Ready, Set… Sell
Selling is one of the key skills associated with successful remodelers. A few weeks ago as I sat in on a remodeling peer group meeting hosted by Remodelers Advantage, this truth was repeatedly discussed: specifically, how do you find people who have enough experience and ability to gain the confidence of a well-heeled clientele. Most of the remodelers at the peer group meeting rely on one primary sales person… themselves. The trouble with this is that the company is completely dependent on one individual to keep the jobs flowing. But on the other hand, it is really hard to turn qualified (and expensive) leads over to an individual who may come up empty.
Here’s what many in the group are doing to improve their prospects of bringing a bona fide seller into the fold.
1. Look within your organization. More remodelers are getting up to speed on evaluating their current team members to uncover hidden skills. There are a number of personality tests that can be administered. Many who want to be sellers don’t actually have what it takes to close and negotiate. The worst thing to do is to promote someone into a position where they are not equipped to succeed. When an internal candidate is tested and appears to be the right fit, it is important to develop a plan to adequately train and mentor that individual.
2. Design Specialists… Design oriented remodelers who have had luck hiring new sales people, have been particulary successful hiring those with a design background. They must be evaluated for selling, but if they pass muster… this is a good way to go.
3. Incentives are important. Top sellers tend to be motivated by money. If a six percent commission can be afforded to the right person… by all means pay it. If that person is successful, your money train will keep that person in place for a long time.
If a 6% commission is all that you can pay a good salesperson, how do you expect to entice one? As you said, you are turning over qualified and expensive leads to this person. How can you trust someone that you got on the cheap to handle them correctly? If you want to grow your company, you have to have the people that will generate the business. These people are not cheap, but they will generate the dollars to pay for themselves. If you don’t have any business, you don’t have a company. Good salespeople will generate the business for you.
You mention training them in-house. Training is a specialty, the same as sales, accounting, advertising and the same as owning the company. Would you expect to be able to train people to do these tasks. Why do you expect to be able to train people to sell?
Hire the best and pay them the right amount to keep them happy. If they are paid on commission, they only get a percentage of the amount they sell. So they are paid on production. If they raise the income of your company, they raise their own income, anjd you can afford to grow.