Many remodeling companies are trying to qualify their prospects by charging their customers for bids? It is a trend I see increasing, but one that may be done for the wrong reasons.

I never liked the word “bid,” to start with. What is a bid? I offer detailed proposals for your home investment and if you are looking for a “bid,” my professional remodeling company may not be the right fit for you. A Bid? Is this when a homeowner wants you to join a long list of competitors and just line up and deliver your best price and they chose the one they want based on price?

If you cannot separate yourself from your competition, your customers will do it for you. And how will they do that? By price, thats how. A good friend of mine, John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, always said, “If you compete on price, someone else is always willing to go out of business before you are.” Thats what bidding does, gets in a price competition and not where you want to be. How is Charging for estimating a Remodeling Project going to resolve this?

On one hand, I can see that charging for estimates may eliminate a non-serious customer for engaging in a meeting with you and save you time. If you are estimating lower priced projects and contend with many inquiries, maybe it would help. In can see certain times it would. BUT, I see a larger underlying dilemma here.

• Are you attracting the right client?
• Do you look like every other contractor in your market?
• Are you unique?

I hear this said time and time again, “ One contractor looks just like another, right?” If you look like everyone else, you are competing on price. If you compete on price, you cannot be very profitable.

Fix the problem instead with an Effective marketing, effective systems and an effective sales process. This is how you build consistency and repeat success. The right system and the right process for marketing and Sales is more important. Ask yourself this question; If I charge for an estimate and am still weak sales person, will, all the sudden, everything be better!

The idea is to fix the problem, not disguise it with a charge. You still have to know how to qualify a lead, attract the right leads and be able to sell them. THAT is what makes winners. What if you charge for an estimate and don’t have your act together. Then you are in double trouble. Qualify leads are a bi-product of marketing properly, operating your business properly inorder to attract better customers. Ideal clients are the result of having a great marketing system and a solid business foundation.

Getting Ideal clients is not an issue for business that focus on their foundation in building their business. I see the difference everyday working with many remodelers nationwide.

Do you think successful businesses are successful because they charge for leads? If that was the case, everyone who ever charged for leads would ALWAYS be in business, right?

I, personally, never charged for a estimate. 15 years in business and 10 years above 10 million in revenue and never asked anyone to pay for an estimate! Never! The whole idea is too attract the right customers. Build an image, market yourself right, brand yourself right, develop your systems and business processes correctly.

I work with many contractors every year and the successful ones attract the right customers because of who they ARE, not what they charge for a bid. They automatically GET THE RIGHT CUSTOMERS, because of who they ARE! THAT IS SUCCESS!

I built an image and a professional business. I struggled for years before I made a good profit. I banged my head against the wall day and night 365 days a year. I remember 4 years into my business I went to the grocery store with my wife for the first time. She said,” OMG, you out doing something family related.” That was my first and only needed wake up call. My life changed from that point forward.

Do you think if I just charged for an estimate that my life would have changed?

NO! I still had to attract the right customer and it all clicked when I became a “professional ” business with the right marketing process, the right sales process, the right production process, the right customer service process. I became a student of the game. I educated myself on how to be a great business person. I surrounded myself with good people. The day you become a good business man, thats the day you build a good business