"Hitting The Mark" is a special type of sales book that comes along even now and then to make a real impact on professional selling. Years in the making and fully field tested, the concepts in this book are solid and require no extra refinement or tweaking. As a general contractor, trade contractor, remodeler, renovator, home builder, carpenter, handyman, occupational therapist, physical therapist, interior designer, architect, durable medical equipment contractor, or anyone else who designs and sells solutions for general remodeling for homes or businesses, decorating updates, or aging-in-place treatments, you will get results as soon as you open the book and begin putting these concepts into practice. Whether you maintain an office or showroom where people come to you to see examples of products and discuss what you can do with them, or you go to them in their home or office to discuss their needs and propose solutions, you need a system of sorting through all of the people you meet and talk with (regardless of how that contact is originated) to identify the most interested ones and determine where to devote your time and focus. Without an objective, definitive way of rating all of these sales leads that you accumulate as you operate your business, and a way of determining who to spend your time with, it's easy to waste your energy on people who have very little or no interest in actually making a purchasing decision. At the other end of the spectrum is ignoring people who really are good candidates for making a decision because the chemistry wasn't there and you didn't connect with them or find any common ground. That's where this book becomes invaluable. It is based on the "ready, willing, and able" formula that most salespeople and small business owners are familiar with, but it adds a very important missing ingredient that turns this into the perfect rating system. For the first time, the three main criteria in evaluating someone's level of interest and ability to make a decision - "ready," "willing," and "able" - have been quantified and defined as objective criteria that will mean the same regardless of who uses them. Then the missing ingredient of how well someone likes you and your approach to their issues - and wants to do business with you - is added so that you can focus your time and energy where you have the highest probability of making a sale. This book lays out a system that takes all of the guesswork out of rating a customer according to their level of interest, ability to make a decision, and likelihood of doing business with you. No more subjectivity and shades of gray. Now a set of totally objective criteria can be applied, and you'll know instantly how likely someone is to make a decision to use your services or expertise to help them achieve the safety, comfort, convenience, security, accessibility, and peace-of-mind they are seeking in a renovation. The 8 chapters are: 1 - Why You Need A Rating System, 2 - The "Ready, Willing, And Able" Test, 3 - An "A" Rating Isn't Sufficient, 4 - Going Behind The Mark, 5 - Only A Few Can Be An "A-1," 6 - Don't Discount The "D"s, 7 - Marking Outside The Lines, and 8 - Getting The Most From Your Customers & Sales Leads. This is the last rating system you will ever need.