We get sad when we see how hard a sales consultant works and then we see them blow all the effort because they don’t have courage to ask the customer whether they would like to Reserve.  We would be less sad if we heard sales consultants asking how what you had done with the customer had helped them in their buying decision and which home they prefer at this stage.  Sadly we don’t hear either of these often enough.

Think about how you value yourself, and what you do.  So many sales consultants NEVER ask for the business. Please don’t be one of those sales people who do so much good selling and then fail to ask for the sale. 

It’s a common mistake and you can put it right!

Asking for the sale or ‘closing’ is vital so always make sure you gain customer feedback and commitment, it is this gradual approach that will increase your Reservation rate!

We believe that good closers do everything they need to do make it easy for customers to say Yes so we challenge you to make sure that as you work with your customers, you are giving them plenty of opportunity to make small decisions to narrow down choice and get to a plot specific point when it makes sense for you to ask that they reserve the home with you.

Close little and often helps to develop confidence on both sides

Customers need to be confident of their ability to make a great buying decision.  You owe it to the customer to make it easy for them to buy by inspiring them with your enthusiasm.  If you don’t ask, you won’t get it! So remember your customer needs you to ask so that they can say yes!!

Choose your time, choose your question – Is this the home you would like to reserve? Which of the homes you have seen do you prefer?  Given the choice, would you rather this one or that one? What for you is the next step? How has what we have done helped in your buying decision?

There are so many ways for you to lead your customer confidently to the close, plan out how you will ask the next customer you work with.

All your customers have only one radio channel; a channel that they hear 24/7.  It’s called What’s In It For Me Radio!

Given that the only sound your customer’s ears are filtering is based on how what they hear relates to their reality, your ability to laser target what you say in a way that is tailored to them, you need to be sure that when you are working with a customer you are:

• Using PowerPhrases that mean what the customer hears from you is targeted to their reality – to do this, you have to get to know them
• Really listening to what they say and you use your best facilitation skills to constantly affirm your understanding and build the customer’s confidence in you as an expert who can really help them in their buying decision
• Gaining commitment from your customer little and often.  Try to think of your sales experience as though it were written down.  You would not be able to easily understand what you were reading without punctuation.
  • Closing little and often is about building punctuation in to the sales journey; where there is a comma, ask a question to gain commitment to a decision. 
  • Where there is a full stop, ask a clear commitment gaining question – affirm where you are in helping the customer to make their buying decision.

Our best tip is close little and often;
create the opportunities for the customer to get used to making decisions

Build up the customer’s confidence to make a great buying decision with you

In all of our work with sales consultants, there are 3 vital elements of the sale that we recommend happen when the customer is emotionally engaged in the home you are directing their attention to.

Here are the 3 elements that we recommend you include in your demonstration, each helps the customer in their decision making and helps you too.

3 essentials to build into every home demo

1. Take time in the journey to clarify the financial plan and what needs to happen in order for a sale to proceed.  As you are discussing the possibilities of a home with the customer and they are engaging with you try this ‘now is probably a good time for us to revisit how you will finance this/a home here’.  Take a few minutes to really understand how the purchase will be financed and what needs to happen to confirm the customer’s financial affordability
2. Find the moment to explain the Reservation Process – make it sound easy – a Hop > Skip > Jump!  Don’t over complicate the process of buying, make it sound easy.  Give the customer the language of buying so that when you ask them ‘what their next step is’, they feel equipped to move forward
3. Reduce how often customers say ‘I need to go away and think about it’ by planning in your demonstration to leave the customer alone for a few moments – time for the customer to make their internal buying decision. 

Small changes to make a BIG DIFFERENCE is what we are all about
We hope you commit to trying these ideas out –
we know they work and will help you to achieve more sales

Buying a home is a highly emotional event and if the customer has not been able to rationalise their understanding of the home you are presenting to them to buy, they will be less able to allow their emotions to be maximised.

You need the customer’s desire for the home you want them to buy to be high and their confidence to make a buying decision even higher!

We recommend that being disciplined in your sales structure enables you to:

• Take time with your customer to  understand what they are trying to solve or change in their life through their new home before you present what you have available
• Use what you have to view – may be a home or you may be off plan and need floor and site plans
• Spend a few minutes making sure the customer understands why you are proposing the homes you suggest you look at
• Build their confidence by helping them to understand how the home you are showing will add value to their lifestyle

Our best advice to you is …

• Do more asking than telling
• Change from over-presenting and under closing to closing little and often
• Make everything you say worth hearing
• Get the customer talking twice as much as you do!

