Part 5-Overcoming the 5 Obstacles of Every Sale

All independent contractors, whether in the industry of HVAC, plumbing, or electrical, see the importance of learning to effectively and thoroughly overcome obstacles in order to smoothly progress through the sales process and reach a close. But within every call there is the potential for several client objections and obstacles to arise.  Thus it is important that company team members understand how to overcome the most common obstacles so they can work to eradicate them before they become a hindrance to the sale.  Over the last four weeks, we have explored four of the five main obstacles of every sale that have been outlined through Zig Ziglar’s intriguing quote: 

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”  

Today, we are going to spend time discovering the importance of overcoming the final obstacle in this quote, “No Trust”:

“No Trust”

The first component of overcoming the “No Trust” obstacle is to implement rapport-building skills from the get-go of a client-company interaction through training employees on the non-negotiable action steps that create service excellence inside your company.  Hurdling over the “No Trust” obstacle is a skill that every member of a company team should practice from the very beginning of their interaction with prospective clients.  Building a strong first impression is a very important feature when working to build lasting client trust.  The “No Trust” obstacle may be the hardest obstacle to overcome if you or your company has not embraced professionalism or rapport-building skills through every step of a customer’s sales experience.  Gaining and building customer trust is the most important step within a sale call because clients invest in people first and products second.  So it is vital that you and your company embrace the non-negotiable action steps that bring about the highest standards of service excellence in order to overcome this obstacle before it even has an opportunity to arise.  The “No Trust” obstacle is truly an obstacle that must be overcome before it occurs in order to gain and retain a loyal client.  For example, if a tech doesn’t initially gain a customer’s respect and trust from the moment he arrives at the door then it will be difficult for him to gain it while trying to close the sale.  This obstacle is most effectively overcome at the company-wide level through training and implementation of your company’s non-negotiables.

The second major way to overcome the “No Desire” obstacle is through recruiting, hiring, and retaining company team members that consistently work to provide amazing service excellence to your clients; and who consistently perform the important non-negotiable action steps that allow your service company to run smoothly and efficiently.  When a company stands behind their non-negotiable action steps then they will recruit and retain employees that are ready and willing to rise to excellence.  When a company is composed of a strong and reliable team then that company will portray merit and excellence from every level and every branch.  It is also important that a company that is devoted to maintaining and growing service excellence train all their employees on how to build trust and rapport throughout the entire process of a call.  When a tech is trained on the most successful ways to make a strong and trustworthy impression from the way he answers the door, to the way he conducts his diagnostic, to the way he obtains a referral then he will be confident in his ability to effectively communicate with his clients which will result in stronger client trust.

Overcoming the “No Trust” obstacle centers around service excellence that is provided by dedicated and professional team members.  Just like all five of the major obstacles, this obstacle is most effectively handled when obliterated before the client even has a chance to bring it up.  Thus it is important to learn how to overcome the five main obstacles of every sale in order create a smoother and more effective service or sales call.  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.