Build Your Business: Train service persons to make sales
As a manager or owner in the service industry, you understand the importance of juggling the different personalities and roles within your company to maximize opportunities in the field.
However, the questions that arise when a technician leaves a service call with a low or non-existent invoice can keep you up at night.
Did I send the wrong person? Is our brand not attractive or trusted enough? Did my technician not do enough to make the sale happen? The answer to each of these questions varies for each service call, but if your techs have a proper understanding of sales, you stand to gain sales.
Making sales is crucial to a company’s success in the service industry. Although hundreds of factors play a part in your strategy to increase sales, you first need to look at proper training.
Don’t expect to turn all your technicians into high-grossing salespeople, but don’t give up, either. Sales is a skill that can be taught. Even marginal improvements will translate directly to your bottom line.
Build standard operating procedures
You can’t provide any meaningful training without putting standard operating procedures in place. If you have not yet done so, this is your opportunity to determine what message and image your company wants to project through your technicians. This road map may look different for each company or industry but should at least contain the following elements: a script detailing the interaction with every customer from start to finish; a training manual that outlines the goals of your training; and best practices for overcoming customer objections.
Consider external training programs
Before starting down the path of developing your in-house sales training program, look at what external training programs are available for your industry.
Many industry groups offer trade-specific training on all aspects of the job, including sales. Search for these in industry-specific publications and web sites or reach out directly to industry groups and other companies in your field to see what they recommend. Someone else has likely been at the same stage you are right now and many groups/experts are probably willing to help. There is no need to reinvent the wheel if much of the information already exists.
Identify your trainers
Have a designated person responsible for training efforts. In some cases, you should choose the person with the strongest experience, but you’ll likely find it easier to train an educator to teach sales than to train a salesperson to become an educator.
Look for task-oriented, personable individuals. It helps if the person teaching has high regard among his or her peers.
The trainer needs to develop and deliver training on a regular basis as well as handle follow ups with his or her peers to ensure maximized return of your investment. A good trainer can make a team very successful, but the reverse is true, too. You want to make sure trainers don’t pass along any bad habits.
Roleplaying works
Although the act of roleplaying can be uncomfortable for some, it is a crucial training tool. By regularly performing roleplay exercises based on prepared scripts, each technician gets an opportunity to test his or her skills in a controlled environment before he or she goes out in the field. This gives technicians an opportunity to learn from each other.
Roleplaying exercises also help techs work on overcoming the common objections and roadblocks they can expect to encounter. Overcoming these objections regularly will make your techs successful and highly efficient in their sales efforts.
Cross-training strategy
If your company sports both strong technical and sales staff, you have an untapped pool of low-cost training. Have employees shadow and learn from each other. There are many things that can only be taught by observing and doing. When employees share best practices, your team will reach new heights.
Following up
Debriefing carries great weight in highly functioning teams. If you don’t follow up on training and goals for your employees, you risk losing valuable information as well as identifying additional training needs. Follow up with employees individually and listen to their feedback on training and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Use incentives
f you do not do this already, incentivize technicians to make sales. Provide technicians a path to success by giving them commissions on sales. This financial motivation could make the difference in closing his or her next sale. If you build a team that learns together, work toward common goals, enjoys the process and has proper incentivizes, then you have positioned yourself well to grow and outstrip the competition.
This article was written by the field service industry experts at Smart Service. Learn more at www.smartservice.com.
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This article originally appeared in the May-June 2021 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine. ©2021 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
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