What to sell or…Dancing and…

What to sell or…Which to sell?

 

Labor savings is an arrow in our sales quiver that we all too often overlook. Harkening back to the really early days of our indoctrination into the business most of us were exposed to the sanitation pie chart. That circular image visually depicted the cost of sanitation broken down into the five components of: capital, chemicals, energy, utilities and labor.

 

We probably also remember that chart showing that labor represented roughly three quarters of the cost while, chemicals accounted for less than a few percent.

 

Regrettably however, most of us flip that relationship on its’ head. We set off disproportionally allocating our pitch to chemicals’ small fraction of sanitations’ cost and blather on about how we’re going to cut that minor cost.

 

At the same time, we frequently say nary a word about labor and how we might be able to help make big reductions there. And remember in today’s (very) tight labor market, the cost of labor is both higher and harder to recruit.

 

So, if we can shrink the amount of labor involved in busing that table, scrapping that plate, racking that soiled ware and then flowing it back to the front of the house, we might just win an interested audience. Given that set of facts, maybe it’s time to alter our approach.

 

Next up: Some few tips on how to save labor.

 

Dancing and…choosing what to sell

 

Sometimes having too many options of what you might propose to that prospect can be more a curse than a blessing. That’s especially true when it leads to a confused presentation that lacks focus on one well-presented idea. And worse than that situation is the trap of being stymied by a prospect who says they would like to buy exactly what you don’t have!

 

That last one can cause the less experienced hand to simply mumble and walk away in search of that presumed magic bullet. But the pro understands that when, for example, a buyer says they want a solid and he has a granular canister, that doesn’t automatically mean that he needs to abandon the idea of presenting what he’d planned.

 

What it means is that first he treats that comment just as he would any sales objection. He agrees with the buyer’s point of view and perhaps even says that what he’d thought too – until that is, he learned that more cleaning power and chemical flexibility can be packed into a granular blend than a solid. And, that the more flexible chemistry it permits can be delivered just as conveniently and safely as a solid.

 

In the end, we need to sell what we have. Searching eternally for that magic product or constantly flip flopping on what we present rarely leads to success. In the end it’s a lot like the old country saying: “You need to dance with who you brung.”