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Sell by Objective — New Home Sales Training

July 2nd, 2009

Humans are essentially goal-seeking organisms. Give us a task and we will make an effort to achieve the objective. The trouble is, we aren’t always clear about those goals, or we set the wrong ones.

Years ago, I advised salespeople that if they made 10 calls a day, they would get rich. Not long after that, I was approached by a steady stream of disappointed sellers who had indeed dialed the phone ten times in a day but were nowhere close to the wealth they sought.

I wasn’t clear when I made the “10 calls” suggestion. I should have been more specific. The goal was not to merely make phone calls but to secure appointments. If these people understood that they were supposed to focus on gaining those commitments as opposed to just making phone calls, the results, I’m certain, would have been different. The salespeople would have addressed their prospects in a different manner.

So, I revised my advice. Get one appointment every day, no matter how many calls it takes you to achieve that goal. Sell by objective, not just numbers. Here are four major objectives every salesperson should follow.

1.    Make a sale today. That’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it?

But what if I can’t make a sale today?

2.    Sell the contingency. Put a hold on the property or write up a contingency agreement.

What if I can’t get a contingency?

3.    Sell the appointment. Set up a time for your prospect to return.

And if I can’t??

4.    Sell the reason for follow-up. Call back with more information, pricing, or other update. Try this: “We’ve covered a lot of territory today. What is our next step together? What information do you need from me to keep moving in a forward motion.” Then be quiet and let them talk.

If you cannot achieve even #4, consider changing your career.

Myers

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Posted by Myers Barnes

Complaining is a Trap: New Home Sales Training Video

June 30th, 2009

Check out my latest new home sales training video “Complaining is a Trap”:

Keep checking back each week to get more FREE New Home Sales Training with my new video training series.

And keep selling, super achievers!

Myers

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Seeing is Believing — New Home Sales Training

June 25th, 2009

The human being is usually born with five senses: Sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. A major university recently completed a behavioral study to discover which of these senses influences a person’s purchasing decision. What makes us buy?

The results showed that 89 percent based a salesperson’s believability on what they see. Ten percent is a reflection of what the customer hears. And only one percent comes from the senses of touch, smell, and taste. I’ve heard some salespeople have baked cookies in the oven of a model home because they believe the wonderful smell influences a buyer. If only it were that simple.

With these statistics coming from a very reliable source, I have to wonder why it is that so many salespeople never leave the sales center. Here, they show a prospect a series of floor plans, site maps, and elevations — one-dimensional representations — and expect them to be inspired to make a purchase. What would get you more excited: a post card from a tropical beach or an actual visit to one?

One of the ten critical steps of the new home sales process is getting a prospective buyer to select a site. If 89% of the believability is seeing, then file the site map and take them to see the property! Don’t get stuck in the false security of your sales center. Security doesn’t sell homes. Excitement does!

“But I can’t get them to go!” is the frequent whine I hear. Then don’t ask for permission! Try this: “I’ve got something exciting to show you. Let’s just take a few minutes….” Be bold and assertive. As Judd Ziglar says, “Timid salespeople have skinny children.”

If you want to succeed in new home sales, appeal to the sense of sight. When you have an exciting product, let it make the pitch for you!

Myers

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Pricing of New Homes: New Home Sales Training Video

June 23rd, 2009

Check out my latest new home sales training video “Pricing of New Homes”:

Keep checking back each week to get more FREE New Home Sales Training with my new video training series.

And keep selling, super achievers!

Myers

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Leave Commodity Selling to Someone Else — New Home Sales Training

June 18th, 2009

I do a significant number of seminar presentations in the course of a year, but I’m not in the seminar business. That would make me a commodity. I’m in the experience business. Attendants at my workshops don’t just sit and listen to me drone on about my accomplishments. That would be boring — even for me! These people come for inspiration. They want ideas on how to improve their home selling techniques and strategies for better marketing practices.

You don’t motivate an individual by giving hand-outs or instructing them to read a book. Those, too, are mere commodities. Inspiration comes from communicating passion. When I can deliver a meaningful experience that has inspired an individual to elevate their thinking, the value outweighs the expense of attending a seminar.

That’s the difference between selling a commodity and delivering an experience.

