Selling the team game

What if I told you there was a simple way to increase the production of your sales reps to provide a competitive advantage for your remodeling company and ultimately improved profitability and customer retention?

I recently had a discussion with Professional Remodeler columnist Mark Richardson, CR, about the concept of team selling. Richardson has been discussing team selling strategies for a number of years, and he believes it’s more important now than ever before.

“Selling has become a team sport. Team selling is about differentiating your company. Team selling is about increasing your close rate. Team selling is about making the most out of every opportunity or lead,” says Richardson.

Is team selling the right strategy for your company? One way to answer that question is to determine whether or not the team selling concept is demanded by the customer. They come armed to the first meeting with much more information than in years past. The customer now knows exactly what they want in their remodeling project. Is your sales staff prepared to answer every conceivable question?

The concept of team selling is simple: You assign two people to follow-up on a sales lead in an effort to show a greater level of commitment to a prospective customer. For example, pairing a salesperson with a project manager offers the opportunity to expand the selling discussion to include every finite detail about the project.

According to Richardson, there are five key benefits to the team selling approach:

• Be different: How many remodelers visit a prospect with two sales people?
• Seeing and listening: Better communication with homeowners.
• Accountability: Sales team approach increases discipline.
• Feedback and coaching: Coach and learn from your sales partner.
• Empathy: Helps promote team selling culture within your remodeling business.

Some remodeling firms have adopted the concept of team selling in recent years.

“Our company decided to explore team selling about three to four years ago to change things up during a time when the economy was in a down turn. We felt we could maximize our resources, which would benefit our clients,” says Mike Centrullo, senior design consultant, Marrokal Design & Remodeling.

For Marrokal, the learning curve to adopt team selling was not dramatic; it primarily consisted of pairing the right team members together, clearly defining each team member’s role, identifying the proper sales process, and finally following through with the team selling philosophy.

“Team selling has been very successful for us, and we’ve captured sales we might not have otherwise gotten. Once the sale is made, it allows us to better support our production, administration, and client,” says Centrullo.

Keep an eye out for the June issue of Professional Remodeler as Richardson takes a deeper dive into the concept of team selling—it is a must read column for you and your sales team. PR