Renegade Conservatory Guy

When I travel around the country talking to potential dealers, I often get frustrated with how unprofessional many of them are. I see countless things that they are doing wrong.

Here’s five of them:

1. Price jobs on the night

I understand that on certain occasions a job may be more complicated than usual. Maybe, there are unusual building requirements. Maybe the customer requires pink frames with yellow sashes and it’s just not that easy to price up.

But, in the vast majority of instances, a well constructed price list is sufficient to provide reasonably accurate prices. I can never understand why a salesman would build up desire in a customer, and then leave the customer to post a quote on. I realise it works for some salesmen if they are skilled at keeping in touch with their customers or in setting up a follow up meeting. However, on the whole, the better conversion rates are achieved by sales staff who price there and then.

Normally our industry is renowned for the ‘hard sell’ but I regularly see instances of the exact opposite. Not pricing on the night is leaving the job open for competitors to steal the work with a more sophisticated sales pitch. People don’t like pushy, but they do like to see someone keen for the work, so give your best price and ask for the work!

2. Offer Finance

Following on from the above. These are challenging times, and borrowing money from banks and building societies is not as easy as it used to be.

By not having a facility where you can help potential customers with a finance solution if they need it is just doesn’t make sense. I’m not saying that you should be pushing finance on every customer, as it would in most instances be inappropriate, but it’s a very handy sales tool.

3. Advertise in the right place

If I was running a window company I would not advertise in free newspapers. What’s the point? All the cheap competitors advertise there, so why get your company caught up in fighting for work on price. Also, newspapers are a dying advertising medium.

Likewise, the Yellow Pages and Thomson local Directories are being used less and less. People go online instead. By all means have a token advert for people looking for you, but I wouldn’t waste money here myself.

Another good place to waste money is advertising on the radio. It might be good for building brand awareness if you’ve got spare advertising budget, but if you need leads now, then I don’t think radio is the way forward.

I’ve made all these mistakes myself, and am convinced that there are far more effective ways to advertise.

4. Incentivise staff

I regularly witness installation companies grumbling about employed fitters taking 3-5 days to install standard conservatories. It’s a great selling point stating that all the guys are on the books, but the reality is that the best fitters are self employed.

The same applies to sales staff. The very best sales professionals are commission based, and need to sell to generate a reasonable income. They don’t necessarily have to be commission only, but a degree of commission or bonus as part of the package will certainly encourage a sales person to work harder.

For an installation company, the ability to pay sales staff and fitters only when they perform well allows for the peaks and troughs of consumer demand. Having too many fixed overhead staff does not suit this industry.

5. Create the right image

I hate to see fitters with silicone all over their work clothes, tattoos and piercings. It sends out the wrong message. I also hate to see scruffy, dirty vans. Fitters are representing the company and allowing them to turn up looking like a scarecrow is not good business sense.

Likewise, sales staff need to create the right image at the point of sale. For me, a balance between smart and casual works best. Having sales staff turning up in sports cars with Armani suits is not the way to go as consumers automatically assume they’re going to be ripped off. But you also don’t want a sales team driving around in bangers, and dressed too casual.