In days past, pressure-driven sales techniques like the ones people associate with old-fashioned car dealers were common. But today’s strategies are different.
You must build a strong, trusted relationship with prospective customers to produce sales, especially in the home improvement industry. But this takes time and effort, and many salespeople struggle to do it effectively.
Here’s how to set up your sales team to successfully create paying clients.
Understand How Sales Follow-Through Works
Establish Rapport
Genuine relationship building and a commitment to creating win-wins go a long way with homeowners. Train salespeople to take a consultative approach by asking questions and getting to pain points so homeowners feel heard.
Build Trust
People buy from contractors they like and trust. And it takes time to build that confidence between a business and a customer. Give your sales team the tools they need to present your company in a way that differentiates it from competitors and brings value to the table.
Apply for a free coaching session with Dave Gullotti
Know When to Hire More Salespeople
A common mistake home improvement companies make is pushing their existing salespeople to work harder, but this strategy produces diminishing returns. Remember, each person can run down only so many leads at a time.
How do you know when your salespeople have hit their limits? It’s when they no longer have enough time to follow up on proposals they’ve written.
Know the Sweet Spot for Sales Performance
Our team and our partners have dealt with hundreds of home improvement companies and salespeople across multiple industry verticals. In our experience, the sweet spot of leads per salesperson per week is between 10 to 15, which is two to three a day at the most.
This may seem surprising—and low—to many business owners. But to truly nurture a relationship, it can take a good salesperson two to three hours with a client to hear their concerns, find their pain points, and establish rapport.
Use Performance Metrics to Guide Hiring Decisions
Performance metrics allow you to track results in actual numbers and reports, so you get a clear view of your business.
Use measurements like average dollar per lead (ADL) to assess how productive your team is. Once ADL is at its peak and starts to go down instead of up, it’s a good idea to hire more salespeople.
Be Willing to Stretch
If you’ve been asking salespeople to run too many leads per week, you’ll need to shift how you do business. It may be a stretch at first, but it will pay off in the long run as your team sees how their sales rates improve as they spend more time nurturing each potential customer.
Future-Proof Your Sales Now with Smart Growth Strategies
Set your sales team up for long-term success by creating a clear plan that ties their efforts to everything you do.
Get a jump start on your strategic business planning with StructureM today. Apply for a free coaching session to get started.