No one can change these behaviours for you, only you can make your difference. 
Give it a go; you’ll be glad you did!

So often we see Sales Consultants falling into the classic mistake of talking about all that they have available on their site and even saying early on how much is yet to be built. 

If there’s one thing that kills urgency, it’s knowing that there is so much to be built that time doesn’t matter!

Our challenge to you is to be plot specific in your selling.  How can you talk about a specific plot early on with your customer until you know how it will suit their lifestyle and benefit them?.

Even if you have limited choice, it is far more effective to hold back what you know of your availability until you have qualified enough and are able to say something to your customer like …

We work with lots of sales people who genuinely believe that they have done everything with a customer that they possibly could have and cannot put their finger on why a customer who could buy just didn’t.

We know that one of the reasons that people who can buy don’t buy is because they can’t reconcile the price you are asking with the value of the home.

Coaching your customer to understand the value and impact that their new home will have on their lifestyle is a key responsibility of your role. 

Telling the customer what you know about your development, the local area, the home you are selling and how much you think the customer will love living here is just not enough.

We recommend that from today, you start crafting powerful phrases to use with your customers; PowerPhrases that will provide your customer with real clarity on how what you are talking about will add real value to their life.

Here are some areas you can start crafting PowerPhrases for:

• Make your brand valuable to the customer
• What has been designed into the home that will add value to the customer when they live in it?
• How will the customer benefit from the build warranty they get?
• How will your company’s Customer Care add value to buying from you?
• Educate your customer to the sustainability and build technology that will add value to your customer
• How does the customer benefit from what you are demonstrating over what else they may have seen in other properties?

You need only 3 or 4 PowerPhrases in each of these areas, and then you need to practice dropping them in throughout the sales route you take with each customer.

Keep adding value to your customer all the way

This could be the biggest yet easiest change you make in your sales approach and we promise that if you stop overpresenting your information and underclosing, you will accelerate your sales – it’s worth mastering!

We see sales people overpresenting and underclosing, all you need to do is to flip the balance the other way!

Be more clever and concise in the presentation of your information and overclose; little and often – it’s the recipe for sales success.

High value product sales are based on both rational and emotional decision making.  You need to make sure that when and how you present what you know about your development and the home that is available for this customer to buy is tailored to the customer in front of you.  You really need to make sure that everything you say is valued by the customer so timing and explanation is key.

Here are 3 ways to improve your presenting and maximise your closing:

• Chunk your information so that you trade it with customers
• Practice a 2 for 1 qualification
• Practice tagging an effective question after every piece of information you give out

 Try to be really conscious of what you are doing to:

• Hold back your knowledge and impart it so that it is valued by the customer
• Tailor your presentation to match and meet the customer’s needs
• Use known information to gain commitment to the next step of your selling
• Maximise the use of your visual aids to gain understanding and commitment
• Create the customer’s dream
• Build trust with the customer by proving that you know what you are talking about
• Get the customer to give you more feedback so that you can gain their ongoing commitment

Give it a go!  Make some small changes to achieve a BIG difference in your selling.

Remember to trade your information with your customers

Your information is valuable to the customer and used well, can help the customer to add value to their perception of the home you would like them to buy.

Your customer by the way, while intelligent, will only have a short attention span unless they are specifically hearing something that is so relevant to them they want to make sense of it.

Try practicing a 2 for 1 ratio with the next customer you talk to – that’s the customer talking twice as much you are, not the other way round!

Why is this effective?

Just this discipline alone will make you more conscious at listening because to trade your information you have to do 3 things:

1. Practice breaking up your information so that you are giving your customer a headline of information
2. Make sure that how you say what you are saying adds value to the customer’s perception of the home and how it will add value to the customer’s new lifestyle
3. Be clear of what the gain is of everything you say.  Learn how to craft PowerPhrases that enable you to express in a seemingly casual way how you explain the benefits of buying a home from you 

Success comes from implementing conscious habits; sales success is not achieved by shooting from the hip.  Practice, practice, practice so that you are perfect when a real customer presents themselves to you.