Clueless Clients & Their Construction Budgets
Clients with under-cooked budgets are everywhere. As a builder, you meet them daily. Here’s what to do…
.
.
.
Each conversation starts the same way with the client telling you about their dreams, asking lots of questions and then keeping their budget ‘secret’ when you’re trying to help them.
It’s time consuming for you but when they finally tell you their budget, you realise just how uninformed they are. A total waste of your time…
Here’s the Easy Way to ‘Fix’ Uninformed Clients
Labour shortages, Covid, materials escalations, interest rates and transport costs have all driven construction prices crazy so it’s no wonder clients are clueless about build costs.
Most clients arrive at your doorstep with a budget that’s informed by the internet, a TV show or advice from their ‘uncle Kev’ who’s a retired house painter.
That is, their price expectations are uninformed.
Consumer psychologists call this ‘price anchoring’ and say its human nature for clients to compare all prices to this original anchor price.
So, your most important and urgent job when you first meet a prospective client is to ‘re-anchor’ their price expectations with objective, informed and up to date pricing.
But you don’t have to be the bad guy.
Instead, politely, patiently, and professionally explain to clients they need to throw away everything they’ve heard about construction costs.
Industry pricing has changed dramatically in the last 2 years and they need to face up to it.
You can negate client budget ‘secrets’ by telling them what their job is worth on day one…..you’re the expert, after all.
You can do that in just 15 minutes, by loading their PDF plans into a free ProCalc Trial and educating clients with real industry numbers for their specific project.
It provides a written report incorporating this month’s industry pricing. Take a free ProCalc Trial to reset clients budget expectations – fast.
Want more tips like these? Attend the Webinar: Work Smarter, Not Harder
Richard Armstrong is a former registered builder who recently interviewed hundreds of experienced Australian builders to identify how they best manage clients, budgets and profitability.
You might also like:
- Builders, Get Your Pricing Right Every-time – No More Under-Quoting
- Transform Your Building Business in 43 Mins (webinar)
- How (& Why) to Charge for First Client Meetings
- Take a Free Trial of ProCalc
- Stop All Free Client Meetings – Charge Upfront
- Want more tips like these? Attend the Webinar: Work Smarter, Not Harder
Richard Armstrong is a former registered builder who recently interviewed hundreds of experienced Australian builders to identify how they best manage clients, budgets and profitability.
