In-person ridealongs aren’t always fun for field sales managers. They’re time-consuming, you could face scheduling conflicts, and they often pose logistical puzzles. Coaching in real time is important to your reps’ processes and sales success — but it’s not always convenient and it’s impossible to do constantly. Until now.

Virtual ridealongs are the future of field sales coaching. It’s important for managers to build trust with their reps and their teams, and coaching can help establish this. It shows reps that their managers are there for them — and shows managers that reps are learning and growing as coaching progresses.

More importantly, though, are the physical limitations posed by physical ridealongs. Consider the amount of training and investment that goes into marketing — only to be completely in the dark when your team goes into customers’ homes. With physical ridealongs, a manager may only be able to do 10 per week if that were their only focus. And if they have a team of five reps, each running four leads per day, that’s 100 leads per week. Physical ridealongs would only allow visibility into 10% of the leads you’re running. This is revenue left on the table due to rep training limitations.

Virtual ridealongs offer a flexible and efficient way for sales managers to coach every rep’s sales conversation. They are an AI-powered solution for one-on-one field sales coaching that can scale along with your business. Discover everything you need to know about sales virtual ridealongs and find out how you can put them to work for your field sales team.

What are Virtual Ridealongs in Sales?

Virtual ridealongs are modern sales coaching techniques in which managers monitor and coach reps remotely using technology like call recording, AI transcripts, and real-time analytics. Unlike traditional, in-person ridealongs, virtual ridealongs enable managers to provide input and feedback without being physically present. And because of this, they’re scalable for your team’s needs.

Technology allows virtual ridealongs to not only mimic the benefits of in-person ridealongs, but deliver increased effectiveness and scalability.. With AI on their side, managers can efficiently collect sales conversation data, develop insights, and improve reps’ overall performance in dispersed sales teams.

In-Person Ridealongs vs. Virtual Ridealongs

In-person ridealongs allow managers to spend quality time with reps, building rapport and developing trust. In traditional ridealongs, managers can observe reps’ body language and non-verbal cues with customers. Then, managers can coach reps on soft skills along with their sales scripts. 

In-person ridealongs, however, are bound by constraints like time, distance, and visibility. Plus, with dispersed teams, in-person ridealongs pose scheduling and coordination challenges; further, managers must be reliant on their (maybe-not-always-reliable) memory to provide feedback for reps. And, perhaps most importantly, physical ridealongs may not be the best representation of actual rep performance. Since they’re bound by limitations, reps may only experience physical ridealongs once or twice per month — and this could mean they’re on their best (or worst) behavior during these times. Virtual ridealongs remove all of these barriers.

Sales virtual ridealongs offer sales teams a lot of flexibility. With the right tool and technology, managers can record reps’ sales conversations with customers and use AI to track specific language and data. This allows managers to coach reps in real time rather than long after customer interactions are over. Plus, you can then store your recorded material in a library and use it for enhanced new-hire sales training.

Why are Virtual Ridealongs Important?

Virtual ridealongs are important because they enable most of the benefits of in-person ridealongs combined with the versatility of digital tools. They provide managers with real-life, real-time data so they can monitor and coach reps from anywhere. 

They’re also much faster — AI can immediately flag your reps’ problem areas. A physical ridealong may take you two hours to find out that your rep isn’t properly presenting financing options at the end of the sales conversation. AI can tell you that immediately and automatically direct you to the areas in which your reps needs coaching.

With virtual ride-alongs, managers can provide instant feedback to reps. This teaches reps the “right way” to handle sales interactions so they can immediately apply these skills to their next in-home customer meeting.

Sales virtual ridealongs also let managers:

• Identify reps’ strengths and areas for improvement
• Help reps develop skills faster
• Dig into analytics and make data-backed decisions
• Track reps’ performance over time
• Scale their coaching across teams and sales regions
• Save money over time due to reduced travel and logistics issues
• Improve training efficiency
• Double sales percentages

Virtual ridealongs have also been shown to improve close rates and boost average ticket sizes when implemented. 

How do Virtual Ridealongs Work?

In order to conduct a virtual ridealong, you'll need the tech to support it. Virtual ridealong software, like Rilla, can help.

Rilla records and transcribes sales conversations between reps and customers, allowing managers to monitor and coach remotely. Then, through AI, the tool analyzes these interactions and offers insights into key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics like talk-to-listen ratio, adherence to sales scripts, and sentiment analysis.

Managers can review sales conversation insights and provide reps with specific, targeted feedback. They can also identify opportunities for coaching and track overall trends within reps’ performances. 

But before you begin using a tool like Rilla, make sure you talk to your reps about it and get their buy-in by framing it as the skill enhancement tool it is. Then you can use it with your teams and oversee multiple reps simultaneously without ever needing to get in the car.

How to Make the Most of Virtual Ridealongs

To make the most of virtual ridealongs, you need to have a strategy. Here are some steps you and your reps can follow to build out your strategy before you begin:

• Pre-customer preparation: Make sure you align your customer-specific and overall sales goals and expectations prior to the virtual ridealong.
• Customize your dashboard: Create a rep-specific dashboard to track their personal KPIs; this will help you pinpoint areas for improvement.
• Reinforce active listening: Emphasize the importance of eye contact, nodding and other non-verbal cues, and restating customer needs during the conversation.
• Post-conversation debrief: Develop a structured debrief to use with your rep after the ridealong. Determine the areas in which you’d like to offer specific feedback and provide actionable next steps.

