Okay.
I am now.
Alright.
Next.
So who is the customer who benefits by sketching?
So the customer benefits by sketching is the customer who has questions and concerns about what they're looking to do and and will benefit by seeing in in in two dimensions what those solutions actually look like and how they line up with their concerns and with the realities of the room.
It is it is a tool that builds confidence.
I can see that.
Or for for clients who can't visualize something, when you show them on paper what those what that actually is, they can, they it it makes sense to them even though they may be not be able to visualize when you drape fabric over the arm or the back of a sofa, what that's gonna look like when it's fully outfitted.
They can see.
It's like, oh, yeah.
That's over there.
Like, yeah, the door's over here.
They can't imagine that.
So you you can be in their room with them and that they feel free to discuss things with you because you've created a context for that conversation.
So as a salesperson, what do you believe your greatest challenge is?
Something to think about, and you can answer it here too.
But what is as a salesperson, what is your your greatest challenge in closing the sale that you think think that if I sketched, what might I have created if I had sketched?
So your greatest challenge so your greatest challenge might be I need to go home and think I need to think about it, or I need to go home and measure, or, I'm not sure it's gonna work with the other pieces and the existing pieces in the room.
So you wanna ask yourself, or what's what is the greatest challenge?
It might be just time and money or other people.
But what is what's the greatest challenge you're up against, and how could sketching help you to anticipate and avoid that as well as how to address it and eliminate it?
And as a sales manager, how do you see that sketching is going to contribute to the coaching conversations that you have with your sales associates to help them to close more sales and to close at a higher ticket?
And I know that there are sales managers on the call who who sales for guests, revenue for opportunity, whichever you call it, performance index, that if you were looking to improve that number, which is a combination of close ratio and average sale, sketching is one of the three, maybe four three tools that will increase that.
Sketching, appointments, and financing increase both close ratio and average sale, which increases your revenue per opportunity.
And selling mattresses also increases your revenue your revenue per opportunity because it increases close ratio and average sale.
Okay.
The lab specific on this is when do I sketch and where do I do it?
So I think the best time to sketch because I look at sketching as a component of thinking with a pencil.
So when you think with a pencil, you start to put ideas on paper.
And when you notice yourself when you notice yourself starting to take notes, it's time to start thinking about what else do I want to write down about what they're telling me and why I wanna record this conversation.
Because sketching, in essence, is a recording of that, and you can write notes on graph paper.
You don't have to only write it on plain paper.
So for instance, if you're using seller to schedule it, the bridge question, what are the most important elements in the room or in this product for you?
That is often where I would, start to, yeah, start to take notes.
So if someone say if you said to someone, what is the what are the most important notes for you?
Then they might say, I need it to be under x amount of money.
I need it to be delivered by a certain day, and I need it to be, I don't seat six people comfortably.
Let's say that.
So whatever that I get you that you're looking to recognize and, Jada, could you put yourself on mute, please?
Stay.
Me too.
That whatever you're looking to satisfy that matters most to them that you're gonna start writing down, that would be the best time to start thinking about how am I gonna convert these notes into a sketch.
So thank you for doing that.
So I would keep working with you to sketch because it's just gonna happen.
So the thing you might notice is that when you think about as salespeople, like, what are some what's some of the resistance to some of the objections to it?
I find that some salespeople think, well, it takes too long.
It takes too long to sketch, which is usually an indication that they're redesigning the room versus sketching the room the way it is.
Or it takes too long because I have to sit down and do it.
In which case, I'd say, well, then learn how to sketch standing up and walking and keeping it with you.
Do I use paper, or can I sketch on my iPad?
I would say it kinda depends.
You might find that while it's more you you have a template in your iPad that you can sketch on, you might find that using paper is the way the tool creates more conversation.
So some of it is the more that you sort of dig into it and experiment with it, you'll see what's what, format is best for you.
So as a salesperson, I would encourage you to look to sketch at with every every opportunity and be prepared to do that.
Keep graph paper around the store, always have it with you, and so that at the first opening, you can actually do that.
As a sales manager, I would say the same.
Encourage that there's graph paper around the floor.
