Just recently I talked to a young painter that was ready to quit his painting job and start his own business. He started telling me that he was going to start painting apartments. After describing his plans he told me the only thing he didn’t want to do was to sell. I just shook my head just to clear it after he said that. Why? Because we are selling ourselves whether we know it or not; we all form opinions when we first meet people, so our potential customers form an opinion about us the moment the see us or hear us. So when this painter said he didn’t want to sell, I just thought that he will never understand this concept because he was so negative about selling and sales. He probably thinks that selling is some hotshot salesperson forcing someone to buy. Here are some points about selling.

1) In today’s world the best approach to selling is not to even try to force someone to sell. Selling is educating the customer.

2) Customers think all paint jobs are equal except the price; we need to educate them as to the fact that all paint jobs are not equal. This is a huge step in selling today. What makes paint jobs different from one another?

3) Selling a paint job is explaining how we stand out from all the other painters. Explain how we take extra care when protecting things that don’t get painted; how we do spend extra time on prep. Tell the customer how we will not leave the job until done; unlike some painter who will work a few days and not come back for 2 weeksgo to this web-site.

4) The best way to estimate a painting job is to split it into two parts, the first part is the measure call, and all that we do on this call is measure, except ask questions; we do no selling on the measure call. The second call is when we do the selling of our job.

5) Do you want to lose a large portion of your estimates? Then send your estimate by email, fax or by regular mail. When you do this there is no way to stand apart from the crowd, all you are is the price of the job, just like everyone else. When you deliver the paint estimate in person you stand apart from everyone else.

6) One of the most important thing to plan on in the sales call is that all buyers are present. It is nothing but a waste of time if all buyers are not present because at best you will have to come back, at worst case, the buyer that is present will put your estimate on the table with all the rest and you are back to being just a number. Make sure all buyers are present, and don’t give the estimate until they are.

7) Ask for the job. Yes after you educate the customer and give them the price, ask them if you can have the job. They will either say yes or no. Do not be satisfied with a “maybe”.

Sure all these things take extra time and thought, but so what if you can increase your chances to get a higher price and sell more jobs, then so what. Too many painters are hardworking painters, but lazy on this end. Take the time to do a good job at selling and estimating and your reward will be more jobs at greater profit.