Connecticut Builder Magazine

SALES & MARKETING

How to Overcome Home Buyer Objections in Today's Market

We all might want more sales than we are getting, or we might like the sales that we do work with to be free of their many contingencies and conditions, but transactions are happening — even in the most stubborn markets.

As for the objections our prospects raise, they really don't differ that much from what many of us have heard in the past. They still can be grouped into the five basic categories — the home's setting, financial reasons, design, buyer timing and fear — just like they were during the housing boom. And then, as now, most seasoned salespeople have been trained on how to overcome them.

Yet, when most new home salespeople hear the dreaded, "We want to think it over," from their customers today, they simply fold up their tents.

So the fundamental impediment brought on by objections in today's market, as difficult as it may be, may really be more about how we hear and interpret these objections, rather than the actual substance of them, and — even more importantly — how we allow these objections to become part of the selling and buying process.

Most of us have spent a good part of our sales career overcoming objections and were trained in how to do it effectively. We would listen, make sure we understood them, discuss them and provide well-rehearsed and planned answers — and then move on to the sale.

Our solutions may not have satisfied our clients' needs or been what they wanted to hear, but our sales objective was to give our solutions or answers to their objections and move along as if nothing had happened.

That's not a route we would even dare to take in today's tough market.

Three Levels of Objections

Prospective buyers can raise objections to buying now because of everything from neighborhood schools, an inability to get a mortgage, a baby due in eight weeks and too low a ceiling in the family room to paying too high a price, home owners association fees, fear of working with the builder and more.

But no matter what the basis of the objection is, it generally falls into one of three levels of importance — major ones you can do nothing about; intermediate ones you can explain, answer or solve; and minor ones that are inconsequential and should be ignored.

Major objections are those that you can't change, make go away or really do anything about. If there is a power line or water treatment plant nearby, for instance, you can't miraculously make it disappear.

The best you can do in this circumstance is discuss the objection with your prospects and minimize its impact on the decision-making process by helping them understand that whatever it is that they object to really will not have an adverse impact on their lifestyle or investment.

The intermediate objections — the ones you can explain or answer — usually center around perceived room sizes, various aspects of their investment, having a current home to sell, fear of making a decision and the like.

These are the objections and issues that you were trained to overcome and can overcome. Your task is to actually make the objections disappear through specific actions, or to lessen their impact and make them seem reasonable enough to your prospects so that a buying decision is still possible.

The minor or inconsequential objections are those that are sometimes raised in passing. They may not even be objections but, instead, be merely off-the-cuff comments or observations about the paint, carpet color, model furnishings or something else incidental that really has nothing to do with the floor plan, how well it works for your customers or what they really feel about the home.

If you are ready and willing to act on these minor objections, you give them much more weight and importance than they deserve — and you could spend much too much time trying to solve them. The best plan of action with minor objections is to ignore them and let them fade away.

Determine If the Shopper Is Serious

While the nature of buyer objections has not really changed, in order to overcome objections in a down market, your first order of business should be to determine how serious your home shoppers are.

If they're not serious, having a home to sell or worrying about getting their financing really doesn't matter at all. If they're not serious, they are not going to buy no matter how hard you work for them.

So, to determine how serious they are, I suggest asking them something like, "If your current home (or financing or other considerations they raised) was not a factor and everything was in place for you to do so, would you say 'yes' to owning this home right now?"

If they replied with anything other than an emphatic and enthusiastic "yes," then they really haven't raised an objection, they were just giving you an excuse. And there is no effective way to work with excuses, because as soon as you try to deal with one another one will pop up.

However, if selling a home or getting financing or whatever else that they brought up is a true objection and the buyer is truly serious, you have something to focus on and work with.

Once you've determined their seriousness, the next step is to determine how many obstacles need to be overcome. To do that, I'd ask a follow-up question like, "So, if selling your present home (or getting financing, etc.) was not a factor, are you comfortable going ahead and getting started with owning this home today?"

This approach helps to determine if the objection they raised initially was the only one you have to address of if there are other obstacles to making the sale. The approach enables you to discover what you really can and do need to work with — and what is just being offered as conversation.

