By Carol Douis, Regional Vice President in South Carolina - New Home Star
Builders often track leads on a weekly basis, but it's consistently tracking prospective buyer appointments that can add value and convert leads into sales. "Linkage," which is what compels a prospect to agree to that next interaction (phone call, office visit, etc.), should always be on your radar for potential buyers. Essentially, this means that every lead interaction should have the end goal of setting up an appointment. You may even go as far as to put a sticky note on your desk reading, "What's the linkage?" Ask yourself, "What will keep this conversation going?"
To improve your success rate in setting appointments, it's good to be armed with some great appointment setting tools. You may notice that these "scripts" are the very closing techniques that many in the home sales industry are taught during training, but the difference is that you're now using them to efficiently set appointments. The first step to having a higher rate of 'kept' appointments is always setting a time, not just a date. Not only does this add to your professionalism and sets a tone that you are busy with other buyers, but also calls for a greater sense of commitment from the prospect.
1. The Assumptive Script: "It seems like you are interested in this home and/or community. The next step would be to meet in person. What time would work for you?"
2. The Tie-Down Script: "I think an in-person meeting makes perfect sense, don't you?"
3. The Alternate Choice Script: "I would love to set a time for a personalized showing. I have time tomorrow or this weekend. Which works best for you?"
4. The Soft Close Script: "Thank you for taking the time to talk. What do you think about meeting in person for a private tour?"
5. The Trial Close Script: "Do you feel like you have enough information to take the next step and meet in person?"
6. The Hard Close Script: "What are we waiting for? Let's meet today!"
7. The 'No means Yes' Script: "You wouldn't mind if I asked you to set a time to meet in person, would you?"
It's important to remember that the appointment is merely the natural next step to having a valuable interaction. What's the worst that's going to happen? A prospect will say 'no' and decline scheduling another meeting. If they don't set the appointment right away, be sure to have another reason to follow-up and keep a conversation going (this will be your "linkage"). Use these scripts, keep the conversation going, set more appointments and earn more sales!
Carol Douis brings 25+ years of successful sales leadership and experience to serve homebuilders and developers in the areas of sales strategy, coaching, training, positioning and organizational development. Douis has a strong history of successfully maximizing sales effectiveness for both large and small sales teams.
