Qualified Remodeler Magazine

FEB 2015

Qualified Remodeler helps independent remodeling firms to survive, become more professional and more profitable by providing must-have business information, namely best business practices, new product information and timely design ideas.

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¡ ¡ Like people who listen to them. ¡ ¡ Like people who endorse their values. ¡ ¡ Like people who work at uncovering their needs. To understand the basics of this phenomenon, here are three simple guidelines: 1. Stop telling: Are your presentations longer, void of a strong needs assess- ment? Are you utilizing excuses, defen- sive statements, or price drops to com- pensate for objections/negotiations? 2. Listen and process information: Particularly in the early stages of a presentation, as this will be perceived by the customer as a helping and car- ing attitude. Learning to do it properly requires a new mind-set and training. 3. Customer perception: You are selling efciently when the buyer is convinced it is his/her decision to buy. Notice that the satisfed customer often says, "I bought it from …" and seldom, "What's- his-name sold it to me." Remember: closing is the natural conclusion to the satisfactory completion of each step in a sound sales methodology. THERE IS a science to selling, and it's a lot more than glib, talkative presentations that are often too long and provide little, if any, feelings of well-being for the prospect. Like any science, you have to work at it and understand that you have certain cultural, emotional and perceptional blocks that may prevent you from doing/saying what is in your best interest and that of your customers. Remember, scientifc selling is best described as "a problem-solving discussion between a salesperson and a prospect that leads toward a meeting of the minds that deepens the dependence on each other [a collaborative efect]." However, don't be misled. In order to sell more efciently you will still need to utilize modern, proven sales tech- niques. Ten our power statement will be: Sell is a four letter word (like care). n ¡ ¡ We want to talk it over with … Tese are not necessarily true. So why are they stated? Why is it that others who do exactly what you do, provide the same kind of service will get this con- tract and you will never be recontacted? Here is our response: "Tere is seldom a cold, rational, dispas- sionate buyer who buys solely on merit. It requires trust to be established, needs un- covered, and a cooperative feeling between buyer and seller based on rapport." IN ADDITION, our research tells us that if you are making presentations in the home, the prospect/customer is the key ingredient in a sound sales methodology. How the prospect thinks and feels has to be the major consideration in the de- velopment of a sales system — or that system will eventually fail. When the issue of customer feelings or values is raised, many people get un- comfortable, assuming we're moving into areas often called touchy-feely — yet these same people want to build trust and create rapport in their customer relationships. Rapport is a state of mind that begins with feelings. To some salespeople build- ing rapport seems a snap while others try and never seem to get it. Rapport is most easily developed in the early stages of contact. It is usually based on understanding how prospects' think and feel and can be explained this way. Prospects: plays a powerful role in the success of selling and to those other professions just mentioned. Now here's the catch. Rapport is a feel- ing. It is based on, among other things, trust, confdence, credibility, compre- hension, feelings of well-being, empathy and believability. In Dr. Jolson's statement he refers to "a problem-solving discussion between salesperson (contractor if you like) and prospect that leads toward a meeting of minds." We believe this can only be accom- plished by understanding some of the core processes that go into structured selling. If you have dealt with someone who you would like to acquire your services, I will guarantee at some time you have heard expressions such as these from prospects. ¡ ¡ Tere are two or three other compa- nies we're looking at. ¡ ¡ We're not ready to buy now; we're look- ing to get ideas. ¡ ¡ We know who you are and we're famil- iar with your work. We just want you to know that price is very important. AND WHEN you've completed a review of the project, done your homework, made a presentation and presented your price, maybe these statements were made: ¡ ¡ Leave us your card and we'll get back to you. ¡ ¡ We are getting other prices and we will contact you again. ¡ ¡ Tis is more costly than we had antic- ipated; we may have to "back burner" this project. "There is seldom a cold, rational, dispassionate buyer who buys solely on merit. It requires trust to be established, needs uncovered, and a cooperative feeling between buyer and seller based on rapport." B U S I N E S S S O L U T I O N S 40 SPECIAL SECTION: EXTERIOR CONTRACTOR | February 2015 QR QualifiedRemodeler.com | ForResidentialPros.com

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