Now that you have a plan of attack, make sure you’re also doing your part to support your reps:

• Steady scheduling: Put your reps on the calendar at regular intervals — consistency in coaching will lead to the best results.
• Customize coaching: The best input and feedback will align with hard figures; use data to customize your coaching sessions for individual reps.
• Set clear objectives: Define rep goals for each virtual ridealong session.

Managers’ primary goal for virtual ridealongs should be observation, not interference. Sales reps should be free to operate naturally during their customer interactions — this will help build a trusting relationship. The name of the game should be support, not micromanagement. 

Once you and your reps are ready for the ridealong, make sure you keep a few more things in mind:

• Improvement is a continuous process: Consistently refine your virtual ridealong practice based on customers’, reps’, and your own feedback.
• Use high-performers to teach others: Once you log enough sales conversations, use top reps’ interactions to help others learn the ropes or refine their skills.
• Don’t over-rely on technology: Explain to your reps that virtual ridealong technology is meant to complement, not replace, personal engagement and active participation during their sales sessions.
• Maintain reps’ motivation: Create and maintain positive feedback loops so reps consistently feel supported and receptive to coaching. 

Keep in mind that manager feedback should be provided as soon as the virtual ridealong is finished so reps still have the interaction fresh in their mind and can take immediate action on improvements.

Make the Switch to Virtual Ridealongs With Rilla

Virtual ridealongs offer a game-changing solution for field sales coaching. They combine the real-time benefits of traditional, in-person methods with the efficiency and scalability of modern technology. 

With virtual ridealongs, managers can provide immediate, data-driven coaching. This helps reps refine their skills and hit their sales targets more effectively. And Rilla is the go-to tool to help your team achieve these goals. 

Rilla’s features and easy integration into your existing workflows can turn your sales con-versations into sales proversations. (Sorry, we had to.) Sales management practices are constantly evolving — so now is the perfect time to discover what Rilla has to offer. When you’re ready to take your ridealongs into the modern era, contact us to book a demo.

The goal of successful sales coaching isn’t just to meet quotas and boost your bottom line — it’s also to continuously improve one's processes. And in the field of HVAC, windows, and other home services and remodeling sales, it’s important to really hone one’s home services field sales skills.

From setting SMART goals to leveraging technology, both managers and reps alike can dive into these 13 field sales coaching tips to get their wheels turning while they’re on the road.

1. Set SMART Goals and Develop Action Plans

Field sales managers should help their reps set SMART goals, which means each goal should be: 

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound 

This method of goal-setting ensures that each objective is well-defined and aligns with your sales organization’s overall targets. Once set, managers should help reps develop step-by-step plans, including deadlines and metrics to evaluate success.

2. Work on Good Sales Skills Regularly

Reps can’t be successful in their positions unless they practice. To foster a culture of continuous improvement that helps reps boost performance, managers can:

• Establish a rep development plan: Identify key skills and competencies that each salesperson needs to improve, including negotiation, strategic planning, product knowledge, and customer engagement. Create a plan that details reps’ current proficiency levels, then outline the target areas reps need to improve.
• Help reps form beneficial habits: Work with reps to establish disciplined routines, practice, and provide feedback that helps them adjust any necessary behaviors. For example, if reps tend to rush through sales pitches, coach them to adopt a more deliberate pace and thorough messaging.
• Encourage personal responsibility: Motivate your sales professionals to take ownership of their own growth and self-improvement. People (including sales reps) are more likely to engage with processes they help design, so get them involved with the creation of their action plans.

3. Provide Consistent Sales Coaching and Feedback

Training and sales coaching are an investment in your business. And like any investment, it requires time and attention to yield positive results. 

Studies like the Ebbinghaus “curve of forgetting” suggest that people forget approximately 75% of information a day or two after learning it. People need to hear and read material several times before they can recall it. 

Without consistent check-ins, reinforcement, and real-world applications, reps may never fully cement the skills you’re imparting on them.

4. Practice Role-Playing Sales Training Scenarios

Role-playing in field sales training scenarios helps reps master their sales pitches, navigate customer objections, and handle difficult conversations. When managers work with reps to simulate real-world selling scenarios, it enhances the team’s practical applications of the lessons they’re learning.

Say, for example, a rep just dealt with a challenging sales conversation. As a manager, you can set up a live role-playing coaching session to go over the exact script the rep just used in the conversation and the issues the customer raised.

5. Use Metrics and Data to Your Advantage

Field sales needs to be a measurable process that has explicit steps and a repeatable approach. Only then your reps measure their successes and progress. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Define what success looks like: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) like number of sales, average ticket or deal size, and revenue generated.
• Monitor team performance and adjust as needed: Metrics like conversion rates, customer engagement, and sales cycle length provide comprehensive insights that show managers the areas where reps are excelling — and where they need more support.
• Evaluate the effect of coaching: Look at pre- and post-coaching performance metrics to assess the impact of your support. If your reps aren’t improving over time, this indicates that your coaching plan needs to be tweaked.

