Do you work at a small business home services company? If so, you might've wondered about how larger home services businesses make money and grow year over year. We'll let you in on a secret: These companies have a cross selling strategy, reward technicians for product recommendations, and focus on solving customers needs.
Cross selling training is a technique business owners use to train their technicians to sell, even though they aren't necessarily a sales rep. There are dozens of online training programs you can choose from when it comes to cross selling training. If you want your technicians to improve sales, a cross selling training program can help them to become a more competent sales person when upselling and cross selling.
When done correctly, technicians' efforts on upselling and cross selling can increase revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.
At Scorpion, we want to help you increase customer loyalty, so this article will explore several training techniques that will enhance your home service technicians’ skills, knowledge, and goals in cross selling and upselling.
If that sounds good, scroll down and enjoy the read!
1. Train Technicians To Be Tutors.
Training your technicians on how to close business deals isn’t only about straight selling, but rather about providing better services and solutions to the clients. By training your technicians to be tutors, they'll improve the customer relationship and overall customer experience.
To start, teach your technicians to develop trust and confidence with an existing customer. Since technicians can vividly explain different things in the most understandable way to clients, you'll develop loyalty by teaching customers what they can do themselves and cross sell or upsell when the opportunity arises.
Technicians become better tutors by asking customer questions and building trust. Teaching your technicians to ask relevant questions is one of the biggest training strategies that enhance upselling and cross selling. In this case, they are able to understand what customers know, their worry and what is vital for them.
The biggest impact of cross-training is helping technicians understand their roles in sales and targeting their customers' individual requirements.
2. Inspire Your Technicians.
Inspirations begin by offering your technicians a sense of ownership and belonging. This is done by making them feel they are part and parcel of your business and why sales matter in thriving your home service business. Give them a sense of pride as they are valuable assets to the business. Let the vision stick in their minds.
Before handling service calls by themselves, you should train technicians to feel comfortable not only with the job's technical skills but also with the company policies and pricing strategies. Understanding how to work within your organization's core values will help employees enjoy their work and give them the knowledge they need to notice a cross selling opportunity.
Train Technicians to Be More Confident
Find out what motivates each technician to work harder and feel satisfied in the workplace.
As a business, you should develop opportunities that cater to certain technicians' expertise, strengths, and goals. This may be done by offering a salary raise, promotion, or more responsibilities. For instance, one tech wants to be a top performer while the other is working hard to become a supervisor.
As the business owner, you need to respect and know that your technicians know the industry and that each opinion matters. Technicians need to be confident in their own capabilities and the organization itself.
One way to foster this can be to give your technicians business cards as they are the primary source of contact with your potential customers.
In addition, they should have all the knowledge they need of your products and services as it will enable them to cross sell and up sell your services much more easily.
Another way of developing confidence for your technicians is to focus on what you know and becoming solutions-oriented. For example, your technician may not be aware of the cause of the problem and the solution on the first visit, but they should focus on listing what they do know and going through various solutions that can help solve a customer problem.
Your technicians should always emphasize using positive language while they are talking to the customers. When your technicians start to meet sales goals, motivation may change, so to keep your employees engaged, generate new and challenging goals that may take your company to the next level.
3. Train Your Technicians On How To Handle Objections.
As a manager of the service industry, it's good to understand the importance of having several personalities and all the roles that are within your company. This is vital as you maximize all the opportunities that are within your industry.
This calls for having confident technicians who may be able to handle client objections that may occur before closing business deals.
If the objection is related to your cost, ensure that the technician fully understands all the financing options that are available through your company.
Some of the objections may arise from competitors as customers gather the best price in the market.
The technicians should be fully aware of your competitive advantage and what makes your organization different from the others. In so doing, they may confidently express why you are the best, therefore, making cross selling and upselling much more appealing for your potential customers.
Allow Technicians to Make Mistakes
Allowing your technicians to make mistakes may not mean you allow them to do whatever they want. However, you may train them to set some boundaries, guidelines that they follow, and what’s appropriate for them.
A technician who wants to become a manager may not be promoted immediately after hiring. Let your team work towards achieving company goals and allow them to make some mistakes, as it’s from them they get to learn.
It is very common to find one member of your team at the bottom of your list in one month and the best performer in the following month.
This is determined by the efforts of the technician as well as getting the needs of the technicians as they are undertaking cross selling training and coaching.
4. Reward Your Technicians.
Monetary Motivation
This is a performance-based payment model that can be a great motivator while you are cross selling training your team to sell. However, you may require some expertise in order to work against the set-up budget and your organization's core values.
You may take an individual approach, as you inform technicians that they are being monitored and evaluated by their cross selling and up selling data. This is done to determine each member's strengths and not to shame the underperforming individual but rather to help them raise the bar.
This helps to set goals for your lower performers, and if they are able to reach them, they'll feel proud of themselves.
Make Sales Numbers Available to Everyone.
You may post the sales numbers from top to bottom. In this scenario, technicians often feel motivated to move upwards by upselling and cross selling.
Other ways may be used to measure your technician's performance include:
- Taking the average number of hours to perform a certain job
- Learning a new skill for the job
- Time is taken without any accidents
Apart from offering commissions, you may start giving your team incentives. For instance, when a team member brings in a new client, leads to the company, or achieves company objectives, you should always reward your technicians whenever your organization exceeds your weekly, monthly or yearly goals.
5. Train Technicians to Be Better Customer Service Experts.
This is done by offering VIP customer service.
Whatever the client feels about the service offered may make a cross sell or lose it. This is because clients buy services or products on the emotions evoked by the seller. Technicians sell not only the services you offer but also promise to meet customer needs and provide solutions.
Cross selling training increases customer loyalty and retention, thereby decreasing the cost of acquiring new customers and increasing customer lifetime value.
When you begin cross selling and upselling, your customers experience quality service as they recognize your technicians’ dedication to meeting their needs. They start to trust your technicians as they are a source of professionalism and a reliable solution.
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