Do you like dealing with salespeople? Most people don’t! This means that many of the people walking into your community to look for an apartment; or emailing, calling or texting you are already predisposed to NOT like you either. Sorry.
Why don’t we like salespeople? Here are a few reasons:
- Customers don’t want to be pushed into making a decision they’re not ready to make
- Customers feel that they will be manipulated into spending more than they can afford
- Customers feel salespeople will say and do anything to make the sale
What does this mean?
When customers visit your website and see awesomely beautiful pictures, they expect those pictures to look great and probably assume they’ve been retouched and edited to look even better than it really is.
When your prospect walks into your model that has been staged to perfection, all the furniture fits, and the entire place smells like cinnamon and apple pie they know its supposed to look perfect! Which is why they will often ask you, “Can I look at a real apartment??”
Customers expect that you will say nice things about your community; why they should choose your community over your competitors; why your “sparkling pool” is better than their “sparkling pool”; why your people are nicer than any other people…you get what I’m saying? It’s what you’re supposed to do!
If your customer expects you to sound like every other salesperson and then you do, they may start to build their defensive walls, in an effort to not get ripped off!
You may be wondering, “Wait, Rommel. Are you saying I don’t say nice things about my community?? How am I supposed to sell then??” That, my friend, is a valid question. No I am not saying that you shouldn’t ever say nice things about your community, or to overcome objections, or to make a case for why your apartment is the best choice for your prospects.
Here is what I am saying…
Before YOU start saying all of those nice things-have your customer say them first! Instead of trying to persuade your customer to choose you, I am suggesting that you use pre-suasion. Here is how it works: When a customer calls instead of launching right into all of the usual information gathering questions, ask a question like these first…
“Maria, what attracted you to our community?”
“What was it about our community that you liked best?”
Give your customers an opportunity to tell you what they like about your community first. What will happen as they tell you what they like they start to pre-suade themselves to lease at your community!
The other great thing is that your customer has now given you a clear roadmap to follow during the leasing process. Once you know what your customer wants all you need to do is give it to them! And, now that they’ve told you this is what they liked, when you confirm that the “pool is awesome” or that the “having free weights in the fitness center is a good thing” you’re not selling to them anymore, you’re just confirming what they’ve already said they liked!
Try pre-suading your customers today…and let me know how it works!