Integrating data-driven performance metrics into your coaching strategy helps to ensure your efforts are grounded in real-world applications. 

6. Encourage Sales Teams to Learn Continuously

The world of field sales moves quickly — so if you want to stay ahead, you need to encourage and promote continuous learning among your reps. Consider the following:

• Create a learning culture: Make it public knowledge that your business values ongoing education as much as it values hitting sales targets. This means more than just providing onboarding and one-time training — it means offering development opportunities like workshops, seminars, and webinars. It also means leading by example.
• Lean on your team: Leverage the knowledge and skills of top sales performers within your team. During regular meetings or through scheduled presentations, ask these top performers to share their strategies for success.

7. Adapt to Sales Reps’ Specific Needs

When it comes to effective field sales coaching, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s important for managers to tailor coaching to reps’ individual needs, strengths, and challenges.

It all starts with personalized assessments of your reps using the previously listed metrics and your own observations. Once you understand their specific performance nuances, you can create a focused plan that targets their growth opportunities. For example, if a rep struggles to close deals despite a healthy pipeline, you may discover you need to work with them on their negotiation skills.

8. Foster Salespeople’s Autonomy

One critical component of effective sales coaching is instilling autonomy in reps — particularly in the field. Your team members need to have the confidence in themselves to make good decisions and manage their processes without hand-holding. Set clear expectations, give reps the sales enablement tools they need — then get out of the way. Give them the flexibility to decide how they approach sales conversations with clients.

When reps have the go-ahead to solve their own problems, make decisions, and take the initiative, they’re much more likely to develop the confidence they need to succeed in the field.

9. Focus on the Customer-Centric Benefits of Sales

At the end of the day, field sales is about meeting customer needs. So, your sales coaching process should focus on providing them with the solutions they desire. The most important aspect of customer retention and customer-centric sales is really understanding their needs. Train your reps to identify these by:

• Implementing a variety of coaching techniques (i.e., hard and soft skills) that cover the multifaceted nature of customer requirements.
• Using all data resources to their advantage — this includes customer relationship management (CRM) software — to identify unique customer needs and opportunities.
• Encouraging collaborative planning by getting customers involved in their process from the start.

As with most things in life, customer-centricity comes down to relationship-building and follow-up. And when reps demonstrate that they have their customers’ best interest in mind, they’re more likely to foster long-term connections.

10. Motivate Your Team with Recognition and Incentives

Once you understand what drives each member of your salesforce to excel, you can leverage that to boost their performance. For example, some of your reps may only strive for financial success. For them, using a monetary bonus will likely be the most motivating. Other reps may prefer public praise. So, for them, you can set aside a minute or two to speak to their achievements and win rates at your next organization-wide meeting. 

It’s important to design your incentives strategically. This means not only rewarding final “sales” results, but also rewarding the behaviors that led to these results.

11. Aim for Continuous Improvement in Sales Coaching Techniques

A player is only as good as their coach. Managers, like field sales reps, also need to strive for continuous improvement in their own techniques and skill sets. 

Managers provide reps with constructive feedback to make them better at their jobs — but reps can do the same for their bosses. Managers should regularly review and adjust their techniques based on reps’ insights and performance metrics. 

Soft skills are one area in which managers can consistently learn and grow alongside their teams. Factors like empathy, adaptability, and active listening are just as important for coaching effectiveness as they are for reps to demonstrate with customers.

12. Make Sales Coaching Tools Part of Your Team

Modern field sales teams will find it hard to succeed without technology on their side. And with tools like Rilla, managers can not only onboard reps with ease, but also provide ongoing training and performance assessments.

Rilla’s virtual ride-along capabilities allow managers to monitor sales interactions and provide instant feedback for field sales reps. Through AI analytics, Rilla tracks specific language and data so managers can discover exactly what reps discussed with in-home customers and how it impacted their performance.

Consider Rilla your assistant coach. You can have your reps review field sales conversations and engage with training program content and data that was captured on the platform.

13. Look to Future Initiatives (and Prepare!)

The field best sales leaders see AI and tech (tools like Rilla) becoming even more ubiquitous in their processes. 

Sales managers everywhere will soon be able to run reps through a variety of real-world in-home sales scenarios that help them sharpen their skills — resulting in better conversion rates and fewer missed opportunities.

If managers want to make sure their teams are at the forefront of their field, they need to make AI adoption a priority.

Coach Your Field Sales Reps Efficiently With Rilla

For field sales coaching programs, Rilla provides managers with data they can really use to teach reps the ropes and boost their confidence in the field. With AI conversation tracking between customers and reps, you can explain to your team exactly what they’re saying and doing that’s adding to your company’s bottom line — and things they could potentially improve.

And equipped with Rilla and these 13 tips, it’s easier than ever for managers to coach their reps to success in the field. Contact us today to book a demo.

Road trips are always fun. But what if you could take the “road” with you? If you think you know sales ridealongs, buckle up — because they just got a digital makeover.

The future of field sales coaching is virtual and uses AI to deliver smarter, faster performance notes and feedback for your reps. You can still ride shotgun with your team members but from the comfort of your office, home, or local coffee shop. Through virtual ridealongs, you can make every sales interaction an opportunity for growth — all without leaving your desk (or couch or weirdly expensive bean bag chair).

