Are you steering your prospect in the right direction, or is the prospect steering you?
The last house my family sold was in 2009. It was an investment property we had purchased several years earlier, remodeled, and placed back on the market. My wife and I were, as they say, “flipping” the property. Buy low, sell high. The American dream.
Unfortunately, as luck and timing would have it, the house was placed on the market in September 2008, at the same time the biggest financial disaster in US history was beginning to rear its ugly head. Oh boy, were we in for a ride. But, being the optimists we are, we persevered and stayed the course.
However, as the new year began the house remained unsold. What compounded matters was that we had lost faith in the real estate agent team we had hired. They visibly lacked marketing creativity and sales ability in a difficult market. It’s as if they continued to play “defense” when what we were looking for was more “offense.”
So we interviewed replacements and found the agent we were looking for. We hired him.
What sold us?
He immediately took complete control of the situation. His advice was to change a variety of factors that he believed were causing the sale to falter. For example, amongst other things, instead of using our furnishings in certain rooms we “staged” those rooms (rented the furniture for a short term period) with more modern, “hip” furniture styles and colors that he believed our target market would respond to. He also re-designed our marketing and brought in a professional photographer, again to appeal to the target market he was convinced would buy the property.
And buy they did. The property was sold a short time later.
What I experienced from this new agent, from a buyer’s point of view, was a rekindling of the confidence I had lost in the previous real estate team. My new salesperson had used a exceptional amount of Positive Control to steer me in the direction he was convinced was the correct one. I bought into that agent’s Positive Control, not just because of the confidence his certainty instilled in me, but because deep down I knew he was right!
Few salespeople have command of the concept and importance of Control in the sales process.
Personally my early years in sales were a blurry haze of “pitching” and “selling” hoping to hit the jackpot in three or four out of every ten attempts. Factually prospects and clients are enthused and encouraged by a salesperson’s Positive Control when it is used with confidence.
But where is that lack of control coming from? Why do the vast majority of salespeople fear using it?
Simple. They are in fear of having their viewpoints and personal beliefs heard. They view Control as high pressure selling when nothing could be further from the truth.
They don’t understand that the buyer they are facing is encouraged by, even craves, their genuine viewpoint, expertise and advice.
Remember, the prospect is not just buying your product or service he or she is buying you.
Do you have doubts or reservations about what you are selling? Are you holding yourself back because of personal issues (this may sound hard to believe but maybe you personally don’t like salespeople?) or worries that you may appear to be too passionate or come off as being too aggressive?
Then stop!
Here is an example of bad control (better known as no control).
Homeowner: “I’m just not sure if we’re marketing the house as aggressively as we should be. In fact I’m not even sure if our marketing efforts are reaching the right prospects. I’m really concerned. Tell me, what do you think we should do?”
Real Estate Agent: “I’m just not sure. I can’t say if the right prospects are seeing the property and I can’t understand why so few people showed up at the last open house. It might have to do with what’s going on in the economy right now. If you like I can call Mike our broker, he’s very experienced in these matters and we can get his advice.”
Yes, that conversation did happen with my agent, and yes, it was one of the last conversations we had.
So on a more positive note, here are some ways to use Positive Control in your presentations:

1. 1. Stop using “maybe” language and start using “can-do”language.A. “We can get that product shipped to you by the 21st, in fact we guarantee it will arrive within seven days of your signature on this contract or the shipping costs are on us.”
      B. “I have no doubt that we can improve the response rates on this advertising. In fact this prior advertiser (showing the client’s success letter) is ironically in the same line of business as you, and she doubled her response rates using just two of our ideas…..”

1. 1. Start welcoming objections (prospect resistance) instead of fearing them.
      “Mr. Prospect if I were in your shoes I would have that same concern. Four out of every five clients I cater to now have brought that same issue to my attention but we were able to handle every one, all with the help of one proprietary product we have – would you like to know what that product is?”

1. 1. Don’t be afraid to follow your instincts and steer your prospect in the right direction.
      Homeowner: “I’m just not sure if we’re marketing the house as aggressively as we should be. In fact I’m not even sure if our marketing efforts are reaching the right prospects. I’m really concerned. Tell me, what do you think we should do?”
      Real Estate Agent: “To begin with I want to reassure you that we are aggressively marketing the property, in fact I brought copies of the advertising we ran last week and plan to run this week. Notice how we highlighted your property on page three. That said you are right about one thing in particular, when something’s not working it’s time to make changes and stimulate demand, so I came up with a plan I know you’re going to like….”

1. Use Positive Control in the sale to eliminate the prospect’s procrastination and uncertainty.
   “I know it’s not an easy decision to make right now, so if you don’t mind me asking; of the choices you have in front of you right now which one do you like the least?
   “The blue? I’m glad you said that, I tend to agree. So let’s do this. Let’s sign the contract right now, write me a check for the 20% deposit and if for any reason you want to change your mind over the next 48 hours and go with the red color, just bring the blue color back to the store and I’ll exchange it at no cost.
   “Fair enough? Great, let’s get you signed up.”

Remember this; the use of positive control on the part of the salesperson eliminates doubt in the mind of the prospect.
That “doubt” is what causes you, me and all prospective buyers to want to take more time procrastinating, ruminating and looking for more and more ways to “think it over.”
It’s as if all you’re doing is holding their hand and saying, “….trust me, you’re making the right decision.”
So do yourself a huge favor, start making changes right now by implementing the suggestions above and watch your sales, and income, soar!
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