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2025-2026 Sales Manager Webinar Series

41:07 Video (191 MB) HD Video (602 MB) Audio (38 MB)

When you think about selling intangibles, I think about it as accident protection, financing, appointments, fall under the intangibles. And what are the intangibles that you are struggling with the most that you'd like to make the greatest headway with? Alright. So we're gonna talk about selling intangibles through particular key elements that will improve the effectiveness of that. Number one, intangibles are different.

Intangibles require an introduction to the concept before we can make a request on the part of the customer or client to actually take action. Often, managers will say things about intangibles, like, bring it up early and often, which is accurate. But my question is what do you really mean by that? Do we demonstrate the practice and the action that we're looking for in that, or do we just tell them to do that and then hope for the best?

So selling intangibles like appointments and protection and financing requires introducing the buyer to the concept prior to asking them to make a commitment to it. So to bring up the idea of appointments or protection or financing so that the buyer has a chance to become familiar with the concept, they can wrap their head around it so that it becomes familiar as a concept right now, and then we can ask them to take action later. For instance, I'll give you an example. If you were to introduce the concept of making an appointment, and I know pretty much everyone has a sales team that needs to be making appointments and struggle may struggle with them. So if you wanna introduce the idea of a concept as a salesperson, a salesperson might say something like, since we have thirty minutes together before you have to leave for your meeting, Let's make our time together really matter. Let's accomplish whatever we can accomplish together, and we can talk about what the next steps are before you leave so that we can get those in in in movement.

You don't have to say so that we can make an appointment before you leave. But you can say we can talk about next steps. We can talk about what's missing that still needs to be decided on or confirmed. That it's like we need to bring it up. That is what bringing it up early actually means.

Or saying or in the in the in the example of using financing, to bring it up in a in a retail showroom to be able to say the price on that is as shown, and it is it is only x when you take advantage of the twelve month zero interest promotion. Because I think protection is a promotion. Right? It's a tool to be used to actually help us sell. So speaking of which, all intangibles have to be sold.

Whether it's an intangible like house call service, design service, that's a service. That's an intangible. But you have to sell them. So many salespeople make the mistake of bringing of bringing something up and thinking that that's the same thing as selling it, but it isn't.

Offering something, letting someone know that something is available. To say that we have we have a wonderful protection promotion and dropping it, that is introducing it as a concept, but that's not selling it. Intangibles are tools, and tools don't get the job done on their own. Tools get the job done by being used by someone to get the job done. So for instance, a promotion is a tool to give you a reason to get on the phone and call someone. A promotion often occurs like how I'm gonna get sales? But you're gonna get sales by using the promotion, not by the promotion itself driving them.

Promotions drive traffic. We need to use that we need to use the tools of the promotion to drive a sale. It's not the same thing. So so you wanna watch that.

You wanna watch that around the design service. You wanna watch that around appointments. You want to watch that around protection and financing, is that you probably have salespeople who introduce it, but they don't sell it. Because in order to sell it, that tool, that intangible needs to somehow be linked to something that matters to the customer or client in order for them to make a commitment to it.

So if you're selling protection to someone in their sixties, accident protection, and you're trying to sell it the way you would sell it to someone in their thirties with four kids at home, you're not gonna sell that. To sell it to someone who whose hands might be a little bit less grippy than they used to be is how you would sell it to someone in their seventies. So we wanna be selling intangibles based on the priorities that that particular opportunity has, not based on what we think it is. Selling intangibles also requires a level of intentionality that is greater than selling tangibles. It's easier to sell a sofa than it is to sell protection on it. Because selling intangibles is a more complex process.

And so I'm gonna ask you to think about this particular point as, do your salespeople go into the interaction intending to close on an intangible? Are they prepared to do that? Are you preparing them to do that by letting them know how you're gonna help them to close it? So when we think about the different ways of selling intangibles, are those different ways part of what we're doing with them to help them build their skill?

