Today real estate companies have adopted effective marketing channels and spend crores of rupees to generate leads. Same with luxury home companies and luxury home selling. To create enough touch points, companies are adopting digital, social media, content marketing along with traditional mediums of print ads etc which are proving very effective to generate qualified leads.
Now, with all these efforts, qualified leads are visiting the properties and the expectation is the real estate sales conversion must be improving right? The answer is NO. In this age, the buyer is coming with full information about the property before he visits. He isn’t looking for any information. Traditional selling which sales executives employ of providing more information, explaining features isn’t yielding results. Buyer is no looking for information. He visits the property with full information.
Hence, Sales executives must play a major role and adapt to new way of selling. Also, skills required for luxury homes selling are not the same as affordable, mid or even premium home selling. This article describes 7 key luxury homes selling mistakes which can be avoided easily and improve the sales conversion
Mistake 1: Failure to articulate the clear benefits
How many sales executives try to understand what matters to the prospect, what is the deep desires he has and the results he is looking for? Sales executives go overboard and explain 10’s features of the property, without understanding how much each feature matters to prospect.
A benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me?” meaning the feature provides the customer with something of value to them.
Ex: If you as sales executive starts highlighting the children play area, whereas the prospect is looking for a quiet place, the feature doesn’t relate, and he doesn’t see any benefit.
Sometimes telling about hundred features can spoil the sale. Instead, it is important to understand the prospect’s purpose of buying, ultimate results he is looking and link the features & benefits to that. Refer our article selling features vs benefits for more information.
Mistake 2: Using wrong words in communication
In any sales, but more so ever in luxury homes, emotions play a big role in decision making. To create an emotional impact and help the prospect make a decision, as a sales executive there is a need to only use those words which create positive images and feelings during the sales call.
An old say goes “People buy for emotional reasons and justify with logical reasons”.
Using wrong words during the conversation is the biggest mistake we see which jeopardizes the sales call. Let’s see what those simple words are you can easily avoid and replace with better words and created positive impact,
Appointment, asking for appointment is used for doctors and lawyers. Instead, as a professional sales executive request for a meeting.
Price or down payment, using these words, make the prospect think that home is a liability and they have to make a long payment before they actually own their home. Instead, a better word here would be saying initial investment. This creates a positive feeling.
The Property, A luxury home buyer, is not looking for a piece of concrete. He is looking for a dream home. As a sales executive instead of saying we have sold 10 properties, say “we have helped more than 10 families own their dream home”. This again creates a positive feeling
Mistake 3: Not asking questions properly
Understanding the prospect’s needs/wants/desires and even fears is the most critical aspect of luxury home selling! Only when you know these, you can present effectively about your property to the prospect. Understanding these emotional aspects requires questioning skills.
If questions are framed properly, prospects are willing to open up and share their inner needs/wants/desires.
Asking right questions to understand the intent behind buying a home is the critical aspect of selling. Instead, many executives don’t ask questions, or they ask the wrong questions. Because of this, as sales executives, you fail to understand the prospect intent of owning a luxury home.
Imagine a sales executive asks to prospect, how many children do you have? This is a potential question for embarrassment if it happens that prospect is not blessed with a child! Instead, if at all you want to ask, you could phrase it like How big is your family?
Sales executive should start with Open questions as much as possible. An example is, instead of asking Are there any more concerns? which typically results in Yes or No, ask What more concerns do you have?
One of the articles says, among Sales executives,
80% do not prepare a list of questions for a sales call.
90% of questions asked on the average call are closed questions.
Top sales executives ask powerful questions to the clients
Mistake 4: Discussing price too early
Even after putting your approximate price in the advertisement, many prospective buyers start the conversation by asking the price in the initial stage of the conversation.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get
Now if you as Sales Executive, get trapped into this question and start discussing price early in the call, there is very high chance conversion will not happen.
Another case is, the prospective buyer might initiate price discussion by asking “Give me the ballpark figure, I will see if it fits”. Many sales executives end up giving the price and generally quote higher thinking they can scale down later. As prospect is quite researched, he can immediately gauge the price and may lose trust with the sales executive.
By getting into price discussion early, especially in case of luxury home selling, as a sales executive, you are missing the important piece of the sales process, articulating value to justify the price.
Mistake 5: Demonstrating property without a clear strategy in luxury home selling
Many sales executives consider demonstrating property as routine activity and do not give the critical important it is required. For sales executive, this may be one more visit, but for the prospect, the property visit is a very key decision factor. Every minute he is collecting data which helps him make decision
In case of Luxury Home selling, demonstrating the property is a strategy. It is not something that you can do without the proper planning and preparation. In reality, this is most critical part of the entire sales process.
Many luxury home buyers, don’t have a list of what they want, but they have a list of what they don’t want!
As first thing, when it comes to luxury home selling, sales executives must build up excitement before showing the property. It is like movie promotion. You want to create an urge in the buyer to see the property! Before demonstrating property, define multiple phases of property with clear communication strategy at each phase.
- Driving into their home
- Arriving at the entrance of the house
- Showing the actual home, living, dining, kitchen etc
- Amenities section
Everything has a special significance in terms of features and how it has to be related to prospect desire. Give time and allow prospects to discover the place instead of you explaining.
Now you know, what are the top mistakes made during luxury home selling by companies and sales executives.
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