Page 63 - Lighting Magazine February 2020

It is imperative that our sales teams adopt the mindset of an entrepreneur and develop an ownership mentality; great salespeople already operate as if they are little businesses under the showroom’s roof. This mindset requires that we
begin thinking about our skill sets and the impact we have on the overall performance of the show- room, not just reacting to a transactional sale that may be in front of us. While it would be effortless to write about some techniques that would sharpen skills, it will take more than a few simple tips to be a sales leader — and it will mean mastering new and different skills to win.
A Devotion to (Self) Promotion
In the analog days of showroom sales, marketing and promotions were an activity left to the enter- prise. Owners and managers – sometimes with the help of an agency – would plan out their marketing approach for a given timeframe.
Once the plan was complete, the better show- rooms would lay the completed program out before the sales team. Hence, they knew what was being promoted to the public, and only at this point, con- gruent sales dialogues could be fashioned.
To build trust and demonstrate their author- ity today, the sales team must be included from the beginning in both the planning and execution of marketing strategies — and those activities start online. To maximize the effectiveness of any showroom marketing campaign, the individual salesperson must be a promoter of their products, their company, and themselves.
In the analog days, we left business cards every- where in hopes to drum up some business. Today, we must play an active part on several social media platforms and within groups. In 2020, we must engage clients and promote conversation on social platforms.
When the sales and marketing teams of a show- room align, the business can achieve overall growth rates and profit increases up to 25 percent. Today everything about the sales process starts online, when the silos of sales and marketing combine forc- es for the benefit and education of the consumer, sales team performance, and showroom revenues increase. It is that simple.
orDer-GetterS, not orDer-tAkerS
In order to meet the selling demands of today, we must modify many old sales skills that will be
beneficial in 2020. Often new and different skill sets must be mobilized, other than those that are associated with typical showroom sales.
Showrooms must use all the technology and digital tools available to attract, engage, and convert shoppers into showroom traffic and then buyers. We can’t passively wait for the client to spur us into action. We must be proactive, even assertive.
Who is proven to be better at interacting with customers during any part of their buyer’s journey? None other than the people in the sales depart- ment. The role of a salesperson is still the same; they engage potential clients to transfer emotions about the showroom, the products they carry, and to provide useful information for a buying decision to be made. This goal is the same as it always has been; the only change is the timing and location of when the transfer of emotion begins. Yet some showrooms follow an unclear process or worse, and they are poor at creating the feeling needed for the client to take the next step. The flames of digital buying passion will not be fanned with a “see me/ buy me only” marketing message. It will just get lost in the noise of the scroll.
“To maximize the effectiveness of any showroom marketing campaign, the individual salesperson must be a promoter of their products, their company, and themselves.”
When ineffective messaging is spread to poten- tial customers by various delivery methods that don’t involve the sales team, it frequently is ignored. This is the time in the buyer’s journey to be engag- ing clients with a repeatable process, encouraging them to make the first physical showroom visit.
Walking into a showroom is a genuine buying signal. Showrooms are discovering that the timing for initial client/sales engagement is happening way too late in the journey. The cause is not letting go of the old analog marketing and sales process. When this process is forced upon the savvy digital client, it reduces showroom traffic and revenue.
If you don’t think this is happening in your show- room, look at your traffic counts — specifically the client’s first visit footfall. It has dropped. If you, as a
February 2020 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 61
on the Mark