Kevin Krupp
York Repair, Inc.
Bay City, Michigan
Marketing & Industry Awareness Committee Member
Like many EASA firms, York Repair, Inc. has been heavily impacted by the recession. Our location in Mid-Michigan, with a heavy automotive manufacturing customer base, has created additional challenges. However, we’ve found that with each challenge comes the potential for opportunity.
To meet the current challenge, we decided to re-allocate some of our staff to a new venture called RepairZoneTM, a division that specializes in industrial electronics and servo motor sales through exchange, repair, or purchase. RepairZone is primarily a Web-based division, accessible at www.repairzone.com; one of our main goals is to drive traffic to the site.
New Approach For Sales
With this new division came a new approach for the sales department. In the past, most of our sales came by conventional methods of establishing personal relationships with customers through face-to-face contacts. We would then earn business through high-quality repair, customer service, competitive pricing and an excellent market reputation. Our new Web concept made it evident very quickly that our traditional methods needed an overhaul.
The initial concept was tested over two years ago by listing selected items on eBay that were repaired and ready to ship. We had a good success rate and quickly realized that we needed a dynamic Web site that was linked to our ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.
Our Information Technology (IT) staff worked on the Web site development for more than 6 months (with almost constant revisions ever since). The Web store is linked to our inventory system and we are also able to take orders online 24 hours per day, directly or via eBay. This has had the unexpected benefit of opening up our inventory to the world. We have sold items in 27 different countries on five continents.
In addition to the Web site, we decided to proactively follow up on past customers, exhibit at trade shows, and purchase select customer lists in various market segments.
We also created a comic “superhero” character named “RepairZone Man” as part of our advertising efforts to make the program fun and attract attention at the trade shows.
New Inside Sales Strategies
We also created an active inside sales position. Having a list of 12,000 potential customers (from our phone prospect lists) that we were trying to reach made us re-think our tracking system. We had our IT staff redesign our contact management system to track our inside sales efforts. Then we began making calls.
After a couple of hundred calls, we learned what was successful and what needed to be changed. We have modified our script several times and we now give the salesperson enough latitude to head in a different direction if he thinks it is warranted.
“Advanced Inside Sales” Also Useful
We’ve also used the “Advanced Inside Sales on CD-ROM” from EASA and found it to be very useful. Specifically, we’ve used the Customer Profile sheet and qualification questions to ask. You, too, can benefit from this useful resource; it was developed in conjunction with the Association Education Alliance (AEA), of which EASA is a member. An order form is enclosed.
More Sales Calls
We have instituted “Power Hours” for inside sales and have found that to be very effective. This is a period of time of one to four hours where the inside salesperson is totally focused on outbound calls. He does not check e-mail, take phone calls or conduct any business whatsoever on the Internet.
During this time, he has a call list of 50 to 100 potential customers to contact in quick succession. We refer to this as the “Inside Sales Power Zone.”
Our average calls per hour have more than doubled during this period. We were also able to sign up more potential customers on our Web site and create a higher percentage of qualified potential customers.
We are continuing to refine our inside sales techniques as we move forward in this new market. The current recession has helped us find new and different opportunities and will make us a more diversified company in the future. We are excited about the possibilities of this new venture and about serving a national and international market. Hopefully, you have found some of our inside sales tips helpful to your organization.
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