Earl King
Networking: A Viable Lead Source?
. During the last few years, being earthbound, I have discovered what most sales people already knew: networking can pay huge dividends if properly implemented. ...
Sales Training for Success
Involuntary terminations of service sales personnel are far too common and far too expensive. A failing salesperson usually (and unfortunately) hangs around for close to a year before the relationship is severed. The employer not only loses the salary paid, but also employment taxes, car allowances, administrative costs, training costs, and other incidentals....
Timing and the Selling Cycle
It's been said many times that timing is everything. This is certainly true throughout the selling cycle. To illustrate, following is a case study that will also show even seasoned sales veterans aren't exempt from deal-killing mistakes....
8 Steps To the Life Cycle Costing Process
Until recently, life cycle costing was a term used by large developers, real estate investors, and a handful of top commercial service sales people. Now, it's used by most real estate management firms. Simply stated, it's a method to identify a building's true costs of ownership. It's also the best (perhaps only) means of justifying the price of a commercial service agreement....
Full Coverage Service Agreements: Are They Worth It to You?
The truth is, if a full coverage agreement is estimated properly, applied to the right types of systems, and managed diligently, it provides the highest gross margins in our industry....
Suspecting Versus Prospecting
By definition, a suspect is a property that meets a certain predetermined criteria to make it worthy of further attention. A prospect is a property where contact has been made with at least one decision maker. Most sales managers and sales people view a prospect as the first step in the selling cycle. Others may be of the opinion that the difference between a suspect and a prospect is only a semantics issue. ...
Questions That Direct The Presentation
Every step of the selling cycle is critical in producing the desired end result, however none are quite as critical as the first call presentation. By definition, the first call is when the salesperson sits face-to-face with at least one decision maker. Anything short of this is simply a fact-finding mission. ...
Appointments: Challenge or Drudgery?
It has long been said that, "a salesperson without an appointment is momentarily unemployed." Making the initial contact is the first major step in the selling cycle. There are five distinct methods in making the initial contact; phone call, cold call, mailing campaigns, associations, and networking. In future articles, I will discuss each in detail, but, for now let's address my favorite: setting appointments by phone. ...
Prospecting in a Challenging Economy
There are always situations where we have little control. One example is the swing of the economic pendulum. In the past 40 years, I've endured several recessions, but never to the magnitude of this one. As I've mentioned, when the going gets tough (financially), building owners and managers look for budget cuts....
Lease Capital Selling: Capitalizing on a Down Economy
A prospect's most apparent needs won't be met if the budget doesn’t allow for replacement of systems. It's common to find buildings with 25-year-plus unitary equipment that has "crashed and burned." Energy consumption and repair bills become unbearable, while comfort isn’t even an after thought. ...
Sales Productivity: What to Expect
The question that's been crossing my desk and popping up in seminars recently is, “How much sales volume should I expect from a service salesperson?” Obviously, there are many variables, which depend upon the role of the salesperson and his or her direct cost to the contractor. ...
Finding the Service Sales Professional
The most successful commercial service companies are those that hire, train, and promote successful sales personnel....
Property Management Firms: Friend or Foe?
Property management groups have long been thrown into a general category of low bid prospects for commercial service agreements. Albeit there is much...
Seeing Is Believing
It's hard to believe, that after all these years and scores of filled seminar rooms, some/most sales people are still winging it. Now, more than ever,...
Objections: Hurdles or Opportunities?
While a “canned pitch” isn't my cup of tea, there are only so many objections you'll encounter when selling service agreements. By responding without a glitch, you'll remain authoritative in your prospect's eyes. ...
Earl King: Task-based Pricing or Price-based Tasking?
In our ever-changing industry some things never change. The economy softens; construction dries up; construction companies begin dabbling in service;...
Prospecting The Property Manager
By Earl King For the past three decades (and then some), Ive advised contractors not to chase property managers as customers. Ive always contended, with...
