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WANT TO TURN MORE PHONE CALLS INTO INSPECTIONS? THEN LISTEN IN AS WE SHOW YOU HOW TO INCREASE YOUR CLOSE RATE!

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CHAPTER MARKERS

0:00
Increasing Close Rates in Home Inspections
8:59
Effective Communication in Home Inspections
14:30
Enhancing Client Engagement and Communication
24:54
Improving Close Rates Through Communication

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk, IT crowd. Today we have a podcast that is done by request, so actually, one of our guests on the show requested this, and we’ve kind of touched on it a little bit, how to increase our close rate. Because, you know, a lot of us, we’re not hiring out to answer our phones, or some of us, you know, maybe we’re listening in, and we work for a larger inspection firm, and we want to increase our close rate when people call us for an inspection. That’s where the rubber hits the road, right? Somebody calls us, whoa, it’s game time, and we have to be able to close this sale, so to speak.

So I was always very proud of my close rate. So when I was answering the phones for my companies, it was, it just came naturally. It became a lot of work, and then I basically gave it to other people, but they copied what I did, and you know what, it works out so, so if we want to farm this out to a call center, a reputable one, or we want to hire somebody, take these same principles and apply them, because they work currently, really, really well, we have a very high close rate. So I’m going to go over a few points, and I’m going to put these in a list so that those of you who take notes, take notes, those of you who are just driving in a truck, try to remember a couple of points, but hopefully some of these help.

So first of all, the first way to have a good close rate is to be responsive. One of the times that you’ll figure out that you need to hire someone is when you start losing work because you’re working. So your week is so busy that you’re doing inspections all day, so you miss five phone calls because you’re in a crawl space, or you’re calling somebody from a truck while you’re ordering McDonald’s, and all of a sudden your next week isn’t as busy. And then you’re wondering why. It’s because the first ring is the most important ring. If we can answer the first ring, we have a way better chance of getting that inspection. Increasing close rates are basically taking advantage of fractions, percentages, if we have a 5% chance of closing that inspection because we answered on the first ring, cool, but now we start adding up all these little things, and all of a sudden you have a 95% close rate. So take that into consideration as we go through these. But answering quickly is extremely important. I know for myself, I’ve had times where I’ve called places, and they don’t answer, and something clicks in the back of my head like this is the service that I’m going to get in general. They seem hurried. You know, my brain’s making all these assumptions, and I just don’t call them back. I found that, I don’t have a hard number on this, but the vast majority of the inspections that called and they didn’t answer the first few rings, our closed rate would drop considerably, and if we weren’t able to get to them, and they had to leave a message, half the time, they wouldn’t leave a message, and then the other half of the time, we tried to call and they’d already found someone else. So first ring, if possible, and then just answer the phone. Don’t let it go to voicemail. If you’ve ever noticed that, unless it’s like an agent who really wants you, or the clients already decided they want you, they’re calling around, we’ve probably lost them if they’ve had to go to voicemail.

Second point, Dale Carnegie wrote the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. I tell you, that book, I reference it all the time, and it still matters so much in business. If we haven’t read it, we should. It’s in pop culture jokes and stuff like that all the time, but it’s true information. It’s really good stuff. But he said, a person’s name is to that person the sweetest, most important sound in any language. So what does that mean for us when we’re answering the phone? The first thing we should probably find out is their name and then use it consistently. So let’s say Sean calls me. Hey, this is Ian from such and such inspection company. How can I help you today? Hey, I’m looking for a home inspection. Okay. Can I get your name? Sean. Okay, Sean, tell me what you’re looking for. I’m looking for a home inspection. All right, I get that. So what kind of house is this, Sean, and without being weird about it, like dropping his name 30 times, work it in in little ways like that. So, oh yeah, I get you Sean, and as we do that, we build a subconscious rapport with them. It’s uncanny how it works. It works on me. I pride myself in being a very good salesman, not the used car type, but the one that will only sell things that he really believes in. But I know as much about that stuff as anybody else does. And when somebody uses it on me and they use my name, my guard goes right down, even this works, especially too, when there’s, somebody calls back with an issue, I love to use their name because it really just takes a lot of the tension out of the air. And when somebody’s calling looking for something like, oh, I remember Ian, all of a sudden they remember your name because you remember theirs, and you used it throughout the conversation. But if you’re like me, and you have you have undiagnosed ADD, you probably start looking at squirrels and you forget their name immediately, even more of a reason to use their name early in the conversation and consistently in not a weird way. So that measurably can increase our conversion rates. They’re very less likely to call somebody else or hire somebody else once they talk to them that don’t use their name. Gives us a small advantage.

