The Price Is Right

I once heard a story about a pest control technician who, as he was walking up to a customer's house to do his regular inspection, had to walk around an ant mound to get to the door. He did his inspection, finished his paperwork and left the house to run off to his next client.

He never said anything about the ants to the customer. Why not? Was it because he was too busy and didn't have the time to talk to the homeowner about ant pest control services? Or was it because he isn't trained to be a salesperson? It doesn't matter. Both answers are unacceptable.

Two of the main ways for your pest control company to grow is through add-on services and customer referrals. And it is your technicians who can help your company excel at both. But only if they are trained right.

We all know that a lot of technicians don't want to sell, they just want to get in, do their job and get out. It is your job to make them understand how vital this "learning to be a salesperson" is to the company. And you have to do everything you can possibly do to make it worth their while to buy into your program.

Great salesmen are not born: they need to be taught. That is why it is crucial to have a formal sales training program, complete with proper educational resources, support materials and a reward program for the top sellers.

Technicians also need to bring the proper attitude to the job. If they don't believe in the program, not only will they fail to sway the customer, but the bad attitude can spread through your company like a cancer.

Other steps in implementing a sales-oriented technician crew include:

• Role playing: if they can't act out a potential sale with you, they probably won't do it in front of a customer.
• Prepare materials: tape a list of add-on services to the dashboard of the van, to remind them of other pest control services they can offer before going into each customer's home.
• IPM: be able to define and explain it to every customer. IPM is not "using less poison to kill bugs". It is an integrated system which includes inspection, sanitation, exclusion, mechanical controls (glue boards, snap traps), biological controls and the judicious use of chemicals.

During the actual sale, the technician needs to be adept at:

1. Inspecting the property;
2. Explaining the need;
3. Explaining the service;
4. Building rapport with the customer;
5. Exuding confidence;
6. Handling objections;
7. Closing the sale.

Price should almost never be an issue, but it almost always is. If it is, you have not done a good enough job in explaining the value of the service.

Speaking of price, there are a lot of companies within the UK who tend to undervalue the services we provide. We have truly evolved into a professional industry, and we need to price ourselves accordingly. And, even if you are afraid higher prices will cost you customers, it is something every pest control company needs to do from time to time. The cost of doing business has increased over the past five to ten ten years, so why are you still charging the same prices?

The best results have been achieved through price increases of 6-8%, across the board, every other year for both existing and new customers. Doing it every year is too much of a shock to the customer, even if it is a smaller percentage increase. With this system, your profit margin should be maintained, even if you lose a customer from the price increase.

You have to get your customers to purchase based on quality, not on price. Explain the service you provide, the process you do, the technology you use, the biology of the pests and the value of your service. If you do that, the customer's decision is made before price is even mentioned.

If you lead off your sales pitch with price, then the rest of the conversation is spent trying to justify what you are charging.

Article provided by Dynamic Pest Control