Sales

From the Remodeling Magazine Blog

There are two essential elements to focus on when you plan a business marketing strategy.

One is Educating your potential clients, and the second is to become creative by Reinventing your marketing. When you’re planning a marketing strategy, think of reinventing your company and being creative. Whoever said “if you keep doing the same thing expect the same results,” didn’t own a business. If you keep using the same marketing strategy and expecting the same results, the business world could pass you by. Methods that worked well in the past might not work now or in the future. To effectively market your business, you’ll need to re-invent your company.

When you educate your ideal customer and guide them through the buyer’s cycle of getting them to “know, like, and trust” you, you’ll make considerable progress towards earning the project. One of the purposes of your marketing process should be to provide clarity to your customers and clients–basically, walking a prospect through the process, which allows you to convert more prospects into clients. Creating a plan to lead clients through this process really forces you to create a marketing process and is the beginning stage of a true marketing system that helps your company convert leads to clients. It helps you take someone who shows an interest in your business and using that momentum to make them a client.

One step in the early stages of the buyer’s cycle is allowing the prospect a chance to get to know you and your team. Effective marketing is about getting in front of people with frequency, with their permission and providing great content and useful information. Ideally, this stage should be about education and building trust by sharing your expertise, and should involve the concept of permission marketing.

Permission marketing is the privilege of delivering a personal and relevant message to your ideal client. Your ideal client should expect and want this information.

Here is an example of permission marketing:

Develop a “white paper” of useful information your potential clients value. If you are a kitchen designer, would your customers be interested in an information packet called “The Best Modern Kitchen Designs?” If your ideal clients desire modern kitchens, take control of this niche by educating them on the topic. Create a form on your website that allows them to request this valuable information or “white paper” and receive it via e-mail, or by downloading a PDF from your website. This will make them feel as if they are receiving something of value. This is a great way to engage them and begin to lead them through the steps of the buyer’s cycle.

The information packet is just one idea to start potential clients on the path of the buyer’s cycle. Identify specific methods you use in your business to walk a prospect through the sales process and create a system that takes them from that “know, like, and trust” to buying, referrals and repeat business. Remodelers don’t have any difficulty thinking of systems for building a project, but they rarely develop one for marketing.  Now, to reinvent your company, deliver this “white paper,” in a unique way or one that is different than your competition:

• Create a podcast or video that delivers the requested valuable information. Host the video on your website and supply a link to it.
• Interview a strategic partner and include their expertise in your educational content. You can record a well planned dialogue focused on the modern kitchen design with pictures and a slide show and also with client testimonials that include audio and video.

Not only have you provided excellent content, but you are positioning yourself as an expert in the subject in your potential clients eyes and networked with a tradesman, or a strategic partner in your field. Do you think if it’s valuable this potential customer will forward the link to friends? It’s easy to use a Flip Minot camera to take a video and upload it to YouTube or burn it to a DVD. Emotion and passion drive successful people in our business and it is that same emotion and passion that creates something that is unique and different. Find creative ways like this to deliver your message to prospects.

I was recently in a conversation with a fellow LinkedIn member when I commented on a post he made.

The question he proposed was,”In the sales process, what questions do you ask the homeowner and how do you frame them?”

I think this is a great question and there isn’t a perfect answer that can be molded to everyone’s remodeling and home improvement business, because of the wide spectrum of projects we are discussing. There is one thing that is common however, a process that increases the opportunity for success. A sales process that brings success. Number one goal is to assess their needs. Why did they call you? You can’t sell anybody anything unless they have a need and want to have it resolved. You can’t earn their business unless you address their needs. If they are looking to have additional living space for their grandmother to live with them, but you are focused on quality and service, you’ll miss addressing the proper points. Asking questions, proper questions is essential. It all starts with assessing their needs. This is part of a successful process, but not the only proper step. In order to have a successful sales process there are steps (there truly are) to increase your ability to be in a great position at the time for a decision to chose you. I am sure you have heard this before, but it is fact:

” No one wants to hear how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Try asking questions that assess your customers needs and they will listen. Mr, & Mrs Homeowner, have you ever accomplished a home improvement project before? If yes, “How did that go?” What did you like about it? What didn’t you like about it?” They will lean you towards what is important and what isn’t important to them and you will know what to address (focus on) If they haven’t, you can educate them more and they need to be educated more on the process. Earn their trust by addressing what they just told you they do and don’t like or are not aware of. I could go on and on, but the important thing to remember is when asking questions, ask questions that assess their NEEDS. Great first step. Hopefully, if you are marketing your business brand properly, they already know you, like you and trust you. There are many ways to reach your ideal client before you meet them. I am sure they have or will be finding more about you, What did you do to make yourself an expert in the industry before you met them? Here is a helpful podcast we did on a sales process. Maybe it will help inspire an idea or two! www.remodelbuddy.com/sales-process-podcast

There have been many times in sales meetings a sales person will say, “teach me how to close.” He will say, “I just couldn’t overcome that objection and I keep hearing the same one over and over.” Talking strategy over on how to handle that nagging objection and working through a solution is always a good idea. (BUT) Did you ever think about the possibility of overcoming it, before it even arises? That, is the true solution.

No one likes to be sold. Everyone likes to buy. In the remodeling and home improvement industry it may be more important than ever to understand that when a customer becomes a client and says,”yes, you’re hired,” it is an emotional decision. When the decision is made, your prospect will make an emotional decision based from them knowing, liking and trusting you.

A sales process that educates and is unique is ultimately the best path towards reaching your prospect on an emotional level and answering questions before they arise. When more effort to educate before the questions come up,  before the objections have time to dwell in their minds, the less effort and time will be spent in the end trying to convince them you are right for the job. Trying to convince people in the end about something they are unsure of will erode that like and trust and more than likely the opportunity for you.

