Sales Enablement and Support for Pest Control
The #1 thing you can do right now for your pest control company’s success is improve your sales process and conversions
If you want to grow your pest control company, you need to manage your sales process
Selling Pest Control Services
Without consistent sales it is very difficult to maintain, much less grow your local pest control company. As the saying goes,“nothing happens until somebody sells something.”
It is not uncommon for a Pest Control company owner to not have a great deal of sales experience. Where problems begin to arise is when you begin to think you can maintain and grow a successful local Pest Control company and without ever worrying about the selling.
Let me give you a story about one of our accounts so that you can see how very important sales—and in this case, sales conversions—are to the success of your business.
The Pest Control company had all leads going to a single person and that person was responsible for talking to the inquiries (leads). It was then his responsibility to either close the sale on the phone or set up an appointment to do an inspection and sell pest control.
This is the place where most Pest Control owners and managers may find problems if they are not close to the sales process. In this case, here is what was going on once we got involved in auditing the leads to customers conversion rate:
Problem 1: This client is a long-standing local Pest Control company whose website we have optimized and provided local SEO services to for a few years. As a result, when the sales were evaluated each month, the numbers looked OK. Not good, but not bad. The owner was not closely managing the number of inquiries, traffic and leads that were going to this individual, so in a sense, he was operating with total impunity.
Problem 2: The person being tasked with managing the sales of pest control services was being paid commissions and, on some leads, he would receive more earnings than on others. In other words, he was incented to sell pigeon jobs and rodent exclusion but not so much to our GPC recurring customers.
For this Pest Control company, an average sale for recurring revenue was about $500.00, and they would typically retain most new customers for more than three years. This means that the typical lifetime customer value (LCV) for them was over $1500.00. That’s what they would lose each and every time a call that should have been converted was not!
Bird jobs, rodent exclusion and some other types of sales that are not considered normal recurring revenue are considered annual recurring opportunities, but not necessarily a routine recurring customer like GPC is.
They also provide a one-shot treatment, although it is recommended to sell recurring services whenever possible to avoid complaints and problems when issues don’t get resolved.
Once we were able to accumulate some of the total numbers of leads and inquiries that were coming into the pest control company, here is what we found:
Monthly LEADS all sources = 240
Monthly SALES by person assigned = 27
Revenue sold apx. Each month = $13,500
Conversion rate 27 / 240 * 100 = 11.25%
In the case of this customer, just checking on sales each month gave them enough to not be too concerned. But let me put this into perspective:
The industry standard for pest control is in the neighborhood of 50% for conversions. That means that every 10 leads you receive, you should be able to convert 5 to a sale for pest control. Obviously, that number will range depending upon the skill of those people taking care of the leads. But typically, that range is going to be between 35% – 65%.
In the case described above, with a conversion rate of 11.25%, that person should be reassigned to another job or just fired!
In our example case, let’s see what we could recover in new SALES by doing nothing more than improving our conversion rate. Let’s just say in this case we improve to 30% conversion (a barely acceptable number) and see what the difference is to the bottom line.
Monthly LEADS all sources = 240
Monthly SALES by person assigned = 72
Revenue sold appx. Each month = $36,000
Conversion rate 72 / 240 * 100 = 30%
(Previous example): $13,500 x 12 months = $162,000
(Difference): $36,000 x 12 months = $432,000
That’s a net difference of $270,000! Now, tell me again that you cannot afford to hire someone who focuses completely on selling your leads on pest control services!
This is showing nothing more than putting the proper focus on SELLING your services every single day to every single opportunity (lead). In our example case (and it’s real) the company was losing over a quarter million dollars annually by having the wrong person doing the selling and by not monitoring his results weekly and monthly. Remember, you cannot manage what you don’t measure.
Pest Control Success Pyramid
Let’s take a look at a plan for sales enablement in a Pest Control company. Take a look at what we call our pest control success pyramid.
Ongoing one-shot treatments
create a constant flow of new customers. Always have a plan to convert one-shot to MRR customers through communication and promotion
Solid block of ARR Customers
Have a group of customers that you repeat annually. For example, Mosquito treatments, solar panel maintenance, flea treatments, etc…
Foundation of MRR Customers
To first create stable cashflow and create consistent and measurable growth month in month out. Manage your MRR or monthly recurring revenue.
To grow your company year in and year out, we break your leads and customers into 3 categories (we know there are more).
The base of your pyramid is the foundation and that is where we place your monthly recurring revenue accounts. That includes those customers that have an annual plan with your company and should remain with you for years to come. These customers provide the cashflow and pay the bills.
