Quantifiable Selling

The author follows up on last month’s column by describing the six steps required to make quantifiable selling a success for construction firms.

By Matt Stevens

Do you ever wonder where your sales person is? Are you uncertain of their progress in selling your construction services? You are not alone. New sales people can be scary to a construction firm in that there is no confidence-building history. Often, a contractor really doesn’t know who he has hired until many months later. In between, lost opportunities and poorly sold projects may occur.

What to do? I submit that selling construction services is largely a quantifiable process. From my research, observations and work, I conclude there are six steps to selling, and all six can be quantified. The real value to this is that anything that can be quantified can be monitored easily.

Before listing the six steps, let me share with you the keystone of all selling: The number of qualified prospects determines sales success.

If you have a rookie sales person but they have 100 high-quality prospects, they will certainly sell something in the near term. Conversely, if you have an excellent sales person and they have only one qualified lead, the chances of success are less than 100%. (By the way, if that one prospect is not interested, price will be the number one topic of discussion to keep this one opportunity alive. Not great news if you want highly profitable work.)

I define a highly qualified lead as:

1. Having need for your services
   
   
2. Having a budget allocated
   
   
3. Having a deadline to make a decision
   
   
4. Open to a relationship (will not drive price as the number one criteria)
   
   
5. The decision maker
   
   
6. Having a want – this is a non-monetary aspect that is usually personal to the decision maker such as not being embarrassed by your firm in any way.

What are the six steps and what do they entail?

1. Gathering Information - This may be a form likened to “McKay’s 66” that outlines 66 knowledge items each sales person should know about each customer. To not have this kind of homework done tells you something about the sales person.
   
   
2. Meeting the Potential Client Face to Face – This is a crucial step on the path to selling a new client. Studies suggest that in the first 19 to 39 seconds of this meeting, a sales person either adds or takes away from the relationship with the client. The representative shouldn’t forget to be a good guest and direct his or her attention and energy to the client.
   
   
3. Asking Directed Questions – The sales person should be polite and ask for permission to ask questions of the potential client. These should be in the following order 1) A question that asks the client what they like about their present source. 2) A question that reflects what they fear or don’t want from any construction contractor. 3) Questions that reflect the strengths of their company, i.e. ISO 9000 registration, safety, history, etc. I recommend that six or so questions be asked here of this nature. These are substantial and differentiating. I certainly don’t believe that regurgitating a long story about the founders, present owners and current projects helps. The sales person shouldn’t sound like a sales person. It changes the relationship.
   
   
4. Applying – Once the directed questions are answered and there is interest in attributes such as the firm’s experience modification rate, the sales person must be able to prove it. In this step the sales person should have proof ready at hand. As the old saying goes, “If you can’t prove it in one minute, it must not be true.”
   
   
5. Closing – There is only one close to use in construction selling. It is the assumptive close. That is, when the potential client and the sales person are ready to move to the next phase, such as prequalification. At this point, the representative simply pulls out his or her day book and checks the calendar, stating something like, “I can bring by the information on the 23rd in the morning or the afternoon of the 24th.” If the client starts looking at their calendar, the sales person has closed. If they haven’t, it doesn’t matter. Any attempt to use any one of several dozen sophisticated closes will appear as attempts to manipulate. The sales person certainly won’t be trusted afterwards.
   
   
6. Moving Forward - Once agreement has been made, the representative should be a good guest and leave. Don’t linger and wear out the welcome. After leaving, the representative should get back to the client within an hour to confirm the decision to meet again. This is insurance against “cold feet.”

All of the above information can be maintained in a single notebook for inspection by the contractor. This is process is easy to monitor and will reflect the current progress of a salesperson. I believe it lessens one more risk of contracting.

Matt Stevens is a management consultant who works with construction contractors. His book, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day is published by McGraw-Hill. He may be reached at mstevens@stevensci.com.