If you're doing daily huddles, everyone comes to the huddle with graph paper.
And as a sales manager, I would keep graph paper on you.
And as you're walking around the floor throughout the day, if you see salespeople who are working with a customer and are not sketching, then I would say give them a piece of graph paper.
So that and that as a salesperson, just say thank you.
Right?
That it we wanna encourage that to become a habit, and it really sort of takes a village to become a habit.
And there is a tipping point for everyone.
There's a tipping point in your interactions with customers that you could not ever not sketch.
There is a place that you see the value in it that I couldn't have closed that.
I never would have added those items.
They never would have told me that if I hadn't sketched.
And for sales managers, I would also encourage you to post the sketches, celebrate sketches, talk about them in your daily huddles.
So, like, really look at what the successes are and the it started here and it went to here to really make it a vibrant part of your culture in your conversation so that everyone actually benefits from it.
Okay.
So those are the key points.
What I wanna do is I wanna show you, an example of my graph paper and how I use it.
I'm gonna show you the blank of it, and then I'm gonna show you one that's actually filled in so you can see how it's used.
So I'm gonna share my screen with you.
And so this is the graph paper is in pretty much two parts.
So the first half of it and I've blown it up so that you can see it.
So you'll notice consider that this is it's graph paper, and I think that I measured it, and it's probably a 24 by 32 foot room.
So you've got plenty of room here.
Excuse me.
So the first one is the prompt for the question.
What can you tell me about your room as it is?
We are not redesigning the room.
And I'm gonna take notes, so tell me everything.
So you can sketch this.
You can put notes on this.
Whatever.
This is it's blank, but it is there to put boxes on boxes.
And since furniture is standard sizes, pretty much.
Like, a sofa is not 50 inches deep.
A sofa is gonna be, 38 to 42 inches deep.
A sofa is not gonna be 15 feet long.
A sectional might be, but a sofa is not.
So a dining room, again, fairly standard sizes so that you can approximate this by putting boxes on boxes.
Put the furniture in first and then draw the walls around it.
What I like to do is to draw a line and say, if these were an l, and if these were two of the walls in your room, where is the furniture located?
And they'll put it there.
They'll tell you where it's located.
And then as you do it, they may take the pencil out of your hand and say, oh, no.
The window's over here or that the chair is over here.
Let them.
Let them.
The more involved they are, the better.
So that's how you're gonna use the top part.
And then the bottom part is intended to prompt, questions that we need to ask and to gather information.
So that I know I know that that those of you whatever system you're using, whether you're using Trackwell AI, you're using a manual system, you're use you're collecting information profit, whatever system you're using, we are looking for, is it a sale?
Is it an appointment?
Did I get contact information?
Is it a sketch?
Did I do a floor like, what happened with that interaction?
So what this will do is I think there's a direct correlation between sketching and getting contact information.
Right?
If you quote it, you get contact information.
So we know we always want contact information.
So it's the first line first couple of lines is the space for, did I get their name, their phone number, their email address if I could, and did I identify what the disc style is and put it in here?
Like, just so that I have these are your notes for now and for the future.
For now to close or make an appointment and for the future as information to use in your after delivery phone calls.
Okay.
So down here again is the the questions in seller to schedule it in discovery.
Bridge questions.
What can I help you accomplish today?
What the purpose of the visit is?
Next, asking permission.
May I ask you a few questions?
Yes.
No.
What are the priorities in this room?
So space for three priorities.
And then how much time do we have to work on this?
They may say they have all afternoon.
They may say they have twenty minutes.
They're just popping in.
Whatever that is, write it down to remember.
We might ask, similar to the priorities, what are the motivators that that they need this in it may be similar to a priority, but what are the motivators?
They've been looking at this for a while.
You know, they've been out shopping in the last year a couple of different times.
They didn't find what they were looking for.
The things that were in the price range that they expected were not the quality that they were looking for.
So what are the motivators?
Like, one of a couple might be tired of this and just wants to get it done.
So what is that?
Next is, what is the outcome we're looking for?
Is it an appointment today?
If it is, when am I bringing up the what's the appointment date, confirmation call, and am I giving them homework?
