Readers…the following post is a continuation of last week’s post. If you did not read it, then start reading at the beginning of this post. If you did read last weeks’ start reading at “Lesson #5 – Differentiate Yourself.
Several months ago I was approached by a real estate company to help them solve a problem. You see they had a team of agents that were assigned to families that were relocating to a different area. This agent (who was in competition with another company) would sit down with the seller and pitch the value proposition of their company and themselves. The seller would then make a decision regarding who they wanted to list their house. The problem was the team was losing more than it was winning.
This field of sales is very complicated and clearly there are multiple factors to this problem; most that were out of everyone’s control. BUT there was one thing the company could do…..help their agents become better at the listing presentation. Enter my services.
We began what I call “The Great Listing Presentation Project” or GLPP for short. At the core of this project was asking each agent on this team to perform their listing presentation in front of a reviewer. Using a check-list and a series of questions/objections the reviewer took the role of the seller. At the end of the listing presentation the reviewer would complete written feedback and send it to the agent.
Thirty-nine agents later there were clear common denominators in the weaker presentations and clear common denominators in the stronger presentations. This series of blog shares those lessons.
By the way if you are not involved on the real estate market there is still value here for you. Ironically, the majority of these lessons had no relation to a specific market but are about sales skills.
Lesson #5 – Differentiate Yourself
Have you ever purchased a white ceiling fan? I have many times. It’s an interesting process. You enter the big box store go to the fan section and look up. There in front of you are dozens of white fans…..all going round and round. Truly distinguishing the differences between them is impossible. So what do you do? Easy….you start looking at the price tags.
Here’s the point. If a consumer cannot tell the difference between you and your services versus the competitors they will shop on price. Bummer.
The answer lies in how consumers make decisions. Consumers use a contrast/comparison process to look at each offer. Think about the last time you purchased something. More than likely you compared its’ features to the competition. I just recently purchased an iPad case. The first one I saw is the one I purchased, which is the exact opposite of what I’m saying. But my purchase was after I’d looked at each case in the store and ensured that the needed features were present and gave me value. In fact, there were two cases that had all the features and were aesthetically pleasing. Because of that situation I purchased the one that was least expensive.
What does this mean to you? A lot. When presenting yourself and/or your product to a consumer you have to show them why you are different from the competition or they will buy the cheapest.
How? Start by listing points of difference. What does your company do that is better/stronger/different than other companies? Where do you go the extra mile? Even if you aren’t sure if your competitor does the same thing or not, write it down.
Next, where are you going to insert these points of difference in your presentation? Last, what are the words that you will use to raise awareness in your client that you are different?
One of the listing presentations I did was a highly successful sales associate (several hundred transactions a year). He used the expression “nobody else does that” multiple times.
Think about it.