The Keys to Effective Follow Up

This is the Selling More Homes Podcast, episode number 231, brought to you this week by Uverix, making clean, fresh, healthy air available to homes and homebuilders across America. Visit germfreecleanair.com for more information. By North Star Synergies, developing business, marketing, and sales strategies for builders and developers. By Builder Buyer Services Group, the leading provider of customer care programs. And by Q3 Marketing, providing social media setup and management and overcoming follow-up failure for builders, retailers, and housing communities. Visit q3marketing.com. And you’re listening to Builder Radio on the Selling More Homes Media Network.

Welcome to the Selling More Homes Podcast, where every week we bring you interviews, ideas, and information to help you sell more, earn more, and achieve more in this challenging housing market. This program is a production of Selling More Homes Media and the Selling More Homes Academy, now serving skills-building information and personal coaching to housing professionals around the globe. Now, grab a pen and paper so you can take good notes. This week’s program begins now. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another Monday Morning Sales Meeting. I’m Scott Stroud. Last week, we featured part one of our two-part interview with S. Robert August on smart and profitable follow-up. Before we continue with part two of our interview, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Manufactured Housing Institute and the National Communities Council for inviting me to speak to your respective groups last week.

I had a great time presenting on social media marketing and nurturing leads, and appreciate the response that you gave me. What an innovative group of housing professionals. I hope you’ll have me back again next year.

Speaking of nurturing, we learned last week why following up with prospects is so vital to moving the sale forward. We left off with Robert August sharing how to prepare for a follow-up call. Well, this week, we pick up with why and how to follow up effectively. Once again, here’S. Robert August.

Let’s take a moment and just talk about a few reasons why we really want to follow up. There’s so many reasons for us to follow up, and some of them are self-evident, some of them are not. But let’s look at a reminder list as a tool for us to get into the game to make these follow-up calls. Number one might be as a courtesy. People like to know that you remember them. The key there is that we want to stay in front of them. And again, it makes a difference. To offer information. To answer the questions that they may have. How about overcoming objections? Many times, the buyer will have more courage on the phone and will bring objections up to us that they might not have been able to mention face-to-face.

So this gives us an opportunity. If a buyer or want a buyer brings up an objection, you may choose to answer it at that time or may seek another follow-up call or meeting to handle the objections. When a buyer provides you with an objection, don’t jump in and try to answer it right away. Determine if there are other concerns or other objections. And then if you choose to answer the objections, take on the most difficult one first, the second most difficult thereafter, and so on until you have the easiest objection to overcome. And then at the end of the review, they have nowhere to go but to buy your product. Another reason is to remind the buyer of you and your product. Another one may be also to get the buyer to return.

We may have home sites that are now available. We now may have a new product that we’re introducing. Scott, I noticed you have a product called Uvarix, for example, that you’ve been promoting. Maybe a builder may have this on site, and this product, from what I understand, eliminates bacteria and virus in the air and on surfaces, eliminates volatile organic compounds and odors. So this new product may be important to a healthier home. And as a result, that may be another reason to call a buyer.

We also like to encourage the buyer to bring their friends back or their parents or family members also to learn about the product and to seek and obtain referrals. When I first started Selling More Homes, it was in an area called Allentown, the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania. And it took us eight visits in order for us to sell a home. And why? Because there was so much extended family, and everybody had experts in the building. And so the big thing was to determine if there were other people involved in the buying process with the buyers. And invariably, there always seemed to be other individuals who would come out and make decisions with the buyer, whether it was friends or relatives or associates in other industries. And the area was steeped in tradition.

And many people lived within the area, didn’t move away. And so there were a lot of family, extended folks, people who’d grown up together for 30 years and knew one another. So it was always important for us to determine who these friends were or influence peddlers, if you will. And of course, we always want the opportunity with every meeting that we have to seek referrals, seek as many people that they may have contacts with who may be interested in learning more about the community. We also know, Scott, that there are certain groups that follow one another. We know that firemen and policemen and teachers tend to follow their friends who are making purchase in the various neighborhoods and communities. And as a result, if we get one or two, we know that there’s usually two or three following.

So it gives us the ability to follow up and provide information that can and will make a difference. Good. So you’ve given us a lot of different reasons to follow up. And you’ve talked about the methods of follow up and the timing. And really, you just mentioned that it used to take eight on average to close a sale. I don’t think that’s changed much. From recent statistics, between five and 12, context is where the buyers generally buy in this industry today. So I see it being about the same average.

