Greetings Floor Dealers!

Every person who walks through your door is on a 1-10 scale of being “ready to buy.”  1 meaning they are not ready at all, and 10 meaning “I gotta have it now, baby!  Just show me where to sign!”

Anyone who is less than an 8, 9 or 10 is really not ready to buy, and ultimately will waste your and your salespeople’s time.  Unfortunately, most flooring salespeople waste a ton of time and energy trying to convert 1’s, 2’s and 3’s into 10’s.

So the first job in creating a zero resistance sales environment is to attract people to your store who are already 9’s and 10’s, because in reality, you don’t even have to sell these people.  They are already pre-sold.  Your job is really just to finalize the details.  As part of the Inner Circle Club, you are given an entire arsenal of strategies for magnetically attracting 9’s and 10’s.

The second job is to create an environment in your showroom that further reduces sales resistance.  You also have an armload of strategies for doing this.

Let’s go over some of the foundational strategies for creating a zero resistance sales environment.

Referral marketing
I talk to dozens of flooring dealers every month and when I ask them if they can tell the difference between a referred client and someone who visited off a yellow page ad they laugh and say absolutely.  Referred clients are truly pre-sold.  It’s rare to get a referral who is less than an 8.  Therefore, if you are not using the referral generating strategies from the Rapid Launch, you are creating a much more difficult job for yourself and your salespeople.

By using the Referral Rewards program, you can easily generate an average of 3-5 referrals for every job.   Three very important things happen when you do this:

First, let’s say that you are doing an average of 20 jobs per month and you generate 5 referrals from each job.  That’s 100 referrals per month.  By following the steps in the “Testimonials and Referrals” module, you can easily identify 3-8 people out of the hundred that need flooring right then.

Second, the other 95 people who don’t need flooring right then are third party endorsed referrals!  Over the course of 12 months you will build a house list of 1,000-1,500 of these hot, referred prospects.  Subscribe them to the Home Advisor newsletter and all other client mailings and farm them over the next 6-24 months.  By doing this you have created a direct mail list that IS NOT available from a list broker.  You can’t buy this list!  Imagine the results of a direct mail campaign to this list versus a purchased list.  No comparison.

Third, you are creating a “culture of referrals.”  The word will spread to all your past and present clients that, “Yes indeedy!  I want your referrals, and I will treat them like royalty!”

Consumer education
Educating your clients positions you as a trusted advisor rather than a “carpet hawker.”  Using 24-hour Free Recorded Message lines and the Consumer’s Guide to flooring, you are able to sift-and-sort your prospects, educating them on the benefits of your store and why choosing flooring based on cheap price is completely idiotic.  By the time a client visits your store, they already educated, and have been through the sifting and sorting process.

Testimonials
Testimonials give you a halo of credibility.  No matter how eloquent you are at describing how wonderful your store is, it will always sound ten times more believable coming from a 3rd party.

If your prospect has seen dozens of testimonials from other people who have paid your higher prices, she will conclude that you must be worth it.

Use testimonials everywhere!  In your marketing; newsletters; brag wall in your showroom; testimonial portfolio during the Design Audit; flyers; inserts; etc., etc., etc.

If someone held a gun to my head and made me choose ONE strategy for creating zero resistance, it would be testimonials.  They’re that powerful.  And here’s the best part: virtually NONE of your competitors ever use them!!

100% Iron-Clad Triple Guarantee
People are naturally skeptical.  Why?  Because they’ve heard inane, clichéd claims from every business in existence.  Most dealers try to be all things to all people, and consequently they wind up using generic descriptions of their business.  Look at any floor covering ad and you will likely see one of the following adjectives: Trusted, Friendly, Professional, Free Quotes,  Best Value, 100% Satisfaction.  These mean absolutely nothing to the consumer because they convey no clear, compelling benefit.  They also have zero impact because everybody says it!

Compare the descriptions above with…

“You are protected by my No Regrets guarantee: If you aren’t happy with your flooring, I’ll replace it FREE in the first 30 days!”
 
“You are protected by my Lifetime installation warranty:  If anything ever goes wrong with the installation, I’ll fix it free!”

WOW!  These are taken from my 100% Iron-Clad Triple Guarantee…and this guarantee has teeth!  It actually conveys a clear, compelling benefit to the client!  (Also known as a Unique Selling Proposition.)

Marketing pieces that look and feel totally different than your competitor’s
The average consumer sees 10,000 advertising messages every day.  The human mind simply cannot absorb this much information, so as a self-defense mechanism we have all erected advertising filters that keep us from even “seeing” most of it.  Your job as a marketer is to cut through the clutter, and you’ll never do it trying to “out slick” the slick advertising pieces put out by your competitors.

That’s one reason (out of many) that the marketing pieces you are using look very personal; like something you typed up on your computer and personally mailed out to your past clients and prospects.  The vast majority of your competitors never, ever do this…heck, they don’t even understand it!

Design Audit
The Design Audit sales process is powerful for several reasons:

First, your competitor’s don’t do it.  It instantly sets you apart.

Second, it positions you and your salespeople as trusted advisors—like a family doctor—rather than as “salesmen.”  In fact, if done properly, the entire process feels more like a consultation with your family doctor than a sales process.  Even the maintenance recommendations sheet at the end is called a “Prescription.”

Third, it has built in “upsell” opportunities that don’t feel like upsells to the client. They feel like helpful recommendations from a trusted professional, which is exactly what they are.

Other Zero Resistance Strategies

  • Clean, well-organized store
  • Beverage bar
  • Baked goods prepared in the store (makes your store smell like “home”)
  • Uniforms worn by your salespeople and installation crews (a polo shirt with your store name is fine)
  • Name badges
  • World Class Installation System

One final thought…

Most flooring dealers are looking for the “Silver Bullet,” that one strategy or gimmick that will solve all their sales and marketing challenges.  As Inner Circle Members, hopefully, over the course of your membership, I have made it clear and you have come to realize that there IS NO silver bullet.  It doesn’t exist.  It’s all about systems and strategies that overlap and reinforce one another.  Each of these strategies, by themselves, work.  But together their effectiveness compounds exponentially.

 

To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”

Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
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