Making Your Sales Team More Productive

It’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks and that’s one of the biggest challenges showrooms have in adapting to the new customer-buying paradigm that currently exists. Many experienced sales professionals adopt a mindset that they already know everything there is about kitchen and bath showroom customers. They compartmentalize different customer types. There are the know-it-alls. Another group is the pain the backsides. Certain types of customers fall into the never-able-to please category. You get the idea. It’s time to wipe the slate clean. The customer-sales relationship has changed dramatically. Customers are knowledgeable. They are leery. Trust is something that needs to be earned every time someone walks in the door. Team members that are clinging to past experiences and believe they know it all are doing a disservice to themselves, the showroom and customers.

Now more than ever there is a need for continuing education and learning opportunities. And the new education should focus on sales techniques. Are your salespeople approaching customers the same way they did a decade ago? Is that approach meeting the needs of customers today? Sales techniques need to evolve comparable to the way product offerings have evolved. Products have become more sophisticated and yet easier to use and deliver more enjoyable experiences. Sales approaches must follow suit. What can you do to make the lives of your customers easier and the experiences that your showroom delivers more enjoyable?

We all have heard claims that our service is the best. What makes it the best? If you sell a kitchen that arrives damaged, the finish does not quite match or the installation does not meet your customer’s expectations, who is at fault? Who cares? The customer does not. What do you do to fix the problem and turn a potential disaster into an opportunity?