Dear Trax Family,
I wanted to share an idea that I know will help everyone of your sales associates dramatically improve sales. The Trax Upboard is designed to automate this secret and if you use this simple feature it could double your sales.
Before John Lawhon wrote his second book, “The Selling Bible” by far one of the best books on selling furniture ever written; he traveled the country and interviewed several thousand of the top salespeople in the home furnishings industry. The top writers, some of them over 2 million dollars per year in the late 80s and early 90s. These people were very different in many ways but had several simple things in common that separated them from the crowd.
#1. They were experts regarding the products that they sell and knew in minute detail everything about the products they sold.
#2. They had a plan of action that they did not deviate from when working with a prospective customer.
#3. And they had a NIN strategy. This is the secret to maintaining long term permanent relationships with every customer they spoke with or sold. After they made a sale but before the customer walked out the door this sales professional always said something like this:
Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I have really enjoyed working with you today. I know you are going to love the XYZ you just purchased and I will follow-up after the delivery and insure everything is perfect. I noticed that you were looking around the showroom at other items and so that I can keep an eye out for you in the future would you mind telling me what is the next item you might be interested in for your home? If it goes on special or something else comes in that might work even better I will drop you a line so you might come down and take a look. Most customers as John Lawhon says don’t even have to think about it. Then you should say: Since you’re here on your way out let’s take a minute and show me what ideas you liked best so I can keep that in mind.
The truth is that over 20% of the time you will make another sale on the spot if it fits into their budget or just adds a little more to their payment. Or if they say we are doing some work to our home but will need XZY in about six months. You now have permission to call them back again and assist them with exactly what they need. No more cold calling that some of you do. Yuck! Nothing turns a prospective customer off like a call from someone they had not heard from in a year that never followed up on the last sale asking if you are interested in something new… Trust me they think you are thick if you do this!
My advice is to put the “NIN” Next Item Needed in eTRAX and allow the system to give you a reminder (I suggest that you cut the time that they mentioned in half) and when you call they will be happy to hear from you.
After you have written them up on this second or third item guess what the Pro does? Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I have really enjoyed working with you again today. Do you mind telling me what the Next Item Needed will be for your home so I can keep an eye out for you? And they repeat the process and have a customer for life or until the customer moves far away!
The top professionals that employ this strategy sometimes are so busy working with previous customers that they do not take ups from the upboard. Sometimes they sell 5 to ten times more than the typical below average salesperson and eventually they do this by working less hours.
Imagine if you had three of these top professionals on every one of your sales floors.
The NIN’s are kept track of on the Daily To Do List and I suggest that you set minimums for everyone on your floors like 10 NINs per week each. And this is verified in 20 seconds by the store manager.
It’s the fastest way in the world to build your business and I hope you take my advice and make it happen. I might even suggest a Spiff contest at first to get everyone used to the idea and recognize the superstars.
Here is the NIN on the eTRAX program. This is located both on the UpBoard and also on the personal web page we have set up for each salesperson called Salesperson DB. Please call if you have any questions.
Regards,
Dave Mink, President
