In this series we are talking about the inner dialog we, as new home sales agents, experience when buyers walk through the door.  There may be any number of reasons why prospects push back on price, but it is our job to cut through both the buyers inner reasons for trying to negotiate the price and our own self talk and take control of the process.

Buyer says: “That seems like a lot for this house.”

Buyer thinks: “The house down the street is $5,000 less and you look desperate. Bet I can negotiate and get this price lower.”

You think: “He’s shopped around and found cheaper houses. He’s lumping this one in the same category. I need to show him the many ways it’s unique and sell the features of the house instead of the house itself.”

You say: “Did you notice my new car out front? It’s new. Just bought it two months ago. Shopped around a lot before spending that kind of money. Most people do the same thing when they’re shopping for a new home. I could have bought a less expensive car, of course, but it didn’t have the particular features I wanted. It’s the same way in buying a new home. You can’t just shop price. A new home should fulfill what you need and want for your family. Let me show you how this home does that.”

As you begin to refocus the conversation on features versus price you speak to the buyers own self talk and start to show them what purchasing a home is really about.

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Training

Tags: New Home Sales, new home sales agent, New Home Sales Management, New Home Sales Training, value versus price

Self-talk. Psycho babble. Inner dialog. We all experience it…including those new home buyers who stop by your model homes. Regardless of what they’re saying to you, however, the talk thread inside their heads may be spinning a different tale. So that’s where you need to be…tuning into the what they’re telling themselves. Then when your buyers throw out their objections, you’ll make the connections to what they’re really feeling.

The next 12 blogs will give you some food for thought on the differences between what crosses their minds and what rolls off their tongues.

Posted In: New Home Sales Training

Tags: model homes, New Home buyers, New Home Sales, over turning objections, self talk

New home sales managers, this conference is for you!  If you are a sales manager, CEO or company owner, or a sales professional, these on-site and online strategies to supercharge your sales in 2012 and beyond are designed for you. You will have two days with two of the greatest minds in the business to help you unlock the secret to your sales team’s success and skyrocket your sales.

We invite you to achieve unprecedented success in new home sales management. Supercharged sales managers know that profitable sales and a properly prepared sales force are the key to success. Engaging, enlightening, and inspiring, Myers Barnes – along with a powerhouse team of industry’s best and brightest –  guarantees to show you the way in two action-filled days! He’ll teach you how to race past your goals, multiply the numbers of new homes sold, and recruit a superstar sales team. It’s a practical, yet powerful, results-driven approach to sales management you can’t afford to miss.

Not only will you have the opportunity to experience the energy from Myers Barnes – one of the industry’s most requested advisors, speakers, and tactical thinkers, but you’ll also receive expert advice about online marketing for new home sales from one of the industry’s most sought-after consultants, innovative thinkers, and entertaining speakers, Supercharged Co-Host Mike Lyon.

Mike Lyon will show you the tactical secrets of converting browsers to buyers:

• Build a bullet-proof internet sales and marketing program
• Generate a consistent stream of highly qualified home buyers
• Develop a powerful online presence that attracts customers like a magnet
• Achieve a 30% conversion rate on a prospect’s first on-site visit with the help of a dedicated Online Sales Counselor
• Leverage the very latest—and most effective—online tools and technology to maximize sales
• Maximize your digital outreach investment with Social Media

Myers Barnes will teach you how to:

• Tap into a fresh, innovative business plan that will increase your bottom line and put the fun back into business – today and tomorrow.
• Think like a headhunter and recruit a world-class sales team with Myers’ captivating interview techniques.
• Master the six strategies you need when you transfer from sales to management.
• Unlock your sales team’s potential with the right –and newest – education and training programs.
• Attract Realtors to work in partnership with you – not against you.
• Conduct sales meetings that produce results and inspire your sales team to peak performance.
• Implement creative compensation and incentive programs that attract only the most excellent salespeople.
• Lead Navigate and stay ahead of the market – regardless if the market goes up, down, or sideways.
• Learn everything you need to know to turn obstacles into opportunities.

Hurry, seating is limited and interest has never been higher! This conference will sell out. Click here to register today and reserve your spot on October 15-16, 2012, at Hilton Orlando in Orlando, Florida, for a sales conference that will energize your business, and change the way you think about new home sales.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Training, Real Estate Courses

Tags: Mike Lyon, myers barnes, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training, sales conference, sales manager conference

Sales is a profession, and just like any profession, it requires ongoing training. There is no end to what you can and should be learning. To call yourself a “professional” in this field, you need to do more than spend your days trying to close deals. You need to invest in your sales education.

