"Upselling" is one area where many carpet cleaners fail miserably, Jim. (This is really sad because the profit potential is staggering if we would just DO IT!) So your question re: brochures is a good one.
There is nothing wrong in having excellent sales support materials. But the problem is since most of us don't like to "sell" (fear of rejection) we try to abdicate this duty to a brochure/ DVD/ advertising/ direct mail, etc. A few observations ...
1. Don't get trapped into a lot of slick sales techniques. Customer's see through them and your techs won't be comfortable with "performing" these tricks either. The simplest way to "sell" is to gradually build a professional relationship with the homeowner with a SYSTEM that gains their trust. When the customer likes and trusts the tech they will want to buy more.
2. Give your people the time to sell AND perform the work. It is a no-brainer that it is more profitable for you and easier for the client to have the extra work done while you are in the home. But if you have overbooked the day right from the git-go where is the tech's motivation to sell more? I advise our
SFS members to give their techs training in the Emotional Dynamics of the Home Front, dramatically increase their up-sell comission structure and book one less job a day. This will force your employees to sell more if they want to make the same or more money. The result? More money for you and the employee, happier customers (a big complaint of clients is "they went so fast") and your techs aren't as tired at the end of the day.
3. Piggy back onto the manufacturer. The single most profitable up-sell you can make is carpet protector. If you offer Scotchgard 3-M has spent millions on brand name advertising plus they give you free marketing brochures. Their current color brochure is excellent so it can stand alone or be combined with your proposed personalized materials. 3-M also has a nice Carpet Cleaning folder you can give the customer to keep all their cleaning information in. I think it is a dollar and you can of course personaize it too.
4. Seeing is believing. The simplest way to sell protector is to show the cusomer how it works using the venerable "blotter card" test. We were doing this in my company thirty years ago and I thought everybody did it. But at a recent Strategies seminar I took a survey and was amazed at how few cleaners even knew about the demo, much less did it. I know 3-M gives you the cards free. I assume DuPont does too.
5. Motivate your people. In the same survey I mention above I also asked our members how many gave their techs a commission for upselling. Once again I was shocked at how many expected their peopl to sell but to do so with no extra compensation as a reward. DUH! Nobody is going to exert themselves (selling is hard work emotionally) unless they get paid to do so! Raise your pricing and then give your techs a very generous commisiuon for upselling. I call this "earning their own raise" and I love the concept. Properly structured your employees make more money and so do you.
Just a few ideas for my first post on this forum. Please be gentle and I am impressed at what Mike and all of you have accomplished here.
Steve Toburen CR
Director of Training
Jon-Don's
Strategies for Success
PS I see that Mike has posted a rather lengthy Special Report I did on Up-Selling in Harry's "outhouse". There are some pretty good ideas on selling carpet protector there IMHO. (I focused on protectors instead of tile cleaning, etc. just because it is so easy to apply it at the same visit.) Or if you would like your own e-mailed copy just drop me a lline at
stoburen@homefrontsuccess.com
)
