Introduction to Sales:

Sales is the driving force for any business, so it is important to ensure you are as efficient and effective as possible in this skill. In this playbook, we will be discussing the key components of having a successful sales system and why having a system is crucial to having strong results. In our industry, sales is much more than just providing a quote, you must create value, build trust and separate yourself from the competition. Always keep in mind, within the trades industry, we are selling a service more than we are selling a product.

What is a sales System and why is it important:

A sales process is a set of repeatable steps that a sales person takes to take a prospective buyer from the early stage of awareness to a closed sale. Typically, a sales process consists of 5-7 steps: Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling objections, Closing, and Follow-up. Within the home service industry, the most important steps are the presentation, handling objections and closing phases. Those are the stages where you can really separate yourself from competition and put yourself into position to close deals. So why is it so important to have a consistent sales process?

1. Gives you and any new employees the structure and direction of how to run effective appointments.
2. Easier to train and develop new sales reps.
3. Increases efficiency of the business.
4. Increases consistency in customer experience.
5. Provides a scope for constant improvement.
6. Gives a clearer picture of the challenges of sales in your market.
7. Increases overall conversion rate.

Recommended Sales System:

1. Pre Estimate Process - This is the interaction and process you have with customers prior to actually showing up for the estimate. If you are utilizing Home Field Advantage and the Hoist Call Center, we will handle this portion of the system for you. The purpose of this step is to get a general understanding of what the customer is looking for, to set expectations for the estimate appointment and to schedule the estimate appointment. This will also be a good opportunity to set a strong first impression with your customer, so ensure you are polite and professional throughout this first step. Also this is a great time to set proper expectations with your customer for the estimate. In your pre estimate email make sure you share details of your estimate process, how long the appointment will last, and a confirmation of the date and time of the appointment. You can also include a couple of informational attachments (About Me Write Up & Pre Positioning) to help educate and better prepare the customer for their upcoming appointment. Click here to view an example of the email you should send to clients prior to your scheduled appointment.

2. Intro and Rapport - This is the step in the sales process when you actually arrive at the location of the project for the estimate. When you first arrive, always try to start your appointment inside and sit at the dining room table, even if it is an exterior project. You want your customers to be comfortable, and it is hard to build rapport when you are standing at the doorstep. Before diving into the appointment, take the time to build a relationship with the customer. People tend to enjoy talking about their passions, hobbies and families. Try to find some things around the house that you can relate to. One acronym that you can use to help find topics to build rapport on is F.O.R.M. Family, occupation, recreation, and mission. People enjoy talking about their family, especially if they have kids or grandkids. Many people are also passionate about their job and you can relate to people through work. Recreation is things they enjoy doing for fun or in their free time. Mission is things the customer is passionate about, or wants to accomplish. Travel and hobbies are great examples of this. Your goal at this stage is to break down that shield of ice the customer has.3. Needs Gathering - The next phase is getting an understanding of what exactly the customer is looking to get done. Take the time to understand not only what work they need done, but also what they value from a service standpoint. Any painter in your market can put paint on the wall, however not every painter knows how to provide a quality service for their customers. In the end you are selling the quality of your service more than you are labor and materials. This is the starting point of when you start to separate yourself from your competition. You will most likely get beat on price, so if you can’t show value beyond just the labor and materials, you will struggle closing deals. Another key aspect of this phase is: don’t try selling to the customer yet, just ask questions to better understand what they are looking for, then you use that as your ammunition for selling points during your presentation. Click here for a list of strong needs gathering questions to ask your customers. It is crucial to understand what is important to the customer beyond just the painting needs. What else is important to them beyond getting the work done. For example, asking a customer if they have worked with a contractor in the past and how their experience was, you will learn a lot about what is important to them beyond just the quality of work. This is how you can separate yourself from competition in your sales process, since most painting contractors don’t cover the service needs and only focus on the project needs.

4. Walk Around - This step is a big opportunity to show your competence as a painting contractor. You should do a walk around the project with your customers, to ensure you are both on the same page and also more importantly to educate the customer.  Most customers have no idea how much work actually goes into a paint job. Take the time to teach them your process on how you would paint their project. Also, make sure you take the time to educate them on any paint failures or problem areas. Teach them what caused the issue, and the solution to fix and maintain it. This will help build a lot of trust with your customers, and will add more value to the customer from a service standpoint. Your goal with the walk around is to teach your customer a minimum of three different things. I typically used the acronym PCCS (Problem, cause, consequence solution). What is the problem? What caused the problem? Why is it important to fix the problem? How will we fix the problem?  Here is a list of problems you could educate your customer about.

