By Shirleen Von Hoffmann, President and Sales Coach for Homebuilders’ Edge copyright 2011
Last week we preformed two competition shops for one our national builders. The competition was two other national builders.
The first is a brand new subdivision, in a competitive area, just outside the bay area of California. Our price point on these communities was $650, 000.00. And yes, we still have pricing in California like this.
Our shopper was the only visitor the entire time she was in the office. Upon entry, the Agent was in his office on his phone, in the middle of what sounded like he was leaving a message. The Agent promptly finished his call and came out. He was dressed in a polo shirt with the company logo, some khaki’s and he had a long ponytail. Yes, again his price point is $650,000.00.
He proceeded to tell her he is making phone calls for his new release tomorrow. He was nice and had a pleasant attitude. He then gave her a price sheet and pointed her towards the models, for viewing. When our shopper viewed the models and returned to the office, the Sales Agent was back on the phone finishing those calls that were so important, again not hearing our shopper re-enter the sales office. The Shopper made some noise and he finally came out. Our shopper said she really liked an in-law quarters feature on one of the models and the Sales Person said, well I am not sure if I am going to have any of those released, call me tomorrow. He gave her no card, nor his name and she left.
Money down the drain!
I probably don’t have to spell this one out, but I will anyway…
- Agents should always dress in business type attire, especially in this area and price point.
- Agent never introduced himself or got our shoppers name.
- Phone calls can always wait until a time when no prospects are present.
- Agent asked no questions of our shopper, not even her name.
- Agent did not go on a model tour with our prospect to discover her needs and build rapport.
- This Agent does not realize the value of a prospect that is live standing in front of him. She was a non-contingent buyer ready to buy in 30 days. He never discovered that.
- Agent didn’t get a card on this prospect.
- Agent didn’t get to exit interview or close our prospect because he was back on the phone and really more worried about making his phone calls that his Manager probably assigned to him.
Shop rating; VERY POOR SHOP
The particularly SAD thing about this shop was that when doing the shop report, I didn’t even have a name to put on the report because this Agent never gave his card nor introduced himself. His name was not on the price sheet as well. He did have a long ponytail so we were able to describe him that way.
The other thing we noticed is that for this price point the sales office was dirty and cluttered. We had to wonder how long it had been since the Sales Manager had visited.
We were able to tell our builder client that this competition shop was not much competition to worry about.
How are you coming across to your clients?
Happy Sales!
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