You are probably familiar with Ripley and his collection of “Believe It Or Not” stories. Although I do not claim to have superseded his notoriety, I do have a collection of believe-it-or-not stories. For example, take the television program Star Trek. Do you realize that Star Trek, which also became the benchmark for all future space travel movies, was almost cancelled after its first season?

Another great believe-it-or-not story is the mystifying question surrounding why older men wear their pants up to their chests. The answer is because men shrink with age, and for the most part, men are utilitarian and do not like to buy new pants, especially if the old ones fit.

The most incredible believe-it-or-not story, however, is enough to turn even the most successful business person’s world upside down. More than 80 percent of low-voltage contractors do not sell service agreements. This is in spite of the fact that a strong portfolio of service agreements can stabilize your cash flow, improve profitability and increase client satisfaction and the value of your company.

There are many reasons why companies do not sell service agreements, including beliefs that they are unnecessary, unwanted by the client, or a rip off for the client. Although there are dozens of excuses to not sell service agreements, they are, nevertheless, just excuses.

At my former low-voltage contracting company, service agreements represented more than 25 percent of my annual revenue, and they helped us to achieve a 54 percent gross margin, one of the highest in the low-voltage contracting industry. If you want to follow in my footsteps, pay attention to this article. Although it may not fit the business profile for every low-voltage contractor, many of the strategies and steps outlined here can be adapted and successfully applied to your business.

To implement the right sales strategy, you must identify the potential clients for your product – your service agreement. In a broad sense, there are two types of possible clients for this plan – prospects (potential clients who have not yet done business with you) and existing clients (clients who you already service on a T&M basis).

Both groups are ripe targets for service agreements, but each requires a different sales approach. This article focuses on selling to prospects.

To sell a service agreement (along with an installation proposal) to a prospect, three parts of the sales puzzle must be assembled into a program. The first is seamless integration of service into the proposal process, where both installation and service are perceived as inseparable components.

The second part of your program involves leveraging the key features and benefits of service to win the entire sale. The program becomes complete with the integration of your sales force – motivating your team to sell long-term service agreements.

Integration into the proposal
All of us have endured that awful scourge of adolescence – the dating process. Some of us may be in a stage of life that has us watching on pins and needles as our teenagers go through it, or we may still be dating ourselves.

We all know how it is. We see someone attractive, but we are afraid to ask him/her out.

I can relate all too well, but looking back, I view my past fear and inaction as just another lost opportunity. It took some years and failures, but I eventually overcame this fear and developed a new attitude and policy about dating: If you do not ask, you do not get.

With my new attitude, when I was attracted to someone, I simply approached her and asked her out – I asked for it. The worst that happened was that the object of my desire was disinterested, and I would have to brush off my ego and move on to the next possibility.