As you probably have heard by now, the housing news this past week was rather grim (to say the least!). Potential homebuyers are reading those same articles and hearing those same stories, so you need to be well prepared to counter the arguments you will likely hear in your sales office this weekend.
Are you? Are you really confident to convince someone to purchase, even if it means going against the very public bad news? I have to ask you this question: if you do not provide positive confidence to the prospect, who will?
Let me ask that again in a slightly different way (and yes, I know that typing in all caps means I am yelling…):
IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE POSITIVE CONFIDENCE TO THE PROSPECT, WHO WILL?
Let’s be realistic about the situation. There are literally millions of people in the country right now who are living in the wrong home. They are living in a home that does not meet their needs. They have stayed for too long in a home that no longer works for their lifestyle. Read more…
Today I made my annual trek to the Nevada County Fair in Grass Valley, California. You know the county fair scene, right? Junk food, stages with local entertainment, lots of cows, etc. And vendors galore – salespeople wherever you look!
As it happens, I’m thinking of getting a pellet stove for my living room (trying to temper the sky high heating bills). There were four different vendors of various types of stoves, so it wasn’t difficult to find someone to talk to.
I struck up a conversation with someone who proved to be extremely intelligent. Product knowledge was this guy’s strong suit. Did he know his stuff? Yep. Will he ever hear from me again? Nope. And why not? Because he has no way to get a hold of me – if I want to continue the conversation it means I have to contact him.
Here’s the deal. I’ve already forgotten the name of the company and the name of the salesperson. If not for a deadline to write this article, he would already be out of my mind permanently.
Why is it that so many salespeople put all the pressure on the customer to continue the sales process? Customers are already taxed by everything on their to-do list. How much do you think it takes to be eliminated from contention? Not much!
People – get the phone number and make the phone call! I talked to three salespeople yesterday at the fair, but I was distracted. How much would I appreciate a phone call tomorrow from someone who can answer my questions when things have settled down?
It’s a matter of respect. Are you making the calls, or are you forcing the customer to continue the sales process? Do them the courtesy of calling them back, and you’ll change their world!
Think back to the last time you recorded your outgoing voice mail greeting. Did you get it right the first time, or did you record and re-record (and re-record….and re-record) until you were pleased?
If you’re like most people, it took you several tries before you found a recording your were happy with. But think about that process for a moment; it’s an important lesson in skill development. You recorded, you listened back, and you decided it wasn’t good enough. So you found the flaw, fixed it, and recorded again. Still not good enough. Find-fix. Find-fix. Eventually, you were pleased.
When you think about it, you were improving your outgoing messaging skill. It’s not something you do every day so you probably get a little rusty. But the recording and the re-recording helps you to listen, to find the flaws, and to fix them. That is what skill development is all about – failing, finding and fixing.
I’m wondering if a tape recorder might be the most important training tool you will ever find. That simple device allows you to self-train – always the most effective kind of training. Read more…
I received a wonderful note today from a friend of mine. I’ve known her since her early days in the homebuilding business, and I count it a privilege to have mentored her along. Her message was warm and full of thanks, and I have to admit that it made me feel really good. In fact, it inspired me to invest even more in the people around me.
If you’re one of the fortunate ones, you can think back to the milestone events that formed your sales career. At the heart of those events you’re likely to find that special individual who at some point saw more in you than you saw in yourself, and who gave you both the opportunity and the encouragement to push you to new levels of both performance and success.
Don’t forget that. It might be time to check in with that person and remind them of the impact they had in your life.
Zig Ziglar once wrote that it is impossible to do something nice for someone without feeling better yourself. That’s really true. So go thank your mentor. After all, they changed your world!
Great baseball players are often detail freaks regarding their own performance. Not only can they tell you their batting average for the season, they can tell you their average against specific pitchers. They know how many home runs they have hit in a particular ballpark. They know how effective they are against left-handed curveball specialists.
How well do you know your own performance? We tend to measure our success according to our sales results. Few salespeople accurately measure the actions that get us the results.
