Sales and Teamwork
Today we’re talking about sales and teamwork. We’re going to bring on the newest member of the Shore Consulting team. He is here to help us increase our influence, effectiveness, and teamwork with builders, warranty reps, the design centers, and everybody throughout the organization, not just sales.
I’m thrilled to have Jeremiah Gore with us today!
JEFF: How are you doing, my friend?
JEREMIAH: Hey, I’m good, Jeff. How are you doing?
JEFF: Doing great. Thanks for joining us. We’re talking here today about teamwork and specifically what salespeople can do to connect with those around them on the supporting team. We know it’s a two-way street, but we want to take the lead. So, what can salespeople do to improve communication with people in their community teams?
JEREMIAH: Take some ownership of it. Like the adage, you know, if it’s to be, it’s up to me. I think if sales teams can own that, that’d be great. But coming out of the last couple of years, it’s been rough. I think if they can just say thank you, you know, just show some appreciation for what the team’s in the field is doing. I think that would go a long way.
JEFF: Hold on a second. Now, you’re a construction union. You know the construction world. You run construction teams. Those guys don’t care if you ever say thank you. They are gruff, with no personality that they know of. Isn’t that right?
JEREMIAH: It’s what they’ll want you to believe. I’m going to tell you if you’ve been married to a man or, you know, a man, you will know that the greatest thing that we can that you can tell us is that we’re doing a good job. Affirmations go a long way. We see that personality pervades whether it’s a woman or a man, that personality that makes them so successful is the same one that’s begging for someone to come along and say, you’re doing a great job.
JEFF: How do salespeople help those people connect with their customers deeper? Because often, that customer conversation can be fraught with friction. So, what can we do as sales professionals to sort of grease the skids for the relationship between builders, warranty reps, designers, whoever it is, and the actual home-buying customer?
JEREMIAH: They can set them up for success. Don’t set bear traps in false expectations. Don’t promise something that you want them to do. Don’t promise that for them. Don’t set them up for failure. I think that’s the biggest part of it. And then brag on them! Brag on them in front of them and behind their backs, but brag on your team to your buyers about how great your team is and how great your builders are. This shouldn’t sound fake because if it does, it probably is. Find the reasons your builder’s good and praise that part of it.
JEFF: But you and I have talked about this in the past, the idea of emotional endorsement, where if you trust me and I am excited about something, then you get excited about that something. It’s the basis for all referrals, whether we’re talking about a movie or a restaurant, or an individual. If there’s a – if you trust me, if I’ve built that sort of trust with you, and I say, I got to introduce you here to the guy that I would want building my home, that emotional endorsement goes a long way.
JEREMIAH: Absolutely. You take that high of buying a home and then try to carry that through; if you can praise that person that’s going to carry them from the contract to close, not to steal the line from your book, but if we can do that and pass that along, it only sets that person up for more success.
JEFF: We want to make sure that we’re endorsing the builder to the customer and others on the community team as well. But then there’s also the idea of what we’re telling community team members about the customer. So how do we do that? How do we give them a head start in the relationship by letting them know this is what you need to know about that customer?
JEREMIAH: Yeah, I think the big part is that if the salesperson does their job and does the 4:2 with the buyer, they completely understand that buyer’s story. It’s sharing that story with everyone who will interface with that buyer through a handoff process. We’ve seen some companies that will give the builders and design folk and warranty staff they’ll give them access to the CRM. The basic and the foundation of that is that they share the story of that buyer so that everyone that touches that buyer and everyone that comes into contact with that buyer knows that buyer’s story and knows their pain, they know their dissatisfaction, but more so they know their future promise. This allows everyone to come alongside them on that journey.
JEFF: Love it! Last thing, how passionate are you about effective teams?
JEREMIAH: I’m extremely passionate about it. After 20 years in home building, I decided to hit the road and try and help other teams achieve it. A career changer for me! You see the impact the 4:2 Formula® makes on the sales floor. If we can make a fraction of that impact on the construction staff, purchasing staff, and design center staff and allow that to touch the buyer the rest of the way through, just imagine how much greater all of our jobs will be.
JEFF: Jeremiah Gore, thanks for taking 5 minutes with us. So thrilled to have you with us today. Now go out there and change someone’s world and remember, until next time… learn more to earn more!