Pull up and discover sales ridealong basics, how ridealongs work, and why they’re important. Then, switch gears and learn three best practices for taking (and coaching) successful field sales calls.

What is a Sales Ridealong?

A sales ridealong is a practice in which a field sales manager joins a sales rep during a customer engagement or interaction, and observes and guides the rep with the goal of improving their sales process. 

Traditionally, sales ridealongs were done in person, face-to-face — but Rilla has modernized this concept by facilitating virtual ridealongs. Virtual ridealongs allow sales managers to coach reps remotely by utilizing AI to record and analyze rep conversations with customers. This not only boosts training efficiency, but opens the doors to new possibilities like long-distance coaching.

How Do Sales Ridealongs Work?

Before making the virtual jump, sales ridealongs typically involved a more senior salesperson or manager accompanying a rep — literally “riding along” in the car — to meet with existing or potential customers. This hands-on approach made it possible for the more senior sales professional to study the customer interaction and provide immediate feedback for the rep. 

The goal of sales ridealongs is to mentor the rep and increase their potential for sales. This is how the process works:

• Preparation: Before the ridealong, the manager and rep might discuss the day’s goals, client specifics (e.g., website, Facebook page, or Zillow profile), and any particular focus areas (e.g., financing, discounts or promos).
• Observation: During the customer interaction, the sales leader quietly watches and listens to the rep’s approach, communication with the customer, and inclusion of any relevant or timely information.
• Feedback: After each customer visit or at the end of the day, the manager or senior member can debrief with the rep during a coaching session. Effective feedback includes praise or acknowledgment of observed successes and constructive criticism about areas that need improvement. Managers may also suggest role-playing scenarios so reps can practice handling specific situations. Occasionally, sales managers will even take over the rep’s sale if they’re not able to close the deal. This helps to demonstrate to the rep how they can handle similar scenarios in the future.
• Development: Using the insights gained from the ridealong, managers can suggest ongoing education for their reps and tailor their training initiatives to reps’ individual needs.
• Follow-up: Managers may schedule subsequent ridealongs or meetings to review reps’ progress on their feedback and action items. This helps to ensure consistent improvement to their sales performance.

And now, with tools like Rilla, managers can turn this once-strictly-IRL event into a highly effective virtual coaching and mentoring process. The beauty of this is that it still fosters a supportive learning environment, and it can immediately address gaps in reps’ sales techniques.

Why are Sales Ridealongs Important?

Sales ridealongs are important because they help managers observe and enhance their reps’ sales techniques based on real-life customer conversations. It’s not coaching based on hypotheticals or “example” situations — it’s coaching rooted in genuine client interactions.

Benefits of ridealongs include:

• Contextual coaching: Managers can provide feedback and training about reps’ literal sales performances rather than imagined scenarios. 
• Immediate (potential) improvement: Although it’s up to reps to “walk the walk,” managers can provide instant feedback so nothing gets forgotten or slips through the cracks.
• Sales rep autonomy: Since managers simply observe and don’t overtake the sales process, they help reps develop confidence and trust in themselves, which are crucial components for growth and autonomy in closing deals.

Ridealongs help managers foster a proactive learning environment that provides the foundation and educational reinforcement sales reps need to perform their best. 

3 Best Practices for Sales Ridealongs

These days, sales coaching can be done from just about anywhere with a wifi connection. Tools like Rilla help managers up their reps’ game, instill confidence, and provide feedback without the pesky car sickness or exorbitant gas prices.

Discover three best practices for successful sales ridealongs and discover why “virtual” is the way of the future.

1. Extend Your Sales Coaching Reach Virtually

Although in-person practices can still be effective, you can extend your coaching reach by taking advantage of virtual ridealongs. This eliminates the need for physical travel — saving time and organizational budgets — and increases coaching opportunities. With virtual ridealongs, managers can provide real-time feedback that helps reps close deals, increase ticket sizes, and feel more confident in their abilities. And because of how time-consuming physical ridealongs can be, it’s often impossible to coach your whole sales team at scale. Virtual ridealongs allow you to coach every appointment, every time.

2. Tailor Coaching and Enhance Sales Strategies with the Help of AI

Virtual ridealong software can provide AI-driven insights about sales conversations that allow managers to customize their coaching to the individual rep. By analyzing interactions between reps and customers, and deep-diving into sales engagements, tools like Rilla help managers provide evidence-based feedback that lets reps take real action. This practice supports the setting and tracking of measurable goals, which allows sales teams to refine their strategies as needed.

3. Mind the Market’s Needs and Remain Relevant

When you use a tool like Rilla, you’re equipped with AI’s power to detect market changes — so you can quickly align your sales approach with economic and cultural demand. When you adapt your sales training based on the market’s conditions and your organization’s needs, you can ensure your feedback remains timely and relevant. AI-powered tools like Rilla help sales teams meet their target audience’s unique challenges and close deals more effectively.

