The home improvement industry has been on a hot streak for the last couple of years.
According to Zippia, 76% of American homeowners did a home improvement project in 2020. Then they spent a combined $538 billion at home improvement stores in 2021. In other words, home remodeling is a big business.
But you already knew this. You’re in the home improvement sales game, and you’re looking for ways to keep the party going. We’ve got you covered!
Keep reading to learn a 10-step process you can use to supercharge your sales pipeline, close more deals, and ultimately, drive more revenue.
10 Steps to Increase Home Improvement Sales Volume
Looking to boost home improvement sales leads? This 10-step process will help.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a solo general contractor or work for the biggest roofing company in your area, the tips below will help you make more sales.
Define your ideal customer profile (ICP)
Let’s start with a definition—just to make sure we’re on the same page.
An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a fictional person or company that will benefit the most from the products and/or services that your company offers.
Your ICPs should include the ideal location of your customers, their financial positions, and the pain points they deal with on a regular basis. Other information, such as your customers’ age, gender, and academic status, can be helpful, too.
Once you create an ICP (or two or three if you serve multiple customer types), you can use it in your prospecting efforts. Let’s talk more about that…
Use ICP data to find qualified prospects
The best salespeople sell to a very specific group of people.
If you try to sell to everybody, you’ll fail. Why? Because you’ll spend too much time on bad-fit leads, i.e., prospects that were never realistically going to buy from you.
The question is, how do you know who to pitch your home improvement services to? Simple: you use your ideal customer profile. Before approaching a potential buyer, ask yourself, “Does this person/company match my ideal customer profile?”
If the answer is yes, carry on. If the answer is no, cut them from your leads list and pursue other opportunities. This will make you more productive and successful.
One of the best ways to find quality leads is to use a tool like SPOTIO. Our sales intelligence feature will help you filter prospects by 200+ data points. That way, you can quickly find potential customers who match your ICP.
Prepare a value-based sales pitch
At this point, you should have identified a few quality prospects. Now you need to reach out to them with a value-based sales pitch.
Why should your leads hire you to remodel their homes? And why should they hire you today instead of six months from now? A stellar pitch will provide the answers.
To really make your pitch stand out, we suggest using data and visuals, telling customer stories, and creating a sense of urgency as well.
- Data and Visuals: Customers don’t always respond to words alone. You can close more deals by sharing specific data points and visuals.
- Customer Stories: Nothing provides trust like customer stories. How have you helped other people achieve their home improvement goals?
- A Sense of Urgency: Buyers always seek an excuse to buy later. You need to overcome this by creating urgency, which you can do by explaining the benefits of renovating now and offering a limited-time discount.
Establish minimum daily sales activities
You can’t control who buys from you. But you can control the number of sales calls and visits you make, as well as how many emails you send to quality prospects.
To keep yourself accountable, establish minimum daily sales activities for yourself and your team (if you happen to manage other sales reps.)
For example, reps must generate X amount of leads, contact X amount of prospects, and send X amount of follow-up emails to potential buyers daily. You’ll be amazed at how this seemingly small step transforms your sales efforts.
Map existing customers
Pro tip: past and existing customers can help you close more deals in the future. That’s why you should map them with a tool like SPOTIO.
When you can see where your current customers are, it will be easier to reach out to them and request referrals. You’ll also be able to see where your sales efforts have had the most success in the past and can double down on those areas.
For example, you’ve made a bunch of sales in the Northwest corner of your territory over the past few months. Upon closer inspection, you realize that it’s because the area was recently flooded and homes were damaged.
Armed with this information, you can spend more time contacting prospects in the area to see if they need your help to fix and remodel their homes.
Assign sales territories
If you manage a team of field sales reps, then you need to assign them territories.
Just remember, the job requires forethought. You don’t want territories to overlap and your reps to start fighting over whose lead is whose.
You also want to make sure that your best reps are assigned to the highest-value territories. That way, your company makes as many sales as possible.
To get it right, invest in territory management software.
Tools like SPOTIO will help you divide territories based on geographic boundaries, prevent overlap between reps, and ensure resources are allocated to each area.
Put your sales process on autopilot
The average sales rep spends 35% of their time selling. If you want to boost home improvement sales, you and your reps need to increase this number.
Don’t worry, it’s not that hard. Just automate your sales processes.
You can, for example, invest in CRM software that automatically handles admin tasks when they arise. Or SPOTIO, which will enable you to build entire sales sequences and put them on autopilot with a feature called Autoplays.
Schedule call and visit reminders, automate emails and texts to send at predetermined intervals, and more with Autoplays. Doing so will help you win back your day and ensure that no prospect falls through the cracks.
Enable a smooth transition from canvasser to closer
If your home improvement sales team employs canvassers and closers, you need to make sure the transition between them is seamless. But how?
As with many things in the 21st century, the answer is: with technology.
The best home improvement sales software makes it easy for canvassers and closers to work together, ensuring leads have an ideal experience with each.
With SPOTIO, for example, canvassers can easily meet potential customers, record important details about them, and even schedule future meetings inside the SPOTIO mobile app. All of this information can then be accessed by closers before they attend sales meetings, giving them the information they need to make sales.
Re-canvass neighborhoods
Speaking of canvassing…
Reps often make a crucial mistake: they canvass neighborhoods one time. That’s it. They never return to the area and try to pitch their services again.
Why is this a mistake? Because re-canvassing allows salespeople to connect with potential customers, they missed the first time through. On average, reps will only connect with 30% of homeowners in a territory after one pass, so recanvassing helps get more out of each area.
According to our data, reps should be able to contact at least 66-75% of their assigned territory before moving on. For a 500-house territory, this may take two or three passes to achieve but will result in 230% more leads than single-pass methods.
Track rep activity
Here’s another one for all of the field sales managers out there: track your reps’ activity and performance metrics. This will help you understand the numbers your reps achieve and how you can help them reach the next level.
Pretend for a minute that you’re managing two sales reps. Both are performing poorly, but you’re not sure why. A closer look at the metrics provides the answer.
The first rep doesn’t ever meet the sales activity goals you set for him. He has an effort issue. The second rep goes above and beyond in terms of effort. He makes 20% more calls and sends 20% more emails than you’ve asked him to daily. He has tactical issues. He’s new to sales and doesn’t understand how to close deals.
Now that you know what the problems are, you can address them. You can ensure the first rep doesn’t slack off, and you can help the second rep sharpen his skills.
You’re probably wondering how to track rep-based metrics. SPOTIO is the tool of choice for field sales teams. With our app, you can easily monitor reps in the field to see where they go, who they contact, when contact is made, etc.
(Note: this feature can be turned off if you or your reps feel it invades their privacy.)
Accelerating home improvement sales with SPOTIO
Home improvement sales isn’t easy. But it is possible. Just follow the 10-step plan we outlined in this article and invest in a proven piece of technology like SPOTIO.
SPOTIO gives field sales teams the tools they need to connect with better leads, nurture said leads into viable prospects, and close business, boosting deals at a consistent clip. Some of these features include lead generation, task automation, territory mapping, appointment setting, and detailed reporting solutions.
Sign up for a free demo of SPOTIO today to experience our software for yourself.
