Thank you for being part of the Queen of Sales blog, which shares insights on the subject of New Home Sales.   The Queen works overtime so you receive relevant sales and training information that you can utilize in your day to day skills.   May you use it to further your knowledge and insure your success in the real estate industry.

Here’s to your success in 2012,
Shirleen

I wanted to take the time to send you Holiday Greetings and wish you a prosperous New Year to come. I am so blessed with your fellowship and business.

Even though it has been a challenging year in the New Home Building industry, it appears to be picking up and in 2012 I think we will start to see the turnaround we have been waiting for. Slowly but surely this economy is going in the right direction. I know from a training and shopping aspect, business has been definitely picking up and Builders are really making sure their Sales Teams are the very best. I know this from not only my business but my colleagues are saying the same.

In the new year I hope you will be joining me at the IBS International Builders Show in February in Orlando. I will be speaking on 100 ways to maximize your traffic. Should be a great show. I truly love what I do and feel blessed to do it, please let me know if I can help your company in Sales Training, Coaching or Secret Shopping in the New Year.

I hope you and your family are happy, in good health, prosperous and truly enjoy the Holidays. I know how important good health is and I wish it upon you and everyone you love. I also pray for peace, prosperity and a wonderful 2012 for you.

At your Holiday table please give thanks for the final return of our soldiers yesterday and that we are finally pulled out of War. Boy is that a Christmas present or what! I pray each one of them returns safely and is able to adjust to a normal life after what they have been through to serve our country.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Shirleen shirleen@homebuildersedge.com

By Shirleen Von Hoffmann President and Sales Coach for HomeBuilders Edge and the Queen of Sales ™

Does that sound familiar?
Are you ready for this regular objection you get every year at this time?
What’s your response to this?

My response would be, “Great, let’s plan a date good for you in January, and I’d be happy to give you a call then. In the meantime I will keep you informed on any great deals I may get throughout the holidays, because this is the time when we have incredible sales!”

As the Holidays approach many of your clients lose their focus on house buying and dive into the Holiday Rat Race. But don’t let that make you lose your focus. Many may think the Holidays are not a good time for Sales or prospecting but the opposite is true. Many Top Producers will tell you the Holidays are their busiest months. Why?

• Because they “focus in” when everyone else is “focused out”.
• Because they realize that prospects walking in their doors are really serious or they certainly wouldn’t be there.
• Because they realize it’s a great time to prospect when the traffic is lower.
• Because in December it can be a slow month in many industries, some people are on vacation and in most offices tend to slow down. What this means is that prospects may have more time to speak with you and or to meet with you.
• Because things are slower, prospects are frequently less harried and stressed out. Always good news!
• Because it’s a great time to show Realtors that you appreciated their business.
• Because it’s also a great time to map out your New Year and where you want to take your career goals.
Really work those coming in the door everyday knowing they are precious and serious. Continue making your follow up attempts and you will be surprised at the results you achieve. When you stay engaged in your prospects in December you will be able to hit the ground running in January with new Sales, a pipeline of qualified prospects and solid appointments.

Which means you will leave your competition singing the Holiday Blues!

Happy Holidays and Happy Sales!

Gratitude is a spiritual practice that I take seriously, not just once a year but daily. However, Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to share gratitude to friends, family and everyone whom we come into contact with.

So whether you are a current client or a Client to be, we want to take this moment to wish you blessings and hope you share a wonderful blessed day with your families.

We are thankful to be in contact with you throughout the year. Good times or bad we are grateful to be in the home building business because we know that our business, putting people into homes just may be the most important business in the world. Thanks so much for what part you play in this business. We look forward to 2012!

Shirleen Von Hoffmann
President
Home Builders Edge

You finish your model presentation, and your prospect states, “Everything looks great but we’re going to keep looking. I’ll call you in a couple of days and let you know.” Several days pass, a week, then a month. They don’t return your calls, and you have no idea why. Sound familiar? I’m not sure what’s more frustrating; not getting the business, or not knowing why.

Here are some easy tips to get prospects to return your call.

Establish Follow Up Guidelines Upfront
Let them know you will follow up on this or that.
Keep a few tidbits to yourself that they may need, so it gives you multiple reasons for follow up and a reason for them to pick up your call. At the very outset, establish guidelines for the relationship you are about to enter.
You’re going to keep looking? Is there something in particular you are looking for that we have missed?

(Answer here will determine the next statement)

Okay, well just know I am going to follow up with you and I just want you to know, upfront, it’s okay to tell me if you find something else you like better… You won’t hurt my feelings and it will save us both time. Sometimes, a client chooses to go a different direction, and I get that. If at any point while working together, you determine my product isn’t the right fit, please let me know. If we could have that agreement upfront, I would appreciate it.

Voicemail with Email
So maybe that don’t return your voicemail. However, within your voicemail, you should inform them that you are sending an email. Many busy decision makers never take unexpected calls, but they will respond to email. In my email I write: Mr. or Miss Prospect, upon our last discussion, you requested I follow up with you at this date and time regarding… I’ve tried several times to call you, but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to connect. I don’t want to become a pest. Please let me know your situation, so I know a good time contact you.

