(9) Sales Enablement for Contractors: Elevate your Sales Process
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Corey Halstead
Owner, HALSTEAD.
Of course, the intent is to empower your sales team by giving them the resources to do their job. It’s incredible how many sales organizations put so much effort into setting goals and incentivizing their sales force, then torpedo the entire effort by not providing the resources they need.
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The first priority is sales enablement for contractors.
Your sales staff is dealing with prospects who are busier than ever, who want to interact with your brand online, and who expect you to seamlessly accommodate their schedule, their preferences, and their priorities. The first time they actually reach out to speak with you is an opportunity to show them you truly care about their time and experience. Requiring them to fill out a website form, then have them waiting to hear back, and then playing email and calendar tag to get the first phone chat scheduled is not a customer-centric approach.
The solution? Automation, this time on the sales side in the form of online appointment scheduling. With seamless website, email, and social platform integration, your customers can schedule their time to speak with your sales team without ever creating scheduling conflicts. The real time availability of your sales reps’ calendars is synced to the scheduling app, allowing the prospect to control the process of booking—exactly what they are looking for.
The very first appointment they schedule will be a short phone call in which you have the opportunity to prequalify the lead, preventing you from burning time and budget chasing around low-quality project leads. You have the ability to completely customize the intake process, asking the prospect to answer a few questions about their project as they book the chat. All of this information goes directly to your sales rep via the dual calendar invite. They have all the customer’s information at their fingertips, all located in one central spot. The app also allows text message and email reminders of upcoming appointments to reduce no-shows, maximizing the efficiency of your team.
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After the first phone call, sales continues to be closely integrated with marketing through the use of the app.
Your sales rep simply sends the prospect a link where they can book their first on-site consultation. On this landing page is all the relevant information they will need to prepare for your rep’s visit, in addition to case studies and testimonials that continue to sell and excite them while they wait for the appointment. This process can also be automated if you wish.
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Sales brochures that close sales for contractors.
A whole lot of work, budget, and time goes into getting an inbound lead for your business. Once you’ve wowed them with efficiency during the appointment booking process, and you get a chance to pitch, you must empower your sales team with leave-behinds that catalyze the sale. Even in a digital world, takeaways have their place. Amid the cyberspace of digital platforms and all the technology of process automation, the value of supporting your reps with the right point of sale materials hasn’t waned. On the contrary, in many segments, design/build projects have blown up in size, price, and complexity, and if the production value of your printed materials hasn’t kept pace, you risk turning off otherwise eager prospects.
Cheap, small tri-folds and budget printing material just doesn’t cut it any longer. Think about the luxury market and the expectations of your buyer. Everything about your materials should reflect the premium services you’re selling—the content, the visuals, the copy, and the materials. Think about the high-prestige POS materials that greet you on the showroom floor of a luxury car dealer. You wouldn’t even test-drive an $80K truck if you were greeted with a trifold and a one-page flyer.
For brochures, think heavy, prospectus-weight paper with the glossy finish—or as of late, soft-touch matte—of a luxury shelter magazine. For case studies, think prestigious, tactile stock conveying a sense of egalitarian luxury, instilling confidence, and projecting your brand quality. Like it or not, your clients translate the quality of your printed material with your product. The content within should be a vivid presentation that conveys your core values, a sense of your emphasis on craftsmanship, and your passion for fulfilling your prospect’s dream project. This is not a time to list every service you’ve ever done or want to do, but rather a time to connect. It is the time to deeply share what is different or unique about your company and its approach to the design/build process.
Remember, at some point your POS materials will likely sit right next to your competitors’, and when your prospect compares them, when they present them to their spouse, the right messaging, finesse, and production value in those materials can do a lot of the selling for you.