So, before attempting to answer or work with what you think might be a true objection, confirm that it is a true objection and that it stands in the way of an immediate decision.

Once you made that determination, you can work with it to eliminate it as a barrier to the sale. Otherwise, you may be making the sales process longer and harder than it needs to be.

Steve Hoffacker, CAASH, CAPS, CGP, CMP, CSP, MCSP, MIRM, is the founder of Hoffacker Associates, a real estate sales and marketing consultant firm based in West Palm Beach, Fla. that focuses on helping builders and salespeople gain control of their sales process to become more profitable, effective and efficient. His company provides coaching, lead generation, sales techniques, marketing and business management services. For more information, call Hoffacker at 561-685-5555, or visit http://stevehoffacker.com.

This article originally appeared on the NAHB Sales and Marketing Channel.

Effective Advertising Should Focus on Generating Traffic

If you don't want any of your advertising dollars to go to waste, you need to understand that effective advertising, especially in today's market, must have a singular goal — to generate traffic.

Now, advertising isn't the only way to achieve this goal. A balanced marketing program that includes such elements as highly-targeted print advertising and targeted media, like radio and cable television, can generate traffic as well.

In fact, to be effective, all of your advertising and marketing efforts should work seamlessly with a well-strategized public relations outreach program that should probably include working with real estate brokers, depending upon your market.

Onsite and Offsite Promotions Generate Traffic

One of the best ways to generate qualified traffic in this housing downturn is through special events involving onsite or offsite promotion.

Also, don't forget the role of the Internet. Studies have shown that 80% of purchasers start their home search on the Internet.

You Must Have a 'Call to Action'

During the last peak in the housing cycle, institutional advertising was de rigueur. Often called "image" advertising, institution advertising did not promote a specific call to action. It relied on just sharing a vision.

That might have worked when the market was strong and just about everyone was buying homes, but today, the wisdom of an old Japanese proverb is more apropos — "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

Today, we must include a call to action in every ad — or else we risk wasting our precious ad dollars.

"You must be proactive with your advertising dollars, as few as they may be," says Richard Elkman, of Group Two Advertising in Philadelphia, an advertising and marketing firm for new-home builders. "If you don't have a message and don't differentiate your company, then your competition is going to get your sales."

With print advertising, that means builders should do more than convey information. People want a good story that they can evaluate on their own. Give it to them — with a twist.

One way to teach adults about the value of your home is by employing self-discovery through involvement. Don't bore them by telling them too much and giving away the ending of your story.

Hold a little back to let them discover what they need and want — and definitely make your call to action a part of the story.

Remember that an ad is not designed to sell anything. It's there to create a climate where the sale can be made. So, use your story to highlight the emotional deficits your target market is experiencing and show them how they, by taking the next step and buying your home, can fill those emotional holes.

Entice them with appeals involving culture, convenience, romance, recreation, long- and short-term investment, status and prestige, security and privacy and, of course, family and lifestyle. But remember, the sale only starts with emotion. It also must appeal to reason and logic, so be sure to make your appeal easy to understand — and difficult to misinterpret.

Try to appeal to all the senses — and don't lecture.

Don't Scrimp on Color

Now is not the time to scrimp on images or color. If you are not using images, and in particular, color images in your ads, you aren't getting the best use of your ad dollars.

A four-color ad is expensive, true, but it also has 80% more chance of getting read. Even a two-color ad is 38% percent more likely to be read than its black and white counterpart.

Utilize imagery and symbolic language that appeal to all learning styles — auditory, visual and kinesthetic.

When you stop using advertising to make sales, but instead use it to generate traffic, you'll find that you are not wasting your ad dollars.

Gian Hasbrock, MIRM, is president of WOWISM, a real estate marketing consulting firm specializing in education, training, motivation, research and accountability. Hasbrock is also an NAHB Master Instructor, the author of the courses, "Built to Sell" and "Multicultural Sales," and the co-author of the courses, "Effective Marketing on a Shoestring Budget" and "Understanding Housing Markets and Consumers." For more information, e-mail Hasbrock, call him at 252-207-9000 or visit www.WOWism.com.