But the big question we have now is, why is it that we don’t? What keeps us as individuals and as salespeople from doing an adequate job following up? What’s our problem? Our problem is rejection. Our problem is fear of maybe not being liked. Our problem is having the fear that the buyer may not be interested in what we have to sell. And so we have to get over that. You know, I think that one of the key things that we often do with our sales team is determine what their immediate needs are. And it may be somewhat altruistic, but if we know that an individual needs a new car, you know, that by following up with the buyers that they’ve had in this week, they may be able to get that new car this month and through a series of sales.

So I think that, you know, the key, you know, is to also continue to educate the salesperson, train the salesperson, take the fear away, give them as much knowledge and education as possible so that they’re not afraid to make that call, so that they want to get engaged with those individuals as soon as possible. But I found that over the course of my career, that whether you send emails or phone calls or letters to individuals, you need to continue to follow up. Don’t be upset also if there’s a rejection and you’re not having someone follow up with you. Always have a reason to call back. And fortunately, you know, we have a lot to talk about with lower interest rates today. We have a lot to talk about with the fact that inventory is being depleted faster in the markets around the United States right now.

In the existing markets right now, one of the key real estate companies that we work with shared that their listings are down right now by 67%. Two-thirds of their listings have just disappeared. And as soon as an order for a listing comes into the office, instead of having it shared outside of the office, we’re starting to see two and three offers coming in for that home within that real estate office. The same way with new construction. So the reason to follow up is to continue to share what’s happening, whether it’s a new product like Uvarix, you know, or the latest and greatest from Whirlpool, or that new solar roofing shingle that Dow Solar is introducing that is flush with a roof and becomes a part of the for-for-sale inventory by many of the national companies.

So the reason to follow up is to continue to share what’s happening, whether it’s a new product like Uvarix, you know, or the latest and greatest from Whirlpool, or that new solar roofing shingle that Dow Solar is introducing that is flush with a roof and becomes a part of the existing roof. You know, these are things that can help the customer gain more insight and information as to why they should become our next buyers. So when you come in to work with the sales team and you find this seller reluctance or this fear of rejection that we have, how do you overcome that? What do you do as a coach and as a trainer to make salespeople or get salespeople more comfortable with the act of picking up the phone, forgetting about rejection, and just following up?

Well, one of the key things, and I’m glad you brought that question up, we have a different sense of philosophy in our sales training. We like to go and work with a sales team and go over points of interest that the sales managers, the presidents, really are concerned about and address those in a team meeting. We also like to work with the individual sales teams separately, and then we like to work with the individual salespeople one-on-one.

And the more that we can go through this leveling, if you will, we find that we create more credibility. And then when we can relate to the individuals on a one-on-one standpoint, they’re feeling more relaxed and more at ease and not as if they’re on the stage in front of the president, the vice president of sales, or a sales manager, or even a community manager. And they’re willing to share with us more information because they know that we’re there to help them. They know that we’re not there to fire them. We’re there to invest our time and energy to make sure that we can give them our very best and help them overcome their fears.

And when you’re doing that, do you share by example? Do you coach them on how to make the calls? You said something in last week’s interview that I thought was critical to this point, and you started off by saying, prepare. Prepare your calls. And I think the more prepared we are, the less afraid we’ll be. Well, it’s so true. We had many, many outstanding salespeople. And I’ll never forget working with David Hildebrand, who was just superb. And David has since retired, and we worked with him in a series of different products, whether it was starter housing or semi-custom or very expensive new home sales. We found that one of his points to overcome a buyer’s remorse was letting the buyer know right away that they would be leaving after placing an order, that they may have fear about having purchased the home, but that he wanted them to know that he was there for them 24-7.

And it got to the point that David even took a jar and filled it with M&Ms and put buyer’s remorse pills on it. And he said, now, you’re going to wake up in a sweat at 2 o’clock in the morning, and I want you to take two of these and call me in the morning.

And the buyers would laugh at him, and yet, you know, David would follow up before the evening had ended and call them typically around 7 o’clock just to give them a special thanks for becoming a buyer. And this is when they had written the agreement, placed an initial payment for a purchase of a home. And then he would also follow up the next morning, which I thought was absolutely clever, because what he was doing is mitigating the concerns and anticipating the need for him to follow up. Many people are afraid to call a buyer after they’ve written an agreement, and here is a perfect way to initiate a contact to take the fear out of the buyer and at the same time reinforce that he would be there for them and that any time they had a question about the home, about the opportunity, he was there with and for them.

