For many of you, you have a one or two superstar-performing techs, but the rest of your team might struggle for consistency. You’re always looking for additional ways to encourage and motivate them. For many technicians, they struggle with consistent sales because they dislike the idea of being a salesperson. For those individuals, here are 4 secrets you can share with them to hopefully change their outlook and help them bump up their average tickets:
- Remember you’re in the people business.
Sales isn’t being pushy. People buy from your technicians mostly because they like them. When they like them, they trust them. Tell your techs to remember the importance of breaking the ice with their customers. Find some common ground. Have a discussion with your customers when you can―and make an effort to find a friend. When you develop a friendship, it becomes much easier for your technician to make important recommendations. And you’ll also find that customers will be much more open to the suggestions. - Wow the customer with your thoroughness.
Talk to top-producing technicians and salespeople throughout all of SGI, and you’ll find a common theme in their success: People buy from them because they are often impressed or “wowed” by their professionalism―and especially their thoroughness. When your technicians are in the home, it’s absolutely imperative that they follow every single step of the inspection. Your technician should encourage the homeowner to follow along, and your technicians should be educating the homeowner about their findings each step of the way. You’ll find that 95% of the competition doesn’t make the effort to completely evaluate a home, and by your techs going that extra mile, not only will it reveal additional repairs, your customers will be impressed and develop confidence in your technicians. - Focus on solving problems, not selling products or services.
Technicians often feel this pressure that they need to push products or services. That’s the last thing they should be thinking about. Instead, they should be focused on solving homeowners’ problems. Once your technicians have conducted their thorough inspection and educated the homeowner about what’s going on in their homes, there should be no need for a big sales push. Simply go over each problem with the home, give customers options on how to solve each one, and ask the homeowners what they would like to do. Furthermore, it would be best if your technicians highlighted the issues that really must be addressed, versus those that are less than urgent. - Ask for the sale.
Once your technicians have presented the problems they’ve found, they should ask for the sale. And here’s the thing: It’s not meant to be an aggressive push. All your technicians need to say is, “Can I get started with all of these repairs today for you?” That’s it. There’s no need to be aggressive. They will find that the work will usually sell itself. If someone protests the need for a certain repair, your technicians should be prepared why they think it should be done, but that’s it. If they resist, no problem. Simply make a note of it on the paperwork, and maybe you’ll get that repair the next time.
To further helps your technicians with their in-field communications and sales skills, you should absolutely send them to a Learning Alliance Service Essentials class. Go to the Training tab of your SGI website today to find upcoming dates. We promise that each technician that goes through this core class will dramatically increase his/her performance. Training truly does pay for itself.