“How to work with your salesman and close more deals.”
I know there are a lot of ways to work and close deals. Sometimes your sales staff cannot close the deal right away. Maybe your client needs to think about it or even get some more bids.
We have a policy that our sales staff has 5 days to close the deal once they have pitched the client the first time. Then after that they must turn over the job to there sales manager.
Now I no what some of you are thinking, but follow with me and here me out.
We did a survey of 700 leads that came into our office. We sold 50% of them. Now we have 350 leads unsold. After checking the county records we found 50 more that we had sold but was not entered into our system. So now we have 300 jobs unsold. The county records showed 100 jobs had permits pulled by other contractors. This left 200 jobs unsold.
So we now had our sales manager start calling the 200 unsold leads. He did not high pressure he just asked how we can earn your business? He reset 50 appointments and has sold 32 of them so far at $268.000. Not bad for lost leads.
But the real kicker was what he found out once in the clients home. The biggest reason we had not closed the sale was no follow up was done. Most of the clients said they never close on the first appointment because they want to think about it.
We are in a senior living area and most of our clients are 65 plus. So now we asked our sales staff why they never went back to try and close again. The sales staff believe that if they do not close the first time they will not close at all. BIG MISTAKE!
So now you see why they turn over there deal after 5 days and they also lose 50% of there commission if it closes by our sales manager.
Now let me fast forward another 2 weeks because we have continued to work on the balance of 150 leads. We have reset another 28 leads and have closed 18 of those so far at $163,800. So all together we have closed another$431,000 by just rehashing the deal with our clients.
So as you can see this was a big deal to us plus a major wake up call. With the economy the way it is right we need every deal we can get our hands on.
So take the bull by the horns and set up a rehashing sales program and you will see your sales grow.
Happy Selling
Glen
Tagged as:
Contractors,
Marketing,
Sales
Now I know what your thinking already, but if you give me a little of your time and some latitude here I am going to lead you down a path of a new and improved way to help you grow and succeed in your contracting business.
Yes this may be a mind adjustment for you because I am bringing you into the latest and greatest way to think about your business. So by now you may be thinking OK, what is a process map? Let me explain…
First off let me tell you some good news, since you are a contractor you have been using process maps for years but just in a different way. Think about the blueprints you use everyday in your building process.
Well are you surprised? See blueprints are used in our construction industry to build something from the ground up. But process maps are designed to build your company from the top down.
All the contractors I know out there would never start any type of construction without a set of blueprint plans. Right? But think about how many of you do not use a process map to build and manage your companies.
Pending on the size of your company using a process map can save you thousands if not millions yearly if you use them properly and also build your company exponentially all at the same time.
Please remember that it does not matter if you are a one man operation or have hundred employees, you can still use a process map in your contracting business.
To make it as simple as I can a process map is like going from A to Z or start to finish but you are listing or breaking down exactly everything you need to do and who needs to do it and by when you expect to have it done by.
It’s also a way for you to measure and make everyone in your company accountable. So let’s say you have several departments within your company. Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Installation, Shipping and Receiving, Accounting, Purchasing, etc.
Now do yourself a favor as the owner and ask everyone to track there time by 15 minute intervals for one week. Have them log into the computer and keep track and then send to you by weeks end. Once you sit down and analyze this data you are going to have an awakening big time.
Because you have not setup your departments with a process map you will find a ton of wasted time spent on things that do not add to the bottom line profits. Now bring in each head of that department and set down with them and build your process map for them. Several things will happen after you are done and you are using them system wide.
You will have identified the wasted time and stream lined a much more efficient process, plus put accountability to the process.
So as the owner I suggest you do one as an overall company but make sure you do all departments to.
This makes hiring much easier for you because you can clearly see when you need someone to fill a position and it will give your new hire an immediate process map to follow and they will be more productive sooner.
Now that was not so bad was it? The nice part of it is that it cost you nothing but your time to implement but will add money and growth to the bottom line.
Happy Selling
Glen
Tagged as:
Contractors,
Marketing,
Process Map,
Sales,
Service
