When I first started out in service plumbing, I had this bad habit of being so focused on my primary task, that I would lose sight of the overall jobsite.

Courtesy checkup, and additional task percentages were both extremely low. Since the two are directly proportional to one another, it made clear sense why my sales numbers weren't rising.

After a couple of months of mediocre paycheques, I sat down and looked at my invoices, looking for opportunities where I could have found more work. What was astonishing was the fact that nearly every call I went to, there was work sitting right there in front of me.

The calls had long-since gone cold, and I did not at that time have the tools to recapture the customer. My first year in service plumbing was pretty lean when I started earning commission.

I made the conscious choice to bring my courtesy checkup percentage up above anyone else's. Using my day planner, I wrote down the percentage I wanted for the end of each week, and a final total for the end of the month.

Doing my initial diagnosis, I started making note of other problems. Usually unrelated to the original reason for the call-out. When putting the price together, I would add on the additional work. When the customer sees the larger price, and the additional tasks, they now have a menu of items they can choose from. They don't always choose all the items, which is where some closing techniques are needed.

Regardless if they go ahead with the extra work, I have now already started my courtesy checkup. At the end of the service call, I offer them the opportunity to take advantage of the complete checkup.

"Mrs. Jones, now that the work is complete, would it be alright if I looked around at the rest of your plumbing, to be sure that there are no other surprises?"

Home checkup percentage instantly starts climbing. As a result, I get to see what other plumbing needs they have. If they decide not to go ahead with the work during that visit, I now have something to talk to them about when I do my follow up.