A house is a commodity, like a television set, piece of furniture, or a car. Conversely, a home is a place where you surround yourself with the people and things you love. It’s your oasis from the outside world.

Why do you think the electronics store has all of its television sets turned on? Why does the furniture salesperson invite you to stretch out on the high-priced, memory foam mattress, or the car salesperson insist you take a test drive? The reason is, because they are selling the joy of having this item — the experience — not the features of a commodity.

You will gravitate toward the larger television screen with the better picture in the store because you can see the difference and feel the excitement of a more enjoyable viewing experience.

You feel the incomparable comfort of the expensive mattress and realize that the price difference, when divided over the life of the mattress, is negligible. Because after lying on this mattress, you will never, ever be satisfied with anything less.

And when you get behind the wheel of a new car, experience the rush of the revving engine that is so much better than what you’re currently driving — coupled with that new car smell — you feel incredible. The solid thump of the car door that has not endured countless slams, the spotless car mats, and a dashboard that sparkles like a starry sky on a summer night — these are the features that shift the vehicle from commodity to a joyous experience that you simply can’t walk away from.

A house is a commodity. A home is the experience. A house is the television that is turned off or the price tag hanging from the mattress. A home is the purr of the car engine, the Super Bowl in high-definition on a 50-inch screen, or a divine night’s sleep. As the credit commercial has reminded us time and time again, that’s “priceless.”

Myers

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Why a Home is Not an Address — New Home Sales Training

June 16th, 2009

One of the biggest lessons we learn during a recession is the value of a dollar bill. The dollar menu seems to grow at the fast food eateries. People who would ordinarily toss a dollar or two into a Salvation Army bucket or the street performer’s cup are less hesitant to part with their money so quickly.

Let’s face it. Money is security. A few dollars does not make you feel secure. A million dollars could make you sit more comfortably, depending on how you’ve invested it. In the business of new home sales, the choke-hold of this economy has spawned a population of tight-fisted prospects. So let’s turn our thoughts to how we can loosen that grip.

The purchase of a new home is the single biggest investment that most people will make in their lifetime. It’s no easy task to guide them over the threshold of fear and doubt that goes with committing to the purchase.

First of all, you need to differentiate between a house and a home. A house is where you live. A home is how you live. One is a physical location and the other is an emotional experience. When you are helping someone make this decision, you need to understand this distinction. You don’t just point out a fireplace. You sell the comfort of a crackling fire on a rainy weekend afternoon when the best thing you can think to do is curl up on the couch with someone special or even a great book. And a bedroom isn’t just somewhere you place your furniture. It’s a comfort zone, whether you’re happy, sick, tired, or simply feeling like pampering yourself by sleeping in.

When you transfer the worry about the investment of buying a house into the emotional security of living in a home, you will turn your prospect into a homeowner.

Myers

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The Magic of the Experience — New Home Sales Training

June 11th, 2009

Are you battling the price war in your sales efforts? Do you feel like you have to bottom out your bottom line just to stay in business?

When you feel like taking a hatchet to your price, stop for a moment and think of this: Disney.

Does Disney push you to buy a pass to just one theme park? Do they entice you to come for the thrill of a single ride? Do the ads sell you on a hotel room as a destination or the dining experience of a particular restaurant? Of course not. What Disney sells is a magical experience. The big picture is a mosaic made up of tiny treats that combine to create a vacation like no other.

According to statistics, the average family that visits a Disney theme park consists of 4.5 people who come for four days and five nights at a cost of $5,000. That’s no small investment these days, but the parks continue to fill up. Perhaps in a down economy, the magic of Disney is more important than ever.

But I have to believe that the success of Disney is the corporate culture that is fully invested in delivering a magical experience. And it doesn’t just happen with a spray of pixie dust — even though they can easily make us believe otherwise.

I challenge you to put the magic of Disney into your selling strategy. Visitors invest $5,000 in a Disney vacation because the cost of admission is at least equal to the pure enjoyment they get in return.

What is the cost of admission to your theme park? It’s the price of a new home. How can you turn your sales presentation into a magical experience? What can you do for your buyer that will make that individual not just agree to purchase but be thrilled to do so?

Sell the joy of the home, not the price of the house. Deliver the experience and share the magic.

