Most remodelers wear many hats, and sales management is only one of them. So you have to handle sales functions on a part-time basis. As you grow and add salespeople, overseeing that department becomes yet another job duty.
In this episode, Chip Doyle discusses how to successfully manage the sales department on a part-time basis with Victoria and Mark.
Chip wrote the book Selling to Homeowners — The Sandler Way. He trains many R/A members, including owners, salespeople, designers and project managers how to sell — without sounding like salespeople.
Being a good sales manager takes a different skill set than being a salesperson does. You need to be patient, predictable in your coaching, and temper your expectations for their own lead generation. Chip says he’s seeing a higher success rate with developing salespeople from within remodeling companies, rather than hiring from outside — people who are good at selling are already busy and making great money. But wherever your find your new sales staff, Chip talks about ways to set them — and your company — up for success, including:
- When to hire a new salesperson
- Performing a sales assessment
- What they should sell first
- Why prospecting is crucial
- Why they should under-qualify leads
- How many meetings to have and when
- The questions to ask your sales staff
- How to help your salespeople
- Why truthfulness is mandatory
- How much time to spend on sales management
- And more …
Including why just selling the next step — not the whole project at once — is the key to good sales.
Get The Edge You Need
If you’d like to help brushing up your — or your staff’s — sales techniques, Chip runs a weekly training session called Sales Edge. It brings together a group of non-competing R/A members to sharpen their approach to this vitally important business function. Find out more today.