The third thing, don’t seem overeager. I learned this in a weird way, so it’s kind of like I remember this guy in younger grade school, or I forget who he was. Maybe he was one of my older brother’s friends or something, but the girls liked him, but he was just completely aloof all the time, acted like he wasn’t interested in them, and for some reason, that drew girls to him. And even even the guys are like, oh, he must be cool, like everybody, he’s so aloof, and he’s just kind of like, I don’t know, just walking around existing here, but I found that out in business, that oftentimes the deals that I cinched the easiest were the ones where I told them no or I was completely disinterested, booked up, booked out for three weeks. People are extending their closed time so that they can get us to inspect. I’m like, oh, wow. So when people call, I’m like, just to head this off, we’re booked out three weeks, and all of a sudden, those people are calling me back, trying to change a time, asking if there’s any way I can squeeze them in, offering to pay us more. I’m like, this is so weird. So I found that if we act overeager, that people won’t want us. And I have no psychological reason for this, just my favorite word, anecdotally, I just noticed that people seem to think, boy, he’s got something, that he’s so popular, I need him. We don’t want to act aloof, and we don’t want to tell people no, but we also want to be careful not to act overeager. I can get you in tomorrow morning. I literally have nothing going on in my life and no other work besides this, that’s not really going to engender people being like, yeah, I want to hire you. We have to watch how we come off that way. We have to make sure that the client knows that they matter, but that we are not dependent on them. It completely changes the dynamics. The first couple points we gave here, those can be practiced and measured. This one, we have to actually reflect on how we’ve come off. We have to change our mental attitude, because it’s going to be in very subtle ways that we let them know that we’re desperate for work. So we need to calm ourselves and say, Yeah, okay, I’m going to walk into this conversation not sounding desperate, sounding like I could do with or without their work, but make sure that they still feel important. Hard balance to get. But if we can master that, I tell you what. It’s nothing that I’ve been able to teach anybody. It’s something that we have to learn internally. But people who master it, man, it works really well.

The fourth point, smile. It sounds weird, and we’ve mentioned it on the podcast before, but people can hear you smile over the phone, and nobody wants a grumpy person. And I think that’s, I think that’s something that we miss, that people should want us based on our skill level. But you know what? I didn’t research my doctor’s skill level, my mechanic saying, okay, let me look up all this qualification. Boy, he’s the best mechanic in the world. If I go in there, grumpy, I’m just kind of like, I don’t want to deal with this guy. And they may not actually be grumpy. They may just come off that way. Same with us. Do we come off a little grumpy or on the opposite end of what that point we just mentioned, aloof, but almost kind of like we don’t care that you exist. We may not feel that way at all. But do we come off that way? So one of the best ways to ensure that we don’t come off that way is smile. As we smile as we’re talking, you can hear it in our voice. So practice that, not a weird, awkward, you know, like I’m gonna murder you in your sleep smile, but try to be happy that they’re calling us. Enjoy talking with the person. If we can smile while we’re talking. So imagine just combining these first few points, we’ve answered on the first ring, we’ve used their name a couple of times. We’re smiling over the phone. We seem somewhat eager, but not totally dependent on them for that job, boy, that in of itself, is going to help us increase our close rates.