Marketing materials should educate. The sales process starts before they even contact you. The principles we discuss and the processes we follow at Remodel Buddy coaching and MasterBuilder Roundtables are based on getting the client to Know you, Like you, Trust you and ultimately buy and refer you. All of your communications should allow your prospects to really experience your expertise. The most successful remodeling businesses that increase their conversion rate, increase their profits from earning more of the right jobs and eliminate time chasing leads. It is the ones that understand a sales process that educates and is unique is successful. Here is a case study of a remodeling company that increased their conversion rate, decreased leads and at the year end had more sales and revenue, plus higher profits.

A research firm made 2,000 calls to businesses asking: “How much is your (product) or (service)?” just to see what type of response they received…

• 79% never asked for the callers’ name
• 86% never asked for the phone number or address
• 44% gave the price and other information, but made no effort to arrange an appointment
• 38% gave out some prices and hung up after the caller said thank you
• 52% took more than 8 rings to answer the phone, and a full 28% put the caller on hold for more than two minutes

WOW. I truly hope you do better…those are disappointing numbers! Let this serve as a reminder: You need a systematic approach when it comes to answering incoming phone calls… Are you asking the right questions? How are you converting the call into an appointment or “next step”? What if you were able to convert another 10% of these calls into solid appointments? Document your current approach. If you need help, reach out to us and we’ll provide you with some best practices that work for our members and that they have had great success with. For some additional thoughts and tips, see my partner Tim’s post from a few days back: When a Customer Calls Are You Prepared?

It is easier to close a sale when a prospect has sought YOU out, rather than when you approach them. One of the reasons for this is that when a prospect approaches you, the business relationship starts out on a more equal footing. Contrast the situation where a prospect approaches YOU with the built in resistance and or skepticism you encounter when the first contact is made via a cold call or unsolicited mailing. When people feel that they’ve discovered YOU, you don’t encounter the resistance that can occur when YOU approach them. Defenses are down, the buyer feels more in control of the communication. Instead of YOU saying, ‘Here’s how I think I can help you’ and then having to prove your claim with lots of convincing and persuading, the prospect is saying, ‘I think YOU’RE the person who can help me. Tell me how this works.’ They are much more motivated to listen to your answers! So usually in these articles I share ideas on what you can do to make the telephone ring, but once they’ve called you, how you handle that all important first phone call can make the difference between you landing a client – or losing them forever. When a person seeks your service, before the phone rings, are you prepared? Prepare to handle the conversations and practice them in your mind. They will come in handy! The first thing you have to ask yourself is what is the reason someone would call you? What is it that you can do to help? Also, just as important…..Can you reel them in? I have found that the first phone conversation played a critical part in the overall sales process. Handled correctly, the prospect was ‘pre-sold’ even before our first meeting, the progression from initial inquiry to signed contract was smooth and in some cases the phone conversation went so well that the caller made the decision to buy without us having to meet. So the first phone conversation is a crucial moment in the overall sales process and sadly many opportunities are lost forever by mishandling this critical stage. It’s not your job to ‘convert’ every caller. The purpose of this first phone conversation is to find out more about each other, and if appropriate, progress to the next step. But that doesn’t mean that every phone conversation will or should result in a sale. For a multitude of reasons, you may not be a good match for each other. I’ve witnessed many sellers put themselves – and their prospects – under unnecessary pressure because they were ‘going for the order’ before it had been established whether that was the appropriate next step. Shift your goal for the call to ‘let’s find out more about whether we’re right for each other’ instead of ‘must get the sale at any cost’. You’ll be more relaxed, and when the prospect doesn’t feel pressured, they are more likely to lower their defenses and tell you what they really want and need. Result? When appropriate the sales will flow naturally, without you having to push. And, if it’s not appropriate to progress to the next stage right now, you have left the door open for future business and/or referrals. It’s true what they say about first impressions. Because they have called YOU, they already know something about you and what you’re offering. The fact that the prospect has bothered to pick up the phone to call you and find out more is a huge sign that they’re interested in buying. The downside is that you may not be the only company they’re calling. So what do you need to do in this phone conversation to help things progress easily to the next step? The secret is to gauge what the caller really wants, and then give it to them. But you can’t do that unless you first get them to open up and tell you what they really want. The most important thing to do in the first few seconds is establish rapport with the enquirer, and then…. …Get permission to ask questions. When you build trust and ask the right questions, your prospects will give you all the information you need to solve their problems, give them what they really want and ultimately win their business. At the same time, some callers may be reluctant to open up on the telephone and discuss their real needs.If callers are reluctant to give you information it’s either because they don’t trust you, or because you aren’t asking the right questions. You can earn their trust by demonstrating in your attitude and manner that your primary aim is to help them make an informed decision. You can’t fake this. Customers are smart and they can sense who’s genuinely interested and trying to help, and who’s just after a quick sale. Knowing who your client is !Ask about the prospect’s needs and what results they hope to achieve . It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling coaching, financial services or training, there are key questions that you can formulate to find out what they want to achieve, what they want to avoid, and how they plan to use the product or service that you can supply.

It doesn’t always take a fancy party or money to say thank you. I was always a firm believer in the personal touch. Each Holiday season, I would personally call,visit and talk to everyone that was part of our team in any fashion…..to thank them for being a part of our business. I did my best during the year to keep a good relationship and communicate my appreciation, but during the Holidays I wanted to make sure that I made an effort to give a “personal” touch. I would and still do, hand write a note, put it in a card and deliver it in person to as many people I can. The ones that I couldn’t, I mailed and called & even spoke to their family to thank them and wish them the best. Isn’t it the time of year that you should do something uncommon, and give your business and personal relationships the attention they deserve? A caring gesture is priceless.