I have been to many seminars over the years. Some lasting for days, some lasting for only hours but seemed like days. The one outstanding sales trainer I have seen many times is Bob Schultz. Every time I’ve been to one of his seminars, I have come away with something useful. Bob Schultz is one of the leading sales trainers in the new home building industry. In 2006 Bob was named to BUILDER Magazine’s Power on 50 list: a list of the 50 most influential people in home building.
As sales people we hear the word ‘NO’ more often than we hear the word ‘YES’.’ Bob teaches my very favorite way to turn a ‘NO’ into a ‘YES.’ The next time you feel uncertain about asking for the sale try this, “Do you have any other questions before we start the paperwork?” It’s genius! No becomes yes, and yes brings out hidden objections. Either answer gets you closer to the sale.
Try it sometime, it really works.
Posted in Sales/Marketing.
Tagged with bob schultz, homebuilder magazine, ideas, influential, new home specialist, sales, selling, training.
As we continue to put the finishing touches on our Ultimate Referral Builder and Customer Satisfaction software, I have started making cold calls on Home Builder’s sales people. After engaging in a mix of successful and not so successful conversations, I remembered a sales tool from Dr. Tony Alessandra. He calls it the Platinum Rule. The golden rule tells us to treat others the way we want to be treated. The Platinum Rule says we should “Treat others the way that they want to be treated. After remembering Dr. Tony Alessandra’s advice I made my next few calls focusing on my prospects needs and communication style and not my own. Those calls were more enjoyable and productive. No matter who you are talking to, a prospect, wife, boss, or your Kids, using the Platinum Rule can make you more effective.
Posted in Sales/Marketing.
Tagged with home, ideas, platinum rule, sales, selling, tony alessandra, training.
I was recently at a morning seminar on sales skills. The moderator brought up a great point. How do we break our prospective customers out of their natural pattern. The natural pattern he was referring to is a pattern that society has programmed into us. How many times have we gone into a retail store and been asked by the clerk “May I help you?” What is the most common response? “No I’m just looking.” I’m not the type of person that ‘looks’ for anything. When I go to a store I am there to buy. And yet, I find myself giving the same lame “No I’m just looking” response when I’m asked the same lame “May I help you question.”
How can we engage our prospective customers in a way that breaks them out of the normal ‘just looking’ pattern?
When I was a young lad selling running shoes, without any sales training, I came up with a way to break the pattern. When people came into my store, I would say “Hi!” Far from clever, but as I said, I was young and untrained. The interesting thing is that a few people would still respond with, “I’m just looking.” These individuals had fallen into a certain comfort level with that phrase and probably believed that I would just go away because ‘why would he bother me if I don’t plan to buy anything?’
I would respond with “That’s OK, I’m just saying hi and I’m here for you if you have any questions.” Again…not original, but it was enough to break many customers out of their pattern and also to break the ice. It helped me transition from ‘just looking’ into an engaged conversation.
As a professional salesperson my job is to engage people in conversation. In new home sales, prospective buyers are preprogrammed with three ‘leave-me-alone’ objections:
- We are just looking at decorating ideas.
- We just wanted to see the model.
- (Still an old stand by) We are just looking.
How many people drive around on weekends from neighborhood to neighborhood to look at decorating ideas? And how fascinating could a model home be that I would take time away from my already cluttered schedule to visit? As a salesperson you have to assume the sale. They are there because they are looking for a new home. So how do you engage these standoffish prospects?
A strategy to engage:
- Greet with a simple hello.
- Acknowledge their desire to be left alone.
- Let them know you want to help them accomplish this goal but that you want to make sure that they get the most out of their visit.
- An easy question, “What else are trying to accomplish on your visit today?”
It’s amazing how much valuable information you can gather by breaking them out of their pattern, and changing the emphasis of their visit from your goals to their goals. At URBaCS we’re always interested in learning. If you have an effective way to engage customers please let us know.
Posted in Sales/Marketing.
Tagged with breaking ice, engage, ideas, sales, selling, training.
The Harvard Business School recently posted a working paper outlining how customers that receive emailed grocery coupons will actually spend more money on groceries that they didn’t intend to buy. They go with a budget and then buy items that they normally wouldn’t buy otherwise.
Read it here: Mental Accounting and Small Windfalls: Evidence from an Online Grocer
We’ve seen this same play on human psychology work for homebuilders. ‘Buy today and get $20,000 in free options.’