This article originally appeared on the NAHB Sales and Marketing Channel.


				SALES & MARKETING How to Overcome Home Buyer Objections in Today's Market We all might want more sales than we are getting, or we might like the sales that we do work with to be free of their many contingencies and conditions, but transactions are happening — even in the most stubborn markets. As for the objections our prospects raise, they really don't differ that much from what many of us have heard in the past. They still can be grouped into the five basic categories — the home's setting, financial reasons, design, buyer timing and fear — just like they were during the housing boom. And then, as now, most seasoned salespeople have been trained on how to overcome them. Yet, when most new home salespeople hear the dreaded, "We want to think it over," from their customers today, they simply fold up their tents. So the fundamental impediment brought on by objections in today's market, as difficult as it may be, may really be more about how we hear and interpret these objections, rather than the actual substance of them, and — even more importantly — how we allow these objections to become part of the selling and buying process. Most of us have spent a good part of our sales career overcoming objections and were trained in how to do it effectively. We would listen, make sure we understood them, discuss them and provide well-rehearsed and planned answers — and then move on to the sale. Our solutions may not have satisfied our clients' needs or been what they wanted to hear, but our sales objective was to give our solutions or answers to their objections and move along as if nothing had happened. That's not a route we would even dare to take in today's tough market. Three Levels of Objections Prospective buyers can raise objections to buying now because of everything from neighborhood schools, an inability to get a mortgage, a baby due in eight weeks and too low a ceiling in the family room to paying too high a price, home owners association fees, fear of working with the builder and more. But no matter what the basis of the objection is, it generally falls into one of three levels of importance — major ones you can do nothing about; intermediate ones you can explain, answer or solve; and minor ones that are inconsequential and should be ignored. Major objections are those that you can't change, make go away or really do anything about. If there is a power line or water treatment plant nearby, for instance, you can't miraculously make it disappear. The best you can do in this circumstance is discuss the objection with your prospects and minimize its impact on the decision-making process by helping them understand that whatever it is that they object to really will not have an adverse impact on their lifestyle or investment. The intermediate objections — the ones you can explain or answer — usually center around perceived room sizes, various aspects of their investment, having a current home to sell, fear of making a decision and the like. These are the objections and issues that you were trained to overcome and can overcome. Your task is to actually make the objections disappear through specific actions, or to lessen their impact and make them seem reasonable enough to your prospects so that a buying decision is still possible. The minor or inconsequential objections are those that are sometimes raised in passing. They may not even be objections but, instead, be merely off-the-cuff comments or observations about the paint, carpet color, model furnishings or something else incidental that really has nothing to do with the floor plan, how well it works for your customers or what they really feel about the home. If you are ready and willing to act on these minor objections, you give them much more weight and importance than they deserve — and you could spend much too much time trying to solve them. The best plan of action with minor objections is to ignore them and let them fade away. Determine If the Shopper Is Serious While the nature of buyer objections has not really changed, in order to overcome objections in a down market, your first order of business should be to determine how serious your home shoppers are. If they're not serious, having a home to sell or worrying about getting their financing really doesn't matter at all. If they're not serious, they are not going to buy no matter how hard you work for them. So, to determine how serious they are, I suggest asking them something like, "If your current home (or financing or other considerations they raised) was not a factor and everything was in place for you to do so, would you say 'yes' to owning this home right now?" If they replied with anything other than an emphatic and enthusiastic "yes," then they really haven't raised an objection, they were just giving you an excuse. And there is no effective way to work with excuses, because as soon as you try to deal with one another one will pop up. However, if selling a home or getting financing or whatever else that they brought up is a true objection and the buyer is truly serious, you have something to focus on and work with. Once you've determined their seriousness, the next step is to determine how many obstacles need to be overcome. To do that, I'd ask a follow-up question like, "So, if selling your present home (or getting financing, etc.) was not a factor, are you comfortable going ahead and getting started with owning this home today?" This approach helps to determine if