Session Focus: Appointments • Financing • Protection • Services

In this session, we focused on one of the most important profitability drivers in retail and design environments: selling what customers can’t physically touch.

Appointments, financing, protection plans, and services are not add-ons. They are the profit centers of the business. And they must be introduced early, confidently, and consistently.

This conversation was about strengthening your leadership around those behaviors.

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The Leadership Standard

As a sales manager, your job is to:

• Prompt the use of intangibles early in the process

• Reward the behavior — not just the result

• Track objection patterns

• Step in proactively when performance dips

If protection is running at 2% and the standard is 5%, we don’t wait. We help.

Helping is not micromanaging. Helping is leading.

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Financing: Check Your Own Beliefs First

We addressed the personal hesitation that sometimes surrounds financing.

Before your team can present financing naturally, you must believe in its value.

Financing:

• Increases average tickets

• Preserves available credit

• Gives customers options

• Improves close ratios

If you have an internal objection, it will leak into your presentation. Examine it. Reframe it. Lead through it.

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Protection Plans: Listening Through Their Lens

We discussed common protection objections — especially from customers who see things through a different life lens.

Your job is to:

• Listen with compassion

• Separate warranty from accident protection

• Use real stories (horror and success)

• Integrate protection into the product conversation — not tack it on at the end

Remember: protection is pure profit until a claim is made. It protects the customer and the business.

We also discussed process strategies:

• Write down protection opportunities during discovery

• Bring all sales to a manager before completion

• Make protection part of the review, not optional

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Appointments as a Sales Strategy

Appointments are not limited to in-store design time.

Define them broadly:

• Phone

• In-store

• Virtual

• In-home

Use calendar blocking. Use real time slots. Create intention.

Clear objectives drive stronger closes.

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Intervention Without Intimidation

When numbers dip, leaders step in.

Proactive support looks like:

• Reviewing deals before completion

• Coaching inside live opportunities

• Modeling the language

• Raising the expectation

You do not wait to be invited into underperformance.

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Objection Handling Language

We practiced assertive phrasing, including:

“Since…” + a fact + a question

This structure allows you to confidently redirect busy schedule objections and re-establish control without pressure.

We also reviewed how to position in-home consultations by clearly setting expectations and explaining the design value.

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Moving Forward

Selling intangibles is what separates average salespeople from professionals.

Your focus between now and next session:

• Track the objections you hear

• Reinforce early introduction of financing and protection

• Review protection opportunities before finalizing sales

• Share your wins

Next month, we build on this foundation and focus on sketching.

Keep practicing. Keep leading.