True story about a sales call that could have been really bad based on a simple misunderstanding…
I went on a sales calls a year a half ago to see a new client that wanted me to build them a new house. I met them at a green conference and they showed me the basic concept and I agreed to meet them on site. Since I was coming from another meeting, I decided to meet them at the location where we would build the house. I went to the address that they sent me to and as I was driving up the driveway, I was coming up on a beautiful house that looked to be not even a decade old yet. My future client was asking for me to build them a new green house? Since this house was new, I was trying to figure out why they wanted me to tear this house down to build them a new one. I did not see how this could be considered sustainable. I was ready to talk them into a greenovation because tearing the house down would have been a waste.
When I came up to the house, I noticed that “they” were at the house already and had just came back from the grocery store. Since I was there early, I helped bring some of the groceries into the house for them. After I emptied the trunk, the homeowner, thanked me for the help that I just gave to her, but wanted to know why I was at her house. Puzzled, I told her that I was there to tear her house down and build them a new one just like her husband had asked me to. She did not like this idea, since they had just moved into the house. Great-husband and wife not on the same page!
About the same time I got a phone call from the husband that I was supposed to meet on site. He asked me if I was there yet and I asked him why he wanted to tear his house down? He said “what house?” I repeated the address that he gave to me. He apologized for giving me the incorrect address, I was one lot off. I apologized to their neighbor and told them that I would be working with their new neighbors to build them a new house next to them. Husband and wife back on the same page now.
There is a happy ending to the story- we did get to build the new LEED house and got to renovate the existing house for the neighbor. The neighbors get along fine even though they told be to build on the wrong lot. Glad we did not bring in the heavy equipment yet.
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