We recently got the chance to talk to a Professional Coach in the Roofing Industry— Jim Johnson, the Head Coach at Roofing Coach Pro (RCP).
The RCP team of coaches know the roofing industry, and they offer direct support for success through 1‑on‑1 Coaching, Online Membership and Training Camps. Contractors using the custom ‘RCP Gameplan’ are watching their revenue double, triple and even quadruple.
Listen in on our conversation with Jim, and check out more pro-hiring tips in the article below.
Sell the Opportunity, Not the Restrictions
You want to bring the best people to your company. However most job listings focus on the restrictions, such as years of direct experience or extensive knowledge about a certain thing.
This is the wrong approach. Actually, it is the exact opposite of what you want to do.
Jim Johnson of Roof Coach Pro calls these job listings “restrictive ads” because they choke the number of applicants that ever apply in the first place. This is a significant problem because it limits your ability to find people with the correct personality traits.
Instead of trying to weed out applicants, you want to encourage people to apply. Put yourself in their shoes. Talk about your culture, the opportunity you are providing and how this position can become a career. Speak to what’s important to them, not you. Let them know on the job training is available.
You need to make your listing sound like it is something they can do, and more importantly, want to do.
Sales Training
Once you have the correct person hired, you want to equip them to succeed. When is the last time you evaluated your sales training program? Unfortunately, training is often overlooked and rarely updated.
Speed Speed Speed
The questions are: how fast can you transform a new hire to a full-fledged salesman? To do this right you need a training program, but almost every company Jim has worked with did not have one in place.
Most companies are dependent on mentorship. “Training” consists of riding around with a veteran, and observing. Then they’re basically told to go out and do the same thing.
While mentorship is fundamental, you are missing two major opportunities to accelerate a new hire’s development.
First, Jim suggests putting together materials that focus on the basics. Give new hires an orientation: the lingo, common questions, and circumstances.
Having a document which explains the most frequent challenges they’re run into allows a new salesperson to commit them to memory and be ready for them out in the field.
The second supporting piece is giving new hires presentation materials they can use. New salesmen learn best by doing. Equipping them with a presentation keeps them on track. It allows them to understand what order to introduce information to the customer and makes sure all the important points are hit.
A roadmap like this will allow them to get out in the field sooner where they can be talking to prospects and gaining comfortability and experience closing deals.
Conclusion
Bringing the right salesperson into your organization and integrating them into your company is a crucial activity. By focusing on personality fit over experience and backing it up with a solid training program will give you an incredible competitive advantage in the marketplace.
