We recently held a webinar entitled “Is the Cost of Lead Development Helping or Hurting Your Bottom Line?” We received an abundance of questions for the speakers: Dave Yoho, Chris Behan of Socius Marketing, Mark Highbaugh of Marlimar Mobile Strategies and Tim Musch of Marketsharp, which will now be addressed here. NOTE: we will also be producing part 2 of …
Continue ReadingMany home improvement companies miss the boat in their sales process by not hiring a customer satisfaction rep (C.S.R.) either full or part time. Here is a five step process for implementing the skills of a C.S.R. in your business. Step 1: Job is sold/approved – ready to go Step 2: C.S.R. (Customer Satisfaction Rep.) is assigned He visits job …
Continue ReadingIt is abundantly clear that this is an industry on the move! Forty years ago the home improvement industry was struggling to reach a projection of $2 billion annual gross revenue. Now the annual gross revenue stands at $300 billion plus (conservatively). However, we are a fragmented industry without proper recognition or status for an industry this size. The number …
Continue ReadingThe following questions were left over from our most recent webinar on lead management and diversification: Q: How do you isolate those who are “not now” leads – how do you follow up with them? A: A well-managed company does the following with lead intake: Logs every lead into their database Ensures that a lead slip contains a name, address, phone …
Continue ReadingIn order to set up a business or corporation, there are some key business cautions that you need to be aware of: Consult an attorney, create an issue stock certificate for shares invested, and have a minutes book. You created this corporation to limit your personal liabilities, therefore, be sure to use the correct, full corporate name on your letterhead, …
Continue ReadingA salesperson is often a pin on a map or a name on a monthly report to the sales manager, an enigma to non-salespeople, a bookkeeping item called “cost-of-selling” to the accountant, a smile and a wisecrack to a receptionist, and a “glad handing”, sometimes flattering vendor connection to the buyer. Many salespeople today need the endurance of an Olympic …
Continue ReadingLet me start this posting with a powerful statement: “A well-defined cancel/save procedure can recover 25 to 30% of rescinded contracts.” In one of my last columns I wrote that rescission is a malfunction of the sales process. A canceled sale usually means something has been left unsaid, or un-clarified. As an example, at the close the salesperson assures the …
Continue ReadingBuilding rapport with prospects continues to be one of the biggest issues in the industry, which is why it was addressed during our latest home improvement webinar. As always there were numerous questions that we could not answer during the program, so we will tackle them in this posting. Q: Do you believe you can teach salespeople how to develop …
Continue ReadingWe will continue to address some of the most pertinent questions that were asked during our latest home improvement webinar. Q: What is the best compensation plan for salespeople? A: Compensation is a key. So let’s start out with a couple of “do not’s”. Avoid paying salespeople on a profit sharing basis. The profitability of each contract should be measured against …
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