And the next point is that the objections that salespeople have to intangible may be greater than the customer objection, or they just agree with them. So as sales managers, we need to know what the objections are that the sales associates have to intangibles. We know and say that the salespeople need to believe in the intangible as a valuable tool to the sale. But when the salespeople don't have success using that tool, what do we do with that? They they think the tool is lacking something. Salespeople that are ineffective using intangible tools think that there's something missing in the tool. But what's really missing is what's missing is the skill to actually sell that rather than just bringing it up.

Because salespeople, when they're ineffective in an area, have a lot of evidence as to why that's so, and nothing's about them. So we all know this. So if they would say something like, I tried using financing, and the customer was turned down.

Because they would rather not have to change their mind about the tool and see it another way. However, Einstein said, how we see the problem is the problem, and you can't solve the problem with the thinking that created it. So how the salespeople view that tool contributes to how they use it as does their level of intentionality in actually using it. So objections to intangibles are common, and they can be anticipated, avoided, and handled. Customer objections to intangibles and are often heard when you ask the salesperson what kept the customer from buying it, from buying protection, from making an appointment, and from using financing to purchase. So here are some examples.

You might have heard these. Here are some examples of objections that salespeople have to each intangible tool. Financing. Our customers don't need financing. They have means or to protection. The customer's at the top of their budget, and protection is too much more for them to spend.

Or appointments. My customer didn't have their calendar with them, so they were unable to schedule a time with me. Now all of those, when I say them, they might kinda make sense to you, except that they all say that.

So this as sales managers, the same kinds of objections to these intangibles on the part of the salespeople that the salespeople have on the part of the customer. So when I say that objections can be anticipated, avoided, and handled, it goes both ways. That we need to understand what the salespeople's objections are first. So I have three meetings, one on each of them. And on selling the selling financing, selling protection, selling because they are critical tools for retail salespeople. They are critical tools to being able to close more business.

The exercise that I have is this. I love checklists. And I use a checklist with salespeople around, let's say, protection. Alright? So it's a checklist.

It's got about 20 things on it. And I ask them to check all that apply that they have heard, that they have said, or that they have thought. And most of the items that are checked are the salespeople's infections. So it's hilarious to me that when I first did that, probably by accident, and I realized, oh my gosh, this is like salespeople are really the ones they got sold on the know.

And or they didn't go into learning about the intangible well enough or the customer well enough to be able to put the intangible and the customer together, the customer's vision for a different future or the problem that they wanna solve. So they were unable to to do anything but accept the objection. So as sales manager, our greatest gift in our role to manage the salespeople is to manage their thinking. Help maintain is empowering context in how they think about a particular tool. So customer objections can be anticipated and avoided by how the intangible relates to the priorities of the customer or to one of their pain points. But as all objections go, all objections are best managed by asking more questions.

So this is why selling intangibles looks kind of interesting. Because you're going to have more objections, period. Period. Period. You're gonna have more objections.

And if you have salespeople whose reaction to objections is not to ask more questions to understand what the customer objection is, then what they're probably gonna do is try to, and those of us who are DISC people, explain it away as a compliant, convince it away as an influence, or argue and dismiss or just ignore it as a dominant. So salespeople are gonna have their own reaction to an objection because it's pressure for them, and we have disc under pressure actions that are predictable. So we have a lot of things that are predictable here when we scratch below the surface. So if we train our sales people to manage objections by asking more questions instead of managing objections by reacting to them. So when a customer says, I think that if I were to go with the protection, it's it's you know, it really puts me a bit beyond where I need to.

So it's like, okay. So so it sounds like the cost of putting this all together as a customer. Is that right? The customer says yes. And you said it.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Tell me about a little bit more about how you're seeing the cost of transactions and what it gets you as related to the price that we're actually talking about. And they might say, well, I don't really understand why I would spend more. I'm buying leather, and I would expect that that's going to last and nothing's going to hurt it. You say, okay.

Great. So if I could show you what the limitations are to leather and what how we overcome those limitations by buying accident protection for five years. Because it is accident protection is about people. Warranties are about the product.

