The Swimming Pool Sales Funnel

For years, salesman have used a selling system labeled as The Sales Funnel. There are arguments out there that this has become outdated but many follow this school of thought.

The basics are quite simple and can give you some insight into how you are being herded through the sales pipeline. It is a you versus the salesman principle that you need to keep in mind when purchasing a pool, or anything else for that matter. Not all salespeople are evil though but they do all have one objective: to turn you into a sale, therefore making a profit off of you.

The Sales Funnel:

picture provided by creative commons license granted by http://engineerscansell.com/ from Wikipedia Article: Sales Tunnel

Source: Wikipedia

The Sales Funnel converted to Swimming Pools...

New Opportunity
It is here that you enter the world of becoming a potential buyer. You are looking at websites, pictures and thinking about how nice it would be to have a pool. The salesman is sitting by the phone waiting for you to move to the next level.

Initial Communication
You order a brochure, fill out an online inquiry about pool contractors or call that ad you just got in the mail. The salesman now has the opportunity to get your information and convert you into a lead. Actually, as soon as you give any information to anything or anyone, you become a lead. A sales lead is a potential buying customer and you can expect to be treated as such. That means, you are going to get a call from someone that wants to meet with you. That is fine, if you are ready for this process. In this step, you will be contacted by a salesman, a lead manager, a secretary, or someone else from the pool company. In some cases, you will receive a packet of information or a brochure before a phone call but you can count on being personally contacted. That is, unless they are not interested in earning your business. The initial communication then leads to the fact finding phase.

Fact Finding
The salesman will contact you and want to find out where you are in the thought process of a swimming pool. He will want to find out the basics like your name and location but he is really looking to see where you are in the thought process and how much you potentially have to spend with him. This stage is very important to the salesman because it can dictate what his strategy for you will be. Salesman aren't in the practice of wasting time, so they want to find out if you are really serious about a pool and what it is you are looking for. The salesman is looking for as much telling information as he can get in order to convert you into a sale. Things like: have you met with other pool companies, location and how hard it is to build a pool there, if you can even build a pool in your yard, if you can afford his pool, if you are in his market, are you ready to buy now, etc.

Develop Solution, Propose Solution and Solution Evaluation
The problem is how to get you to buy and the solution is to present different avenues that push you to that point. This can be anything from showing you pictures to laying out a design in your yard. If you are being resistant to moving forward the salesman needs to figure out what your objective is and find a solution to it. For example, you don't want to buy right now because you were hoping to wait for another month or two. The salesman wants the sale so he may come up with an incentive to get you to move now. This may be a deal or it may be a statement to the effect of "now is the time to do this because we are going to be really busy in a month or two." Even though a pool is typically more of an emotional purchase, look for the salesman to play on this and to build up that it can be a rational purchase. A good salesman should have a counter to whatever your argument is for not buying. In other words, a solution.

Negotiation
You have been presented the concept of having a beautiful new swimming pool in your yard. Now, you need to negotiate. Yes, there is always room for negotiation, particularly in the current economy. You will be much better off if you have at least a couple of other proposals when moving into this phase. The salesman is paid a commission on the pool. That commission can be a minimum or it can be a home run. Obviously, the salesman isn't looking to make the minimum and you shouldn't be interested in making him rich off of one sale. The salesman will use numerous tactics to steer you towards the commission he is seeking and negotiating can help you get to a fair median. This phase can be frustrating and difficult but doing it smartly will be of great benefit to you.

Purchase Order
The contract is written and handed to you to review. Once everything is agreed upon, the sale is made and you are on your way to getting a new pool. What is on the contract is what you should be getting. You can't expect that any freebies will come your way, so make sure everything is on there that you think you are getting and make sure you understand everything that is on the agreement. Surprises down the road are the majority of complaints lodged against builders. Sometimes they are the builder's fault. Sometimes they are a salesman fault. And, sometimes they are the result of a buyer not fully understanding what they bought or confusing what another company told them with what this company told them. Whatever the situation, it is ultimately up to you to be your best protection or worst nightmare.

Account Maintenance
A good salesman provides service not only to get the sale but during and after the sale. In the pool business, there are good and bad salesmen. Although thoroughly vetting the salesman helps, most of the time it is just a luck of the draw scenario. Finding out how well the salesman services his customers after the sale is usually an indicator of what to expect. Many pool customers feel lost during the process and having a crutch, such as a salesman that stays involved is a big help.