Because whatever whatever their reason is to not buy today should be their homework and an opportunity for an appointment to follow that.
Alright.
Future items.
Things that when you ask, tell me what's on that wall over there.
They say, oh, you know, we're gonna put a chair and autumn in there, but, you know, we're not gonna do that right now.
So you put you just say, well, I'm gonna pop it in there now so that we can hold that space, and I'm gonna put it in my notes.
Okay.
You'll notice that, there I'm gonna start to use because this is a Word document that I'm highlighting things on here because this is a Word document, so you can just desktop publish this.
So b stands for budget, which is what they're expecting and planning to invest.
What's that number?
For those of you who've been through seller to schedule it, you know that the intention of the badass questions is to learn where that buyer is in their buying process and if they can buy today.
Right?
So how they answer these questions, their ability to tell you a number and a number that's reasonable for what they're looking for is that.
I'm sir I've highlighted ability to buy ability to buy, which is also I'm gonna correlate that with zero interest financing.
Right?
Because we might find out the ability to buy.
They might think that Stickley sofa is worth $15,000.
They think it's as beautiful as beautiful gets, but they don't have $15,000 to spend.
So while they that's beyond what they were planning, it's also beyond what they can do.
So they might be able to do it if they use financing, or not.
Or financing, in my world, allows you to, not just in my world, but allows you to either get exactly what you want and not have to settle for something, or it allows you to complete the room at one time.
It is one of the best tools in the toolbox again because like sketching and appointments, it increases close ratio and average sale.
D stands for decision maker.
All I wanna know is is everybody here who needs to be here, or do we have access to them?
The other a is availability and time frame.
When were they expecting to need to to have this, and is there an event that's driving it that they have to have this by that event?
And lastly is shopping and comparing.
Where have they been looking?
What have they seen?
What have they found?
And this is gonna tell you where in that two week window are they of physically shopping to find something, and how many places have they either been online or have they physically been to?
What are they comparing you to?
Alright.
So, future items.
Is there so I mentioned that in terms of the the, this the chair and ottoman in the corner.
But the last one I put down here that I also highlighted was protection.
I know that it's one of those protection increases average sale, doesn't increase close ratio, but it certainly increases average sale.
And I know it's a high profit product category for everyone.
And I put it there and highlighted it so that you could put down what would be the reasons that they would need financing I mean, a protection.
Like, what did they mention?
Whether it's kids or dogs or they're getting a little older and they tend to spill a little bit more.
What would be the reason so that you can bring kinda like the priorities, so that you can bring that back up and ask them about that when you position financing in a way that's gonna correlate with them.
So this is the top and the bottom of that sketch.
Now I'm gonna show you one that is filled in.
So this one, I'll show you to start with the top.
So this one is you can see that what I did was I started with the sort of l shape on the left hand side and just drew an l down the left hand side of the graph paper and asked them where things were located.
And they said, well, the sofa's here, love seat's here.
There's a table with a lamp on it on the bottom left corner.
There's a floor lamp here.
There's one chair.
You notice that I put in, is there I always ask with what whatever grouping, whether it's upholstery or it's with a dining room.
Can you tell me about the rug that's in this grouping?
They're gonna say they don't have one, or they're gonna say, we're thinking about that, or they're gonna say, we wanna see how the new furniture looks with the one that we've got, whatever it is.
But I just popped it in there with a question for me.
Right?
And so the and I asked them, is this about what you're considering?
And they say, yeah.
That looks about right.
So what they're looking for, however, was they're also looking for a rug to go under the dining room.
So you pop the dining room in there.
Right?
And that this is their downstairs with slider in the back, kitchen over here.
So this represents the downstairs, stairs going to the 2nd Floor in the middle of the floor.
It also gave me the opportunity to say, along this wall, what's here?
And they said, well, the television's there, and we're thinking of a media center, but probably not now.
It's like, okay.
So the media center goes in there.
Right?
So the this is gonna give you information that you can start identifying what do they need by this.
I would call this a rich sketch, meaning it's got a lot of stuff filled in.
And I use this as an example so that as a sales manager, you wanna know what should I be looking for.
