Husband Vs. Wife For First Call..

ruskent

I'm pretty good at tracking stuff.

I think i have done 20 something projects since i started in business 3 years ago. I belive that the woman of the house made the first phone call to me on only 3 of those jobs.


What does this mean? When the women calls and not the man, does that mean she runs the house? Does it mean she wants something more then the husband?

Whats it mean!?!!?!? I have 3 potential customers i am talking to right now where the wife called me intitially. I need to figure out how to overcome this.

dougchips

Ask to speak to the "man of the house" and they will not bother you anymore.

BTW, I don't care who calls so long as all of the homeowners will see my presentation.

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

GregS

Are you sure there's a husband?

Maybe she's the one who wants it and her husband doesn't care.

Maybe she's kicking tires and trying to figure out how much something costs before surprising her husband.

Maybe she has more spare time to make phone calls and he doesn't.

Maybe you shouldn't care who calls, as long as you get calls

Celtic

You missed The cobbler's family has no shoes... thread ?

LOL

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GreenW00D

When it comes down to it, if the wife usually gets what she wants and the husband pays for it. (speaking from my personal life) When my wife wants something expensive I usually put it off as long as possible, she will eventually initiate purchasing steps if I drag out to long, at which time I usually get involved but most things are spec'd to her preferences and I just try to keep her somewhere near being financially reasonable & the product or service exhibits quality.

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I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
Bill Cosby (1937 - )

ruskent

How much i have a much higher closing percentage when the husband calls vs the wife? There HAS TO BE A REASON!!!!

dougchips

You have a problem relating to women and their needs/wants. This can be overcome. Women do not want to hear the same stuff that men want to hear (big thick stones, huge slabs of granite, 30 tons of crushed stone..), they want to heat want they can do with the final product (a nice stone walkway that is solid enough to walk on without the stones moving, a nice granite bench so you can site while your kids play, plenty of drainage (crushed stone) so the water drains away and you are not left with puddles that attract bugs. blah blah blah you get the point.

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

ch0mpie

Careful with this one, its kind of degrading to say to somebody. Especially now adays so many people being divoced and what not. My father died when I was a little kid. Alot of times contractors told my mother "I'll only talk to the man of the house" or "lets wait until your husband is around". She never explained, just asked them to leave.

Tscarborough

All you need to know is that women shop and men buy.

ruskent

I think that might be part of it.


BTW i never worked for anyone that was divorced or even gay.

dougchips

Not sure how: "Ask to speak to the "man of the house" and they will not bother you anymore." can be understood any other way---If you don't want their business, upset the lady of the house. Not really sure saying it a second time will work any better, sorry to hear about your dad.

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

Second Look

About 75% of my clients are women. That's why I hire women for graphic design and copy writing.

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Second Look home improvement www.SecondLookHome.com
Handyman and Home Repair Specialist in Rhode Island
RI Licensed Lead Safe Remodeler/Renovator, RI Registered & Insured Contractor

dougchips

I would generally ask how you knew they were not gay but if all of your households were male+female I understand. A few weeks ago I had 4 appointments and I had a helper with me. On the 4th appointment my helper said something about the guy sounding gay, I informed him that 3 out of our 4 clients that day were gay. Find gay clients, make them happy and enjoy the refferal business!

__________________
To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

GregS

I'm not really sure what this has to do with anything. Divorced and gay people have money and will spend it if properly sold.

Maybe get a book on cold reading, brush up on those skills, and dazzle yourself.

VA Remodeler

I'm not sure what your specialty trade is which can made a difference whether the man or woman takes the drivers seat, but in my remodeling and repair business about 3/4's of my calls are from woman. There are a few reasons for this and one is when a woman is the home maker and contacting contractors is part of her job, while the husband stays busy at work.

Another would be that lots of times a woman can be more of a detail person and the husband really don't care or want to be bothered by it.

And as mentioned above, there is times when a woman has no man to take charge.

I like to deal with the person who is more the easy going one, the more patient one, the better listener, the better communicator rather than picking a gender.

The money part of it usually doesn't matter either way.

ch0mpie

It always seemed to me that the people who said those things didn't mean it to reject a customer, they just really didn't want to talk to a woman. I don't really understand that thou, like you most of my customers are women and gay people.

bigchaz

100 percent of the jobs i get are from people


I do work, customer pays, I could care less if its a green haired two headed space monster let alone man or woman. Majority of my jobs involve both the man and woman being involved.

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Charlie Soden
Apex DeckSavers
"New life for old wood"
Deck cleaning and staining Wake County

lawndart

Greenwood answered your question right here Ruskent. When you're dealing with a husband, and wife this is the way it's structured around the house most of the time.

Doug touched on a great point. Make sure all of the homeowners are present for your appointment.

With that said I believe that when the husband is calling you it's because they are probably past the point of talking about doing the project, and most likely have seen a few contractors before you that did not sell them on their services.

PS. Like someone else said, gay men, and women are some of the best customers you'll ever work for. It's a great market to get into if you've got your stuff together. Most of these people are highly educated professional people, and they enjoy a contractor with a likewise appearance.

Chris Johnson

Have you noticed that the shell or rough portion of new construction is the husband involved and the details and finish selections are female?

I do concrete walls, the women don't care 1 ioda about concrete walls, there simply walls to them, If I have a structural issue and a window needs to be moved, then the woman gets involved and I better have a damn good reason to move that window, because she doesn't care what the engineer said

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Chris

oldgoat

When it comes to the cars or the house repairs my wife has no interest in that part of it. Even when buying the family car she only says what features she is interested in and when I find something that seems like a godd possible then she will come look at it. The repairs she says that she doesn't know what they are talking about, and she has better things to do than listen to a talk about the features of one over the other. We will usually have a general price range and as long as it is in that range she is good and the only thing she needs to know is when to come sign the papers. Even on things like the wills and 401 she didn't want to come, but I had to make her.