Take off your sales hat, and let the business grow.

Source: REMODELING Magazine
Publication date: 2008-04-01

By Alice Bumgarner

Jim Mirando Jr. knows that one of the most difficult parts of moving a remodeling business forward is stepping back from being its primary rainmaker.

Mirando, owner of Excel Interior Concepts & Construction, in Lemoyne, Pa., has struggled with that particular step for a long time now.

For many years, “I've gone back and forth, trying not to be the primary salesperson,” he says. Inevitably, he would “jump back in” when sales went off track, then “back off again, realizing I'm needed in too many other places,” he says.

Illustration: Chris Gash

This year, to help reach what has been a difficult goal, Mirando has set a lower bar for his own sales. He aims to reduce his percentage of total company sales from 41% in 2007 to 25% or less in 2008.

He realizes that to truly lead and grow his business, he will have to jump out of the trenches permanently. “I could have a tremendous sales year,” Mirando says, “and the company would still not be doing as well as if I focused on being a leader and the president of this company. I simply can't be the primary salesperson any-more; it takes too much time.”

Any number of reasons can compel remodeling business owners to train others to step into their long-held sales positions. Perhaps the most common is Mirando's: a desire to grow the business. To paraphrase one remodeler, “Either you get some help or the wheels start coming off the bus.”

Still other owners make the change in order to put a succession plan in motion, to focus on other passions within the business, or to escape burnout.

When it comes to moving away from being the primary (or only) salesperson, though, the “why?” isn't as difficult for remodelers to figure out as the “how?”

How exactly do you shift from the comfort zone of owner-salesperson to the unfamiliar terrain of sales manager-coach-trainer? Even if you're at ease being in front of clients and selling to them, how do you find, hire, and develop the salesperson who can fill your shoes?

And, at an even more basic level, how do you overcome the fear of letting go?

Take Mirando, for example. He has had salespeople in place for years; hiring and training salespeople isn't a hurdle for him. Regardless, he says, chuckling, “I do definitely find it to be a challenge.

“It's a hard decision because I know I'm very good as a salesperson. But am I necessarily going to be as exceptional as a sales manager? There's definitely a risk,” he says. “The more removed you get from the day-to-day sales work, there is a risk that you can lose touch with what's going on. But I've decided that, you know, I have to give it a go.”

There's also the lingering concern over trusting other salespeople to take care of particular clients the way he would, Mirando admits.

Indeed, learning to delegate sales doesn't always come easily to owners who have spent their entire career building and nurturing their business.

“In remodeling, what you typically see are smaller businesses that have started with a single owner and then grown,” says Tim Frost, president of Peregrine Contracting, in Underhill, Vt. “As an owner, you're forced to wear so many hats. Then, once you get to the point where you have to replicate yourself and build a sales team, it's a huge hurdle. It's difficult to pull away.”

Terry Streich, owner of SilverMark Inc. for 32 years, is in the middle of making such a transition. Last spring he hired a salesperson for his Minneapolis company, and for the first time is attempting to be a sales manager.

For Streich, the decision to replicate himself wasn't rooted in feeling over-stretched. He was more interested in developing a succession plan and girding against a weak economy.

Illustration: Chris Gash

“I'm wondering, ‘How are we going to manage to stay viable until things pick up?'” he says. “I don't need a salesperson to handle the volume we've got. I want more volume and a broader base of connections than I'm able to go out and get by myself.”

Having made the decision, Streich's first challenge was hiring the right person to represent his company. That's where things became tricky.

Many remodelers say that of all the positions to fill, the sales position is the toughest: Though there's no shortage of salespeople for hire, they are often entirely wrong for the job.

“People knock on your door, but most of them aren't any good,” says Gary Marrokal, president of Marrokal Construction, in Lakeside, Calif. “They all tell you a great story and present themselves the best they can.”

“It takes a certain personality to do the sales job well,” says Daniel Stebnitz of Stebnitz Builders, in Delavan, Wis. “We've hired people in the past who were outgoing but who couldn't close the sale. To do the job well, you need to be smart and fast-thinking, communicate well — the perfect blend.”

Marrokal sums it up this way: “If sales was easy, it would pay minimum wage.”

As for where to find the right person, Stebnitz has had positive experiences using different sources. His first sales hire was a former client whom he recognized as being a good fit for sales. He has also plucked salespeople from his production management department, with good results. His advice: Look internally first, then outward. For example, would any of the salespeople working for your suppliers be a good fit?

Because Streich was seeking a salesperson to broaden his network, he chose to cast his net in unfamiliar waters rather than recruit from his current circle. His initial foray into interviewing candidates made him rethink going it alone, though. “I didn't know how to evaluate these people because they were all ‘selling me.' I didn't know what I was doing,” he says.

So, with a few recommendations from peers, Streich hired a headhunter, who ran an ad that directed people to a battery of online personality assessments. Of the 250 people who answered the ad, 25 snagged an interview with the headhunter, who then whittled down the list to 3 for Streich to interview. He hired 1 of them, an interior designer with retail experience selling home furnishings.

