The Affects of Stress
If you think it’s a tough time to be a new home salesperson, think about being a new home buyer these days. On the one hand, the cards are all in your hand – it’s an amazingly incredibly powerfully wonderful time to buy! On the other hand, the whole world seems to be saying, “bad idea”. Now add their current housing situation (which must be amiss or they wouldn’t be shopping). Insert the stresses associated with making the right deal, and market conditions, and finding the right home in an endless sea of choices, and market concerns, and gas prices, and….
You get the idea. It all leads to a recipe for one seriously stressed-out customer. And how does that stress affect them more than anything else? More than anything else, the stress clogs their brain – they don’t think clearly. Stressed out people struggle with keeping everything straight, and the more data coming at them, the greater the stress and confusion.
If you think about it, you are probably just like that, as am I. We get stressed about something and the stress makes it hard to think clearly. We lose our equilibrium. Before we know it even minor irritants cause us to snap.
What is the remedy? In a word: SIMPLICITY. Stressed out people abhor ambiguity, but they love the straightforward. Consider how your own presentation can compliment the simple and avoid the complicated.
Sales Stressors:
- Feature-dumping
- Long-winded answers without interaction
- Lack of openness that causes the customer to wonder about your character
- Product- or price-centered presentations
Stress Relievers:
- Confirmation questions throughout the process
- Explain things in simple steps
- Giving the customer permission to ask questions when confused
- Letting the customer know that stress is normal
Are you accidentally stressing out an already-stressed homebuyer? It might be time to simplify. Only then do you truly have a shot at changing their world.
