Sales Byte®

Judgment

Decades of running took its inevitable toll and a few years ago I traded in my running shoes for swim shorts and goggles. After a while I found myself really liking the sport and of course the exercise. I began watching others for tips on techniques and now I can swim a mile and call it fun.

About 36 laps (one up and one back is a lap) make up a mile and after a bit the blue stripe at the bottom of the pool ceases to do much in the way of entertainment. Accordingly, if someone is swimming in the next lane it is natural to keep an eye on them and sometimes maybe even pretend it’s a race and see if I can keep up. Others must feel the same way because I’ve found myself swimming harder to pass someone and sometimes she or he will speed up so I can’t. Ah…the competitive spirit. I’ll admit that passing someone half my age makes me feel good even though they probably don’t have a clue that they are in my race.

The other day I noticed a guy preparing to get into the lane next to me and although younger he was carrying more than a few extra pounds. I took a pause between lap sets and notices he had a slow-motion swim stroke and that only one leg broke water on his kick, both further indicating he would be easy prey.

When he turned on the next lap (a rather nice swim turn I must say) I gave him a half-length lead and took off at my normal pace fully expecting to pass him after one lap. Surprised when I didn’t do that I took a look and he had widened the gap between us. Impossible, I thought, and stuck out again at a faster pace only to find that it was possible, that he was in fact faster than I was, and that I had totally misjudged him as a swimmer.

This served as a reminder that judgment is likely to be inaccurate. That applies to all forms of judgment, including how we, as sales people, make judgments about customers. We judge what they will buy, what they will spend, who will make the decision and much more. It’s far better to listen without judgment, prepare without judgment and offer without judgment and let them, as they deserve, make the decision that is right for them. Try this…the results will surprise you.

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Show Your Customers Their Performance Bottlenecks

Your customers depend on you to do things the right way. Not addressing potential bottlenecks or other deficiencies in existing ductwork when replacing a forced air system may lead to several unintended consequences:

• System performance issues – We are promoting the benefits of a new forced air system as enhanced comfort and saving money by lower energy costs.  Existing deficient ductwork systems can have a negative impact on both of these and thus the homeowner may not achieve the improvement in their home comfort and reduce operating cost that you have sold to them and they are expecting.  Because they only have the comfort level delivered by their existing system to use as a reference point, they might not even know that they are not getting optimal performance with their new investment and you may never hear about any dissatisfaction, but more importantly, they don’t spread the good news about how great their new system is.  This is even truer today with the rapid growth of systems that utilize variable speed blower technology.  This technology is great, but if applied to an ductwork system that has serious bottlenecks, they can create air noise complaints and result in higher energy usage as the blower speeds up to overcome the ductwork restrictions.
• Lost Revenue Potential – In the 35 years I’ve been looking at ductwork, , most systems need some level of corrective action and the best time to address this is when their system is being replaced.  This can represent additional revenue opportunity of several hundred dollars or more. 
• Not addressing it gives potential advantage to your competition – if you do everything else right but your in-home process does not include assessment of the potential client’s ductwork system, but competition does, all else equal, advantage goes to them.  Or if you do and they don’t, then you have raised the bar.

To identify and present any required ductwork corrections caused by initial poor or under-designed ductwork during the allotted time in the home can be a challenge.  It involves multiple manual calculations that can be time consuming and awkward.  Identifying and quantifying ductwork leakage issues in markets where the ductwork is installed outside the envelope can take more of a significant time investment.  Having a system and process that allows any retail sales person to quickly assess any ductwork design issues without pulling out a calculator, and present these issues to the client professionally in terms that the client can understand, is an essential part of your in-home sales process. 

The built-in TRUST PRO® online Duct Assessment Tool can create a professional, easy to understand report to present to the potential client with just minutes of prep time (in additional to the data collection you are already doing as part of your home assessment).  It addresses the five (5) potential bottleneck areas of a ductwork system and provides that client with objective recommendations that are appropriate to your market conditions.

This in-home sales process and features are built into TRUST PRO® online.  For more information and a free demo of how to use TRUST PRO® online on a tablet in the home log onto www.trustproonline.com.

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