The next point, bring them down to our level, and don’t meet them at theirs. This one is a little bit more of a skilled point. Take them down to our level. Don’t meet them at theirs, because invariably, they’re going to call us with a level of stress and hurriedness, especially in this market. They’ve gone through mortgagors, they’ve gone through attorneys, they’ve gone through lenders and individual people in the company. They’ve gone through agents, and they’ve seen 30 different houses, and just been desperate looking for a home. By the time they get to us, they’re cooked. So all they’re going to do is going to say, hey, my name is, I’m going to, I don’t know. I’m going to use Sean again. My name is Sean. How much for a home inspection, can you do it this week? Part of the problem that we take is that we bring ourselves to their level. So that’s a problem with our pricing. We’re like, when they call us, they’re like this. I’m like, okay, why meet them there? Bring them to our level. I find some ways that I personally do that is I purposely speak slower. You’ll find that people do weird things by nature. Walk up to somebody and hand them something. Eight times out of 10, a perfect stranger will take something out of your hand by nature. Magicians use this because that’s that’s our nature. Walk up to somebody and go to shake their hand, and they’ll shake your hand eight times out of ten. It’s weird how we, by nature, do things. So when somebody is already engaged in conversation, they’ve literally asked something of you, ie, information. Then when we start speaking slower, by nature, nine times out of 10, they’re going to say, crud, I really need to get this conversation over with. But this guy’s talking a little slower. So they, by nature, meet us at our level. I’m not talking annoyingly slow. I’m just saying they’re like, hey, what’s this? Okay, hang on, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Ian. And what’s your name, so don’t be annoying about it to the point. But if we bring them to our level, by nature, they’ll come to our level, because that’s, we by nature, went to their level. So we need to stop that, and bring them to ours. As we do that, they’re not going to be as price focused. So price focused is price and schedule focused, I should say, that’s what the agents are usually pushing, that’s what their lender’s pushing, that’s what everybody’s pushing for. We’re going to take them out of that zone. Okay, tell me about this house. What concerns do you have? Did you get a chance to look at when the roof was redone? Anything in the property condition disclosure. Now all of a sudden, they’re engaged with you. That’s going to give us a good close rate. That’s also going to be able to give us the opportunity to command a higher price. We don’t want to meet our consumers at their level, bring them to ours.

This one, I get pushback on this one. This is, this is funny, but I’ve always found it to be mathematically better. Keep them on the phone for 10 minutes, five minute minimum. I have found by the time you’ve had somebody on the phone for 10 minutes, you’ve won the job. Why would they go and call somewhere else and do all this other stuff when you’ve had them on the phone for 10 minutes, and at 10 minutes, you know about their home, what they need, you’ve talked about things, in their mind, it’s done. It’s a sealed deal. People push back on me because they’re like, that’s a lot of time. If I get three phone calls, that’s a half an hour out of my day. Like, okay, cool. So if you, if you do the math, I’m not going to do all the math here, but I’ve done it on a podcast. Man, we’ve had this podcast for so long, we have to think back, probably three years ago. But the math is, if I keep a guy on a phone for 10 minutes and then get that inspection, great, but now, if I spend three minutes with four guys, and I don’t close any of them now, I’ve just, I’ve lost that 10 minutes. So mathematically speaking, 10 minutes to win a 500 to $1,000 inspection, that should just be factored into it. What if you drive an extra 10 minutes to get to that inspection? I’m not going to sneeze an extra 10 minute drive. Most of us aren’t. So don’t think that it’s a long time. Is it a little mentally and emotionally exhausting sometimes? I’m going to be honest with you, yeah, you know, I don’t like to sit there and talk 10 minutes on the phone, to just about, you know, half my friends. I’m like, hey, it’s been like, three minutes, dude, let’s, let’s get off the phone. We can keep them on, five, I give a five minute minimum that, that’ll still give you a way better chance. But if I’ve kept a guy on a phone for 10 minutes, I’ve won that inspection. If we can’t talk about a home over the phone for 10 minutes, we need to practice.

