Aaron J. Crowley

Stone Industry Consultant

It’s funny, I had the first third of this article written when something inside started nagging me, “haven’t we been here before?”     

The more I congratulated myself on the storyline and clever anecdote, the more familiar the subject became and I started wondering if it was déjà vu.  

Then after a search of my Slippery Rock Articles Archive I discovered the problem: I had in fact already used the storyline and clever anecdote as an intro into another article on a loosely related subject. No wonder the ideas and thoughts came so easily!

Fortunately, the absence of the previously used intro will not detract from the substance of this article and this fact: Successful selling (which is the subject) is all about substance and very little about style.  

Furthermore, the absence of a world-class showroom, flashy four-color brochures, sharp dressed (and over paid) sales staff, and an acre of slab inventory out back will not detract from it either. 

Successful selling requires a system and a Radical Retail Sales System contains the following four components:

Pre-Qualify Clients: Unlike the real estate/mortgage industry, there is no “Pre-Approval Letter” that prospective clients can produce to prove they are legitimate buyers. As such, it is up to us to screen, qualify, and, yes, even profile every single call or visit to determine if it is worth the precious investment of time of scheduling an appointment, reviewing the project, producing a quote and following up.

A series of serious questions, starting with “How did you hear about us?” and ending with “What are you hoping to pay for your counters?” will expose the shoppers and highlight the buyers so you can schedule an On-Site Sales Presentation. 

On-Site Sales Presentations: Driving to a prospective client’s home (pre-qualified of course!) in the interest of closing the sale is a powerful tactic in the battle for countertop business if for no other reason than so few companies are willing to do it. But a sales presentation is not simply standing in a client’s kitchen taking measurements on a notepad and telling them you’ll get back to them with a bid!  

A sales presentation is a purposeful and methodical process of educating the client with tangible, physical, and relevant comparisons that make a case for “why” they are better off choosing you. Taking the measurements in the client’s kitchen is an easy way to get their undivided attention so you can understand their project and offer them a quote that reflects their needs.

Timely Quote Submission:  A rapid response time from the sales presentation to sending the quote will produce huge results in closed sales because so many competing companies take sooooooooo long to produce their quotes.

This is a huge opportunity for the fabricator employing this Radical Retail Sales System if they send their quote within 24 or 48 hours.   By doing so they can follow-up and oftentimes close the sale before the competitor with all the glitz and glam has even sent their quote out!

Systematic Follow-up: Making Quote Follow up a daily discipline is what makes a solid sales system Radical! But it must be, in and of itself, systematic and repeatable.  

No more than 48 hours should pass before a friendly call is made to “make sure the client received the quote” and to see if they have any questions. A corresponding email should always follow the call and if the chance to talk occurs, the client should be asked when they would like the next follow-up to occur.

A note on a follow-up calendar is made accordingly and on that appointed day, the next follow-up call is made. 

The cumulative effect of these four principles produces sales results in any region or market.  But that is not to say it will be easy.   

Pre-qualifying a prospective client by asking them a bunch of questions can be awkward.  Spending the time to prepare, travel, and conduct a formal sales presentation can take hours off of a work day. Turning a quote around in a day or two requires that sacrifices be made.  Systematically following up on quotes and facing the prospect of losing the sale requires courage.

Nope, it’s not easy. But it is amazingly effective and fabricators who take the time to develop it will produce sales results that are nothing short of Radical!

Aaron Crowley is a stone shop owner, author, speaker, and consultant to mid-size stone companies. Contact him at aaron@fabricatorsfriend.com.