Let me make this one clear, I’m not asking if sales people should be able to fit a window or a door, but if they should have the knowledge of fitting a window or a door.
I ask this because I am a firm believer in knowledge being key. In the early days if selling, I went out on site a lot to see the jobs I sold in previous weeks being fitted. I liked the idea of seeing my customers watch their installation happen. But the other reason for going on site was to try and pick up some actual fitting knowledge. I wanted to know how a job was done, start to finish. 8 years in and I reckon I now know the whole fitting process, in fairly decent detail.
Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t actually fit a window! I’m not built for that task, and my standard of workmanship would be considerably less than our professional installers. But I do have the knowledge if a customer was to ever ask me questions about fitting. And that I think is key.
Customers sometimes play the game and try and catch you out. I think most expect sales staff not to know about the fitting process, so when you are able to answer almost any fitting question they ask of you, they tend to be impressed. That’s what I have found anyway.
So should sales staff know about the fitting process? Or does it not matter? Should sales staff stick to doing what they are good at, selling, and leave the fitting side of the business to the professionals? Personally I think all sales staff should have good fitting knowledge, but let me know what you think! All comments welcome in the section below.
What are the recommended fixing distances on a window ? Ha.. ;-P #MTC
What’s a fixing ?
I was a fitter for years, commercial in London, then returned to Ireland to fit domestic. In my opinion it is very important to have the experience of been a fitter so as to have the ablility to foresee any inevitable problems. For example, I once employed a friend as a rep, he went to a job, measured up gave price and closed the deal by getting a deposit. I went to see the job before fitting and instead of it been a one day job it was at least 3. The replacement windows were steel ( a real difficult… Read more »
I definitely think that sales people should know how the windows and conservatories are installed, not only this but how they are finished and how any prep work is completed such as rendering or cutting out brickwork. As this is people’s own homes they are very protective over them and it has won me countless business over the years in being able to confidently talk about construction and fitting processes.