Maslow is attributed as saying, “If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”  This sentiment applies to how we view the role of service technicians.  If we see the proactive efforts of technicians to identify and speak to the customer about our services as that of a “salesperson” then everything they do in this regard looks like “selling”.  Unfortunately, this viewpoint greatly limits our imagination to capture the real value in what our technicians are providing.  This constrains our ability to capitalize on these efforts as a valuable and differentiated service offering.

In my opinion, a technician who feels – based on their knowledge and experience – that the customer would benefit from a particular product or service in some way, and brings this to the attention of the customer is providing a service and is not selling.  It is part of their job – as important as their ability to fix or maintain the equipment itself.  In fact, I suggest that they have an obligation to the customer to discuss any action that would be of benefit to their operations.

Despite this, many service managers I speak to as well as several in the training and consulting community, talk about this activity as “selling” by technicians.  Here are the 4 reasons why this viewpoint will significantly limit our success.

1. Opportunistic/Short-term Focus. As I mentioned in my last blog, when the proactive recommendations by our technicians are seen as selling they become “add-on” activities and we tend to see them from an opportunistic perspective.  “While you’re there have a look for other things that we can sell to that customer.”  This misses the opportunity to imbed this activity into our overall service strategy.

2. Skills Development is Focused on Selling. When we view the activity by our technicians as selling in nature, then it is natural to look to sales training to upgrade the skills of our technicians to handle the new expectations.  Although these are important skills and can be helpful in many cases, they aren’t the only skills or even the most important.  The technicians’ ability to build trust and maintain credibility is more important.  Unfortunately, if we simply teach our technicians to sell, they may come across more like salespeople and actually diminish the amount of trust they have with their customers.

3. Measurement is Limited to Selling Activities. When we regard the technician’s role as selling, then we will tend to limit our measurement of the success of the initiative to factors such as overall revenues, small project work vs. contract base, number of proposals by technician, etc.  Although it is prudent to measure these things, this limited focus may cause us to miss key measures that will impact our long-term success.  It may also cause us to reward certain activities that may encourage unnecessary “selling” activities that may also erode trust.

4. Difficult to Promote as a Differentiating Service. Many service companies that view service technicians’ proactive efforts as “selling” fail to capture and communicate the value of this activity to their customers.  These firms typically don’t mention to their customers that they are encouraging their technicians to look for more opportunities.  After all, how do you communicate the value from the customers’ perspective of the fact that your technicians are actively looking for more ways to make more money from them?

Next time we will look at changing our perspective of the proactive activities of our technicians from that of selling to serving and how that simple change in mindset can have a enormous impact on our ability to deliver a differentiated (and valued) service experience.

I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

– Abraham Maslow

The post The Limiting Reality of Getting Technicians to “Sell” – 4 Reasons Why appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Are you thinking of providing “sales” training for your technicians on how to promote your services? Before making a decision, consider what you want the training to achieve. Below are 4 questions that are key when evaluating training programs that can help you ensure you get a higher ROI.

Those of you who have read my book and subscribe to this blog know that I feel that the technician is in a unique position to identify opportunities that the customer can act on to help them operate their facilities and/or processes more effectively. In fact, I believe that technicians have an obligation to reach out to the customer to discuss these opportunities to help and to assist them in making informed decisions. To me, this really isn’t selling at all, but rather an important part of the service.  And, this approach has a significant benefit. My experience indicates that service firms that engage their technicians in this way will create a sustainable competitive advantage and be rewarded with more business, higher customer satisfaction and unprecedented levels of retention.

Many of you may be considering training your technicians on “selling” to support them in their efforts to add more value to their service relationships.  If this is the case for you, I encourage you to consider the critical components that will drive the success of the training program in attaining the results you are looking for and provide you with a higher return on your investment.

This is important because not all training programs are the same. Some training programs for technicians are sales programs originally designed for salespeople and “modified” for the field service tech. They often cover a full range of sales topics that were originally designed for people who sell for a living.  As a result, programs in this category may include sales techniques and approaches that are foreign to the technician and of limited value.

These “sales programs for technicians” also may have limited impact because they have a solitary focus.  They only address one aspect of success – one that is of limited value without the support of the other key success factors. Success of a workshop for technicians will be dependent upon:

• The connection the technician sees between what he/she is being asked to do and their perceived role (i.e. is this part of my job?)
• Their ability to conduct themselves when promoting services in a manner that continues to build the trust and confidence of the customer
• The fit of what is being taught with your company’s culture
• The technicians’ comfort level in applying the skills taught in the field (are the skills consistent with the technician’s “culture” and the service “environment”?)

This brings me to the 4 questions that are key to helping you evaluate a training program to enthusiastically engage your technicians in business development.

1. Does the training position the role of engaging the technician in business development activities as an integral part of the service that they provide?
   2. Is the approach presented consistent with your business culture and strategy and the role you have defined for the technicians?
   3. Does the training help technicians recognize and develop commitments to enhance their credibility with the customer?
   4. Does the training provide situation relevant skills in communicating ideas to others in order to help technicians comfortably articulate their ideas and confidently deal with resistance when it occurs?

By evaluating training options by asking these questions, we ensure that the training we select will encourage our technicians to be “business partners” who bring their unique knowledge to help the customer solve problems and capitalize on opportunities – problems or opportunities that the customer may not even know they have. Your technicians will be more comfortable in engaging the customer as a “problem solver” in partnership with the customer and therefore more likely to adopt the skills that will contribute to their success. Your customers will appreciate this approach as well and be more receptive to the new ideas presented to them.

Next time I will look at the relative importance of the “selling” skills themselves in terms of the effectiveness of “sales” training for technicians.  You may be surprised to find that these may not be as important as one might first surmise.

I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

– Pablo Picasso

The post 4 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Technician “Sales” Training Programs appeared first on jimbaston.com.