The next section up is your annual potential recurring revenue. In this group, you reach out every year to provide annual services like mosquito treatments, termite inspections, flea treatments, solar panel inspections, etc. If you treat them right and have a good marketing plan in place, you can capture and grow this every year.
At the top of our pyramid (or the smaller portion) contains the one-shot or single treatment sales. Whereas we always want to sell recurring service whenever possible, lots of sales will fall into a single treatment. That includes things like bed bugs, fumigation, hive removal, and other things. The most important thing to remember here is that all of these customers can and should become one of our regular annual maintenance accounts.
5-Step Pest Control Sales Process
A 5-step sales process for pest control allows the best opportunity to improve the sales conversions and ultimately the sales revenue to your company..
A basic organized sales plan employs the following steps. When we work with a client, these steps are then customized to their unique sales message:
These steps can all be followed in a 2–3-minute conversation with a new prospect. It’s not so important the amount of information we gather here, but rather the information itself and how to use it. For example, we will need to know some basics from every call, and it needs to be done in a conversation, not an interrogation. These are all learned skills, and when they become part of your sales culture, you will begin to see the results in dollars.
Let’s look briefly at each step and how you might integrate them into your business tomorrow.
Approach / Preparation
In the approach and preparation stage, what we want is for the person answering the phones or visiting the home or business to be TOTALLY PREPARED. By that, we mean the following items should be done in advance:
- Know the prices of every service we provide.
- Be able to describe in detail what each service provides.
- Dashboard to track all activity, charges, and credits
- Have formatted email responses and text message responses ready to go.
- Be able to bundle services or think on your feet to provide solutions on the spot.
- Have the technicians’ schedule at your fingertips.
- Know the history of the company you represent.
- Practice providing answers to leads.
Fact Finding / Needs Assessment
In order to be an effective problem solver, you must first master the art of finding out what the problem is. Before you can provide a solution to a problem, you must thoroughly know what that problem is. To find out what the problem is, you must learn how to LISTEN. In the course of a friendly conversation (not interrogation) it is up to you to find out the most pertinent facts before you begin to provide solutions and prices. Some of the basics include:
- Are you the owner of the property?
- What is the size of the property and lot?
- What is the target pest problem? Are there more than 1?
- Do you have children and pets?
Presentation
It is important to give a short introduction to you and the company. By telling your unique story, you are convincing the lead that they have made the right choice.
Recommendation
Never ask a lead what they want? If you have done your job in the conversation (phone or in-person), you as the Pest Control professional, need to make a solid recommendation on the right course of action. You should restate the reasons they gave you as to why you are making the recommendation that you are making.
Close
Close the deal. At the end of your call or conversation, you need to have a clear treatment plan setup. There should be no doubt that the customer is scheduled, and you have all the information needed including signatures and payment information. If you are receiving cost objections or others, you need to re-state the customer’s comments and tell them that your recommendation is what will provide a solution to the problem that they presented.
Understanding the Different Types of Consumers
The services you offer are strictly up to you, your market area, and the competency and licensing of the people that work for you. In this report, I cannot go into the depths of how and why you should sell the services that you do, so let’s just leave it up to you to think it through and decide going forward.
The consumer types are, once again, a very important consideration for your Pest Control company. It may sound silly to think that there are different types of consumers, but it is a fact, and when you think about your own behavior when you shop for a product or service, you will find that you do things differently depending on who you are at that time. Let’s take a very basic look at who the different buying consumers are:
First, there are those consumers who are likely to know who they are going to do business with. Statistics say that even though they know who they want to do business with, 25% of the time, they will change their minds based on a compelling message or content that is targeted at the pain point they have while they are shopping. They are defined as follows:
1 Former customer
(May have done business with you in the past)
2 Advertising influenced
(Saw an advertisement and responded)
3 Repeat Customer
(Doing business with you again, upsell)
4 Passer-By
(Saw your truck in the neighborhood or on the road)
5 Solicited
(Got your door hanger or direct mail coupon)
Second, the consumers who have no idea who they are going to do business with. They simply have a problem (pain point) and are seeking information. The buyer’s journey is broken into 3 parts: Awareness, Consideration and Decision. This consumer could be in any stage and is likely ready to be informed, sold, and closed as a new Pest Control customer. This consumer type is defined as follows:
1 Dissatisfied
(Only knows who they will NOT do business with)
2 Infrequent
(May only contact pest control when they have a big problem)
3 Competitive
(Might be the worst, just shopping lowest price.)
