JIM: Here’s a system that will enable your sales team to close 50% more sales with zero marketing costs. I recommend weekly sales trainings to get your team up to speed.
FLOOR DEALER: I don’t have time to do weekly sales meetings.
JIM: I’m curious. What’s taking up all your time that’s more important than increasing sales?
A couple of years ago I was visiting California’s central coast to attend a business seminar when I went into a Starbucks to get a Trenta black iced-tea, my caffeine delivery system of choice.
Upon emerging, I spotted a flooring store a few doors down, so I decided to walk in and “play prospect.” (I do this sometimes when I travel. I should start a contest: “Spot Jim at your flooring store and win a brand new installation van and a book of McDonald’s gift certificates!”)
After wandering around the store for a few minutes, a young lady approached and asked me one of the two questions that 98% of dealers ask prospects: “May I help you?” (To find out what the other question is—and why both questions cause dealers to get beat up on price, see Part 1 of this series.)
I told her that I was just looking. She replied with the standard, “Let me know if I can help you with anything,” then walked away. She was friendly, professionally dressed, she looked the part, but her opening line made it obvious to me that she had not been trained to use a system for selling flooring. The owner of that store was leaving hundreds-of-thousands of dollars per year on the table because of this oversight and most likely blaming slow sales on “the economy” or “customers who only care about price,” or the Home Depot down the street.
If you don’t have a system for selling, you’ll be at the mercy of your customer’s system for buying.
A carefully engineered selling system is critical if you want to maximize profits and escape the rat-race of selling on price.
A good selling system should do the following jobs:
- It should lead the prospect on a logical, step-by-step process from “shopper” to “buyer.”
- From the opening line, it should create instant differentiation from all the other dealers the prospect may have visited. (NOTE: Extensive market testing has shown that while opening with “Hey Baby” does indeed create differentiation from other dealers, it does NOT result in more closed sales.)
- It should give the salesperson 100% control over the sales process from the start.
- It should position the salesperson as a Trusted Advisor, much like a family doctor, rather than just another hack hocking flooring.
- It should totally eliminate premature price discussions. (NOTE: Plugging your ears and saying “la-la-la-la-la” when a prospect asks about price is NOT an effective method for eliminating premature price discussions.)
- It should create up-sell opportunities that don’t feel like up-sells to the prospect.
- It should dramatically reduce or eliminate price-resistance.
See more results with a system for selling.
I coach flooring dealers to use a trademarked selling system that I created. It does all of these jobs. It’s incredibly gratifying to see a dealer immediately begin to close more sales by moving away from “winging it” to using a system for selling. The best part is these extra sales get made without any increases in advertising costs.
By implementing a selling system like the one I’ve described, it’s possible for each member of your sales team to close at least one additional sale per week. If your average ticket is $3,000, that’s an extra $156,000 per year in sales per salesperson without spending another dime in advertising! And that’s even more exciting than winning a brand new installation van!
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.
See what real, live dealers are saying!