How to control sales when production is idle

When production is idle, monitor sales by checking how the sales team uses the enquiries it has already received. Require the head of sales to show you who was offered the full scope of work they needed, who was dropped after the first conversation and which orders will keep the available crews busy. Use this to decide whether to increase spending on enquiries.

We had a client: a company that makes and installs equipment for private homes using its own crews. At the first week’s review, our head of sales warned that a sharp rise in sales could overload production. The owner replied that the problem was the opposite. The crews are paid for a full week but have only a day or two of work. By his estimate, “taking on twice or three times as much would be really easy”.

That was an estimate of spare capacity, not a result of our work. But it changed the focus of the review: first, we needed to understand why people whose time had already been paid for were sitting idle.

The salespeople took on the “ready to buy” customers, dropped the rest and did not address objections. There was nothing in place to monitor this work. Of the customers who had already given their address, roughly one in ten bought. And here is the detail that brings the whole story together for me: “They only write down the front — and do not even offer work on the whole house.” The person asked for just the façade. The salesperson stopped there.

The buyer set the scope of the enquiry

A request for “just the façade” is normal in itself. The customer has the right to order exactly that much. But between an initial request and an informed choice, there is a conversation: what the person needs done to the house as a whole, whether they know a different scope of work is possible, and why they are limiting it to the façade. In this case, work on the whole house was never even offered.

So the production workload was determined by what the buyer happened to think of asking for. The company could do more, and the crews had time available, but the salesperson did not connect those capabilities with the customer’s needs. At the very least, the salesperson needed to find out whether the customer needed that work. Without that conversation, the customer has not yet refused a larger order.

I believe the owner has the right to require the sales team to offer a suitable scope of work. Requiring them to sell work on the whole house to everyone is a mistake. In the first case, the salesperson helps the customer choose; in the second, they make the customer fit their crews’ need for work.

To monitor this, you need to distinguish the answers: the façade is enough for the customer; work on the whole house was discussed and the customer declined; work on the whole house was never discussed. If the head of sales puts them all in one column labelled “did not buy”, the owner cannot see where the customer’s choice ends and the sales team’s shortcomings begin.

No purchase in nine cases does not mean nine refusals

Let us count only what we know. Roughly one in ten customers who gave an address buys. The table below shows what this means for an illustrative group of ten such enquiries. This is an arithmetic illustration of a rounded proportion, not the actual size of the client’s sample.

This table cannot tell us how much revenue was lost: we do not know the value of the orders or why people did not buy. But it does define the task for the head of sales. Among the enquiries that did not lead to a purchase, clear refusals after discussing a proposal need to be separated from conversations the employee simply dropped.

My answer to the objection “Increasing conversion rates matters to us” is this: the percentage of customers who buy is not enough on its own. Offers of work on the whole house need to be tracked separately. A sale of work on the façade will already count as a successful deal, even though work on the whole house was never offered. So a single conversion rate hides part of the problem: the sales team can win small orders while still leaving the crews without enough work.

New enquiries will add to the incoming flow. They will not make a salesperson pick up an abandoned conversation or offer work on the whole house. The current sales team needs to be assigned these actions before spending is increased.

What to decide before buying new enquiries

Given this picture, I favour a pause in increasing the budget for attracting enquiries. We keep the current flow. We give the head of sales three working days to explain how much work the team can secure from enquiries that have already come in, and what is stopping them. This deadline is for the review and assigning actions, not a promise of new payments.

Here is an instruction you can pass on to the head of sales in full:

Within three working days, review the enquiries where customers gave an address during the last completed month. Show purchases, clear refusals and conversations that salespeople stopped pursuing separately. Give the number in each group; where the reason is unknown, say so. Separately, show which customers were spoken to about work on the whole house and how they responded, including those who have already bought work on the façade. For abandoned enquiries, assign an employee, an action and a deadline. With the person responsible for production, compare expected orders with the crews’ available time. Bring a proposal: what we change in our work now and why we need additional enquiries.

You should accept a review like this on the basis of specific evidence. A refusal is backed by the customer’s reply. An enquiry being picked up again has a conversation scheduled. A proposal to give a crew work has a defined scope of work and an agreed completion deadline. If the head of sales brings only an overall conversion rate instead, you still do not have an answer on which to base the budget decision.

The owner does not need to listen to every call themselves. Their job is to decide which spending to approve and on what grounds. The head of sales must change how salespeople conduct conversations and make sure the actions are carried out.

An idle crew does not make every order profitable

A week that is already paid for does not remove the cost of fulfilling a new order. So keeping people busy at any cost is a poor goal: a discount to keep them busy can wipe out the benefit of the sale. You need an order with a clear scope and terms from the head of sales, and confirmation from production that it will be completed within the promised time.

An additional flow of enquiries is justified when suitable proposals are being discussed, abandoned enquiries are being followed up, and there is still not enough work for the crews. Then the owner has grounds to buy enquiries. This does not mean filling all capacity at any cost or selling work on the whole house to every customer.

At RENTROP, “turnkey sales management” takes on the daily work with the sales team, including sales control. If your people are being paid but there is little work for them, you can start with this mismatch in a free sales review.

That company knew it had spare capacity, but the offer to the customer did not reflect it. As long as the buyer’s opening words alone define the scope of an order, part of the crews’ paid week remains outside the scope of the sales team’s work.