By Oren Jacobson, Market Analyst - New Home Star
We’ve been focusing this month heavily on sales tactics. The small, intentional actions we take as sales and marketing professionals to better attract and serve our customers. This piece will follow that trend by focusing on simple tactics that we should focus on as we head into spring selling season. Before we do that, though, it’s important to differentiate between strategy and tactic. Guiding a customer through the most favorable thought process is a strategy. How you actually do that is a tactic. Focusing on marketing to a particular consumer group is also a strategy. How you reach them is can be seen as a tactic. In other words, what you want to do is usually a strategy. How you do so is usually your tactic.
Let's assume we all have a similar general strategy for the sake of argument. Our strategy is likely to take advantage of the strong market factors, and seasonality, to maximize sales and margins over the spring selling season. Doing so enables us to set ourselves up to deliver on our annual goals by moving inventory and building strong backlog. Here are some tactics to consider that will help support that strategy.
Maximize Sales:
- Leverage “third party data” to push urgency. We just had our strongest monthly jobs report since 2014; consumer confidence is climbing. The stock market keeps pushing up. Odds are the supply on the market in your submarket is below six months (hence a seller’s market.) Odds are, prices in your market are rising, but don’t assume people know. Share that info with them and do so with validated sources.
- Set aside thirty minutes at the start and end of each day dedicated entirely to follow up. Do not compromise on this. If you don’t close on the first visit, this action is the most important thing you can do to drive additional sales. I promise you most of your competition will fail at this.
- Strategize before EVERY planned customer meeting. Look, how often does a repeat customer come in the door unannounced? Sure, it happens but, most of the time that visit is planned, right? If that’s the case then you can and MUST plan in advance for it. Talk with your manager and plan with a mentor or partner. There are several simple questions you must answer first. Where are they in the process? What is the next thing they need to decide? What is your plan to help them take the next step? What objections might come up and how might you overcome them?
Maximize Margin:
- Develop an effective new vs. used pitch that ensures a customer doesn’t assume that price equals cost. Right now they do, it’s up to you to combat that through education. If you don’t tell them, they will not know. No customer should leave your office without this knowledge. Make it part of your initial presentation so when they use a resale to try and negotiate you have an easy defense to fall back on.
- Use market data to establish value. Meaning you should leverage the MLS, or other tools, to gather independent information on fair market value. Don’t let people use anecdotal information to combat you on price.
- Review any negotiation training you have and role-play several potential scenarios you may encounter. While each situation may be different, at their core, most negotiations are built around the same ideas. Sharpen your skills.
- Prioritize the actions in the “Maximize Sales” section above. It’s a lot harder to negotiate when you’re selling more homes.
We often make our jobs harder than they need to be. For this spring season focus on just a few core tactics. Gather third party resources to create urgency, prioritize follow-up, and plan in advance of your meetings, and you’ll sell more homes. Make sure to speak with every customer about the value of new, use market data to establish value, and sharpen your negotiation skills to drive margins. Focus on these six tactics and this spring will be the best season you’ve had in years.
