Maximising Sales at time of fit

[hereticus]

I was talking to Ross Kenney this morning – mostly general chat about the current lack of leads – and we touched on a subject which I feel is an ideal platform for some positive input from advisors through this forum.

We must all recognise that the easiest sales are those made to existing / repeat customers. In my experience a self generated lead is an almost certain sales conversion, and often from the higher price tables, because there is an established relationship with the customer, a level of trust in the advice and guidance which we give, and the customer already knows the quality of both the product and the service (OK – leave wooden venetians out of it for the moment).

Even better are the sales which we pick up by chance at the time of fit, either because the customer has been thinking about blinds in the meantime or because of a passing remark or a conversation which gets them thinking about other possibilities.

Ross, Rose Haines, and others in the sales and marketing team have been considering ways in which the company can help advisors to capitalise on the potential for sales at the time of fit – whether it be through sales tools, discount vouchers, promotions, leaflets, sales training, or whatever. They used to have the ‘welcome pack’ mailing with a discount voucher but this was abandoned when we complained that it arrived too early and customers were using the voucher against the initial order (with collusion from Customer Services). They have also tried the discount sticker on the invoice, as used in the run up to last Christmas, which had a mixed reception from advisors and a variable response in different areas.

I feel that this is precisely the sort of opportunity where our combined experience should be able to come up with suggestions every bit as valid as those which might result from a management brainstorming session, and Ross agreed that he would welcome any input or suggestions from the forum.

So let’s take up the challenge and show the company how much sales and marketing talent they have in the field. What works for you ? What tools or techniques would help you to take another order, or at least leave a quote for further blinds, at a larger proportion of fitting appointments ?

This is the sort of question on which we can all help each other by sharing our knowledge, experience, and ideas, but with the additional incentive that Hillarys are poised to invest time and money in helping us to maximise captive sales opportunities.

Please either post your comments and suggestions for all to see, which will hopefully fuel further discussion, or by all means send directly to me by personal message, and I will collate and analyse the responses and post back to the forum for final comment before submitting to Ross.

[greenpesto]

Hi 'H' ... good to see 'any' communication between H/O & the Advisors.

I think that pushing for a sale at time of 'fit' has it's merits but, it is a relatively small area with minimal success. This is due to the customer having just paid out the balance. To ask for a further deposit can stretch some people.
Don't get me wrong this is still one avenue that should be exploited to the full.

Personally, I prefer to stress to customers my own phone numbers & the benefits of contacting me direct for future blinds. ( Unfortunately contacting CLG is not always a pleasant experience!!! )

I push my tel. nos. at point of sale and at fitting.

This is done by using stickers with my contact details on & by using my own printed business card which has an additional discount offer on the back. Customers are encouraged to keep one card safe & the other to be passed on to friends & relatives.
Due to the service I provide customers stress to friends automatically the benefit of contacting me direct as well as the repeat business I get from the existing customer.

Where we fall short as a company is the lack of incentive for Advisors to go out & leaflet drop an area.

I had suggested for the forums earlier this year that we should have access to A5 or A4 leaflets ( in 500/1000/5000 leaflet packs ) which have the Advisors tel nos. prominently placed on them. ( Hand written ones are messy & unprofessional & too time consuming ).

Hillarys MUST understand that their attitude that it is their leads & not the Advisors must change if this is to work on 'self generated' leads!!.

Knowing that the leads are yours exclusively having done the work is essential.

Paying for the leaflets is not an option for most Advisors but extra commission for the work would benefit all concerned.
This would help as in the case of the old Bonus system help even to pay someone to do the work for the individual Advisors.

I don't think Hillarys realise that many Local papers are not expanding their circulation to cover newly built areas.
Many papers are in fact reducing their overall circulation.

Using leaflets in many areas will put us ahead of the local opposition & would put us in competition with companies we CAN beat such as Carolina Blinds who are the main leaflet dropping companies.

Hope this is of use??

[JoY]

Agree with the idea of us having leaflets pre-printed with our own phone numbers, for the same reasons as Greenpesto....... there isn't much incentive to do our own leaflet drops when you can't guarantee that any response might go to another agent covering the same postcodes.

Also another idea I keep suggesting at meetings....

Give every customer on completion of a sale , a leaflet offering them a free gift of a M&S/Boots/Woolworth voucher for £20 for each friend (not previous customers) they recommend to us who buys blinds over the value of £200.

And yes.... some decent businss cards printed with our names and numbers. As GP says... hand written ones, or even stickers, look very unprofessional.

