Roland teaching at IBS 2012, How to Become a Master Closer!

I was blessed to have the opportunity to speak again this year at the International Builders Show.  I was part of an esteemed panel, and the topic was how to become a Master Closer.

Bob and I receive calls frequently from frantic sales managers who say things like “Can you come up and teach my team to close?”.  The answer is yes of course we can, however our curriculum based training is built in layers that are congruent, and as I like to say:

“You can’t close if you can’t open.”

So during the first half of the packed seminar I taught essential discovery questions, listening skills and three essential closes out of many. Then in the second half I taught more advanced Negotiating Skills.  Would you like a preview of what we taught? I thought so, so here it is.

 Essential Discovery Skills

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

                                                                Dr Stephen Covey

When a new customer walks into our sales arena for the first time, after a warm and friendly greeting, we must find out their real needs and seek their hot buttons.  Remember that “Telling is not selling and that we are looking for a planned presentation, not a canned one.”  With that in mind Master Closers always begin with the discovery process.    

In this phase we are looking for answers to specific open ended questions. These are questions that can’t be answered with a yes or no. They begin with how, what, when, where, who, tell me and share with me? 

 “Open ended at the beginning leads to closings at the end.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Roland Nairnsey

We take many hours in class in this area alone, but at the Builders show I covered the essentials. Such as how the customers heard about the builder, and what it was in that source that attracted the customer’s attention, when the customer wants to move, what value range or monthly Investment, and what other features are important to the customer?

For the specific detailed discovery dialogues, please email and I will be happy to send them to you. My email address is:

Roland@newhomespecialist.com

Type in “NHS Discovery Questions”.

 Essential Listening Skills

“Don’t be a big talker, be a big listener”

                                           Roland Nairnsey

The number one complaint against us as salespeople is a failure to listen to our customers needs; and if they think that we’re not listening they also assume we don’t care. Which is usually not true! So let’s learn to be an assertive and empathetic listener. Here are some basic skills.

Repeat the customer’s name, show listening body language, such as mirroring and matching, nodding your head in agreement, and also “Listening with your eyes”. Remember that there is no such thing as multi-tasking when with a customer! Repeat back the last thing you hear your customers say and most essentially “Chunk” back their needs.  That means repeat everything you heard them say. This is especially effective at the end of the discovery process, during the middle of model demo, and when you sit down to recap and close.  As someone smart once said:

 “Be interested not interesting.”

We all know that next comes model demonstration where it is incumbent upon us to involve our customers, transfer ownership so they can imagine themselves enjoying our brand new home, continually create an emotional attachment  and then narrow down to a one of a kind location to create authentic urgency.

Once you have found that one of a kind location or available home, we have no other choice but to close. Here is a brief outline of what I shared with the group at the builder show.

THREE ESSENTIAL CLOSES (OUT OF MANY)

Assumptive Closes

The only assumption it is safe to make, is that our customer is a buyer, otherwise why would they come in voluntarily to our retail space. Therefore, throughout the presentation we eliminate the word IF, and replace it with WHEN.

Such as:

“When you live in this community you will find that..”

and

“When you own this home you will find that..”

 The final closing question is the ultimate assumptive close when we ask:

SALES GENIUS

“Do you have any questions before we go back and review the paperwork?” 

 Remember whoever speaks first owns it. Let the question resonate, and give the customer time to contemplate and answer.

 Recap Close

“Never negotiate on your feet, always close at your seat.”

                                                                                       Roland Nairnsey

Think about it, when you return to your sales office, if you are standing up what is your body language saying? Exactly, “Off you go!” Instead if you sit down and recap what  are you now saying? “You’re serious, and I’m taking you seriously”.  Again, in class we spend over an hour on this step by step process, but simply put the elements we need to recap with our customer are: the outside of the home, the floor plan, the home site, the included feature sheet, a recap/wish list sheet showing the investment of home, home-site, luxury choices, total and most importantly in most markets, the approximate monthly investment. As well as any limited time incentives if you have them, that is part of your total pricing strategy.

As we like to say “Confusion creates indecision”.  So once we learn to recap with every customer, we can unconfuse them and close more sales.

Effective On Close

This one concept alone helped me close approximately thirty percent more sales, and is helping our salespeople all over across the world increase sales dramatically!  Unfortunately, when faced with major buying decisions, most personality types tend to “major in the minors” and actually enjoy delaying action.  It is our job to strike while their buying temperature is at is highest, so as long as you have the consent of your manager and company you would then say:

  SALES GENIUS

“Since you’re here, and you like the home with the (Unique Selling Propositions),  let’s go ahead and lock in the price and secure this home (home site),

and incentive, and we’ll make it effective at 5 PM tomorrow, OK?.”

