Sales Basics

[swift_lee]

Hi all,

This is my first post here, so hi.

As part of my business growth I now have team members who take care of operational delivery of our service, which leaves me to do the sales.

The business is primarily supply and installation of premium bathrooms and other associated refurbishment works. When we have qualified a lead we know they will definitely buy from either us or one of a handful of competitors. By this stage prospects have usually already ruled out smaller or one-man-band installers, so we know our competition is reasonably limited.

My question is about the sales process and approach to get prospects to sign up with us rather than the competition. I don't want to bad-mouth anyone as that's not a good look. My approach has generally been fairly passive in terms of presenting myself and my company in the best way I can, being helpful, and highlighting the quality of our portfolio and testimonials, then hoping the customer makes the right choice. Naturally others do that too, sometimes more competitively than us and I imagine sometimes more pro-actively.

What approaches can I use to increase conversion rates and convince prospects to spend more with us rather than less with someone else?

 

[MEAVO]

In a similar boat (we sell office phone booths), once potential buyers consider us there are only 2-3 other competitors in the running. I haven't done this enough, but my aim is to follow up whenever we weren't chosen. If you're lucky, you might get some honest feedback which hopefully can be addressed. Otherwise I think your approach seems great - just being genuine and not badmouthing the competition.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

The one thing that puts me off contacting a firm is the lack of any idea of the price range of there services



If I go on to the web I can find sites that tell the price of say an 8x8 foot conservatory of a certain design. if i go to a local company they hide the price until the last moment and if they give a price and you find a cheaper company they offer to beat that price, this pisses me off no end and i never use them because they gave me a higher price to start with



Many things you cannot give a firm quote but you could show pictures and prices of jobs you have done to give an indication



A Guarantee is also a good sign that you are honest and care for your product

 

[Deleted member 248628]

Do people come to you via your website? Or is it phone calls? In person?

In all cases, you can put together a sales process - a series of steps that you lead people through which gently warms them up. If you track this, it also lets you see which stages are working well and which need improvement, so you can learn from your mistakes and get better over time.

Ideally, the process would start before they consider buying from you - so they get some sort of helpful free advice (which helps them rule out the one man bands) - so when it does come down to you and your competitors, you've already got a history of helping them out.

But the actual nature of that advice (and how you present it to them depends on how they come across you in the first place)

 

[patientlady]

My local bathroom showroom, has been beautifully refurbished, and shows some lovely fitted examples. Not a price in sight. But if I go to Jewsons all prices are available and I am aware that I can get around 40% discount. If I go to Ikea every price is clearly shown, so I agree with Chris - the price should not be negotiable - there should be a fixed price. (perhaps including labour if thats possible)
The sales process, should include why i should buy from you.
It might be that you use your own fitters rather than being subcontracted, that your lead time is shorter, that you aim to be on the premises for a shorter time due to having more fitters on each job. You probably have software that can show what there bathroom will look like when finished, which a one man band probably cannot and so on. Even a clear price with no surprises!
With my company we are one of the most expensive on the market but we make it clear what are our USP's are, and the value they offer p/l

 

[swift_lee]

Thanks all, much appreciate the responses.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Picking up on some comments above, I certainly wouldn’t be publishing any kind of price list but,as suggested it might be an idea to show some jobs done with s price range

This will save you from discount hunters!

Be very clear on the benefits of using you - you are absolutely right not to knock the competition, it never works. You can, however demonstrate how you are better

And above all, follow up. Something trades are generally awful at. Don’t pester but a call after quote. Did you get the quote? Do you have any questions? What are your thoughts? Etc etc.

 

[ViktorijaS]

I think customer service and customer feedback is critical in your case. The more happy existing customers the more new customers will come to you from recommendations.

 

[Nochexman]

What approaches can I use to increase conversion rates and convince prospects to spend more with us rather than less with someone else?

Hi Lee and welcome to the forum. First thing is do you know what your conversion rate is and so far as you can tell do you know why you fail to convert (and bear in mind that in many cases no one converts if the customer drops out)?

In a field like yours people are as often buying into you more than the business you represent or even the solution you propose. A premium bathroom can be a major investment and the key requirement might not be the price (and who wants price sensitive customers), it is the people doing the job and whether they can be trusted to do the right job.

If you are winning their trust you will win a greater share of the market. Good luck!