So and so what some customers will say is, I'm already buying a warranty. Why would I have to buy additional protection? Because you're buying a warrant because you've got oh, it's not a warranty. It's accident protection. It's about people. And so now that now that you've got the listening from the customer about, well, what do you well, what exactly is it?

And why would I want it? And why would I pay more for it? Then you now have an opportunity to talk about it in a way that you have their attention versus just trying to convince them into it or operate out of what your DISC profile is under pressure and reacting to their no. It also goes back to what are the objections that sales salespeople already have about protection. If they think I've been burned before, I don't wanna sell it. Or if they think what they're buying is already durable enough, they don't need to do it.

Or are we practicing handling some of those objections so that if a customer says, just like that, they're at the top of their price range, I can't ask them to go any more than that to buy protection. I would think if they're at the top of their price range and something happens, they'd be crazy not to buy an accident protection. Because if something happens, they're not flushed to replace this, and they are not gonna live with something that isn't working because they're at the top of their game. That goes back again to the level of intentionality and the part of the salesperson to sell it.

And to know that you've got yourself, you're going to have objections. Okay. So sometimes we have the good fortune of double duty with intangibles. Like, if you wanna sell protection on larger tickets and projects, use financing.

Because the protection on a pro a $20,000 project is going to add pennies a month. It's not a $2,000 investment. It's pennies a month to what they're already spending. So what are you hearing in this so far about intangibles need to be sold differently and thought about differently, and that there are there are objections. There are common objections from salespeople. There are common objections from customers about protection that we need to be able to think about and practice with so that when they come up because they will, and they often do because the salesperson didn't incorporate them, earlier when they were talking about the priorities and the problem that the customer has that has them in the showroom to begin with.

So number three, sales managers need a strategy for increasing performance and results with intangibles, training, coaching, demonstrating, and interrupting. So I'm gonna make a bold statement here about sales managers and intangibles, and I hope I don't lose anybody. The achievement of a calculated intangible metric is more reflective of sales management than it is of the salespeople. So what does that mean? While the intentionality of the salesperson to sell an intangible like protection or an appointment is critical, The environment or with in which that occurs is based on the sales manager, not the salespeople.

So if somebody says, you know, if they wanna get to 8%, they're currently at 4%, often we'll have a sales manager says, yeah. We're at 4%, but we're really working on it. And I say, well, what exactly are you doing? Because if you wanna go from four to 8%, it's gonna take a lot because somebody that's got 8% protection is doing a lot of things that someone is not doing at 4%. So it's not the sales funnel.

So what's the goal? What's the strategy? What are the associated sales manager actions? How is the sales manager planning to actively engage with the team about that particular metric? Daily huddles, observations, demonstrating and practicing the desired actions with those voiced objections I mentioned from the salespeople and from the customer, posting performance about that metric, celebrating wins and new actions, planning to interrupt the salesperson.

And if it's not going in an effective direction, signing off on an order. What I mean by that is if I've got someone that's at 4%, my goal is 8%, they are not gonna close out that order until I see it. I can almost guarantee there's gonna be no protection on it. So we're gonna walk ourselves over to the customer and say, I see that you turned down protection. Can you tell me what you're saying no to or something based on the customer's DISC style?

So and to be able to handle that objection in front of the customer and in front of the salesperson so the salesperson in the future knows what else there is to do about this. Because clearly, if they're not producing results, it's not really because they just don't want to or they're lazy. They don't know how to do it. And talking about it rarely brings a different result. So I would say also looking at is this going all the way around?

I mean, is this is whoever's calling to check on deliveries or to schedule deliveries or confirm deliveries, are they giving it another shot to self protection? Are the drivers giving it another shot to self protection before they leave? So when you take on protection, for instance, as a metric you want to increase because it's such a profit driver, it's all profit until somebody files a claim. It's all cash. Bottom line cash until someone files a claim, and even then. So so is everyone involved in making this a real you've got a critical mass looking to impact that number.

