Dear Trax Family and Leadership Teams,
IGE or Information Gathering Efficiency is a report Trax created to help identify which sales associates are not very good at capturing customer information if a sale is not made. Let’s face it if you just sprinkle be-back dust on your unsold customer opportunities your chances of getting them back in the store and closing the sale are greatly reduced compared to being able to perform a professional follow-up. The beauty of the IGE report is that this report only tracks when you are able to get a phone number, address or email… IF YOU DID NOT MAKE THE SALE.
Please notice several features on the screen shot.
1. You have a comparison of the Traffic Counts to the # of opportunities entered into the UpBoard. If you have more than a 20% difference you might be understaffed and should give the Hot Zone report special attention. If you are severely understaffed, you might be losing a great deal of customers and this should be your top priority.
2. The bottom row are totals and comparisons, and all numbers are benchmarked meaning if a number is below the average at the bottom it will be red and if above the average, it will be green.
3. #3. Focus on red percentages for Both Collected (this is addresses and phone numbers.) If you are below 40% you are not trying. We all know that you will never get 100% of the personal information from potential customers who shop your company, but trust me the great sales pros will get it 60+% of the time. You should set up a regular spiff contest rewarding the best people in your company in this area. Honestly what could be more important than being able to follow-up with a great new opportunity that you just spent an hour with that did not purchase. This in my opinion is one of the most important skills you could learn as a sales professional. Regarding the spiff contest, if they don’t hit 30% or some minimum number they can’t participate in the contest for that week or month. This is an easy skill to learn and a must if you want to dramatically improve sales numbers and break sales records. It takes passion to get this part of Trax off the ground, but it’s well worth the effort!
If you want to see great improvement I would focus on all salespeople who are at 30% IGE or below and find out what is making them tick. If you are just now kicking this off, I would immediately reward the top person in each showroom with tickets to a show or Dinner for 2. These people if they maintain this level of success will make you hundreds of thousands over time by building your customer database and developing long term relationships, so splurge… And give every one of them the… Congratulations!…They Deserve! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me. Trust me, if you get good at this it will literally be worth millions in additional sales dollars over time.
The question becomes…How is it possible for several salespeople to exceed 60% or more? I recommend that you make this the first topic of conversation every day for 21 days and then sit back and watch the magic.
The next feature that Trax lets you capitalize on is NIN or “Next Item Needed”
Next Item Needed is the heart of TRAX and if used properly can and will dramatically increase your sales! NIN is a concept that is foreign to most salespeople, but it is the secret that the multimillion dollar producers in this industry jealously hide from everyone. Once you make a sale it’s human nature to get them out the door. The question sometimes becomes, what if I keep them in the store with a couple more questions and they change their mind about the original purchase? I am here to tell you that 99% of all customers truly appreciate someone looking out for them in the future and most of the time if NIN is done right it cements an ongoing quality relationship. IE: for a very small amount of additional work the ROI is phenomenal! Keep in mind TRAX automatically makes this happen for each salesperson every day!
You can easily check your NIN on the Master To Do List (see last column below)
This is a concept invented by John F. Lawhon, author of The Selling Bible and you should buy this book at http://www.sellingretailinc.com/ it is the best book I have ever read on the subject of selling. Mr. Lawhon before writing this book spent hundreds of hours interviewing the top multimillion dollar producers in the Home Furnishings Industry. He discovered one fantastic common denominator and this a secret that most top producers did not want to share. John discovered that all of these top producers had a common skill where they asked every customer who just purchased before they went out the door what they might be interested in for their home in the future. This is from page 71 and you should memorize these words.
Mrs. Jones, because I do like to help my customers any way I can, do you mind telling me what you think you will be buying next for your home? Then I can keep my eye out for you. If it goes on special or we get something in I think you will like better, I’ll give you a ring or drop you a line. You may want to stop in and take a look at it. The customer will tell that salesperson what it will be every time and they won’t even have to think about it.
If you do it with those exact words, it will work nearly every single time.
The professional will then say: “Mrs. Jones, as long as you are here, would you mind walking through that department on your way out and show me what would best meet your needs, then I will have an even better idea what to be looking for.” John says it is a rare customer who doesn’t.
When you learn this NIN and enter it into eTRAX we will remind you on the proper day to follow-up and what exactly to do next.
This customer’s information will be emailed to the salesperson the morning they need it. It’s like giving each salesperson their own personal secretary.
Please don’t forget that NIN does not cost you a penny and is one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal, but just like IGE, it will take passion from top management to get your people in the habit of doing this every time they make a sale. The only way it will work is if you check the master Daily To Do List and see which salespeople are getting NIN’s and rewarding them. Trust me, when you reward the top performers word will travel fast to those who want to improve.
PS if you get passionate about the NIN this will be by far the best year you have ever had… Let’s do this!
