A Sales Consultants Biggest Ally: Sell Yourself
August 8th, 2007 Posted in Curt's Articles, How To Sell HomesThrough my research and from my personal experience, I have learned that the first thing to be done in trying to sell anything is to sell you.
Your prospect has to buy you first in order to buy anything from you. This doesn’t mean that you need to become best friends with them before they purchase; it simply means that they need to respect and trust your judgment and guidance.
As you have heard before, first impressions are crucial when meeting people. After all, there is no 2nd chance to make a 1st impression. Therefore your initial greeting needs to be a good one.
Take notice when people pull up to your office. Prepare yourself in the few seconds you have from the time they get out of the car to open your sales office door. Successful sales people rise from the chair in their office and walk over to them and shake their prospects hand. Give them a firm handshake and say something like this, “Welcome to (name of your community), I’m (Your Name)”. Look them in the eyes when doing this. Do not do this in a creepy space invading way, but rather in a professional space respecting way. This means to stand upright at your arms length with a smile on your face.
Follow this up with a pleasant icebreaker question like, “How are you doing today”, “How is your home shopping going”, “Is this your first stop today”, or make a lighthearted comment about something to build rapport. You get the point. Focus on something rather then jumping right into your sales presentation. When you jump directly into your presentation, you are sending the message that you don’t care about them.
In the few seconds you have before they walk in the door and the few minutes your greeting takes, find some common ground. Perhaps it is a logo shirt they are wearing or their children. It doesn’t really matter what it is, but be observant and find something and comment on it. This will take you from being a “Cold Sales Person”, to a “Warm Caring Person”. Keep in mind that people love to talk about themselves and their children. These are two great areas to try and establish rapport with them.
After the greeting, and you are in the good graces of your prospect, you are essentially on easy street. At this point, become a conversational consultant rather then a feature pointing sales person. It is excellent to point out features and benefits of your homes, but when it has no bearing or it does not relate to what your prospect wants, it has no positive effect.