Regardless of your personal sales journey, you can expand your sales capability without adding cost. 

By Diane Emo 

Do you like selling? Many people answer “no” to that question because they see selling as something negative or pushy. Even business owners who are passionate about their company and proud of their services admit selling is outside their comfort zone, that selling is done by “those guys,” a unique breed called Salespeople.

But business owners sell every day in very positive ways. For example, you probably sell your ideas and offer advice to customers, suppliers and employees all the time. A simple definition of selling: It is a conversation with a prospective customer with the goal of matching what they want to what you offer. While larger franchised businesses might have the cash flow to pay a salesperson, smaller franchisees need to sell themselves or look for sales support from their franchisor. 

Trends in franchisor support: 

• Training on franchised business operations first, technical skills second. 
• Advanced training to help franchisees market, prospect, bid and sell. 
• Franchisor sales team to find new customers and offer them to franchisees. 

Franchisees typically look to the franchisor to provide a brand, turnkey system and support programs that complement their skillsets. Regardless of your personal sales journey, everyone can take steps toward expanding their sales capability without adding cost. 

Step 1: What’s your story?

Every business has a story. Stories sell, because people can relate to them. Why did you start your franchised business? Why are you passionate about your company? How do you solve problems for customers? Why do they choose your brand over others? Your business exists to provide something important to customers. There is a story in you. Find it, write it down, practice telling it and make sure everyone in your company becomes a confident storyteller to build your brand reputation from the ground up. 

Step 2: Identify your customer’s pain points 

Pain points are the reasons why a customer wants to make a change – to alleviate a problem causing pain. If you can figure out their pain points, then you can determine how your business could solve the problem and create real value for customers. 

Pain points can be business or personal, or a business pain that results in a personal headache. For example, in a service delivery business such as commercial cleaning, a customer pain point might be that employees are tired of having to clean their own offices and complain about it to the boss. Or, maybe a prospective customer is losing their customers because of dirty, smelly restrooms. That’s painful enough for them to want to make a change. 

Pain point formula: The customer is having a problem with ____ that is resulting in ____. Example: Jim is having a problem with dirty, smelly restrooms resulting in a loss of customers and complaints online that hurt his business reputation. 

Step 3: Build problem-solving conversations

When you know your customer’s pain points and your story, match them to solve problems and create value for customers. That is the essence of a sales conversation: 

Pain Point: It sounds like you’re having a problem with ____. Is that right? 
Your Story: Here’s how we can help you with that problem… Would that work? 
Problem Solved: Great! That will make things better because ____. Do you agree?

Step 4: Help customers find you online

Franchisors use national and market-based advertising to promote the brand on behalf of all franchisees, as well as campaigns for franchisees to implement locally. Smaller franchised businesses also need to be available and visible online through local search engines. Your potential customers are accustomed to finding services online from a mobile device, getting price quotes quickly, and minimizing the hassle of hiring a new service. They are less likely to call your company and more likely to fill out a form online to speed up the process. 

Make sure that your company listing is correct on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp and sites local to your market. Whether you place a listing or not, the Internet “crawlers” have probably assembled one for you and it needs to be accurate. 

Another option is to leverage social media, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, for your business. If you create a social media presence, then use it, Social media is today’s PR vehicle. You can use it to post news and appropriate pictures, and develop a personality for your business. Also, consider placing online ads and offering specials or discounts on social media and other popular websites used by your customers to find services. A small online advertising investment could yield big results. 

When someone finds your company and contacts you via email or phone, respond quickly because they are “in market,” meaning they are actively shopping for a solution. Odds are the customer has also contacted other vendors, so treat them as a hot lead and decide who in your company is best positioned to act on those leads during the busy day. The longer you wait to respond to the customer, the more likely you are to lose the deal to a competitor. And, we’re talking minutes to respond, not hours or days. 

The flipside of online advertising and listings is that you might get negative reviews from unhappy customers. Today, this is a normal part of doing business. Watch carefully for negative posts and respond to them promptly and positively. Although it’s human nature to want to defend yourself and state why the negative review isn’t accurate, avoid starting an online, public dialogue with a disgruntled patron. Instead, combat negative reviews by encouraging your happy customers to post positive reviews. 

Step 5: Ask for referrals 

Your best source of new business is your current customer base. Referrals are a small- business owner’s best friend. The hard part is asking. One suggestion is to implement a customer satisfaction survey with your customers at least twice a year. Because good customer communication is paramount to any business, strive to ask the survey questions in person. 

Use three simple questions: How are we doing (rating)? What else could we do to help you (upsell)? Who might also benefit from using our service (referral)? 

Get the sale!

The No. 1 competency gap with salespeople is failing to ask for the business. While it sounds simple and obvious, I’ve seen representatives do a fantastic job of identifying customer pain points, matching their solution and positioning value and then flop when it comes to closing the deal. 

This skill takes practice. Find a closing statement that is clearly asking for the contract and fits comfortably with your personality. Then, use it. What will you say to close the deal and gain a new customer? A few ideas to try: 
• It looks like we can help you here. So, let’s sign the paperwork and get started. 
• The next three steps are X, Y and Z. Let’s get the paperwork out of the way and move on to the good part. 
• Sounds like it makes sense for us to work together, which is great. When can we start?

Diane Emo is vice president of marketing for Coverall North America Inc. Find her at fransocial.franchise.org

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