In my work, I travel around the country and meet countless people. Those who attend my seminars are in search of something better. Here are the most common wishes expressed to me:

“I want to be wealthy.”
“I wish I had the ambition to get to the next level.”
“I just want to experience happiness and serenity in my life.”
“I’d like to be smarter.”
“I wish I weren’t so bored.”
“I’d love to rediscover my health, energy, and vitality.”

And, whether spoken or unspoken, the end statement is “but I can’t.”

There is no mystery to achieving goals, but most people don’t take the necessary steps. And the first one is this: Plan.

A coach does not lead his team into a big game without a strategy, a plan to maximize his players’ skills and strengths and the weaknesses of the other team.

A builder does not walk onto a job site and start constructing a house without a blueprint.

So why would you tackle your future without first establishing a plan to make the most of your time, talents, and opportunities? If you want to become wealthy, create a wealth plan. If you want more joy in your life, craft a happiness plan. Determine those things that will make you wealthier or happier and determine a strategy and schedule to incorporate them into your life.

It’s time to embark on a “can do” plan, to ignite those sparks that once fueled your achievements. As trite as it might sound, it’s not that you planned to fail, but that you failed to plan. Start right now. Look at those goals that have eluded you. Build a plan with specific tasks for actively pursuing the end result you desire.

Then take step 2: Act on your plan. But that’s another post for another day.…

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The brain is a magnificent tool, when used correctly. Unfortunately, most people misuse it. Your brain responds to questions, those that are asked of you and those that you pose to yourself. Your brain is reflexive. It shoots back an answer to a question like a skilled tennis player in a volley.

The true challenge here is the quality of the questions. Do you lob easy queries to yourself or do you slam thought-provoking questions that test your brain? Ask a dumb question and you get a dumb answer—the old garbage in, garbage out methodology. But this type of thinking does nothing more than shuffle junk around, leaving the vast potential of your mind power unexplored.

What do you do when you’re sitting in your model or sales center, waiting for someone to wander in? Are you surfing the Web in search of something to do this weekend or a great deal on a new gadget? Have you convinced yourself that the next person who comes in will just be a looker with no real buying plans?

Try revving up your brain’s potential by asking questions that can help you improve your sales skills:

How can I uncover a new customer?
How can I deliver a better sales presentation?
How do my customers benefit by choosing to work with me?
What new thing can I learn today that will make me a better salesperson?
How can I get a referral today?
How can I expand my outreach?
What can I do to improve my attitude and think more positively?

Don’t just think about these questions. Take out a pad of paper and write down your answers. By asking solutions-oriented questions, you become an active idea generator.

Bill Gates once asked himself, how do we become the intelligence to run every computer in the world? This was a thoughtful question that made him think carefully about a realistic solution. The result became Microsoft.

Ask yourself the right questions and your brain will lead you to the right answers.

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PGA golfer Freddie Couples was once asked how to make a hole-in-one. He looked at the interviewer and responded, “aim for the pin.” Unsatisfied, the reporter said that was good advice but he wanted to know more specifically how Couples could achieve such a rare feat.

The average golfer, said Couples, aims for the green. “I aim for the pin.”

The answer was simple. There were no deep roots in biomechanics or physics. Just like a child can solve a Rubik’s cube because he doesn’t over-think the challenge, we can find answers by simplifying our mindset.

The referral process is one system that has become far to complex. You might have tried to court referrals, buying their allegiance with gifts and incentives. In truth, the process to win referrals is far simpler than that. Here are four, no-cost methods that will earn you the referrals you want and need:

1. Be punctual. Show up on time, open your model on schedule (or earlier), keep your appointments, and call when you said you would. Never offer excuses. Being tardy communicates that your time is more valuable than your client’s. Quite simply, you appear indifferent.

2. Do what you say. In today’s culture, exceeding expectations has become the exception, not the norm. If you do what you say and fulfill your promises, you exceed expectations. If not, you’re perceived as negligent.

3. Finish what you start. Be committed to following a task to completion. Plod through the whole delivery process. If you skip steps or abandon the project, you’re sloppy.

4. Say “please” and “thank you”. Be polite and respectful. Otherwise, you’ll seem arrogant.

Put yourself in the place of the prospective referral source. If you encountered a salesperson who was indifferent, negligent, sloppy, and/or arrogant, would you be motivated to refer business in his direction? Customer satisfaction earns referrals. Do your job well and aim for the pin.

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A home sales center should be welcoming and comfortable — for the guests. As a salesperson, you should spend as little time as possible sitting in your office. Sales don’t happen here. Sure, you handle the paperwork and finalize details here, but the deciding moment will occur at the site.

