NALP vice president of education and services Shaine Anderson was on the road last week at the NALP Sales Bootcamp with Marty Grunder which was held at the Bartlett Tree Experts research laboratory in Raleigh, North Carolina.
We can’t give away all the secrets Marty shared, but here are a few tips that Shaine took away.
#1. The Value of The Handwritten Thank You Note
Marty shared his personal mantra to always write personal, handwritten notes to his customers, and the powerful impact these handwritten notes have had on his business. Grunder stressed that if the attendees took only one thing away from the Sales Bootcamp, it would be the power of his top two marketing techniques: 1) deliver quality service and 2) write handwritten thank you notes. Better than any other gesture, Grunder said, the old fashioned handwritten note conveys genuine care and concern to your customers.
#2. The 5 Attributes of Successful Sales Pros
During this intensive workshop, Grunder shared dozens of other “tricks of the trade” from his 30 years in the business of landscaping. He stressed the five strategic attributes of all successful sales professionals:
- They know who their ideal client is
- They are very knowledgeable
- They have a passion for the industry
- They follow a system
- They do more than the other guy or gal
Grunder went into detail about what landscape sales professionals can do to ensure that they deliver on these promises – including a simple way to identify the ideal candidate (and subsequently reorient the company toward this ideal client), the benefit of using a “client experience funnel” to help prioritize leads, and the importance of developing a simple sales system that works – and then following it.
The NALP Sales Symposium sponsors included Bartlett Tree Experts, Chrysler, John Deere, and Vermeer.
