In my last article I led with a question that was posed to me by young dog trainer:
Are there patterns or common practices among trainers whose businesses are currently thriving versus those who are struggling to keep along?
My short answer was: Yes, there are clear patterns. Most significantly, trainers whose businesses are thriving have an intentional strategy in two core areas: Marketing, particularly their activity on social media, and sales.
In the previous article I elaborated on a key marketing strategy that top performing businesses employ, and I provided a very simple framework that can help you to improve your performance with minimal effort.
view the previous article here
Now it’s time we look at sales. Why is it important? Why do many avoid the topic? And most importantly, what can you do today that will turn the tides in your sales, your bottom line, and ultimately your freedom?
I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that most dog trainers tend to shy away from the idea of being a “salesperson”. Dog trainers join the industry because they want to help dogs and help people, not because they want to hit exceptional sales numbers. Thus, they put considerable time and energy into developing their training abilities and procedures, and often no time at all into developing their skills in sales and putting together an intentional strategy for how they want to approach the sales process within their business.
The truth is, as dog trainers, we cannot help people or dogs if they don’t enroll in our programs, and we will not be performing at our best as dog trainers if we are chronically stressed about our lack of cash flow. If the average dog trainer diverted even a fraction of their time and energy from learning about dog behavior to learning about sales, they would be significantly better off.
A very common thread among thriving dog training businesses that contact me for help with expansion because they are experiencing a steady surplus of demand, is that they have put energy into educating themselves on effective sales techniques, and developing a strategy that not only makes sense for their business model but also feels genuine to their values and personality. That last bit is important. Sales doesn’t have to be icky. You can be a highly effective salesperson for your business while still being your true self. In fact, contrary to the stereotype of the “snake oil salesman,” in dog training, honesty and integrity are two of your best sales assets.
A common red flag when I work with struggling dog trainers is that many of them offer some variation of a “free consultation,” yet fail to acknowledge that this meeting, whether via phone, video conference, or in person, is first and foremost a sales call.
Trainers who approach this initial meeting as first and foremost a “consultation” and give little to no thought to the “sales” portion of the meeting, where they propose a training plan and hope the client enrolls, often have lower than acceptable closing rates.This does not mean that we can’t share value with our potential clients during these initial meetings. In fact, “demonstrating value” is a tried-and-true sales technique. However, it has a strategic place within our overall sales framework and consideration needs to be given to where, within this first meeting, we provide this demonstration of value, what form the demonstration of value takes, and how much of the meeting it should consume. In other words, when we understand that these “free consultations” are actually sales calls, it has a dramatic effect on how we approach the meeting, allocate our time, what information we share, and when we share it.
Small changes to our sales process can compound into very large differences in our end of year bottom line. A 5% to 10% increase in your closing rate when you speak to a potential client often translates to tens of thousands of dollars by the end of the year. For a small business or solo-practitioner, this can be a game changing sum of money.
The good news is that in our modern age, you have access to a wealth of knowledge on the topic of sales at your fingertips. A simple Google search on “sales frameworks” will yield many informative articles from reputable institutions with sales education programs. YouTube is filled with quality insights from folks who have built careers on coaching sales teams and they share some of their most valuable insights for free (because demonstrating value is a sales and marketing tactic that they know and use 😉)
The first step for you is to sit down and put some thought into your overall client onboarding journey, and where in that journey your sales process fits. Next, give some thought to your sales process itself. Develop a strategy, any strategy. You can always change it later as you continue to learn and focus energy on what is working for you and what is not. Literally any strategy is better than no strategy at all.
However, what is not acceptable is to ignore sales as a component of your business simply because you don’t like it. Being a business owner, like any other job, will have plenty of tasks that are uncomfortable and which you would prefer to avoid. However, as a business owner we don’t have a boss or supervisor looking over our shoulder and holding us accountable. You have to hold yourself accountable. Ignoring the sales strategy of your business is irresponsible. How would you respond to an employee that was ignoring a crucial component of their job simply because it was uncomfortable?
That being said, self-discipline and accountability is hard. That is why top performing individuals across a wide variety of vocations hire coaches. Self-discipline means recognizing when you would benefit from having a champion in your corner and taking the first step of reaching out for help. As a coach who works with dozens of dog training businesses each year, I have the benefit of seeing what different sales procedures are working well for businesses just like yours. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
The main task is to develop a sales strategy that you are comfortable with and that feels true to you. I think you will find that working on your sales strategy is not only less painful than you think, but will actually yield greater happiness and satisfaction in the rest of your work. When you are thriving financially, you will be less stressed, and able to put more of your energy into serving your customers to the absolute best of your abilities.
If you need help developing your sales strategy, or if you are interested in taking your own training and business growth to the next level, click the link below to set up a free discovery call to learn how coaching can work for you.
Leave a Reply