DEAR SALES COACH Please take our quick survey! OSHA10 IN SPANISH Dear Sandler Coach, In the last issue, you told us to basically qualify the buyer for budget before we spend time working on a bid or proposal. I’m worried, that if my sales people do this, they will over-qualify the buyer and walk away from good business. How can I avoid this? - Thomas M. Dear Thomas, Ninety-nine percent of homeowners are shocked by how much remodeling costs. The mistake that salespeople are making is they aren’t uncovering what the prospect is willing and able to spend. Instead, they are finding out what the homeowner thinks the project will cost. I find this happens regularly. A salesperson burns through a ton of leads to get a handful of clients. And because he or she lacks the true qualification skills necessary, the homeowners who end up sold aren’t really great clients anyway. It’s unrealistic to think that someone is suddenly going to increase their budget from $40,000 to $80,000 as the result of a 10-minute phone call with a salesperson. Using a range will help you test the level of commitment for the project or if they are just shopping around. Instead, use other clues to help you decipher what their spending tolerance may be. For instance, home value and neighborhood are much better predictors of a person’s real budget. Yes, you will go out on more appointments and some of those will not close due to budget. But when it comes to selling larger remodeling projects, the additional clients you close will more than offset the added cost of any extra appointments. For many sales professionals, this takes some finesse. Reach out to us at peak@sandler.com if your sales team needs help in developing these skills. -Ed Ed Schultek Ed began Sandler/PEAK with focus on medium and small size firms to Corporate organizations who must lift their Management and Sales competency to Win, improve their ability to lead others to change their future, and position themselves as the Trusted Advisor to their Clients above all others. 30 HBRA of Fairfield County | DECEMBER 2018 Have a sales question? Email Ed at ed.schultek@sandler.com. We have had some requests for an OSHA10 certification class in Spanish. We need to know how many people are interested. Please complete the 1 minute survey here to let us know. SURVEY CLICK HERE
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