System Selling Sales Bytes®: Electronically-delivered “byte”-sized bits of information to help
sales people create more satisfaction and success for their customers, their companies,
and themselves.

• HVAC Spells Wealth: You Deserve a 25% Net Profit by Ron Smith
• Is Your Inventory Shrinking? by Ruth King
• Using the Presentation Book Part 3: Personalize it by Patrick Carr
• Mr. Control Pro: Replacing Very Old Pilot Burners by Bill Ribble
• Selling Cars or Selling HVAC... It's All the Same by Lila Logue *NEW*
• System Selling Lead Generation Marketing Tips by Tom Piscitelli
• Even My Dentist Offers Financing by Matt Michel
• More

 Welcome 
by Tom Piscitelli

Breaking News on "I want to sleep on it"

Is this the objection you love to hate the most? I’ll agree it’s a tough one. In our live seminars we discuss this and how to best respond without stepping over the customers’ invisible tolerance-for-pushy-salesmen line. We’ve reviewed the basics on dealing with this before:

• When you’ve done a good job establishing rapport and trust during the first phase of the System Selling sales call process you have earned the right to ask the simple question, “Can you help me understand what you might be thinking about?” This often gets out the “real” objection that you can then deal with.
 
• Some people (the “Conscientious” in the DiSC® profiling evaluations) DO want to “think about it”. It’s natural for them and they are the type that gets quickly irritated with the pushy sales person.

• Ask to return the next night to “answer any questions they might have”. Failing that, ask to return in 2-3 days, then a week, and then ask for a phone call follow up. No matter what get some kind of commitment for the next step.

If you’re doing all of that well you’ll still get some who just insist on calling you. Here’s some new light on why that is the case and how you might respond.

“Sleeping On It” is a Good Idea

Apparently so. Science has discovered that our brain is highly active at night sorting through all of the day’s information. One of its main jobs is to filter out the emotions we feel and get down to the facts. (This is the opposite of what we are trying to capitalize on a sales call.) The day’s data is then combined with past data and analyzed. Old ideas are reinforced. New ideas are created. Questions are formed. Problems are solved. All this at a speed and accuracy we can’t seem to create when we’re awake.
In short our brain at night is functioning like a high-powered computer processor and the results guide us in our next day’s thoughts and actions.

How you can capitalize on this

I think this is a wonderful insight. For me it completely affirms the absolute critical need for the first step in the System Selling Sales Process: Approach with Discovery. This includes everything from your first contact through the entire home survey, using your Home Comfort Survey form, and all of the questions you ask along the way. The more you find out about what’s important to the customers the more you’re able to provide information that they uniquely need to make the decision that’s best for them. Even if they make their decisions when they are asleep!

ASK QUESTIONS – LISTEN – WRITE DOWN WHAT THEY SAY – PROPOSE CHOICES THAT ARE RIGHT FOR THEIR NEEDS

If they are going sleep on it you’ve done all you can do to make sure they have the data their sleeping brains need to say YES!

Good Selling!

Tom


PS. Don’t miss Lila’s article. She’s a former HVAC sales person turned car sales person…and using the sales fundamentals she’d learned to sell cars…including SUV’s…when others aren’t.

Also Congratulations to my son Dave who’s had two terrific things happen in July: 1) as an HVAC in-home sales person he sold $102K (selling over $100K in July in Seattle is pretty darn good) and 2) he got married (great wedding to a great young lady). We know where his commissions will be going from now on…
 

 System Selling™ Lead Generation Marketing Tips  

Lead Generation Ideas From System Selling seminar graduates…that work!

• Sponsor local sports teams and make sure the local newspaper includes your name when the scores are reported.
 
• Have your business cards printed as fold-over types with company information, your picture and a referral coupon on it.

• Have everyone with company vehicles drive several different ways to get to your shop or perhaps skip the freeway and drive the local roads to calls…it’s a rolling billboard.

• Have your company name and information printed on post-it notes and hand them out with every customer or potential customer.

 Even My Dentist Offers Financing  

By Matt Michel, President and CEO of Service Roundtable

What does my dentist know about business that most contractors do not? He knows that he makes more money when he offers financing.

According to the marketing research air conditioning systems sell for 37% more when the contractor provides financing. Do you know what happens to the 37% premium? Most of it falls straight to the bottom line.

And yet, most contractors fail to offer financing. The vast majority of those who do offer financing limit themselves to manufacturer endorsed programs.