Rilla is Your Best Sales Copilot

Embracing tools like Rilla means stepping into the future of sales coaching. And in this future, physical proximity is no longer a factor in whether or not a manager-rep feedback session is successful. Through AI analytics and insights, Rilla can turn every sales interaction into a data-driven teachable moment that helps your reps close deals and boost ticket sizes.

Once you’re ready to create new sales opportunities and accelerate your team’s growth, Rilla is with you in the passenger seat (metaphorically — you no longer need anyone there in-person, remember?). Contact us today to book a demo.

As the cost of living continues to eat away at consumers’ spending opportunities, discounts are still going strong. In fact, marketing spending on promotions is at the highest it's been in the last two decades. In the first quarter of 2023, sales promotions had the biggest increase of all organizational budget categories — growing 8.8% from the previous year (where it was trending negative at -4.4%).

All customers want a good deal, especially on large investments on their homes — but these deals are even more attractive to potential buyers now, given the economic landscape. Through a strategic conversation or two, your sales reps can share these deals with your clients and increase ticket sizes for your business. And using AI, Rilla can help track these conversations by recording, analyzing, and providing insights into every field sales meeting with customers.

Discover how effectively leveraging sales promotions can transform your reps’ sales results. And once they understand how promotions can boost your company’s bottom line, have them put our three tips to work to really get the job done.

The Effects of Offering Promotions in Sales Conversations

Promotions are a critical component of sales strategies, particularly in industries like home services, where purchase decisions are often significant. When reps integrate conversations about “promotions” into field sales meetings with customers, it can not only help close business more effectively but also increase average ticket sizes. 

To illustrate this point, let’s take a look at some data from a leading HVAC manufacturer.

Offering Home Services Promotions Impacts Close Rates by Over 1%

While promotions may not drastically increase the percentage of deals closed, they do foster an environment that’s conducive to closing because they solidify decisions for those already considering a purchase. Using Rilla Labs’ data breakdown of the HVAC manufacturer’s customers, it’s clear that conversations about “promotions” have at least some effect on home service close rates.

Close Rates: Home Service Conversations

• When a promotion was not mentioned: 0.459
• When a promotion was mentioned: 0.464
• % increase = 1.089%

Even though the increase is slight, the data indicates that promotions can subtly influence decision-making, nudging customers to seal the deal. And this effect is crucial in industries like home services where purchase decisions are sizable and require customer reassurance.

Offering Promotions Increases Average Ticket Sizes by More Than 92%

The impact of promotions on average ticket sizes is profound. When it’s time for your customers to “check out,” don’t think of promotions as just a tool to close a deal but a lever to pull to dramatically boost the value of each transaction. A well-timed mention of a promotion can really transform consumer spending behavior. And our HVAC manufacturer’s data from Rilla Labs backs this up:

Average Ticket Size: Home Service Conversations

• When a promotion was not mentioned: $2,413.59
• When a promotion was mentioned: $4,643.09
• % increase = 92.37%

When sales reps mentioned a “promotion” during conversations with home service customers, it nearly doubled the value of what customers spent. Nearly doubled — just by mentioning the right deal at the right time. This isn’t just good salespersonship; it’s a strategy that turns opportunities into impressive profits. 

Strategic mentions of promotions increases revenue per customer — which is vital in sectors like home services and remodeling that have relatively high customer acquisition costs (CAC).

3 Tips for Strategically Offering Promotions in Field Sales Conversations

If your reps want to successfully integrate promotions into sales conversations, it’s going to take more than simply announcing a discount. It has to be strategic but flow naturally with the conversation — and this can be a difficult tone to balance.

Following our actionable tips and best practices can help your sales reps present your promotions effectively and ensure that they resonate with customers. And, as we’ve seen, this can lead to higher sales conversions and bigger tickets.

1. Communicate Consistently

Effectively communicating promotions across your sales team isn’t just beneficial — it’s essential. The most direct way to ensure every team member is on the same page is through regular training, updates, and talks that refresh reps’ knowledge about company promotions. 

Consistent messaging means every potential customer receives the same information and options, and it enhances the likelihood of promotion uptake. A uniform approach to learning and talking about promotions with customers maximizes their impact while minimizing missed opportunities. This helps keep your sales strategy sharp and efficient.

2. Fight Objections With Offers

Promotions serve as a psychological incentive for customers who are hesitating due to price, so sales reps should be trained to introduce deals and offers as solutions to customers’ budget concerns. 

And by presenting a promotion as a limited-time offer, your sales reps can create a sense of urgency and leverage FOMO. This can make the deal seem more valuable, which encourages quicker decision-making and could be the deciding factor for customers who are still on the fence.

When your reps have conversations with customers that make higher-priced options more accessible through discounts or special financing terms, it can effectively counter price objections.

3. Adapt Promotions Based on Performance

In order to optimize your sales strategy, you need data. Sales managers should analyze how different promotions influence close rates and ticket sizes, and adapt their strategies accordingly. To do this, utilize sales data and virtual ride alongs to monitor the performance of promotions in real-time.

This type of proactive approach allows for strategy adjustments on-the-fly, which ensures that your organization’s marketing resources are allocated to the most impactful offers. It’s vital for you to keep a pulse on which deals and discounts resonate most with customers and drive sales, because then you can be more strategic with your deployment of promotional investments.

