One mistake often made by salespeople is the failure to constantly involve the customer in the sales conversion through active commitments.  Too many salespeople go through the process assuming there is an acceptance on the part of the customer without actually asking for that commitment.

The rationale in not asking these commitment questions sounds like this: “I already know they love this kitchen – why would I need to ask that?”  Actually, there is a very sound reason for asking for a commitment in this instance.  You see, we don’t ask closing questions for our own benefit; we ask closing questions for our customer’s benefit.  Their active acceptance cements their commitment.

I read of this example this week from a restaurant that was seeking to increase customer commitments to keeping the reservations they made.  The restaurant dropped their no-show rate from 30% to 10% on phone reservations.  How?  Instead of saying, “Please call if you have to cancel”, they changed the line to, “Will you please call if you have to cancel?”, then they waited for the response.

Where could you get more active commitments from your customer? Take advantage of that opportunity and you’ll shorten the buying process.

Is a sales slump affecting your mindset?  Start with a mental check-up.  Do you see yourself in any of the following descriptions?

-       Lack of positive energy

-       Lack of motivation / determination / drive

-       Increased discomfort and lack of confidence in sales conversations

-       Coming up with excuses for why you can’t sell

-       Creating a negative impact on others

Allow me to offer two pieces of advice to help you out of a slump.

First, you must be aware that your next customer has no idea that you are in a slump!  Every new customer is a fresh start.  As far as they are concerned you’re writing a contract every two hours.  So don’t show the new prospect anything but positive energy. Say to yourself even before they walk through the door, “This is where the slump comes to end.  The slump stops here!”

Second, focus on your behaviors and not just your results.  If you’re not getting the sales at the pace you desire you have to look at the efforts that lead to the results.  Start tracking how many times you are walking people through a model, how often you are asking the Plan Close question, how frequently you ask for the sale on visit one, and other such important tracking opportunities that will focus on behavior and not just results.

Sales slumps happen.  It is only a question of what you will do when they come along.  The worst thing you can do is …. nothing!  Get aggressive in taking action, and you’ll stop that slump dead in its tracks.

But every real prospect has some sense of dissatisfaction in their current home or situation, even if they don’t yet realize that! And that’s the key.  The great salespeople will help a prospect to clarify that dissatisfaction.  They will help the customer to understand how their life can be improved.  (If life improvement is a possibility, it must mean that a dissatisfaction lies waiting to be found.)

So how do we help the prospect identify a dissatisfaction?  There are a number of ways to do this, but perhaps the most effective method is to show them something spectacular that they don’t have now.  Surely you’ve fallen in love with a kitchen (or a pair of shoes, or a golf club) and before you saw that kitchen there was no dissatisfaction with what you had.  The emotional pull of what you saw created a dissatisfaction with what you had.

Don’t take a prospect at face value when they tell you they’re “just looking”, and they have no intention of purchasing.  Give them a chance to create an emotional attachment to your product, and then see if that attachment doesn’t all create a dissatisfaction in their current situation!

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Winston Churchill

The problem in a prolonged healthy market lies in what I refer to as an “entitlement mentality” on the part of new home sales counselors. This mentality says, “If I show up for work and handle the rush of stuff that comes my way, I’ll get my fair share of sales.” It says, in a nutshell, “The market will come to me.”

If entitlement is the mindset to avoid, what is the most advantageous mindset to adopt? The word to dwell on is this: maximize! You must maximize every sales office opportunity. This is the practice of top professionals.

They maximize sales opportunities in two specific ways:

1.  Top sellers maximize their opportunities to sell in a tough market.

Top professionals take advantage of every conversation and advance every sale as far as possible. Look at it this way. When a customer comes into a sales office and leaves without buying, it means that someone stopped the sale. Who did it? The prospect might stop the sale for legitimate reasons, but we must NEVER stop the sale. We must take every sale as far as it will possibly go.

2.  Top sellers maximize their opportunities to grow in a tough market.

Allow me to be candid with you. I made a lot of money in a great market, but I learned how to be a salesperson in a tough market. As I have often said, there are lessons to be learned in times of adversity that cannot be learned in times of prosperity. Are you willing to embrace those opportunities to learn and grow? You won’t do that by default; you must have a plan. Current market conditions will provide you with an outstanding opportunity to grow in new and exciting ways if you commit yourself to that goal.

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There is a difference between manipulation and persuasion. When it comes down to it, you can distinguish them with one word: intent. Your intent and how you execute your position of strength determines if you are crossing the line and moving from pure persuasion to malicious manipulation. Persuaders use their position of strength for the customer’s benefit and wellbeing. Manipulators have ulterior motives, and are concerned only with their own wellbeing. Their goal is to coerce the prospect to purchase a home regardless of whether or not it satisfies their needs, wants or budget.

