Growing and strengthening sales inside of an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company relies on an important process that is composed of seven foundational steps. These seven foundational steps stretch across all branches of a HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company; from CSRs, to managers, to dispatchers, to technicians. Over the next seven Thursdays, we will explore and delineate each of these important steps individually. In today’s post, we will start with step one in the sales process—Prospecting.
What is Prospecting?
Prospecting is the process through which an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company works to find new potential clients that need their HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company’s services in some form or fashion. In today’s world of developing technology and constant access to information, the prospecting process becomes more and more about creativity and individual appeal. Prospecting comes in many shapes and forms and today we are going to discuss three of these prospecting techniques inside the sales process:
Large-scale Advertising-
One mode of prospecting used by independent contractors in the independent contracting company industry of HVAC, plumbing, or electrical during the sales process is advertisement on a broad scale. This type of advertisement can include; placing door hangers in neighborhoods within your independent contracting company’s target market, advertising on billboards in the surrounding area, creating HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company commercials for local television channels, placing write-ups in local newspapers or magazines as well as utilizing your company vehicles as mobile advertisement. Large-scale advertisement and marketing is useful for getting your company’s name out into the areas your company serves and wants to serve. There is great power in this visual appeal because whether potential clients directly realize it or not, they will remember companies that they continually see. This type of advertising is also a great opportunity to utilize visually appealing color schemes, create a catchy play-on-words, or create a memorable jingle. Prospecting for potential clients on a larger-scale is beneficial for growing your HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company’s visibility, memorability, and general market appeal when you purposefully implement and utilize creative marketing techniques.
Web-based Marketing-
While larger-scale marketing is becoming more and more creative, it can’t “hold a flame” to the creativity and ingenuity that can go into web-based independent contracting company marketing. In today’s society, more people use technology as their information resource and with constant consumer access to the internet, companies have to rise to this new technological challenge. Inside an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company that wants to efficiently bring in more potential clients must effectively utilize a company website and social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, etc.) outlets in order to advertise promotions, explain services, and provide beneficial resources. When independent contractors in HVAC, plumbing, or electrical keep a clean, fresh, and up-to-date website and social media sites then they are able to market on a more intimate and relational level. Through blog posts, status updates, and link sharing, independent contractors can directly involve their clients and potential clients in conversation and interaction. Web-based marketing is a wonderful way to enhance your HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company’s prospecting by drawing in and purposefully interacting with an interested audience through sharing beneficial information and useful resources.
Referrals-
Prospecting for potential clients through referrals is more personable than both of the prospecting components of the sales process that we discussed above, simply because it is a one-on-one process between a potential client and an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical independent contracting company representative. Referrals also provide an aspect of ‘social proof.’ ‘Social proof’ is a mental process in which a new client begins to see value in your company and services because a previous client expresses the value they’ve found in your company and services. Referrals are the last step in the sales process and they work to make the seven foundational steps in the sales process a cycle. By making these sales components into a regenerating cycle rather than linear process allows for sales process inside a company to continually grow and increase. We will discuss more about this important step when we reach ‘Referrals’ in our Foundational Steps of the Sales Process series.
Prospecting is a very important step in the sales process because sales can only continue to grow when independent contractors actively taps into a strong pool of potential clients. We explored three of the important aspects of prospecting in today’s post: utilizing broad-scale advertising, utilizing a company website and social media sites, as well as actively working to grow your company’s referrals. Thank you for following our weekly posts. Here at Service Excellence Training, we turn learning into earning!
-Resource curated by Whitney Stewart of Service Excellence Training.