So, you know, I just really encourage you to take a look at it because as sales managers, watch your ego and your internal dialogue, which says things like, I shouldn't have to do this. They should wanna sell it. They all say they're money motivated, but they're not doing this. I put contests in place, and they don't win them.

How many times do I have to talk about this? Well, evidently, clearly, talking about it's not doing anything. So we need a different tactic. And the tactic is probably gonna be, am I demonstrating this? Am I being the salesperson dealing with their most common customer objection, dealing with their most individual objection about that particular intangible to try to make it go away, and once isn't gonna work.

Is anyone thinking, shoot, there's more stuff I need to be doing around that protection or financing or that I'm just not I'm just not taking action on. I mainly work with with showrooms, especially retail showrooms at the upper end. And the biggest concern I get around financing is our customers don't need it. It's like, well, says who?

Really? How are you presenting it? And that's usually because the salespeople think the only reason people use financing is because they couldn't afford to buy it any other way, and that is patently not true. That why would anyone with money use their own money if they can use ours for free? Especially especially if you're a retail showroom that you don't have to choose between financing and the promotion.

And if they could put zero down to use financing and have to put 50% or more down if they actually pay for it or with a credit card. It's like crazy when you think about all of the benefits of using financing that aren't about affordability. They're about using money well. So again, intentionality about it, understanding of it, a different perspective about financing, because whatever their actions are, they're reflective of how they think about it. And they agree with the no that they're getting from a customer, and that no is what's at stake. Okay. Next one.

Improving intangible results needs to be part of a much larger development process. So some of you are familiar with the metric revenue per up, dollars per guest, sales per customer, or performance metric. It's all the same thing. We call it all different things.

They all measure the same thing. They all measure how much each customer is worth when a specific salesperson waits on them. Because what you do is you divide total revenue by opportunities in order to calculate it. So it's a wonderful, wonderful metric because it encompasses so much. It is a measure of close ratio and average sale.

I know a lot of you use this metric as an important performance metric, which it truly is. So there are specific things that improve this metric because it's a combination of close ratio and average sale. There are three intangibles that improve this metric, appointments, financing, and sketching. Sketching is an intangible.

If you increase the performance in these three areas, you will impact your close ratio and your average sale. Appointments increase close ratio and average sale. Financing increases close ratio and average sale, and sketching increases for financing. It increases close ratio and average sale. So those of you who are using financing just for giggles, I'd like you to try something. I'd like you to go through and take a look at your finance sales and ask yourself, what was our average finance sale?

Like, what was it? So you might have an average sale, for instance, of, say, $2,500. But you look at your average finance sale, it's like $52.50 because the average finance sale is two and a half times your regular average sale. So it's not about affordability. They got they look at the size of that.

The thing that's really crazy, crazy, crazy is this. So let's say that your average sale is $5,500. If you look at what most people got approved for, they got approved for $8,500, but they spent 55 $52.50. So you're sitting on an open to buy of, like, 2,000 plus. So when I look at people that aren't making goal and they're sitting on 2 or $3,000,000 in open to buy financing, I think, why?

How is that even happening? Because we're not looking at it for all that it offers as a tool to drive business. And when you have people with financing, they get they get reminded of you every month. You don't have to be spending marketing dollars on them. They're already in the system.

Okay. Literally, I get so whipped up about this. So protection increases average sale, but it does not increase close ratio. So you can't use it both ways for that.

But I say this so that when if you are looking to impact sales per guest, revenue per opportunity, to really be thinking about how can I use these intangibles to help me to do that? How do I really dig deep? Because the three that do it, financing, protection, and sketching, all three increase both close ratio and average sale. As we start to look at and you need to evaluate you and the sales team. What did you do? What were the wins?

What were the losses? What were the new skills that they incorporated and made into habits this year that are forever ever ever habits? And what were the misses? What were the things that they now recognize because they're further along in their skill development to be able to look at something and say, you know, I'm still not asking enough questions, or I'm still struggling with handling objections, or I still will only ask for the sale once. And if they, you know, don't go for it, you know, that's it.

