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When All Else Fails,
Go Make a Sales Call!
There’s only one reason not to sell and that’s because you’ve closed your doors.
How do franchisees and franchisors spend their day? How many times a day do they connect with prospects or clients? Percentage-wise, how much of their time is spent selling? Whether the franchisee or the franchisor, if they haven’t sold something at the end of the day, then tomorrow is going to cost them money. If franchise companies live by the 80/20 rule, where 80 percent of the business comes from 20 percent of its clients, then the 80/20 rule should also apply to sales. That means that franchises need to be selling 80 percent of the time and performing administrative functions only 20 percent of the time.
Franchised businesses need to have a simple plan to succeed.
As franchisees or franchisors, it’s great to have a brand and a system. Express Employment Professionals has effective processes, systems and policies in place. But if no one is selling, all that exists are great processes, systems, and policies in a company procedures manual sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
Yes, a company can follow a system all day long, but if the system doesn’t include selling 80 percent of the time, then there’s no reason to follow any system, except for the system that leads to the “road to closing the business’s front door.” Franchised businesses need to have a simple plan to succeed that defines why they are in business, how to hire the right salespeople and keep them accountable and how to avoid sales reluctance so they can just go sell.
Define Why You Are in Business
If one thinks back to the day he started the business as a franchisee or franchisor, chances are he’ll remember the dreams, hopes and even the fears. The owner will also remember why he started the business. Sure, there’s the response most new owners give to be politically correct: “I’m in business to help people.” Without being cynical, one of the three business goals should and must be to help people. The second goal, the marketing reason for being in business, should be to provide a good quality product or service that people really need. But the third and ultimate goal of being in business must be to make a profit. If a company isn’t growing, it’s dying. In business, if an establishment isn’t making a profit, it’s losing money, which isn’t a reason to remain open. Thus, once these three goals are set and agreed to, then it only makes sense to feed the goals and go make the necessary sales calls. Of course, the right person must be in place to make the calls.
Hire the Right Person
Hire right or hire wrong? One way is a winning situation, the other way, isn’t. People aren’t all the same. They don’t all thrive or excel at the same talents. Thus, some don’t all like to sell. But most of them thrive and excel best at the things they like to do the most. A true professional salesperson, not the clichéd used-car salesperson that might come to mind, has passion for the product or service he is offering and a belief in its value. When hiring the right outside sales team member, it’s paramount to look for and find that person with a burning desire to win. And if a person can’t take no for an answer and continues to make calls, he won’t last in sales. Rejection is a reality in sales.
Other characteristics to look for in a salesperson to ensure success include:
• Sales experience: Consider someone with similar experience.
• High self esteem: The person must carry himself with confidence.
• Great energy level: Your company doesn’t necessarily want a person who is always bouncing off the walls, but he should have the ability to bounce when needed.
• High integrity and values: The franchise organization is selling a quality product or service; it wants a quality person representing it.
• Motivated by and understands working for incentives/commission: The salaried person won’t be motivated to go out and sell daily.
• Professional: The person should be able to correctly flex in and out of the settings he will face daily.
Build a Team
Companies always have the age-old issues between the inside staff and the outside sales. Those outside get to ride around all day long, running errands, getting their nails done, going to parties, and never having to work, according to the inside staff. On the flip side, the sales team is always saying the inside team doesn’t do anything all day but wait for the sales team to make a sale. Reality? No. Perception? Yes.
If a company isn’t growing,
it’s dying.
Part of hiring effectively is setting the stage for the entire team so that both parties, inside and outside, are equally important to the success plan of the business. Without sales, the inside team doesn’t have a great deal to service; and without the exceptional service and support from the inside team, the sales force is lost. It takes both. Both groups are usually made up of different types of people. The true magic is creating an inside and outside team that works together and where both are held accountable to their goals.
Keep Salespeople Accountable with Incentives
Franchise companies want to increase their market share and the business. This can be done by having the right salespeople in place, provided the organization is keeping them accountable by setting measurable goals. Goals that might be considered to set and measure include:
• How many sales calls should the person make daily or weekly?
• How many clients does the franchise organization want the salesperson to attain each year?
• How much revenue should each salesperson bring in annually?
• How much territory is each salesperson responsible for?
Companies want specific goals for each of the above plus other goals that matter to their business plan. Then, weekly, or whenever works best, meet with sales staff and make sure they reach the goals and bring in the business.