Despite having no remodeling sales experience, this woman's background and assessment profiles “indicated that she had the drive, resilience, and attitude of a successful salesperson,” Streich says. Specifically, her personality behavioral assessment showed her to be results-oriented, ambitious, competitive, and driven to make money, as well as having strong interpersonal skills and not taking it personally when people say “no.”

Streich's next challenge was training the new hire — coaching her on everything from “What goes in first, a tile floor or cabinets?” to “What's the correct response when a client offers you a cup of coffee?” (Answer: “Are you having some?”)

For many remodelers, donning the trainer hat requires the biggest mental shift. The dozens of little things that Streich knows and does every day, without even thinking, he now needed to teach someone else. “I know what I do and how I do it,” he says. “But I had no idea how to go about coaching. It eluded me.”

Here's where having a sales-training manual in place — with the entire sales system written out step-by-step — can make all the difference. Some remodelers even say that hiring a new salesperson without such a system is a recipe for failure.

“My advice,” Frost says, “is to figure that part out up-front. Come up with a document that identifies what you've been doing all these years. Put it in outline form, with a checklist of things you can teach and hold someone accountable to. If you don't have that, it's going to blow up on you.”

In his case, Frost estimates that it took a year and a half or so for his company to assemble a strong working sales system. Drawing from a range of resources, he and his team drafted, reviewed, tested, and tweaked until they arrived at a systematic sales process.

Actual sales training takes six months at Peregrine Contracting. First, Frost enrolls newly hired salespeople in a weeklong course on home design at a local design/build school so they can see how projects go from the conceptual stage through to construction drawings.

“During the first month of training, we review together all the design jobs we've done in-house,” he says. “We discuss the thought that went into the design on those projects. We're big believers in Sarah Susanka and her [Not So Big House] concepts, so we all read three of her books and discussed what we learned from them.”

Illustration: Chris Gash

Next, Frost introduces newbies to his business one piece at a time: Together they review the company's manual of preferred details and products used in the building process. Because his business is open book, Frost has the salesperson spend time with the accountant, reviewing numbers, from revenue targets to gross margin goals. Then there's a huddle with the marketing director, who shares the marketing plan, brochures, and Web site; and with the draftsperson, who trots out examples of drawings she typically includes with projects.

Finally, Frost begins training the new salesperson on how sales calls are done. “I have them do some role-playing and give me a sample presentation,” he says, using a list of standard types of objections to address and overcome. After easing the salesperson into the process, Frost allows him or her to shadow on a sales call and, eventually, to go out on his or her own.

How long should it take before a new salesperson is fully up to speed? Streich says this depends on the individual and the company. One friend told him that his new salesperson took two and a half years to really get going. Streich says, “I've also heard people say they give new sales hires six months; they either get it or they're out.”

As Streich's newest salesperson begins her second year, he says, “I'm expecting a big step up in sales activity on her side. All her connections should start bearing fruit.” In her first 10 months, she did $100,000 in sales, with most of that time spent in training.

To launch her solo journey, Streich plans to give her all bathroom leads. “She has a really good understanding of what a bathroom project is all about, so this should get her comfortable,” he says. “Then she can apply what she learns to a bigger project, like a kitchen or an addition.”

Once a new salesperson is up and running, owners say, the key is regular monitoring using specific metrics that reveal whether he or she is on track or has veered wildly off-course.

“I've just begun doing a monthly one-on-one meeting with each salesperson where we talk about what their plan is for the month,” Mirando says. “For example, how many first appointments they have, how many prospecting calls they're going to make, how many networking events they'll attend, how much in sales they'll present to prospective customers, and what they're doing to get more referrals.”

To make the metrics more visible, Mirando launched a contest — something he learned about at a seminar, then immediately put into place. Every month, all measurable activities are tracked on a dry-erase board, which is hung in plain view at the office. Numbers are marked for each activity and each salesperson. Each month, the salesperson with the most points wins a prize.

In addition to one-on-ones, Mirando holds weekly sales meetings, encouraging his team to be consistent with the sales steps they follow, as well as having them role-play. After a pause, he adds, “There's a reluctance to participate.”

For now, Mirando isn't too worried. And he's trying not to be pushy, since this is all new. “I'm trying to be encouraging. Maybe they feel awkward,” he says. “I mean, some of them have been selling a long time. But that doesn't mean they can't improve. I know I can continue to improve.”

For the owner-seller who successfully replicates himself — and casts himself in the role of sales manager — the rewards include having a big-picture perspective of the business, as well as the possibility of growth, diversification, geographic expansion, and sheer pleasure.

“I'm more like the owner of a professional baseball team,” Marrokal says. I get to sit back and watch the team, watch them play a game very well. There's a reward in doing that. Most owners, when they get to that level, they really enjoy it.” <i>—Alice Bumgarner is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C.</i>