Salesmanship

Sales gets Service --
Service gets Sales

Just like the chicken and the egg!

Ask any sales person and they will tell you the only reason you have a service department is because they sell so many RV's.

Ask any service department and they will tell you the reason you get so many sales is because of the way they service your customers.

So was it the chicken or the egg that came first?

Sound familiar in your dealership?

You'll never settle this argument, but you can do a lot of things that will increase the chances of both groups improving themselves and keeping your customers happy. Keeping customers happy keeps them coming back. Keep them coming back and you keep your doors open to sell another day!

There has been a lot written in the trade journals the past few months about technician training, certification and retention.

I'm sure you've heard this phrase more than once around the showroom or service department: Sales sells it the first time but service sells it the second time.

If you don't believe that sentence, then you probably are not paying attention to all that's being written about a growing problem in the RV industry -- service and support after the sale.

Let's take a look at some of the things you can do to upgrade the respect and confidence deserved by your technical team that supports the sales team.

Communications:
Want to kill a company? Kill the communications. Successful companies know how to communicate. Selling organizations must communicate with support services and no where is that more important than in a company that services what they sell.

However, we find that in many companies the people who sell the product seldom talk to the people who service it, or vice-versa.

If you don't have a formal program of communications between these two valuable assets in your company, then you should consider starting one.

Schedule a monthly meeting with all sales and service personnel in attendance. The sales manager can cover new products, marketing programs, and upcoming showroom promotions. The service manager can cover recalls, customer complaints, and parts availability.

The most important part of the meeting will be the exchange of ideas and the discussions that take place between the sales people and the technicians themselves.

Good communications between sales and service can only improve any organization.

Roll up your sleeves:
Do your sales people have the respect they should have for the technicians? Do they really understand what goes on back there or do they think they are sitting on a throne out in the showroom?

There's a very simple process you can use to make sure that each sales rep fully understands the hectic day-to-day pressures that are felt in the service department -- work there! When we hire new sales people, they spend the first week with their jeans on and their sleeves rolled up while working every job in our service bureau.

You can do the same thing with your sales people. Maybe they can't do the highly technical stuff, but they can listen to the language of the technical aspects of the job and get a better understanding of what it takes to keep the customers happy and their RV's on the road.

The reverse of this is to have your technicians sit in on sales presentations and meetings with prospects and customers. This is especially beneficial when you have technicians who are specialists in a particular type or manufacturer and can speak with the client about technical issues. Let's face it, some sales people can be extremely weak on product knowledge and even worse, many of them are not even practicing the RV lifestyle.

Mix sports and work.
If you are like many companies, the technicians come to work and go into the service department. The sales people come to work and plant themselves in the showroom. Put them both on the same playing field and see what happens.

We regularly schedule golf matches or softball games to get both teams to loosen up a little bit and enjoy themselves outside the normal work environment. A little food, a little drink, and a lot of fun go a long way in opening up the lines of communications between the two groups.

Can a technician sell?
Some of our best sales reps were technicians before they went into sales. It's always scary for a technician to make that transition, but it can be done and the results may really surprise you.

Customers love technicians because they do not see them in the threatening or intimidating environment they might associate with sales people. It will also come as no surprise to you that customers trust technicians more than sales people.

If you have sales people who eventually want to turn in their toolbox for a briefcase, then you should create an environment that will allow them to do just that. If you don't do it, your competitor will and they will be working down the street -- in the sales department, not the service department.

You'll never know if you have this situation unless you have open communications and opportunities for advancement that are available to all employees.

Sales leads from technicians.
Establish a program that will reward technicians for sending leads into the sales people. Once the RV is sold, it is not unusual for the customer to see the technicians more than they see the person who sold them the unit.

As units age and service bills add up, the customer is going to think about trading their pride and joy. Train your technicians to talk to the customers about trading in their RV for a new unit.

Teach your technicians a few sales-related questions that will allow them to find out if the customer has been out looking at new units and visiting your competition. Let them ask the pre-qualifying questions that will tip you off to new business opportunities before you realize that you lost the customer because they purchased a new unit from somebody else.

Then set up a program where the technician gets credit for referring a prospect to the sales team. If the lead turns into a sale within a given period of time, the technician would be eligible for a monetary reward.

Using service technicians in the display at RV shows.
I know what you're saying: "We already do that."

Yes you do, but in most cases you have just cleaned them up, dressed them up and thrown them to the wolves. You can not expect to instill customer confidence in your company if you allow your employees to be put into no-win situations. This is not "Queen for a day." If you are going to use technicians in a selling environment, then you must provide them with some sales training.

You wouldn't ask your sale rep to go back and replace the heater on a $100K motorhome, but you'll send an untrained technician to a trade show to attempt to sell that same motorhome. It's not fair to your employee, it's not fair to your professional sales team, and it's certainly not fair to your prospects and customers.

Technicians attending sales training meetings.
When your manufacturer's rep visits to conduct sales training let your service technicians sit in on some of the meetings. Be selective and rotate your technicians so that they will then talk to each other about the experience. The more your employees know about your company, and the products you sell, the more they can help you sell them.

Technician certification.
There's already been enough published about the industry void of qualified service technicians.

Don't blame the industry -- look in the mirror.

The forecasts were there, the sales were there and the industry expansion program was well under way -- but dealers did not respond with programs and peo  ple to prevent this problem.

Technician certification should be the number one priority of every dealership. Select a program that will fit your budget and requirements and start improving the level of service that you can give to your customers.

Man, this guy is crazy.
I can hear it now. This guy must be crazy!

You can't get enough qualified technicians to run my business! You lose technicians who leave the industry! You can't attract new employees who aspire to be an RV technician! You can't afford to pay the wages demanded by today's qualified technicians and field engineers.

So how can you possibly even think of doing some of the things suggested in this article -- right?

Well if you start to do some of the things mentioned, and you start to get your technicians certified, and you start to work on these problems -- then maybe things will improve.

If you don't do anything different, and if you don't address the serious shortage of qualified RV technicians, and if you don't start to work on these problems today then you can be sure of one thing . It won't get any better and could get a whole lot worse.

Good luck and good selling.

RVN