Unfortunately, many sales counselors don’t see the difference between persuasion and manipulation. They feel that they are one and the same, so they shy away from persuasion. To avoid coming across as aggressive, pushy and manipulative, they try to become the customer’s friend. They essentially abandon their position of strength and hand it over to the customer.

If you struggle with persuasion, you need to change your perception of it. Early in life, I learned that the way I see the world affects how I interpret things. And my perception of the world is created by the experiences of my past.

Many new home salespeople have had negative experiences with salespeople. Maybe they tagged along with their father to the used car lot and heard his speech that salespeople are con-artists whose goal is to rip you off. Or, perhaps they’ve dealt with a lot of rude, pushy telemarketers. Whatever the case, some of us have had encounters with manipulative people, and we’ve sworn that we would never, ever behave that way towards our customers.

If this is you, if you are fearful that maintaining a position of strength will scare away your customers, I challenge you to change your perception of persuasion and see it for the positive tool that it is.

When you engage in persuasion, you are building a case for your product so that the customer may make an informed purchase decision. There is nothing unethical about it. You uncover the customer’s needs and wants, provide the customer with solid, honest information about the homes that satisfy those needs and wants, get their feedback, answer their questions, and then invite them to close on their favorite home. No games. No tricks. If you truly love your homes and are proud of your community, you will have no need to engage in coercion or underhanded sales strategies.

If you’re concerned that you’re being manipulative, examine your intent and determine whose interests you have in mind. If you’re looking out for the customer, you’re engaging in persuasion and you’re good to go. If you only care about your own wellbeing, you need to reevaluate your priorities and seek a change of heart.

Jason Forrest

www.jasonforrestspeaker.com

The blog post last week brought in a number of good comments from top professionals, and led me to some interesting conversations throughout the week. Thought I would share a couple of new thoughts related to the subject.

First of all, I heard this great quote related to the topic. I can’t find the source (a Google search attributed it to several different people). Here is the quote:

“Intent is more important than technique.”

Think on that quote and all that it entails. To me the quote speaks to the heart of the matter. If you’re in sales what is your intent, your purpose? Why are you there? Seriously, what is your mission? These are important questions to consider because your actions and behaviors will always follow your purpose.

For example, what is the purpose of a politician on a campaign trail? It is to get as many single votes as possible. So he/she knocks on doors and makes phone calls, because one’s actions and behaviors always follow their purpose.

What is the purpose of a salesperson? If the sales representative believes it is nothing more than to give out information, or to make friends, or to set up the sales conversation for a further visit, then you’ll see mediocre efforts.

So what is your purpose? Why are you there? Really? Get the purpose right and you’ll soon find that your actions and behaviors are also right. Why? Because intent really is more important than technique.

Go ahead – take a stab – what is your purpose??????

From time to time I will meet a salesperson who will tell me flat out that they are not assertive. Typically they say things like, “I’m not pushy – I just let the sale happen”, or “The customers will let me know when they’re ready to buy, but I’m not going to push it.” There exists for many salespeople a built-in excuse for not closing – “it’s just not me.”

I suppose that’s fine if your only interest is in keeping the customer in a comfortable place. But look closely – that was never in your job description. The sales process is a two-way street. That means both parties have needs that must be met. There is a win-win solution, and ultimately that involves the prospect moving forward with a purchase decision.

The question we must consider is one of degree – how much is too much? How much should we push, and when should we back off?

For some perspective on this topic , consider a definition. In the classic book Your Perfect Right, authors Robert Alberti and Michael Emmons offer the following definition of “assertiveness”:

Assertive self-expression is direct, firm, positive – and when necessary persistent – action intended to promote equality in person-to-person relationships. Assertiveness enables us to act in our own best interests, to stand up for ourselves without undue anxiety, to exercise personal rights without denying the rights of others, and to express our feelings honestly and comfortably.

Inherent in that description is the idea that I can ask for what I want, so long as I am respectful to the person to whom I am asking.

It is my opinion that the majority of salespeople (in all industries) lack the necessary assertiveness for the job. Their fear of rejection is so high that they end up paralyzed in their approach. Often this is due to a high level of threat sensitivity, as they play out the worst-case scenarios of customer interactions.

The problem here is that the salesperson is robbed of the opportunity to accomplish his or her goals. But they are also robbing the prospect of the same thing! When we let our fear get in the way we force the customer to make the next move. If they share that same fear they will sit on the sideline waiting to be asked. Each then disables the process further.

