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Only Half of All New Home Prospects Contacted

July 2, 2008 9:04 am Kim Albritton
Filed in Land Development, Real Estate

If your sales force only contacted 56% percent of the leads that walked in your door, how would you react?

If you think that number is wrong, you should read the article, Despite Housing Crunch, Some Builders Ignore Prospective Buyers. In the article, Marc Lumpkin explains that in the Denver area, only 56% percent of the prospects that walked into the sales center were asked to fill out a registration card and 16% of the shoppers were not greeted when they walked in the sales center. Sadly, only 1 in 3 of prospects that left information was contacted.

In the days of decreased home sales, why would anyone in the new home business not jump through a hoop to make the sale? I have read many articles where agents have offered, cars, home décor, vacations, free upgrades, club membership and other perks to sell homes. I recently read an article about a woman in Florida who is selling her home along with herself (a marriage proposal). So with all the interesting incentives out there, why would your new home sales agents fail to obtain customer information and then only follow-up with one out of three prospects?

What can you do?

First things first, make sure your sales force understands that the customer is the TOP priority. No matter what they are doing, greeting the customer is top priority. If the sales staff is typically in another area other than where the customer enters, consider hiring a hostess. A person that can greet people, hand out brochures and give a rough tour of the models. I know, you are probably thinking how can I afford to add staff when I have reduced sales? Well, have you ever heard of a department store named Nordstrom’s?

Nordstrom’s understands the service in customer service. Nordstrom’s sales staff will go out of their way to assist a customer. I have heard stories about their sales staff taking used tires, removing other stores security tags (of course the merchandise was paid) and changing sleeves on a shirt. Why do they do this? Because Nordstrom’s understands that a satisfied and happy customer will continue to buy from people that are trusted. Make it “OK” for your staff to go out of their way to win a customer.

Next, get rid of the low performers. Look for a sales force that can sell. During the boom, I saw many people get into real estate because they thought it was easy money. These individuals have little or no selling skills and really do not understand the nature of the business.

Once you have a good sales force, incentivize and reward them. I like this part of the plan the best. Why, because you do not have to pay out anything until they make a sale. Be creative. Figure out what your sales force likes, and each person is different, and use that as an incentive. For instance, Ms. Smith has always wanted to go on a European vacation. You could offer Ms. Smith a 10 day trip to Europe when she sells five $500,000 houses.

Also, make sure you have a method to keep track of the customers that visit your models and ask to see the data weekly. Give incentives to the prospects for leaving their information. Some simple, inexpensive ideas are special ‘deal’ emails, $1,000 upgrade by email or a dinner certificate.

Finally, leave a way for the customer to contact the owner or senior management if they feel they are not receiving the level of service they desire. Yes, you may have a person call you that really should not have, but if you could save one sale from going out the door….isn’t it worth it?