And as a salesperson, you wanna know how much should I be putting on this.
So that's the top part.
So you'll notice there are things written in it.
And where the bottom is, that this customer, Jen Kingston, phone number, email address, she's a dominant influencer.
This is her where she lives in Lincoln, Wisconsin.
And then the answers to the bridge questions.
Looking for dining room plus to replace what she has.
And, again, it's just the way it is.
Replace what she has.
Open to questions.
What are the priorities?
I need to seat six all the time and 10 some of the time.
Excuse me.
What else matters?
Other priorities.
It needs to work with the cabinets in the kitchen, and it needs a durable top.
How much time do we have today?
One hour.
So I asked, what were you planning to invest in this dining room?
And she said, I think around 7,500.
So what I did, of course, I I strongly suggested using the zero, percent promotion that we have going on and was approved for $10,000.
Right?
So 7,500 was the what was expected to spend, 10,000 was what they were approved for.
So I've got plenty I can't not get protection.
It's all in there.
Who is participating in this room?
And one of the easy ways of getting decision maker question asked is that when they're talking about the room and they say, well, we sit over here, we read here, we tend to sit here and we watch television, it's an opportunity to say, who's we?
And they say, well, you know, whoever we is.
And so you can ask, who of we wants to be included in this in putting this room together, and how do they wanna be included?
So that you know, is this an aesthetic?
Is it financial?
How do they wanna be included?
Time frame.
Need it for the holidays?
Where else have you been?
One store.
Motivators.
I wanna love this every day that she wants to walk down the stairs into the dining room which leads to the kitchen every morning and look at that dining room table and say, I love this so much.
That's a motivator for her, not surprising with a high influencer.
Okay.
We now have didn't close it today because she wants to bring, a sample home with a finish, and she wants her husband to see it.
So we set an appointment for twelve three at 10:00.
It's a be back appointment.
I'm not going out.
She's coming back.
Excuse me.
I'm gonna call on twelve two at around 05:00 to confirm the appointment and see how she liked the finished samples in which we're gonna do.
She's also gonna check the measurement.
And she's considering replacing the loveseat and sofa in the living room with with a sectional and as well as rugs in both rooms.
Now that would not have happened without sketching.
That conversation would never have happened without sketching.
Maybe not even a dining room rug without sketching.
So one of our considerations is a very open floor plan that really needs to flow together.
Right?
And, indeed, that's what we're gonna be challenged with in terms of selecting rugs, how are the colors gonna work, how all of this is gonna work together, because that room completely flows all the way around the staircase.
Okay.
So this is what I use as a sketch.
And I've done this because, again, it's a Word document.
I can do this either this way in portrait.
I have another format of this where I have the I have it in sort of landscape, but I have the sketch on one side and all of these questions on the bottom on the other side.
The thing is is that once you and you can it doesn't matter how you do it.
It's a Word document.
So you can create it to be whatever format is gonna get used the most.
You might even have it as an exercise with your team.
I did it with a team, in, Pennsylvania that I'm working with, and we had the designers redesign it themselves and bought increase the buy in that they would use it.
Okay.
So I'm gonna stop sharing, and I'm gonna open up the conversation to questions.
So when you think about sketching, either what would you like to get from this?
Where do you want either your team to take their skill?
Where do you want to be a more effective coach?
Where do you want to use sketching more effectively, efficiently, and consistently so that it helps you to increase your revenue and have it go up and stay up.
So I welcome any either questions in the chat or anyone wants to come off mute and ask a question, that would be great.
Jody, can you hear me?
I can, Erica.
Hi.
How are you?
Good.
How are you?
Good.
Good.
So we're in the middle of converting from the sketch pads that you helped us make, where we have the disc style at the bottom and the question exactly as you proposed here, converting to using, iPads digitally on the floor.
And so we're testing a few of our salespeople right now.
Evan is one of them because he notoriously just sketches.
I'm having a hard time with okay.
Let me back up.
I thought by going to a digital format that it would be easier for, oh, excuse me, for the people that just wanna take notes on their phones because we have that, like, in their notes.
