Price is defined as what we pay for a new home. We write a check, use some of our savings and have just bought a brand new home at a set dollar amount (price).
Cost is what we will pay for the new home we have bought over a period of time.
Those who buy a cheap home will most likely have more service bills and higher emotional inconvenience — expenses that will last as long as the home is owned. They may have bought a home at a lower initial price but at a higher cost.
If you interpret what homebuyers are actually saying, it is this: They want to pay a fair price for a new home that won’t give them grief in years to come. Their top priority is good service, which means they know they can trust the salesperson to “tell it like it is” — to give them the information they need to make an intelligent decision and not pigeonhole them as “cheap.”
In other words, when they’re saying low price, they’re really wanting lowest cost. Therefore, your job as a professional salesperson is to question them more thoroughly on what they really want (price — cost — value) and define the difference for them in terms of your new homes, neighborhood and service. This is defining value. And value is always “perceived.”
Each one of your prospects interprets value in his or her own personal terms. Therefore, your mission in new home sales is not to work at lowering the price of your homes, but to work at understanding how each prospect perceives value.
