Importance of sales in a tiling career

[UKTT Darren]

Anyone looking into a career in tiling, you have to think about the sales side of the business, dont go into it thinking that tiling skills is all you need, If you dont win the estimate at the customers house you aint going to do any tiling,
Make sure when your looking for a course that these sale techniques are covered, a lot of it goes with the background knowledge that you take in and can use to give the customer the confidence that you know what your doing,
what i find with the reasurch that i do with past traininees, is the ones that have done the best marketing and sold themselves to the customers the best are the ones that generally make the best sustained businessess and in that their reputation brings in more work again

If your course didnt teach you anything about how to sell your services to a customer, it may be wise for you to try and look for a sales course somewhere, the money you pay for it will be returned quickly on the first job that you get from it

Something to think about

I did some posts before about Key to Success, anyone falling into a rut its worth reading again

Regards
Darren

 

[DHTiling]

http://www.tilersforums.com/tiling-courses/2302-key-success-tiling.html

 

[Leatherface]

Too true Darren, unless you come on recommend then the key to securing the job is your sales pitch, manner & demonstration of knowledge.
Price can often come secondary to these, as price is not the only thing on many customers minds. To some you can be too cheap & hence they may get the impression that they may not get as good a job done !

 

[UKTT Darren]

Thats right Nick, one of the first thing that i ask on the first morning of the course is if the price of a quote was £400, 450, 500, which one would you pick, most of the learners there say the 400, then i go into what you just said, its down to how confident you are, whether they like you or not, do you know what your talking about and do they trust you, you have to get them all right, if you do the price shouldnt make that much difference, what people see is all these programs rouge traders , builders fromm hell etc, they are taken back by someone professional that knows what they are talking about

 

[Leatherface]

Too true Darren

Mind you first impressions can still be wrong, as a customer myself when we bought our current house I had not started tiling and wanted our Kitchen and hall tiled in slate. Got 3 quotes, the guy who won it had the middle price. He advertised as a slate specialist, lovely bloke, spent loads of time explaining, really seemed to know what he was talking about.....
But oh my god what a mess he made :
Setting out poor.
Cutting nasty !
Grout lines too big and grout too sloppy so slumped.
Nasty steps all over.
And did not clean off grout properly so took months of scrubbing to remove residue.
Needless to say he did not get paid !
Pictures to appear in Rogues gallery

 

[UKTT Darren]

Hi Nick, how did you get on with that little setting out trick we once spoke about on the phone last year

 

[bignose]

Right again Darren as an ex salesman I expect to convert almost all enquiries into a job and usually do. Sorry to say it but a lot of builders and tilers have probably lost the job before they even quote a price. Just quoted a bathroom for £700, remove old tiles halfway up wall and retile. Why will I get the job? Theyre old and I will take away old tiles for them ( dont usually do that ). Thats my USP (unique selling point) and I will get the job. She has now asked can I fit her new vanity unit as well, of course madam !

 

[Leatherface]

Hi Nick, how did you get on with that little setting out trick we once spoke about on the phone last year

Wonderful and so much quicker, thanks

 

[Leatherface]

Right again Darren as an ex salesman I expect to convert almost all enquiries into a job and usually do. Sorry to say it but a lot of builders and tilers have probably lost the job before they even quote a price. Just quoted a bathroom for £700, remove old tiles halfway up wall and retile. Why will I get the job? Theyre old and I will take away old tiles for them ( dont usually do that ). Thats my USP (unique selling point) and I will get the job. She has now asked can I fit her new vanity unit as well, of course madam !

Hope you have got a waste carriers licence or it may cost you a lot more than £700 if you get stopped by the Ministry of Transport !!
This is no joke : These guys seem to have more powers than the police !
BEWARE !