One of the biggest training gaps I see among new home salespeople is in the fine art of negotiation. Now, they spend their days trying to convince people to buy a new home, and negotiating the deal is the linchpin to success here. Sure, they can close the sale, but did they negotiate the best price for the builder or developer? Are they making concessions too readily?

If you truly want to excel in your field, you need to learn more about the techniques involved in successful negotiation. Take a class. Read. Practice. Learn the secrets of successful negotiation. You’ve got to understand how to read the cues and be ready with intelligent, thoughtful responses. You should know in advance the limits of your incentives and concessions—and be prepared to hold tight to them rather than toss them out freely like beads at a Mardi Gras parade.

You should be so prepared before entering a negotiation that you masterfully guide it to the best outcome for your client. Shooting from the hip in a negotiation is like playing Russian roulette. There’s a pretty good chance you’re going to lose.

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training

Tags: art of negotiation, concessions, negotiating, negotiation, professional, sales, sales education, secrets of successful negotiation, skill

In sales there is a universal axiom that sales trainer Brian Tracy calls The Law of Six.  It states, “customers really have no more than six objections to owning your product or service.”

You may hear what seems like countless objections to sales during your career.  However, if you categorize the objections you will find they normally fall into six basic categories.

In my real estate business, our objections were:

1. Price
2. Competition
3. Performance
4. Finance
5. Third Party Approval
6. Legal and Tax Benefits

After identifying all objections we received regularly, we developed ironclad scripted answers to them.  Thus once we armed ourselves with airtight answers to these predictable objections, which used to block the sale, my company set new sales records.  The point is you cannot wait until you are involved in the presentation and then try to make up an answer.  You must proactively prepare in advance!

Your job as a professional is to discover for yourself, or with your sales team, the six common objections you hear consistently.  Once identified, it’s a simple process of internalizing and memorizing potent responses.  Then when the predictable objections appear, you answer easily and effortlessly and automatically move to the close.

Posted In: New Home Sales Process, New Home Sales Training

Tags: brian tracy, Overturning Objections, real estate, scripts, The Law of Six

When you negotiate a new home sale with a potential buyer, you can expect questions like, “Can you do any better on the price?” and “Are there any incentives you’re offering?” You might also encounter the prospect who wants to know why your home is more expensive than a competitor’s. Do you have answers—or just excuses? Can you confidently explain the home’s value or do you concede?

By stumbling on questions like these, you send a subliminal message to the buyer that you yourself are not fully convinced that the home is priced appropriately. And if you’re not sold on the house, you certainly can’t sell it to anyone else.

Before you enter a negotiation on a new home, make yourself the customer. If you are unconvinced, ask yourself why. What are you finding hard to sell to a customer?

Ask those questions of the builder that your buyers are likely to ask of you to justify the value. Look at the construction, design, amenities, and details. What level of quality and care is built into the home? Consider the location. Is it a premium neighborhood with excellent schools? Is the home situated in a desirable area? If still need a spark, let your colleague deliver his or her sales presentation to you. Ask them the same questions as the builder.

Never walk into a new home sales negotiation until you are 100 percent convinced from the perspective of a customer that this home is absolutely worth the price you are asking. Remember, it’s not about price, but value. Buyers pay for value; price is just one factor.

Posted In: New Home Sales Training

Tags: home sales negotiation, incentives, negotiate, New Home Sales, potential buyer, price, value

I am a firm believer in the precept that wining versus losing is determined more on training days than on the actual day of the game. Translated: The more you study and prepare to sell the more you will actually sell. “Train hard-sell easy.”

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Process, New Home Sales Training, Personal Development

Tags: myers barnes, New Home Sales Training

A recent study conducted by a Harvard Business School professor revealed the number one reason that businesses failed. Do you know what that was? Well, it wasn’t under-capitalization or poor management or even shoddy manufactured products. Although these can all contribute to a business failing, they aren’t the main reason that companies fold. The primary factor that puts businesses out of business is the same one that will sink you … a lack of sales.

How many times do you ask a prospect to buy before he or she says “yes?” According to statistics, salespeople have to ask for the order five times before they close on the sale.

Since it takes more than five attempts to make a sale, you need to stockpile multiple closing techniques that you have scripted, practiced and memorized.

Look at it this way. If you receive more objections than you have techniques, your prospect will always “one up” you, and you may never close the sale. Therefore, the reason you learn multiple techniques in new home sales training is to have more response methods than they have objections. Use each of their “no’s” to lead them upward to “yes.”

Picture this. Every “no” is a rung on the ladder of sales success. At the very top of the ladder is a new home sale. So, every time a prospect tells you “no,” you step up a notch, hold on and stand firm until you get   to the next “no” or, perhaps, a “yes.”

