A joiner receives an enquiry for a job he does not want. It is small, awkward, too far away and not what he does.
He does not reply. The enquirer chases once, then gives up and finds somebody else. Six months later she needs a large kitchen fitted, which is exactly his work, and she does not contact him.
She also mentions to two friends that he never got back to her. The cost of a thirty second reply he did not send is three jobs he will never know about.
1. Reply, always, even when the answer is no
Silence is not a polite decline, it is an unprofessional one. A person who receives a clear no thinks well of you, and a person who receives nothing tells other people about it.
2. Reply quickly rather than perfectly
Within the hour, briefly. A fast honest no is worth more than a considered one three days later, and it lets the person get on with finding somebody else.
3. Give a reason that is true
Not my speciality, outside my area, fully booked until April. Reasons are accepted readily, and their absence reads as either dislike or disorganisation.
4. Refer somebody else where you can
The single most effective thing available. A person who is handed a useful name remembers you more warmly than most of the people you actually work for.
5. Build a short referral list deliberately
Two or three people for the jobs you decline most often. This costs nothing, they reciprocate, and it converts your worst enquiries into a genuine asset.
6. Offer the honest waiting time instead of a no
Where the issue is capacity rather than fit, a date lets the person choose. A surprising number will wait, which is a job you would otherwise have declined.
7. Keep the door open explicitly
Say what you would be right for. A person who declined once usually does not think of you again unless you told them what to come back with.
8. Decline before the site visit, not after
A visit for work you were never going to take costs an afternoon. Three questions beforehand prevent it, which is the qualification in quoting questions that interrupt the job.
9. Price rather than decline where it is borderline
A job you would do at a higher price is not a no, it is a quote. Let the customer decide rather than deciding for them.
10. Do not decline by pricing absurdly
A deliberately high number to make somebody go away occasionally gets accepted, and then you are doing the job you did not want at a price that makes you look dishonest.
11. Handle the small jobs deliberately
Minimum charges, a day rate or batching them into one visit turns declined work into viable work, which is the ground in small job enquiries that handymen can quote quickly.
12. Publish what you do not do
Coverage area, job types and minimum size. Most unsuitable enquiries can be prevented rather than declined, which saves everybody the exchange.
13. Do not let the declining happen at eleven at night
Difficult replies written while exhausted come out worse, which is the cost described in the evening admin hour every owner loses.
14. Let something else handle the declines
An assistant that screens for area, job type and size, declines politely with a referral, offers the honest waiting date where capacity is the issue, and passes on only the work you want means no enquiry goes unanswered. That screening is described in ai receptionist moving companies. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under small business.