CE Dealer Survival Skills: A Primer
By Curt Hayes -- TWICE, 1/8/2009
During October, when the world began to grasp the depth of the financial crisis, we saw record sales at Capitol Sales because of our solid focus on business fundamentals. We want to share a few sales and business tips that might be useful to you. These key areas of focus will help keep your business vital and growing:
Know your customer targets: The foundation of your business is past and current clients. Analyze the type of customers you've had success with and use that foundation to help you identify new target customers. Then, develop a compelling sales proposition, like a free system inspection of a customer's home theater, because the best sales opportunities are created while in a customer's home.
Use that inspection time to identify opportunities to upgrade the homeowner's system. For example, games are hot. If you don't already offer gaming systems, develop A/V packages to enhance the gaming experience. You can help your customers get more out of the gaming experience by presenting them with a package of options tailored to their interests.
Sell more to each client: Propose more product categories when you first meet a client on a potential project. This is a great technique for immediately increasing sales. For example, if they are purchasing a home theater system, natural extensions to this sale would be movie seating or a popcorn wagon and mini-fridge.
Introduce your clients to new manufacturers and their product offerings. Brand names available only to custom installers will set you apart from the major retailers. If you are in commercial A/V sales today, look for ways to further expand your product lines for this market with new and unique offerings. Sell the benefits to your customer — not just the product features, which can often be overwhelming.
Set realistic sales and close-rate goals: Not every call or visit is going to produce a sale. Develop a close ratio target to help you determine daily, weekly and monthly call rates that will be necessary to hit your sales target and then measure your success. By having measurable goals, you and your sales team can keep your sales calling efforts on target.
When your sales team is meeting with a potential customer, they can use the interaction to solicit additional sales targets by asking, "Do you have any friends, neighbors or relatives who might be interested in our services?"
Motivate your sales team: Hold a contest that rewards your sales team for additional revenue that they generate on a project — they'll creatively come up with new ways to sell more to each client. By building a recognition program with a monthly focus, you can create a culture where higher-levels of performance are not only expected, but rewarded. Nothing motivates a sales person like a competition to win. Follow through on the recommendations to make the most of new ideas and increase sales.
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