[gloryboy]

no discount vouchers please!
if customer has already bought and paid for blinds fitted they are happy with price etc. etc.

the previous self generation 'help' given about a year ago was a quick fix elastoplast solution. stickers to put on headrails etc. what nonsense why don't they have them printed on at time of manufacture?
if places like banks can have personal business cards printed for several individuals within hundreds of branches then hillarys must be able to provide us with personalised business cards. i would prefer them printed with 0800 number than the tacky unproffessional effort we have at the moment.

[grumperbear]

The customer must have your number rammed down their throats so that they phone you. Extra 10% off, if they phone you.
Never mind what Nottingham say he is your customer and is on your database.

l have never understood why people have vans and cards etc with the 0800 number on it. He is your customer, he wants your number and you want his money. HO is like the competition, you would not advertise another blind companies phone number. So your number all the time. The 0800 will possibly give your lead to another agent and/or get issued to you as a lead.

Leaflets, magazines, cards will all help, but they will only work for you if its your number on it.


lts nice to see that HO is still trying to be helpful, but what have they done since the meetings. err...........not a lot........... err in fact nothing apart from promising to be more truthfull. But lets keep positive and look to the future.........l think its that way.

[nonails]

gloryboy said:

no discount vouchers please!
if customer has already bought and paid for blinds fitted they are happy with price etc. etc.

the previous self generation 'help' given about a year ago was a quick fix elastoplast solution. stickers to put on headrails etc. what nonsense why don't they have them printed on at time of manufacture?
if places like banks can have personal business cards printed for several individuals within hundreds of branches then hillarys must be able to provide us with personalised business cards. i would prefer them printed with 0800 number than the tacky unproffessional effort we have at the moment.

I personlly have my own business cards printed. With my numbers and details.
Which Head Office idiot ordered the printing of the Company one with no spaces for details and a stupid pink room taking upspace on the reverse?

My cards are cheap, and do the job....I will NEVER drop card an area as Hillarys would uase me as a free dropper, and give the leads to someone else.
Never trust anyone who steals your money and smiles as they do it.

I never used the Hillarys rail sticker I left it at the Hotel on the night.

I also put a silver sticker with my name and number on the weight used with verticals--probably had 15/20 leads from that--a roll cost £14.00 for about 300.

I will advertise me, I will NEVER advertise HILLARYS..

Nonails

[dibsdobs]

nonails said:

gloryboy said:

no discount vouchers please!
if customer has already bought and paid for blinds fitted they are happy with price etc. etc.

the previous self generation 'help' given about a year ago was a quick fix elastoplast solution. stickers to put on headrails etc. what nonsense why don't they have them printed on at time of manufacture?
if places like banks can have personal business cards printed for several individuals within hundreds of branches then hillarys must be able to provide us with personalised business cards. i would prefer them printed with 0800 number than the tacky unproffessional effort we have at the moment.

I personlly have my own business cards printed. With my numbers and details.
Which Head Office idiot ordered the printing of the Company one with no spaces for details and a stupid pink room taking upspace on the reverse?

My cards are cheap, and do the job....I will NEVER drop card an area as Hillarys would uase me as a free dropper, and give the leads to someone else.
Never trust anyone who steals your money and smiles as they do it.

I never used the Hillarys rail sticker I left it at the Hotel on the night.

I also put a silver sticker with my name and number on the weight used with verticals--probably had 15/20 leads from that--a roll cost £14.00 for about 300.

I will advertise me, I will NEVER advertise HILLARYS..

Nonails

Nonails....... Why use Hillarys at all? You sound ripe for starting your own business!

[greenpesto]

Hillarys have guarded their customer base for all the wrong reasons!

If you look at the pattern emerging here over the last few postings we see that the Advisors 'value' ( or even Cherish'!!! ) their customers.
Hillarys should be exploiting this in a positive manner to everyones benefit.

I would say to all those that don't value their customers repeat business or value the recommendations that can be made .... it is time you did!!!!

I'm having to give myself a kick up the arse over this one too!!!!

It's tough out there so push your own phone numbers, keep on top of those call backs when your diary isn't on hand & SELL!!!

Remember!!! ... Hillarys are very slow to act on ANYTHING positive so make it happen for yourselves.

Oh! ... & ignore those cries from Hillarys saying don't discount .... they still aren't anywhere near the 'Real World' just yet!!!!!

HAPPY SELLING!!!!!!

[Blind Scout]

grumperbear said:

The customer must have your number rammed down their throats so that they phone you. Extra 10% off, if they phone you.
Never mind what Nottingham say he is your customer and is on your database.

l have never understood why people have vans and cards etc with the 0800 number on it. He is your customer, he wants your number and you want his money. HO is like the competition, you would not advertise another blind companies phone number. So your number all the time. The 0800 will possibly give your lead to another agent and/or get issued to you as a lead.

