By Daniel C. Brown
Good selling involves forgetting some notions and remembering others, says Cleveland area remodeler Fred Freer. And most of those notions start with the letter P.
Before you leave for work, forget your preconceptions about the customer and the project, says Fred, owner of Four Square Restorations Inc., which does about $200,000 of business annually. To be a good problem-solver for the customer, you need to listen without filtering the customer's ideas through your pre-conceived notions about what will work and what won't.
As for what you should remember, Fred says he practices the following P words daily in his selling efforts:
- Prepared. Be Prepared, mentally and physically. Organize the necessary business cards, sketchpads, calculator, pencils, scales, marking tape, and leave-behind pieces. Have them assembled in a well-ordered notebook.
- Probe. Probe early in the discussions to determine the customer's budget expectations. It makes little sense to be designing a $30,000 kitchen remodel if the prospect has a budget of $5,000. You can advise your prospect that the budget number helps to guide you in recommending material selections, so that you aren't recommending granite counter tops when the budget permits high pressure laminates.
- Presentable. Be Presentable, Professional and Prompt. Greet the prospect knowing that your skills, your employees, your experience, your training, your material suppliers, your shop equipment and your professional associations all shout, "This is a professional."
- Pretend. Don't Pretend. If you don't know the answer to the prospect's question, say so and promise a follow-up answer by telephone or mail. They will be more impressed with your follow-through than with the transparent bluff.
- Picture. Allow the prospect to Picture what has been discussed. For example, outline new kitchen-cabinet arrays with blue painters tape applied to the floor. If you know that your prospect is considering a new hardwood floor, have samples of finished and unfinished flooring available.
- Portfolio. Present a Portfolio of pictures of completed projects either on your Web site or in a presentation binder.
- Pricing. Avoid Pricing discussions and ball-park quotes until you have all of the facts, have time to research the project requirements in terms of materials, labor, trade implications and can assess all of the related complications.
- Positive. Be Positive. Never tell the customer that something can't be done (almost anything is possible...it just costs more money). Help the prospect to learn how it might be managed or accomplished.
- Paraphrase. Offer your summary thoughts only after you have heard completely from the customer about just what it is that they want. This is a good time to Paraphrase what you believe that your prospect said to be sure that you heard what he/she said.
- Promise. Promise only what you can deliver. It is always to better to under-promise and over-deliver.
Remember that what you and your prospects want is to enter into a Partnership – a Partnership that will permit the realization of their dream projects in a manner that is ultimately beneficial to both parties.
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