In-Home Demonstrations Steps to Closing the Sale

Home Improvement Industry Closing Skills Training for Outside Sales

May 3, 2009 Angela Schnaubelt

The sales process of training for in-home selling involves an established set of steps that build on each other to lead to writing more contracts in the home.

Only after establishing credibility and control inside the home and revealing a need to the prospect, can a successful salesperson sell the solution and close the sale. If this short sales process is followed, solution selling is possible, which makes for a much softer sell.

Sell the Solution

Now that the problem has been thoroughly exposed, the next step reveals the solution. The solution is the step in the sales process where the product is demonstrated. If the solution is revealed too early, the homeowners may lose interest or may not believe that the product is pertinent to their home. The demonstration should include benefits as well as features, warranties and guarantees and comparisons of how it is rated against competitors.

The solution should be presented as a recommendation. Consultative selling is a sales technique that works well for experts in the home improvement industry, as a recommendation can be perceived as a softer sell.

Ensure a Buying Environment

After building value in the solution, it is critical to establish that the prospect both wants and needs it before proceeding to the negotiations of price and closing the sale.

The next step is the urgency to buy, otherwise known as the pre-close. The pre-close step in the selling process should never be skipped or done out of order, regardless of how interested the homeowners may appear. If they are asking about pricing, it could be more out of curiosity than genuine interest in the solution. It is ineffective to provide a quote to a prospect that is not interested.

Here are some examples of pre-close questions:

“Other than money, have I earned your business?"

“If this equipment were free, would you let us install it?”

“Other than money, can you see yourself benefiting from the (product/service)?”

The answer to the pre-close question becomes important later on in the close when negotiating price.

Closing the Sale

The pre-close question and customer response also helps the salesperson overcome objections and bring negotiations back to the price.

• The next step in the sale is presenting the retail price. It’s okay to hover at this price until the homeowner understands that this is the true market value of the product or service.
• After the homeowner processes the retail price, the next step is the discount and close. Each discount offered should be credible. This is part of the negotiating skills of closing. Each discount can be used to help overcome objections, as usually (if the pre-close step has been done correctly), the final issue is almost always about price.
• The final step is the post-close. Staying to answer questions and helping the customers start their mental process of justifying their purchase is an important, stand-alone step. The post-close is a warm down time when the salesperson should not just rush out the door. This step will decrease cancellations.

Random acts give in-home salespeople random results. This sales process provides a point of reference from which to build skills in specific areas of the in-home sales demonstration. Each step can be evaluated for weaknesses and strengths. When all steps are mastered this sales process will provide consistent results in the entire sales force.

The Sales Process for in-Home Demonstrations describes the initial steps to the home improvements sale for establishing credibility and control in the home, and revealing a need to the prospect. In addition, learn more about why a Sales Process is important for the home improvement industry.

References

Permission given by Michael Biunno, Sales Manager for Crystal Canyon, Inc., to publish these steps to a sale.

The copyright of the article In-Home Demonstrations Steps to Closing the Sale in Marketing/PR is owned by Angela Schnaubelt. Permission to republish In-Home Demonstrations Steps to Closing the Sale in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

sales contract

What do you think about this article?

---

NOTE: Because you are not a Suite101 member, your comment will be moderated before it is viewable.

post your comment

What is 2+8?