All tradespeople desire more customers. Nothing is nicer than working hard and watching your stats increase. Selling more is the only way to increase sales, which is simple to say but challenging to really accomplish.
It’s harder than it seems to sell more. Even without a specific goal in mind, conventional wisdom will advise you to go out and sell your services to as many people as you can. In the short term, this may result in sales, but the lack of structure in your sales strategy can make you feel disoriented and disorganized. Even worse, it can harm your chances of earning future sales that are bigger and better.
Your best course of action at this time is to identify the most effective sales-boosting strategy(ies). This entails having a strategy with distinct steps—no stumbling around in the dark, no “winging it” or leaving it to chance.
This article will discuss a variety of techniques used by knowledgeable tradies to increase sales that you can also implement in your own tradie business.
While you’re here:
You may require business insurance if you operate a small business with workers or are a self-employed tradesperson.
However, trade insurance is available to any self-employed individual who works in a trade, such as a plumber, electrician, tiler, or builder.
Depending on your needs and those of your firm, a specialised business insurance policy for tradespeople can include various cover options.
You can customize a policy to the unique risks facing your company and add additional coverage levels and forms. You can purchase policies to protect you if you’re working alone or have a team of staff.
The 3 Most Effective Techniques for Increasing Tradie Sales
Method 1: Establish Trust
Winning a customer’s trust early is one of the best ways to increase sales.
Ever had a client who insisted on doing things their way and wouldn’t listen to your suggestions? This indicates that they have more confidence in seeking out their own solutions than they do in your expertise. But as soon as they start to believe in you, they will be more open to your suggestions. They will be more likely to listen to you and have faith in your
Trust also comes into play when you know you will be charging them a significant fee. Customers need to have faith that you are sourcing the best supplies and managing your time on the task well.
Finally, trust encourages repeat business. Because they spend more money with you than new customers generally do, repeat clients are essential to your sales. The finest advocates for your company are repeat customers, and they are also more likely to contribute to your referral programs.
Here are three strategies you can use to build trust.
1. Increase Communication
The quickest path to improved communication is to change your thinking. It pays to wear both hats in a service firm because there is a big difference between “professional” and “involved.”
It’s acceptable to desire to be regarded as a cool, unflappable professional in your area. However, it’s equally crucial to make it abundantly apparent to your clients that you are aware of how your work affects their quality of life. Gaining your consumers’ trust requires being able to clearly convey your concern for them.
2. Add Value
Adding value by providing free estimates, check-ups, and the occasional supplemental service is a good approach to build rapport. People appreciate getting free things, especially customers. It makes them feel as though they are receiving better value for their money, and they will really appreciate working with you.
Even if there isn’t any active work, sending your clients little gifts shows them that you care about them.
Whenever it’s possible, make sure your company goes above and beyond for customers. As a result, rather than seeming like merely a business transaction, your relationship with your clients becomes more personal.
3. Establish Confidence by Routinely Following Up
It might be very helpful to periodically check in to see if your clients are satisfied with your job. When it comes to how your clients view you, a quick SMS inquiry about whether the roof is still in excellent condition or whether they need other work done can make all the difference.
Check-ins let you stay in the public eye, enhance customer feedback and ratings, and possibly find future useful referral sources.
Customers usually have friends who will ultimately require your services. To increase sales, you’ll need to ask customers to recommend you to their friends.
Your ultimate objective is to be the first friend they call whenever they need assistance with repair work.
Method Two: Use Data to Increase Sales
Tradies frequently don’t appreciate this approach enough. In the end, how can data increase your trade revenue?
The majority of tradie work has traditionally been based on intuition, common sense, or anecdotal evidence. You simply understand when there is the greatest demand for repair work, and you have your own tried-and-true strategies on where to locate the top clients.
Those are at most possibilities. You are speculating on the future of your business rather than having a degree of certainty on how events are likely to play out if you don’t have a record of your previous work, a quick geographic demonstration of where most of your clients are, or an objective analysis of which times of year see the greatest demand for work.
Consider these three crucial data-driven insights to get a clearer view.
