Do you always feel like you're a magnet for price-shoppers and tire-kickers? You may not be alone ... but what might surprise you is your business may be set up to attract them, and you don't even know it!

"You can eliminate price-shoppers and tire-kickers right from the get-go by discouraging them from even calling you in the first place with the way you send your message out to the market," says Victoria Downing, president of Remodelers Advantage.

How do you do that?

"There was a company that I worked with once in Minneapolis," says Victoria, "that was really interesting. One of the things they put in their marketing message was, 'We're not the cheapest in town, but if you're looking for high-quality, then call us.'

"[Others can] start out right off the bat by not using the phrase 'free estimates' or even the phrase 'nothing too big or too small' or 'least expensive in town.'

"You don't want to do this because that's going to encourage people who are specifically looking for price," adds Victoria.

"You've got to sell the benefits that you bring to the table -- the high quality of service that you provide, the peace of mind you provide, the expertise and construction, the design, flair and creativity," she notes.

"You have to sell those things, and the people that are interested in those higher-level services, are going to be willing to pay a little bit more in order to get more for their money."

But what about eliminating potential business? Victoria suggests you don't want every possible project opportunity.

"Here's the deal," says Victoria. "When you're a small business owner, time is one of your most limiting factors.

"So if you can reduce the time you're spending on people who are not going to buy from you in the first place, and focus your efforts on either marketing to generate more quality leads, and selling to those people who are more concerned with quality than with price ... your time is going to be much better spent."

Victoria continues with, "I'm not saying that you never want to go on a sales call with those folks that are tire-kickers and price-conscious folks. You still can, but for a lot of the business owners that I work with, they would just prefer to use their time on people that are halfway sold on them in the first place."

"If they are price-shoppers you might say, 'How many companies are you speaking with?' Or, 'What sort of research have you done so far on your remodeling project?'

"And if they list a number of competitors that they've already spoken to, then you know that you're just one of the many and that your chances of closing that sale are significantly lowered."

However, Victoria warns, "It doesn't mean you can't close them, but your sales ability is probably going to have to be pretty darn good in order to make it worth your time."

Focusing your time on the 'right' prospect for you means getting the right price for your services. In fact, Victoria believes a lot of contractors are under-priced.

"One of the things we see so often," she mentions, "is that remodelers don't understand they deserve the prices they're asking for.

"We're not talking about price-gouging -- we're talking about getting [the price] they deserve."

Victoria maintains that contractors "deserve to get a decent wage and to make profits, because that helps the company live on, attract better employees, and so on.

"So it's really important to spend their time with people that are willing to pay them for the superior service that they bring to the table."

"Something we see neglected often is to track contractor's marketing leads.

"They need to keep track of the leads, and even more importantly keep track of the closing ratios," she adds.

"We don't want to eliminate too many people. You don't want to have your message be so highbrow, for example, that you are cutting out a chunk of your market that would potentially pay the prices that you need to run a decent business.

"So you're going to have to be constantly tweaking and testing your message to attract the people that are interested in what you have to offer, but keep the leads coming in."

Victoria's advice on maintaining this balance?

"The nice thing about marketing, is that you can change your message."

She adds, "You don't have to be stuck with one angle for your entire career. You know, you can try something new if you're not getting quite enough leads. But I still would never resort to saying 'free estimates' or 'no job too small.' "

Do you know what message you're sending out to your market? Are you responsible for attracting the very price-shoppers you don't want?

Equally important, do you know where your leads are coming from, and how your lead sources affect the quality of your leads?

It may be time to take a good hard look at how your business is attracting clients, both the ones you want and the ones you don't.

Go to www.SuccessfulHomeBuilders.com today and you can listen for FREE how one builder/remodeler eliminated time-wasting free estimates from his business -- for good!