Every day that you wait for someone to come to you is eight hours wasted. Get in the game and make direct contact! Making a sale requires action, not inaction. Here’s the reality. Marketing is the act of attracting. Prospecting is the act of seeking. Prospecting is a contact sport!
Posted In: New Home Sales
To effectively respond to the “price-only” mentality of consumers successfully, new homes salespeople must:
Become a construction authority, internalizing and memorizing every construction definition and term.
Know everything there is to know about the uniqueness of their homes in the marketplace.
Know the complete needs, concerns and wants of their customers.
Have the skills to match their homes to the needs, wants and concerns of each customer.
Have a general understanding of business.
Have high self-esteem.
Possess the ability to manage the emotional issues of selling and rejection.
Believe in the company and homes they represent.
Posted In: New Home Sales
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It was not until 1922 radio gave business a new platform from which to market and build meaningful customer relationships. It was two decades later that TV launched the next opportunity in the late 40′s and 50′s. 40 more years went by before the internet arrived. Now social media stares down the home-builder (and every other industry). Question: What should the horse and buggy driver have done when he noticed the automobile?
Posted In: New Home Sales
What’s on your agenda this week? A little rejection perhaps? Maybe one or two closing remarks? Some high anxiety?
One of the common traits I’ve found among new home salespeople is that they worry about closing the sale. In fact, it bothers them so much that, according to statistics, 87% of them do not even do a simple close when a buyer walks into a model home. We also know that nearly 90% of salespeople don’t even get a registration card completed with an address, both buyers’ names, e-mail and phone number. Without that information, there is no follow-up opportunity.
Closing makes salespeople nervous. They fear rejection and feel overwhelmed at the thought of asking the buyer for a commitment.
So, here’s a thought. Forget the nervous breakdown. Have a breakthrough instead. Stop assuming new-home shoppers aren’t going to buy today. Start seeing them as half-way committed to owning one of your new homes. Then use one of my favorite simple closes:
You: “I sense you love this home. Am I correct?”
Buyers: “Well, yeah.”
You: “Then shall we make this one yours?”
That’s it. Nothing involved. This close puts buyers in the position of committing to purchase or telling you why they aren’t ready right now. Some will buy. Some won’t. So what? Either way, you’ve brought them to a point of decision.
This is a skills-based housing market today. To excel, you must overcome your fear of rejection. Ask those closing questions. Get follow-up information on everyone who enters your model home. Do it enough and it will become second nature.
To quote Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act; but a habit.”
Posted In: New Home Sales Training
Tags: Aristotle, closing techniques, email, fear of rejection, follow-up, housing market, New Home Sales
Too many builders are shackled by tradition and the how-things-used-to-be approach to sales. That’s understandable. For decades, buyers have gone to model homes to see what builders are offering. Today, however, technology has replaced tradition.
Nine out of 10 buyers search online before climbing into their cars to scout for new homes and to scope out neighborhoods. Therefore, it’s essential that builders have a Web site that showcases what they’re selling.
Unfortunately, builders who are accustomed to spending half a million dollars on a model home will scoff at the idea of spending $30 to $40 thousand for a first-class Website. And, if they do have a Website, they reject the idea that it needs to be staffed with a full-time online sales counselor. To these builders, I say dream on.
The reality is that your Website is your new model home and it must be staffed just as any model home would be. It should also have floor plans and top-quality photographs or renderings of your homes … maybe even have a printable brochure. It should emphasize the quality and the value found in your homes and include some testimonials from previous buyers.
Hire a professional to put it all together because buyers will conclude that, since you have a well-built Website, your homes will be well-built, too.
Do it right and you will reach hundreds of more buyers through your Website than you ever will onsite.
Posted In: New home sales marketing
Tags: home builders, online home search, online sales counselor, website
The International Builders’ Show is right around the corner. If you haven’t signed up for the 2012 Sales Management Summit: MAXIMUM SALES! seminar yet there’s still time. Sign up here.
Date: Thursday, February 9
Time: 1:30 – 3:00 pm
Location: West 312
Description: This is your chance to prepare yourself to achieve unprecedented success in new home sales management. Savvy sales managers know that the keys to success are profitable sales and an inspired sales force. In this session, you’re guaranteed to learn how to race past your goals, multiply the number of new homes sold and increase your bottom line with profitable sales. It’s a practical yet powerful approach to sales management that you can’t afford to miss!
