Would You Like Fries With That?

It’s Not a Sin to Ask For More Work Retail and fast food chains sur­vive by get­ting cus­tomers to add more food to their cur­rent request. You know what I’m talk­ing about. You go grab a burg­er and the cashier asks, ​“Would you like fries with that?” You were think­ing just a burg­er and they helped you add fries or a soft drink to your meal. How many times have you said yes to their ques­tion? Hint…most of those chains are doing well today! Con­trac­tors can learn some­thing from these chains. The eas­i­est way to grow one’s busi­ness is by ask­ing for more work from your exist­ing cus­tomers, espe­cial­ly while you are cur­rent­ly work­ing on a project. One of the hard­est things for busi­ness own­ers (and I’ve seen this first-hand while work­ing with my dad) is get­ting employ­ees to sell addi­tion­al work. It is like pulling a tooth that won’t budge. I think there are two ways to make it hap­pen. You Get What You Inspect, Not What You Expect First, my dad always said, ​“You get what you inspect, not what you expect.” You need to con­tin­u­al­ly remind, man­age and fol­low up with your employ­ees. You can’t just tell them to ask for more work. You have to tell them, and then fol­low up until it gets done. I talked to one con­trac­tor who said when he fol­lows up with his employ­ees on how they are doing with seek­ing addi­tion­al work, he can add 10% to this annu­al rev­enue goal. That is with min­i­mal effort on his part. When he gets busy and does­n’t fol­low up, that num­ber drops below 5%. So fol­low-up is step one. Don’t Just Tell Them To — Train, Encour­age, Set Goals Sec­ond is to train and encour­age your employ­ees: make it easy and even fun. You can have con­test if you’d like or just give your employ­ees tan­gi­ble goals. I spoke with my dad about this recent­ly. We fig­ured if every­one could look for $450 a week (each crew leader) it would add 10% to the annu­al rev­enue goal. $450 of extra work is noth­ing in the paint­ing busi­ness. It might be the front fas­cia, an entry door, a small bed­room etc. The tech­ni­cian in the field could have a very high clos­ing rate in sell­ing addi­tion­al work because of the trust he or she has earned with the home­own­er. He has built the rap­port, and it is only nat­ur­al to take a lit­tle ini­tia­tive and ask for more work. Here is how it might sound. The project manager/​crew leader is wrap­ping up a job and men­tions to the own­er, ​“My crew is just about done with your project. Is there any­thing else we can do for you while we are here?” That one ques­tion could open up a world of extra work. Home­own­ers might respond with a sim­ple, ​“Can’t think of any­thing right now.” But oth­ers may say, ​“Hmm, I’m not sure. What do you think? Are there some areas you think need atten­tion?” Or ​“Not that I can think of. Why? Did you have some sug­ges­tions?” The ide­al client will want your crews to make sure their home or prop­er­ty looks great. He or she will be rely­ing on your com­pa­ny’s exper­tise. So encour­age your employ­ees to always ask if there is some­thing more you can do. This is a way of serv­ing your cus­tomers. Many home­own­ers will be glad you asked! Got any oth­er ideas on how to ask for more work? Love to hear about it here, by email or on my face­book page.