You will find some ladders require many steps; others don’t. What you’re looking for is closure to the sale … whether it’s a “yes” or a “definite no because I’m buying elsewhere.”

One benefit in climbing the ladder one rung at a time is that every step gives you a better view of what lies ahead with your prospects. With each question and each “no,” you learn a little more about what they want and where they stand.  It also fortifies you for the next ladder … and the next prospect.

For those of you who are hesitant to ask for fear of appearing like hard-sell, high-pressure salespeople, remind yourself that asking for the order is the fundamental character trait of top sales professionals. You probably are not going to have any prospects walk into your model home and say, “Hey, will you come over here and sell me a new home?” Therefore, if they aren’t going to ask you, then you’re going to have to ask them. If you do not take the initiative, you will eventually be out of business for lack of sales.

So, stop hesitating! Ask! Ask enthusiastically! Ask confidently! And continue to ask until you reach the top of that ladder and grab that new-home sale.

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training

Tags: new home sales trainer, New Home Sales Training, sales success, salespeople

Yes it’s true, we’ve embraced the most recent social bookmarking craze…Pinterest. This is proving to be a handy place to create graphic displays for some of the most interesting information we can share on the topic of new home sales training.

We’ve created a Profit Board full of some of the best lessons out there on making a profit in the home building industry. This is the place where you will find forward thinking solutions, with a fresh, proven perspective.

On Pinterest you will also find some of our favorite stories. They are faintly familiar fables as they apply to the life of new home sales agents, home builders, and real estate industry professionals.

Another favorite board we’ve created is a general new home sales training board where we will share endless free information and advice on how to achieve your goals as a professional in the industry.

Dive into our Pinterest boards, look around, and you will definitely find something that will spark your curiosity and help you improve your real estate game. There are more boards emerging every day and we will continue to add more wisdom. Come back to our Pinterest boards often and let us know what you think.

Posted In: Leadership, New Home Sales Training, Personal Development

Tags: home builder profit, myers barnes, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training, pinterest, social bookmarking

When I was growing up, if I had told my parents I wanted a tattoo, they would have told me ~ in language that revealed their displeasure ~ that I would definitely not be getting a tattoo while living under their roof. Back then, a tattoo was the mark of a rebel and usually seen only on sailors, prisoners and bikers.

My son Hunter, a successful and published documentary photographer, has several tattoos. I had no problem with them because each one was a symbol of who he was at that time in his life.

He tells me that tattoos, like the photos he takes, tell a story. Not only one that’s etched in ink on the skin, but also a story as to why the person got the tattoo in the first place. The artwork can symbolize a rite of passage, a love pledge, a memorial or an achievement.

Women going through a divorce will often get a butterfly tattoo because it symbolizes rebirth. As one explained to me, “After feeling so rejected, I wanted to mark myself with something that made me feel unique…beautiful.”

In new home sales, you stamp yourself with whatever image you have of “you.” Just as tiny punctures infuse the skin with pigment to form a tattoo, your self-concept punctures your life with thousands of subliminal messages. These form an image of you that others observe in your actions, speech and appearance.

As with a tattoo, what you feel on the inside is reflected on the outside.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management, New Home Sales Training

Tags: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management, New Home Sales Training, self-concept, subliminal messages

The real addiction: We are all fast-aholics. We want what we want-quick and easy. And when it doesn’t happen quick and easy-we quit. Fast-aholism is a real addiction.

Posted In: New Home Sales

Tags: myers barnes, New Home Sales Training

Profitability is your ability to make a profit. Peter Drucker says your purpose for doing business is to cause a profit to be made. There is no justifiable reason to be in business if you are not going to make a profit unless, of course, you’re a nonprofit business by choice … not circumstance.
I ask builders all the time why they’re in business. Most say, “Because I love to build homes for people” or “because it’s my passion.”

That’s honest and commendable; but if you don’t make a profit, you can’t stay in business. I love what I do, too. I would do it for free if I could; but I can’t afford to do that…not for long anyhow. It costs money to fly across country, stay in hotels, dress professionally, upgrade technology, produce sales materials and operate my business. While my mission is to impact and improve the lives of people across America, that’s not my goal. My goal is to make a profit. If I don’t do that, I can’t complete my mission.

It’s the same with you. As a builder, your passion may be to build homes that people love to buy, but if you don’t make a profit, you won’t be able to build those homes and pay your subcontractors and suppliers.
Your mindset should be, “I am a business person first. I have the ability to my use talents, skills, expertise, proficiency, gifts and resources to make a profit.”

Profit-ability. Develop it. Achieve it.

Posted In: New Home Sales Training

Tags: builders, building new homes, Peter Drucker, profit