The Kitchen Sales Coach Issue #15 - Alignment and Successful Cold Calling
By Robert Foltz, CKD
Part two in our series on cold calling, this article will discuss determining your business alignment. Successfully telling others about your unique position in the local kitchen and bath marketplace can be difficult if you don't know what it is yourself. What is 'alignment' and how does it help your business and impact your sales? In her book Outrageous Business Growth, Debbie Bermont discusses this principle, which I'll put directly into the context of the kitchen and bath business. This article will discuss what alignment is and how to identify your business alignment. My next article will speak to prospects' alignment.
To understand alignment, we can look to charities as an example. The American Heart Association is a charity that only seeks donations from people concerned with the cure for heart disease. Similarly, you must understand your business and business values so that you can market and attract clients that share your business values.
You know your business is not in alignment if:
- Your prospects are more concerned with the price of your products and services than their value.
- Your closing ratio is very low in converting prospects into clients. Below 50 percent is too low (and don't cheat by counting retainers-we're talking about raw opportunities here). This goes for cold calls, too. If you're not getting five opportunities for every ten cold calls, then your cold calling on the wrong businesses.
- Your marketing is an expense rather than an investment in your business, and you're not seeing returns on it.
To begin getting your business in alignment, the first steps are to:
- Determine your business values and write them down in the form of a mission statement. For example, "ABC Kitchens provides the highest quality products and construction services to clients who demand value over price" or "ABC Kitchens provides the highest quality products for the lowest price to contractors and DIY homeowners." Service, quality, and price are the key terms here; find the two that fit your business' values and run with them.
- Determine the demographic and psychographic profile of your ideal client. This will be a description for 80 percent of your client base, so that you'll know whom to target in your marketing and cold calling efforts. A typical demographic example is "Home value: $400,000, household income: $100,000, Education level: college degree," while a typical psychographic example is "Pays cash for home improvements, belongs to country club, buys new car every three years."
Now that we understand what alignment is and how to identify our business values and prospect profiles, we can better cold call on the right prospects. That will save us precious time and increase closing ratios. Cold calling the businesses that are in alignment with your firm or finding out which business those are by cold calling will make your sales calls so much more profitable than your competitors'. While they're wasting time, you'll be writing business orders!
Next issue: Recognizing a prospect's alignment and determining if it should be a customer or not
What Kind of Sales Dogs are You: The Golden Retriever
This is part two in my series on Blair Singer's book $ales Dogs. In the last issue, we spoke about the pit bull. In this issue, we're going to focus on the most popular breed, the golden retriever. This slobbering, tail-wagging, and loving breed will do anything for someone who's willing to pet them and tell them they're doing a good job. I'd say that most kitchen and bath designers fall into this breed.
Golden retrievers operate under the belief that the more information and help they give prospects, the more those prospects will like and buy from them. Racing after everything the prospect throws their way, like retrieving a ball, this breed strives to do favors for their prospects in order to win them over. The retriever sells by providing extraordinary customer service. Wise retrievers understand that if they take care of their prospects, their attention to service will bring more sales through referrals.
In my judgment, retrievers need to be careful and make the prospect understand and respect the salesperson/designer as someone who's knowledgeable and will help them achieve their goals. You can only chase so many frisbees without getting a bone. The salesperson/designer who's a golden retrievers has to be careful to balance what they'll do and what they won't do before getting a commitment with a deposit check. Sales managers who are retrievers can make their bosses and sales staff crazy! Too much tail wagging going on and the only direction comes from chasing the latest ball thrown.
Next issue: The poodle
About Robert Foltz, CKD
Robert Foltz, CKD is experienced in all areas of the retail kitchen and bath business. As a manufacturers' representative, his experience and expertise can help improve your business. He also works as a sales trainer, consultant, and personal coach.
With 23 years of experience in every area of the kitchen business, he has personally experienced the most common mistakes all business owners and sales people make. He has used that experience to develop a formula that will help you avoid those common mistakes and to dramatically accelerate your success.
Robert can be reached at and his work can be seen on www.KitchenSalesCoach.com.