So, and if you're gonna be picking not only your total revenue goal, but you wanna pick a metric to have as your target. So I encourage you to pick your revenue per opportunity as a target. I encourage you to do that because it gives you a lot of flexibility with what you address in close ratio and average sale. The other thing that I didn't say up here that's also will impact revenue per opportunity is mattresses. So if your mattress business isn't at least 11%, maybe closer to 15, you really wanna look at that.

Because it really, really, really should be. That is a high profit category. And it will increase your close ratio and your average sale. Because in the mattress department, it's like 60 to 80% close ratio, and the average sale is higher than selling a sofa. So sell mattresses.

Pick your revenue goal, and then what is your current performance index revenue per opportunity? Write what you want it to be, and then maybe give it to every quarter where you want your increases to come from. And then how do you wanna increase it? How do you wanna increase it with with close ratio? How do you wanna increase it with average sale?

How do you wanna increase it with sketching, financing, protection for average sale? How do you wanna use those intangibles and appointments to help you increase your revenue per opportunity? Evaluate the year and then start to set your goals. If anybody needs a worksheet or a goal worksheet, send me an email or something, and I'll I'll send you a couple of worksheets to work on your goals so that you can have them in place by the time you turn that calendar. So these four areas, selling intangibles differently, anticipating and managing intangible objections, creating a strategy for improving performance in a particular intangible, making intangibles part of a larger performance will increase the likelihood of improving your overall performance for the year if you actually do that.

Okay. I have the badass questions. B a d a s, budget, ability to buy, decision maker, availability, and time frame, and shopping and comparing. And the answers to those questions the answers to those questions are one thing, one thing only. I know they've got answers, but the the ability of a of a prospect, because they're not a buyer yet, the ability of the prospect to answer those questions, how they answer them, what they answer for them, tell you where they are in their buying process, and what is the outcome of today's interaction going to be as a result of that.

So when we're selling if we're selling Ashley Furniture that it's like gray or brown, left or right facing sectional. Right? Then there's not a lot to choose from. But when you're selling things that have more things to think about, it's more likely that an appointment might be a possible outcome today. So if I'm not asking and getting answers to the the badass questions, then I don't know if they can buy today or not.

And if I don't know if they can buy today, I'm probably gonna shoot for the sale with everyone only to get a no. And no, have to go home and think about it. I have to go home and measure. I have to bring my husband back or any of that stuff. All valid.

But it's about where they are in the process. So if I ask and get answers to that, then I've got a pretty good idea of, especially if I ask as one of the bridge questions, what are we planning to accomplish today? Then I know what the outcome is that as a salesperson, I need to direct this interaction to. And if this interaction is gonna become an appointment, say, alright. It sounds like we've got a lot of things to decide.

We've only got 45 to do it. Let's get the big things done now that we have to be together here to do, and then let's set up a a strategy of how we wanna figure the rest of it out before you leave. Now that is introducing the intangible of there's gonna be a next step or there's gonna be homework or we're gonna meet again and speak again. But now that I've introduced it early and we go and do what we're gonna do, now I can say, okay. We've gotten as far as we can get, but here's what we have accomplished.

We decided on the style. Excellent. We decided which size is gonna work best. Also excellent. We get we're down to two fabrics that we know are gonna work, and we identified two rugs that we're gonna use with this.

Is that right? You say yes. The only thing we're gonna and since we sketched it onto what's already in the room, we know that it's gonna fit. So dimensions are not a problem. Right?

You say yes. I say, alright. The only thing that we need to do is x. You need to bring your husband back. The only thing we need to do is to get him back in here.

So let's take a look at our calendar and see when we can do that. Does he wanna come back and see this and sit in it? Or do you do you just wanna show him what we've done and you and I can just complete it together? He wants to come back in. Alright.