Tom Richey, the brain behind the “Top Gun” sales and marketing seminars, said, “The more I site, the more I write.” He knows that as a new homes sales professional, you need to show, more than tell. A customer who is considering the purchase of a homesite or new home should be escorted to the site under consideration. Site plans, elevations, floor plans, and spec sheets don’t sell homes. Talking about the wonderful amenities doesn’t close the sale. This type of one-dimensional selling works for catalog and online shoppers but they aren’t making the biggest investment of their lives there. And those purchases are returnable.

Take them to the property. Let them see where they could be living, see the view, and imagine themselves in this space. Take in that new home smell.

The job of the sales center is to whet the appetite with visuals that entice. You should have the eye candy that gets your prospect to the “ooh and ahh” stage. Don’t allow yourself to be lulled into the comfort of this space because “comfort” doesn’t close the deal. Excitement does.

Seeing is believing. Seeing is selling.

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I’ve blogged in the past about the importance of creating a “magical experience” for the home buyer and compared the feeling to a Disney vacation. I recently talked about this strategy with a woman who had never been to the happiest place on Earth. She couldn’t quite grasp the magic I was describing.
So I asked her to tell me the difference between a magical date and an ordinary one. Her eyes sparkled as she clearly recalled an event that exceeded any other in her memory.

While she reveled in her reverie, I said, “That’s what I’m talking about. You remember the magical evening while all those less memorable dates fade away behind the better memories.” And she understood immediately.

Now imagine if your customer could fall in love with the new home you’re selling. By helping them discover the magic of living here, you can. Court them with the enthusiasm and passion of a suitor. Make the extra effort to put them at the center of the experience, one where they drift into the unrivalled joy of buying and living in a new home. You can do that by putting their needs, interests, and desires at the center of the discussion. Just as with a Disney vacation and your magical date, it’s about the overall experience, not the individual bits and pieces. The bouquet of flowers, the starlit boat ride down the river, and even the discovery that the two of you share the same favorite movie are the separate ingredients that contribute to — but don’t make — a magical experience. Each, on its own, is special but not exceptional. It is the sum of the wonderful parts that create the stellar buying moment.

As a new home salesperson, court your buyer with the goal of delivering the magical, memorable experience that not only sells the home, but also creates a happy homeowner who will make happy referrals.

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Last year, I went to a car dealership a few miles from my home to buy a car. The salesman showed me a brochure with beautiful pictures. Then I test-drove the model that interested me. I told the salesman that I liked the car but wasn’t in love with the color. He responded that he only had two on the lot and that if I wanted the car, I had my choice of white or white.

I was ready to buy. The only hurdle was the color. And I knew from many prior buying experiences that auto dealers use an online locator and switch cars to make a sale. But the lazy salesperson wasn’t ready to make the small leap to get the sale.

I walked out of showroom, drove home, and did my own locator search. I found a dealership 15 minutes away that had four cars in the color of my choice. I drove there that afternoon and bought the car. And I also returned there for service, even though it would be more convenient to use the closer dealership.

The same laziness that I experienced with the first salesman is a chronic problem with many new home salespeople. They need a jolt of a sales strategy Tom Hopkins calls “one like the present”. Get out of the sales center. Show them the homesite where they can envision their new life. Help them experience the dream and then make it happen. And it doesn’t happen when you don’t take control of the situation and guide your buyer — not in any economy, but especially not in a down one like the present. Get out of the sales center. Show them the homesite where they can envision their new life. Help them experience the dream and then make it happen. And it doesn’t happen when you don’t take control of the situation and guide your buyer to the purchase decision.

As Tom Hopkins states: ”Put a little GOYA into your daily routine.”

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I watch QVC. I admit it. It’s not because I’m a fan of gadgets or a collector of costume jewelry. I tune in to see the selling expertise. QVC should be required viewing for any salesperson. Every day, you can receive valuable sales training. Here are seven lessons I’ve learned from this home shopping cable network.

1. Always create urgency. On QVC, there is always a clock is in the background. Tick tick tick. “Here’s a one-of-a-kind collectible.” Tick tick tick. “You never know when we’ll have this again.” Tick tick tick.

2. Be a great storyteller. Don’t sell the product; sell the story behind it, the experience from it, and the excitement surrounding it. Use the power of third party testimonials. QVC gets call-ins from satisfied buyers who sweeten the appeal of the item on the selling block. “I bought that spatula that holds bacon while it flips the egg and it has made cooking breakfast a breeze.”

3. Be enthusiastic and have fun. Selling is the transfer of emotions. Energy levels are infectious — whether they are high or low. Animate your presentation and your buyer will be carried along on the wave of excitement.