Get the Field Sales Conversation Insights You Need to Coach Your Reps

Leveraging sales promotions effectively is about more than just surviving the economic squeeze that today’s cost of living imposes — it’s about turning challenges into opportunities for both your home services customers and your business. And the best way to do this is by gaining insights into how these promotions are discussed during sales interactions. 

Equip your teams with the right strategies using Rilla. By tracking how promotions are being discussed with customers, Rilla turns every sales conversation into an opportunity for targeted coaching. And this means your promotions can remain beneficial to your bottom line. Check out our customer stories to learn how other companies have put Rilla to work for them. 

And when you’re ready to do the same, contact us to book a demo.

Society has always had a way of making its citizens feel like they need to “keep up”, e.g. “the good work”, “with the times”, And of course, “with the Joneses”.

It’s exhausting, expensive, and leaves little room for personal preference.

But having options — making choices for oneself — is as inherently American as those darn Joneses. And when it comes to customers making big-ticket investments on their homes, payment options are often the key to sales. 

There aren’t many purchases more significant than those you make for your home. And as inflation continues to rear its head in the economy, sales teams face the challenge of not just closing home service and home remodeling deals, but also upselling and increasing ticket totals. But Rilla can help by recording, analyzing, and providing visibility into every sales conversation through AI. 

Discover how leveraging financing in field sales conversations can better equip your field sales reps to boost close rates and ticket sales.

The Impact of Leveraging Financing in Sales Conversions

Giving prospects the option to finance can dramatically transform the dynamics of a sales interaction. By offering tailored payment plans, sales reps can not only meet their customers' immediate economic comfort levels but also open the door to bigger sales opportunities that may have been otherwise unreachable.

Introducing Financing Options Increases Close Rates by Nearly 3% on Average

When customers have financing options available — when they can spread out their payments for large purchases — they’re much more likely to consider these purchases. This makes higher-ticket items more attainable and increases the likelihood of your reps closing a deal. Let’s take a look at Rilla Labs’ data breakdown:

Close rates: home services customers

• When “financing” was not mentioned: 48.45%
• When “financing” was mentioned: 48.87%
• % increase = 0.42%

Close rates: home remodeling customers

• When “financing” was not mentioned: 16.35%
• When “financing” was mentioned: 21.68%
• % increase = 5.33%

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So when we consider all “home” customers together, the average increase when reps mentioned “financing” is 2.88%. This uplift, though subtle (especially for home services), can greatly impact overall sales volume over time.

Financing Also Increases Average Ticket Sizes by Up to 208%

The impact “financing” has on close rates is notable, but its effect on ticket size is even more substantial. Really substantial. Rilla Labs’ data illustrates how sales reps’ discussions about financing can transform a typical sales encounter into a high-value transaction:

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Average ticket sizes: home services customers

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• When “financing” was not mentioned: $2,375.38
• When “financing” was mentioned: $4,544.56
• % increase = 91.32%

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Average ticket sizes: home remodeling customers

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• When “financing” was not mentioned: $4,712.04
• When “financing” was mentioned: $14,558.66
• % increase = 208.97%

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When “financing” is mentioned in home remodeling conversations between sales reps and customers, the average ticket size increases by more than threefold.

Now that you know the what, let’s talk about the how.

Best Practices for Introducing Financing in Field Sales Conversations

Successfully integrating “financing” into sales strategies requires more than just the availability of options. Your reps need a plan for how to approach and implement this type of communication with customers. 

Your reps need to do more than just offer financing options — they need to weave it into the fabric of their sales conversations. And if they do so successfully, they can maximize both customer satisfaction and sales performance.

Here are some best practices for making “financing” a natural — and successful — part of sales conversations.

Clearly Communicate the Benefits

The key to getting customers on board with home service and home renovation deals is effectively communicating the benefits of financing. Your sales reps need to be well-versed in the financial plans your company offers, and they should emphasize how these plans can make customer purchases manageable. Reps should aim for transparency in their communication about your plans’ terms and benefits, as it will build trust and help ease any customer concerns about affordability.

Make It a Seamless Part of the Conversation

Great sales conversations shouldn’t feel like, well, sales conversations. Your reps should always aim to integrate “financing” naturally into customer conversations to prevent them from feeling like awkward add-ons or afterthoughts. Make sure your reps are introducing financing options as a “standard” part of the customer needs discussion so it feels organic rather than a forced or last-minute offer.

Address Objections Proactively

Not every customer will be open and receptive to talking about the details of their finances, so reps should be prepared to handle these types of objections. Money is a sensitive subject, so some customers may have concerns about debt that they’d rather not speak to your team members about. 

Customers may also be unclear on the terms of financing, so your reps need to be prepared to clarify these succinctly and respectfully. You may want to consider specific soft-skills training so reps feel comfortable and confident explaining — empathetically — how financing can be a smart financial strategy.

Leverage Success Stories and Testimonials

The best way to learn new information is often through observing others, and customer testimonials and success stories can serve as these “teachers.” By incorporating positive customer feedback, your reps can highlight the benefits of financing without needing to make a “hard sell.”

Reps should share real-world examples of how financing has helped previous customers afford the home services and renovations they desire — this builds credibility and trust. These narratives should focus on positive outcomes like enhanced home value, improved living conditions, and the financial peace of mind that payment plans can provide. 