The next one is, and I’ve referred to this in several podcasts because we did it with Juan Jimenez, adaptive USPs. So I’m going to combine these two points. We should have a script, if we’ve memorized our script, cool, I did, but I still keep it on paper because every once a while go back and look, I’m like, oh, I’m skipping point number seven. Oh, man, I need to fix this, but we should always be changing it, adapting it, and keeping that script. Because what if, what if we do want somebody to answer the phones for us? Now we have a script, and we’re not talking about script like, hi, my name is Ian, like, a like, one of the telemarketers that call us at seven o’clock while we’re eating dinner. I’m talking about just some points. We should have on the script questions that we ask, things that they’re looking for. Now they can say, well, I’m really concerned about the roof. We should have another page say, okay, if they say roof, go to where we, go to page three, where we can talk about drones and why the drone will give us a better inspection, or why we walk the roof and don’t use a drone, whichever part of that argument you go on, adaptive USPs, unique selling points. Let the client lead the conversation in that way. So if they are concerned about, they’re like, oh man, there’s been so many sewage backup issues here, page four, sewer scopes. Oh, well, that’s great. We offer sewer scopes. Matter of fact, we have XYZ. We do this and this and this. Did you see any concerns there? Okay, cool. We have camera equipment. They’ll take care of that. Instead of going to the things that we think they want, we go to what they actually want. And if we find that we are missing USP, they keep binging up some some things, they’re like, oh, of course, I want home inspector that does thermal imaging, and that keeps coming up on phone calls, and we have nowhere to go in our adaptive USP script. Well, that just told us, that’s the gap in our business. We all like to think we know what the gaps are like, oh, I’m gonna start offering this. No one’s ever asked for it, or no one wants it. Why keep offering it? I mean, there is advantage, like training the market, but I’m just talking about our script in of itself. Give the people what they want. If they’re concerned about a certain subject, go to that page of our USP, I loved having a script, and I call it a script, it’s really just talking points. So you can just have five bullet points of what we do with a sewer scope, three questions that we ask them. You’ll find that filling up that 10 minutes is pretty easy. If I were on the phone and you were smiling using my name, and every time I brought something up, you had the exact thing that I wanted. I mean, you’re gonna have a really high close rate at a very high price if you have, if you just apply even some of these.

Here’s another one, don’t call from your truck. That’s just a general term that I use for, find a quiet spot. And this is kind of why I don’t like when we’re busy enough that we answer the phone in our field. I hate the hey, this is Ian, yeah, because there’s all this road noise, or there’s people behind us, they hear our truck door slam. They can hear somebody ordering McDonald’s in the line behind us, and it just needs to be a quiet spot. I called a company recently, matter of fact, it was my bank, and I don’t usually get irritated with people on the phone, because I do customer support, so I try to extend the the farthest bit of courtesy I could. The lady was obviously working from home, her kids screaming in the background, a dog barking, and something was happening. And I’m like, I’m sorry, I can’t do this. I don’t know what is going on, but this is really unprofessional. And she’s like, I’ll go do it. And you can hear her slamming and moving doors, and then she plops back down in her chair. And I’m like, this is the most incredibly unprofessional thing ever. So I wasn’t mean or anything. I was just like, this is unprofessional, like, I’m calling you about a fairly big bank thing here. Do we give that impression, though, when people call us? They’re putting their home in our hands, and if it sounds like we’re just wandering around the street, is that really going to give the best impression? Now we could say, well, it’s hard, you know, I’m out in the field, okay? And that’s why I say, sometimes a call center, a VA hiring a person in the office to answer the phones, all of that stuff is important. It gives the appearance of professionalism, and it gives a person an environment where they feel paid attention to.

The next point is listen and get them to talk more than us. This one is really hard, especially for me. I’m going to be honest with you, I’m a talker, so I find that when I would talk a lot, I’d lose them. And one of my relatives always said when I was younger, the best way you could start a conversation and engage with people, is to ask them about themselves, get them to talk. And when people start talking, they feel connected to you, and you might not even said a word. Go back and listen to our conversations if we record them. Look at the transcript if we do that, if it’s legal in our state or your province, whatever it is, or have somebody listen to our conversation, our side of it, and even sit there with a timer. How much did Ian talk, or how much did the imaginary client, Sean, talk, and I would find for myself in a 10 minute conversation, sometimes I’ll be talking seven, eight minutes, not really conducive to them expressing themselves. My close rate increased when I would do three minutes of the talking. So I would save my talking for the end. I would have five to 10 questions prepared on my script, and depending on where they would go with that, we’d have a conversation, but I would never get to the end of those five to 10 questions, because once I got them going, everything that they were concerned about just pours out, and they’re like, Ian just seems like he cares. And to be frank, you can’t fake that. You can’t fake caring. I actually did care. It’s emotionally exhausting, but I do care, but asking those questions and getting them to talk more will feel, make them feel connected to you. It will also give us some insight into them. One, whether we want them as a client, two, about the home, three, just everything in general. So that’s how we get a lot of good information. In a 10 minute conversation, we should do maybe three minutes of talking. The vast majority of talking should be them.