4. Build value. Many viewers switch on QVC as a distraction. They’re “just looking”. But within minutes, they’ll frequently find themselves drawn into making a purchase on impulse because the salesperson has made it irresistible. Price is secondary when the appeal is sufficient to the buyer.

5. Have a scripted and planned presentation. Look at QVC sales stars like Warren Popeil and Suzanne Somers. They aren’t salespeople by profession. They follow a prepared script and understand which “touch points” turn a browser into a buyer. They don’t just wing it.

6. Use thoughtful language. Words are powerful tools. Weave a colorful tapestry that inspires imagination. For example. QVC doesn’t sell costume jewelry. A cubic zirconia on this channel is describe as “diamonique”, bringing with it the essence of a valuable jewel. The setting isn’t gold-plated; your exquisite 2-carat, diamonique solitaire is set in 24-karat layered gold. Elevate your words from ordinary to extraordinary. Sell a homesite, not a lot, and a home, not a house,

7. Close throughout their presentation. Count it. Every 120 seconds, the QVC pitch person issues a close. Time is running out. This exceptional leatherette case is easy to care for yet has the look and feel of buttery soft Brazilian leather. I’ve just been told we only five left. Look at the compartments. And look how easy it converts from the shoulder to the hand strap. Doesn’t this look better than the case you’re carrying around now?

Analyze your selling process and you’ll realize you can learn a lot from QVC.

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There are, depending on the size of your business, somewhere between 10 and 1,000 people who care enough about your company to offer free advice, insight, and the unfiltered truth directly to you. Each month you can ask these people anything about your business that you’d like to and get back a response rate of around 70%. Get ideas for new products, feedback on new ad concepts, or simply ask for their solution to your biggest problem. It sure beats talking to the mirror where all you get are predictable answers to your questions. Wait. There is a catch though – the cost. It’s anywhere between free and $599 a year.

This is what I call a customer advisory board, and you can have one in four easy steps.

1. Invite your customers to join
- For my home builder, I simply added one statement to the end of the survey that is filled out at the end of closing. It states “I would like to participate in the customer advisory board to give critical feedback on a variety of issues. I understand that I will only receive one survey per month, and that there will be rewards for involvement.” Over the past year and a half about 40% of those surveyed have opted-in.

2. Choose your survey tool
- I recommend either www.SurveyMonkey.com or www.Zoomerang.com. Survey Monkey offers a $200 per year unlimited use plan that is perfect for medium to large companies and remains light on the budget.

3. Create your survey
- Both sites mentioned offer What You See Is What You Get survey creation. If you can create a word document, then you’ll be creating surveys like a pro in no time. Get creative and ask questions that help you solve problems for yourself and others in your company! You won’t believe the looks you’ll get when in the meeting of a meeting you offer “hey, why don’t we just ask 200 of our current customers what they think?” Try and keep it under 5 questions – show them you value their time.

4. Send the survey, and reward someone
- No more than once a month, send out the survey to everyone on your list. Then from those that respond select a winner at random. Be sure to announce the winner at the beginning of your next survey. It makes the winner feel good about being recognized, and it shows everyone else that you really do reward good behavior.

There you have it. Why not tap into this powerful form of research starting today? Stop talking to the mirror and break out of the corporate bubble. They may not say exactly what you want to hear, but aren’t you getting sick of listening to your own echo?

A couple of quick hits to keep you out of trouble:

- This is NOT quantitative research. Do not make the mistake of using this as THE decision making tool (keep flipping a coin for that). It only offers insights, and sometimes can raise as many questions as it answers. That is not a bad thing.

- Sometimes the customer isn’t right. Apple computer knows this – they don’t ask people what they want. Instead, they create something that people will want before they know they want it. If you ask the group to give input on something that’s never been done before, expect some puzzled responses. A more concrete example is this – don’t ask your advisory board how much profit you should make on a home. They will probably not give you a “right” answer (However, their perceptions may surprise you!)

- Remember that these people have already done business with you before! That’s good because they know how you operate, but it sometimes means you have to be creative with your questions so you don’t offend or alienate them.

- Two or three times a year let everyone on the board know how their feedback has caused change at the company. This helps them feel connected and keeps them excited, even if they aren’t winning the monthly prize.

Author Bio:
Kevin Oakley is a branding and marketing expert specializing in real estate. He is currently the Director of Marketing & Sales Training at Heartland Homes— a top 100 builder. You can interact with him on his blog at www.brandpossible.com.

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If you’re thinking that all you have to do is present the benefits and amenities of a new home in order to entice a sale, stop.

There are four key questions you must answer — whether the buyer asks them or not — when making a sales presentation.