1. It Enables You to Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Your strengths and weaknesses can be seen in the data record. It may reveal to you that you performed admirably on one assignment but not so well on another. Both self-assessments and client feedback may yield these strengths and flaws.
Making a client scorecard using the data you have available will allow you to assess your relationship with each of your present clients based on your strengths and shortcomings. This will allow you to improve your service and attract more clients in the future.
Your data will also provide you with insight into potential prospects. These insights could be ways to develop your abilities or run your firm, or they could be ways to communicate with your clients.
2. It Helps You Understand Your Past Performance
You can dig deeper into your past performance with the aid of your data. Tradies frequently simply pack up and move on to the next client after finishing the work. Using data will enable you to take a closer look at your prior work and comprehend why your efforts have been successful or unsuccessful.
You can avoid prior errors by being aware of your past. Having a more accurate picture of what actually happened during your projects or during a business cycle will help you understand what went wrong and what else you can do better. This is much more effective than simply reviewing these projects from memory.
Additionally, you can utilize data to acknowledge and reward yourself for your hard work thus far. Giving oneself a reward can also increase sales because it increases your self-assurance.
3. It Reveals Potential Outcomes
When you have data, you may look forward and learn more about the future in addition to the past and present. By using the power of forecasting, you can attempt to predict how the financial status of your company will appear over a specific time period.
Making a budget is made simpler by forecasting, which forces you to take a close look at potential work and expenses. You can set metrics that are important to you when you can visualize your future and how you want it to look. You will then be able to create appropriate goals and keep track of your progress.
Overall, incorporating data into your business strategy enables you to make more informed decisions. Data will inform you about your market’s behaviour and thought processes as well as the various aspects that can affect your sales, in addition to providing information about internal factors.
Whatever your line of work, there will be times when your services are more in demand than they are throughout the rest of the year. You may plan and deploy your resources more effectively by looking at seasonal trends.
Making the most of your data usage will ultimately result in wiser decisions, better planning, and less time wasted.
Method Three: Increase Sales Systematically
It is not possible to just try everything and discover what works in order to increase sales. That would be costly and time-consuming. You should aspire to establish a straightforward, yet effective, system.
The sales funnel is a prime instance of this. Since the idea of a sales funnel gained popularity, businesses all over the world have benefited greatly from it. A sales funnel works on the straightforward principle that clients go through a journey from knowing about what you have to offer to wanting to purchase it.
Creating a flow for how to handle your leads most effectively is a great idea. Keep in mind that these systems may vary depending on the client’s profile. For quick works, a phone call might be sufficient to persuade the client to move on with the project and prompt the arrival of tradespeople.
On the other hand, larger projects could require some additional processes. Even if it’s just to make it simpler for you to identify potential clients’ hesitations and worries and promptly address them, it might be preferable to meet with them in person before beginning work like construction or big repairs.
Some clients might also want to confirm your agreement, especially for large projects. The funnel always operates at a different speed for every client.
Some customers will go quickly from discovering you to making a purchase, while others may require a little more time to complete the trip. In any event, having a thorough grasp of the sales funnel enables you to give priority to the clients you think you can win over more quickly.
While a system’s main objective is to organize how you increase sales, no system is impermanent. Your company, trends, and customer behaviour will all change over time. Your system should incorporate a lot of learning and iteration to take this into consideration.
You may track and categorize your leads into different groups after you have identified your marketing personas. The more precise you can be, the more probable it is that you will comprehend who they are, what they truly desire, and how to best serve them.
Integrate the practice of discovering your leads’ needs into your sales process. Lead generation is beneficial, but if you don’t completely comprehend your leads, they could easily be wasted.
Keep in mind what strategies have helped your clients finish the sales funnel as you move along. Additionally, identify the points where previous customers have left your funnel and examine what went wrong to prevent that from happening again.
Conclusion
If you know where to start, increasing your sales won’t be as difficult. Your business design is developed specifically for acquiring more business when you have a solid understanding of your customers and your data.
Of course, the fundamentals remain the same. They’ll be more likely to keep up a collaboration with you if they can tell that you genuinely care about them. You may automatically increase sales by remembering these fundamental principles.