From time to time, we’d like to share stories and tips from our sales reps in the field. For this month’s issue we talked to Peter Elliott of Elliott & Associates in Golden, Colorado. Peter has been a Total Door sales rep since September 2014. Besides running his own agency, he is also a member of your Total Door Systems Rep Advisory Council. Here’s what he had to say:
I think as sales reps, we tend to get very focused on our products. Rightfully so, but if you want to sell more product, I would say to be more solution oriented, regardless of product.
When you’re talking to an architect or design professional, we often want to rush in and show them our product and how knowledgeable we are. But, they’re often worried much more about an overall solution, versus a product. They often don’t care if the end result is a door or a curtain or whatever. Their goal is to ensure code compliance, show their clients that they’re spending their money wisely and if they can achieve aesthetics, too – that’s great. So, if you can supply them with a solution first and it happens to also include your product, they’re going to be more apt to embrace that because it fits into their overall solution.
That’s my tip for selling product overall. For Total Door, specifically, I always try to emphasize the design aspects. So, for instance, in the case of cross corridors or corridor separation, the code’s going to tell you that you need a door here that has these specifics and ties into the life safety and security systems, etc. So, if the code’s telling you that you must do this, wouldn’t you prefer to have something that is more acceptable from a design aspect and more integrated into your overall design concept?
So, for Total Door, you can lead with design and help the architect or designer to arrive at the point where they’re thinking, yeah I have to put a door there, but wouldn’t it be great if it looks just like a wall instead of a door? So, it’s presenting a combination of solutions: it’s code, it’s design intent, it’s presenting the design as a code compliant architecturally correct solution. To me, that’s the essence of Total Door.
If you have a story or tip you’d like to share, let us know, we’d love to talk to you.