1. Why me? As a salesperson, you’ve got to nail this one because if you aren’t crystal clear as to why you’re the person to buy from, your prospect won’t have a clue either. You are the conduit to the home buyer realizing a dream. But you must first instill the confidence that you are the right person to make it happen. Share your track record. Let them know you excel in your field. Talk about long-term relationships that have developed with other buyers.

2. Why us? In addition to your stellar record, you need to communicate the value of the company you represent. A buyer purchases from you but that company looms largely in the background. Are your guarantees etched in stone? Does your company have a record of compelling value and a service department that is second to none?

3. Why here? You’re asking this buyer to invest in a community of homes and its owners. Give them the motivation to choose this location over another. Point out the town’s investment in the infrastructure, the recognized quality of the school system and local health care facilities. Draw attention to the value of the neighborhood that surrounds the home so they can envision not only living in the home but in the community as well.

4. Why now? This is a tough one, particularly in light of the “sit and wait for the prices to drop” game that’s going on. Sell the urgency. Is this the last home on a desirable cul-de-sac? Are other buyers showing serious interest? Is there a time-sensitive purchasing incentive dangled by the builder?

When you are prepared to deliver these answers, you should also be ready to close the sale instantly.

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Be sure to stop over at www.builderradio.com and check out my podcast interview with my friends at BuilderRadio.

Boost Sales by 30% With a ’1 in 3? Referral Strategy

Click Here to Listen Now >>

In this interview, we discuss how to build a predictable business by initiating a strategy that will give you a return of 1 in 3 – for every three sales that you make to a walk-in or to a Realtor, you can get one additional sale by following this simple 6 step strategy:

Step 1: Anticipate cancellations. Make two calls in 24 hours.

Step 2: Explain your customer care commitment. Your customer care commitment is going to involve three sub-steps. Customer care is going to be a weekly preemptive customer service call. In addition, it will be a weekly email and then you’re going to give them your scheduled days off.

Step 3: A weekly or biweekly photo of their home.

Step 4: Lunch on the day of their move-in and a gift subscription to the local newspaper.

Step 5: Anniversary card after they move in.

Step 6: Non-traditional holiday card campaign.

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In reality, there is no question of “if” you’re going to make a mistake. The only unknown is “when” and “how big”. We all have setbacks. We experience financial losses, disappointments in our careers and our lives, the difficulties of personal loss, like divorce, addiction, accidents, and even deaths. The people who know how to both overcome and learn from those missteps are the winners. Do you possess the power of the comeback? Or do you cling to the woes?

So why would you tackle your future without first establishing a plan to make the most of your time, talents, and opportunities? If you want to become wealthy, create a wealth plan. If you want more joy in your life, craft a happiness plan. Determine those things that will make you wealthier or happier and determine a strategy and schedule to incorporate them into your life.

So, you need to effectively gauge your “get over it” factor. How long will you wrestle with a failure? I used to warn my wife, after a particularly frustrating setback, that I intended to be the most negative person on the planet for 24 hours. I would fuss, whine, grumble, and growl for one day only. Being the tolerant, patient, and understanding woman I married, she knows enough to ignore my tirade. We both know that this 24-hour period is my “get over it” process. She also suggests that I spend a little time listening to my own motivational tapes.

How much time will you allow yourself to grieve or grouse? Can you set and adhere to limits so that you don’t invest too much time in such a fruitless expense of time and energy? Your answer will determine which group will take you in: those who make it or those who don’t.

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Brandy loyalty is the holy grail for marketers. Building a relationship so strong with a consumer that he goes out of his way to buy your product is the key to success. We know that it’s far more cost-effective (about seven times less expensive!) to retain a customer than to find and cultivate a new one, yet so many businesspeople fail to invest in this hidden treasure. They make assumptions that one purchase will lead to another, ignorant to all the threats and challenges that could alter the relationship—whether it from a more aggressive suitor/competitor or the customer’s dissatisfaction with your product or service.

Loyalty is an emotion. It comes from the trust that is built over time. A single purchase cannot instill that level of commitment. Brand loyalty arises from a relationship where you continue to deliver quality, in the form of service and personal attention after the sale. You build a loyal customer when you call a few months after your happy customer made the purchase to see if your buyer is, in fact, still happy. You inquire as to anything further you can do.

You nurture loyalty by exceeding expectations—and in a culture where most people fail to live up to their word, all you need to do to exceed expectations is to actually deliver what you’ve promised!
Loyalty is not an entitlement. It is the result of being the best you can be. And remaining committed to your customer’s 100% satisfaction is not just smart business, but a moral obligation.

Posted In: Blogroll, Customer Service, Marketing, New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing, Personal Development, Real estate courses, Recommended Blogs, Sales Management, Uncategorized, new home sales management