I’m currently helping a friend of mine grow his carpet cleaning company, and he needs a sales process. Fortunately, I’ve built them before, but I’m finding out in “hit-me-in-the-mouth” fashion that carpet cleaning ain’t exactly the motorcycle business! This month, I simply wanna share what I’ve been battling in this attempt to build a sales process.
We’ve been teaching the Otis Hackett style sales process in dealerships for about 10 years now. It ain’t a new sales process — it’s just our take on what all successful sales processes have in common. In this month’s rant, I hope to impart the secret to creating your own sales process in this easy, five-minute read.
Measure everything. Yup! That’s it: the secret, the whole secret, and nothing but the secret. If you don’t start measuring something — anything — how can you ever expect to accomplish your goals?
Start by measuring what you wanna accomplish. Define it in as high a degree of detail as you can, and then hold it up as a measuring stick. Examine your results against your new measuring stick and see where you landed at the end of the day. Then ask yourself the following questions every day until you can answer them all:
• Did you get there today?
• If so, how did you get there?
• What did you do?
• Can you do it again tomorrow?
• How do you know?
• What will you do to do it again tomorrow?
• What has to change to do better tomorrow?
• What has to change to fall off the pace tomorrow?
• Can you control any of those factors?
• Which ones?
• How do you control them?
• What happens if you don’t control those factors?
• Which is the most sensitive factor?
• Which is the least sensitive?
• Can you do anything to make the most sensitive factor less likely to negatively impact on your day?
• If you didn’t reach your goals today, why not?
• What didn’t you do that you usually do?
• Did you do anything out of the norm that screwed up your results?
• What can you adjust to avoid similar results tomorrow?
After you’ve got a handle on that primary batch of questions, hit this second level:
• What are the human elements of any negative results?
• Can you help control human factors with training, attitude adjustment, reading or instructional tools and videos, etc.?
• Do you need more staff?
• How do you know?
• What are you measuring to ensure more employees make more money?
• How much is at risk if they don’t?
• How long will it take for a new salesperson to generate enough revenue?
• When will your floor traffic increase to the extent that you can float that added expense?
• If you’re wrong about the increased floor traffic, how much money do you have at risk?
What we’re measuring at the carpet cleaning service are the same basic things that we measure in the bike business: opportunities, activities and results. The first thing I did was to design a simple form for the sales guys to fill out that captures how many people they spoke with, how many jobs they quoted, how many deals they closed and how many jobs they completed. Is there more? Of course, those four metrics are only the beginning. From there, we’ll eventually measure much deeper: how each salesperson does at each metric, why one guy may do it better than another, the difference between business and residential sales calls and much more.
Where will we be able to take this little $150K per year carpet cleaning venture? We’re just barely out of the gate, so I have no idea. I don’t even know if we’re doing anything the right way and probably won’t until we get at least a few months under our belts. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Just get started selling on purpose, so you’re not selling by accident.
I heard once that the secret to finishing any venture is about not sitting at a traffic light waiting for all the lights on the street to turn green before you step on the throttle. Don’t wait. Do it now! Start measuring something now! I dare ya!
Otis Hackett is the founder of Otis Hackett Group. OHG provides general management services for powersports dealers across the U.S. The OHG team brings real-world experience, having all been motorcycle dealership employees working on the front lines of the industry every day. Click on www.otisackett.com or email [email protected]. Join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!
