Home Improvement Sales: How To Avoid and Fix a Sales Slump
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TL;DR
Track your Dollar Per Lead to avoid false slumps.
Return to habits that worked—reading, learning, and reviewing.
Set clear goals to stay motivated by desire, not fear.
Stick to the basics—don’t skip steps in your sales pitch.
Keep your attitude strong; act like you’re already winning.
Home Renovation Sales Training: How to Avoid and Overcome a Sales Slump
Why You Might Think You're in a Slump (Even If You're Not)
Have you ever been or are you currently in a sales slump, doing in-home sales like selling home improvements? Here are four things you should be aware of to avoid getting in a slump, or what to do if you are already in one.
The first thing that may be the issue is that you think you are in a slump when you really aren’t because you aren’t looking at your numbers the right way. You think I haven’t sold anything in a week and start to panic. Looking at your numbers, the way I’m going to show you gives you a different perspective.
The most important number I track is the amount of net revenue I create for every lead that I am issued. The key is the net revenue. It’s called different names depending on where you work . It could be called DPA- dollar per appointment. Or NSLI net sales per lead issued, but it means the same thing. It’s how much revenue you return in revenue for every lead the company issues to you. Since you get paid commission, this is the truest way to gauge your rate of pay.
Understanding DPA and NSLI Metrics
Here’s how it normally works:
100 leads
Sit 80%
80 Presentations
Close 33%
26 Gross sales
Loose 6 or 23% Cxl and Credit Rejects
20 net sales
Net closing 20% That’s the 20 out of the 100 leads you got
Average Contract Price $15000
20 net sales x $15000 = $300,000 net sales
$300,000 in net sales/100 Leads Issued
Dollar Per lead is $3000. That means you generate $3000 for every lead you get average
At 10% commission average is $300 commission per every lead issued.
For example, if you are issued 100 leads and no matter how many no shows, no sales, sales, cancellations or credit rejects you have, if at the end you have $300,000 in net business, the dpa or nsli would be $3000. That is $300,000 divided by 100 leads.
Why is that important? It means that for every lead your company gives you, whether they are home or not, and no matter what happens afterward that on average, you return $3000 worth of business for each lead. That means that if your average commission is 10% that you make $300 every time you get a lead, even if they are not home.
The issue is that in this business, it can seem like your income is fluctuating. You make $500 one week and $5000 the next week. It messes with your mind. So by tracking the dollar revenue you generate per lead issued, it is more consistent. If my dollar per lead is $3000 and my average commission is 10% then I know that I average $300 a lead in commissions. That’s the average of how much I make every time a lead is issued to me.
Your dollar per lead average helps compensate for the perceived highs and lows of I made a sale I didn’t make a sale. It also covers the income swings by week, since by using this, I know the average of how much money I am making for every lead that I am issued, whether they were home or not, or if they bought or not. It is consistent and keeps my attitude strong. If my DPA was $3000 and my commission was 10% I knew that if I ran 3 leads that day and none of them were home, it was still okay because the way the numbers averaged out, I was still making $300 per lead, or I made $900 that day. It helps me to keep my attitude consistent because if I get a no show on Friday night, I am not sad. I am happy because I know, based on my dollar per lead number, that I just made $300 and got to go home early.
Tracking this number keeps you from the ups and downs of how much you make weekly and gives you a better handle of how much you are making. By doing this you won’t get as stressed and to not accidentally manufacture the slump you may or may not be in. Remember sales has ups and downs.
You may not even be in a slump and by you thinking you are you are the one causing the slump. This is also a great number to know because in it’s purest sense it is your rate of income. A person who has a $4000 dpa makes money at twice the rate of someone of a $2000 dpa. One person generates $400,000 or makes $40000 in commissions on 100 leads and the other person generates $200,000 or makes $20,000 in commissions on the same 100 leads issued.
Home Renovation Sales Training Tip #2: Go Back to What Was Working
Rebuild Your Success Habits
The second thing that will help you if you really are in a slump is to go back to what you were doing when you were selling and compare it to what you are doing now. When you were selling were you learning and reading listening to podcasts, books and other things that help you get better in sales? Were you in tune with your numbers and tracking what you were doing? Were you debriefing and getting help from people better than you? Most of the time when I ask someone that they say well I guess I stopped doing that. Human beings are the only species that when they have something that works that then then change it or stop doing it.
Replace Fear with Desire
One reason people stop doing things that were working is because people are motivated by two things; fear and desire. When you have clear cut goals and plans you are working on then your motivation is desire. If you don’t have these then by default you are motivated by fear. In other words when the bills start piling up and money gets low you then kick it into gear.
The problem with that is that once you make some money the fear is gone and then you stop pushing. You go up and down and you will have periods of being down or being in a slump then you kick it into gear. The slump is just a natural process of you going down before the fear kicks in and you go back up. This is no fun and hopefully you will learn to set goals and use them instead of the pain to motivate you. It will also make you more consistent.
Home Renovation Sales Training Tip #3: Return to the Basics
Stop Skipping Steps in Your In-Home Sales Pitch
The third thing to do to get out of a slump is go back to the basics. The problem with selling in the home is that you are all by yourself and if you inadvertently leave something out or start to shortcut steps you may not realize you have done that and as time goes on you get further and further away from what you need to do. That’s because you have nothing to compare what you are doing to. No exaggeration I had a rep I watched once where I actually said “so how long have you been not showing them the product?”
I remember times that even after doing 10,000 presentations and I knew the sales presentation backwards and forwards if I started to slump I would go back to basics and get my presentation outline out. Sometimes even put them on the table in front of the customer. “Sorry I am a little new and want to make sure I don’t leave anything out “ and go back to selling like a rookie. Make sure you are not forgetting anything. We do it all of the time. Go back to the basics.
Home Renovation Sales Training Tip #4: Fix Your Attitude
Act Like You Just Closed Five in a Row
The fourth thing to get out of slump has to do with your attitude. Generally when someone is not selling it’s either basics or attitude. The attitude could be that you are beaten down so much that you are not expecting to make a sales like you should be but you are hoping to make a sale. Another danger of being in a slump is that you start trying too hard to make the sale.
It’s funny but in this business the harder you try the harder it gets. When you try too hard you come across as desperate and that’s the best way to not make a sale. So the next home you go put yourself in the frame of mind that you don’t care whether you make a sale. Go there with the attitude that you get paid the same whether they buy or not. All you are there for is to figure out what problems they are trying to solve and see if you can help them. And most importantly go there with the attitude that you are going to have fun in the process.
Your Beliefs Drive Your Outcomes
Another attitude piece that helps me is that is that I remember what it felt like when I had my last selling streak and then I manufacture that feeling by feeling that way now. I make believe that I just sold my last five in a row and how I would feel. So much of your attitude is controllable and you can manage it up or down depending on what your belief system is.
Remember it doesn’t even have to be based on fact. For example, if you were down, I could pump you up by saying “hey remember that lotto ticket we bought together…we just won a million dollars!” Now assuming you didn’t quit what do you think your chances would be of making a sale in your next lead? I bet it would be high because you would be so pumped and wouldn’t care if you made a sale. Now after you came back I course I would tell you that I just made it up. . Actually, something like that I would tell you on the phone so you couldn’t hit me. The point is that your attitude isn’t necessarily based on truth and therefore can be easily changed.
Final Thoughts on Home Renovation Sales Training Success
Now for more information on this check out the post on ways to make sure your attitude hasn’t gotten bad and you didn’t know or the posts on closing.
Happy Selling !
