Each and every one of us has his/her own sales techniques; we use them every day: at home and at work, even when we do not suspect it. We
use it to sell the real estate at work; we use it to sell our point of view on certain domestic issue, we use it to convince our kids to do their homework and our clients to buy this certain property. We use it, we use it “to sell” tangible and intangible goods, ideas, services.
I decided to write about “selling” because I had a curious conversation yesterday with a person who does the tree cutting. I need to cut my trees around the house,(and badly) and I was ready to make this purchase , although not with this seller. Why? Because the sales person of the tree cutting company violated 5 major rules in sales: Rule #1 “Don’t talk bad”. When we are buying something: real estate, fancy dress or even, when we buy the service of tree cutting, we don’t want to hear about the bad things. We want to have a positive experience during and after the shopping, so when meeting the client to show him/ her property “Be positive”. Even if the property has its flaws, you can show the buyer how to resolve the issue and what positive outcome the buyer may get, rather than telling your client: “well, if you are buying this property, make sure you have enough money for plumbing, because it will flood the whole house if you won’t do the repairs”. A scary description, isn’t it, so you instead of emphasizing what bad might happen, emphasize the good i.e. the outcome if the new homeowner will change the plumbing. (funny on one hand, but on the other the buyers Love to hear how great their new house will be, rather than what bad things might happen to them if they don’t do certain repairs). Concluding everything said I can define Rule of sales #2 “Show the positive outcome for your client”, even if the game is bad.
Rule #3 “Educate and Empathize”:You know there are people and companies who actually provide the “unpleasant services” and do it very successfully. Example? -> Divorce lawyers. How do you explain to a mother of two that she is not getting a lifetime alimony from her soon to be ex-husband, or how do you explain to a father of three that the child support will be no higher than XYZ? Yet , good divorce lawyers manage to resolve these issues , by educating their clients about the law, empathizing and educating their client again. Surprisingly good divorce lawyers get most of their business from referrals, why can’t you? You, as a person who works with real estate provide much more “pleasant” services, so by educating you clients and emphasizing them you’ll leave the positive impression about yourself as a professional and even if they won’t buy from you today, they will remember and buy from you tomorrow or refer their friend, who needs help in buying/selling the property. By the way, my tree cutting man, did a perfect job of educating me about why I should cut the trees, but when my eyes were wide open I I was ready to buy ( and forgave him talking bad in the beginning he violated another rule in sales)
Rule #4. Don’t miss the purchase signals, know when to stop selling and just close the deal. Let’s return to my tree cutting man. After he drew the scariest picture to me of how my trees are going to: damage my roof, hit my neighbor’s car, break the windows in my house and hit the cars passing by. After he built the value of his services by explaining that it nay cost more to repair the damages later , than cut the trees now, he told: “Ok, gotta go. I hope you’ll think about it…” I was standing on my porch with my mouth open “Ha? Really?” He didn’t even leave me his phone number or name, although I told him that I realize that I need to cut my trees and that I’m planning to do it in the nearest future. We can learn two lessons from this example: Know when to stop selling and start closing the deal.Why not stop selling me the value of the service and ask me, why I don’t cut these trees now? Why not figure out my objections and work with them? Rather than continue selling the service to me?
Same in selling real estate, if the buyer likes the house, but isn’t ready to buy, ask why? What’s holding him/ her and figure out how you can overcome these objections. If you won’t the other agent will and so, who is gonna sell the house then? The second lesson we can learn from this example is Rule #5. Stay connected with your prospect, but value your time. You should stay in touch with your prospects and that your prospects should have at least your phone number and email. (It doesn’t mean that you should bombard them with spam,
but reminding about yourself once in a while may help). You can send a newsletter to your prospects once a week/ a month (depending on the type of business, real estate), you can invite them to join you Facebook page or just an occasional phone call will do the job. You never know where will the next client come from, right?
Good luck in sales!
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