It might be worth considering the effort to start tracking your results in a number of sales-related areas:
- Your weekly average of self-directed traffic
- Percentage of traffic that you asked the Plan Close question to
- Percentage of traffic you took out to a homesite
- Percentage of traffic you asked for the sale on the first visit
There are certainly others, but perhaps you might consider adopting one measurement category to get started.
You cannot always control the results, but you can always control the activities that will get you to the results.
Be the pro – and you’ll change the world.
I often suggest to salespeople that they get away from what I call the “Hat Syndrome”. This occurs when I see myself with a “Sales Hat” on my head, and I see my prospect wearing their own “Buyer’s Hat”. As soon as my perspective is about our roles, it diminishes my ability to see this relationship as between two people. I launch into my sales role, and I expect my prospect to act like a typical customer.
The entire notion speaks to the concept of an adversarial relationship, which we know of course is counter-productive to our purpose. Instead, I rather like the idea that I can come alongside my prospect with a partnership mentality. I can see myself as the “Assistant Buyer.”
This mindset relies upon the concept of having a shared sense of purpose. The customer has a goal – a dream – and I am committed to making that dream come true. When I see myself as an Assistant Buyer it changes my behavior. I concentrate more on thinking how they think. I anticipate their needs. I get them more involved in the emotional side of the experience.
When I see myself as an Assistant Buyer….I change their world!
I have a brutal stretch of travel coming up. That’s not a complaint; I feel entirely blessed to have a full calendar and a host of incredible clients! But I do know that I need to rigorously manage my project list or I’ll quickly find things are slipping through the cracks.
Recently I made a master list of everything that is coming up for the next quarter and I assigned dates to all the sub-tasks. To tell you the truth, it was a grueling and painful exercise, but it forced me to come to grips with the realities of my schedule.
What I did not expect was an interesting and powerful side benefit. The due dates are lined up from here to the end of October; I can see that. But with everything lined up neatly I can also see the opportunities to get out front of some of the actions. And that is exactly what is happening. I am proactively racing ahead of due dates…and it feels great!!!
All this to say that I am re-learning a lesson you would think I would have learned by now: being ahead on stuff feels great; being behind stinks! Read more…
I’d like to hear your thoughts on something. Many new home salespeople feel that they could sell anything. Is that you?
If you couldn’t sell homes and you wanted another sales job, what product or service would you want to sell? Forget qualifications, geography, lifestyle, or any other hindrance. Just jot down your preference in the box below.
If you couldn’t sell homes, what would you want to sell?
Chime in, folks!
As I get older I deal more and more with a question that I find very valuable: How do I continually move from success to significance? This might be one of the most important introspective questions I can ask. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I consider myself to be successful. Business is healthy for me, I have an incredible wife and three great kids, a wonderful church, fantastic friends… all the things we hope for when we say we want to be successful.
So now what? How do I continually move from success to significance? I have only so many years on this planet and I want to make an impact in the people around me. I want to be significant in people’s lives.
And that’s where you come in. When you think about it, I just defined your very calling. Selling homes is not about contracts and sales technique. It’s not even about the home, really. It’s about making a difference in people’s lives.
This Independence Day, stop and think about that wonderful phrase “The American Dream”. Owning a home is a vital part of that dream, and you are blessed each day to make those dreams come true for people.
Talk about changing someone’s world! How cool is that!
As an expert in the area of sales and sales management, I admit that I see the world through a sales lens (forgive me – occupational hazard). But so much of what makes for an excellent sales process also makes for great interpersonal relationships. After all, effective selling depends upon strong connection skills.
That being the case, the one piece of advice I have offered to salespeople more than anything else over the years has its origin not in sales but in the study of interpersonal communication. The advice is given by Stephen Covey in his classic book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey suggests: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
This principle is at the core of effective sales, and it is paramount to healthy relationships. Covey points out that, “most people don’t listen with the intent to understand – they listen with the intent to respond.” So true.
The direct application of this concept (both in sales and in life) revolves around a critical life skill: childlike curiosity. Most people are just not curious enough about the lives of those around them. I know I’m guilty. I tend to get self-absorbed with my own problems, concerns, goals and dreams. This precludes me from becoming deeply interested in the person I am talking to. This is a shame, because everyone has a story tell and everyone has something to contribute. Read more…
