By Nate Amidon, Sales Director - New Home Star
Those who have studied our training processes know that one of the most important goals for the first five to ten minutes of interaction with a customer (the Welcome and Discovery stages) is creating the feeling they've walked into the right place, at the right time. So, how do we actually do that? In tandem with this question is the constant battle to sell the top of the sales funnel (Area, Builder, Community), even when the customer wants to immediately chat about floor plans. How can we tie this "right place, right time" strategy to our goal of selling the funnel's ABC elements?
Not long ago, I had the privilege of assisting a sales associate with a grand opening. We were in a sales trailer with only visual aids and vacant lots to help us sell the vision of our community. We had role-played our presentations and were ready to handle the high traffic volumes we expected to see. About two hours into the day, I had a family gathered around the community map (I'm talking husband, wife, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles), as if it were a Thanksgiving dinner in our sales trailer! As you'd expect, each family member wanted to support and help the young couple, rapidly firing every question in the book our way.
As we're taught in training, the sales associate and I looked for a way to regain control of the conversation. My first step was simply (and kindly) saying, "If you all don't mind, I'd love to ensure Matt and Julie receive all of the most important information, as this is such a big decision for them." This allowed me to transition into my first question: "Are you familiar with XYZ builder?" We then proceeded to deliver our builder's story, geared towards 'family' and 'financial' hot buttons. The group was receptive, interested and one uncle even said, "Glad we stopped in here." Doesn't that sound like a right place comment?
With the conversation moving in a more focused direction, we continued on with our community story, weaving in the urgency of purchasing in a grand opening phase. When mom and dad chimed in with, "How long do you think this phase will be available?" I was able to shed light on the lengthy interest list, the fact that we'd already sold four of the 12 sites that morning and that there was no guaranteed amount of time before this one would be off the market. The family kept reiterating, "Glad we stopped in today then." They felt they'd come in at the right time.
That couple did purchase a home that same day, but this experience stands out to me because it truly connected the dots; there are many ways to evoke "right place, right time" emotions, but your best opportunity is creating credibility within the first ten minutes of meeting your buyer. Use your builder story to create the feeling of "I'm glad we came in" (right place) and use your community's story to create the feeling of "I'm glad we came in today" (right time).
Nate Amidon is New Home Star's Midwest Regional Vice President, specializing in homebuilding operations and sales training. Amidon continues to further New Home Star's mission to 'sell more homes, more profitably,' and enjoys teaching best practices to new sales trainees.
