesman training tricks. We CAN smell bullshit in people, we just don't let you know about it because we are too nice, too introvert to feel confident exposing our thoughts, or both. But we easily smell the bullshit in people....

It's a very customized wood dog house with two bedrooms and one toilet on cedar and floor on marble worth $1560. Would you be comfortable discussing all these details via chat?

not only would I be comfortable, but I would LOVE to discuss them via chat / email or even old fashioned mail. Just as long as we don't have to look into each other's eyes so we can see the predator in you. Anything is better for an introvert than socializing

 

[SirLouen]

good! I like this heading...

I was going to write you a massive wall of text, but it doesn't make any sense. Neither you and me are going to change the world in this regard, so it's completely irrelevant what I have to say about all that. Watched half of what hat guy says on the video, and I found so many incongruities, that I prefer not to talk about this anymore.

I am simply searching for ideas like the @Salamouna gave. If the phone is not always an option, the best ideas to deal with this. Or some ideas on how to bring most people into the phone. I accept missing a 50% of the contacts.

This is all I need.

 

[tazarbm]

Watched half of what hat guy says on the video, and I found so many incongruities, that I prefer not to talk about this anymore.

because you're part of the other type of people (which is fine, really)

I am simply searching for ideas like the @Salamouna gave. If the phone is not always an option, the best ideas to deal with this. Or some ideas on how to bring most people into the phone.

I honestly don't know how to say this without referencing that clip again, but - since you've not watched it till the end - I'll just mention the part that's relevant to your problem and which you probably didn't get the chance to listen to: the current world is built for extroverts, and that's not how it should be because there are different types of personalities and each type should be approached differently.

In this time and age when people get offended by anything and are oversensitive to anything you need - more than ever - to pay attention to what triggers them. If you don't... well, then you're going to miss roughly 50% of the customers (which - again - is Ok since you've said that you're ok with it)

But anyway, to try and answer your question... you could say something like "Hey, thanks for your interest in our product / service. Here's the quote you've asked for [insert your quote here], but please know that this is a general-purpose quote that might or might not fit your situation. We have prices that are more tailored to specific needs, and if you're interested in hearing more about these we would love to hear from you. Personally, we would prefer a phone talk, but if that's not possible for you feel free to send us an email with your specifics and we will get back to you with a quote tailored to your needs ASAP".

I can't say how many customers with my mindset you will land with this type of reply, but I can guarantee that some of them will contact you, they might even call you on the phone because you've put the power into their hands and you let them choose the most comfortable (for them) way of reaching out to you to discuss the details. I still think that you're not going to see a massively successful phone campaign, but you said that you're comfortable with missing 50% of the customers, so anything that you can land with this type of response is probably a win for you

 

[SirLouen]

because you're part of the other type of people (which is fine, really)

In fact, you are being so judgmental without even knowing me a bit. It is the other way around, I'm actually so introvert, that even having a convo through this text long threads could exhaust me. The thing is that I do not advocate for this because I find it a pure weakness not something to be proud of, like you feel.

Personally, I think that many people like the one in the video confuse being introversion with egocentrism. Some guys, like that person, don't like chitchatting because they are not the center of attention and they call it "introversion". But at the same time they live with "extroverted" wives suspiciously that they might be consuming their full energy just before leaving their house, if that was the case: a massive act of bullshiting to suggest: Don't tell me your life, I'm an egomaniac.

But as I say, I would rather not keep on going because this is completely off-topic and every element I will rise is going more off-topic.

 

[tazarbm]

In fact, you are being so judgmental without even knowing me a bit. It is the other way around, I'm actually so introvert, that even having a convo through this text long threads could exhaust me. The thing is that I do not advocate for this because I find it a pure weakness not something to be proud of, like you feel.

Personally, I think that many people like the one in the video confuse being introversion with egocentrism. Some guys, like that person, don't like chitchatting because they are not the center of attention and they call it "introversion". But at the same time they live with "extroverted" wives suspiciously that they might be consuming their full energy just before leaving their house, if that was the case: a massive act of bullshiting to suggest: Don't tell me your life, I'm an egomaniac.

But as I say, I would rather not keep on going because this is completely off-topic and every element I will rise is going more off-topic.

I wholeheartedly but respectfully disagree with everything you've said, but since you have no interest in continuing this discussion I'll quit discussing it.

Good luck with your little problem, and sorry if my answers didn't help. Cheers, mate!

 

[Ntseglon]

These days you have to be able to accommodate old skoolers and Gen X