It’s Time to Show Your Sales Team How the QC System Works

Quality Management in the construction industry tends to focus attention on decreasing errors and mistakes on the jobsite. Operations benefits by reducing time and costs. Can the Quality Management Program improve sales?

Indirectly, it already does. Good quality leads to customer satisfaction. A good quality management program also reduces errors which leads to a streamlined construction process that stays on schedule, instils confidence, and keeps unexpected costs down.

However, that’s an equation rarely shared with the sales team. And if it is, do they understand it well enough to sell it as a benefit to prospective customers?

A Quality Management Program is a sales tool—as is everything else in a sales-driven industry. And, as all the QC steps make incremental improvements in operations, smart builders and contractors are turning the focus toward customer relationships and achieving sales goals.

For starters, the knowledge that a contractor adheres to a Quality Management Program builds trust. If your sales team understands how the program works, your quality program will give them an edge over the competition. It serves as a tool that helps remove doubt from the customer’s mind. Corners aren’t—and can’t be—cut during construction. Inferior product can’t be installed. The Quality Management Program has inviolable standards in place.

When the construction team follows QC Checklists, they reduce the risk of construction errors and omissions. To the customer, that means a smoother building experience. There will be fewer delays and less jobsite repair and workaround turmoil. Whether the customer actually notices the absence of this is questionable. However, they do notice when repairs and delays do occur, and it kills their building experience.

Tandem “job ready” and “job complete” scoring holds both the Trade Partners and the Contractor accountable for construction phase-completion. The trade rates the job when he arrives; the Contractor rates the job when the trade leaves.

This has obvious benefits to the schedule, but it also improves the jobsite itself. The dual scoring reinforces a cleaner, safer, more organized construction site. Your quality program is your sales team’s tool to increase customer confidence in building quality when they visit the jobsite.

For many contractors, jobsites are littered with half-finished tasks and incomplete installations during milestone customer meetings. Such distractions erode the customer’s confidence in the construction-quality and the contractor’s competence. QC inspections ensure all work is complete and correct, and the jobsite exhibits the best possible presentation for a customer meeting.

Again, this speaks to customer experience. They may not consciously realize the order and synchronicity of the QM Program with the building process, but they certainly notice it when it’s out of whack.

Finally, improved building quality means less warranty hassles later. The program as a whole—every QC inspection, checklist, Hot Spot photo and process improvement—allows the Contractor-Trade Team to deliver a project that’s as durable and defect-free as possible. For every mistake corrected on the jobsite during construction is a future warranty claim that will never be made. That creates customer loyalty.

So, your Quality Management Program actually provides the Sales Team with a lot of ammo. And what are the chances your competitionis doing the same thing? It’s time to bring sales into the loop and quality-conscious Sales Reps shine.

Request Your Company’s FCA Quality Program

FCA International partners with First Time Quality to provide industry-leading, customizable quality programs to its members.

If your company has not requested your quality program yet, visit http://www.finishingcontractors.org/quality to request your quality program today!