By illustrating how former customers have successfully navigated their own home-related purchases, reps can help current customers visualize their own home success. This provides customers with comfort when making large purchase decisions and can be a motivating factor for those who are still on the fence.

Set Your Reps Up for Success in the Field (Without Ridealongs)

In a world where keeping up with the Joneses can often shape and dictate consumer behavior, offering financing options becomes not just a strategy but a necessary component of your reps’ sales pitches. And with Rilla, your sales reps can do this with ease without a manager in the (literal) passenger seat.

Society has moved beyond conformity and into the era of individual choice, so the approach to selling big-ticket products and services should evolve in kind. Financing isn’t just about making sales possible — it’s about empowering customers to choose the plans that suit their specific needs and financial situations. 

Rilla aims to be at the forefront of this evolution by turning every sales conversation into an opportunity to deliver customized home-investment (and other business) solutions that not only satisfy customers but also close deals for reps. So, when you’re ready to learn more about how Rilla can boost business and drive ticket sizes, check out our customer stories and then contact us to book a demo.

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As an operator or owner, you’re always looking to identify what to work on that will grow the business the most.

What if the answer to supercharging your sales was in front of you the whole time?

In today’s report, we analyzed 38,470 appointments by Nexstar contractors that use Rilla in the Home Services industry. We wanted to find out why some Nexstar jobs closed at a much higher ticket size than others. 

Here’s what we discovered: It all comes down to script compliance.

You’re probably used to trying to get your team to follow your process, only to get gripes and push back.

“Does this really work?”

“I’ve been selling fine for 10 years without a process, I don’t need to follow this”

“Following this is going to make me robotic, there’s no way I’m going to connect with a home-owner like this”

Thankfully, the data is in.

The data shows script compliance is the leading factor contributing to a higher close rate and average sale. If you want to quadruple your ticket size, your team must adhere to the process.

The best part about this growth hack? You already have all the leads and appointments set, you just need to execute to stop leaving revenue on the table.

But, as always, don’t just take our word for it: Let’s dive into the numbers. 

The Data on Nexstar Script Compliance 

At Rilla, we’ve seen a common pattern for companies across the board: technicians and comfort advisors with higher script compliance tend to have higher performance. 

‍For this report, we discovered that higher compliance with the Nexstar process is correlated with higher close rates and average sales.

We looked at jobs from 46 Nexstar companies from the last month where the technician was measured against the Nexstar service system on Rilla. Overall, Nexstar contractors have an average close rate of 39% and an average ticket size of $2,812. 

Nexstar Close Rates 

Conversations with the highest script compliance with the Nexstar process had a 53% higher close rate on average than those with the lowest compliance. When Nexstar contractors only stuck with 0-10% of the script, their close rate average was around 32%. While those who stuck to 90-100% of the script had an average close rate of 49%.  

Nexstar Ticket Size 

When it comes to ticket size, conversations with the highest script compliance had a $7,225 higher price on average than those with the lowest compliance. Nexstar contracts with 0-10% compliance had an average ticket size of $1,367. While those with 90-100% script compliance had an average ticket size of $8,592!  

Here’s the bottom line: Higher script compliance is key to increasing your close rate and ticket size.

The Challenges of Coaching Your Team to Follow the Script

Roleplaying and practicing the script with your reps will help them get comfortable with your sales process. But to really ensure that your team is following the script with customers, you need to be there. Ridealongs are the only way to know for sure what’s going on in the customer’s home. 

Plus, if you're doing physical ridealongs right now, you already know that the close rate of your team members is dramatically higher. Why? Because when you’re with them in person, they actually follow the script.

‍The ridealong's visibility and accountability make it one of the highest revenue-generating activities a business can conduct.

But how does that scale when you have a team of 10 or 20 that runs hundreds of leads a week? At that rate, physical ridealongs for every job are just not possible. At best, doing 10 ridealongs a week, you’re seeing less than 10% of the total leads that your team runs.

That’s where Rilla’s virtual ridealong software comes in. 

Start Tracking Script Compliance with Rilla 

Rilla enables companies to measure everything that happens during sales conversations at scale. Our mobile app records conversations between contractors and customers. Then, our AI transcribes and analyzes the audio, comparing it to your pre-loaded script and sales process to give it a final compliance score. 

Rilla’s scoring system holds your team accountable for sticking to the script. Plus, it gives you a tool for training and improving performance. 

Here’s how it works: 

1. Rilla assigns each conversation a script compliance score.
2. Managers and reps review and analyze the recordings, paying special attention to the lower-scoring conversations.  
3. Managers can create libraries of top-scoring audio recordings. 
4. Reps can then review and learn from those recordings.  
5. With all this data, reps and managers can make a plan for how to improve script compliance performance.

With a tool like Rilla, you no longer have to rely on physical ridealongs to monitor script compliance. Plus, Rilla tracks many more metrics that are key to increasing your sales, like talk ratio and longest customer story. With more data, you’ll have more information to drive your sales training and strategies. 

Start harnessing the power of data to boost your business with Rilla. Reach out to get started with a demo today! 