the objection they raised initially was the only one you have to address of if there are other obstacles to making the sale. The approach enables you to discover what you really can and do need to work with — and what is just being offered as conversation. So, before attempting to answer or work with what you think might be a true objection, confirm that it is a true objection and that it stands in the way of an immediate decision. Once you made that determination, you can work with it to eliminate it as a barrier to the sale. Otherwise, you may be making the sales process longer and harder than it needs to be. Steve Hoffacker, CAASH, CAPS, CGP, CMP, CSP, MCSP, MIRM, is the founder of Hoffacker Associates, a real estate sales and marketing consultant firm based in West Palm Beach, Fla. that focuses on helping builders and salespeople gain control of their sales process to become more profitable, effective and efficient. His company provides coaching, lead generation, sales techniques, marketing and business management services. For more information, call Hoffacker at 561-685-5555, or visit http://stevehoffacker.com. This article originally appeared on the NAHB Sales and Marketing Channel. Effective Advertising Should Focus on Generating Traffic If you don't want any of your advertising dollars to go to waste, you need to understand that effective advertising, especially in today's market, must have a singular goal — to generate traffic. Now, advertising isn't the only way to achieve this goal. A balanced marketing program that includes such elements as highly-targeted print advertising and targeted media, like radio and cable television, can generate traffic as well. In fact, to be effective, all of your advertising and marketing efforts should work seamlessly with a well-strategized public relations outreach program that should probably include working with real estate brokers, depending upon your market. Onsite and Offsite Promotions Generate Traffic One of the best ways to generate qualified traffic in this housing downturn is through special events involving onsite or offsite promotion. Also, don't forget the role of the Internet. Studies have shown that 80% of purchasers start their home search on the Internet. You Must Have a 'Call to Action' During the last peak in the housing cycle, institutional advertising was de rigueur. Often called "image" advertising, institution advertising did not promote a specific call to action. It relied on just sharing a vision. That might have worked when the market was strong and just about everyone was buying homes, but today, the wisdom of an old Japanese proverb is more apropos — "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare." Today, we must include a call to action in every ad — or else we risk wasting our precious ad dollars. "You must be proactive with your advertising dollars, as few as they may be," says Richard Elkman, of Group Two Advertising in Philadelphia, an advertising and marketing firm for new-home builders. "If you don't have a message and don't differentiate your company, then your competition is going to get your sales." With print advertising, that means builders should do more than convey information. People want a good story that they can evaluate on their own. Give it to them — with a twist. One way to teach adults about the value of your home is by employing self-discovery through involvement. Don't bore them by telling them too much and giving away the ending of your story. Hold a little back to let them discover what they need and want — and definitely make your call to action a part of the story. Remember that an ad is not designed to sell anything. It's there to create a climate where the sale can be made. So, use your story to highlight the emotional deficits your target market is experiencing and show them how they, by taking the next step and buying your home, can fill those emotional holes. Entice them with appeals involving culture, convenience, romance, recreation, long- and short-term investment, status and prestige, security and privacy and, of course, family and lifestyle. But remember, the sale only starts with emotion. It also must appeal to reason and logic, so be sure to make your appeal easy to understand — and difficult to misinterpret. Try to appeal to all the senses — and don't lecture. Don't Scrimp on Color Now is not the time to scrimp on images or color. If you are not using images, and in particular, color images in your ads, you aren't getting the best use of your ad dollars. A four-color ad is expensive, true, but it also has 80% more chance of getting read. Even a two-color ad is 38% percent more likely to be read than its black and white counterpart. Utilize imagery and symbolic language that appeal to all learning styles — auditory, visual and kinesthetic. When you stop using advertising to make sales, but instead use it to generate traffic, you'll find that you are not wasting your ad dollars. Gian Hasbrock, MIRM, is president of WOWISM, a real estate marketing consulting firm specializing in education, training, motivation, research and accountability. Hasbrock is also an NAHB Master Instructor, the author of the courses, "Built to Sell" and "Multicultural Sales," and the co-author of the courses, "Effective Marketing on a Shoestring Budget" and "Understanding Housing Markets and Consumers." For more information, e-mail Hasbrock, call him at 252-207-9000 or visit www.WOWism.com. This article originally appeared on the NAHB Sales and Marketing Channel.