Value Selling: Tried This Approach, Remodelers?

Remodelers: Sure, homeowners can look up many of your costs these days -- appliances and fixtures, for instance -- but that doesn't mean they understand or appreciate the real value you offer. Or your real costs, for that matter. What about your company's vehicles, office space, staff training, licenses?

That's where you might want to do some value selling. Here's what Sandler Sales trainer Chip Doyle has to say:

 "My girlfriend took me to Hawaii recently so I was happy to offer to pay for some island tours for the two of us. Instead of letting me forget about work, she adeptly noticed that every tour brochure highlighted the value of the craft that each tour used. $1 million boats for fishing and snorkeling, $1.5 million dollar airplane for island sightseeing, etc. And of course for mere hundreds of dollars you could participate in a tour on each of these expensive vehicles. Their mention of these tour vehicle values was not by accident. They were exploiting a concept known as establishing context, validated by Cialdini in his book Influence. Several other authors have also documented this sales technique.

"Value selling is the concept of pricing products or services not based on their cost but on their value to the buyer. Understanding the context of the value to the buyer allows the buyer to justify the purchase and the salesperson to change how they quote and charge prices...."

Read the rest of Chip's post here. 

Read Chip's advice on remodeling sales specifically, from these past d5R articles:

• Learning to Prospect, Saving the Company
• Strengthening Conversion Rates
• Selling Isn't Debate: an Engineer's Confessions
• The Fourth of July and the Three-Foot Rule

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High-Pressure Sales Pitches: You Mean They're Still Around?

On a research assignment during the remodeling go-go days, I observed some sales training for a large, high-volume remodeling company. I couldn't wait to leave the room. Though the sales methods were successful, as the company was (and is) a selling machine, I cringed not only for the fictional homeowners they were preparing to pitch to, but also for the salesmen (yes, they were all men) whose careers hinged on their ability to close the deals.

I thought of the Jack Lemmon character in Glengarry Glen Ross.



For better or worse, some contractors still specialize in high-pressure sales, though one would expect homeowners to be wary of the consequences of buying before they feel ready. Many, in fact, are. Check out this excerpt from an actual online review for a high-volume replacement contractor.

"The 'free estimate' took nearly 3.5 cumulative hours of my time over the course of 2 visits, employed greasy and predictable sales tactics to first create sticker shock and then slowly lower the price to something almost reasonable (but with the requirement that we had to decide on the spot, instilling a sense of very high pressure)... 

"...The whole thing is just so slimy.  I expect this kind of pitch from someone trying to sell me a timeshare, not someone trying to convince me to trust them to do construction on my house!"

Selling is critical to business success, and it is an honorable profession. But aggressive sales tactics can backfire in myriad ways, including when clients resent making hasty purchases and reputations are tainted by unsavory perceptions. What do you think of high-pressure sales tactics, remodelers? Would the industry be better off if nobody practiced them?

Or would very little get sold -- at least of some types of products?


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You're in Sales. Own It.

Eliminate sales commissions, watch sales go up. Reduce your power, become more persuasive. Forget that old saw, "Always Be Closing."

At a local bookstore last week, I saw Daniel Pink convince a room full of DC policy wonk-types that they're all in sales, that icky term that makes so many people squirm. We're in sales because of the persuading and cajoling and influencing we do every day -- whether with our kids, staff, boss, clients and every other person we come into contact with every day, like the meter maid who is there the minute the meter expires.

Pink's latest book is To Sell Is Human: the Surprising Truth About Moving Others, and it's about the art and science of selling -- something we could all do better -- in a way that most books about sales are not. When I saw Pink speak last week, I thought of you, remodelers.

Pink gets into his research in this video interview. 




What do you think, remodelers? Are we really all in sales? How can we be more persuasive, without coming off as a used-car salesperson?



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Take That Call, Salesperson!

Business is picking up again for many remodelers, making it tempting to pick and choose which calls to take and which prospects to pursue. Careful, says Darren Slaughter, who consults to contractors on website design, social media management and other aspects of sales and marketing.



"You just never know what you can learn from," or which calls will turn into business, said Darren in an email late yesterday.


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