Here’s one that I didn’t use a lot, but I found later on that it was very good. And sales people use this all the time, including car salesman, real estate agents, you name it, just everybody who does sales. Find a reason to call back or follow up. Now I remember a car salesman. He was super nice. This guy wasn’t like, car salesmany, but he goes, okay, I’ll get this to you. Can I email it to you later on, I’m like, you have it right here. You have all the information. It’s a computer program. Just go, click. And I even asked them about it. They have a CRM, and I’m like, just go, click. He goes, no, no, no, let me look it over, this and that. He didn’t look anything over, he just emailed it because he wanted another point of contact. And you know what, I bought a car from him. There’s that four touch rule, and we’re not going to get into all of that for sales and things like that. Find a reason to get back in touch with them. So if we give them a price over the phone, whatever, and say, you know what the average price for this inspection is, $600 I’m gonna, if you don’t mind, once I get back to the office in about an hour, or, you know, when I’m done with my next inspection, I’m gonna text you an exact amount. Okay, thank you. Now we text them the exact amount. We’ve had one more interaction with that person, either by text message, phone call, email, whatever, than all the other people who they call did, they just gave them a price and moved on. Find another reason to contact them and another mode of contact. I like text message personally. Some people, especially younger generation, they just like to text, and they’re like, oh, okay, cool. And then they’ll even ask more questions by text than they did in person. So it really is effective. I didn’t do that one as much, and I still don’t do it as much as I should, but it is effective.

Don’t address price right away. Give them a price and without pausing, telling them what that includes. That’s when I would actually talk at the end of the conversation, I’d say, okay, thank you for telling me everything, after seven eight minutes of them talking, thank you for telling me everything. It looks like your inspection is going to cost 750, and then I hear *gasp*, and then before they can even get halfway through their breath, I’m like, and that includes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you know that also includes the fact that you’re going to have a boom, boom, boom, boom. And I give them everything so that that thought of that’s a higher price than everybody else gets buried in, wow, okay, I’m getting a lot for that. It gives them a bit of reinsurance. So don’t address price right away. But when you do address it, give them a price and without pausing, tell them what that includes, and have a long list of what that includes.

Last two things. Talk about the inspection like they already ordered it. This was one of the earliest things I did, early on, back when I was a contractor, you know, 20 years ago, I used to use this like, okay, thank you, here’s your estimate. When would you like to get this scheduled? And just that one simple phrase, or, you know, variations thereof, I would talk about their job like it was already scheduled. I watched my close rate go up. I’m like, huh? That was weird. I kind of did it by accident one day, but it works very well with inspections. Phrases like, so do you want the thermal scan on your inspection? Or I can put you in the schedule for Thursday, since that works for you. What’s the address? So we’re adding things to the inspection that they haven’t ordered yet, but we’re talking about it like their inspection is already ordered. If we ask the question, do you want to schedule? Then we’ve lost a little bit of edge there. We want to talk about it like it’s already scheduled, and talk about scheduling, like, what day is free for you? Okay, yeah, and it sounded like you wanted the sewer scope added to the inspection too. Doing that can increase your close rate.

