Think about the last time you purchased a high-ticket item from someone. More than likely you purchased it from someone that you know, trust, and like.
Construction is a high-ticket item. If you’re an estimator, you must understand that your clients will purchase or will going into contract with folks that they:
- Know,
- Trust,
- and Like.
Let me explain those in a little bit of detail.
How well do you know your clients? If you’re in a non-hard bid environment, relationships are absolutely essential to winning work. So, you must spend time in the place that your clients are, getting to know them, building relationships.
The second thing is are you trustworthy. How do you prove your trust to a client? Let me recommend that you begin small. Take on a small project. Estimate it accurately so that you don’t have a bunch of change orders when the project is being executed and then work with your project managers to make sure that the labor in the field is doing an excellent job so that you can produce something of excellence for your client right out of the gate. That way, you can build a trusting relationship with them.
Finally, people purchase from folks that they like. One thing that people don’t like is people who are fake. So, be yourself. Not everyone is going to like you. That’s okay. But if you’re a hard worker, and you have integrity, and you’re diligent, you will attract people who are attracted to you and who want to work with you. And this is extremely important whenever you’re selling anything. Be yourself. Don’t be fake.
Those are 3 things you can do in order to up level your game as an estimator, is people purchase from folks that they know, trust, and like. So, get to know your clients. Build trust with them and be a genuine likable person. This will really help to improve your estimating success.