Leaflets, magazines, cards will all help, but they will only work for you if its your number on it.


lts nice to see that HO is still trying to be helpful, but what have they done since the meetings. err...........not a lot........... err in fact nothing apart from promising to be more truthfull. But lets keep positive and look to the future.........l think its that way.

Unfortunately the same database is on all the other agents database that share the same post-codes.

Leaflets used to be printed in the good old days with the agents home telephone number, so it made sense to target and leaflet these areas. But now everything is pushed to CLG I don't use them. It was the same when we had A3 posters that we gave to larger businesses, offering "staff discounts".

And there is no action on passing previous customers to the original agent. My one (CLG) lead yesterday was from a previous customer, who was originally given the other agent, but asked for me. How many other previous customers have gone that way. So much for out efforts in fostering a good relationship with customers trying to get repeat or referal business.

But it does work in reverse. I went to 2 appointments last week where customer asked for clouds to match recently supplied blinds, and on pricing 3.5" clouds at £67 each, was indignantly told by the customer that the other agent had priced her at 3 for 99. One customer had already had 6 blinds fitted. So she got clouds, not in the offer, for a 5" offer price, that was 1 offer per household. So we are not only fighting Hillarys, but our collegues servicing the same PC areas.

Quiet week, 1 appointment tomorrow, one on Friday. Now where's the job advert page in the paper.

[inkjet]

green said:

Hi 'H' ... good to see 'any' communication between H/O & the Advisor's.

I think that pushing for a sale at time of 'fit' has it's merits but, it is a relatively small area with minimal success. This is due to the customer having just paid out the balance. To ask for a further deposit can stretch some people.
Don't get me wrong this is still one avenue that should be exploited to the full.

Personally, I prefer to stress to customers my own phone numbers & the benefits of contacting me direct for future blinds. ( Unfortunately contacting CLOG is not always a pleasant experience!!! )

I push my tel. nos. at point of sale and at fitting.

This is done by using stickers with my contact details on & by using my own printed business card which has an additional discount offer on the back. Customers are encouraged to keep one card safe & the other to be passed on to friends & relatives.
Due to the service I provide customers stress to friends automatically the benefit of contacting me direct as well as the repeat business I get from the existing customer.

Where we fall short as a company is the lack of incentive for Advisor's to go out & leaflet drop an area.

I had suggested for the forums earlier this year that we should have access to A5 or A4 leaflets ( in 500/1000/5000 leaflet packs ) which have the Advisor's tel nos. prominently placed on them. ( Hand written ones are messy & unprofessional & too time consuming ).

Hillary's MUST understand that their attitude that it is their leads & not the Advisor's must change if this is to work on 'self generated' leads!!.

Knowing that the leads are yours exclusively having done the work is essential.

Paying for the leaflets is not an option for most Advisor's but extra commission for the work would benefit all concerned.
This would help as in the case of the old Bonus system help even to pay someone to do the work for the individual Advisor's.

I don't think Hillary's realize that many Local papers are not expanding their circulation to cover newly built areas.
Many papers are in fact reducing their overall circulation.

Using leaflets in many areas will put us ahead of the local opposition & would put us in competition with companies we CAN beat such as Carolina Blinds who are the main leaflet dropping companies.

Hope this is of use??

I like the idea of own leaflets an opt in scheme.

Yes extra commission should be available.

At a recent team meeting an adviser who uses these boards, in fact I think he co ordinated some emails, said extra commission for own leads would be hard to verify.

If name is not on database it is a new customer quite simple.


In my other business we find Solo Leaflet drops work best.


However these are costly about £50 a thousand if you pay someone minimum wage.

Results approx 3 sales per thousand, but you get good and bad drops.


So with an average sale of £180 I know some do better

on the present commission structure an advisor achieves sales of £540 per one thousand leaflets.

Commission £71 leaflet distribution £50 = Gross Profit £21

Sales costs would be £30 and fitting costs £20

So under present structure advisor would loose £31

Another Tax right Off.

In the Spirit of being positive advisor would obtain one or two leads from customer for which customer would receive £10 for every lead that becomes a customer.


Blind UK do supply leaflets to their agents free of charge.

I cant get one as there is a Blinds UK in this area and they only have one per area.

But if you can obtain their information pack it tells you what They expect from leaflet drops

and details of their Gross Profit etc


This is a structure Hillary's could work too for self generated leads


In my other Business my Gross Profit is £180 on Three Sales