What does it take to be a good listener? Why should you charge based on flat rates? How do you handle customer objections? What are some good ways to close a sale? They’re questions drain cleaning contractors ask themselves often.
The answers aren’t necessarily new, but they always bear repeating. In their book, Top Dollar Plumber, Ti and Sid Sutherland answer them – and do a lot more. They promise tips guaranteed to increase sales.
While the Sutherlands are in the service plumbing business, their advice applies just as well to drain cleaning and pipe service businesses. After all, many fundamentals of service business success apply pretty much across the spectrum of specialties.
Based on experience
The authors – father and son – know their business. Sid Sutherland has worked in sales for Trane and other major companies and as a general contractor. A master plumber and master electrician, he also ran a plumbing company and an electrical contracting business. His son Ti was in his own plumbing truck at age 18. He is still active as a service plumber while also teaching others how to sell plumbing. He has written articles for national publications on plumbing sales.
“We guarantee that even if you are already a top producer, you can glean some technique that will increase your sales and profits,” they say in the book’s introduction. “The only catch is that you must want it badly enough to invest the effort.”
At 140 pages and 19 chapters in paperback, the book is a quick read – but a once-through doesn’t really do justice. Like any good book of advice, it’s worth reading through, and then revisiting, chapter by chapter. In fact, the authors recommend making the book a long-term resource, reviewing the skills it teaches, mastering one or two at a time, then moving on to the next.