They they just wanna do it that way.
So I was like, okay.
Let's convert and let's try this.
What are some tactics to do it digitally so that the guest understands what we're doing on an iPad?
Because our our I our our tablets are small.
They're probably, like, a 5 x 7 size.
So you've got the minis?
Yeah.
So, my fear is that a guest is gonna kinda look at that funny.
You're on a digital device.
It looks like a phone almost.
I've been kinda coming up with some ways of saying, like, I'm, you know, I'm listening.
I'm gonna take some notes here, you know, on this iPad.
We had one guest say, is that gonna be saved forever?
Are you always gonna have my information in that iPad?
And I was like, ugh.
Yeah.
How do I Right.
Think about that?
Any suggestions?
Well, I think that, well, I know that in notes on an iPad, you can do the graph in notes, and you can sketch on that.
Right?
Mhmm.
I find that if you're go since the room is the way it is, if you're going to you might and you're gonna make an appointment to meet again or speak again, you can you can, you can text them that sketch Mhmm.
And have them either measure walls and say, find out how big this is.
Let's do everything else we can do together today, but you're gonna double check this measurement and then send it back to me.
Or we could, of course, we can order it today.
And if you find when you go home and measure it that it's different, we can change it.
Yeah.
It's not a single close, but but Yeah.
But you're gonna ask if it is one of those that you probably do have to with paper, I think you can take notes and it's not as I don't know what the word is.
It's secretive feeling that's if you'd almost have to put the the iPad down and and do it with them.
So that I think that will break that, that barrier between you that that I think technology really is that I don't think paper is.
But if anyone's gonna be able to figure it out, it's gonna be Evan.
Sure.
I think it's also the digital footprint aspect that this particular guest was worried about.
It's like, with a piece of paper, it feels just it's disposable.
Right?
Right.
And I think for her, she was just like, what is this?
What is this thing?
And why are you Right.
Why are you writing my name on this tablet?
So it it's not gonna be for everybody.
I get it.
I just was hoping I think that's a good thing is that I'll be able to send this to you.
This will be easier for you to have digitally.
You will be able to communicate with it that in that sense.
It won't get lost, you know, kind of all those little details.
Well or you could say that's true.
All of that.
Any of that would be would be valid as well as if you're, that you could say I tend to store my notes digitally anyway.
So this is really no different that I'm gonna convert it and scan it in.
I convert my notes and my orders so that I keep them here so that I always have them and don't have to rely on going through paper to actually find that.
But there's there's nothing in that it's not like you're keeping their their credit card number.
Correct.
Yeah.
Right?
It's just it's so that it's just more easily accessible for them.
Mhmm.
And you could you could I would you could show that if you do and I could imagine Evan doing project files in his iPad.
Yeah.
That he just opens.
Right.
I we intend to have that saved, you know, and then I'm trying to figure out a way to organize everyone's project files if we assign just one iPad per salesperson or if it's a network relation.
We're just we're working all of that out, but I think it's going to be better, than, you know, the paper situation.
So how many iPads do you have?
Currently, we have two.
So I've been messing with one, and using it with our in house designer, and then Evan has the other one right now.
And it they just came in last week.
So So we both do invest in 15.
So here's what I might do with that.
Mhmm.
Because I really would wanna know.
I might make it a contest.
Mhmm.
And I would put two people on paper and two people on the iPad and say, for seven days, put a finite time for seven days, we want to sketch at least 50% of our opportunities.
We want to evaluate which is the best format rather than introducing something and making it this is what we're gonna do, where, you know, we hear you that you wanna be involved in that kind of decision making, so let's see which works.
And what we're getting with one format that we're not getting with another, what what advantages each one has.
So let's let's do this together.
Like, since it's an iPad, if other people have an iPad, they could just use theirs anyway.
Yeah.
Mhmm.
Like, I there was also there's also and I'll send you because on my my iPad Pro, I installed I installed and I'll look it up.
I don't have it in front of me right now, but I'll look it up and I'll send it to you because Jeremy Brock, had told me about at Malus in Alabama.
Right.
I was just saying, ma'am.
