Your customer’s journey matters from beginning to end. If you’re not giving your team a roadmap to follow, you’re not creating a consistent experience for your customers.

Consider some of your favorite brands—whether it’s a store you like or a restaurant you frequent–when you visit, regardless of which employee helps you, you always have a consistent, enjoyable experience. You probably expect the same of your technicians when they’re working with customers in the field. They should strive to give the same level of service at every home or place of business they visit.

However, have you thought about what the customer experience should be like during the sales cycle? That too should be a consistent experience. Having a sales process, or a set of repeatable steps your team follows to convert a prospect to a customer, adds structure and accountability to sales activities. As a result, this produces higher win rates and shorter sales cycles for your pest control company.

Think about it this way. You want everyone in your office to be able to close more business, right? Well, it’s a lot easier to make that happen when everyone’s following the same steps.

Here are some benefits to keep in mind when your pest control company standardizes its sales process:

• A clear path for sales rep or office staff to follow  
• Faster onboarding of new staff 
• The ability to analyze and improve sales methods
• More predictability in sales funnel     
• More qualified leads, which increases CLV (customer lifetime value) 
• Improved communication between team members    
• Greater insight into sales team performance     
• Increased number of referrals     
• A better overall customer experience

Any one of these benefits could have a huge impact on your business. So imagine the type of revenue gains you’d see if your pest control company achieved every single one of those.

That’s why we’ve put together a 5-Step sales plan your pest control staff can follow in a short conversation with a new prospect.
 

While there will always be some basic customer information you’ll need to gather, remember, keep things conversational. Spend 2-3 minutes at each stage of the process and move forward to the next step when it seems natural, not forced. Keep in mind, these are learned skills, and they take practice. When they become part of your sales culture, you will begin to see the results in dollars. 

A sales action plan drives sales results. Let’s take a further look at each step in the sales process.

Preparation

“A winning effort begins with preparation.” Whether your staff is responsible for answering the phones or making house calls, each and every one of them should be TOTALLY PREPARED to talk to customers.

Here are some best practices:

• Know the prices of every service your pest control company provides
• Be able to describe each service in detail
• Offer bundled services or provide on the spot solutions
• Have formatted email and text message responses ready to go
• Instant access to the technicians’ schedules
• Know the history of the company and represent it proudly
• Maintain dashboard tracking all activity, charges and credits
• Practice overcoming objections

Needs Assessment 

This is probably the single most important step in the sales process. If you don’t understand your prospect’s issue, then you’re missing out on knowing a compelling reason that will make them buy.

To be an effective problem solver, you need to learn two things:

• How to ASK the right questions
• How to LISTEN to the customer’s answers 

Asking the right questions will help you understand customers’ pain points. Listening to how they respond will help you know what solutions to recommend and how to position them. Remember, though, you’re not talking about solutions or prices yet–that’s still two steps away. Right now, you’re just asking questions, listening to the answers and asking follow up questions as needed.

Let’s take a deeper look at what each part of the DISCOVERY questioning strategy entails. 

Rapport:

Demonstrate interest in what’s important to your customer

• What can I do to make your day better?
• What brings us here today?
• What are you looking to accomplish today? 

Generic:

Confirm and learn key information about the customer

• Are you the owner of the property?
• What is the size of the property and lot?
• What is the target pest problem? Is there more than one?
• Do you have children or pets?

Buying Motives:

Uncover pain points

• How long has this been a problem?
• What have you tried to do about it?
• How much do you think it has cost you?
• How is this problem affecting your day to day life?

Cost of Action/Inaction:

Understand if the issue is really a priority and why

• What will happen if you do nothing?
• Who else is affected by this issue?
• Why is taking care of this important to you?

Create Urgency:

Get your prospect to take action

• Where is this on your list of priorities?
• What’s stopped you from solving this in the past?
• Are you ready to solve this now?
• What would we need to do to make this happen?

Presentation

People buy from people they trust. It’s important to give a brief introduction of yourself and the company. By telling your unique story, you are establishing credibility and differentiating your company from the competition, which reassures the customer they have made the right choice.

Recommendation

Never ask a prospective customer what they want. As the pest control professional, you need to make a solid recommendation on the right course of action. If you have done your job during the needs assessment conversation, you’ve uncovered a pain point and this is your chance to take what you learned and tie your recommendation back to it. You can restate the reasons they gave you and outline the benefits of the proposed solution.

Close

Close the deal. At the end of your call or conversation, you need to have a clear treatment plan in place. There should be no doubt the customer is scheduled, and you should have all of the required customer data, including signature and payment information. If you receive any objections, let the customer know you empathize and then work to overcome their objections. Remember, you have all of the information you need from your discovery questioning. Re-state the customer’s needs and concerns and assure them your recommendation will provide a solution to their problem.