Remember, hire a person who is motivated by and understands working for incentives and a commission. In other words, no results, no pay. Also find out what motivates the person and have her set her own goals. What does the salesperson want and how can the franchise system help them get it? Simply put, if it’s a car they want to purchase with their salary, have them put a picture of that car on their wall to stare at daily. Their goal can and will be reached as the business goals are met. During the weekly meeting, start with their end goal in mind and remind them of their goal and how it fits into the overall business goal. Instead of “making ‘em laugh,” “make ‘em sell,” and watch the sales go up. Be mindful however of the pitfalls or traps to the goals: looking for that magic pill and reasons not to sell.
Avoid Looking For the Magic Pill
The common cold lasts 10 days with or without a visit to the doctor. The sales process takes five to eight touches with the prospect, with or without the brochure. Looking for the pot of gold under the rainbow or trying every new gimmick under the sun is simply a time zapper. Street smarts shows that the basics of getting out in the market and making a friend by showing him value in what is offered will close more deals than just about anything else. Everyone has needs; customers do too. Everyone has a price he can afford; customers do too. When the franchise company provides the right need combined with the right price, it has a sale. The organization has a satisfied and soon- to-be-loyal client as well.
No results, no pay.
Simplicity is underrated. Pick the cliché: how do you eat an elephant – one bite at a time; if it’s not broken, don’t fix it; if you build it, they will come. Everyone tries to come up with the bigger, better way. And yes it’s true that continuous improvement is important, but change for the sake of change is just a waste of time. Consistent selling is what is desired. If what the franchise company is doing isn’t working, try going back to the basics and stop looking for the magic pill. Franchise systems might be surprised to find the actual magic pill is simply the good quality product and service they continually provide. Eventually, if all a company does is to look for the magic pill, the pill just becomes another reason not to sell at all.
Combat the Reasons Not to Make a Sales Call
Remember the kids in elementary school who had a reason for everything as to why their papers weren’t turned in on time? Well believe it or not, those same kids have somehow made it into the work world. And now they have a whole set of reasons why they don’t finish their work, including why they don’t make sales calls.
“Technology is too slow; I can’t enter my sales information and I don’t know where my next appointment should be.” These are just some of the reasons one might hear. Don’t let technology and other reasons keep the sales team from selling. Technology isn’t necessary to create a need and find a prospect in the market who has that need. And when salespeople say that there’s just too much competition, explain that’s a good thing. If there’s so much competition, then someone has the business and is making a profit. If they go make a sales call, it might become their business.
Consistent selling is what is desired.
And watch out for the ONM Syndrome, that’s “Operations needs me.” No, they don’t. The operations team has a set of goals; the sales team has a set of goals. Together, they meet the overall goals of the business. At the end of the day, the goals meet and create a marriage of success. But during the day, everyone needs to be doing their own job. Don’t let salespeople come off the street to help inside. If they fall into this rut, they will never climb out. Make this clear to both teams.
Instead of listening to the reasons the salespeople can’t make sales calls, give them reasons to go sell. There are many reasons, including:
• Introduce a new product or service,
• Celebrate an important occasion with the prospect: company anniversary, birthday,
• Deliver usable, knowledge-based information,
• Follow-up on the last call, and
• Gather more data about clients’ needs.
The bottom line for the sales professionals is that there are no acceptable excuses to not spend 80 percent of their time making sales calls. Just go sell.
Just Go Sell, Sell, Sell
So, how do you spend your day? How many times a day do you connect with prospects or clients? And how much of your time is spent “selling”? As a franchisee, you’ve got a product or a service to sell. As a franchisor, you’ve got territory to sell. If you’re spending less than 80% of your work time selling, then you are doing too much administrative work. You’ve got to define why you’re in business and remember one of the reasons is to make a profit. You’ve got to hire the right sales people and let them sell. Encourage them and manage them to sell, while continuing to measure their results and keep them accountable. And ultimately, you’ve got to avoid the magic pill and stop looking for reasons not to sell. There is only one reason not to sell: that’s because you’ve closed your business. So while your door is open for business, when all else fails, go make a sales call.
Harvey H. H. Homsey is vice president–franchise systems of Express Services, Inc., the franchisor for Express Employment Professionals (formerly Express Personnel Services). He can be reached at harvey.homsey@expresspros.com.