So he really didn’t have to mention the thought or introduce the thought of buyer’s remorse and bring it up, and I can see why he did. What he was really doing was by his call, by his constant reinforcement that they’ve made the right decision, he was cutting it off before it ever had a chance to grow. Absolutely. And that’s another reason for follow up. We buy on relationships today. Is that still true that it’s consultative selling, it’s relationship selling, it’s not commodity selling, particularly in this market? That’s true, and especially when there’s so much choice between existing and new homes.

And or do we stay in an existing home that we already have or in an apartment home? I mean, the biggest item that we’re fighting, the biggest competitor, if you will, that we fight within the industry is the buyer’s present residence.

And what we need to be able to do is learn more about that residence and why the buyer or the prospective buyer is even considering to look at another product. Because there’s so many positive things that we can share. Scott, we had the opportunity to enjoy the International Builder Show and walk miles and miles of new products and services that are being introduced, whether it was Sherwin-Williams’ new paints, and paints that can help us breathe better in a home, or going down another aisle and seeing beautiful appliances, or learning more about windows from the various manufacturers and HVAC equipment from companies like Lenox and Trion and Carrier and Bryant. I think all of these, you know, give us so much information, yet at the same time, we need to stay in front of the buyer with information to anticipate what their needs are so that we can be following up with new information to help them ensure that they’ve made the right decision, you know, and keep them abreast of exciting changes to their benefit.

You’re right, and you’ve shared over the last two weeks so much on follow-up and given us a great grounding as to a number of reasons why we need to follow up and why we can’t let it slide. The customer may not be expecting it, but we still need to be there. We can’t let ourselves slide on that. A couple of questions. With so many different modes of communication today, and last week we touched on whether it’s email or whether it’s in person, and we all agreed that the more personal we are with our follow-up, the better we are in building relationships. Sometimes we don’t even know who the customer really is when we’re following up. It might be an internet lead, somebody that filled out a form on our website and hasn’t given us a lot of information.

How do you see moving those people into, they’re not even in the sales funnel. They need to be nurtured into it. How do you see that happening?

Well, I think that some of the things that we need to touch base with, you know, relates to assembling all of the information and following up with the buyer.

And we need to be able to have the appropriate CRM programs in place in order to maintain that ongoing relationship. But I think that the point with the social media and the texting and continued follow-up with direct emails is extremely important. But I’d also like to take a step backwards and share that start writing notes, handwritten notes. You may think that it’s a thing of the past, and it may take a little bit longer, but there’s nothing like getting a piece of mail directed to you with a handwritten note. And it doesn’t have to be a long note, but you can send that also in tandem with that email. And what’s happening is that you’re getting a double imprint, one from a handwritten standpoint and another one from the email that you’re sending.

And so it may come at different times, of course. The email will be more quick, but the handwritten note will be very, very positive as well. And the other thing to reinforce that handwritten note, you may have postcards printed about your product that shows the various floor plans or the setting or the parks within your neighborhood, the schools, et cetera, et cetera. Very, very important, unique marketing propositions, UMPs. Well, at the same time, you’re reinforcing many of your messages that you’re offering throughout the advertising, the public relations and promotion. So as you’re following up, you’re tying in the theme of your neighborhood, the theme of your product that you’re offering, and that can make a wonderful difference in your way to continue to follow up. Robert, great points.

Thanks, and you spent a lot of time with us this last week and this week back again, and we appreciate it so much. You’ve given us a lot to think about in terms of how to prepare for our follow-ups, the importance of it, and the methods that we use to engage our customers and build those relationships. We’ve been speaking with Robert August with North Star Synergies. Your website is northstarsynergies.com, and Robert, thanks so much for the time you spent with us. Scott, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity, and please, if anyone has a question to email or to call, we’ll be thrilled just to provide you with answers to any questions that you have at any time. Thanks so much. Get involved with your local Home Builders Association, your local Board of REALTORS.

Participate and make a difference within your community today. Thank you so much.

That was S. Robert August of North Star Synergies. You can contact Robert at his website, northstarsynergies.com. And that’s our program for this week. For Jerry Brulow, I’m Scott Stroud, and thanks for listening to Builder Radio on the Selling More Homes Media Network.

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