It and he that's what they use is they use a particular, app that it's not and it still allows them to sketch.
It's not really sketch up and complicated, but they use that.
And he's he has been really happy with that.
So I'll look and see.
And I installed it on one, but not on my smaller one.
Okay.
I can reach out to him as well.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The he actually, they're proponents in moving from paper to digital in my last conversation.
So Yeah.
It doesn't surprise me.
So he if that's the case, he would be able to build a good case for it.
Mhmm.
Notable.
Notability is the name of it.
Notability.
Notability.
Okay.
I'm sure there's several, but I want I I wanna just I wanna go with the best one first.
Right?
Yeah.
For sure.
And I and they would they probably did that now two years ago.
I would say two years ago.
And so and all of his design if once he blesses something, then all of his designers would get on board with that.
So he would have a lot of data and information that would, support why that over something else.
Super.
I love it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Good.
You.
Yeah.
You're welcome.
Thank you for asking.
So anyone else in terms of, in terms of how sketching is going for you now, what struggles you might be having with it, how you'd wanna improve it, whether you're a sales manager or a sales person trying to use this tool.
Anyone want to ask that?
Okay.
Alright.
So if if if not, then I really encourage you to, as a takeaway, to make this so here we are.
We're ending the we're coming up against the end of the third month of the first quarter.
Right?
So we're closing the first quarter.
And if for the sales managers on the call, I encourage you to take on quarter q two and and say, I we're gonna make a splash with sketching this quarter.
We're going to train on it.
We're gonna coach on it.
We're gonna practice it.
We're gonna do what what, Erica was saying, whether it's we're gonna use this sketch.
And anyone who wants a copy of this sketch, the one that's the example or the blank one, send me an email, and I will send that to you after this.
But I would say take it on as a quarter because I think you really need a quarter to practice it.
I don't think a month is enough.
A quarter's gonna give us that that you you'll get them over the hump to really make it start making it a habit.
Because one of the I think there are, like, six or seven reasons that people aren't sketching with any consistency, and one of them is that they haven't made it a habit yet.
They may have they may be doing it for a few days, and then they're off for two days, and they come back, and their sketch pad wasn't readily available, and then they didn't sketch all day.
Like, that's how tenuous it is when you're first getting it started.
So I would give yourself a quarter and measure.
What are we at now?
What do we wanna be in with the first one?
What do we wanna be in with the, by the end of the second month?
Where do we wanna be by the end of the third month of the quarter?
And start to measure that.
I would celebrate successes in the morning huddles.
I would post them in the lunchroom or something, especially the ones that they came in for x and they ended up getting x, y, and z because of that, or people who were able to close something that wasn't gonna close because of the sketch.
Celebrate the specifics of what that sketch did for building credibility, building, confidence, and and building consistency in what they're doing with every opportunity.
You might have some salespeople on your team who say, I'm not sketching because I don't have enough of a connection with a customer to sketch.
I encourage you that all you need is enough of a connection to start asking questions and then take notes and let the sketch build that connection that you're hoping this conversation will do that it will never really do.
Right?
So please take that on.
Take it on for the quarter.
Note the the progress because all we wanna look is progress, where you started and what you have for goals for each each month.
How are you gonna measure that, and how are you gonna celebrate that?
Right?
And as sales managers, keep graph paper with you.
So as you walk around the floor, give graph paper to people that are with a customer and working with them who are not sketching.
And as salespeople, please just say thank you when they do that.
Right?
It's gonna take a village to make this part of your culture, but once it is, it never goes away.
Once you cross that threshold, it'll never go back to no sketching.
So if there's anything I can do to help you with that, please, I welcome that.
And for any sales managers that I have on the call tomorrow afternoon, I have a, a session on Huddl.
I'm doing a for sales managers and for owners, I'm doing a session, I believe, at 01:00 tomorrow afternoon eastern.
You can go to my website and sign up for that, but it's all about, how to use Huddl's effectively.
And I'll give you a format for that as well as maybe a little practice of it.
So I hope to see you then.
Thank you so much for being on this call today.
And anything you need from me, please reach out.
Have a great afternoon, everyone, and thanks.
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