What if at your next management meeting your company owner sat down in the conference room and announced to everyone that in 30 days every customer would have to pay an extra $500 "experience tax" that would be tacked on to the bottom of every contract? How would you react? How would your other managers react?

Now no one likes taxes, so instead how about we call it an "experience fee." This fee is going to be rather substantial, perhaps up to several percentage points of the final sales price — now how do you feel? My guess is that most people in the room would say that it would cause lower customer satisfaction, that it would increase customer expectations, slow down construction time, and increase your costs (because you’d have to offer something extra to justify it). Here’s the reality — your company already has an experience tax, and it’s built into your current price.

Now the question is are you delivering a good enough experience to justify your higher price? If not, there is always another company down the road that is willing to cross out that experience tax (or substantially lower it) and offers a similar product for a lower cost. If profitability is a chief focus of your organization (and it always should be) then now is when the light bulb should be going off in your head. On many McDonald’s menus they used to say "smiles are free." Yes, smiles are free to produce, but they create an experience and emotion that cause people to buy more or pay more.

Note: I first learned of the concept of an experience tax from What’s the Secret to Providing a World-Class Customer Experience by John DiJulius. I’ve attended his workshops as well — and I highly recommend both.

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.

Posted In: Customer Service

Tags: discipline, Kevin Oakley, management, Marketing, myers barnes, New Home Sales, new home sales management, New home sales marketing, New Home Sales Training

When people complain about ill-behaved children or pets, I always point to the fact that it’s not their fault that no one has established boundaries for good behavior. When a parent ignores a child’s public tantrum or a pet owner can’t control an aggressive dog, the problem lies with poor leadership.

The same truth applies to the bad salesperson. Perhaps you have someone on your team who is under-performing. You’re passing along leads and traffic like a blackjack dealer doling out face cards and aces. But nothing happens. Do you keep shoveling more leads or teach this person to more effectively close sales?
The "bad salesperson"like the bad child or dog” is a reflection on the person who is truly in charge of those behaviors. So, "I have a bad salesperson" is one of the most self-deprecating and derogatory comments a sales manager can make. After all, aren’t you the one who is responsible for hiring, training, and retaining this non-performer? What does this say about your leadership and management skills?

A salesperson needs training to deliver the results you need and expect. Part of being a responsible manager is providing the guidance to help your team grow in their craft. Take the time to determine if your "bad salesperson" has the fundamental skills that are necessary (ambition, communication, initiative). If so, invest in better training and you will experience the ROI. If not, refer to my post on de-hiring.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management Training

Tags: bad salesperson, de-hiring, leadership, management, management skills, ROI, sales manager, training

"It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game."

You’ve heard this platitude many times in your life from a parent, teacher, coach, or friend. But, in the real world, how many times are you measured by your methods and not your results?

Failure is inevitable. No one wants to lose or fail, but it happens. In spite of the countless Baby Boomer parents who drove home self-esteem by pushing the "Everybody Wins" approach, ultimately, everyone succeeds at failing somewhere in their lives.

Look at professional baseball. A good hitter in the major league has a batting average of .300 or higher. That means he hits the ball 30% of the time. But this statistic also means the "slugger" fails to get on base for a whopping 70% of their at-bats. If you couldn’t deliver results on 70% of your attempts, would you be considered a high-powered professional? I doubt it.

While it’s great to drive home the "how you play the game" belief to children, at some point, they will have to accept that, with every winner, there is a loser. Once you grow past adolescence and into your profession, there is a scorecard on you, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. Success is not defined by simply trying. In fact, accepting the "how you play the game" methodology sets you up for failure because you give yourself permission to ignore the outcome.

The most successful home sales professionals I have seen are those who swing for the bleachers every time, putting their full force behind every sales effort with the goal of scoring the big one. Doing anything less than your best out of laziness, fear, or procrastination, is an immediate strike-out.

Posted In: New Home Sales Training

Tags: behavioral economics, failure, home sales, how you play the game, management, performance evaluation, personnel management, sales professionals, success

One of the hardest tasks a manager ever has to do is terminate an employee. This concept of "firing" dates back to medieval times. When someone in a community was deemed to be unacceptable, that person’s hut was burned down, forcing them out.

