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.

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

Tags: homesite, new home, New Home Sales, new homes sales professional, sales center, Tom Richey, Top Gun Sales and Marketing Seminars

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.”

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

Tags: Get Off Your Anatomy, GOYA, homesite, myers barnes, sales center, sales strategy, Tom Hopkins

What is the true definition of incompetence? How do you recognize it? And how do you deal with it? Learn the essentials of managing incompetence within your sales team in this new home sales management training video.

Can’t see the video? Click here to view it on YouTube.

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

Tags: incompetence, myers barnes, New Home Sales Management Training, new home sales managment training video, youtube video

When you are healthy, sickness is not on your mind. You just take for granted that you will keep breathing, your heart will continue to beat, and all the internal organs are humming along as they should be. Similarly, when you have a comfortable financial cushion, you don’t worry about money.

Health and wealth are both deficiency needs. They only rise to prominence in your actions when they are lacking. The time to think about your health is before you get sick. The time to amass your wealth is when you are healthy.

Recently, I have seen people close to me be forced to deal with serious health and/or financial issues. It’s an eye-opening experience. I’ve seen how neglect can take its toll on a person and the people around them - loved ones, friends, co-workers, employees, and the many people who rely on an individual to be an active participant in their world.

Health, I have discovered, is the greatest gift you can have. All the wealth you can imagine will not help you if your health is compromised. Take preventative measures. Don’t skip that annual check-up or ignore a symptom. Get the tests that are recommended. Follow your doctor’s guidelines for diet, activity, and vaccines. Because you will not live forever but you can make smarter choices to live longer.

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

Tags: annual check-up, deficiency needs, health, myers barnes, preventative, Real Estate Courses, wealth

The dust is settling, and a new world lies before us. Things have changed and we can’t just start operating again as we did during the boom, nor can we continue to act as we have during the recession. New Home Builders and Sales Teams must have new methods, strategies, and modalities to be able to understand this new world and truly be successful.

That’s why I’ve developed the Myers Barnes Thrival Kit for CEOs, Company Owners, and Sales Managers. Packed with the knowledge and know-how your team will need to maximize your return during the coming recovery, the Thrival Kit can be yours simply for the asking just go to the contact form on my website and enter "Request Thrival Kit" in the message box area. Learn the new landscape and be prepared to thrive again!

Keep Selling,

Myers

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

Tags: myers barnes, New Home Sales Management, New Home Sales Training, seminars, thrival kit

Why do so many sales managers invest more time shuffling forms around than investing in their team members?

The average sales training program of the average new home sales company looks like this: The newbie walks in, ready to get started and looking for orientation from a mentor/advisor. Even a racehorse with the finest pedigree needs to be trained and nurtured to achieve its full potential. Instead, the manager hands off business cards and keys, directs the salesperson to the model, and says, "Go sell something."

After 30 days, when nothing is happening, the sales manager gives a diluted Knute Rockne speech, "You’ll get it eventually." But how? It’s not an innate talent. The salesperson is left with no guidance, no insight, and no advice for making improvements or building selling skills or sales strategies. The racehorse is in the stall.

Sixty days later, this unknowing salesperson isn’t making sales and is put on notice. Hey, you opened the gate. What more do you need to do, right? But are you at all surprised when the performance that you’ve witnessed for the past 60 days doesn’t change?

After 90 days, he’s out of a job, as clueless about the sales process as the day he walked in the door. This salesperson might move on to another organization, perhaps a competitor, where he gets professional training and support. And he could ultimately be making the sales for someone else when those sales could (and should) have been yours!

I don’t understand why so many managers invest more time in their paperwork than in their "people work." Do they hide behind the piles of forms because it’s just easier than making the effort to nurture a team? Is it because these managers just don’t understand the importance of training and leadership? When you hire a salesperson, you make a mutual commitment. Live up to your part of the bargain if you expect to spend time in the winner’s circle.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management

Tags: New Home Sales Management, New Home Sales Process, New Home Sales Training, professional training, sales strategies, sales training program, selling skills

This is a bit of a rant and justifiably so. In the last few months it has come to my attention the most disruptive student who attends my corporate sales training seminar is the sales manager.

We tell all leaders the training is most effective when the CEO, Owner and Management team attends. It is a strong message to fully engage as an active participant and demonstrate by action, rather than words the importance of education. Makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Yet, here is the reality; the Blackberry remains on, and is constantly checked, and in most cases email replies are actually taking place. Furthermore, if an incoming call is deemed important the (ineffective) leader will leave the room and take their call.

I could give you a few clichés such as "walk the talk", or actions speak louder than words", or even "people do not listen to what you say, rather they watch what you do."
Rather, I’ll quote Albert Switzer: "Teach people at the school of example, they will learn no other way."

You think about it, Myers

Myers Barnes
Myers Barnes Associates, Inc.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management

Tags:

Sometimes I may write for myself, to myself.

Winston Churchill, a person who never quit in a lifetime of challenges and setbacks, may best be remembered for the shortest commencement address ever given. Speaking before the graduates of Oxford University he said, “Never give up!” A few seconds passed before he repeated, “Never, never give up!” Then he returned to his seat.

Enough said,
Myers

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

Tags: new homes sales management, new homes sales marketing, new homes sales training

Lloyd Conant, one of the founders of Nightingale—Conant, the largest producer of audio programs on success in the world, came to the conclusion that “success is goals and all else is commentary.” People with clearly written goals simply accomplish vastly more that those without them could ever imagine.

Let me ask you a question. If the evidence is conclusive, why is it then in every instance and in every study only about three percent of adult Americans have a clearly written plan (goal) for their lives? I would suggest it’s because, for most people, goals do not represent the opportunity to achieve, but rather the obligation to venture beyond one’s comfort zone.

A goal is a planned conflict with your own status quo. In simplest terms, reaching a meaningful goal means doing something new and leaving the familiar terrain of your personal comfort zone. Probably one of the main reasons people do not set goals is because they must be willing to forsake old patterns and push toward new behaviors.

It has been said, “Fully 95 percent of everything you do is determined by your habits, good or bad.” What is a habit? It is an automatic, trained response – a predictable ritual. Therefore, your first and greatest goal in life should be to form good habits that will automatically enhance the quality of your life, as well as broaden the scope of your achievements.

Remember, “Goal setting is a planned conflict with your own status quo.” It’s not what you necessarily need to do that keeps you from reaching what you want, but rather what you need to stop doing. In essence, goal setting is the realization that if you want a new result, you must be willing to become a new person. And that takes work.

As the saying goes, “Getting in means getting out.” You cannot take on something new without consciously deciding to discontinue something old. Effective goal setting requires the courage to stop doing the things that you know are destructive to your life and career. Like the early explorers, you, too, have new worlds to explore and conquer.
So what’s stopping you?

Image source: ©PhotoXpress.com

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

Tags: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management, New Home Sales Management Training, New Home Sales Marketing, New Home Sales Training