You’re a home improvement contractor who wants to track and improve your sales rep performance. 

Luckily for your business, physical ridealongs are no longer the only way to measure and evaluate performance. Now, you have the option to record their conversations with customers and ensure they’re following your process and, ultimately, providing the best customer experience. 

Maybe you’re even thinking about getting started with Rilla and hopping on the virtual ridealong bandwagon.   

But there’s one question that inevitably comes up: “Is it legal to record conversations with homeowners in their home?”

The answer is yes. As long as you do it properly. 

One-Party vs All-Party Consent

When it comes to audio recording laws, it’s important to know which states require “one-party consent” or “all-party consent” to be recorded. 

One-party consent means that you can record a conversation without the other person’s consent. This means it’s perfectly legal for your technicians and design consultants to record their conversations with homeowners. Just keep in mind that there are some nuances to the individual laws between states. 

In all-party consent states, sometimes referred to as two-party consent, you need the consent of all parties involved in the conversation to record it. In this case, your team must explicitly obtain consent before recording a conversation. 

Most states in the US are one-party consent states. However, for conversations that happen face-to-face, there are 10 two-party consent states. They include: 

• California
• Delaware 
• Florida
• Illinois
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• Pennsylvania
• Washington

How to Seamlessly Get Recording Consent from the Homeowner

Getting recording consent from a homeowner is similar to that of agents at a call center; there are just a few more steps in the process to cover all your bases.

1. Display a Disclaimer on Your Website 

Displaying a disclaimer on your website is one of the first places your customers can learn about this aspect of your service. Key areas to display the disclaimer on your website include the privacy policy page, the fine print of a contact page or form, or the confirmation page after requesting a quote. 

If your customers have the option to book in-person appointments directly with your reps online, add a consent box to your scheduling form. 

The text should read: “By clicking here, I understand and agree that my in-person appointment will be recorded for quality and training purposes.” 

2. Share the Disclaimer Upon Booking  

When the homeowner calls to book their appointment, members of your call center should be coached to say the disclaimer. This is an opportunity to give the customer a heads up that both the call and in-person visits are typically recorded. 

• Don’t say: “Thank you for calling. This call will be recorded for quality and training purposes.” 
• Say: “Thank you for calling. All of our calls and in-person appointments will be recorded for quality and training purposes."

Customers are used to hearing that phone calls are recorded, and most are fine with it. But it’s important to make sure it’s clear that it isn’t just the phone call that will be recorded. 

3. Include the Disclaimer in Dispatch Appointment Reminders  

In your automated dispatch system, make sure text message and email reminders to customers include the disclaimer. This is just another step to reassure and reconfirm that you have consent. You can also use it as an opportunity to let them know you’d be happy to share the recording after the meeting, if that’s something you want to provide your customers. 

Here are a couple examples to send in dispatch reminders: 

• “As a reminder, all of our in-person appointments are recorded to ensure we provide our customers with the best service.” 
• “This meeting will be recorded so we can provide better follow-up service and coaching to our team. By meeting with our technician, you consent to such recording. If you do not consent to being recorded, please ask our service rep not to record.” 

4. Have Reps Remind the Homeowner Upon Arrival 

After taking the above steps to inform the homeowner, you’re technically safe to record in the eyes of the law. But, to make sure you’re totally covered–and to win some transparency/loyalty points with the customer–have your rep repeat the disclaimer to the homeowner right after they enter the customer’s home.

Here’s what they can say: “Hey Ms. Homeowner, I’m Jake with X Company. Just to remind you, I’m on a recorded conversation for quality and training purposes. How are you doing today?” 

With Rilla, our users actually track when their reps say the recording disclaimer.

Based on our data, more than 99% of homeowners respond positively to the in-person disclaimer. In fact, we have a large, private equity customer in California, one of the most privacy-aware states in the US, and they observed that less than 0.2% of appointments declined being recorded. 

As you’ll hear below, homeowners are more than happy for you to record the meetings. This is especially true when your reps explain the value of recording for security as well as their own growth and development in the trade.  

Your reps also have the option for asking for a signature of consent. This is an extra step, which isn’t necessary to legally have you covered, but might give your reps and the customer peace of mind. 

And you might even find some like-minded customers who believe in the importance of recording too. After a funny misunderstanding, the customer in the recording below lets the rep know that he was also being recorded!  

Delighting Customers with Transparency

Many of our customers in one-party consent states still opt to inform the home-owner about the recording as a way to differentiate their brand. 

It sounds something like this: “Hey, here at [company name], we care deeply about the experience you receive from our team and making sure we stand by our word. While other shops might try to pull a fast one on you, we record and share our conversations with you to keep us accountable and deliver the best service.”

Remember, transparency around recordings is good for your business and for the customer. Think about it, with a recording, the customer knows the sales rep will be held accountable by their manager. It also keeps everyone on the same page about what was said during the visit so that there’s no confusion or misleading information.

That’s why most customers see audio recordings as a positive. Plus, increasing transparency between you and your customers helps increase trust and loyalty, leading to repeat customers and awesome referrals.

So whether you need one-party or all-party consent, the data is clear: recording your calls is beneficial for all parties involved.

If you want to learn more about Rilla and take your business to the next level, book a demo here.