1. Peeling paint
2. Cracked or old caulking
3. Mold
4. Chalking
5. Fading paint
6. Drywall failure
7. Rotted wood
8. Flashing
9. Alligatoring
10. Paint Vs Stain
11. Dirty surface

5. Estimate - This is the point in the estimate where you are getting your numbers put together. Though you are not spending time with the customer at this time, you can still add value to your estimate by providing the customers with an information packet. Things to add to the packet can include: product information, write up about you and your company, color wheel, painting process, before and after pictures. You can find some examples of product information here. Another key aspect of the estimate portion is to be efficient. You want to limit your time away from the customer as much as possible. When you first start, it may take you 45-60 minutes to complete an estimate, but you eventually want to work that down to 20-30 minutes. This will help you keep your total estimate appointment time to around 1 hour. The longer you are away from the customer, the more momentum you are losing on the sale.

6. Presentation - This is the phase of the sales process where you begin to sell. During your presentation make sure you focus on what is important to the customer. Circle back to the needs you gathered at the beginning of the estimate and show the customer how you will satisfy their needs. Also, take this time to proactively handle any objections they may have prior to the closing question. For more context on the presentation watch the video above to get a better understanding of how the presentation should flow and the key things you should focus on throughout the presentation.

7. Trial Close - Before you show the customer your price,try to get a gauge of how the customer is feeling about the project and working with your company. You can do this by asking a trial closing question. This question tends to be the most effective. “Other than the price, is there any reason we could not get your job started today?” This question can be used as a great learning tool for mastering your sales process. If they answer no, that means they like everything about your estimate up to that point, it just comes down to the price. If they answer with an objection, that means you did not properly handle the objection in the presentation, meaning you are missing something that is important to them.

8. Close - This is the final stage of the initial sales process. This is also one of the areas where most new business owners in the industry struggle. When you get to the close, you must ask for the job! Be direct with your ask and wait until the customer responds before you say anything else. There are many different ways to approach a closing question, but the best is to be concise and direct: “I feel confident that we can do a great job for you, can we paint your house?” You will increase your close rate 5-10% by simply asking this question. If a customer does not buy after the first ask, it is important to keep the conversation going to get a better understanding of why they are not ready to buy. I would typically follow up the no with the following questions:

1. Was this everything you are looking for in a paint job?
2. Do you trust that we could do a good job for you?
3. Is this price within your budget that you have set for the project?
4. Did you get all of the information you were looking for today?

If they answer yes to all these questions, then what is really holding them back. This is how you should respond. “This is everything you are looking for in a paint job, you trust that we can do a great job for you, and the price is within your budget, can we just go ahead and get you on the schedule?”

Now if they say no to any of those, you now know what their objection is and you can work to handle that objection. Review the training on objection handling to have a better understanding of how to overcome certain objections. If objections are not able to be handled, move on to the next step of the sales process.

9. Follow Up - After you complete the initial sales process, you should have a standard operating procedure for follow up. The key to follow up is to stay persistent. According to a study by Brevet, 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal. However, 44% of sales reps follow up with a prospect only once before giving up. After four follow-ups, 94% of salespeople have given up. Each time you follow up, use a different approach and at different times to maximize your opportunity of receiving a decision. Make sure you don’t just say we will follow up next week, it is always better to schedule an exact day and time for the follow up. This does a few things for you. 1) Gives you another opportunity to show the customer you are prompt and detail oriented. 2) Will give you a higher chance of the customer actually answering your follow up call.

Tips to improving your sales abilities:

1. Get the reps in - It often takes a sales professional months to get a good grasp and understanding of their sales process. It may take over 30 estimates before you are comfortable with the process, so do not get frustrated if you are not finding success right away.
2. Maximize your opportunities - Every appointment you go on should be treated with the same urgency, no matter the size of the job. Presenting a price on the spot of the estimate should be a high priority to ensure you are giving yourself the best opportunity to close the deal and ensure all questions are answered.
3. Stay Consistent - Stick to the system you develop. Deviating from your process will create bad habits and will make selling more difficult for you down the road.
4. Practice with family and friends - Set up mock estimates with people you know to get feedback from them as a customer. This also allows you to get additional reps in with your system.
5. Record yourself - Listen to how you talk and respond to your customers during appointments. This is a great way to self coach and learn more about your strengths and weaknesses as a salesperson.
6. Ask for coaching - Hoist has a full time coach at your disposal to help you tweak your process and give sound feedback to improve your sales efficiency through listening in to live estimates or even role play. Click here to schedule a coaching event.
7. Solicit feedback - Gather feedback from your customers on both won and lost jobs to get an understanding of why they did or did not choose you for the work.

Action Steps to Improving Sales Process:

1. Create a cheat sheet to carry with you on your estimates to ensure you are hitting all the steps. This can include each step of the process, key needs gathering and rapport questions to ask, and strategies to help overcome objections. You can find an example of a cheat sheet in the owners resources of the Hoist Training
2. Create a pre estimate SOP that gives customers information about your company and helps set expectations for their upcoming estimate with you.
3. Complete 15 estimates using the system before looking to make adjustments. It takes time to master a process, so be sure to give yourself the time to get a good understanding of the general process before making any big changes.
4. Schedule a coaching session to fine tune your sales process and get feedback from someone who has experience in the industry.

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