Everything has a cost. You may be able to fix the issue, but the homeowner may not be able to or simply may not want to pay the price required to complete the task. The person requesting your assistance has to have buy-in. If they don’t want to pay the cost, the job can’t get done.
A huge part of any sales process is educating and setting expectations for the homeowner. They have a picture of the end result in their head and you have one in yours. As the expert in hole patching, you must realign their expectations based on your professional experience. The stories in both of your heads must be in sync and it’s your responsibility to make sure that happens. The homeowner is buying-in to the narrative you put out there because they honestly don’t know any better than what you tell them. Set the wrong storyline and the odds of success diminish significantly; because perception is reality. If the perception is that you didn’t fulfill the narrative, it won’t matter how good a job you did, it will fall short.
An estimate is not as much a cost assessment as it is a value proposition. You are asking of something of value from them, be it time or money, and are offering something in return for their investment. The question they are asking themselves is, “Is what they are offering me more valuable than what I am giving up?” How they answer this question determines their commitment level. At this point, the homeowner has decided there’s a problem, decided to fix it, and allowed you into their “personal space” to listen about what they hope to see done. What they haven’t done is committed to the process. There is some salesmanship that goes into this, but you aren’t pressuring the sale - you’re informing the buy. Your goal is to give the person requesting assistance the information they need to make an educated decision. They need to commit, not have their arm twisted into submission.
If you want to make the sale, you must ask for it. You are there for a specific purpose. There’s no sense in beating around the bush. Do they want your help or not? If your offer is going to be rejected, you want to get that done as early in the process as possible. Keep in mind, a rejection of your offer is not a rejection of you, it’s simply them being honest with themselves that they aren’t ready to pay what it’s going to cost to fix the issue. There are all kinds of people out there who desperately need your help and, if this person is going to reject your offer to help them, you need to find that out as quickly as possible. Nothing is worse than spending an inordinate amount of time trying to earn the opportunity to serve them only to have them say no in the end. That was time you could have been serving someone who was ready to receive your help.
Another thing to keep in mind is, if you get an objection, the homeowner is not trying to get you to go away. What they are saying is, “I want you to help me, but I need you to first help me get past this [insert objection] before I’m willing to commit to the process.” Objections are good things. They are literally telling you, giving you a road map, for how to earn the opportunity to serve them. Be thankful when they start pushing back. Some folks are going to be extra apprehensive of moving forward with addressing the issues, so be gracious. But remember, the goal is to get a yes or a no.
Now, if you ask for the business and they don’t give you an immediate rejection or objection, it’s time to move on to Step #5 - Shut Up…