Asking The Right Questions | Forrest Performance Group

Posts Tagged ‘ asking the right questions ’

Note from Jason Forrest: Selling is a Game of Minutes

May 9, 2013

Tags: asking the right questions, buyer decision points, closing the sale, Fearless Selling, Forrest Performance Group, Jason Forrest, overcoming objections, selling against the competition

Sales Pros:

Time–it’s one of our most valued commodities. Time is money. Don’t waste time.

As a sales professional, time can be your greatest asset or your biggest obstacle. That’s why we say that selling is a game of minutes–the longer you are with the buyer or the just-looking, the more likely you are to find out what they are really looking for and to earn their trust.

Consider your conversations with buyers and how you’ve successfully gotten them to see you as a trusted advisor–someone they want to spend time with because it moves them closer to reaching their goal. Ask your fellow co-workers what works for them. Get feedback from your bosses.

Every buyer that walks through your door is an opportunity. How will you use the time you’re given?

Here’s to earning what you’re worth!

Jason Forrest

JASON FORREST (named one of 2012’s Top Young Trainers for Training magazine–a national, industry-wide publication) is an expert at creating high-performance sales cultures through complete training programs. He incorporates experiential learning (rather than theory) to increase sales, implement cultural accountability, and transform companies into sales organizations. A sales professional at heart, Forrest is the author of two previous books. Forrest’s competitive distinction is his behavior-modification approach (which focuses on people, process, and presentation) and his focus on culture change.

ABOUT FORREST PERFORMANCE GROUP

Forrest Performance Group specializes in culture change and creating urgency within sales teams and management. Forrest PG’s competitive distinction is its behavior modification approach as applied to a variety of programs, education, seminars and sales coach training offerings all aimed at dramatically improving sales force success.

People don’t know what they want…

December 27, 2012

Tags: ask better questions, asking the right questions, coaching X Factor sales professionals, Fearless Selling, Forrest Performance Group, Jason Forrest, new home sales trainer, Prego extra chunky, sales process, solving customer problems

Until you tell them.

I always say that people don’t know what they want until you tell them. And now I have proof. And that proof comes in the form of Prego’s Extra Chunky Garden tomato sauce.

Howard Moskowitz, a psychophysicist, discovered that Americans say they want “authentic” spaghetti sauce (thin and blended), but what they really want (or at least about a third of them) is extra chunky. Until then, people running the focus groups asked what participants wanted. But nobody knew to ask for extra chunky garden until Howard Moskowitz gave them the option. Before this discovery, Prego was struggling. But after the discovery, Prego is a leading spaghetti saucer.

Don’t ask prospects what they want. Dig deeper. Ask the questions that get to the real answers.

Contributed by Jason Forrest
One of Training magazine’s Top Young Trainers of 2012, Jason Forrest is an expert at creating high-performance sales cultures through complete training programs. He incorporates experiential learning to increase sales, implement cultural accountability, and transform companies into sales organizations. Forrest is a sales trainer, management coach, regularly featured speaker at national conferences and professional association events, member of the National Speakers Association’s Million Dollar Speakers Group, and a published author. His newest book, Leadership Sales Coaching, will be available later this year. Learn about our new home sales training programs at http://www.forrestperformancegroup.com

SOLDlab: Never a Victim

November 7, 2012

Tags: asking the right questions, closing the sale, consumer confidence, cultural change, Fearless Selling, Forrest Performance Group, handling objections, Jason Forrest, new home sales techniques, published articles, sales process, SOLDlab, x factor sales professional

Jason’s latest article for SOLDlab: Never a Victim.

Note from Jason: Analyzing your May Sales

June 1, 2012

Tags: 13 buying decisions, asking the right questions, closing the sale, Leadership Selling, leadership selling program, new home sales funnel, new home sales process, new home sales techniques, sales process, selling against the competition, X Factor sales professionals

Sales Pros–

Did you have good sales in May? Do you want even better sales in June? Well, analyzing your prospects using the sales funnel is a good start.

One of our clients, Jeff Benton Homes, has made the sales funnel (from our concept of the 13 buying decisions) the cornerstone of analyzing their new home sales process.

Whether you’re a new home sales coach or a new home sales professional, you should consider your traffic each week/month; evaluate where your prospects are in the sales funnel; and make a plan for moving them through the funnel and toward a contract.

Let’s do the exercise together for May. Write down the number of traffic you had for the month (sales managers, use all communities; sales professionals, use only your own).

From that, subtract how many sales you had; how many people you couldn’t get through financing; and then those who purchased a resale or another builder’s home.