He wants to come back in. Alright. Great. So so it's now 01:40. Are afternoons better for you, or is morning better for you?

So I've got Wednesday. So I've got Thursday. I've got tomorrow at eleven or Friday at ten, which is better for you? Friday at ten. Excellent.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in my calendar. I'll send you calendar invitation so it populates your phone, and then I'll give you a call tomorrow afternoon to see what what fabric worked, to see if the time still works for you to both come back in, and anything else that now that you're looking at this, you've discovered that you might wanna talk about about the room when you come back in. That's what I would do. It's a strategy. You know?

And it doesn't work a 100% of the time, but it's pretty much 90. Right? If you just follow the strategy. Because once they're in the process, they'll stay in the process because it you'll notice that I said either or, either or, either or. So and in order to offer Tuesday at eleven or Friday at ten, I had those slots already set aside in my calendar so that I'm offering you what's in my calendar open and available.

So when I send you that what did you say? Friday at ten. When I send you Friday at ten, my calendar is gonna say to me, save for this event only. And I say, yes. Next Friday at ten, it's open again.

Because I set those blocks in my calendar for low traffic times that I can spend time with the customer.

My question for you is, is there like a little checklist of those weird situational tangibles for like a web lead or a phone lead that comes through that we could potentially prepare for? Or just is there a pivot point if I have no problem saying, I'm not sure. I will do some homework. Let me look this up. Can I call you back in fifteen minutes, in an hour?

What time works for you? But sometimes it's nice to have a little arsenal so that you can spitfire some stuff. Are there certain things before you do, like, a web lead or something like that that you always make sure you have in your pocket?

Well, let's look at I look at the intentionality of a web lead is I wanna talk to them or meet them. I think that when we look at is I wanna sell this. I think we miss the shorter term interim milestones. So there's a person I work with in Baltimore, and she is Heather's amazing with web leads. Amazing.

And the first thing she does is if they've got a phone number, calls them. Right? She doesn't respond. She calls them. And the first thing she says is, do you live close by?

And can you come in and see it? Because you've raised some questions that we start at this. And if I tell you that, then that's just information. It's in a vacuum. And so if you and I could at least talk about what you're trying to accomplish with this so that I can give you better information, then that would really be helpful.

You wanna look to pick up the phone if you can. And I know that some people don't answer their phone. But if you're working with boomers, boomers still answer their phone, especially if it shows up as you, you know, versus potential spam. Right.

And try to get a Zoom call so you can see it if they live far away, and you would ship to that area. But if you can talk to them, that's really what you wanna do is get a chance to talk to them. Got it. Right. So but you bring up a good point, and I know I've got sales managers on here, so I'm a say it to everybody that Brooke clearly wants to close the sale. She wants to take this web lead and convert it.

That is not true of all of your salespeople. There are some salespeople that put perfunctory effort into sales leads because they've already determined that they're worthless. And that's about as much energy as they put into them, and they have evidence that they don't work because they don't put any effort into them. Right? Instead of what Brooke is saying with, like, how do I get into this? And what are some ways that are more effective that because there's a team I work with in in Alabama, and they have a salesperson that all she does is web leads, and she did a million and a half last year.

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So it's it's like intangibles.

Like, you can't sell a web lead quite the same way that you sell someone that that's in person. But if you can get them moving and get them to look at you like this, create a connection where it absolutely doesn't exist just in a in an in a text.

I I the one thing I think we can rely on is when they're in person, we can tell if they're gonna have a sticker shock because you can see it on their face. You can see it in their body language. We don't know that when we're sending it, texting it, sometimes even calling. Can sometimes hear it on their voice if you call, but at least if you started the conversation, you can usually tell how excited they are about the item or if it's just a, Hey, I'm just randomly looking. So Correct. I definitely try to call, but I think mine will have a slightly Mhmm.