4 Emergency
(Best opportunity, need something fixed right now)
5 Newcomers
(Great opportunity, new to area and need service)
In most statistical information, the buying consumer groups are almost equal in their numbers. What I mean is that it’s almost 50/50. About 50% know who they are looking for and about 50% are just looking in general. That’s why we keep our content targeted towards pain points and solutions.
But the issue here is the salesperson who deals with the leads and his or her awareness of the difference. Knowing what to do with these prospects is what will comprise the basis of your sales process. That’s why we want trained salespeople to deal with new leads.
For example, let’s say that a salesperson takes a call for new cockroach service. The prospect calls in and, in this case, is an “infrequent” consumer type. They may have never before had a cockroach problem. So that means they are probably in the “consideration” stage of the buyer’s journey and just about to enter the “decision” stage.
But perhaps we are the first call the prospect makes, so our salesperson is going to have some trouble closing them on this first call. They know this because they use some probing questions with the prospect to figure out that we are their first call, and the consumer is anxious to find a solution but believe they should make a couple more calls.
A great strategy would be to have a “cockroach preparation” sheet ready and a template email response to send. The conversation with the lead might go something like this: “I understand that you need to get more than one price quote. I am confident that you will find our quote very competitive and equally confident that you will find our technician’s experience second to none. We have created a very useful document to help you prepare your home for the most effective results. May I have your email so that I can send this right over to you? You will find it helpful, and it will have my contact information so that in the case you want our service, you can simply reply. Thanks for the opportunity to help. I am looking forward to scheduling your service. It looks like we could have a technician out to your home within the next 2 days. I look forward to hearing back.”
When you employ some basic and simple sales strategies, you can see your closing ratio get closer to 50%, especially after you start seeing the leads coming from your new online-marketing efforts and great content. Sales enablement and a sales process are essential and require specific focus. If you think of it like this, it becomes clear.
Pest Control Sales Enablement & Support
We have a client in the Valley in California. They have 3 people answering phones and we record all of the calls to manage results from our marketing efforts and to provide feedback on the quality of the sales effort. What we wanted to improve was the sales conversion of each person by 2 each week.
Think about that for a moment. Our average sale is $504.00 annually. If we could get the 3 to do 2 better each week that was a total of 6 additional new sales each week. The season is about May through mid-October. Let’s call it 22 weeks of our primary season for this exercise. That means in 22 weeks, if we do 6 additional sales, we have increased sales by 132 annual agreements at $504.00 each. The total in new sales, by just a little bit of focus and effort, is equal to $66,528.00!
That’s a real-world example, and that’s not more leads and more money spent on marketing and advertising. That’s just doing a better job with what we have. Remember, what you measure, you manage. If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. Do you know exactly how many customer leads and inquires you get every day? Do you know how many converted into sales and how many did not? The most important piece may be, why didn’t they convert and what can we do better next time?
There are many tools that we employ to help our clients follow up on and follow through with the leads they get to maximize the results. In marketing, there is a tool for sales called a CRM. That stands for customer relationship management. There are lots of variations, and some of the email service providers, like Mail Chimp, even have a simplistic version that can give you the opportunity to create follow ups and sequential email drip campaigns.
One more thought to give you. With another of our pest control clients’ sales efforts, we were able to discern that later in the day, many of the calls were converted into one-shot sales instead of annual service agreements. It’s understandable to think that someone who has been talking bugs and pest control all day might lose some of the enthusiasm they had at 8:30 that morning. So, our solution was to create an automated sequence. What we did was create a series of 5 emails that were triggered the day after the single one-shot treatment was scheduled. The essence of the email messages is that even though our single treatment services are good and may work for 4-8 weeks, eventually, the chemical will evaporate and the bugs will return.
If they responded to our messages and upgraded to any of our full-service maintenance plans (within 30 days), we would apply 100% of the cost of the single treatment towards the new service agreement. It worked very well, and it showed who was getting lazy, because many of their single treatments were upgrading to full-service agreements. That made it a bit competitive, and the salespeople became aware of the fact that with a little more effort late in the day, they did not need to be selling one-shot treatments just because they were too tired and lazy.
If you need help developing and implementing your pest control sales process, just give us a call. We’re here to help!
DOMINATE – The NO BS guide to Marketing DOMINATION For your Pest Control Company
In this guide you will learn everything you need to know to effectively start growing your pest control business and dominating your local market. We understand what it takes for pest control owners just like you to beat out your competition!
