By Tom WOODCOCK
After 30 years of selling, managing sales efforts, creating sales strategies and working in sales consulting, I may have a couple things narrowed down. People love to corner me and ask me their biggest sales question, waiting for a pearl of wisdom.
The one thing about pearls is that they take a long time to form. I’ve witnessed virtually every sales technique and gimmick known to man. I often chuckle when a young, newly college-educated star gives me the inside scoop on how sales works in this day and age. I love their zeal, but I saw that back in 1982, my friend.
Everyone is looking for a new angle to avoid doing the tough stuff, trying to reduce personal contact and get greater results. Kind of sounds like an oxymoron (or just moronic). Apps, social media and website innovation can all replace genuine sales work, I’m told. Technology makes it so easy for the customer to do business with you. Well then, they just have to, right?
Not so fast, Padawan! We are still human, the last time I checked. We are communicators by nature. We still like to talk to people we like…some more than others, but we all do. Companies spend gobs of money on methods they are sure will work, or are told will work, only to remain exactly where they are with regard to revenue and profitability. Why is that? My Facebook page is killer and I have a gazillion likes! I’m number two on Google under my trade! I even Instagram all my projects! Plus, you should see my website. Then thud. Same old, same old. Here are the most common errors I see:
- Saying, Not Doing – Yeah, this is number one. Many people talk a good game but few enact the techniques necessary that develop into action. They don’t see people, make the phone calls, follow up, join associations, create a sales strategy or properly negotiate. They usually revert to selling by price. They’ll often talk a good game but they have no game. Sad but true. The easiest step of doing what you know to do is skipped.
- No Plan – Could you imagine building a facility without a plan? Well, how can you build an effective sales effort without one? I mean, where are you going to go? Who are you going to talk to? What are your goals? How will you attain them? Where do you need to improve? These are not easy questions for many to answer. Many owners and reps I meet with have an epiphany when I discuss developing a sales plan. I feel like a genius, when in reality this is 101 to an effective sales effort. So if steps one and two are missed, good luck! Throw that dart into the ocean and hope you hit a fish. Better yet, bid until your little estimator brain falls out on the floor and dies a slow death. Estimating is not sales. Discounting is not selling. Giving away the house is not business development. Having a sales plan can eliminate the pricing game.
- No Competitive Difference – If you’ve ever been to one of my seminars, which I’m sure you have (wink wink), you know this is foundational to everything I teach. If I’ve trained you one on one, you’ve seen me with a blue face because I’ve told you this until that occurs. If you do not give me, the prospect, a reason to choose you over a competitor, why would I spend more to choose you? Even if you were the same price, why choose you? Why would I change from my current supplier I trust and choose you? This is the baseline, folks. You first must know what makes you the better choice, and then know how to communicate that effectively. Low price is not a competitive difference; it’s simply math. Any caveman or cavewoman can lower their price. My five-year-old is at this stage in his mathematical skills. “If I charge $3 but the other guy is charging $2, if I go to $1.50, can I have the job?” Find out what makes you different from the competitor and sell it.
Those are only three of the common errors, but they definitely occur the most often. Lord knows, I try to convince thousands of construction industry professionals of these truths. Some have heard it over and over again, but to no avail. I regularly get asked to speak on sales at events and privately to companies. They’ll bring me back multiple times over the years and ask if I have something new. In actuality, they need to hear this stuff again…and again…and again. I still see these same mistakes made everyday, but now with new techniques. Facebook pages that say the same things as their competitor’s page. Social media posts saying exactly the same things. Websites that are merely plug and play templates because the businesses are plug and play. Yikes. New formats, but the same gruel served up only microwaved.
As companies come into the new construction season, they’ll scramble to spend marketing dollars to get attention. Not that they shouldn’t, but to what sales effort are these efforts attached? What’s the plan to capitalize on the interest created? Is there a clear separation defined? Will the sales effort and follow up be done or merely talked about?
It’s tough to be the person who has to tell a company that just dropped $20k on a website that it’s meaningless if they don’t have a detailed sales strategy. It doesn’t always get me an invite to the company BBQ.
There is no denying that if you eat your sales vegetables, dessert will soon follow. Companies love when revenues and profits increase but struggle to format a way to achieve that end. Regardless of the fact, it’s there for the taking. If you sell properly, it’s all low-hanging fruit!
Tom Woodcock, president, seal the deal, is a speaker and trainer for the construction industry nationwide. He can be reached at 314-775-9217 or admin@tomwoodcocksealthedeal.com.