Mhmm. Than than normal. You gotta put a little bit of the magic that you have on the floor. You gotta put

Oh, exactly. And probably 10 times more magic because it's all it's only in your voice. Right. And it's like, do I wanna voice match them, or do I wanna be enthusiastic? It's like, I'm gonna go for enthusiastic at first.

Right? So that we can I need to drive some action here? But How many Like, it's such a gorgeous piece. I'm so tell me tell me how you're imagining using it. Like, maybe don't go for the basic information right away.

It's like, that is one of my favorite hook or pieces. Where how are you thinking of using it in your house?

Right. Well, how many times does someone call you that you don't know and they're like, hello? And you're like, oh lord. Like, you just wanna hang up the phone. Right?

I hope this has gotta be quick.

And it sounds stupid, but it's something we used to use in radio that you literally if you physic you're gonna look so dumb to everyone else. But if you put a big old smile on your face while you're talking, they can hear that. You look a little ridiculous on your end, but it definitely does help.

It absolutely does. Good. Thank you. And thanks for the you, like, have hit the ground running, and I'm so happy with the results that you're achieving. It's like, yes.

Exactly.

It's pretty pretty exciting, and it's really exciting to be doing something where I can physically in so many ways, see and feel and like be in charge of my own success. It's really, really nice. It's really nice when it becomes like a challenge. I like to be competitive with myself. And so, like I told you before, I had two amazing months and then I had an absolutely crappy month and I was like, what is this?

Right. And I looked back, and it was I went back and watched some of the videos from you from, like, the sessions we had here too. Mhmm. And I realized I wasn't meeting them the same way. That was my first month of the new job.

I'm a football mom. I have a kid in middle school. I'm running around. I'm tired. And I realized I was going through the motions.

And the second that dawned on me, I changed the way I met them and I immediately saw it tick up. And then after my last call with you that I call the infamous La Z Boy incident, it closed, and I did. It was learning how to take back control. I was trying to be everything to him, but I didn't realize I was giving up my control and guiding to be able to guide the sale.

It's funny that everything that we talk about, they're all gonna be different. But when we watch and pay attention, we pick up little nuggets that can help us Mhmm. Find our little bit of magic, and that's just huge. It's pretty great.

Well, everything you said is huge. And and the level of intentionality as salespeople, as sales managers, as coaches, our level of intentionality, what are we looking to accomplish here? What are we looking to break through? What are we looking to create?

That makes a difference. So if someone says, well, what was your intention? Well, I think I was it's like, then you didn't have one. Know?

Like Right.

I think does not does not how you start an intention statement. Right?

So We're not selling furniture, Jody. I'm not selling furniture. He's not selling cabinets. We are selling a solution to something that someone is willing to invest in. This isn't paper towels.

This is something that I guarantee they've thought about. They've thought about it a lot. No matter how much money is in their account, in fact, the more money in their account, the more they probably thought about, is this something I really wanna invest in? They're very particular with their money usually when they have quite a bit, which is why financing is more of, don't wanna drain the pool. I would like to be able to take care of this purchase.

I'd like to be able to get all of this at once, but know that I'm leaving myself a comfortable amount in my account. That's been a huge tool for me for financing.

Yeah. For sure. And I know we've got designers and retail designers that when you start to look at, I wanna do 60% of my business in design projects this year. That's a great goal. That's a great goal.

And cultivating some of that for my client base as well and and that it's like, financing is gonna be a critical tool in developing your design business because it makes it easy for them to buy. And as salespeople, that is our fundamental job. How do I make it easy for people to buy from me? Like, that's our job. And so and so financing makes it easy to buy today and to buy the rest of the project.

And so using it for that kind of a tool, not just because, you know, they can upgrade from fabric to leather. It's got a it's got a bigger capability for that. Okay. I hope that it's been helpful. So I look forward to hearing from you.

Bookmarks

Selling a sofa is one thing. Selling protection, financing, appointments, design services, or another intangible is different.

Those things cannot simply be mentioned. They have to be introduced, connected to something the customer cares about, and actually sold.

In this lesson, Jody breaks down what sales managers need to do differently when they want their team to improve performance with intangibles.