Learning Outcomes:
Fee: IBS education sessions are available on a first-come, first served basis to Full Registrants and those who purchase a One- or Two-Day Education with Expo Pass Registration
Tracks: Sales, Marketing & Customer Focus
Speakers: Andy Brethour, Myers Barnes, MIRM, Van Rose
Company: PMA Brethour Group
Andrew Brethour is President of PMA Brethour Realty Group, Canada’s premier new home brokerage and research firm. In 2009 PMA from offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Boca Raton was responsible for over 3500 new home sales on behalf of 48 builder clients, on 96 projects, providing the services of nearly 150 professional new home sales representatives. Andrew was recipient of the prestigious “Hall of Fame Award” from GTHBA in 2004. Governor and President of Builder Marketing Society in the United States; Founder of Canada and Toronto “SAM” Awards, Director RealNet Canada; Member of the International Lambda Alpha Society of Land Economists. The acronym PMA stands for “Positive Mental Attitude”. The measurement of any service company’s success and value is often based upon two important factors – the talent and skill of its personnel and their track record over time. But the intangible and most vital measurement is ATTITUDE! THINK POSITIVE – IT SETS YOU APART!
Company: Myers Barnes Associates, Inc.
A shockwave of energy who has ignited profit-driven performance for countless real estate development companies, homebuilding corporations and sales organizations. As one of the world’s most requested speakers and advisors for new home sales seminars and manager training, he has produced a track record of proven success for achieving profitable sales. A tactical thinker who understands the industry like no one else, Myers uses his trademark energetic style to inform, entertain, and inspire with up-to-the-minute insight. The best-selling author of five books, including the innovative playbook for success, Secrets of New Home Sales Negotiation, Myers is an American original. He’s also a rare combination of licensed General Contractor and Real Estate Broker who doesn’t just talk about the business of selling homes – he lives it. Engaging, enthusiastic, and overflowing with fresh ideas, Myers Barnes delivers tried-and-true strategies for success alongside pioneering and profitable solutions.
Company: Rose & Womble Realty Co. L.L.C.
Van, a 1975 Naval Academy graduate, has led the New Homes Division since its inception in 1985, fostering phenomenal growth – current portfolio: sixty builders, sixty-five communities throughout southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Member of the Institute of Residential Marketing (MIRM) from National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Builder Marketing Society (BMS) charter member, current Board of Trustees member, 1991 Member of the Year, President for the past 9 years. . Active Tidewater Builders Association member and previously served on Board of Directors and SMC Executive Committee. Recognized by NAHB for excellence: Region 9 Sales Manager of the Year on three occasions; recipient of 2007 Legends in Residential Marketing Award by NSMC through NAHB. Nationally recognized motivational speaker.
Posted In: New Home Sales Training, Real estate courses
Tags: Andy Brethour, home builders seminars, IBS, International Builders Show, Maximum sales, myers barnes, NAHB, Van Rose
You may have heard about Gamal Ibrahim, the 20-something Egyptian man who named his newborn daughter “Facebook” in honor of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, which was almost totally organized on the social-networking site. The father said he named his child Facebook to “express his joy at the achievements made by the youth” in ending the 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. The child received many gifts from family, friends and youth who celebrated her birth and name.
Being named after a popular Website is one way to get people to like you. But there are other ways that will probably work better as you try to establish a rapport with potential buyers. Here are some suggestions:
• People want to feel appreciated, so thank them enthusiastically for taking the time to visit your model home.
• Make sure you’re approachable. Don’t greet them then walk away and bury yourself in your iPhone or laptop.
• Remember their names.
• Don’t act overeager and patronizing.
• Check your personal hygiene throughout the day.
• Find common ground.
• Don’t interrupt.
• Make eye contact.
• Establish an open, relaxed conversation by synchronizing your body language and speech rhythm to theirs. Make sure your words, actions and the tone of your voice all relay the same message. Saying “May I sell you a new home today?” while licking your lips and rubbing your hands briskly together sends a different message than saying “May I sell you a new home today?” while greeting them with a warm handshake and a smile.
• Have a positive attitude.
• Compliment. Don’t criticize or complain.
• Put others first. Remember, what’s good for your buyers is good for your business.
