In the past few years everyone has cut back on their employees, “trimming the fat,” if you will. We’ve talked about it many times on our blog, and although the industry is growing, dealerships are still running on a skeleton crew. You essentially cut out enough people so that the company can survive with the bare minimum. The only problem is, the salespeople you do have are maxed out in their work load.
What They’re Doing Now
Cabinet dealers and remodelers are infamous for having salespeople wear many hats, and expecting them to sell at full capacity. Lets dissect this… You’ve got them working X numbers of hours a week to make sales, but they’re not hitting their numbers. They are always busy but they don’t ever seem to be making their sales quota; and now that business is starting to pick back up, you need star quality performance.
Ok, let’s look a little deeper…how could they possibly be busy 100% of the time, but not hitting their numbers? It could be because your salespeople are drowning in paperwork and administrative tasks for 95% of their day if you account for 40% of their time on data entry and 55% of their time on processing orders (now, we know those percentages may not be 100% accurate, but you’ve got to admit they’re close). That leaves 5% of their time for actual sales. Youch…That means they’re only going to make 5% of their sales goals (if that). Nobody is winning in this situation.
Times have been rough for the kitchen and bath industry but the market is starting to pick back up meaning your sales team needs to be out there closing deals. Your tiny team doesn’t have time to focus on everyone, so that means your customer service is probably lacking. Think about it… a customer who wants something small like a vanity isn’t currently worth your sales person’s little remaining time. They’re going to want to fill that time slot with the “big fish.” But neglecting those customers means you’re losing money to your dealership (and you’re probably getting a bad rap on online reviews and word of mouth).
Time for Support
If this scenario sounds familiar and you’re having trouble getting your salespeople out of the office to sell, maybe it’s time to make a change. Bring back some of the sales support that you cut in the market crash and streamline your quoting and processing time with industry specific software. The new sales support will be able to do the grunt work of processing a quote, making orders and checking installations, leaving your salespeople free to hit 100% of their sales goals. You may be hesitant to add another employee before you see sales booming – it seems a little scary. But think about this – if you don’t get people into the showroom, you won’t ever have the chance of seeing your sales increase.