Myers

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2 Comments | New Home Sales, Personal Development, Real estate courses | Permalink
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Better Choices, Better Results — New Home Sales Training

June 9th, 2009

In a recent post, I wrote about making different choices in order to get the results you want. Shortly after, I was having lunch with a friend who was complaining about her weight gain. She made this statement, straight-faced, while she cleaned her plate of the cheeseburger, fries, and even the dill pickle on the side. I think the diet soda was the depth of her commitment to weight management.

I wanted to remind her that the cheeseburger didn’t fall into her mouth. The waitress didn’t ignore her unspoken desire for salad nicoise with fat-free dressing on the side and instead force the high-caloric meat patty and grease-soaked fries on her like a robbery victim at gunpoint. It was her choice to eat it.

And to those people who complain that they have no money, I have to ask, “Who spent it?” Did you invest in in the wrong places?

If you’re lost, who chose the path? Was the map wrong?

Sir Issac Newton defined an undeniable law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every choice, there is a consequence — positive or negative.

In metaphysical terms, what goes around comes around. You reap what you sow. Good, bad, or neutral.
Success is your choice. You choose your job, your friends, and your home. You pave the way for your outcomes with your choices. Do you want prosperity? Then make the choices that will lead you to that destination.

Myers

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Choose to Succeed — New Home Sales Training

June 4th, 2009

“All things come to those who wait.”

If there is truth to that cliché, then we should get what we want just by sticking around, right? If I hang in there at my job, I’ll get a promotion. If I wait long enough, I’ll get the house I want. So, I’ll just sit here and watch the clock.

Does that make any sense? If you want to achieve great things in your life and for your life, you have to actively pursue them. Success results from the choices you make, and the chances you take. It doesn’t happen by being a bystander.

Whether you live according to a set of religious beliefs, philosophical conviction, a metaphysical connection, or the rules of quantum physics, you are making a choice. Socrates and Plato defined the laws of cause and effect. Do this, and get those results. Simple. So, you make a choice and there is a consequence.

Let’s say you don’t like the consequence. Maybe you just made a bad choice. Don’t accept the result. Trace the effect to the cause, and then change it. If you don’t like your life, make different choices. If you don’t like where you are, move. You’re not a tree. Yes, you have roots, but you can transplant them!

Jesus taught us that if you don’t like the harvest, it’s because of the seeds you have sown. So, give yourself a fresh start — a “do over” — and plant a new seed or even a whole new crop!

Myers

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Closing: New Home Sales Training Video

May 14th, 2009

Check out my latest new home sales training video “Closing”:

Keep checking back each week to get more FREE New Home Sales Training with my new video training series.

And keep selling, super achievers!

Myers

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The Reality of Creativity — New Home Sales Training

May 12th, 2009

I recently talked about the importance of creativity when pursuing realistic financing for your buyers. Does “creativity” mesh with “realistic?” I thought about it and came to the conclusion that they can work wonderfully together. There’s a sort of Zen-like harmony to blending creativity with a healthy, reality check.

Being creative means allowing yourself to step beyond the boundaries of conventional solutions. You look at a problem and come up with all the possibilities to tackle that task. It doesn’t matter how far-reaching your initial thought is. Give yourself permission to wander. Don’t dwell on the problematic aspect of the situation but focus instead on where you want to end up. What is the desired result? Then explore the ways in which you can travel the road from Point A to Point B. And, unlike your high school geometry teacher proclaimed, it’s not always a straight line. Look at some alternative routes.

Stop focusing on the brick wall in front of you. You can’t find the financing? Wrong! You haven’t found it yet. You can’t sell a certain house? Wrong! You haven’t yet identified the right buyer. The key is “yet.”

Just because you’ve hit obstacles doesn’t mean you can’t reach your destination. Brainstorm ideas. Come up with options. Then weigh the possibilities. How can I make this happen? What steps do I need to take? A well-tuned reality meter doesn’t say “no”—it just says “not yet.”

Myers

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Rejection: New Home Sales Training Video

May 7th, 2009

Check out my latest new home sales training video “Rejection”:

Keep checking back each week to get more FREE New Home Sales Training with my new video training series.

And keep selling, super achievers!

Myers

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