The focus of these discussions differs from company to company. Denker puts a priority on dissecting positive referrals that don’t make it to the contract stage. “That’s a big deal. We take them apart and figure out what went wrong,” he says. At Chicago-area remodeler Normandy Builders, general manager Andy Wells often uses sales meetings to discuss how to manage customer expectations. How do you gauge the customer’s mood during the course of a $100,000 kitchen remodel? How do you know what options to offer so you don’t set up disappointment by whetting their appetite for something they can’t afford? “Once people start seeing things they can’t afford, that’s when the trouble arises,” Wells says. The discussions include how to figure out which customers are willing to pay for extras and which ones have really tight budgets. “If you misjudge, you can lose the whole sale,” he notes.
Although this coaching and training can be informal, fast-growing companies may favor a more systematic approach. That’s the case with Normandy Builders, where sales grew from $7 million in 1997 to $25 million in 2005. “We don’t micromanage,” says Wells, who joined the company in 1997, and became sales manager in 2001. “But we do set minimum performance benchmarks and manage those benchmarks, making sure that we have adequate closing ratios, volume, and profitability. If they’re not adequate, then we examine them to see what has gone wrong.” He says that salespeople don’t feel put upon by this oversight, but rather welcome it. However, it’s up to the manager to make sure that salespeople understand that the goal is to help them sell more.
New managers many not be prepared for the time and the money required for initial and ongoing training. And they may not see immediate returns. “It’s a cost of doing business that you don’t get a lot of return on unless the people you train work out,” Wells says. “You’ve got to pay that price, though,” because otherwise your salespeople will never reach their potential.
In the Field Another skill that new sales managers must develop is the ability to accurately match salespeople to leads.
Marrokal gets about one third of his work from TV and radio ads, and he usually assigns these leads to new people. That’s typical. High-end remodelers tend to get most of their work from referrals. The most experienced salespeople are assigned to past customers, referrals from past customers, and large or complex jobs. New hires get the simpler jobs and the more generic referrals that come in over the transom.
It also helps to track which types of jobs each salesperson has the most success with. “You learn the talents of different people and try to match them up with projects [that make best use of their talents],” Wells says. Some salespeople do their best work selling kitchens, while others are better at bath remodels or second-story additions. Some develop an expertise in a particular type of architecture. “If someone has done a hundred projects in Oak Park [a Chicago suburb known for its prairie-style homes], we probably want to send him to any leads we get from that area, because the houses there are all kind of the same,” Wells says.
Then there’s the question of how involved to keep salespeople in a project after the sale. Although the decision may have more to do with the owner’s management style than with anything else, everyone needs to be clear on this point.
Denker’s salespeople are involved in change orders. They also call customers regularly, participate in production meetings, and handle issues with product warranties. “We want them to keep a hand on the pulse of customer satisfaction,” Denker says.
Marrokal’s DCs are involved in a project from start to finish. “We have them visit each job every two or three weeks. They also close out the project and give the client a gift,” he says. Every Friday, Marrokal meets with his DCs, designers, project managers, and office managers. They review each project and rate how satisfied each customer is on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most satisfied. Anything below a 4 is discussed, with the goal of raising that number. If there’s a problem with a job, the DCs are involved in the solution.
Wells also wants his salespeople visiting large jobs weekly, even though the day-to-day management is in the hands of a project manager. “It’s nice to have a fresh set of eyes looking at the project, holding the customers’ hands, and helping them with anything else they want to purchase,” Wells says. His salespeople handle change orders and must learn to negotiate the prices for those changes. Of course, learning to accurately price and negotiate is something that comes with time and training. “We have a cost list that is a guideline,” Wells says, “but a lot of it comes from experience.”