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LeBlanc
& Associates
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Issue 16 Summer 2001
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The Front Porch Hello! This is such a simple word to start any initial contact between friends, visitors, business associates, etc. Think back on how many ways you have heard this word spoken. It can be spoken with warmth, friendliness, cheerfulness, and in a welcoming manner. It can also be used in a short, clipped, impersonal and not so welcoming manner. So how do your agents say hello to your prospective buyers? The initial contact in any sales encounter is critical. It is basically where the sale begins. With a proper greeting, a visitor to the sales center will instinctively know if he or she will want to spend any time with that sales representative. Is the agent cheerful? Is the agent friendly? Is the agent glad to see the visitor? Or is the hello just routinely offered as part of the opening script? You know the one . . . "Hello. Welcome to Stone Castle. We have four plans. The models are to the right. Here is a brochure. I will answer any questions you have when you return." Oh well. Another tract. Another sales office. Another set of models. Just like the 15 others I have seen in the last few days. Nice start! Top of page I always like to encourage agents to treat each visitor as if they were visiting the agent's home. After all, isn't that what they are selling? If a sales agent takes the time to define what they do . . . they sell homes, dreams, a future . . . then they might rethink how they greet their prospective buyers. Stop to think how you welcome people to your home. Hopefully it is warm, inviting and emotes a sense of "glad to see you!" Why should it be any different in our sales centers? One of many categories we address in our evaluation reports is the greeting and establishing of rapport. Does the agent immediately acknowledge a visitor? You'd think so. But it is amazing how many agents don't feel it is necessary to even offer a visual acknowledgement when they are on the telephone. Let alone briefly interrupt another conversation to offer a quick 'hello' or 'welcome' . . . I'll be with you shortly acknowledgement. While it rarely happens, I have even witnessed an agent who would not interrupt her lunch to greet a prospective buyer. Hello? Does the agent establish direct eye contact? When any of us are about to purchase a home, it is to say the least, a major investment. Major investment decisions require trust in the person you are about to conduct business with. Not looking directly at your visitor does not instill a sense of trust. What is that agent not telling me? Doesn't that agent feel I am important? Does the agent relate well to the visitor? While it is a challenge to like everyone that comes through the door, the sales professional must find a way to find a conversational comfort zone with each of them. Does the agent utilize sufficient discovery questions to determine to whom they are selling? How can they personalize their presentation if they don't know if they are selling to a family, what the family likes to do, an empty nester couple who just wants some peace and comfort in their next home, someone who wants a home to entertain, etc.? Sales presentations must be paced to the personality and needs of the prospective buyer. Top of page Does the agent offer his or her name and obtain the prospective buyer's? Why do so many agents wait so long before they ask for the name of the person they are trying to sell a home to? Why do some agents never ask at all? Does the agent make the prospective buyer feel comfortable? In today's selling market, agents have multiple challenges they deal with on a daily basis: Closings, priority lists, long escrows, impatient buyers, etc. This can wear on an agent. The true professional checks the negative emotions resulting from these challenges and creates a comfort zone for the visitor to the sales center. If a prospective buyer does not feel comfortable around an agent (don't bother me, I'm busy attitude), then why should they go on your priority list when there are other lists to go on where the agent makes me feel good? The message to agents is not to minimize the importance of the initial contact. The smile on the face, the handshake, the glad to see you tone in your voice is critical to establishing the right atmosphere for selling your homes. In short, welcome your buyers home!.
First Impressions Home Front: Like many professionals in this industry, I have long stressed the importance of the initial contact between the sales agent and the prospective buyer. While we all know how critical first impressions are, the concept seems to get lost with many agents. What are your observations of the greeting stage of a sales presentation in our sales centers? Manny Schatz: In a retail store, you are generally greeted with "May I help you?" Or, "Are you finding everything you need?" When you walk into a new home community sales center, our agents offer "blah, blah, blah, and our models are right out that door. Let me know if you have any questions." This is not the preferred way to first meet our prospects and to establish either a relationship or any comfort level on their part. HF: Sales agents need to know that in order to obtain essential information about their buyers, they must establish an atmosphere of comfort and trust. This of course starts with the greeting. Your thoughts? MS: The greeting is the first crucial step in the Critical Path Selling that predisposes the prospects' willingness to share vital information. It begins with the greeting and continues throughout the initial period spent with the prospect in the sales center. It is imperative that the greeting is sufficient to establish the beginnings of a relationship that will allow for qualifying to occur. HF: Over the years I have witnessed the same standard greeting by sales agents. It is almost as if they run on a programmed tape. How do you think that affects the prospective buyer? MS: Prospects have been preconditioned by their entire retail buying experience as well as their contacts with other new home sales agents. They arrive fearful of being pressured and/or being subjected to a sales 'pitch' they would like to completely avoid. That is why we so often hear, "I just want a brochure," or "We are just looking." HF: How do you define a proper greeting? Top of page MS: A proper greeting is much more than the traditional handshake and exchange of names. It is a period of casual conversation intended to help create rapport, comfort, trust and confidence. It is also a period of pace setting. HF: When I was a sales manager, I was amazed how one of my agents was so adept at changing his greeting. He shifted from voice intonation, to what he said, to a song on one encounter! What do you tell agents so they do not continually use their 'taped' greeting, i.e. blah, blah, blah? MS: Sales professionals should have multiple and distinctive opening greetings that can be utilized and modified as the need arises. The greeting moment is the first occasion to professionally and positively differentiate your