 

[UKTT Darren]

No problem mate, the right tips make a big difference

 

[UKTT Darren]

Try looking on here for answers about waste permits
FAQs for Recycling Centre permit scheme

 

[UKTT Darren]

This is the key to success 2, the follow on from the first

Key to SUCCESS 2

Regards
Darren
North East Tiling Training

 

[faithhealer]

apart this forum Darren, any recommended reading material

 

[UKTT Darren]

I think the best info is on here really, the only thing that could possibly make the answers better on here is if they had picture diagrams beside them which is imposible to do i guess, When you read a book sometimes its not that clear and if you dont understand it you cannot ask it for help, where as here you can always ask to expand on the answer you got to your question if it wasnt clear enough for you

 

[Dan]

http://www.tilersforums.com/tiling-courses/2302-key-success-tiling.html

Oops. Noticed this after adding the link to the original post.

Anyone looking into a career in tiling, you have to think about the sales side of the business, dont go into it thinking that tiling skills is all you need, If you dont win the estimate at the customers house you aint going to do any tiling,
Make sure when your looking for a course that these sale techniques are covered, a lot of it goes with the background knowledge that you take in and can use to give the customer the confidence that you know what your doing,
what i find with the reasurch that i do with past traininees, is the ones that have done the best marketing and sold themselves to the customers the best are the ones that generally make the best sustained businessess and in that their reputation brings in more work again

If your course didnt teach you anything about how to sell your services to a customer, it may be wise for you to try and look for a sales course somewhere, the money you pay for it will be returned quickly on the first job that you get from it

Something to think about

I did some posts before about Key to Success, anyone falling into a rut its worth reading again

Regards
Darren

Thanks mate. Good post.

Right again Darren as an ex salesman I expect to convert almost all enquiries into a job and usually do. Sorry to say it but a lot of builders and tilers have probably lost the job before they even quote a price. Just quoted a bathroom for £700, remove old tiles halfway up wall and retile. Why will I get the job? Theyre old and I will take away old tiles for them ( dont usually do that ). Thats my USP (unique selling point) and I will get the job. She has now asked can I fit her new vanity unit as well, of course madam !

Nice way of thinking there bignose. Could almost say that's a guaranteed customer for life.

I often make sure i'd be asking what the customer wants for a while before commenting personally - and then when I do start recommending I know I'd be talking about what they've been talking about before. If that makes sense. So if they stressed quite a bit about the height of something, I'd be making sure I am concerned with the height too on this one. Sort of thing. I guess you worked out they needed the waste shifting, and that was the 'thing' that got the 'sale' this time.

 

[UKTT Darren]

Biggest part of sales is the listening, you have 2 ears and one mouth, use them in that order, like said above.

 

[bassman]

Having spent almost all my working life as a salesman, almost exclusively new and used cars........still with me? thanks most people have run away by now :lol:.
Sales is a skill and I have spent many hours been told (taught?) how to sell things, many sales techniques some good some verging on illegal a lot certainly immoral.
I suspect, as you are a member of this forum, you do not want to be a salesperson you want to be a tiler so one or two pointers that may help.

PEOPLE BUY PEOPLE. sell your self first. be punctual polite introduce yourself using your first name, only use their first name if they respond with it if the response is a surname they expect you to use it.(Always gets my back up till I count their money!)

SELL THE SIZZLE NOT THE SAUSAGE. Your client does not want to know about the technicalities of the adhesive you use they want to "see the room". Sell the image to the decision maker....this is not always the person paying the bill. IE,and ladies i do not wish to appear sexist in any way just try to give an example, a housewife will almost certainly make the decision on a kitchen but the funding decision ( savings ,loan, etc) could be a joint decision or soley the remit of the husband. However a toilet may be a different story!

IF AN OBJECTION IS MADE IT NEEDS TO BE OVERCOME. Ignore at your peril the client has noticed, it will be all they remember when you have gone. You will gain greater respect be telling them something you think they dont want to hear than ignoring it.
it is likely they know you are right but will try to convince themselves otherwise.

FOLLOW UP PROMPTLY. A courtesy phone call 24 - 48 hours later may just make the difference BUT dont become a nuisance.

DONT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR THE BUSINESS. NUFF SAID

Sorry if ive gone on a bit but if it helps one of you get one extra job it was worth it.

 

[faithhealer]

nice post bassman, think I'm doing most things right, just need wivers to post now on the 'immoral', side

 

[White Room]

Good post bassman and makes sence