How effective would this type of campaign be if paired with a personal referral? What if you received an email from your friend, John Smith, that said:
Sally,
I absolutely loved my homebuilding experience with Portman Homes. I know that you and Jim have talked about building a new home and I think you should consider them. If you are interested see the note below.
—
As a valued friend of John Smith you are entitled to $20,000 in free options on your next Portman Home. Simply bring in this referral code: #JSMITH02 and begin building your dream home today!
—
Sincerely,
John
Posted in Interesting Links, Referrals, Sales/Marketing.
Tagged with coupons, email, harvard business school, referral.
An easy idea that a friend of mine shared with me to alleviate procrastinating:
Once a week our manager turns on some adrenaline pumping music and everyone spends the next 20 minutes ‘Doing - not procrastinating.’
Answering emails, organizing workstations, cleaning out the inbox or the desktop. 20 minutes. Once a week. How much more productive would we be if we were diligent enough to have this sort of self-inflicted preventative maintenance?
Posted in Strategy.
Tagged with procrastinate, work.
Seth Godin has posted some interesting remarks comparing Viral Marketing and Word of Mouth.
Viral marketing [does not equal] word of mouth. Here’s why:
Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that’s it.
Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population.
Read Seth’s Blog: Is viral marketing the same as word of mouth?
The power of the Internet makes viral marketing easier than ever. Have you ever seen the Evolution of Dance video? Were you randomly googling a ‘man dancing’ or did someone send you a link or tell you to check it out? The video has been viewed roughly 100,000,000 times and has become a social pop-culture phenomenon.
Wouldn’t it be nice if growing your business was this easy?
Posted in Interesting Links, Sales/Marketing.
Tagged with evolution of dance, ideavirus, marketing, referral, seth godin, viral marketing, word of mouth.
We stumbled across a free alternative to GoToMeeting or Webex called Yugma. True to Web 2.0 form they offer a free ‘limited’ account and then charge for advanced features.
Yugma is compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux. It only took a few seconds to set up an account and I successfully had my mom on the other end of a web demo in less than 5 minutes (which speaks to the simple nature of the software). If you have any intent to demo a software product or need an online collaboration tool that allows you to remotely control a desktop you should try Yugma.
Free Account: Signup Here
Posted in Interesting Links.
Tagged with 2.0, collaboration, conference, gotomeeting, web, webex, yugma.
Okay…we’ve got this great software product that builders are going to love…all we have to do is get it out to them.
So how do we do this?
The obvious idea was to pick up the phone and start making calls. Phone calls are cheap. With the VoIP connection at the office we can call anywhere in the US or Canada for free.
But who do we call?
That’s easy. Decision makers. I want to speak with someone that will tell me yes (and send me a check). So we compiled a list of builders in the Louisville market (based on proximity to Indy) and started making phone calls.
Marketing Lesson: Cold-calling builders in the Midwest about a revolutionary and yet ‘unproven’ Internet product is not as easy as advertised.
The builders that would actually take our calls (very few) had a difficult time understanding what we were trying to sell. Our marketing message was cluttered and we had yet to perfect our elevator pitch. We hadn’t given thought to their perception of our product. We understood it, so why shouldn’t they?
Throw in the fact that our culture has conditioned people to say no. And don’t forget about how slow the building industry is to adopt new technology.
We quickly realized the uphill climb we faced and decided that we needed to reconsider our approach. We have since developed a multi-prong marketing strategy that will be outlined in future posts.
As our focus has shifted from product development to market penetration we have also shifted our frame of reference and constantly put ourselves in our customers shoes.
Posted in Sales/Marketing.
Tagged with cold-calls, focus, marketing, midwest, sales, Strategy.
URBaCS was featured in the October/November issue of TecHomeBuilder Magazine.
I have subscribed to TecHomeBuilder for a few years now and I genuinely enjoy the content. The magazine focuses on technology in the new home market. I knew that this would be a great launching pad to get URBaCS off the ground…but I didn’t know where to start.
So I did what any shameless entrepreneur would do…I called and asked for help. I left a message for the editor of the magazine, Jason Knott, and within 24 hours he had returned my call and suggested that I send in a write-up for our software. Jason guided me through the process and was a tremendous help. He asked for a breakdown of URBaCS then compiled the write-up himself. And I’m very excited with the finished product.
You’ll find the write-up and a screenshot of urbacs.com on page 33 of the magazine. If you don’t read the magazine I suggest you start. You can get a free subscription (for industry professionals) by filling out this form. You can also visit TecHomeBuilder.com.
Posted in Press.
