|
DO YOU KNOW
WHERE YOUR PROSPECTS ARE?
We all go
through stages that, taken together, make up the Buying
Process. As a sales professional, the more you know
about this process and how to guide your prospects through it,
the more sales you will make. The buying process goes along in
three stages. First, the prospect must determine there is a
NEED. Once Need is established, the prospect seeks to LEARN the
options and opportunities. Finally, when the prospect is
satisfied that he knows what he is doing, the prospect is ready
to BUY.
Determining a
Need
When prospects
are in the NEED stage, a good sales person is there with
knowledge and information that may help the prospect arrive at a
comfortable decision. You know it is always easier in life to do
nothing, so your biggest battle is against inertia. Sometimes a
prospect doesn’t have a choice about whether or not to move.
This is true in the case of military and job relocation
situations. You won’t have inertia working against you in
these situations. For other families or individuals, choosing to
buy a home for the first time or choosing to move up or down may
depend on the answers to a variety of questions. Now, if you
know your target audience, you already know many if not most of
the questions and concerns that are going to come up. Why not
include some of this helpful information on your Web? You can do
this in a variety of formats: A frequently asked question
section: A section that provides information online; A section
that offers helpful information via auto-responder. You may want
to include all three methods.
Prospects may
not be looking for a real estate agent in the NEED stage. If you
provide Web pages that are helpful and make it easy for
prospects to leave their name and E-mail address with you, you
have the opportunity to be right there with them when they move
into the LEARN stage. For example, you might include some
helpful information on your Website but keep back other, really
interesting information that is available through auto
responder. This means that the prospect must enter name and
E-mail address in order to get what they want. This gives you
the opportunity to provide the prospect with the information
they want and to send them additional information that relates
to their interest so that they keep you in mind as they move
into the stage where they will need a helpful real estate
professional.
Learning the
Options and Opportunities
In the LEARN
stage the focus shifts to selecting the solutions that best meet
your prospect’s needs. It can happen that a prospect you have
nurtured through the NEED stage will turn around a buy a home
from one of your competitors when they enter the LEARN stage. To
reduce the likelihood of this happening you must know your
market well and know your prospect’s needs equally well. It
can happen so easily. Your prospect visits an Open House held by
one of your competitors. The house is perfect. They buy it. This
kind of scenario can be prevented if the agent truly knows what
the prospect is looking for and also knows the market. It is
possible to use your Web site to give you power in this stage of
the buying process. Because prospective buyers are often unclear
about what they truly want and need, you’ll be ahead of the
game if you can help clarify the situation.
It is easy to
include a section, possibly a questionnaire, on your Website
that helps prospective buyers and sellers clarify their needs.
This kind of Web strategy also serves as a constant reminder to
you not to skip or overlook your role in guiding prospects
through the LEARN stage. During this stage prospects must be
encouraged to identify the essential or "Must Have"
features they want in the new home. There are always additional
features that would be "Nice to Have" but not
essential to the deal. Years ago my mother’s health demanded
that she live either with us or in separate quarters on the same
property. It was determined that we would sell our home and buy
a property with a house and a guesthouse. While many agents
tried to show us homes with Mother-in-law sections inside the
home, a guesthouse for us was a "Must Have." The agent
who listed our home and sold us our wonderful new home with a
2-bedroom guesthouse was the agent who listened to our needs and
knew just the property that would please us. The home we bought
was not a secret listing. Every agent in town should have known
about it. The house had been on the market for a long time. Long
enough that the owner was willing to accept an offer below his
asking price.
Ready to Buy
Prospects
sometimes move backwards when they enter the BUY stage. Fears
arise. Buyer’s remorse sets in at the very thought of making
such a commitment. The fear is not always expressed in the sales
agent’s presence but symptoms occur such as unrealistic
demands, unreturned phone calls, inappropriate delay. Also watch
for negative, non-verbal body language such as crossed arms. Not
all buyers become fearful but those that do may regress back to
the NEED stage or to the LEARN stage. If regression occurs,
determine if your prospect is back to deciding whether or not to
make a change (the NEED stage) or if your prospect is back to
looking at other properties (the LEARN stage). If your prospect
has reverted to the LEARN stage, you might suspect they are
listening to another agent. E-Marketing solutions that will
guide through these set backs can and should be set up ahead of
time.
What do you do
now when a prospect decides to buy and then reverts to an
earlier stage in the buying process? You probably say and do
things to reassure your prospect since reverting to an earlier
stage is caused by fear. Think about preparing written materials
ahead of time designed to help prospects overcome their fears.
If you earlier prepared a Needs Assessment for your prospects,
prepare a written statement that points out how the home they
have decided to buy meets all their criteria. Ask them to let
you know if maybe they have discovered additional "Must
Have" items that you don’t have in your assessment.
Similar strategies will be effective with prospects who revert
to the NEED stage.
Knowing the
stages that buyers go through and planning ahead for effective
strategies to help you help them will result in more sales in
your column.
Noel Markham, Marketing
Consultant provides custom Web design, online sales training and
Internet marketing for Real Estate Professionals.
Contact Noel toll free at 888-814-5347.
|