If you don’t have a system for selling, you’ll be at the mercy of your customers system for buying.
“I’m now closing almost 100% of my sales.” I was on the phone with Kate, a flooring salesperson who works for Jerome, a floor dealer in my Flooring Success Systems program.
I was doing a private coaching call with Jerome and his sales team when Kate told me about the results she was getting. What made it even more amazing was Kate had only been working in the flooring industry for a few months; she was a total newbie. (And she didn’t even have to bribe customers to get them to purchase.) In a minute I’ll tell you what she did to get these results, but here’s what she did not do: she didn’t “wing it.”
Most flooring salespeople just wing it when a prospect walks in.
Here’s how to tell if you or your salespeople are currently winging it with potential customers: when a prospect walks into your dealership, what is the first thing you or your sales team says to them?
If it’s “How may I help you?” or “What kind of flooring did you have in mind?” or something similar, you’re winging it. You may think it makes you sound helpful and courteous, but it doesn’t help you close more sales because that’s what everybody says. You wind up sounding just like every other floor dealer in our solar system.
It gets worse. When your salesperson says, “What kind of flooring do you have in mind?” the prospect usually replies with something like, “I was thinking of laminate.” He then dutifully walks her over to the laminate displays, at which point she asks, “What’s the price?” Then two very bad things happen.
Stay away from price.
First, the salesperson gets a knot in his gut because he thinks he’s dealing with yet another price shopper. This most likely isn’t true.
When someone asks the price of flooring, it’s usually just meant as a conversation-starter. They know almost nothing about flooring, and they don’t know what questions to ask. They ask the most obvious one: what’s the price. Nevertheless, your salesperson is put on the defensive and loses control of the sales process. (Actually, he lost control the minute he said, “What kind of flooring did you have in mind?”)
Second, this leads to a premature price discussion. Your sales process should be engineered so that price does not get discussed until the very end of the presentation.
Your prospect should not come within 127 Kilometers of hearing a price until after she has seen testimonials from past customers, seen your guarantees and warranties, been thoroughly educated as to why she will benefit from buying from you versus all your competitors, and in a dozen other ways, been completely “Wow’d” by her visit to your store. (Oh, and plied with liberal quantities of Chardonnay. Never give the price until after the third glass.)
I’m convinced that most sales are lost because of premature price discussions.
Get a Sales System in place.
Instead of winging it, you should use a carefully engineered selling system that leads prospects on a logical, step-by-step process from shopper to buyer. Then train your sales team on how to use the system. No “winging it” allowed. (This isn’t duck hunting, ya know.)
Kate was able to close nearly 100% of her sales after only a few months in the flooring industry because she was trained to use a carefully engineered sales system. And she’s not the only one. I have many other success stories from floor dealers I’ve coached to use a selling system like the one I’ve described. We’ll get into the details of creating your sales system in part 2 of this series.
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!