If You Miss The Basics – You May Miss The Boat

Closing the sale is not something that happens at the end of a sales presentation or after you’ve given the price.  It is an ongoing process which is established with your first contact with a prospect.

If you knew what the prospect was really thinking, what their planning strategies were or even the extent of your competition, imagine how much better your sales presentation would proceed. Much of this information is available with proper in-home sales basics.

The “walk around” to evaluate the project is better named a “needs assessment”.

• When did the prospect first consider the project?
• What prompted them to call you?
• What other options have they considered?
• How long have they owned the home?
• What other home improvement projects have they completed?  What were the outcomes?
• What do they really know about products such as yours and how closely have they examined the conditions which prompt them to call you for replacement?

Becoming privy to this information is largely a matter of good in-home sales training.  Having this knowledge enables you to present your products/services in a manner consistent with their values.  If you haven’t allotted fifteen to twenty minutes minimally to the walk around and needs assessment, I guarantee the delivery of your company story or product presentation does not address itself to the needs of your prospect. This makes you a “generalist” whereas you are seeking to be perceived as a “specialist”.

Next, consider the issue of rapport which is actually a state of mind; it starts with feelings.  Prospects listen more to people who in turn listen to them.  Prospects like people who seem to have the same values or seem to agree with them.  And most of all, prospects like people who seem to be like them.  This is not a call to be an actor or to lie about your political, religious or ethnic leanings.  Rapport stems from gathering information and then presenting your product in a manner which makes others feel comfortable and to listen more accurately to what you are saying.  A noted psychologist states it this way: “when you take the representational information that someone hands you and feed it back to them it tends to rapidly create rapport.”

Remember, closing the sale is the natural conclusion to the satisfactory completion of each step in the sound selling system.  Don’t miss the basics.