Because many people aren’t comfortable telling you “no” over the phone or in person, this approach gives the prospect a way out of the situation, and you can spend time with people who are ready to buy. Often times, you uncover the reason for the delay.

Caller ID
Call your phone company and ask how to disengage your caller id. This way your prospect can no longer screen your calls. Do the same with your cell phone.

Follow Up should include: Calls, Emails, Mail, Video Email and texting if appropriate. You should be fluent in all forms of follow up and make sure to ask which way your client prefers to be contacted.

Discard
Finally, always be willing to walk away after all attempts have failed. Your time is valuable, and you shouldn’t waste it on people who lack the courtesy to respond to your calls or emails after multiple attempts. When you provide one final opportunity, state: Mr. or Miss Prospect, you requested I contact you on… I’ve tried several times, but I never heard back from you. The home we talked about is now being looked at by other families. So I’m going to discard your file if I don’t hear back from you by tomorrow.

YOU

If you’re feeling squeezed right now, it is because something is seeking to be born in you today. True growth causes us to expand our life. Growth is never easy, but is always fruitful and worth the work.

SWAT-Sales Warriors Awaiting Training is a division of HBE that instills the basic skills to be great and blow away your competition.

Today we would like to start at the beginning and give you a SWAT tidbit to grow on each month.

I was with a friend the other day and she likes to go to the casinos and gamble.  I asked her if she had been winning lately and she said, “Well if I can just take home, what I bring, I am happy.”  I then said, really, if you set such low expectations, why bother going and wasting your time in a smoke filled casino?  She said, “Because it’s FUN!”  And I said, “But wouldn’t it be more fun, if you came home with MORE than you went with?”  I mean isn’t it just as easy to say, I am going to come home with more than to say I am going to come home with the same?  And you do realize that if you set that intention that will most likely be your result, right?

Which brings me to my point today.  The expectations we are setting for ourselves… are they enough?  Heck are you even setting any?  Do we operate on auto pilot and go with the flow or are we challenging ourselves to take the next step, to see the bigger picture, to be out of the box, to think bigger than average?

Isn’t it just as easy to say and set the intention of being a winner as being average?  Towing the line is just so dang boring and goes so unnoticed!

Wouldn’t it feel good to set your own goals instead of having your Sales Manager do it for you?

Wouldn’t it feel great to hear your Sales Manager say, “We need two from you this month” and you say, “Well my plan is to give you five…one a week plus one for the gipper.”  Believe me, by setting that intention, you would automatically start the process of making that happen.  Your energy alone would start responding to your brain state and statement.

But it all starts with YOUR expectations of yourself.  Your expectations of your work.  Your expectations of anything you find FUN or important.

So let’s start this week by setting some reachable, higher, expectations that YOU set.  Just this one step, this one change, will make a huge difference in your world.  You will stop being okay with the complacent and mediocre and start stepping out, over and above the rest.  You will wake up and show up, with a plan!

Plant the seed and watch how differently your week turns out…then your month.  Check back and tell me if you experienced different things that took place in your world when you did this one step!

I look forward to hearing about your success stories.

Happy Sales

U.S. house prices have plunged by nearly a third since 2006, and homeownership rates are falling at the fastest pace since the Great Depression.

The good news? Two key measures now suggest it’s an excellent time to buy a house, either to live in for the long term or for investment income (but not for a quick flip). First, the nation’s ratio of house prices to yearly rents is nearly restored to its prebubble average. Second, when mortgage rates are taken into consideration, houses are the most affordable they have been in decades.

Two of the silliest mantras during the real-estate bubble were that a house is the best investment you will ever make and that a renter “throws money down the drain.” Whether buying is a better deal than renting isn’t a stagnant fact but a changing condition that depends on the relationship between prices and rents, the cost of financing and other factors.

But the math is turning in buyers’ favor. Stock-oriented folks can think of a house’s price/rent ratio as akin to a stock’s price/earnings ratio, in that it compares the cost of an asset with the money the asset is capable of generating. For investors, a lower ratio suggests more income for the price. For prospective homeowners, a lower ratio makes owning more attractive than renting, all else equal.

Nationwide, the ratio of home prices to yearly rents is 11.3, down from 18.5 at the peak of the bubble, according to Moody’s Analytics. The average from 1989 to 2003 was about 10, so valuations aren’t quite back to normal.

» Read more: WSJ Says Now is the Time to Buy!

Although thought are invisible we all know they exist –as real as electricity, light, heat, water, or even stone.

We are surrounded by a vast ocean of thoughts. Our thoughts pass like currents of electricity or tiny streaks of light. It’s just as easy for us to think around the globe, as it is to think across the room. It takes no more energy to dream a big dream, than it does to think puny ideas.

Think thoughts the size of the success you would like to have and live in that success everyday.

Warren Buffett has spoken of what is called the “Law of Gestation:” The amount of time required from seed to whatever the seed is going to be –Such as if there is an amount of time required for an acorn to become a mighty oak tree. There is an amount of time required for each thing.

He said that there is an amount of time required for and idea to flourish. People start something and give up on the idea or project before it comes to fruition. They pull up the roots looking for the fruit when the seeds hadn’t even been given time to grow into a fruit tree.

If you’ve planted some seeds which are new thought or ideas, give it some time. Water them, dig deep, nurture it and let your ideas become your results