Do you drive to your appointments fearing that you've got no control over what your clients are going to buy?

When I started as a plumbing tech, I had that exact thought. Several sales books later, I can talk to any client who dispatch sends my way, knowing that I have the tools needed to get their business.

As you're reading, keep in mind that your clients have had years of practice turning down sales people. By the end of this article, you'll learn how to level the playing field, and get control of the sale back in your hands.

A lot of technicians see the client as having all the control.

• purchase your service
• invite you in their house
• become involved in a presentation

You need to take control of those choices. It's your job to lead your clients to an arrangement where they're happily giving you their money. They'll be so happy they keep calling you back to do it again and again.

Gaining Control of the Sale
You need to take it as early as possible. If you don't, your client's going to gain control over the entire sales process, which is not where you want to be.

There are four key elements to gaining control:

• Research
• Discovery
• Presentation
• Closing

If you or your client tries skipping any of these steps, you'll quickly find yourself becoming unorganized, and will lose the flow of the appointment.

Research
This could be from a previous appointment, where you did some data gathering, and had to find appropriate parts or replacements which are needed to be installed. It can also be past experience dealing with the same sorts of problems that your current client's faced with.

Remember, you're the expert, and most clients will gladly give you control so long as you're making informed recommendations.

Qualifying
You need to uncover the client's needs, and find out if your service is a good match for them. This is easily accomplished with questions. Your questions need to be specific, relating to how much they can invest, what time frame they're looking at, and who all is going to be involved with the final decision.

• “What amount have you budgeted for this repair/project?”
• “When are you planning on having this project finished?”
• “If I'm able to find a solution today, are you in a position to go ahead with the repairs?”
• “Who all is going to be making the final decision today?”

Presentation
Once your research and qualifying phases are over, you can tailor a demonstration to your client's specific needs. If they haven't shown any interest in having a particular repair that you've mentioned, you don't want to spend too much time talking about it.

During your presentation, you want to take control by guiding the client through the options available to them, focusing on their immediate needs.

Watch your client's body language for buying signs. When you notice one that's favourable, be sure to spend a little more time on what peaked their interest.

Try not to use too many technical terms during your presentation. Unless they're involved in a similar trade to yours, this may wind up confusing them, costing you a sale.

You also want to pepper your presentation with minor questions that the client can readily agree to, so that you can build up to your final close.

• “This faucet has a nice finish on it, wouldn't you agree?”
• “Wouldn't you like an extended warranty on the labour for these repairs?”

Closing
Making it this far, you haven't done much except give information. Once into the short rows, you need to ask the client for their business. Use whichever close feels appropriate for the situation.

If your first closing attempt doesn't work, ask the client what's holding them back from making a decision today.

Address their concerns, and try another close.

The trick here is to have more ways to help them see the benefits of your service, than they have ways of saying no. The more closes you know, the better your odds of securing a sale.

Conclusion
There are no magic tricks here. Nothing that you can't start today. Take this lesson and practise between calls. Practise in the shower.

The more confident you are with each step, the better your closing percentage will be.