I recently met a gentleman who works in heavy equipment sales. During our discussion he shared with me some advice his grandfather had given him long ago. The grandfather was an automobile mechanic and ran his own service garage. The advice was “solve people’s problems, and be honest, and you will always have as much work as you can handle.” That is some solid advice that is applicable to many different jobs in many different industries – especially sales professionals in the home improvement/remodeling industry.
Solve people’s problems: It sounds simple, and I suspect you feel that most salespeople do this already, but I doubt it. Too many salespeople enter sales interactions with the express intent to sell this homeowner their product or service – their focus is selling a job and making their commission.
Identifying homeowner problems/issues and fully exploring them to increase the homeowner’s level of urgency and bring emotion into their buying decision is more difficult and does take more time, but it will pay huge dividends in the long run. Be patient when a homeowner shares with you an issue or concern they are having and resist your own urge to jump in and begin explaining to them how your product or service will solve that issue for them.
The moment they share a issue or concern with you provides a great opportunity for you to practice what I call Impact Questions. Impact Questions are designed to explore the consequences, impacts, or effects of a particular issue or concern. For instance, a homeowner shares with you that one of their existing windows is drafty and causes that room to feel colder than other rooms in the house. Instead of rushing in with an explanation of the energy efficiency of your window, dig a little deeper and ask, “How does that drafty window impact how you use this space?” This allows them an opportunity to explore their problem and share more information that may increase their sense of urgency with the issue and/or bring emotion into the buying decision.
Another technique you could use to get customers to elaborate on their statement is to simply repeat the last 3 to 4 words they spoke, back to them. So, in this instance when the homeowner say’s the window in this room is pretty drafty, you respond “Window is pretty drafty” – and you say it in a higher tone at the end and let it trail off. It will come across to them as a question and they will talk more about it. It may sound silly, but it works very effectively.
Be Honest: An old saying goes, “always tell the truth, that way you don’t have to remember what you said.” Too many salespeople will over embellish their products or services in a misguided attempt to impress the homeowner. The temptation is to want to wow homeowners with your products and service. I get it. The whole idea in sales is to persuade people that your option is the best, and having impactful presentations and stories is good way of doing that. Just make sure you can validate what you’re saying.
There are times where we make statements about our offering that we heard from another salesperson with no idea if it’s true. Don’t be lazy. Validate. Under promise and over deliver is a well-worn saying in business, but one that deserves a mention here. Be upfront and honest with people about the performance of your products and services.
If an issue or problem arises, bring it to your customer’s attention as quickly as possible and begin working on a solution. Nobody likes bad news, but people appreciate it when others don’t try to hide bad news or try to work around it without the customer’s knowledge. None of us like the feeling of being mi-led or manipulated by others and that certainly applies to your customers as well.
There you have it: Solve people’s problems and be honest is just as helpful in home improvement sales as it is in the automotive mechanical repair. I believe that sales pros are always looking to get better at what they do. So, as a sales pro, what are you going to do to get better at identifying and solving problems and dealing with people as honestly as possible?
Happy Selling!
