By Shashi Bellamkonda, Leap.
Being granted access to customers’ homes as a home service contractor is a privilege. Face-to-face contact between the salesperson and customer was traditionally the most effective way to make a sale. According to a study done by the International Business and Economics Research Journal, “Customer satisfaction levels are not compromised by engaging in an electronic relationship with the clients versus engaging in a face-face relationship.” So, using a combination of face-to-face meetings and virtual digital methods will help salespeople succeed.
To win business with today’s digitally-savvy homeowners, home improvement businesses have embraced a series of tools and digital technologies to make the in-home sale easier for the homeowners.
Digital presentations – Top contractors send documents about the company and credibility signals like reviews and certifications in advance.
Aerial measurements – Professional home improvement salespeople (Especially roofing, remodeling, siding and solar contractors) spend less time doing physical measurements and order aerial digital measurements in advance.
Photo apps – Using either homeowner generated photos and the photos that the contractor sales professional takes onsite, technology can stitch these together for renderings and for showing before and after comparisons.
Digital product guides – The days that home contractor salespeople carried dog eared, paper product catalogs are long over. Presenting the choice of material to homeowners needs elegantly presented digital product guides.
Generating digital estimates – Customers no longer expect a mailbox estimate. Homeowners like the experience with companies where estimates are generated digitally. There is a perception of less transparency when a salesperson uses paper to calculate the cost of the project versus a salesperson who may have pricing and measurements calculated in an app. Getting the homeowners’ views and updating the estimates is easy and almost immediate when using technology.
Digital documents and signatures – The ease of use of digital documents and signatures far outweighs the experience of having paper to sign. With paper documents, your sales reps need to see the customer in person in order to obtain a signature. If the customer then requests a digital copy you have to go back to the office and scan it electronically or use an app on your phone to scan the documents. When using digital documents from the start, you save an immense amount of time and can send a digital document to the homeowner to sign it and save a copy seamlessly.
Secure electronic payments – Technology helps more mid-sized and smaller businesses take advantage of benefits virtually through stress-free workflows that allow you to accept payments securely without depending on paper checks and having to manually record the transaction. In addition, you can use tools to offer financing options to close more deals.
Integration to CRM – Business owners need to know the results of their investments so that they can allocate the funds appropriately. To achieve this degree of tracking, all the sales data needs to be sent back to your CRM or other systems.
Integration to ordering and inventory system – Businesses using production, ordering, and inventory software should be using technology to integrate and help reduce the time from sales to production from two to three days to sometimes a few hours.
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Original article source: Leap
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