In this economy, homes don’t sell themselves – not like they did during the boom times. Today, the best hope to move homes is with consummate sales professionals who can roll up their sleeves and crunch numbers on the spot.
A sales person who can talk numbers removes fear and barriers to purchase, exhibits confidence, and outsells their counterparts every time.
Newer sales people, who perhaps came up during recent booms and bubbles, were probably never trained in this discipline. They never had to develop the skill of selling with numbers – taking out a pencil and calculator and performing meaningful calculations in real time.
Instead, the trend today is to refer even the most basic financial qualifying process to mortgage reps. Well, not on my watch. Don’t get me wrong – a good, solid mortgage rep is an extremely valuable part of the process. But when your staff can’t talk numbers in the here and now, they get in the habit of deferring action to a later date. This is always bad. Once prospects set foot out of your sales center with unresolved issues, you lower the odds of a sale.
Which numbers matter? Often, the monthly payments mean a lot to buyers – more than the asking price of the home itself. Buyers don’t know how much they can really afford, and this can gum up the sales path big-time.
Sales people need to be well-versed in different types of loans and mortgages, interest rates, qualifying debt-to-income ratios and tax issues.
They need to perform benchmark qualification, estimate tax advantages and demonstrate – in numbers – the benefit of owning versus renting for every scenario.
Once mastered, these skills will help you convert the marginal customer or uninformed prospect into a buyer on the spot. I’ve seen it happen. (Equally important, it allows you to identify unqualified traffic, so you know whether to close them or make them a source for future referrals.)
Selling with numbers makes YOU the hero. Buyers light up when you show them in concrete terms how they can become homeowners. With a few strokes of the pencil (or key strokes) YOU have opened up their eyes to a world of possibilities and eliminated fears that hold them back from living out their home buying dreams.
It’s a much easier to sell when you are perceived as the hero. And the best part is, you really ARE a hero. People who come to you need guidance. Providing this guidance makes a difference in their lives and adds a meaningful component to your job.
This is probably the real reason why I’ve so enjoyed this industry for over 30 years. (30 years – whew, talk about eye-opening numbers.)
It’s been a great ride – here’s to 30 more. If you need guidance with sales staff coaching or anything else pertaining to real estate marketing or consulting, you know where to find us.
GB
Posted by Garrison 