community and company from your competition. HF: Once the sales agent creates rapport and trust through a proper greeting, how do they transition to the fact-finding aspect of their sales presentation? MS: Vital information about the prospects must be discovered in a friendly, non-intrusive, non-threatening fashion. The sales professional needs to understand the prospect's financial capabilities, how soon they need the home and what will excite them about it. Only when the proper relationship has been established and the necessary information has been acquired, are the sales professionals prepared to sell. HF: I have observed through our evaluation process of agents over the years, that only a handful of agents understand the word qualify. How do you define the qualification process? Top of page MS: To fully qualify means more than simply identifying needs, wants, urgency and financial ability. It also means discovering their DOMINANT BUYING MOTIVES (DBMs). DBMs are the emotional triggers for the buying decision. These are the motives sufficiently strong to outweigh their buyer apprehensions, fears and other strong sources of sales resistance. HF: What are the basics for an effective greeting and qualification process? MS: The basic performance standards for these areas can be summarized by: Always
move to greet and acknowledge new arrivals with your eyes, hand
gestures and friendly comments. Kudos Korner This past quarter found another series of stellar agents from a specific builder, Jackson Properties. Each agent brought his or her own unique style to the sales process. Jackson
Properties Doug
Szopinski Traci
Pate Mona
Santo John
Krakora Fieldstone
homes Broker Programs 10 Broker outreach should be a specific, focused part of our marketing efforts. Typically, Realtors will have a conversion ratio about four times a great as our own staff. This is not an indictment of our teams; it recognizes that our Realtor partners deliver prospects that are further into the buying process. Whatever is our level of Realtor participation, we should measure it, manage it, and maximize its impact. If Realtor sales are part of your program, you may want to consider some of the following ideas. Rather than having the traditional food at several sites, try a mega event less frequently. In Tucson, we once had a Mardi Gras event that was an outstanding success. At each site, we had small gifts of company-branded trinkets. Every attendee was able to leave ONE business card at each site. All our sites were open for agents all day. At the end of the day, all were invited to our Design Center. There was great food, live music, beads, clowns etc. All the sales staff attended to schmooze the guests. Several draws were held from the cards deposited at every site. Again, we gave away (nicer) prizes that had our name, logo etc. The grand award was drawn from all cards from each site. Those that had visited more sites had more business cards and more chances to win the grand prize: three months of a billboard on Interstate 10, with the picture of the winner, a dedicated phone number to measure how many calls resulted, and all costs of photography, production etc. Our approved lender, title, escrow, and casualty insurance companies subsidized the substantial cost of band, food, entertainment etc. Their representatives were on hand as part of the team, and to conduct some of the draws. Top of page To say that it was a howling success would be a masterpiece of understatement. It was great for outreach, great for morale and wonderful to have the attendees boast of how well they were treated. Some still talk about it years later as a fabulous event. In that city, we launched a Broker Advisory Council that met quarterly with our senior marketing-sales executive, a couple of sales managers and the senior manager of our captive mortgage company. Typically an evening meeting with dinner/snacks, it was designed to seek the advice of Realtor opinion-leaders. Their ideas were always heard, usually valued, often implemented. They always received a gift, the most popular of which was a simple plaque, very well designed, in excellent calligraphy and beautifully framed. It announced their appointment to the Council, had the Realtor logo, our logo, etc. and proclaimed that the named member was an outstanding member of the real estate community, recognized by the profession for his/her excellence, professionalism and leadership. We used these meetings as well to give a little advance notice of our plans, new developments, etc. It also got the message out that we wanted their business. BUT, we would not insult the Realtors who work hard in their profession (like those on the B.A.C.) by tolerating 11th-hour agents. I wanted to get the political coverage to help with the inevitable threat by the same 11th- hour agents that would try to extort a commission by saying how unfair we were to Realtors. It worked. Top of page We announced that we would name a street after our top-selling outside Realtor. You can imagine how many times Randy Hodgman, an outstanding RE/Max agent, would show homes on Hodgman Boulevard, or in the community where his name and unique spelling was used on a main street! Cost: $0. Impact & value: you decide. We signed up a very popular real estate trainer to teach continuing education classes every month. I needed them for my own staff anyway, but held them in our training theater, with room for many others. If my own staff attended, we would obviously pay for their re-licensing. Otherwise all continuing education was at their personal cost. Realtors were invited by flyers on site, personal calls and notices at Realty offices. There was no cost to attend. We always had coffee and bagels for the classes and were granted a few minutes to pitch our company. It was always very well received . . . every time resulting in applause for us as the sponsor. Next edition - Brokers Programs 201. Dave Harding CMP is Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Western Pacific Housing in Los Angeles. He is a nationally accredited trainer of new home sales professionals and an incurable observer of our fun profession. He can be reached at 310.665.3750 or at dharding@wphi.com. The Eyes Have It Even with
the best product in the best of markets, success ultimately
relies on the quality of representation in your sales centers.
In our Video Profiles, we capture your agent's entire sales
presentation through the eyes of the buyer. Get the whole picture.
Managers and agents are able to see what our evaluation reports
have reported. Denial of the report is eliminated. Training.
Use a Video Profile from LeBlanc & Associates to show your
best sales agents demonstrating their selling skills. Quality.
Our company has established itself as the premiere sales agent
evaluation company in the building industry. Our expertise in
the housing industry enables us to suit your needs and provide
you with a quality video. Technically speaking. All work is
done in-house so that we have direct control over the entire
process. With our state-of-the-art editing suite, we can offer
the best evaluation service in the industry. Give us a call!
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