I’m going to end this podcast on this point, though. Track, track, and track. Measure A/B testing and improve. Everyone thinks that they have a good close rate until they actually measure it. I have had many clients, one in particular stands out, that would talk about his amazing close rate. He even said, Ian, I heard about your amazing close rate. You know, I’m the same way, 95% close rate. I’m like, okay, cool. And then he kept talking about it, but then he also kept talking about how he didn’t have any work. I said, how many phone calls did you get last month? And it was quite a few. And then I’m like, how many of those turned into inspections? Well, some of them weren’t ready. Some of them were just price shopping, some of them…I’m like, so you’re only measuring your close rate of the ones that wanted you. His close rate was actually abysmal, as it was, like 30, 40% I think 40 is probably what it was. I’m getting confused with somebody else, 40% close rate. It was abysmal. He was, he was not actually measuring it. He was just thinking in his head, oh, yeah, this is about how many people called. Yeah, I’m really good at closing. A/B test. Sit down. Have somebody time you, your husband, your wife, your cousin, your uncle, your friend, an outside company. Have them come and have them come and measure how you actually do. How many phone calls did you get? How many of those turned into inspections? That’s your close rate. Now, how many people called and how long did you keep them on the phone? When you said this or this, where did the conversation go? A/B testing is trying two different things. So now you have two different phone calls, and if it’s legal and ethical in your state to record a phone call, record the phone calls. Okay, here’s the two transcripts. You can even have AI help you. Analyze the two transcripts. Where did the conversation go wrong? If we spend a lot of time upfront, years down the road, we’re going to be benefiting from that.

So those are a few things that we can do to help increase our close rate. To be perfectly frank, the three big ones for me, smile, use their name, and keep them on the phone for five to 10 minutes. That in of itself, will help us to get from a very low close rate to maybe 60, 70% close rate. But take all of these points, apply the ones that work for you, and we’ll see you next time at Inspector Toolbelt Talk.

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

If you’re enjoying the conversation, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. Our podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. For more information on our services and our brand-new inspection app, please visit our website at Inspectortoolbelt.com.

*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.

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PODCAST SUMMARY/BLOG

In the latest episode of our podcast, we delve into the art of mastering client calls to boost booking success in the home inspection industry. This episode is packed with actionable insights and strategies aimed at transforming your phone interactions into valuable business wins. Inspired by Dale Carnegie’s timeless principles, we explore how the power of communication can significantly enhance your sales approach.

A key highlight of this episode is the emphasis on the importance of answering calls promptly. By picking up the phone on the first ring, you immediately increase your chances of securing a booking. This simple act conveys professionalism and attentiveness, creating a positive first impression. Drawing from Dale Carnegie’s wisdom, using the caller’s name throughout the conversation is another powerful tool. This practice helps build rapport and trust, setting the stage for a successful interaction.

Another crucial strategy discussed is steering clients away from price-focused discussions. Instead of getting bogged down in price talks, the episode suggests guiding clients towards more meaningful conversations about the property’s condition. This shift in focus not only keeps clients engaged but also positions you as a knowledgeable and valuable resource. By investing just ten minutes per call, you can foster deeper connections and increase your close rate significantly.

The episode also stresses the importance of having a consistent communication script. A well-crafted script ensures that you maintain professionalism and adaptability in every interaction. By speaking slowly and using a script, you can guide the conversation to more engaging topics, all while ensuring consistency and effectiveness. This approach not only enhances client engagement but also improves your overall communication strategy.

Listening more than talking is another essential element of successful client calls. By letting clients lead the conversation, you gain valuable insights into their concerns and needs. Responding with adaptive unique selling points (USPs) tailored to these concerns helps build deeper connections and increases your chances of closing the deal. Whether you’re working from a quiet office or in the field, creating a professional call environment is crucial to success.

Finally, the episode offers practical tips on improving your close rate through communication. Smiling, using the customer’s name, and keeping them engaged on the phone for five to ten minutes are simple yet effective techniques. By implementing these strategies, you can achieve a remarkable close rate of 60-70%. The episode concludes with a reminder to track your progress and continuously refine your approach.

This podcast episode is a must-listen for solo inspectors and larger firms alike. By mastering the art of client calls, you can transform your home inspection business and achieve greater success. Be sure to tune in for these valuable insights and subscribe for more episodes packed with tips and strategies to optimize your business.