Be a Consultant, Not an Order Taker
As with any industry, our role in the garage, shed, and carport industry extends beyond simply closing a sale. Our job is to deliver genuine value by guiding customers to make an informed decision that meets their specific needs and enhances their lives. Selling value as opposed to simply making it a transaction is not just beneficial, it’s our duty.
What is Value-Added Selling?
Value-added selling is focused on elevating the customer’s experience. To do this, we must work to develop a thorough understanding of their unique requirements and deliver customized solutions that exceed their expectations. It’s about providing options that genuinely enhance the product’s functionality, durability, and overall value.
In contrast, if we have short, superficial exchanges with our customer, little personal interaction takes place, which results in a transactional sale instead of a relational one. The customer walks in, selects a product, pays, and leaves. There’s little effort given to understanding the customer’s broader needs. While this approach may work in some scenarios, I believe it misses the mark by a wide margin in our industry, where customers often have very specific, unique needs.
The Disservice of Transactional Sales
Limiting sales to a transactional approach does our customers a disservice. Here are three reasons why:
Missed Opportunities to Meet Needs: Every customer has unique needs that we may overlook if we use a shallow, transactional approach. Customers often lack a complete understanding of what’s available. They don’t know what they don’t know. By not delving deeper into their requirements, we risk selling them products they don’t need or miss helping them obtain the benefit of options that could serve them better.
This is where we, as experienced sales professionals, can be at our best. While it’s prudent to give them what they ask for, we’re letting them down if we don’t offer guidance developed through our training, experience, and expertise.
Missed Opportunities for Repeat Business: Another important aspect to being the value-added expert is cultivating repeat business. Allowing an interaction with the customer to be strictly a transaction, we miss the opportunity to create a loyal advocate with benefits well beyond this one sale. A satisfied customer may come back next time, or they may go elsewhere. We want them to come back to us again and again for future sales, right?
Missed Opportunities for Referrals: We want enthusiastic customers who will tell friends and family that we’re the place to go for their next project. This might happen with a simple transaction, but by truly assisting our client in making the best purchase possible, we can gain that undying support for a long time. A true raving fan will come back repeatedly and bring family and friends.
How Do I Become a Value-Added Consultant?
To become a value-added adviser, we must first be an engaged listener. We can’t assume we know what our customers want. Ask many open-ended questions and listen intently to the answers. Allow for a back-and-forth dialogue to determine the true needs, wants, and desires of our buyer. If we ask enough questions, the customer will tell us what we need to know to help them make a good decision.
As we foster this back-and-forth discussion, we can start offering options. Don’t be afraid to upsell options. If they will truly benefit the customers and will make the product more useful, more durable, or more attractive, then you’re helping the customer make a better long-term decision. By adapting the attentive-listening approach, we’ll be positioned to offer the value-added options that bring a genuine benefit, rather than simply adding dollars to the sale.
With any value-added option, there’s almost certainly a higher cost that comes as part of the deal. This is why we must develop an understanding of what’s important to the buyer. We can go overboard with too many costly add-ons, so make them based on the buyers’ needs and desires.
Have samples and displays of your value-added options readily available for buyers to see and touch. Actual working models are best if possible. Suggesting a rather large added cost can be met with resistance, so if you’re suggesting an upgraded option with an upgraded cost, be sure to give them an upgraded experience.
Overcoming Price Objections
Resistance to higher costs is typical. Price is so often the first and strongest objection. So how do we overcome these? I’ve mentioned the importance of having working samples if possible. In addition, we can use technology to our benefit. Digital design tools with color selection are a powerful addition to your sales arsenal.
The excitement of “building” your client’s structure on screen together can ease their concerns and allow them to see the difference between standard and deluxe, thus making it easier for them to justify the price. You can also have a digital catalog (or a nice printed one) of quality full-color pictures and/or videos to show other jobs you’ve done. Organize them by category to make it easier for your customers to find what they’re looking for.
Customers will typically have an endgame in mind when it comes to budget, rather than an open-ended “whatever it takes” checkbook to work with. This is why I suggest talking in terms of “investment’ rather than cost or price. For example, you could suggest, “For a small investment of only $100, we can build your structure with a 40-year-painted fastener as opposed to a non-warranted one.” It’s a small detail but one that can have better results.
Keep in mind that aesthetics should be considered an investment. If the customer wants a nice mini-barn or garage on a property where they plan to live for years, a small additional investment option that enhances the looks can truly be worthwhile.
You may object to upselling because you think your market is too competitive, but this mindset will lead you to the dangerous and unprofitable world of The Transaction. To many, the word “competitive” means “at the same price or cheaper.” This is true, but only if your product is exactly the same as your competitor’s. Are you offering the exactly the same size, doors, and windows? The same siding and roofing? The same options? Exactly the same means that he who is cheapest wins. A transaction will take place with the winner being the one with the lowest price; thus, there won’t be much profit.
This is why it’s so important to ask questions and listen — really listen — and solve the buyer’s needs. Help them get what they really want or need. Help them see the value of what you offer as a builder/supplier. Set yourself up so they’re not simply comparing price to price with little if any regard for what unique products and advice you have to offer.
If you approach each customer as a trusted adviser rather than a salesperson, you’ll be in the position to add more value and assist your customer with purchasing a better structure, all while achieving a better profit margin. When you become known as the quality adviser who really knows the industry, truly understands how to help their customers get exactly what they want and need, and are backed by an earned reputation as such, you win!
I’ve discussed the value of training in previous articles. Never is it more important than when it comes to developing a rock-solid reputation as the consultant who prioritizes the customer-first model. We must train our people to know the industry, know the competition, know the value-added options available, and know how they can benefit the client. Becoming good at asking and listening is a skill that’s very trainable.
Conclusion
Being a value-added seller isn’t just a strategy; it’s a responsibility. By guiding our customers toward solutions that genuinely enhance their lives, we elevate both their experience and our professional standing. It’s about moving beyond the quick sale to creating lasting relationships based on trust, knowledge, and shared success.
Let’s embrace the role of the value-added seller. Let’s commit to understanding our customers, educating them, and providing solutions that truly meet their needs. By doing so, we not only enhance their satisfaction but also build a stronger, more sustainable business model for ourselves. In the end, our success is deeply intertwined with the satisfaction and success of our customers. And that’s the true value of value-added selling. Now, let’s go build some wins! GSCB
Randy Chaffee brings four-plus decades of experience to the post-frame and metal roofing industries. A board member for the Buckeye Frame Builders Association and the National Frame Builders Association, his podcast is available at facebook.com/BuildingWins. No web access? Call (814) 906-0001 at 1 p.m. Eastern on Mondays to listen.
