Long Home Products is a leader in home improvement on the East Coast. They’re built on the idea that the right products, outstanding craftsmanship, and genuine respect for the customer will translate to success and lifetime satisfaction. To do that, they needed to ensure their sales efforts were consistent with every home appointment.

The challenges

“It’s very important to be mechanically sound and to do the same things every time,” said Co-owner and Marketing Director John DePaola Jr. “There are things we want our sales representatives to say in the home each time because we are confident that they work.”

The company needed a tool that would ensure those points were made in each appointment. Sales Manager Tara Datz explained, “A lot of times, the hardest [thing] for a sales manager or sales coach is explaining how it needs to be said.” Especially when salespeople insist they’re using the right messaging.

Rilla means the end of ride-alongs

According to Tara, Rilla is the cutting-edge technology they needed. “It’s so much more than having Notes apps on your phone,” she said. “I can see exact metrics for the appointment, the talk ratio, dialogs and monologues of salespeople and customers.”

With Rilla, they didn’t need to have managers go on ride-alongs to make sure salespeople used consistent messaging.

Sale Representative Josh Edwards was skeptical at first, but soon discovered the benefits of Rilla. “I feel like Rilla challenges you to do the right things in the home,” he said.

The results

With Rilla, Long Home Products saw a huge $350,00 increase per rep, per year.

“I’ve never had a tool that allowed me to feel so confident in the ability that I’m giving the correct feedback,” said Tara. "It makes conversations more productive, and it gives salespeople a lot more direction.”

“My team loves Rilla.”

Tara considers Rilla to be a valuable tool in Long Home Products’ training efforts.

“It helps you coach your B players into all-stars,” she said. “My team loves Rilla.”

Josh went even further. “If you told me Rilla is being taken away, I’d say how much of my paycheck do you need to take in order to keep it,” he said.

John summed it up this way: “To have a company like Rilla that’s so dialed in to the sales process in home improvement is extremely important to our business. I can’t envision a world that has to do with sales that doesn’t have a product like Rilla.”