In almost all of the decisions that you have to make during the growth of your home inspection company, the two main elements or standards by which those decisions are made are speed and excellence. These two elements are pitted against one another in what is called a decision matrix.

This matrix can be found almost everywhere in your home inspection business- from marketing strategies to actually performing the home inspection. A balance of what you can actually get done in the amount of time (or money) you have, versus what you'd like to see done. Doing things with just speed gets them done, or at least the ball rolling, but has few of the qualities of excellence. And while excellence has its place, speed just may be one of its components, as excellence is subjective.

For example, some realtors, especially the busy ones, want the home inspection over with as quickly as possible so that they can continue their day. To them a speedy but competent inspector is an inspector they like. I myself target these busy Realtors, as they do 80% of all real estate transactions. If you remember the Pareto Princible - 20% account for 80%, you want to know who these Realtors are, and you need to know what they want from an inspector.

You may be in a market where the Realtor doesn't even show up at the inspection, so you'll have to show your speed and excellence another way. Such as same day delivery -- a phone call immediately after to communicate any important issues. The list goes on...

For a practical example; in my case, where the Realtor does sit the house during the home inspection, I speed up the process using common sense inspection practices that have little downside, like not checking every outlet. This may seem like short sheeting the bed but it can pay huge rewards in that I might be able to put a top twenty Realtor in my stable. In their mind, speed may very well equate with excellence.

We all know it takes more than just a fast home inspection to be excellent, so to be fair, even the busy Realtors have a slew of other qualities you must posses to be considered as their "go to guy." In most cases you were sized up as much as you could be in a blink of an eye when you first met them. Your performance is now what will determine if you're good enough for the number two inspector position.

What I'm saying is that your business should be operated on two sets of standards - one based on speed and one based on excellence. The trick is to determine the mix that will generate the most referral activity from your target market or sweet spot.

In regards to your marketing efforts, by opting for speed- you create action, and action gives you the momentum you need to get your goal accomplished. By opting for excellence, you can create something that is better than what everyone else is creating ... and, in business, that can put you ahead of your competition.

The decision matrix is mostly based on your beliefs, and all beliefs are self limiting. So take a close look at how you perceive your market and be open to shifting your decision matrix to hit that sweet spot of never ending referrals.