We’re struggling with an economy that is forcing businesses to downsize. The workplace has become a competitive environment, where those who demonstrate the greatest value win the grand prize of keeping their jobs.

Even in a strong economy, managers have to let employees go, and the biggest reason is poor performance. Whether you tell them the decision is downsizing, a layoff, or outright firing, the result is the same: someone is out of work. And while the terminated employee clearly suffers the greatest loss, it is the manager who has to deal with the tough decision and its consequences.

Now, if you look at the behavioral economics of management, firing is, in truth, de-hiring. And this action is the result of the employee’s actions (or lack thereof), I do not fire anyone; I let them de-hire themselves. If an employee is late every day or unwilling to actively prospect for leads, I believe that person has made a choice not to comply with the clear-cut requirements of the job. With this action, he has chosen to de-hire himself. I merely affirm that decision.

When the termination time comes, I explain, "You’re a wonderful person, but I’m not judging you on your character but rather the fact that you have clearly decided not to comply with the needs of this position. So, do you want to change that behavior or de-hire yourself? The choice is yours."

With this simple statement, I remove any guilt on my part and reaffirm the employee’s responsibility. Behavioral Economics 101: It’s business, not personal.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management Training

Tags: behavioral economics, de-hiring, management, myers barnes, new home sales management, termination

When I work with sales managers, the first lesson I teach them is about the value of behavioral economics. You must be able to remove your emotions when managing people. Your job is to manage, not just systems or processes such as sales and marketing tasks, but people as well. The problem with this reality, however, is that we tend to be very subjective in this regard when objectivity would be far more valuable. We want to view people in a qualitative manner ("he’s a good guy" or "she’s a nice person"). But are these the qualities you seek in a salesperson? Does "nice" close more deals?

When you evaluate an individual’s job performance, you are actually assessing their work behaviors as they pertain to the specific position and goals, not their personality traits. You are not evaluating the human being but the working professional, and it is crucial that you separate the two.

I’ve worked with managers who lose sleep because they have staff who are under-performing and don’t know how to tackle the challenge. Maybe your kids go to school together or you are members of the same community group, so you worry about the confrontation. These are personal commitments, not professional ones. The concern here is more focused on not offending the offender, when it should be tuned in to achieving the goal of betterment. Think of it this way: When you help an individual to improve, you improve your own value as a manager.

Performance is a reflection of attitude, and attitude is a behavior, not a person. Someone who is perpetually late is not a bad person, but simply an individual with bad behavior. Make it clear that the behavior, not the person, is unacceptable. Look at this worker and say, "I’m not judging you as a human being. I’m judging your behaviors, and what I’m seeing is the choice not to comply with the behaviors required for this job."

It’s not personal. It’s business. So don’t personalize your personnel management tasks. You have a business to run.

Posted In: New Home Sales Management Training

Tags: behavioral economics, management, new home sales management, performance evaluation, personnel management

In this post, we continue our discussion of how to properly reach out and engage Realtors in your sales process.

Remember, what the realtor wants more than anything is more REFERRALS. Even with cash incentives, the realtor may feel compelled to pass on some or all of this benefit to their client to get that coveted referral. So if you can structure a program that offers the realtor other incentives in addition to bonuses and good commissions such as trips to a spa, or travel gifts you’ll provide a spectrum of rewards that will help you attract more realtors.

And, if you can provide just as many rewards for the realtor’s clients such as upgrades or additional options, or help with costs or down payments, you will have given the realtor every reason to bring clients to your property.

Contact is also very important It’s not enough to have just an introductory event and send out an occasional postcard. Create events that encourage realtors to bring their clients to experience what your community has to offer, and do them more often. Provide give-away gifts or drawings that reward both the realtor and client for attending.

Always remember: Providing incentives is the key to successful realtor outreach, and that without realtor participation, you’re missing possibly more than 50% of your potential sales.

Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.

Posted In: New home sales marketing

Tags: management, Marketing, NDG Communications, New home sales marketing, real estate, Realtor, referrals, training