 Simply write an addendum that says:

“This agreement is effective as to the buyer on (Date and time).

The good news is that you moved them passed the point of purchase and have let them try on the sale.  Go ahead and write the agreement, celebrating as though they had just bought the home, such as putting the sold sign or sticker out together, photographing them, etc.  A few quick tips, don’t make it subject it to an actual event as it builds it up  too much in their mind, and offer no more than two days, let them negotiate if they want another day. Maintain control of the process and you will make more sales.

All the research in the world including my own personal experience, proves that you are much more likely to make and keep the sale by writing it “effective on”, then by taking a hold and hoping that they come back and actually purchase at a later date. What have you go to lose? Oh, except a lot more sales!

We will cover the negotiating tips in my next blog, as I am sure this is plenty of information to assimilate and practice for now.

NEW HOME SALES SPECIALISTS ON THE MOVE

We are blessed to travel all over the country training wonderful sales teams, and speaking before builder groups. Not to mention daily video conferences all over the world.  Here are some recent photos of the places we have been, and teams that we have worked with.

Juan of Robuck Homes, Raleigh, NC

More Role Playing At Robuck

Role playing at Jagoe Homes, Owensboro, Kentucky

Jagoe Homes, Owensboro, Kentucky

Bridgewater Communities, St. Louis, MO

Last but not least, it was my birthday on February 20^th, so here are a few photos of the big day. One with my wife Svitlana, son Max and me, and the other one of Bob, Peggy and Shaylese in our office. It was a great day and I felt very loved.  Thanks to all of you who took the time to wish me a Happy Birthday.

Svitlana, Max and Roland

Svitlana, Peggy, Shaylese, Bob, and Max

Please feel free to write with any questions, comments and most especially to share your success stories.

May the sales be with you!

Coach Roland

Roland Nairnsey

Senior Vice President Training and Development

Bob Schultz and The New Home Sales Specialists.

Roland@newhomespecialist.com

561-368-1151

Newhomespecialist.com

Jonathan Barefoot, Robuck Homes/ FMB New Homes

Roland is an excellent teacher. Professional and easy to learn from. Can’t wait to the next visit!

Paula Raybon, Robuck Homes/FMB New Homes

Roland makes the learning fun. I’m always afraid of people being critical but he helped me to RELAX. He shared personal experiences in so many areas, and in our day to day function that relate. He really knows his stuff!

Terry Perry, Robuck Homes/FMB New Homes

Roland is so energetic and engaging. It was very helpful to see the training put into action, and role playing really makes it memorable.

Mary Beth Taintor,  Robuck Homes, Interior Designer

My sales are up 20% in 2011 compared to 2010! Thanks to Roland Nairnsey and Bob Schultz, I learned how to sell with their proven training as a Rookie, and have never looked back!

Christy Foy Bradshaw, Classica Homes, Charlotte, NC

Thank you for the excellent training I received while at the recent sales and sales management programs that I attended in November.  As a result of the refresher, I was able to start the New Year off right with SEVEN sales in January.  I also have several hot prospects in the funnel for February.

The education that I have received from you has had the most positive effect on my career and earnings, than anything else I  have ever done!

The investment in the programs has paid for itself many times over, and continues to do so, in both good markets and bad.

Again, THANK YOU both for everything!

Scott Baughman, Premier Homes, Pueblo and Colorado Springs, CO

Across the board we are finding success since teaming up with Roland and Bob.  They have assisted us in hiring 3 new sales associates, which have allowed us to keep our sales offices open 7 days a week and drive up the amount of traffic we are seeing.

We took away SO MANY amazing ideas from Boot Camp.  One was to create a “Home of the Month” that we marketed in all of our communities and website.  Within a week it was under contract!  I’d like to add that we have been trying to sell this home for over 6 months with no success until now.

We also started using some of the special closes, which have worked wonderfully to get prospects off the market and tied into buying a home with us. 

The on-site training with Roland is extremely valuable.  Our sales team, even those that we thought would have trouble adapting to the new training, were able to role-play with him to try out the new planned presentation and get comfortable using the system and phrases.  I attribute much of our success to this.  One can repeatedly be told how to do something but until they try it out for themselves, and are given feedback on how they did, they will not have the confidence to do it while in front of customers.  We have made our whole sales team into believers of role-playing!

