A sales acronym is a shortcut to remembering the key steps your service technicians must follow to have a repeatable sales approach to running a service call. Make no mistake. Great sales come from a great sales system. And the first thing about a great sales system is it must foster and promote an ethical sales culture at your shop.

Here’s a 30,000-foot flyover of the sales system I teach:

Ask a few key questions like, “All things being equal, how long do you intend to live in your home?”

Demonstrate you are listening to what the customer is saying by responding to the person by either paraphrasing what he or she said when you repeat it back and/or writing down the replies so you can refer to it later in the process.

Get permission to do a survey of the whole system so you can see the whole picture, not just the current problem you are there to address.

Present a menu of options starting with what must be addressed and then suggesting areas where there is room for improvement such as reliability, comfort and energy savings (when applicable) too.

Based on what the customer agrees to, write up a clear, legible and easy-to-sign-off-on (but legal) invoice. Note: If you’re already working digitally with laptops and tablets, there is still this step to capture the customer sign off.

The goal is not to produce sales robots but rather a sales system that allows service technicians to have a process that frees them up to interact with customers in a helpful way that benefits customer, company and themselves. Once you have a sales system and steps to follow, it can become a lot to remember.

There are five key chapters to my Sales Power! system to remember. The more my clients practice it every week in class, in role plays in their training centers and during ride alongs, the better the service technicians get at mastering it.

But it’s still a lot to remember, and it’s easy for a service technician to get lost along the way as to where they are in the process. That’s when having a great sales acronym is so helpful.

Here are my basic steps for a repeatable customer-oriented experience:

Step One: Opening the call

Step Two: Permission to do survey

Step Three: Pricing the job

Step Four: Presenting the menu

Step Five: Writing the invoice that gets signed

Remember, it’s not a replacement for the full Sales Power! process you have and the coaching you must do, but as a quick-start reminder it can become indispensable.

Here’s an example:

The sales acronym following the Sales Power! system for my company, Appleseed Business Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, would be A.P.P.L.E., which stands for:

A: Appear at the door and open the call the right way

P: Permission to do the survey

P: Price the job

L: Lead with a menu of solutions

E: Execute the proper sign off on the invoice

Whatever sales system you have today at your company, a sales acronym will help your service technicians always know where they are in the sales process. Certain steps are less likely to be missed that would compromise the customer-focused experience.

For more information, visit www.appleseedbusiness.com.

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