Today’s guest post comes from Bruce Poling of The Joinery Coach who shares his expertise in converting a lead into a paying customer.
For any business owner, time is money. And the amount of time spent creating quotes – and not winning the job – can be incredibly costly. Most joinery businesses focus on increasing leads but, in my opinion, it’s not about how many leads you are generating, it’s about how many of them are “A” grade leads and how many of THEM you convert into sales. The quoting process consumes so much of your time, it’s important you create sales process to ensure that, when you spend your time with a lead, they are likely to be an “A” grade lead that will convert into a job.
Psychologically, we know people are more likely to make a purchase when they feel certain the end result is what they want. When your ‘end result’ taps into their wants and needs, rather than focusing on selling them what you do, your conversion rates will go up.
If we look at the majority of your leads, most will likely be somewhere between ‘cold’ and ‘warm’ at their first point of contact with you. If you are receiving too many ‘cold’ contacts, then your marketing strategy isn’t really working like it should. The goal is to have most customers contacting you when they are ‘warm’ and already know a bit about you and your services. In this way, they want ‘you’ and not your ‘price’.
In my experience, there are clear steps along the path from a lead to a conversion and where most business owners stumble is when they don’t create this path so they can take their leads on this journey. Without a process that has a known outcome, in this case conversions, it is impossible to repeat the process to repeatedly get the same result.
We often hear about “bad customers” that don’t pay or appreciate your work. They most often are your non-A grade leads that you have allowed to become a customer. The best first step you can have in a sales process is to first determine if the lead is in fact an A grade lead, and if not, it is best to not go much further with them so you do have time to spend on the A grader’s.
Address and remove objections at every step. This part is incredibly important because if there are objections and they are not dealt with, the client will never successfully move to the next step and you’ll be racing ahead of them. It’s incredibly important that the dialogue is not about selling at this stage, it should be focussed on building a long-term relationship with the client.
In other words – conversions happen in conversations.
Here are my tried-and-tested steps to conversion success:
- The client should contact you.
Remember, you can’t be available to everyone, all the time. So, here is where I find a call scheduling program highly effective. Booking a call means you can make sure you are available, not distracted, and at a time best suited for both of you. This is also where you can ask enough questions to determine if they are “A” grade or not. - The client needs to come to YOU.
The results I have ever seen in this process are when they come to your showroom, office or factory first to have a meeting. The whole process is geared around building value and trust and the best way to do that is to have them meet you in YOUR space. They can see from your space how professional you are, they can look through selections, they can see the standards in your factory. Remember, they are trying to decide if you are the right person for them – so seeing you in your space is a great way to help them do that. - Give them your time.
Now is the time to give to your client. Visit their space, talk about the design and the steps in the process, make an initial sketch, talk about design ideas. - Make this process time limited.
There must be a point where a lead becomes a client … or they don’t. There will always be a yes or no result. It best to have a point in this process where you simply ask if they “want to work with you?” Rather than have an open-ended time frame where the lead can keep asking for revision after revision, have a point where you do enough for them to ask them to make a decision. If you have done this process well (like our clients learn to do) you will often get a yes much earlier in the process and this means the drawing work you do after this point is paid for. No need to think about charging for your designs if all your leads become paying customers!
This qualification process means they will decide if they want you and whether they want you now.
But remember, the process works both ways. You should also have a quick checklist to determine if they are a match with your business as a customer.
- Relationship: do I like them? Are they approachable? Do they take advice well?
- Why me: Why did they choose me? Are they a referral? What do they know about me? Do they want us or our expertise?
- Wants: do they know what they want? Do they know what they like? Does this fit with what we do?
- Needs: do they have a timeline? Can we meet the timeline?
- Solution: can we solve their problem?
Be prepared to say “no” to a client if you feel they are not a match with your business. If you say “yes” to every client without using your checklist you risk disappointment and negative experiences on both sides.
About the author: Bruce Poling worked for many years as a cabinetmaker and ran his own successful joinery business. After selling his cabinetmaking business in 2002, he segued into business coaching and now applies his passion for the industry towards helping other joinery, furniture and cabinetmaking businesses reach their potential. Bruce and his “dream team” of highly experienced coaches offer help to suit the varying needs of all joinery businesses. Their hugely successful Joinery GPS Program has helped hundreds of joinery business owners grow into thriving businesses. For more information visit thejoinerycoach.com
