The Importance Of Sending Quotes On Time

Hey guys,

I know I bring this up every meeting and I personally bring it up with many of you on a weekly basis…

But I want to be very clear about the importance of sending good quotes out within a reasonable timeframe…

1. There’s a cost to a lead. It’s probably much higher than any of you expect. Every time a new customer finds us, it costed the company a tremendous amount of money and it costed a tremendous amount of time. 
2. There’s a cost to get you in their door. I know that I’ve discussed this time and time again… But getting you guys inside a customers home isn’t free. On top of the initial cost of acquiring a lead, we also have to pay a dispatcher to take a call. We have to pay the monthly subscription to Jobber. We have to pay for our phone service, our internet, our computers. We have to pay you for your time to drive out there. We have to pay for your gas, the vehicle payments, the wear and tear on vehicles, the tires, etc. And those are just the obvious costs. There’s a crap ton of backend costs that I don’t even want to get into. But none of this is cheap. Every visit has a sizable cost that none of you would want to waste, I guarantee that.
3. We have one opportunity to make a first impression. There’s probably a hundred other plumbing companies that can make it to any of our customers. If we don’t nail it on the first try, we’re likely not getting a second. There’s many factors that go into a first impression (appearance, smell, attitude, word selection, energy, clothes, efficiency, etc), but quotes being fired out by the expected time is definitely one of them.
4. If we lose the job, we’re not just losing the job. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the average homeowner is going to spend around $10grand in plumbing services over the course of their home ownership. Maybe more, maybe less. So, if we don’t land her business today and she finds another plumbing company to use… We didn’t just lose this job, we lost all their work.
5. For many customers, their business goes to who gets it fast enough. Many homeowners get multiple quotes. But if one company gets them the quote the same day and the other company gets the quote in two weeks, who’s going to look better?
6. ETC. There’s a lot of ETC’s that I don’t even want to think about.

It’s so upsetting to have to say this stuff all the time.

The amount of money that goes into lead generation is gross. The amount of backend operational costs is gross. The amount of my personal time that goes into lead gen is gross. It’s insulting to watch them squandered.

If you don’t want quotes, I can give them to someone who does. If you’re not going to take them seriously, I’ll give these quality leads to someone that will. And, if you’re going to waste our leads because you don’t care… Maybe you should consider a career path that you care about.

This is a big boy job.

It’s embarrassing how frequently we have to talk about this stuff.

You’re killing nice-guy Jake. Deadpan Jake has a ton of resumes these days.

Thanks.

PS. I’m checking this stuff daily. GL