Homebuyers want to purchase from someone they like and trust. Trust can take time, but likeability can be established in a minute or less. How your sales counselor greets their prospective buyer matters. Are they warm and welcoming? Do they take time to “break the ice” first, or immediately jump to their sales pitch? Buyers are more likely to open up to a likeable salesperson, and share intimate details, including their motivation to buy. Likeability leads to trust, and this powerful combination leads to a faster, more efficient buying cycle.

Recent data shows an alarming statistic. A high percentage of sales counselors assume their buyers are making purchasing decisions based on financing incentives and discounts alone. While effective for closing a sale, incentives are rarely the motivating factor in a decision-making process. Sales Counselors skilled in asking questions and actively listening to answers, discover critical information. What are my buyer’s “must-haves”? What bonus features could make my offerings more appealing? What’s prevented my buyer from purchasing up to this point? Getting to the buyer’s “why”, and “why now” is a critical step in an effective sales presentation.

Unfortunately, many good salespeople are lousy listeners. During the COVID housing boom, sales counselors took a transactional approach to sales—quickly describing details, creating urgency, and closing with confidence. In today’s market, that just doesn’t work. Are your sales counselors listening for buying signals and emotional cues, or so focused on their pitch that they miss critical details? Often, buyers share important information salespeople completely miss—causing buyers to feel unheard, unimportant, and uninterested.

Buying a new home is a big deal. Probably the biggest decision a person will ever make. The buyer deserves more than a transactional experience. Especially in today’s market, buyers are looking for a competent, caring sales professional they can trust with their big decision. Top-performing sales counselors build trust in two ways. They demonstrate a genuine desire to discover their customers’ wants, needs, concerns, and fears, and they reassure their buyers that they possess the knowledge and skills to guide them through their purchasing process.

When evaluating Mystery Video Shops for a sales team, our priority is to establish a baseline of sales performance. We use this data to provide coaching recommendations for group training, focusing on improving the most significant presentation deficiencies. Throughout a sales presentation, evaluation data reveals “ups and downs”. For example, a sales counselor might deliver a very good “meet and greet” with a customer but become nervous when discussing financing options. Buyers pick up on these changes and lose confidence in their salesperson. A common presentation deficiency is the transition to the close, when the sales counselor asks for the sale. If this process isn’t executed with confidence, the buyer senses something is wrong and refuses to move forward with the purchase. Fear of rejection is commonplace in our industry. We teach sales professionals to overcome this fear and close with confidence.