The number you are left with is the number of people who are stuck somewhere in your sales funnel.

So evaluate where they’re stuck and determine which decisions have been accomplished and which ones still need to be accomplished.

Finally, make a strategy today for how you’re going to get them through the funnel. Because the truth is–you’re now in a race against your competitors. And x factor sales professionals and coaches are in it to win it!

Here’s to earning what you’re worth!

Jason Forrest

Jason Forrest (named one of 2012′s Top Young Trainers for Training Magazine–a national, industry-wide publication) is an expert at creating high-performance sales cultures through complete training programs. He incorporates experiential learning (rather than theory) to increase sales, implement cultural accountability, and transform builders into sales organizations that build homes. A sales professional at heart, Forrest is the author of Creating Urgency in a Non-Urgent Housing Market and 40-Day Sales Dare for New Home Sales. As a consultant for many of the leading homebuilders in the United States, Canada, and Australia, Forrest’s competitive distinction is his behavior-modification approach (which focuses on people, process, and presentation) and his focus on culture change. Learn about our new home sales training programs at http://www.forrestperformancegroup.com.

Right Side Up?

April 5, 2012

Tags: asking the right questions, Fearless Selling, new home sales, new home sales process

Contributed by Jeanne Conger

“Place your expectations in the upright position.” What exactly is United Airlines trying to say? All I know is that it set my alarm bells off with thoughts of: “Warning–don’t expect too much,” and “What exactly are upright expectations anyway?” This is likely in sharp contrast to what they were trying to go for–some sort of an exhortation to have high expectations, maybe?

Two weeks after seeing the ad, I am still not certain what they meant. All I know is that the warning bells are still ringing. I’d be willing to bet the ad didn’t hit the right spot with other members of United’s target audience either.

Critical thinking:

1. Are we guilty of sending unintended mixed messages to our new home buyers?
2. What type of messages resonate with our target audience?
3. What will our prospects be thinking and saying when they leave us?
Action items:

1. Remember that the most important conversations that a buyer has are those that you are not part of. The private conversations new home prospects have with themselves, friends and family.

2. Increase the odds that their conversations about you and your product are positive by helping them fall in love with your home and community. Jason said it best in dare one (“A Spoonful of Sugar”) from his book–The 40 Day Sales Dare. The dare reminds us to give our buyers a chance to fall in love with our home, neighborhood, amenities and us as sales professionals before we ask them to “place their expectations in the upright position,” for example.

3. Make sure your messages are clear–ask lots of questions to make sure the buyers are picking up what you’re laying down.

Be sales ready!

Jeanne Conger, J Forrest Group’s National Sales Coach, has 25 years in the industry; experience with public and private builders; and over 900 hours of real estate courses under her belt. She is truly an industry expert. While she has worked in design studios, marketing departments, merchandising departments, and sales management (she coached a sales team of more than 100), Jeanne enjoys nothing more than being in the trenches.

Jeanne specializes in turning around laggard communities, helping sales professionals generate traffic, providing hiring consulting for sales managers, and coaching design center sales professionals. Learn more about J Forrest Group’s new home sales training programs.

HB Resource: Fearless Sales Pros Think Growth

March 15, 2012

Tags: asking the right questions, cultural change, Fearless Selling, Forrest Performance Group, HB Resource, hot beliefs, industry publications, Jason Forrest, published articles, sales trainer, sales training

Fearless sales professionals operate with a growth mindset, one that says, “What I am currently doing equals what I am currently getting. If I improve what I am currently doing, then I will improve what I am getting.” What we say to each other and ourselves can have a direct impact on cultivating a growth mindset or fixed mindset.

Note from Jason: Create Your Future

March 14, 2012

Tags: asking the right questions, coaching X Factor sales professionals, Fearless Selling, new home sales consultant, new home sales management, new home sales techniques, new home sales training, note from Jason Forrest, X Factor sales professionals

“The future is not something we enter, it’s something we create.” –Leonard Sweet

Sales pros:

Your career is what you make it. And you can either settle with what it is or you can make the most of it. Here’s a tip—ask your sales manager to be your sales coach.

If you’re not getting the kind of coaching you need in order to achieve your very best, tell your coach. You’re a salesperson—sell them on what you would like and how they can help you reach your own goals as well as the company’s. You can also ask them to shadow you during a sales presentation and give you honest feedback on what you could do differently.

Look, even if your coach isn’t as good of a salesperson as you are, they can still see your sales presentation more objectively than you can. They don’t have to be better than you. They just have to be able to give you a form of objective reality (something we often can’t see about ourselves). In a sense, they hold up a mirror so that you can see what they see.

