It's Time to Redefine 'Rehash' and Sales Follow-Up in Home Improvement

While sales follow-up isn't a mystery to most home improvement and remodeling businesses, it's hard to execute flawlessly. 

Particularly rehash.

"If they don't buy the first time, let's just lower the price and try again." 

Rehash used to mean dishonesty. Rehash used to mean stress - on both the sales rep and the homeowner. 

But without follow-up you're leaving thousands of dollars on the table. 

In fact, research from our platform shows that businesses without a sales follow-up strategy in place typically lose out on 7-10% of deals per year.  

The "one-Call Close" Is antiquated

Are you still heavily pushing the one-call close methodology for your sales team?

According to Mike Damora, owner at K&B Remodelers, this is actually losing you deals in the long-run.
 

It puts enormous pressure on the salesperson and the homeowner. And it doesn't translate to today’s buyer. Not too long ago I was in a house and the 30-something homeowner was describing another salesperson who had tried to close him on the first call by saying, “If you buy tonight…” and offering a whopping price drop.

The homeowner asked, “Mike, do people fall for that?” I told him that yes, some do, or there wouldn't be salespeople out there selling that way. And then the wife said, “That guy made my skin crawl. I couldn't wait for him to leave.”

Yes, nothing beats the feeling of a one-call close, but buying habits are now changing as customer demographics shift. 

According to a study Novarica conducted on millennial buying habits in 2016, there are three reasons the one-call close is getting harder to actually achieve.

• Millennials Google everything. All of the respondents reported using Google as a research tool. They approach search results with caution but rely heavily on what they read online.
• Millennials don’t want to be sold to. The survey group expressed a strong desire to guide their own purchasing process and voiced deep skepticism of salespeople in general.
• Millennials hate traditional channels. They hate getting mail, talking to CSRs, or meeting in person with agents. Failure to let them find and engage with you online means you are “off their list entirely."

What's the takeaway here?

Building trust and assisting a potential customer in their research when they say they're not ready to buy from the start is going to win you more deals in the long run. 

How Can You Improve Your Sales Follow-Up Processes? 

We recently teamed up with our partner JobProgress to discover and discuss how some of the best-performing home improvement companies are tackling sales follow-up and rehash.