Respond with speed, be professional and courteous in your tone, ask questions about the job and offer details.
At iseekplant we've helped thousands of suppliers win work. It's because of this we know what wins you work. The video below takes you through our recommended approaches as well as two real examples of how suppliers secured work. Don't have time for the video? Below is a quick summary of the main points:
- Respond with speed (we recommend within the first 30 minutes)
- Be professional and courteous in your tone.
- Ask questions about the job and offer details.
- Give the specs of your machine and the services you're offering.
- Provide your rates and availability after you've struck up a rapport.
- And follow up until you win the job.
Video Transcript
Hi everyone, I'm Sally and I'm one of the founders of iseekplant. Let's talk about the best approaches to receiving a phone call on iseekplant and how to get the most out of the seeker interaction, increasing your chances of winning a job.
The ingredients of a high converting hire call are pretty simple.
Respond with speed, we recommend within the first 30 minutes of the lead or the phone call. Be professional and courteous in your tone. Ask questions about the job and offer details. Give the specs of your machine and the services you're offering. Provide your rates and availability after you've struck up a rapport. And follow up until you win the job.
As a premium member of iseekplant, when a seeker selects you for a job, you will receive an SMS or notification from our app, an email and the job lead will be published in the My Lead section of your company profile. You may also receive a call from iseekplant from a mobile number.
This is our system connecting you to the seeker via a unique phone number. You can call or text this number back to reach the seeker. Our system also sends helpful reminder text messages so you don't miss any opportunities. So let's jump into some examples from our system that illustrate the power of a good phone call to convert a lead to a job.
Sarah worked for one of the big quarrying and concrete companies. Her 65 tonne excavator had broken down they needed to rebuild the engine, which was going to take a couple of weeks. She posted a job on iseekplant and sent the job to four people in the local area that had 65 tonn excavators listed in their fleet. This is how the four suppliers responded.
Paul texted her and told her he'd call her tomorrow. Because her situation was urgent, he likely would have missed the boat. Graeme wasn't free and sent her a one-liner. Now, she worked for a major tier-one customer, so this single unprofessional text means Graeme is unlikely to ever work for her again.
Clint texted her to ask her a bunch of questions for information he'd already been sent, proving that he hadn't read the inquiry. This made her life harder. Shane called her straight back and was super helpful. He had a 90 tonne excavator available nearby. Here is the phone call.
Shane: I got your number there from iseekplant about an excavator?
Sarah: Yeah!
Shane: You’ve chosen one, have you?
Sarah: Sorry, yes, yep.
Shane: Yeah, I’ve got a Hitachi ZX 890 available
Sarah: Sorry, what size was that? 90?
Shane: 90, yeah.
Sarah: Okay, cool. And when is that available? Now?
Shane: Yeah, we just need to wash it tomorrow and make sure it's all good. But yeah, she's pretty, pretty great.
Sarah: Mm hmm. So we're looking for about at least two weeks I would say, possibly more. Our dig is out and we need to redo the engine so it's going to be out for quite a while. Is that dry hire
Shane: Dry hire, yeah, yeah.
What Shane did next made all the difference. Here's a screenshot of the interaction from the back end of our system. After the initial call, he followed up with an email quote.
Then the next morning he called her back. He didn't get her the first time so she called him back. They finalised the details over the next two calls and he got the booking.
This is another great example of a supplier and seeker connecting over two D9 dozers in Wangaratta. Mark sent his urgent job request to four suppliers in the system that had D9 and D10 dozers listed in their fleet and were close to Wangaratta.
Graham sent a message including a machine type that wasn't requested and his rates without any identifying information, making him look unprofessional. Susan flicked a half hearted response saying she had one D9 dozer available but not two, and then she asked Mark to do the legwork and call her back.
Had she called him to discuss it, there was every chance she could have won at least one of those hire contracts. Robson asked a bunch of questions without identifying himself and asking the seeker to pay for mobilisation when the other details of the contract had not been ironed out. This wasn't a helpful conversation for the seeker given Robson hadn't even stated he had D9s available.
Mick took a different approach. He jumped on the phone rather than sending an SMS and got the seeker into a meaningful conversation. He asked questions and shared his availability, then promised to follow up.
Mick: All right, uh, so you're chasing some dozers?
Mark: Yep.
Mick: Yep. What size are you looking for? I just got sent your number about a D9 or something?
Mark: Yep, I need two of them.
Mick: Two D9s?
Mark: Yep.
Mick: Righty o. I've got a D8 available at the minute, but let me see. Whereabouts are you going to go, Mark?
Mark: Wangaratta.
Mick: Wangaratta. For how long?
Mark: A week and a half to two weeks.
Mick: Week? Yeah, rightio. Roger. Might be able to swap it out of the quarry. I'll make some calls and I'll give you a buzz back if I can swap my D8 for my D9 for a couple of weeks.
Mark: Alright, no worries.
The seeker was impressed and jumped off the phone and asked him for his rates and pictures of his dozer via text message. Mick did that as promised and Mark called back within an hour and hired him. They didn’t squabble over rates either. Mike had solved Mark's problem really quickly, and that's all that mattered.
Suppliers who follow up their leads win twice as much work as the ones who don't. You can use our system to follow up by SMS, although we recommend calling back to demonstrate how proactive you are. Following up on the phone is the best way to convert a lead to a job.
We reckon at iseekplant that machines and crews don't go out of the yard until two guys are talking on the phone. We also recommend sending a formal written quote. We want you to get paid without dispute. So we recommend that you send written evidence of the prices that you discussed on email. Don't just discuss and agree prices verbally. Get their email address and send them clear pricing information after the phone call. That way, if there's ever some kind of dispute, you'll have that written communication to fall back on.
So that's how you respond to phone calls and job leads you receive on iseekplant. Reply with speed and detail, follow them up to lock them in, and win more work on iseekplant.
Thanks for being our customer. Our business is here to support your business.