Our jobs have given us the ability to work with a wide variety of businesses. Because of this, we see certain trends with different business categories that give us quick wins in implementing new sales techniques. This week we are highlighting some quick tips you to help your service. With that said, lets jump into it:
1: Proposals, bids or quotes
Most companies overlook their proposals, bids and estimates. This is a prime area to promote various high points of your business. In one company, we added some examples of past work, some recommendations from other business and named a few awards the business won. We not only immediately saw improvements we saw an additional $150k a month. For this smaller business, that was a dramatic increase. The same thing can happen if you sell a product. Just by adding in some nice “why choose us” material, you can improve your sales.
2: Customer service
No matter what you offer, customer service is huge. When doing analysis on our customers losses, especially in construction, we see an overwhelming about of jobs that go bad that could have been prevented by some proactive communication or, honestly biting the bullet. We will take Joan (name changed), a property manager, for example. In one roofing company we were working in, they got an angry note from Joan because the company was replacing rotten plywood on the roof and the company had it in their contract that any rotten wood would be replaced for the cost of the wood and labor. Joan was angry because this was an additional $900 she didn’t expect mainly because she never read the contract. Normally, the company would have just billed her and made her pay because it was her error for not reading the fine print. We also noticed that Joan had about $70k in additional projects she needed bid so we asked the company if we could tell her that we will pay the $900 because her future business is important to us. The situation was immediately diffused and the company landed all the other projects.
3: A good website
Even though most contacts come from word-of-mouth, sales or networking, a solid website can be a great sales tool. If you are selling a product, you obviously have the option of having e-commerce but having a website gives you the ability to have an easy hub for customer interactions. A lot of time, we notice that even if a company knows you from reputation or networking, they will go back to your website for information about you, your services or your products. When looking at analytics, we notice that service based companies have an average of 33% higher branded searches than the average business. Branded searches are words like “your company services” or “your company reviews”. This shows that roughly 33% more people know who you are but are looking for more information.
4: A clean presentation
This one can be key for a business. Even if you are a small company, how you present yourself can be huge. We started working with a new HVAC business that had some steep competition in the region they operated. The owner and designer developed a brand that looked cleaner and fresher than the local competition. The vehicles were all wrapped with amazing looking graphics, the techs all dressed the same in the nice branded polo shirts and the business trained everyone to have the best possible customer service. Even though they were 3 people, they looked like a trusted chain brand. Within a year, they grew to be the biggest HVAC business in the city. They offered similar services and prices to their competitors but they had the best presentation.
5: Clearly defined value propositions
Value Proposition: A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered and acknowledged and a belief from the customer that value will be delivered and experienced. A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services.
Having clearly defined value props can be huge in a sale. If you can figure out why a customer should choose you and clearly lay out those reasons, it will make it easier for them to make a decision about you. If you offer a warranty, update them daily or are more cost effective, make it clear to them. So many companies have a hard time standing out so try to find a few reasons. If you can’t think of any, make some reasons. Give a guarantee or make (and keep) a promise.
1: Proposals, bids or quotes
Most companies overlook their proposals, bids and estimates. This is a prime area to promote various high points of your business. In one company, we added some examples of past work, some recommendations from other business and named a few awards the business won. We not only immediately saw improvements we saw an additional $150k a month. For this smaller business, that was a dramatic increase. The same thing can happen if you sell a product. Just by adding in some nice “why choose us” material, you can improve your sales.
2: Customer service
No matter what you offer, customer service is huge. When doing analysis on our customers losses, especially in construction, we see an overwhelming about of jobs that go bad that could have been prevented by some proactive communication or, honestly biting the bullet. We will take Joan (name changed), a property manager, for example. In one roofing company we were working in, they got an angry note from Joan because the company was replacing rotten plywood on the roof and the company had it in their contract that any rotten wood would be replaced for the cost of the wood and labor. Joan was angry because this was an additional $900 she didn’t expect mainly because she never read the contract. Normally, the company would have just billed her and made her pay because it was her error for not reading the fine print. We also noticed that Joan had about $70k in additional projects she needed bid so we asked the company if we could tell her that we will pay the $900 because her future business is important to us. The situation was immediately diffused and the company landed all the other projects.
3: A good website
Even though most contacts come from word-of-mouth, sales or networking, a solid website can be a great sales tool. If you are selling a product, you obviously have the option of having e-commerce but having a website gives you the ability to have an easy hub for customer interactions. A lot of time, we notice that even if a company knows you from reputation or networking, they will go back to your website for information about you, your services or your products. When looking at analytics, we notice that service based companies have an average of 33% higher branded searches than the average business. Branded searches are words like “your company services” or “your company reviews”. This shows that roughly 33% more people know who you are but are looking for more information.
4: A clean presentation
This one can be key for a business. Even if you are a small company, how you present yourself can be huge. We started working with a new HVAC business that had some steep competition in the region they operated. The owner and designer developed a brand that looked cleaner and fresher than the local competition. The vehicles were all wrapped with amazing looking graphics, the techs all dressed the same in the nice branded polo shirts and the business trained everyone to have the best possible customer service. Even though they were 3 people, they looked like a trusted chain brand. Within a year, they grew to be the biggest HVAC business in the city. They offered similar services and prices to their competitors but they had the best presentation.
5: Clearly defined value propositions
Value Proposition: A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered and acknowledged and a belief from the customer that value will be delivered and experienced. A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services.
Having clearly defined value props can be huge in a sale. If you can figure out why a customer should choose you and clearly lay out those reasons, it will make it easier for them to make a decision about you. If you offer a warranty, update them daily or are more cost effective, make it clear to them. So many companies have a hard time standing out so try to find a few reasons. If you can’t think of any, make some reasons. Give a guarantee or make (and keep) a promise.