 

[MBE2017]

On premium bathroom sales I would expect design and quality of product and installation to be the main driver in decision making, price being secondary since many expect to pay over the odds for a premium installation.

Testimonials, letters or video, the more the better on your website. A follow up visit to sort out any snag list etc.

Now if you were selling to the masses you would approach it very differently.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

It sounds to me that you need to learn some closing techniques?

'Closing' needn't be hard ball. Simply asking for the order can be enough.

 

[AstEver]

In addition to the aforementioned hints on enunciating your competitive advantage during the sales process, you can use Selling Models (e.g. SPIN, NEAT, Conceptual), test, review and tweak them.
You can also gather intelligence on your competition's selling process and use it to improve yours and differentiate your business.

 

[WeddingsInWales]

I used to be in sales when I worked for an insurance company and then having my own business I moved more into Marketing. A mnemonic I always liked but do not hear very much now is SPACCO. It stands for Suspects - people you select to market your service to, because you feel they could buy from you, Prospects - people who enquire, Appointments - People who attend a sales appointment, have a sales visit or enter a showroom and meet a sales representative etc, Continuing Activity is the ongoing sales process and follow up stage prior to Close. Close = People who agree to buy and sign a contract or pay a deposit etc (but they have not necessarily paid in full yet) and Order, people who complete the Order, pay in full, accept / consume the goods / use the service.

Having established the stages above, you then refine who is in which stage, and how more could be added. In my hotel business, my Suspects are dog owners (we offer dog friendly B&B with lots of country walks), Prospective Brides (we are a wedding venue) and Ghost Hunters (we were featured on Most Haunted and have a lot of ghost hunters wanting to look for ghosts. None of these three are compatible and only this morning I saw a wedding prospect cancel because they were frightened it was haunted, but generally we can keep the various niches separate by using separate marketing approaches (separate websites for each niche, separate facebook etc). Se we can promote our service separately to each group of Suspects, according to their interests.

For your Prospect stage, these are people who make an enquiry. How can you increase the number of Prospects? Obvious answers are SEO, Adwords, local marketing campaigns, Showroom promotions, price offers, etc, and variations on what you already do. But you start tailoring these to different groups of Suspects / different niche interests.

Less obvious answers include increasing your accessibility for enquirers to reach you. I recently installed Jivochat on my websites and this has stimulated a goodly number of prospects to enquire, where before they would have to phone or email. Jivochat is a bit more proactive and invites visitors to 'chat' on the site, and it generates a few wedding viewings and is generally a helpful service to existing clients also.

Another less obvious answer is something called the Buyers Parade - a concept where your prospects (they have enquired but not gone ahead yet) are regarded as lined up in rows like in a military parade, and the rows change position, with the row at the front being the Prospects ready to buy right now - the ones 'in the Buyers Parade'.

Using this concept I entered all my prospects in each niche onto Aweber and had Aweber mail them a pre-written series of letters about my service and giving general 'how to' advice on their niche interest. The letters took about a month to write, covering wedding planning etc, for wedding prospects, dog tips and dog walking locally and other info about dogs for the dog niche, and ghost stories for the ghost niche - a bit like a pre-written Blog. Once the letters are written they continue to work forever. They are automatically sent to your prospects until they unsubscribe or buy. I often get replies from people thinking I have written to them personally, unaware the letters (hundreds of them now) are all pre-written a year or more ago and scheduled to go out at predetermined frequency.

GDPR compliance rules need applying of course but as you add more and more Prospects to the relevant list, so you are maintaining contact with them until they are next in their own 'buyers parade' and ready to make a buying decision. I also established the 'buying window' which varies according to niche. Weddings tend to be 30 days from date of enquiry, unless some delay reason occurs, and are a once off sale. The first 30 letters therefore go out daily, then weekly thereafter. Dog B&B is a repeat purchase as they revisit, so a monthly letter is sent to Dog friendly B&B guests. The ghost hunters will tend to visit once a year and also get a monthly letter.

For the Appointment stage measuring is key. You measure how many viewings / visitors to your showroom by week, by month, by source of enquiry, by niche interest, and compare the conversion to sale by source of enquiry (and cost it, for return on investment re advertising spend), by interest niche and seasonally and so on.

For the Close, see myriad texts on closing techniques!

So SPACCO is a useful framework on which everything else is based. It is like a map where you target the various stages in the sales process individually until you get a holistic result that is double or triple the results that you had before.

Hope this is helpful.
Martin