Recently we had our home re-roofed and, surprisingly, did not give the job to the lowest bidder. Why were we willing to pay a couple hundred dollars more for the project? Because Steve had several attributes that put him head and shoulders above his competition:

• A leak developed in our kitchen during a late winter/early spring driving rain and sleet storm. Steve was referred to us by someone we respect and came over as soon as it was safe to get up on the icy roof.

• After caulking every place he could possibly find he told us that the shingles still had a couple of years left on them if the caulking was successful. He warned us, however, as had others that leaks are very difficult to locate. We would just have to wait and see. I had fully expected him to put on a hard court press about us needing a new roof right away. He did not do that and it impressed my wife and me a lot.

• A month later, in another sideways rain, the leak reoccurred. He burrowed his way through a crawl space in the attic while it was still raining and placed a bucket under the offending leak. Offering to pay him again he assured us that it was not necessary since the original caulking was not enough to solve the problem.

• At that point we made the decision to re-roof and called him for a bid.  Without being arrogant or condescending, he was confident in answering our questions about quality, color and costs involved in the project.

We did check around and took some other bids to make sure that his was ‘in the ball park.’ His competition had comparable products and in at least one case, a lower cost. But in the end it came down to service, ethics, fair price, product knowledge and being likeable.

You have the opportunity to exhibit each of these traits in every interaction with your prospects. When you do all with consistency and pride, I can assure you that you will win a lot of good cases. It’s not always about price!

Written by Bill Sheridan

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