Many salespeople for remodeling contractors lose many more construction project sales than they make by talking too much and listening too little.
Every remodeling sales person knows that there is so much information and so many details in a remodeling project that you have to talk a lot to get across to the customer all the information the customer needs to pick your company, right? No, wrong!
Other than stating your name and answering direct questions from the prospective customer, almost every sentence coming out of your mouth in the first appointment should be a question.
“How are you?” Can we sit and chat for a few minutes? Build rapport and talk about their lives while answering questions about yours. When it is time to move to the next stage- the business interview- the questions should be more to the point.
“What do you have in mind?” “Can I ask why you wish to put your new addition here?” “Would you be open to any suggestions?” The questions should not stop and you should be taking notes on every answer; but do not make it an inquisition. Be conversational but keep the questions coming.
We have a career salesman who sold a large, very profitable addition to a couple by asking these exact questions and then showing them how they could save a substantial amount of money by placing the addition over an existing one-story side wing and entry area. His commission was around $10,000 for about 8 hours of work getting it reduced to paper and a contract.
In between questions it is fine to offer an observation here and there. “The reason I am asking this is because we just finished a job recently similar to what you folks (don’t say ‘you guys’, please) have in mind. Would you like to hear a little about it?”
Use the customer’s name frequently and ask if you can call him/her by his first name. A person’s name when used with respect is the sweetest sound to that person. Always be soft and gentle in your manner even if you are not the soft and gentle type. Do not come on in an intimidating fashion. You will lose for sure.
We outlined our own very successful sales approach in a series we did in our winter newsletters. These newsletters are still available online when you take out a one-year subscription. We will be spending a lot more time in future blogs about how to sell while appearing not to sell and talking about the mistakes that sales people make.
Remember- “Nobody wants to be sold; but people love to buy.”
