Is Doing Business with You Worth the Risk? Part 2

Last time, we spoke about minimizing risk in the mind of the homeowner. Today I want to give a practical example of something that has been extremely helpful in doing just that. It’s called a signature story.

A signature story is a story about something you’ve done for a homeowner where you’ve gone above and beyond, and they’ve been overwhelmingly pleased with the end result. The signature story has some requirements, though, because it’s not anonymous and is not a simple testimonial.

It must be recorded in some way to be considered verified. It can be a video, in writing, or some other way that shows it wasn’t made up by you or by the marketing team. We’ll talk about why shortly.

The signature story is just proof of something extraordinary that you’ve done for a homeowner. It shows them how you’ve responded when it mattered most. I want to show you how it can be useful in the sales process, but its basic objective is to use it to minimize risk. Let me give an example.

Do The Right Thing

In my first HVAC company way back when, we had what we called a 1-year test drive. If you didn’t like your system during the first year, we would buy it back. We minimized the risk.

We had a customer named Sarah Parker who called us about eight months after we installed her system. She told me that I needed to come visit about the high-efficiency system I had installed.

“You need you to come out to the house, take out this high efficiency, put the least efficient system you can in there, and refund me the difference.”

I hopped in my truck, and on the drive I wondered if the newfound problem was with our system or if it was really something out of my control. I had a good rapport with her, so after our initial hellos and niceties, I asked the simple question.

“Sarah, something’s off. Is everything okay?”

After a little bit of silence, she told me she had been diagnosed with cancer. She had to leave her job and sell her house to pay for treatment.

So when she told me the news, it only took me a split second to realize I could play a positive role in her story. I did what I felt was the only right thing to do, which was to refund her the money and let her keep the high-end system. She had already received the worst news from her doctors, so I wanted to be a human responding in kind to another human in need of good news.

Giving Back

From a business standpoint, it would have cost a lot to take the old system out and replace it, and it could have been a distraction for Sarah. It’s better for everybody if she keeps the system and I refund her the difference between the least expensive and the high-efficiency system that she bought.

She had left her job, so this solution would give her some extra money and security. This solution would remove the inconvenience of having installers in and out of her home. And more than anything, this solution made me feel like I was giving back to someone who could use help.

She was so grateful that she and her realtor wrote a beautiful letter stating the high-efficiency system made it much easier to sell the house, and that it was a gesture she would never forget.

But here’s the thing. If I would do that for Sarah Parker and I had this letter that proved it to my homeowners, what does that say about how I would treat them if there were a problem? It sends a very powerful message to your homeowners that the risk of doing business with me is minimized.

They will think, “If this contractor would take care of a lady diagnosed with cancer, he’s the kind of person who will probably come out on a Tuesday night to take care of me if my system fails.” Right?

Your Story

This is how we convey high levels of trust and minimal levels of risk. So, I want you to think back to something amazing your company has done for a homeowner, and there are probably a hundred examples. Did you swoop in to save the day when a homeowner’s unit went out after they purchased from a cheap competitor? Did you volunteer resources and labor after a big storm? Did you help change the course of someone’s life?

You may even have a letter already, but it’s probably in a filing cabinet somewhere collecting dust or in a frame on the wall in your office where your homeowners will never see it.

It may seem odd to share the good things you’ve done because it feels like bragging, right? Not if we realize that these nice things you’ve done simply show who you are at the core, that you are a kind and generous person who has the interest of the community in mind and not just someone out to make a buck.

So it’s crucial to find those letters and videos and get them out in the field. If you really are trustworthy, then show that other homeowners have placed their trust in you, and it has paid off for them. They took a chance on you, and it turned out to be no risk at all.

In fact, those letters and videos are kind of the foundation of the entire sales process, because we’re going to build on those letters and communicate to our homeowners there’s no real risk of making the wrong decision when they choose you.

Trusting Your Eyes

Why is it important to have a video or a letter or some proof that the story is real?

Believe it or not, you can tell incredible stories, but some people will not believe you. Homeowners will think you’re fabricating them for your own benefit. In fact, from early in childhood, we’re taught not to really trust a story that we’re told but to believe what we can see, right?

You have to show them proof that the story is true. So, dig through your customer history and memory bank and find something amazing you’ve done for a customer. If you forgot to get the letter at the time, that’s okay. Call them up. It doesn’t matter if it’s a year or two later. Call them up and remind them of the time you did costly repairs for free because it was close to Christmas. Or the time you upgraded their system at a deep discount because they were struggling financially. Ask if they could write you a letter about that.

Some customers will respond that they would like to write a letter, but they don’t know what to say. So sometimes you have to offer to write the letter for them. I’ve written letters for homeowners many, many times. I’ll take it out to them in person. They read it, they like it, they sign it. I now have proof of my integrity, my character, and my giving back to the community. It was as if there was a fly on the wall writing down what it’s truly like when someone does business with me.

Use these signature stories to minimize the risk. It’s one of the most powerful ways to communicate to your homeowner that there’s zero risk of trusting you and your company.

And again, if you lower the risk, you make it easier for the homeowner to say yes.