Implementing Selling Technicians
Whether and how to get technicians involved in lead-generation can be a tricky question. Here are some ideas on how to do it without compromising their repair and maintenance schedules.
By: Gary Oetker
As a business owner or manager, you have to balance the goal of generating revenue through higher-end system sales with the fact that technicians often don’t have as much time to educate customers as Comfort Advisors do. In my experience, dedicated selling technicians who are trained in the retail sales process are a great solution for HVAC companies facing this predicament, because they kill two birds with one stone; generating revenue from both sales and service!
Are you ready to start implementing dedicated selling technicians in your organization? Here are my top tips to help you get started.
Structure your program to fit your business. Having all technicians sell can help smaller dealers with fewer than 10 employees leverage residential replacement sales. Larger dealers canbenefit by having technicians turn over sales leads to Comfort Advisors. Some companies even pair these technicians with Comfort Advisors to generate "warm" leads and close more sales. If your company hasComfort Advisors who sell high-end systems and have good closure rates, your technicians can make more money (with the right commission policies) by turning over sales leads instead of going through theeffort of trying to close sales on their own.
Consider a dedicated selling technician. Companies with eight or more service technicians and flexible dispatching processes may have dedicated selling technicians who are trained in theretail sales process to answer calls involving broken or older equipment. If it’s in the customer’s best interest, the dedicated selling technician can turn the call into a sales presentation.
Coach like the pros. Start with a sales training course, such as Service Sales Excellence - vILT™ and follow up continuously. Sales coaching should be ongoing, just like coaching an NFLteam. You can base your coaching on the closure rates and average ticket per technician in your lead-tracking system.
Refine your lead-management system. Price books can interfere with effective lead management because they put the burden on technicians to enter leads at the end of each workday. It’susually more efficient to have technicians call the office for equipment prices. This allows the office to get those sales leads into the tracking system right away and ensures that the technician will getcredit for the lead.
Motivate and reward your technicians. Leads generated at customers’ homes should qualify selling technicians for commissions after the close. Companies that are best at this award theirtechnicians 1–2 percent of each sale. That percentage comes out of Comfort Advisor commissions because they get "warm" or "hot" leads that result in higher average ticket and closure rates.
By establishing a strong selling technician program and investing in training for your business, you'll see a big payoff in sales and maintenance revenue. You can also get your employees trained and ready to boost your bottom line by enrolling them in BuildASalesperson™, the highly successful four-week sales training from HVAC Learning Solutions.
Your techs are already on the front lines. Put them on the cutting edge, with Service Sales Excellence - vILT™. Increase maintenance agreement sales, build a loyal customer base, and skip the travel time.