The Crucial Element Missing from Employee Evaluations

Employee evaluations typically measure performance across a broad -- often too broad -- range of skills, proficiencies, and achievements. Even so, one crucial element is always missing:

Sales.
Almost every employee can play a role in sales. But first you must define the role you want the employee to play. Then you can measure and more importantly reward employee performance based on your expectations.

Here's a great example. A technician comes to our house to perform scheduled maintenance on our heat pumps. I show him the different units. After I blow my nose for the second time he says, "Got a cold?"

"No," I reply, "I think it's allergies or something. Happens every winter."

"Ah, too bad," he says.

Then he goes to work. About an hour later he pops in my office and says, "All done; everything's good to go."

As I'm signing the work order he says, "You know, as I was checking out your units I thought about your sinus problems. I took a second and measured the humidity in your house. It's really low, even for this time of year. If you have problems every winter it could be partly because the air is so dry."

I'm definitely interested. He shows me how his meter works and we talk about humidity levels. "You can add moisture to the air by installing a humidifier on your inside units," he says. "All you have to do is change the filters every month or so. I noticed both inside units have water pipes nearby, so the installation would be really easy."

We talk some more: He knows specs, prices, various options (like only installing a humidifier on the upstairs unit and what impact that would likely have on the entire house), and uses his smart phone to check inventory and estimate when units could be installed. After about five minutes I was sold and he entered my appointment into their master schedule.

Done.

And he's a service technician, not a salesperson.

Why was a technician able to "sell" me?

1. He didn't take the general "Do you want fries with that?" approach. He noticed a specific problem and investigated to see how he could solve it.
2. He provided detailed information. He knew the humidity levels in my house, knew how installation would go, knew he had units in stock, etc. He was able to explain exactly how he could solve my problem.
3. He had the tools to close the sale. He provided a quote and was even able to schedule the appointment on the spot, eliminating the "Maybe I should think about this awhile..." hole many potential sales fall into.
4. Best of all, he didn't bring in a salesperson. Do you like being shifted to a salesperson after you've established rapport with someone else? Me either.

"Thanks," he said, "But that's really not initiative. It's his job to look for ways to help customers. It's our job to give him the tools to make it happen."

Determine how your employees "touch" your customers, identify ways they can solve problems or provide additional benefits -- which also means generate additional sales -- and give them the tools to complete those sales on their own.

Then measure the results. You rarely get what you don't measure.

Related:

• Why Everyone Should Work in Sales -- At Least For Awhile
• Want Long Term Customers? Start With Saying Thanks -- The Right Way