The Price of Admission

Many salespeople complain that they have trouble getting basic contact information from their customers. Knowing who you talked to has always been important, but in a time when traffic is down and people often are taking longer to make a decision, it is vital that you have a record of who you visited with and a way to back keep in touch with them if you ever want to make a future sale.

In new home sales, I’ve found that people want 2 things when they visit your model or sales center: they want to look at the model, and they want a brochure.

That’s fine. That’s why you’re open. You’re happy to accommodate them. However, there is one condition.

If it was just a matter of letting people look at your model and pick up a brochure, you wouldn’t even need to be there. You could leave the door unlocked and provide a stack of brochures for people to take. There’s a little more to it than just letting the customers get what they want.

After all, you’re in business to sell homes and make money. Therefore, you have to get what you want as well.

In order to have any chance of making a sale with someone, you first need to have a conversation with them. Learn about their needs and what they want.

If they don’t buy and close on the first visit, you need to have a record of who they are so you can contact them again and pursue the sale. You need their name and at least a good telephone number.

An email address will suffice in the early going, but it doesn’t substitute for a phone number. At some point, you must be able to have an actual conversation with your customers – unless they didn’t like what you offer well enough to want to talk with you again.

So here it is. You have a model that customers want to see, and you have a brochure. They have their contact information. You simply make an equitable exchange. They get what they want, and you get what you need.

Look at it this way: act as if the price of admission to your model is the customer’s telephone number (and other contact information).