Building Materials Salespeople Need to Stay in Shape

Is your sales team as sharp as it used to be?

If they’re not, it might be because they haven’t been getting enough practice.

Selling is a skill. That means it can get rusty if you don’t exercise it enough. 

That happens when building material companies hit a saturation point. They have more customers than they can manage, so they decide to pull back on sales. 

They usually don’t notice they have a problem until business starts to slow down and they make an effort to start growing again. That’s when they discover it’s not so easy to get right back into it after being on the bench for so long. 

Mr. Energizer’s Secret to Keeping His Sales Team in Shape

That problem seemed like a necessary evil until I met an enthusiastic VP of Sales and Marketing I’ll call Mr. Energizer.

He figured out how to balance record sales and long lead times with continued growth.

Here are the two methods he uses to keep his sales team in shape even when they couldn’t handle any more new customers. 

1. He Focuses on the Long Term

If his company couldn’t take on too many new customers in 2021, Mr. Energizer decided to direct his team to sales opportunities that wouldn’t pay off until 2022 or even later.

That means: 

• Going after huge potential customers that are tough to nail down. 
• Becoming a trusted expert or preferred supplier for people at different parts of the sales channel, like architects or owners.
• Entering new markets.
• Expanding to new geographical areas.

2. He Keeps Selling the Company

Current customers still need to be sold. If you take them for granted, your competition might win them over.

Mr. Energizer keeps existing customer relations strong by making sure his salespeople are responsive to them and their needs. That includes empowering them to give customers accurate information.

Stay in Shape

When you pull back on growth, make sure your salespeople don’t get rusty. 

There’s always some long-term goal they could be working on, even if it takes a little more work to figure out what that is.

Keep them selling and you won’t have to worry about losing your edge when business starts to slow down again.