Do You Sell the Way People Buy?

 Are You Selling The Way Your Customers Want to Buy? [26:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

BuilderRadio presents Bob Hafer, MIRM, CSP

Salespeople are quickly taught selling processes – ways to present our products and services to customers.  “Greet, qualify, demonstrate, select, and close” described an early sales process.  While he was Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, Bob Hafer was given the task of looking at another process, one that is much more fundamental but less understood – the buying process.

Yes, buyer’s have a process they go through to arrive at a buying decision.  Bob has identified 13 specific steps, which he describes in this excerpt from his seminar, recorded live at the BuilderRadio Selling New Homes the Easy Way conference in Houston, Texas on May 13, 2008.

1.  Life Change. “If there is no life change, the likelihood of that person making a purchasing decision is pretty thin,” says Hafer.  Shoppers who are responding to a major change in their life or circumstances are motivated.  “They’re serious,” says Bob.  “Not everybody that comes into your model home is serious… I’ve done the research; one out of two is serious.”   We can quickly separate the ‘serious’ from the ‘curious’ by developing and using “strategic, guided questions” designed to reveal a buyer’s internal motivations.

2.  Look. Most salespeople work on trying to get around the phrase, “I’m just looking.”  Hafer explains that ‘looking’ at our model homes is really what they came for.  “Do not ignore that, because that’s what they came for…“It starts on the web; they begin the elimination process there.  Then they decide, I’m going to look at three or four. Your job is very simple.  Your job is to make the short list.  That’s what you do.  So, anything you do that disrupts that – that causes that individual to feel differently, becomes a little bit of an issue.”

When someone say’s “I’m just looking,” Hafer suggests we acknowledge that with a response such as, “Thanks for looking here.  We have so many beautiful things for you to see today.”  He explains, “What we have to do is meet people where they are initially. We have to meet them exactly where they are.  If they’re in a visual place, then guess what – I’m in a visual place.”  When they tell you what they want to do, such as look around or pick up literature, we should listen, acknowledge, and help them accomplish that.

An essential question that will uncover motivation is this:  “Is this something you’re considering doing now?” Often, prospects won’t be able to commit to a definite time frame because they honestly don’t know if they are in a position to make a move.  Hafer then follows the question up with an explanation, “The reason I ask is…”  He says that when you tell prospects ‘why,’ they accept it and let you help them.  [Note:  Bob spends more time on how to use this question in the complete audio seminar Understanding the Buying Process – Learning to Sell the way People Buy available from BuilderRadio.com.]

3.  Compare. As people look at your product, they are comparing it to what they have in mind, to what they’ve seen, and to their expectations.  From the buyer’s perspective, Hafer poses this question:  “Do I actually come to talk to you?  You’d better face that one dead on… What people told us was ‘the reason I came was because I wanted to look; the reason I came was because I wanted to compare.’”

4.  Contrast. “Buyers look to compare to contrast,” says Hafer.  “Every purchase that you have every made, guess what – that’s exactly what you do.”  He explains that contrasting implied in term “I’m just looking,” because buyers often don’t want to take the time to explain what they are comparing our product against.  So, they compare and contrast our product by themselves, based on their own experiences and with what they’ve seen, what they have, or what they’d like to have.  “When people come to you, they have something in mind.  To think they don’t is an absolute err.”

5.  Question. Buyers begin the process with a very narrow focus – what they can see, compare, and contrast.  But eventually they want to know everything, and they start asking questions.  This is a very positive sign for the salesperson; questions mean that your prospect is thinking and are ready to talk with you.  It also means that you’ve made the ‘short list’ and signals they are getting ready to buy.

6.  Eliminate. You either make the list, or you get eliminated.  That’s part of the buying process.  The better you understand what your buyers are comparing and contrasting you to, the better your chance of making the cut and not being eliminated.  The bottom line is, though, that you’ll be eliminated more times than you’ll win; that’s your closing ratio.

