It’s time to step up to the plate for service contract sales

By J.R. Zirkelbach, New Leaf Service Contracts

You often hear of young athletes considering turning professional, or “going pro.”

Golfers aspire to make the PGA Tour. College football, basketball and baseball players hope to be drafted into their respective leagues. But what is the definition of a professional athlete? It could perhaps be defined as being paid to perform in such a way that you outperform those with whom you compete.  

The performance of the athlete is generally measured in statistics. Golfers are measured against the statistic of par and the scores of the other players. Football players are measured by statistics like yards, pass completions and tackles. Basketball and baseball also have a long list of performance metrics. If your stats are good in comparison to those you compete with, you will remain a professional and likely make a good living. If not, you’ll be cut and have to get a “real job.”  

Professional athletes treat their job as just that, a profession. They put in the time, effort, practice, skill development and all the rest to ensure that they remain at the top of their game.  They measure their performance and continually challenge themselves to improve.

People who play sports non-professionally are called amateurs. Amateurs participate in sports for recreation, fun and exercise. Amateurs participate in their free time, play rather than practice and take whatever results come. There is no expectation of a living through participation; it’s just something to do, and performance isn’t very important.  

Now let’s apply all of this to extended service plan (ESP) sales performance. Are you a professional or an amateur?  What’s the difference?  

  1. Professional salespeople outperform amateurs through the sale of ESPs by ensuring the customer has an ideal experience if the product fails, by contributing to the profitability of the store and by earning a better living. In contrast, amateurs hope products never fail and don’t think about the repercussions when they do.
  2. Professional salespeople have better statistics than amateurs (attachment rate and percentage of sales). Amateurs don’t know their statistics and live in fear of being cut.
  3. Professional salespeople work to improve their skills by reading books, attending training seminars and learning from others who are more successful. Amateurs step-play the game and are satisfied with a participation trophy.

I encourage you to be an ESP sales professional rather than settling for being an amateur. Work for the good of the team (your customer, your company and yourself), know your statistics (attachment rate or percentage of sales) and strive to be at the top of the leaderboard and use every resource you can (articles, books, seminars and your peers) to continually improve your skills.

J.R. Zirkelbach is a business development executive at New Leaf Service Contracts with 30 years’ experience in retail. New Leaf-administered service contracts can provide an enhanced customer experience, earnings opportunities for salespeople, and increased profitability for BrandSource members. Contact J.R. at jzirkelbach@newleafsc.net.

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