Remote-selling kit enhanced

On January 5, 2021, the whole of the UK found itself in lockdown once again. At the time of writing, building and installation work was still permitted, but showrooms remained closed to all but repair businesses. Therefore, Ultraframe helped it customers embrace remote selling. Marketing director Alex Hewitt explains.

After almost a year of the UK being in various stages of lockdown, our industry is busier than ever with homeowners desperately crying out for more space in their homes.

In March 2020, remote selling was a new and, for many, daunting proposition. Our industry is highly skilled at selling in homes and showrooms and so to have this taken away with the only remaining option being to interact online was alien to many.

Not only this, but many of our installers simply didn’t have the tools or knowledge to make this new way of selling work and so we launched the Lockdown Toolkit.

This is a digital toolbox to help customers generate and capture leads and sell remotely. We worked closely with our digital partner Icaal to define and create a range of remote selling tools that were simple to use, delivered real results, and were mostly free.

The Toolkit has helped Ultraframe customers to prosper through a new way of trading. Through the various tiers that have followed across the rest of 2020, our customers continued to benefit from the Lockdown Toolkit but when the latest lockdown was announced in January 2021 we decided to further enhance the package and remind our customers of the huge array of remote selling tools at their disposal.

Chatbots have been an extremely popular feature of the Lockdown Toolkit. These allow our customers to auto-respond on their website and social media channels without the need for a member of staff having to be available 24/7; something which homeowners increasingly expect when researching online. Our chatbot can identify a customer’s needs by asking and answering basic questions, allowing you to build and re-use different conversation scenarios.

Our Quoting Engine is another fantastic tool which customers can easily tailor to their own pricing so that potential customers can get a quote online – and generate a lead of course. The fully responsive, ‘mobile first’ Quoting Engine has been improved with a wider product range and Facebook integration. This means any leads created via a Facebook page will automatically be sent to the online dashboard.

There is also choice how to display prices online, whether as a range, single price or starting price. The Quoting Engine will show prices in line with how the sales team want them displayed, in order to make closing that deal a little bit easier.

Since we have all got more comfortable with zoom calls and other video technology since last March, the Virtual Appointment add-on is another great option. Homeowners can book an appointment themselves via the installer’s website and then have a full sales consultation by video call, allowing the salesperson the same opportunity to chat through the options available as if they were in the home. We also created free-of-charge Content Blocks, which can easily be added to a website and allow a homeowner to explore the features of our roofs in an interactive way.

All of these tools are still available during the latest lockdown in our Lockdown Toolkit, and we’re also delighted to announce that we’re adding even more – also designed in partnership with our digital partners Icaal.

The new features, which will be available via the Lockdown Toolkit during February, include a series of emails that can be sent to homeowners who have enquired about conservatories, extensions, orangeries and replacement roofs. Each email contains lots of useful information about the benefits of that particular project type coupled with beautiful imagery, and are a great way to keep a lead warm.

To further assist with lead conversion, Icaal has developed a Proposal Generator, which is available free of charge to existing CRM users. The new Proposal Generator gives companies the ability to create custom branded proposal templates and add unique content including videos, image galleries, VR Tours, awards, accreditations and client testimonials. Crucially the system will enable end-user customers to approve quotes at any time, and even pay a deposit using a secured payment gateway. The digital Proposal Generator helps our customers to present their quote to the homeowner in a highly professional way. It really is a fantastic tool to help set our customers apart and position them as a quality-conscious company to deal with.

The Proposal Generator tool is available within an advanced Icaal CRM system which is available to Ultraframe customers at a subsidised rate. This allows users to manage their leads, add notes, allocate outcomes, and schedule call-backs. From real-time reporting and innovative data visualisation tools, to custom-built proposal templates and the ability to take online payments, this all-in-one system offers immense value to both the leads and sales management side of any business.

We’ve also upgraded our Virtual Reality Tours to be more user friendly, and added additional features such as galleries of the conservatory or extension. The VR tours allow a website visitor to look all around a room, from ceiling to floor and all around, with hotspots to convey information about key features. Finally, there are free downloadable Sales Presenters for all of our roof systems which in the future can be used in home visits but are perfect for using when presenting online.

In addition to the tools themselves, we have also included further support in the Lockdown Toolkit, in the form of webinars. These cover topics such as how to make the most of the Lockdown Toolkit (we’ve also produced a handy guide for this too), how to super charge your social media, and other topics about the new remote selling world that we currently find ourselves navigating through.

The number of tools and support available to Ultraframe customers through the Lockdown Toolkit is immense and, by working with Icaal, we know that all of the tools work hard and deliver real results. They’re all super easy to install and use, our marketing team are here to help at any time with queries about how to get the most out of using them, and best of all they are either free, or heavily subsidised by us. In terms of what the Lockdown Toolkit contains, there are too many tools to mention them all here, and installers can get the full and detailed information from our website or marketing team.

None of us could ever have predicted the last year and what lies ahead for 2021. We hope that we have done our customers proud by reacting quickly during the first lockdown with the Lockdown Toolkit, and by continuing to add to it to ensure they are fully equipped to generate and convert leads with our extensive range of remote selling tools and resources.

We’d like to wish everyone a safe and healthy trading year ahead.