With all the technology available to us in 2018, why are many home improvement sales reps still lugging around product and pricing manuals and producing estimates by hand? Steve Stencil asked himself this question when he worked as a sales rep, and in his search for a solution developed Leap: a mobile application that allows companies to digitize the entire in-home selling process.
“Almost every home improvement company is digital until a sales rep enters the home,” says Stencil, CTO at Leap. “Then, a guy will come out, use a tape measure to gather measurements, and hand-write a quote. Sometimes he has to get back to you in a day or two because he doesn’t have updated pricing at his fingertips. Customers want something more efficient than that.”
Leap eliminates the need for manual estimates and subsequently digitizes the rest of the sales process. A sales rep goes into a home equipped with Leap on his or her iPad—instead of product and pricing manuals and a spreadsheet—and gets right to work creating the customer’s estimate. (Admin privileges are available via browser, but the Leap sales app is currently available only on Apple products.)
Once the estimate is generated, customers can review and sign digital contracts and credit applications. Leap supplies reps with real-time approvals within the software from lenders, so everyone will know immediately what the financing situation is for a project.
In using Leap, companies also get a digital log of what happens from beginning to end on a sales call. “Companies spend so much time advertising and generating leads, but when the sales rep gets those leads, there usually isn’t documentation of what happened during the appointment,” Stencil says. “Using our software allows you to track what happened when the rep got there, what prices and products were offered, and communicate that back to the home office, making life easier for both the sales rep and the company.”
Leap integrates with CRMs such as Salesforce, MarketSharp, improveit360, and others, facilitating communication and transparency with homeowners.
The uniform digital process provided by Leap is designed to take the guesswork out of the selling process and increase efficiency across the board. It also can be helpful when when onboarding new employees, according to Wauker Matthews, company COO.
Training new reps happens faster, he says, because how the app is utilized remains consistent from one rep to the next. Time spent on production can also be improved by using the software, he says.
“Because it’s all real-time communication, the production process can actually begin once a customer signs the digital contract—all while the sales rep is still in the home finishing the appointment,” Matthews explains. “It cuts down on the time from sale to actual production, and in turn expedites the entire process.”
Leap has around 1,700 users, 80 percent of which purchased the software within the last eight months, according to company officials.
Pricing for Leap starts $95 per month, per user.