THE BIG DREAD
Sometimes you may get into conversations that are completely off the topic of home improvement or the specific product you came out to present. That’s good. You need to do that because such conversations create relationships, and business grows out of relationships.
The most difficult thing for homeowners to talk about when you’re selling is how much money they are prepared to spend. The budget is always the big hurdle. The homeowner knows what he or she wants to spend and the salesperson knows what he wants to sell. Neither knows how far away they are from the other. It’s far easier to bring up the subject of money if you’ve created some connection with the prospect early on in the call and have built on that throughout your presence in the home.
It’s usually a good idea to bring up budget after the warm-up when you’re sitting down to look at the project. There are many ways to segue to the subject. You might ask if other people in the neighborhood have recently had work done on their homes and whether or not the prospect knows what those jobs cost. A combination of subtle things like that will tell you what their ideas are about the budget. But you need this information — a number — to do your job properly. So finally you may need to be blunt and say: “This may be hard to talk about, but we want to provide you with a product/project that’s right for your home and that you’re comfortable with. Do you have a budget in mind?” Or, “Did you have any ideas about what you might want to invest in your home?”
Suppose they respond with: “We’re not sure what we want to spend.” Then you know you’re dealing with someone who is really guarded. On the other hand, they may mention a number that you know is doable.
The approach to selling that I’m suggesting is not a canned approach, but it’s one that works in this economy. And it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, whether it’s roofing, siding, windows, doors, a deck, or a kitchen. It’s all about building that relationship. You want to know the prospect’s needs and their end goals, and you want to match the product or project to them and to their budget. Analyzing their wants and needs, getting a firm sense of their budget, building trust, and then getting the sale is all part of the same process. —Speaker and consultant Dennis Schaefer sold Creative Wood, his deck and sunroom company, to employees in 2009. He can be reached at 770.639.7330 or me@dennisschaefer.com.
ARE YOU PSYCHED? You have an hour before the appointment, and you have choices: You can sit in your car and listen to the radio. You can go to Starbucks and, over an Americano, worry about whether or not the customer will like you. Or you can get yourself psyched for that appointment in a way that substantially increases the chances of making the sale.
You can, experts say, put worry and fear behind you and move your mind to the zone where you’re more likely to develop the rapport you need to close. Like a recipe with many ingredients or a high-stakes game, it’s all in the preparation.
GET PREPPED Preparation makes all the difference, says noted industry sales trainer Phil Rea, of R2R Associates. Salespeople who don’t prepare for the call, Rea says, typically default to the homeowner’s agenda and fail to take control of the appointment. What happens then is that “you react to their reactions,” Rea says. He and others suggest these techniques for salespeople to prepare themselves.
Whatever the salesperson does in the hour before the appointment will make a difference, since, Rea says, most salespeople don’t do anything but wait. His own CD, The Drill Before TheThrill, is a popular one among home improvement salespeople. “They need total focus,” he says, “like an athlete going into a football game.”