Tradies – Presentation Counts – How’s Yours? 

Part of my business coaching program for tradies and builders (it’s called the Tradies Toolbox  Coaching Program) is building a Sales Machine. That’s all about doing sales properly, using a process and commanding better margins. That’s important. I want you to shift from putting a quote forward when you’re asked, to explaining and proving your value and putting your quote forward in context. 

Part of that context is how you look. 

The better you look, the more your customers will be inclined to pay. Think about a burger. 

• A Mcdonald’s Big Mac is $6.40.
• There’s a burger bar near me where the burgers are about $16. It’s called Old Maids.
• In Sydney, you can pay $30 for a burger at the Cut Bar & Grill – made by hand.
• I’m going to ignore the $1000 gold leaf burger that came up when I searched for an expensive burger.

Now, there are undoubtedly quality differences between our $6, $16 and $30 burger but how they look is also different. And how they look is very much part of how much we’re prepared to pay. 

Macca’s is served in paper. It’s limp and floppy, served by a spotty kid in a cheap uniform, in a ‘restaurant’ that’s slightly grim too. 

The burger bar here in Brunswick Heads is a bit funky with pretty girls serving and cool people eating on the tables outside. Your burger comes in a cardboard tray thing. The whole thing is a step up in how it looks (the burger tastes better too).

I haven’t been to The Cut Bar & Grill in Sydney but it’s a step up again in what the burger looks like (on their cool looking website).

So 3 burgers. 3 price points. We’ve probably all paid all 3 price points at different times, haven’t we? (I know I have.)

Presentation Matters

Now, where I’m heading here is not a comparison of the relative price & quality of the burgers (although that’s an interesting conversation). 

Where I’m heading is a discussion about presentation. 

Part of why we’re prepared to pay more for the more expensive burgers is their better quality – texture, taste, ingredients – all that. And part of it is how they are presented.

Recommended Reading: Marketing Your Trades Business On The Job Site

There are two things going on here:

1. The first is that the presentation makes our experience of enjoying our burger better.
2. The second is that we use how the burger looks as a guide to how good it’s going to taste and how much we’re going to enjoy the experience.

Back to a trade business:

• • A trade business in our home, business or building site that looks professional – neat, clean, well-branded and improves our experience of the work.
  • It reflects well on our business to have professional looking trades working in it (same in our home).
  • When we contact a trade business, how they present on the phone or on the internet or email makes a big difference to how we feel about the experience.

If they look good online, we have higher expectations of the professionalism of their work and probably, their price. As people we correlate the effort someone (or a business) puts into their appearance with the effort we expect them to put into work.

So put some effort into your business’ presentation. Do a review of  all customer touch points: 

• Website
• Phone
• Email
• Sales visits (your vehicle, dress, attitude, language, accessories)
• Invoices
• Payment procedures
• Your tradespeople
• Their vehicles

What can you do to present better? 

It’s a worthwhile investment. It’s part of your sales machine (which I can help you build.

Want help from me? Book a 10-minute chat to talk it through and start the process.

Or book onto a Tools Down Workshop – 2 days, $300 and learn the framework first.