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Good Stuff (ME)

Mark Eatherton1
Mark Eatherton1 Member Posts: 2,542
in THE MAIN WALL
If you don't subscribe to this gentlemens letter, you should. It's one of the best e-mail newsletters I've ever read, and the price is right. It's FREE!!

Subscribe at www.serviceroundtable.com/cm

Here's an example of his most recent newsletter.

CREATING A SALES CULTURE

In companies where technicians sell, there is a sales culture. In companies where technicians refuse to sell, the culture is not usually sales oriented.

How do you create a sales culture? How can you do it without alienating your technicians?

The answer to both questions is gradually and subtly. Gary Katz at Total Comfort in Minneapolis created a sales culture in his company, in part, by enforcing a daily sales training regimen. He didn’t call it that of course.
He trained his technicians on communications skills, which is really nothing more than selling.


Learn The Product

Gary simply tried to educate his technicians on the products and services the company offered. Sometimes people know less than you think. Often, teaching
someone how to describe a product to a customer is identical to teaching them how to sell. The best salespeople are knowledgeable about their products and
take the time to educate their customers.


Offer Options

The education went beyond learning the features and benefits of a product.
One of the most difficult aspects was to get the technician to offer options.
Gary explained that they should not make assumptions about anyone else’s situation. They may not want to fix it… again. They might want a brand new furnace, for example, so they won’t have to worry about it breaking down on a
cold Minnesota night. Give the homeowner options and let him figure out what he wants to do.


Know When To Shut Up

Gary told his people to give the homeowner the options, then shut up and wait.
Shut up? Yes!

Knowing when to shut up is sometimes this is the hardest aspect of sales for many professional salespeople to learn. Salespeople sometimes lose sales
because they keep yapping when they should be quiet.

Early in my career at Lennox, I was trying to persuade the Vice President of Marketing, Tom Morton, to spend money on something or the other. I was half way into my list of reasons when he said okay. But I hadn’t finished telling
him all of the reasons why he should say okay. I kept going.

“You’ve got the order,” Tom said good naturedly, “but if you keep talking you’re going to lose it.”

I shut up in a hurry. Lesson learned.

As Gary Katz put it, “A technician doesn’t have to create pressure. The situation is pressure enough. All a technician needs to do is stand there and wait for the homeowner.”


Body Language

Gary also worked on body language and posture. This included standing up straight, smiling, and looking people in the eye. This is important. We communicate more non-verbally than we do with the words we use.

As Gary put it, “If they’ll just look the customer in the eye, then they’ve got a fighting chance.”


Teamwork

Everything Gary was doing in his training sessions was preparation. He was tuning up race cars, putting on new tires, adjusting the carburetor, getting the cars in shape for the race. Without the preparation, the cars wouldn’t
run well. They would sputter. All cylinders may not fire.

The race occurred when he started creating contests. Gary created the contests to find a way to involve people in the office. He created teams. The office personnel would support their team by making posters, tracking the
score, offering encouragement, and so on.

The contests changed the culture. The people in the back office weren’t stymied by any stigma about selling. They just wanted to win. They were the pit crews. The technicians were behind the wheel. If they didn’t try to win, they were letting down their pit crews. Plus, each technician wanted to beat the others.

Gary developed some interesting contests. I’ve written about one in the past. He called it the steak and beans contest. He would make arrangements with a nice restaurant in advance. The winning team would sit down to a steak
dinner, side by side with the losers, who would be served baked beans. Gary said this was more motivation than money.

Can you change the culture? Yes, but it takes time and investment. Not many company owners would take the time or make the investment to train people every day for months. Not many owners put the energy needed into developing a
creative contest like the steak and beans contest.

If you do not have a sales culture in your company, you can change it. But you cannot do it overnight. You cannot wish it to happen. You must work on it. Start today.

Copyright © 2002 Matt Michel

Next… Developing training and support material

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You can thank me later.

(End of Matts text)

ME

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