Christie Redner,  Schaeffer Family Homes, Berlin, NJ

Bob and Roland,

I just wanted to give you an update on our sales team:

Midland Conversion ratio 1 in 3.6

Odessa Conversion ratio 1 in 4.6

Lubbock Conversion ratio 1 in 5.9

Average sales price is up, best sales year ever!

Thanks,

Troy Finley, VP of Sales, Betenbough Homes, Lubbock, TX

The New Home Specialists create a path, a process for our sales people to follow. 

Our sales teams enjoys a 1 in 4 closing ratio, that is not a typo either. And we consider all traffic in that ratio.

We keep to the basics of your program.  Sharpen the saw to increase our sales skills, and consistently discover and close, discover and close.

Just last weekend not 24 hours after Roland’s training I had a salesperson close on two homes. The salesperson reported to me he used what he learned the prior 3 days from Roland.

The bottom line is your program continues to get us results!

Scott Jagoe, Jagoe Homes Inc.,  Owensboro , Kentucky

The New Year is always a perfect time to reminisce, look back on the past year, and reflect upon what went well and what could have been better.

Both on a business and a personal level, it makes sense to take stock of where we are in life; and where we are going; while remembering to be grateful for the freedoms and abundance we enjoy and can sometimes take for granted in this great country.

Many of us get out our pens and paper and start writing down our goals for the coming year. At least the intangible thoughts rattling around in your brain have now officially seen the light of day. This is a great beginning point, but let me ask, “What are you actually going to do to make your goals happen?”

Is simply writing them down enough, or are at some point do you have to step off the ledge and just take action?  Whether it is beginning a diet or healthy living plan, making more sales and money, spending more time with your family, writing the next great American novel or whatever resonates with you; how will you physically accomplish your goal?  

Here’s an idea, just do it! Life rewards those people that take action. 

Look at all of the people that you may admire, and figure out what unites them. They are doers. They don’t wait for the perfect moment, sizing up every benefit versus negative, they just start acting upon their goal and what motivates them.

Whether it is business leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Sir Richard Branson, or revered politicians such as Sir Winston Churchill, or Abraham Lincoln, or renowned scientists looking for cures such as Louis Pasteur or Madame Curie, and inventors such as Edison and Ford. What do they have in common? Great dedication and a litany of failures mixed in with their successes that never prevented them from accomplishing their goals and life’s mission.

Edison famously said: “Genius is 1% Inspiration and 99% perspiration.” With thousands of patents to his name including the light bulb, he should know!

See if you can guess which sports hero made the following statement?

 “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games; 26 times I’ve been trusted to make the winning shot and missed.

                                                                                       I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that’s why I succeed.”                                                                                             

Incredibly, it was the great Michael Jordan, a man many consider to be the finest basketball player in the modern era, and someone who in spite of his six championship rings, understood the importance of not being afraid to fail.

So how about you, is fear of failure holding you back? If analysis is what you like, ask yourselves the following questions that Bob Schultz teaches at our Management programs: 

1) If I do (whatever is being considered)…what are the absolute best things that could happen, or be a result of taking this action.

2) If I do (whatever is being considered)… what are the absolute worst things that could happen, or be a result of taking this action.

3) What solutions, systems, resources or people are available to me; or, what could I do that would minimize the worst things that could happen as a result of taking this action?

4) If I take this action, and use any or all of what’s referenced in #3, what is most likely to happen?

5) If I do nothing, i.e., maintain the Status Quo, what is most likely to happen?

6) Am I willing to attempt the minimized worst (#4), to be on track to have all, or a part, of the best things that could happen (#1) as compared to #5?

7) Decide

 If you would like this free self evaluation form, please write to me at:

 Roland@newhomespecialist.com

 And write “MANAGING DECISIONS – MINIMIZING RISK”

Still not convinced?  When teaching Closing, I always share the story of my amateur soccer career. Hailing from Great Britain, I love playing soccer and used to play a pick up game at eight thirty every Sunday morning, in an empty park in Miami. Being a defender, I hadn’t scored a goal in eight years (a long dry spell I admit!), when one summer morning the game started and someone passed the ball to me on the half way line. I took a wild shot, and as fate would have it the wind picked up. The ball sailed over the head of the goalkeeper who was still tying up his shoe laces and into the empty net. Goaaaal! I know, brilliant, feel free to applaud!