You can also have your sales coach ask you questions that hold you accountable to the sales process. Questions like the following:

Where did the sale stop?
Who stopped it?
Why did it stop?
What are you going to do to move the sale forward?

Not only will this approach benefit your sales performance, it will also help your coach see you as someone who is determined to grow personally. And that’s the kind of person a coach wants on her team.

Here’s to creating your own future and earning what you’re worth!

Jason Forrest

I am Iron Man—Curiosity in Sales

February 7, 2012

Tags: ariel, asking the right questions, iron man, new home sales, solving customer problems, X Factor sales professionals

Contributed by Jason Forrest

Curiosity—“the intense desire to know or understand.” It’s what drove Isaac Newton to figure out why that apple fell on his head and the reason Benjamin Franklin risked his life with a key in a lightning storm. It’s also why Ariel from The Little Mermaid wanted to know what the world beyond the ocean had to offer.

And then there’s Iron Man, whose passion for learning and understanding the problems of life and business equipped him to escape an impossible situation and then use his technology for the greater good.

Through superheroes and characters they can relate to, I’m teaching my children not to settle, to seek the most out of life (like Ariel). And I’m working hard to instill a love of knowledge and lifelong learning (like Iron Man’s Tony Stark).

Curiosity is crucial to success for sales coaches and sales pros alike–both of whom have to get curious and creative to get sales.

Jason Forrest is an expert at creating high-performance sales cultures through complete training programs. He incorporates experiential learning (rather than theory) to increase sales, implement cultural accountability, and transform builders into sales organizations that build homes. A sales professional at heart, Forrest is the author of Creating Urgency in a Non-Urgent Housing Market and 40-Day Sales Dare for New Home Sales. As a consultant for many of the leading homebuilders in the United States and Canada, Forrest’s competitive distinction is his behavior-modification approach (which focuses on people, process, and presentation) and his focus on culture change. Learn more at http://www.forrestperformancegroup.com.

Note from Jason Forrest: On Transitions

January 27, 2012

Tags: asking the right questions, new home sales process, new home sales techniques, note from Jason Forrest, transition statements

Sales Pros:

This week, I want you to work on your transition statements.

Transition statements tell the prospect the next step in the sales process.

The prospect is not supposed to know how it works to buy a home. You are the one familiar with the new home sales process. So it’s your job to set the tone and lead.

You can do so with a transition statement like, “So the next thing we need to do is determine which floor plan best suits your needs.” This helps them understand the natural flow (rather than jumping straight to picking a home site, for example). It also helps them understand that the little decisions add up to the big, overall decision.

Transition statements are also helpful to keep the process moving forward between steps. It can be tempting to fill an awkward pause with, “So do you have any questions?”

Unfortunately, such a question often leads to a response like, “No thanks. We’re good. We’ll just take a price sheet and go.”

A more productive statement is, “The next thing we need to do is…”

Comment below to share the transition statements you find most useful in moving the new home sales process forward.

Here’s to earning what you’re worth!

Best,

Jason Forrest

P.S. Learn about our new home sales training programs.

Be the Difference-Maker in the Space Between

January 20, 2012

Tags: asking the right questions, new home sales process, new home sales techniques, selling against the competition, solving customer problems, The X Factor Advantage, X Factor sales professionals

Contributed by Jeanne Conger

When do new home buyers make their final decision? While they’re navigating your user-friendly website? While walking your well-lit and carefully-furnished model homes? Or while perusing your shiny, classy brochures at the kitchen table? Probably not.

More often, the decision is made in all the spaces between—on the car ride home, during a meeting at work, or while putting the kids to bed at night.

How can you compete against your competition during those spaces between? How can you be the difference-maker for moments you’re not even present for? How can you overcome objections in a conversation that you are not even party to?

Play offense. X-factor new home sales professionals don’t wait for a buyer to tell them why they’re unsatisfied with their current situation–they ask questions to find out. They dig deep and uncover so much about the buyer’s current living situation that they know exactly which new home and home site will best improve their client’s life.

As they identify and solve their client’s problems, they leave memory points and anchors on why their homes are the best in the marketplace.

You can’t go home with your clients, but being proactive is one giant step toward being present in the conversations that happen in the spaces between.

Sales Tip: Make sure to discover the one home that will work best for your client and demonstrate why your builder is the best in the market. Be memorable. Be a problem solver. Be a leader. Most of all…Be Sales Ready!

Your Turn: What do you do to make your new home sales process stand out from your competitor’s?

P.S. Learn about our new home sales training programs.

Posts Tagged ‘ asking the right questions ’

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