Few people pay out of pocket for a kitchen remodel, an air conditioning system, a swimming pool resurfacing, or anything else costing thousands. Even if a homeowner has the money socked away, he doesn’t want to use. He wants to finance the work.

When you provide financing, you’ve got more control over the sale. You’ve got the ability to flip the homeowner to a different lender if he fails to qualify. You’ve got the ball.

Ask the homeowner to make his own financing arrangements and you give away the ball. Now you’ve got to wait for the homeowner to act and hope a competitor doesn’t swoop in with an attractive financing program to take and keep the ball for the rest of the game.

Most businesses understand this. The big boxes certainly understand it. Even my dentist gets it. He not only offers financing, he has a choice of financing plans.

The dentist offers financing through third parties. His customers get to pay over time. He gets paid right away.

When you think about it, my dentist’s business is not all that different from a service contractor’s. My dentist may be in a fixed location, but he is in a service business.

Like a service contractor, my dentist uses planned maintenance to build relationships over the long term. Dental technicians sell add-ons (e.g., special power toothbrushes, whitening, and extra fluoride). My dentist also deals with emergency service, unplanned and planned replacement work.

Because the emergency service and unplanned replacement work is expensive and unexpected, my dentist offers third party financing. His customers make payments. He collects up front.

The payment approach also works to encourage people to accelerate planned replacement work. Why save a little each month and live with the problem? Take care of and pay for it over time.

While his business is similar to a service contractor’s, he’s more successful than most contractors. Since everyone on his staff, starting with the call taker/receptionist is well-versed on financing; his average ticket is higher than it otherwise would be. Most of the extra money drops straight to his bottom line.

As a result, my dentist invests in the latest dental technology, like an in-house milling machine he uses to manufacture crowns while you wait. With the capital assets, he makes even more money.

On a personal basis, my dentist bought a big new house in the country. His kids are in private school. He’s got a big new boat. And it’s all been paid for by me and his other customers.

Financing works because consumers think in terms of payments, in terms of available personal cash flow. This is why gas prices hurt so much. Higher gas prices reduce available cash flow.


Develop a Financing Mentality

Develop a financing mentality in your company and you’ll close more sales and larger sales. People are more likely to come up with $175 per month than $10,000 all at once.

A financing mentality involves more than simply signing up for a manufacturer’s plan. It means arranging for several plans in case one of the turns the customer down.

It also means offering different types of plans. Do not limit yourself to a revolving plan where the payment is set at a percentage of the outstanding balance, like a credit card. Also offer an installment plan with a fixed number of payments, like a mortgage.

A loophole allows some revolving plans to avoid the 4% minimum payment requirement that affects credit cards today. The minimum payment might be as low as 2%. That’s good, but you can do better with extended term installment financing. For example…

Job Price = $10,000
Interest Rate = 8.0%

Payment at 60 Months = $202.76
Payment at 72 Months = $175.33
Payment at 96 Months = $141.37
Payment at 120 Months = $121.33

By comparison, a 2% minimum from a revolving plan is $200. If you’re selling something that will last ten years or more, why not match the financing to the life and offer a payment that’s 39% lower than your competitor who uses the manufacturer revolving plan?

A financing mentality also means you are familiar with the various discounts available. The discount is the amount you pay to buy down a rate or to delay a payment (e.g., 12 months, same as cash). Not only should you be familiar with the buy downs, but you should price them into your quotes.

For some customers, the discount may be needed simply to get the customer approved. Line up a “second look” program to finance the credit challenged for the discount amount. Instead of 12 months, same as cash, they get financing period. The people who fall into this category know they have credit problems. They’ll buy without the same as cash promotion simply because you managed to finance them.

If you want to make more sales, sell payments on every job. Take a tip from my dentist and offer financing on every sale above $500.

© 2008 Matt Michel

Note from Tom:

Matt Michel sends a no-fee e-newsletter each month called Commanche Marketing. This article was taken from a recent issue and is typical of his straight-forward, common sense approach to the most important aspects of running a successful HVAC business. To subscribe, which I strongly recommend, email Matt at  matt.michel@serviceroundtable.com. Tell him Tom sent you.


Sponsored By The Service Roundtable

Comanche Marketing is sponsored by the Service Roundtable. If you’re in the plumbing or air conditioning industries or you serve contractors in those industries, you ought to check it out at www.ServiceRoundtable.com.

 

 Articles by Tom 

READ TOM PISCITELLI'S SYSTEM SELLING WITH T.R.U.S.T.® ARTICLES THAT HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN HVACR Business Magazine.

Go to HVACR Business Magazine.

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