Everyone’s in Sales — Even Technicians

I have rarely met a service tech who considered themself in “sales,” and I understand why — in their world, salespeople usually create problems, and techs fix them. Sales and service are different skills, but thinking of them as completely separate is a mistake — and a missed opportunity for both the technician and your hot tub business. 

After the initial spa sale, your service team becomes the customer’s primary touchpoint. That relationship is crucial to building long-term satisfaction, trust — and yes, future sales.

In his book “To Sell is Human,” Daniel Pink quotes research on how salespeople are perceived, and his word cloud includes pushy, difficult, annoying, aggressive, dishonest and yuck. So, it’s understandable that other jobs wouldn’t want to be associated with that description.

Sales and service are different skills, but thinking of them as completely separate is a mistake — and a missed opportunity.”

Steve Hasenmueller

When we take a deep breath and reframe our perspective to define sales as the act of persuading, convincing or influencing, then we can start to see the benefits in all types of work, including hot tub service. (If you have ever tried to get your child to eat their dinner or go to bed, you are in sales.)

Pink goes on to share some eye-opening statistics for anyone who believes they aren’t in sales and are exempt from expanding their skills in this area:

• Only 1 in 9 people employed are in traditional sales roles. 
• Yet 8 in 9 people in “nonselling” roles (think teachers, accountants, receptionists, lawyers, bankers, service techs, literally everyone else) spend at least 41% of their time persuading, convincing or influencing in their work, and it is a critical part of being considered effective and competent in their jobs. 

Imagine only being effective or competent in 59% of your job; you would struggle at best. Beyond Pink’s research, here are some key mindset shifts that can help service techs — and anyone in customer-facing roles — become more effective.

To sell effectively is to convince someone to part with resources, not to deprive that person but to leave them better off. This is the real key — often, traditional salespeople, as well as service personnel, decide in advance what a potential client “wants” to spend for products or services, based on their own beliefs. This is called prejudging your prospect, a deadly obstacle for salespeople, limiting their potential and effectiveness. 

Our jobs are to let customers know what options are available and then allow them to decide what is appropriate for themselves. Sometimes the most expensive option is the best, and conversely, the least expensive. We are doing business with all kinds of people; our potential customers are not just like us. What we would do in the same situation is irrelevant. 

You can’t train someone to care — and caring is at the heart of all effective work. When 9 out of 9 jobs involve at least 41% of time spent persuading or influencing others — and some require it 100% of the time — genuine care becomes a competitive advantage. Without it, success is nearly impossible. To think you will do your best work and care more in some future endeavor is delusional. Your current job and how well you do it are the harbinger of your future.

Questions outperform statements in persuading others. Questions are the easiest skill to develop to show you care enough to understand who you are talking to and what they want. It takes approximately five to 10 (good) questions to get an understanding of a customer’s needs and aspirations.

Make it personal and purposeful. This is also called humanizing the sales process. I bought a boat years ago and talked to five salespeople at a boat show, and only one of them asked me about my family, the ages of my kids and how I planned to use the boat. Of course, he got the business. Sales is only about price if the salesperson makes it about price — and that generally loses sales. The top four influences in any sale are:

Getting them wrong or out of order creates a tsunami of consequences.

Instead of upselling, think of it as “upserving.” This is the mindset needed and what occurs when we care enough to not prejudge our prospect, ask great questions to understand as much as possible, listen carefully and then provide solutions based on their needs. The most successful companies obsess over the customer experience from the moment of contact and nearly every moment after.

Great customer service is nothing but a slogan until the entire company understands its critical role and impact in influencing clients by exceeding their expectations — in other words, when everyone realizes they are in sales.