Sales and Training

Sales and Training

Discussions involving sales in the service trade industry can be frustrating at times. Some owners and managers of service companies equate additional sales with their service as pushing or forcing the client to move on items that he or she did not call to have fixed or repaired. These owners and managers will not use the terms fixed or repaired instead they will choose words that resemble the client resenting to be notified of other products in their home that are not working properly. In their mind it is manipulation of the client.

A good guess in this type of company and atmosphere the forcing and manipulating of the client towards additional items to be fixed or replaced is simply yes. However there is a reason that it is a yes. That cause is frankly related to a lack of training or no training at all. The service technician and organization are not prepared and will not have a set of guidelines or strategies to give the client what he or she needs or wants. There is an inability to communicate effectively to the client and explain in a clear concise manner to inform and educate the client. Instead the client is made to feel stupid, ignorant, and unaware of their surroundings in their home. This provides a horrible experience for the client, service technician and organization and a fear of loss is felt by all involved.

This leads to the next portion and that is choosing the right type of training for your organization. Be leery of any sales training or educator that has little tolerance for a different point of view or interpretation of definitions while leaving ethics, integrity, and morals out of those defining terms. All sales without exception include ethics, integrity, honesty, and morals to guide the sales model. Without it the sales efforts will cross over the line and many clients will end up getting used. There is a difference between intolerance and passion. You must know and understand the difference. It is very rare for sales trainers to agree with every point and it will generate a new decision for you to choose and implement the strategy. Each trainer and educator will realize that other sales techniques can and will deliver results however the passion each trainer has for their system should equal their ability to fit the proper training to your organization and staff.

There is a difference between industries. Business to consumer is different than business to business transactions. The training is dissimilar. The ideas and concepts may be similar however the strategy to complete the sale is different. Some of the difference are; time frame or buying cycles. Business to consumer in the service trades is generally a one call close. Business to business can take months to complete. Typically with business to consumer the decision maker is the home owner meeting the service technician at the home. Business to business transactions in the service trades typically travelthrough a home owners association, corporation, or rental agency, builder and may take weeks compared to a home owner. The sales strategy is and must be multi dimensional.

Frequently organizations have a misconception that the training only applies to the service technicians. The training applies to everyone in the service trade organization. Everyone from the top down to the call service representatives should take the training. The organization must be behind the sales training 100% to re-enforce the service techs and staff of its use. The organization must be able to lend a helping hand to the service technicians and help develop a sales system that has a purpose and is defined. The organization must be prepared to set up a mentoring program to keep the service technicians on task and in control of their strategies.

Choose the right training for your organization. Research and discover the type sales training that is the best fit for you and your organization that benefits the client’s needs and wants. Frequently sales organizations that sell training as a side note to other business needs something will be slighted such as the client or your service technicians. The easiest type sales training will be offered up as the expert training. Be careful as this type training usually will border on unethical training. Painting a picture of disaster and using fear to manipulate the sale. Still others will teach how to override the client’s objections and concerns. Teaching clever ways to answer the customer’s objections and asking for the sale will only go so far. The service technician needs to be better prepared. The training should explain how to answer the questions and concerns, how to perform, and why he or she must implement strategies. Discover training that will guide your technicians to success and teach them how to include typical objections as reasons to buy from you by implementing those objections into the presentation.

The decision to choose the best sales training for your company is a lengthy challenging decision. Discovery of organizational goals and how you will arrive at the goals is of utmost importance. A discovery of the organizations effort to realize the goals must be analyzed and determined. When you put the effort into a sales system then the goals can be realized. There must be a commitment from the organization prior to the implementation of a sales system.

Start today and choose the proper sales training to fit your needs for growth. Learn to sell without being manipulative, pushy, and controlling. Treat your customers to a different experience that guides an enjoyable ownership exchange where the customer chooses to own instead of forced to own. Discover why the customer wants to buy and stop assuming it is due to something that is broken. The only thing broken is your sales system.