Why the second visit costs you deals
The normal process goes like this. Visit, measure, take notes, drive back, design it at the desk, price it, send it. Then a follow-up call to answer the questions the drawing raised. Every step adds time, and every day without a number is a day the customer spends getting other quotes.
It also loses detail. The note says "door on the east side." Was that the overhead door or the walk door? How far from the corner? You fill the gaps from memory, the customer sees something a little different from what they described, and now you're revising instead of closing.
Before you leave the office
Here's the honest part. Pricing on site needs your supplier price sheet loaded first. Once it is, the price comes from your own costs and follows every change to the design. Without it, you'll have a good design and no number.
So load your price sheet before you go out, and keep it current. That's a one-time setup plus upkeep, not something you do per job. What to check about where the price comes from.
Measure
Before you touch the phone, walk the site. Look at the pad, or the spot where the pad will go. Note the slope, the drainage, the access for trucks and equipment, overhead lines and any setbacks the customer knows about. Measure the space you actually have, not just the building the customer described.
Confirm which way the doors need to face for how the building will be used. A shop door that opens into the wind or away from the driveway is a problem nobody notices on paper.
None of that is software. It's the part of the visit that keeps you from quoting a building that doesn't fit the site.
Design with the customer, not for them
Open the configurator on your phone, right there. It runs in the browser with nothing to install. Set width, length and height. Pick the foundation. Set the pitch, truss, soffit, wainscot and gutters. The customer watches the building change while you talk.
That changes the conversation. Instead of describing a building and hoping they picture the same one, you're both looking at it. They say wider, you make it wider. They want to see the structure, you open Frame View. They ask what the end wall will look like, you open Elevations. Sheet Layout and Design Loads are one tap away too.
Every decision made on site is a revision you don't have to do later.
Price it and leave the quote
With the price sheet loaded, the number is there when the design is. Talk through it while the customer can still point at the building and ask "what if."
The visit should end with the customer holding something real. A branded quote with the live 3D model gives them their building to look at again that night, show whoever else is part of the decision, and compare against anything else they get. A sketch on the back of a business card doesn't do that.
Back at the office, the same design gives you material lists, dimensioned elevations, sheet layouts and post layouts. Nothing gets re-entered, so nothing gets re-typed wrong.
An on-site checklist
- Price sheet loaded and current before you leave.
- Walk and measure the site. Slope, access, door direction.
- Design the building on your phone with the customer watching.
- Check the frame and the elevations together.
- Price it and talk through the changes.
- Leave a priced 3D quote, not a page of notes.
When a customer starts on your website
Some customers come to you already designed. With the Website 3D Designer, they send a quote request with the full design into your dashboard, so the site visit starts from their building instead of from scratch.
What it takes
A configurator that works on a phone, your price sheet loaded, and a habit of designing in front of the customer. More on designing from your phone. The full configurator is $250/mo with 2 seats included and $0 setup. Try it on your next site visit with the 10-day free trial.