Now, here’s the ‘paragraph’ that Bob shared with the seminar attendees that really sunk home with them.  It’s built around 5 key words that represent the buying process up to this point, and should be put into your own words for maximum effect, but goes like this:

“My experience is that when you get inside its best that you look around.  Make yourself at home; get comfortable.  Compare and contrast what you see to what you have in mind.  Then, I’m going to be close by; I’m going to answer any questions you may have.  If this is not what you had in mind, let’s eliminate it because we have more for you to see today.”

The most important elements of this paragraph are the 5 words that describe the first 5 steps in the buying process:  look, compare, contrast, question, and eliminate; and they connect on several levels with buyers.

7.  Negotiate. This is not negotiating with you over price; your buyers leave your model and begin negotiating with each other according to their wants and expectations.  They also plan their strategy for negotiating with you.  This is why discovering your prospects buying motivations early on and focusing on unique value points is so vital to winning sales; you want buyers to focus on your solutions during this negotiation.

8.  Eliminate, again. The short list is being pared down to just one or two, and you want to make that second cut.  Here is where your follow up is vital.  “Look, you’ve got to follow up and you’ve got to follow up very, very, very quickly.  Do not wait; it’s got to happen and it’s got to happen fast… The best strategy is to do this:  The moment they walk out the door, go pick up the phone and make a phone call and thank them for coming.  Position yourself.  Leave about a 10-second phone [message] that says, ‘Hi, this is Bob Hafer with XYZ Building Company.  I just wanted to say thanks, again, for coming out and visiting us. I will call you back tomorrow night to answer any questions you may have. Thanks, again.’”  Hafer adds that this discipline will separate you from your competition, and that you are competing at this point, not with another product, but with another person.  You need to outrun and outperform that person to win the sale.

9.  Resist. “People have to resist; it’s called the ‘Opposition Factor.’ It’s something each one of us has.  It’s built into our DNA.  It has to be there.  If we didn’t have an opposition response, we’d buy everything,” says Hafer.  “If you don’t get resistance, you can’t make the sale…  Once a person gives you resistance, they are primed to buy.”

10.  Decide. This is a simple ‘yes or no’ decision.  They decide to buy or not to buy.

11.  Purchase. “A purchase is not the final event.  A purchase is simply an agreement.  That’s all it is.  There are lots of slips between the lip and the cup,” says Hafer.  “So, you’ve got to pay attention to that…  They are not homeowners yet.”

12.  Remorse. The final stage is something we need to watch for closely, and act when possible to counteract.  “There is a chance that they will come back to you and cancel,” particularly if they haven’t spent sufficient time in each of the previous buying stages – if they haven’t had enough time to look, compare, contrast, ask questions, eliminate, or talk about the purchase together.  “When people say to you, ‘I need to think it over,’ that’s really true.  They do!  If they can’t think it over… and get into alignment with each other, you may get remorse… It is absolutely something we should talk over with our customers.”  Hafer recommends that you plan for this stage by preparing a statement such as, “My experience is that sometimes remorse does happen.  When you get home tonight and you get to thinking about this and you wake up at 2:00am in a cold sweat and you’re asking yourself, ‘What did I just do,’ I want you to call me the next day.  Let’s talk about your feelings.  There may be something I didn’t get answered or we didn’t fully develop.”  He says the important thing at this point is to demonstrate that you’re there for them.

13.  Referrals. At this point, after you’ve addressed any buyer’s remorse and your customers are confident that they’ve made the right decision, “they want to give you a referral,” says Hafer.  “I don’t know how many of you do it, but if you don’t, shame on you.  You’d better have yourself a ‘raving fans’ book… You need to ask for them.”

Bob reminds us that the sales process is important – we still need to greet; do discovery, qualify; etc.  But, as we merge and match our planned processes to the buyer’s shopping processes, we’ll come into alignment with their thinking, too, which will make it that much easier to make the sale.

As Bob puts it, “When you see John Smith through John Smith’s eyes, you’ll sell John Smith what John Smith buys.”

Order Bob Hafer’s  book, Building Results, and learn more about his training programs, seminars, and sales support products here.

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