That day on the way home I was still marveling at what an invigorating feeling it was to have scored such a great goal, and was wondering why I hadn’t scored for so many years before? Then it dawned on me, I simply hadn’t taken the shot! How ludicrous, because as a salesperson I was always taking the shot, every time with every customer, resulting in an abundance of sales! Yet somehow in my so called soccer career I was analyzing way too much. What if I miss? What if I make a fool of myself? Let’s get over it! For in many instances “Analysis is Paralysis”, whether it is in sales or in life.

Click the link below to check out this wonder goal from a young man called Danny Rose, making his debut for my favorite soccer club in England called Tottenham Hotspur. He comes off the substitutes bench in the 80th minute of a 90 minute game, and is given his big break in a heated Lodon Derby match against our fiercest rivals.  See what he does with his first touch of the ball!  

 http://youtu.be/nAVhYkzncJc

As the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky said:

“I always miss 100% of the shots I don’t take.”

When it comes to sales what have you got to lose by narrowing down choices on the first visit and asking for the sale? Oh except for a lot more sales and money!

So coming into this New Year, make a pledge to your self to follow through on your dreams, however large or small. Make 2012 the year that you take action. Let’s look at what President Theodore Roosevelt said on the subject:

 “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much

nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight  that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Theodore Roosevelt

So both with sales and with your life, don’t just plan a better future, create one! 

New Home Sales boot Camp (r) November 2011 - Graduation Cheer!

Bob & Roland Having a Ball at Boot Camp

Roland,

I’ve written 6 agreements since I returned, 2 have credit snags but that is OK because at least the closing process worked. Most of these clients had shopped competitors prior to my meeting them, which makes the sale that much sweeter.

I would have to say the “mini closings” that I’ve been doing through my presentation have been extremely helpful. I also have answers to my top 10 objections memorized and am able to deal with those swiftly and precisely. In addition to that, I pick 1 new technique per week and try to perfect it.

I pretty much have every step I take and every word I speak thoroughly rehearsed at this point. Extremely confident (thanks to you all) that at this point I’m much more prepared than any of my competitors.

 Best regards,

Richie Eubanks

Keller Williams Realty River Cities

Here is a picture of Bob and me with Richie at the program.

 

Having said that, this month we would like to give a special mention to the sales team at Schaeffer Family Homes who have been working with us for a short period of time but quickly “take action” on what we discuss, with great results. Led by owner Jason Schaeffer and Director of Community Management Christie Redner here is an excerpt of an email we just received from Christie. 

-          Across the board we are finding success since teaming up with Roland and Bob.  They have assisted us in hiring 3 new sales associates, which have allowed us to keep our sales offices open 7 days a week and drive up the amount of traffic we are seeing.

-          We are having our best month of sales in 4 years with 9 sales written this month!

-          We took away SO MANY amazing ideas from Boot Camp.  One was to create a “Home of the Month” that we marketed in all of our communities and website.  Within a week it was under contract!  I’d like to add that we have been trying to sell this home for over 6 months with no success until now.

-           The on-site training with Rolandis extremely valuable.  Our sales team, even those that we thought would have trouble adapting to the new training were able to role-play with him to try out the new planned presentation and get comfortable using the system and phrases.  I attribute much of our success to this. One can repeatedly be told how to do something but until they try it out for themselves, and are given feedback on how they did, they will not have the confidence to do it while in front of customers.  We have made our whole sales team into believers of role-playing!

 Christie Redner ~ Director of Community Management

Schaeffer Family Homes

Here we are role playing something we call the “Closing Game” with Heather asking me for the sale, and then managing the objections that Anita and I were throwing at her, and asking again four more times until she made the sale. Like all training, this is about taking action and creating what we call “muscle memory” for Closing. By the way, Heather did a great job, and since the training began a few months ago, she, along with her new associate Britney, has already made 7 sales.

 

I’ve written six agreements since I returned, two have credit snags but that is Okay because at least the closing process worked. Most of these clients had shopped competitors prior to my meeting them, which makes the sale that much sweeter.

I would have to say the “mini closings” that I’ve been doing through my presentation have been extremely helpful. I also have answers to my top 10 objections memorized and am able to deal with those swiftly and precisely. In addition to that I pick one new technique per week and try to perfect it.

I pretty much have every step I take and every word I speak thoroughly rehearsed at this point. Extremely confident (thanks to you all) that at this point I’m much more prepared than any of my competitors.

Best regards,

Richie Eubanks, Keller Williams Realty – River Cities, Columbus, GA

He shares a lot of personal stories & has a lot of insight and experience.

He helps you to be BOLD and FEARLESS, and always ASK FOR THE SALE!

Terry Perry, Robuck Homes, Raleigh, NC