According to the Harvard School of Health Sciences, people decide how they feel about you in the first two seconds of seeing or hearing you. If they like you, they will unconsciously tend to see the best in you and look for opportunities to agree and say “yes.” If they don’t like you, the opposite is true.
Posted In: Customer Service
Tags: eye contact, facebook, Harvard, like, potential buyers, social networking
It takes a person with an entrepreneurial spirit to succeed in new home sales because they have the mindset that they can turn nothing into something. Where most people see an obstacle, they see an opportunity.
For example, when couples walk into a model home, they usually say something like, “We’re just out looking around. We’re not buying anything.”
That kind of response seems to offer little hope of making a sale. However, a salesperson with an entrepreneurial mindset sees through the smokescreen and thinks like this:
Why would they walk in the door if they aren’t ready to buy a new home? Why would they spend money on gas driving around looking at new homes if they aren’t interested in buying one?
I know that nine out of ten homebuyers go online first to check out new homes and communities. So, probably, they have already been swamped by builders’ ads, Websites and the media; and yet here they are … on my doorstep. They can’t tell me they aren’t ready to buy.
Most of the people who come in my front door are on some sort of mission to buy a new home. Even though they say, “I’m not buying,” I know that really means, “I am interested in buying a new home, but I want to look around without you following me. We’ll talk when I’m ready.”
So, unlike most new home salespeople, I don’t take this as a rejection and give up. Instead, I give them some space.
I am very knowledgeable about my community. I can confidently explain to them the value of this home. I have practiced my closing arguments. I am a valuable asset to these homebuyers. At some point, they will realize this and I’ll make the sale.
Why? Because I don’t give up when buyers throw an obstacle in my path. I know it’s an illusion. They may want to give me the appearance that they’re “just looking,” but I’m not buying it.
Posted In: New Home Sales Coach
Tags: closing techniques, entrepreneur, homebuilder, homebuyers, media, new home, New Home Sales, websites
Your new reality begins with imagination.Your ideas become real when you put emotional energy and work into them. What do you want to make happen? The first step is to see it vividly in your mind. Dreaming large ignites passion, and passion inflames purposeful work.
Roy H. Williams poses a penetrating question: “How about you? Do you have the patience, tenacity, and grit to bang the hammer of hard work against the anvil of your disadvantages until you have pounded your future into a shape that you like? Or do you plan to just sit there with your fingers crossed and wait for your ‘big break’ and then when it doesn’t come, whine about how you never had a chance?”
Posted In: New Home Sales
2012: Every tomorrow will be shaped by today’s choices. While tomorrow will be shaped by today’s choices, the day after tomorrow will be shaped by tomorrow’s choices. So everyday-each day you get a fresh new chance to get it right. Happy New Year…many blessings!
Posted In: New Home Sales
Physical pain is a warning to your conscious mind. Business pain works the same way. If your business is in financial pain, it is telling you it has a problem that requires immediate attention. 99.9% of the time you are not equipped to perform your own life-saving surgery. That’s why we exist. I am a Doctor of sales. Schedule an appointment! But of course, no one looks forward to the surgery, even when he or she desperately needs it.
Posted In: New Home Sales
Tags: New Home Sales Training
Do you know the difference between effective and efficient?
Effective means that you can accomplish an expected result. Efficient means you can do it with the least amount of wasted time and effort.
To put it another way, being effective is doing the right thing while being efficient is doing the right thing in the right way.
You are effective when you are sitting at your desk compiling a list of people to call for referrals or listening to a self-improvement CD. If, however, you stop every five minutes to check your e-mails, talk with a coworker or text a friend, you aren’t being efficient.
According to research, the leading time-wasting activities on the job are personal internet use, socializing with coworkers and conducting personal business. These distractions consume an average of 2.1 hours every day. Add to this the time people take off for lunch, coffee, bathroom breaks, errands and smoking, and there aren’t many hours left to be productive.
Another study found that workers spend an average of 11 minutes on a project before being distracted and that, once they are distracted, it takes anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes to return to the original task.
In an eight-hour workday, at what point do these unexpected, unplanned interruptions become disruptions? How can you concentrate on selling new homes if you’re in a reactionary mode all day?
As my mother used to say when someone got distracted from something important, “Don’t get so busy mopping the floor that you forget to turn off the faucet.”
Posted In: Personal Development
Tags: effective, efficient, internet use, New Home Sales, referrals, self-improvement cds, socializing
