Sales System Considerations for Remodelers Looking to Break $1Million
Well before attempting to break past $Million in installed sales remodelers and home improvement contractors should already have an established and tested sales system in place. The system should be well defined. Those involved with selling, as well as supporting the sales department at your business, must be trained and held accountable to using it correctly and consistently.
It’s also imperative to get a salesperson other than the owner in place and productively selling well before passing the $1Million threshold. Doing this is important because the owner's time will most likely be pulled away from sales for more important activities as the business grows.
Here are several important sales system related considerations for business owners looking to break past $1Million in installed sales.
Decide on how fast you want to grow your business
Growth can't happen without sales, sales won't happen without talented sales staff, and having enough quality leads won't happen without a strategic and effective marketing plan in place. All three of these things must be worked on consecutively and put in place as soon as possible to support a fast pace of growth. Remember, the biggest cause of remodeling business failure is growing the business faster than the systems needed to support that growth.
Decide what Sales System you will use
I suggest you choose a known and proven sales system and sales trainer you feel will be a good match for your desired brand as well as your target customer type. If you are preparing to grow your business I recommend the owner take the training first. Then, after the business owner embraces the system new sales staff can be sent to the same training and trainer.
Put sales goals and metrics in place.
The markup your business uses to price projects should be based on two interdependent factors: the volume of business you plan to do and the combined cost of overhead plus planned net profit. By creating sales goals for the business, as well as each individual salesperson, you can track against those goals to be sure you will meet your planned volume of sales. Also, by having individual goals for each salesperson, you can support them and hold them accountable to achieve the goals and or decide you need to find their replacement. Hitting the goals will be important because coming up short on installed sales will mean you will come up short on the gross profit dollars you needed to earn to grow your business. Your financial system should be designed to support measuring sales volume by salesperson and determine their commissions earned.
Summary: Remain committed to using the system!
I want to stress that consistency of and with your company's sales approach will be really important as the business grows. Without consistency it will be difficult for the owner to become a sales manager, or transfer sales management to someone else, because each sales person may approach selling in a different way. And, without consistency of sales approach, repeat customers and their referrals may not experience what they expected when a new salesperson visits them. Plus, by having a consistent sales approach that successfully helps prospects buy the right solution, you can market the advantages of that sales system with confidence prospects will experience what they expect if they respond you your marketing.
(Note: This is the eighth article in a series of articles written specifically for remodelers who want to successfully break past doing $1M/year in installed sales. Click here to see a list of all the published articles in the series.)