Can I suggest that you get it out of your mind that assertiveness is a dirty word? You have a right to ask for the sale, and your customer has the right to say no. But if you do not ask you do not get. And sometimes when you do ask….you change people’s world!

It has been said that familiarity breeds contempt. I assume that’s true in some cases, but in most instances familiarity simply breeds complacency. It brings about a casual acceptance, a matter-of-fact approach to things. Familiarity breeds ordinary.

That’s fine when it comes to an old pair of shoes or to your silverware. Not everything can be special. But it’s deadly when it comes to how you see your own homes.

I have seen so many salespeople (and to be honest, I’ve fallen victim myself) who display no particular affection for their own homes. They show their product as if it is just another home. They talk about their community as if it could be any other neighborhood in the country.

Why is that? What causes a sales professional to miss out on what makes their own offering incredible? I believe that familiarity breeds ordinary, and ordinary makes for an uninspiring presentation.

Think of the ramifications of the salesperson who no longer appreciates how special his/her homes happen to be. Viewing the homes or the community should be a special and exciting time for a prospect. But consider the pressure one puts on a customer to get excited about what they are seeing when the salesperson shows no appreciation whatsoever. That’s deadly!

Perhaps this week it would behoove you to take a fresh look at your community and your homes. See them as a first-time visitor would. Appreciate the design and the uniqueness. Notice the cool details that make your offering special.

In short, pretend you are a first-time homebuyer who is out on day one looking at new homes. How would they see your home and your community? This is how you need to see it.

Walk in their shoes, and you’ll change their world.

“I’ve always been an optimist. Frankly, I never saw much use in being anything else.” Winston Churchill

Psychologist Martin Sigelman discovered a strong link between optimism and results in a detailed study with sales professionals at Met Life Insurance. The study concluded that those who ranked in the top 10% of the organization when it came to optimism outsold by 88% those in the bottom 10% of the company.

That statistic may not surprise you, but think through the underlying aspects of the study. These were salespeople, and they were hired because they were optimistic people in the first place. Those in the bottom 10% still would have considered themselves to be optimists, and compared to a lot of other professions they probably were.

What does this mean for the top 10% of the salespeople in the organization? It means they were more than optimists – they were super-optimists. These were people who did more than pretend. They were optimists in their core, and they carried that optimistic purpose into every sales encounter.

Are you a “super-optimist” in the sales presentation? Show me, don’t tell me. I’ll see it your approach, in your energy, and in your facial posture. I’ll see it in a clear sense of purpose in your conversation. I’ll see you drive the sales process along, and I’ll see that you do not give in to negative energy.

How optimistic are you? Optimistic enough to change someone’s world?

Don’t know how you’re feeling, but the gang here at Shore Forrest Sales Strategies is totally stoked about 2010! We see a great year in front of us full of promise, success, re-creation, and of building the team we will be for years to come. We’re pleased and privileged to be working with some of the finest homebuilders in the country, and we are thrilled that our workload is very, very heavy.

With a new year comes new opportunities and a new look. So if I could share a few exciting things going on here at Shore Forrest Sales Strategies….

1) On January 1^st we launched a new web site (www.shoreforrest.com). Our thanks to Chip Johnson and the team at Builder Designs (www.builderdesigns.com) for their incredible work on this project. We’d love to hear your feedback. We think the site rocks!

2) We’re just putting the finishing touches on our one-day Sales Leadership Conference in Alexandria, Virginia April 23^rd. We’ll talk more about that in the newsletter over the next couple of weeks.

3) This month we will introduce ShoreForestOnline, an exclusive and proprietary learning management program unlike anything our industry has ever seen. Our aim is to take the training concepts to a whole new level of practice and accountability for our clients.

4) Jason Forrest’s new book The 40-Day Sales Dare is selling like gangbusters. And the readers are totally into the exercises. Go to www.40daysalesdare.com to read some of the blogs.

5) Speaking of new books, Jason and I are working on a collaborative book for new home salespeople all about lead generation and self-driven business. It’s a challenge, but we think we have something very new and very fresh coming soon.

6) One other book project in the works – an e-book containing a “best of” articles and blogs. Jeff Shore on Sales is due out in February.

There’s more coming, but we’ll keep those details under wraps for now. Suffice it to say that 2010 has me more excited than any year I can remember for a long time.

I hope you feel the same way. I hope you are embracing the year as one full of opportunities to do and to be your very best. God’s richest blessings to you all. Now go change someone’s world!

Jeff