Selecting Quality Customers: The Art of Prequalification

JLC • NEW ENGLAND EDITION • FEBRUARY 1995 BY TIM ENGLERT, LINDA ENGLERT, AND DEBBIE LAND During the first few years in business, most small remodeling companies take on every job that comes their way. But time is an expensive commodity in the construction business, and can't be wasted chasing down leads that never amount to anything. Our solution is to prequalify prospective customers before spending a lot of time pursuing the work. By the time we return a customer's call, we already know the lead is strong so we don't feel we're wasting our time. Our prequalification process also gets callers to commit to more than simply making a phone call — they must also provide a certain amount of information.