Let Your Customer Train You

It never ceases to amaze me how many salespeople (not just in new home sales but in all industries) continue to ask questions that bring them poor results. For example, if someone asks, “May I help you?”, your response is almost certain to be “I’m just looking”. That is, of course, an undesirable response. So why do salespeople continue to ask the question?

The above example might be too obvious, and to be fair I rarely hear the question in new home sales offices (although I am almost guaranteed to hear it every time I visit the mall!). But there are undoubtedly questions in your standard repertoire that you routinely ask but that give you an undesirable response.

Here’s where you can train yourself. When a customer says something that you would rather not hear (“I’m just looking”, for example), immediately go back and ask yourself, “What is the last thing I said or asked of that customer?” It is possible that you inadvertently invited that undesirable response!

Your thought process should proceed as follows: “If the I say x the customer responds with y; if I would rather not hear y, then I should probably change x.”

Change your questions, and you’ll change their world!