Beat the Summer Blues!
By Shirleen Von Hoffmann President & Sales Coach for Homebuilders AdvantEdge®
copyright 2009©
It’s 2009 and we are seeing an economy that our country has never seen before. Now as summer is upon us and people start vacationing, it can slow down your traffic. You have options, you can either sit around and do nothing or you can step up and take on the challenge! We don’t have to let the economy or season dictate OUR success. Selling during these times can be more challenging yet top producers are not feeling the pinch as much as others. How can you ensure you prosper during these times? With action!
Do you ever notice how top producers are busy no matter what? Even in tough times, top producers continue to sell as if there were no challenges. That’s because great sales people stick to their good habits no matter what.
Following are 10 key habits that will make your sales season & recession proof! The actions you take now are the ones that will make it a GREAT finish to 2009.
1. Set Goals
Do you ever drive to a place that you have never been without directions?
Then don’t start each day off without direction. You can’t get where you want to be if you don’t clearly know where you want to go. Write down your goals for income, work, home, family…whatever is important to you. Then write an action plan of what you are going to do to achieve those goals. You should be touching on these goals and actions to achieve these goals each and every day.
2. Always hone your sales skills
You can never stop learning, growing and honing your skills, no matter what. All top producers challenge themselves with sales training, reading, practicing their skills. Learning new skills and seeing them work on your prospects is what makes sales fun!
3. Prepare strategically
Research industry trends, what is your competition doing, what are other cities doing, other states? Use the information to plan strategically with your managers so you can compete in the market place and be the best you can be.
4. Sell from their prospective
Prepare, practice and script every stage of your sale. You need to research what is going on inside their heads so you can prepare and communicate value to them. Look at it as, “What’s in it for THEM” and follow a process to connect with the person. Ask awesome open ended questions, facilitate their understanding of the process of buying and what it means to them, work through objections and ASK for the sale. If you don’t get the sale on the first try, make sure you follow up with them until you do.
5. Identify alternative prospect streams
Think creatively on who may want to buy your homes and come up with a strategy to market to them. There are some industries that are positively impacted by a slow economy, can you market to them? Look for opportunities to bring in alternative prospects that the Builder’s advertising may miss. You know who comes in to your models, are you tracking where they come from on a map so you can market to them? Is there past builder communities you can market to? Are there employers you can market to? All of these are alternative prospect streams.
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As far as sales, what is is that you do really well? What is your forte?