1. Introduce the Concept Before You Ask for the Commitment

Intangibles need to become familiar before the customer is asked to say yes.

That is what “bring it up early and often” should actually mean.

For example, instead of waiting until the end of an interaction to suddenly ask for an appointment, a salesperson can establish early that there will likely be next steps:

“Let’s accomplish as much as we can today, and before you leave we’ll talk about what the next steps need to be.”

The same is true for financing, protection, design services, and other intangible tools.

Introduce the idea early. Sell it later.

2. Mentioning It Is Not the Same as Selling It

One of the biggest mistakes salespeople make is believing that because they told a customer financing or protection is available, they sold it.

They did not.

An intangible becomes valuable when the salesperson connects it to a specific customer priority, problem, or desired outcome.

Protection should not be presented the same way to every customer. Financing should not be positioned simply as something for people who cannot afford the purchase.

The question is always:

Why does this matter to this customer?

That is where selling begins.

3. Salespeople Have Objections Too

Sometimes the salesperson’s objection to an intangible is stronger than the customer’s.

You may hear things like:

“Our customers don’t need financing.”
“They are already at the top of their budget.”
“They didn’t have their calendar, so I couldn’t make an appointment.”
“They’re buying leather, so they don’t need protection.”

Before you can coach your team through customer objections, you need to understand what your salespeople already believe about the tool.

If they do not believe in it—or they have not had success selling it—they will often agree with the customer’s “no” instead of staying in the conversation.

That is a coaching issue.

4. Handle Objections by Asking More Questions

When customers object, the goal is not to explain harder, convince harder, or argue the objection away.

Ask more questions.

If the customer says protection is too expensive, find out what they mean. If they say they do not need financing, understand how they are thinking about the purchase.

Questions create information.

And information gives the salesperson a much better opportunity to present the intangible in a way that actually matters to the customer.

5. Improving the Metric Is a Management Responsibility

If protection is currently at 4% and you want it at 8%, simply telling the sales team to sell more protection is not a strategy.

The manager needs to define:

The goal
The strategy
The specific actions required
How the skill will be trained and practiced
How performance will be observed
How wins will be reinforced
When the manager will intervene and help close

Daily huddles, demonstrations, role-play, observations, order reviews, coaching, and real-time intervention may all be part of the strategy.

Talking about a number does not move the number. Management actions do.

6. Use Intangibles to Improve Larger Performance Metrics

Intangibles are not isolated add-ons. They can directly improve the numbers that matter most.

Appointments, financing, and sketching can help increase both close ratio and average sale.

Protection increases average sale.

Financing can make it easier for customers to complete a larger project now instead of delaying part of it.

That is why Jody encourages managers to look at intangibles as part of a larger strategy around metrics like revenue per opportunity rather than managing each one in isolation.

7. Know the Intended Outcome of the Interaction

A salesperson should know whether today’s interaction is moving toward a sale or an appointment.

That means doing enough discovery to understand where the customer is in the buying process.

Jody’s BADAS questions help uncover:

Budget
Ability to Buy
Decision Maker
Availability/Timeframe
Shopping and Comparing

The answers tell you what the customer is actually able to accomplish today.

If they can buy, lead toward the sale.

If they cannot, intentionally lead toward the next appointment instead of allowing the customer to simply walk away with an undefined “we’ll think about it.”

The Manager’s Quick Win

Choose one intangible metric you want to improve.

Then ask:

What does my team currently believe about it?
What customer objections are they hearing?
What skill do they need to improve?
What am I going to train, demonstrate, observe, and coach differently?

That is where improvement starts.

Want to Go Deeper?

Ready to build the full management system behind these Quick Wins?

Explore the next Sell It or Schedule It™ Sales Management cohort.

Graduates are also eligible to continue with Jody in the ongoing Sales Management Membership group.

Next Lesson Daily Huddles That Drive Results: The Manager’s Guide to Focused, Energized Teams

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